Are you interested in expanding your business through licensing but don’t know where to start with generating leads? Maybe you’ve seen our client success stories and want the same for yourself, but you’re stuck on how to begin. This episode is for coaches, consultants, speakers, and service-based businesses who are ready to dive into the powerful world of content licensing. We’re talking about practical, proven strategies to organically grow your licensing leads list. If you’ve been consulting or coaching for a long time and need a new way to scale without exhaustive marketing and launch modes, this episode is your starting line. You will leave with actionable steps to generate leads and take your business to the next level of freedom and growth.
In this episode, we unpack the basics of content licensing and break down three specific strategies to help you get off the ground with licensing leads. We start with a quick refresher on what content licensing is and why it’s such a valuable approach. You’ll learn how to leverage LinkedIn as a goldmine for finding ideal buyers, how to set up and host a roundtable event to position yourself as a solution provider, and the power of teaching workshops and speaking engagements. Our aim is to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and explore avenues you might not have considered before. Content licensing can truly transform your business and lifestyle, so let’s get into it!
End Results:
You will be able to…Set up a profile on LinkedIn to leverage it for finding ideal licensing buyers.
Understand…How to schedule and promote a roundtable event to connect with potential buyers.
Discover…The steps to offer and teach workshops to organizations as a way to provide solutions.
Know how to…Use speaking engagements to position yourself in front of decision-makers and generate licensing leads.
Be able to take action on…Starting the process of generating leads without jumping too far ahead and being prepared for sales meetings.
Resources:
Visit SweetLife Co to apply for our programs and access training and resources
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Are you a coach, consultant, or service-based business wondering why you can’t seem to break through the revenue ceiling? Feeling frustrated because those with less experience seem to be more successful? This episode is for you. In today’s show, we’re diving into three proven strategies to 10x your revenue and elevate your leadership. We’ll unpack the importance of solving a specific problem, honing in on your ideal audience, and choosing one channel to reach them. If you’re tired of the grind and ready to upgrade your business, this episode is your blueprint. By the end, you’ll know exactly what steps to take to transform your business growth.
In this episode, I share personal insights and real-world strategies that have helped countless clients overcome similar obstacles. We’ll talk about why it’s vital to solve a problem that people already know they have, how to identify and target your ideal buyers, and the best channels to use for reaching them. I’ll explain why LinkedIn is crucial for those looking to license their content and provide tips on other methods like teaching workshops or speaking engagements. This isn’t fluff—these are actionable steps you can implement immediately. We are talking about real, practical advice that will make a difference in your business.
End Results:
Understand the importance of solving a problem that people are actively searching for.
Identify and hone in on your ideal buyer to target your efforts effectively.
Make a decision on the best channel to reach your target audience.
Know how to leverage LinkedIn and other methods for licensing your content.
Discover strategies to increase your visibility and revenue in a saturated market.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you feeling like your business is drifting and you need a quick but powerful reset? This episode will show you exactly how to reset and refocus your business in just four days. We’re talking about how to regain control without spending endless hours or needing a massive team retreat.
Whether you’ve just come back from a vacation or simply feel out of sync, this plan will help you pinpoint areas for improvement and reposition your business effectively. This episode is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a ton of time but needs to sharpen their focus, strengthen their processes, and align their team quickly. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or detached from your business operations, you will find this episode super helpful.
In this episode, we dive into the‘reset and refocus’ process that I’ve perfected over 15 years working with hundreds of entrepreneurs. I break it down into simple steps to make it very manageable, even if you only have a few minutes a day to spare. We’ll cover how to review your sales, marketing, programs, and systems in a way that leaves you with clear insights without the pressure of immediate action. This step-by-step guide helps you identify what’s working, what’s broken, and what new ideas you want to implement.
End Results:
Identify what’s working well in your sales, marketing, programs, and operations.
Pinpoint what needs fixing without feeling overwhelmed by immediate solutions.
Generate a list of new ideas and future initiatives you want to create or develop.
Schedule focused review sessions, ensuring you protect your time and stay efficient.
Develop a clear plan to discuss with your team or coach for implementing improvements.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
How Much Money Are You Losing By Not Licensing Your Content Right Now
Are you a coach, consultant, or service-based entrepreneur wondering why you should dive into licensing your content now? In this episode, we address the cost of inaction and how it’s impacting your bottom line. This show is for those ready to step up and scale their business by licensing their content. We’re unpacking the tangible financial benefits and showing just how much more profitable you could be with a licensing model. If you find yourself planning to get into licensing“someday” but never really understanding its true potential, this episode will open your eyes and motivate you to take action right away.
In this episode, I dive deep into the numbers, providing real examples and scenarios that highlight how much money you’re leaving on the table. We’ll break down the marketing spend of traditional direct-to-consumer models versus a licensing model’s lower operational costs. You’ll hear a story of a client who found herself at a loss for what to do with all her newfound free time after switching to licensing—a testament to how drastically your workload can change. By the end of this show, you’ll have a clear understanding of why now is the best time to license your content, and the significant financial relief and growth it can bring to your business.
End Results:
Understand the immediate cost savings by switching from B2C to a licensing model.
Learn how to break down and compare your operational costs in different business models.
Identify how much more profitable your existing content can be through licensing.
Recognize the reduced workload and increased free time that comes with licensing.
Feel motivated to take actionable steps toward licensing your content now.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Ever found yourself pondering if your time is more valuable than money? If so, you’re not alone. In this episode, we’re diving into why licensing your content might be the game-changer you’re looking for. We tackle the crucial question: what’s the real cost of not licensing your content now? If you’ve been sidelining the idea due to your busy schedule or the money your business currently makes, this episode is tailored for you. Many entrepreneurs struggle with this decision, and today, we’re uncovering the hidden costs tied to not entering the licensing space sooner rather than later. This show is for anyone who values their time, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed with the constant need to create, market, and deliver content.
In our discussion, I use real-world numbers to highlight the time and effort you could save by licensing your content. I break down the exact hours it takes to create, market, and deliver your material, and why doing everything yourself might not be the most efficient or profitable path. If you’ve spent years building your content, you might wonder why you can’t catch a break. Licensing could be your solution. By the end of this episode, you’ll have practical strategies to decide if licensing your intellectual property is right for you and your business.
End Results:
Understand the actual time investment to create your content and how licensing can reclaim those hours.
Make informed decisions about licensing by knowing the extensive marketing efforts required for direct sales.
Realize the ongoing time and cost involved in content delivery even after creating it.
Understand the urgency of licensing your content before it becomes outdated and loses value.
Identify whether maintaining your current business model aligns with your long-term personal and professional goals.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you looking to license your content faster? Especially if you’re a coach, consultant, or entrepreneur aiming to scale your business, this episode is for you. We dive into how you can sell licensing deals quickly and efficiently. We’ll explore actionable steps to change the buyer for your licensed offers and how to tweak your products for faster sales. This show isn’t for those who prefer long, drawn-out sales processes; it’s for the hustlers who want speed and efficiency. If that’s you, let’s get started!
In this episode, we talk about two key strategies to sell your licensed offers faster. The first strategy is changing your buyer. I explain why selling to smaller businesses, your clients, or even your competition can close deals quicker than targeting large corporations. We’ll cover why big deals take longer due to multiple decision-makers and why you might want to focus on quicker, smaller sales initially. The second strategy is about changing your product a bit. Sometimes a smaller, bite-sized version of your big program can be more appealing and quicker to sell. We’ll unpack both these strategies and show you how to implement them in your business.
End Results:
– Make quicker decisions on who to target for licensing your content.
– Understand the benefits and drawbacks of selling to large corporations versus smaller entities.
– Be able to break down your big program into smaller, sellable segments.
– Learn how to package and price your offers for quicker sales.
– Gain confidence in approaching both small and large buyers effectively.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Wondering if licensing your content is the right move?
In this episode, we’re talking about the crucial considerations for coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts looking to license their content. If you’ve been selling your genius directly to your clients and are now thinking of scaling your business by allowing other coaches or consultants to distribute your content, this podcast is for you. We dive into the key questions you should ask yourself before making this decision. Are you still planning to sell your content directly? How would licensing affect the integrity of your brand? What pricing structures should you consider? We cover it all so you can make an informed choice that’s right for your business.
What can you expect from this episode?
We’ll break down three main considerations to help guide your decision. First, we talk about whether you’ll keep selling your content yourself. This is essential because if you’re licensing to a direct competitor, it could impact both parties. Next, we discuss the importance of setting marketing rules for how your content is advertised by others. This is about maintaining the integrity of your brand and ensuring it’s presented in a way that aligns with your values. Finally, we go over pricing strategies, making sure you set fair guidelines for how others can price your licensed content. You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of these critical factors, empowering you to confidently navigate the licensing landscape.
End Results:
Understand if continuing to sell your content directly is the right move for you.
Set effective marketing rules to protect your brand.
Determine the best pricing strategies for your licensed content.
Know how to turn competition into clients by leveraging your IP.
Make ethical decisions that support both your business and your licensees.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
How to turn your competition into your clients by licensing your material:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy6kiIrSSoxVuQfhM2XleupDnUAYTC5Nx
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Are you a coach, consultant, speaker, or expert wondering how to protect and profit from your content? This episode is essential for professionals looking to avoid the most common mistakes with content licensing.
We’re covering real-life stories and practical steps to ensure you approach content licensing the right way. By understanding these key mistakes, you can save yourself time, money, and unnecessary headaches as you expand your business reach and impact.
In this episode, we’re unpacking the top three mistakes that can derail your content licensing journey. From incorrect pricing methods to unclear rules and poorly structured offers, we’re talking about what to avoid and why it matters.
Drawing from real client experiences, we’ll discuss actual scenarios where things went wrong so you can learn and prevent those errors. This episode is a must-listen if you’re serious about scaling your expertise through effective content licensing.
End Results:
Understand Pricing: You will be able to accurately price your content by considering various factors including operational costs and the value it provides to organizations.
Set Clear Rules: Master the rules of content licensing to ensure your IP is protected and leveraged correctly.
Structure Offers Right: Know how to create a licensing offer that is not only attractive but also scalable and non-customizable to fit multiple clients.
Avoid Common Pitfalls: Discover how to avoid the common mistakes many make when they start licensing their content.
Negotiate with Confidence: Be equipped to handle negotiations by knowing what to include in your licensing agreement and how to present your offer.
After listening to this episode, you’ll be equipped to confidently move forward with content licensing, knowing how to avoid the pitfalls, protect your intellectual property, and maximize your profit potential.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Struggling to scale your coaching or consulting business? In this episode, we dive into the powerful strategy of content licensing. We’re talking about how you can offer your training, courses, or systems to other companies, saving them time and boosting your income. Perfect for coaches, consultants, and service-based businesses wanting to expand their reach, this episode unpacks who would want to buy your content and why. From your current clients to even your competition, you’ll learn how to transform your existing content into new revenue streams.
By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and strategies to make your content work harder for you, opening up new avenues for profit and impact. We’ll explore four levels of potential buyers for your content, starting with licensing to your own clients. Discover how empowering them to use your processes can be a quick and easy win for both parties. Then, dive into higher levels, such as turning your competition into partners and licensing to agencies, nonprofits, corporations, universities, and government organizations. This episode provides actionable steps to align your long-term business goals with scalable growth, leveraging your expertise without burning out.
End Results:
You will be able to understand who to license your content to, from clients to large organizations.
Learn how to transform your competitors into partners by licensing your materials to them.
Make a decision on which level(clients, competition, agencies, large organizations) suits your content licensing strategy.
Understand how to navigate the complexities of higher-level deals with corporations, universities, and government organizations.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
325
[00:00:47] Hey you guys, thanks for tuning in. This is episode number 325 and today we are talking about and answering the question, who can you license your courses, your content, and your trainings to? If you are new here to the show, please subscribe and make sure that you share this and see because everything I share here on this suite life entrepreneur podcast are proven business strategies and trainings that you can take to the bank that other coaches will charge you thousands of dollars for.
[00:01:12] So you can rest assured that you can actually take action on every one of our episodes. Welcome. If we haven’t met before, I’m April Beach host here of the show and founder of the SweetLife Company. And on today’s show, we’re really diving into. Who can you license your content to, and you’re going to walk away with ideas and even strategic moves that you can make moving towards licensing and scaling your business faster.
[00:01:36] So if that’s what you’re looking for, absolutely dive into the show. All of the show notes can be found by visiting sweetlifeco. com. Are you ready? Let’s go. Okay. So when we talk about content licensing, it means we are giving another company the ability to rent or utilize or distribute your training or your course, your system, your workshop or your process.
[00:01:59] So you’re not distributing it yourself. And I have tons of resources for you on actually what is content licensing on our YouTube channel and our podcast. So make sure you’re checking those out and you are not missing those. Now I really want to dive into specifically. Answering this question, who can you license your stuff to?
[00:02:17] So I get this question all the time. People are like, okay, April, this is really cool concept, but who would want to buy my stuff? And so let me share with you some basic mindset strategies first with the preface of saying, I’m not a mindset coach. I’m a business strategist, but I think this is important for you to understand.
[00:02:37] Companies identify that it’s faster to buy your trainings, courses, programs, your systems, and your processes than it is for them to create them themselves. Especially larger companies know that they probably don’t have somebody in their team that can do as great of a job as you can do by teaching your expertise.
[00:02:58] So they know that they can actually save time and save money by bringing your content in. Other coaches and consultants know that as well. So when you have a niche specialty that you are, it’s your genius, right? And you’ve gotten people great results, whether it’s through consulting or coaching before.
[00:03:16] Other companies want this. They know it’s very valuable to them. Increases the value of what they do. It helps deliver better results to their teams and even to their clients. So again, I have so many other resources for you on why licensing a different licensing strategy. I really want to move into who you can license it to, but I felt like that was important foundational information in case you, you haven’t tapped into our other resources before.
[00:03:40] So now. Answering the question, who can you actually license to? So the first thing I want you to be aware of is that licensing first starts with your individual personal business strategy, your personal goals of where you want to see your personal brand, your business brand, and the content of your work in the next five, 10 and 15 years.
[00:04:01] Licensing is a really cool process where we expand the reach of your work, but in order to decide who the best people are. Companies are to actually license your information to, we want to make sure that the strategy is right for you. So please take a moment and think about where you want to see your business, your personal brand, and your content.
[00:04:21] And as we move into talking about this, it will give you some more clarity. So there are four different levels that I’m going to generally share with you In this training, right? In this recording that we’re doing here, this video, four different levels of buyers, and we’re going to talk through each one of these here briefly to give you some information to be thinking about if that’s a right fit for that long term strategy for you.
[00:04:46] So number one, the first buyer, if you will, the first potential user or licensee of your content, you could consider actually licensing to your own clients. Okay. So hear me out. If you have a training or a process that you have taught your own clients, let’s say you’re a marketing coach and you have a specific way of creating, you know, content or, or doing online marketing processes, right?
[00:05:13] You’ve taught actual individuals, even other companies, but you know, individuals how to do that. Okay. Can you, should you, do you want to actually give those individuals who have already gone through your training, they’ve already completed your process, the ability to now utilize your trainings to share in their own business with their own clients.
[00:05:32] This is really, really a powerful option in licensing to your own clients. It’s usually one of the fastest ways that we see that we can start licensing your material without big, huge heavy sales calls or negotiations like we do in, in bigger corporations. So number one, I want you to think about. Are you in a place where you are ready to start releasing some of your processes to clients that have been through your systems before and they’re qualified to deliver it?
[00:06:00] That’s one of the things I want to talk about too. And I, I’ll do a whole separate video on this, but just a sidebar, you know, there’s this kind of master resale license business model where people that are totally not qualified at all can actually take other people’s content and resell it as if it’s theirs.
[00:06:15] That’s not what I’m talking about. I never recommend allowing your content to be distributed or licensed by somebody who is not qualified. So these are qualified individuals, you’ve trained them personally, they’ve been through your programs, they, they know exactly the process and you’re giving them permission to utilize this.
[00:06:32] So let’s go back to that marketing coach example. Let’s say you are that marketing coach and you thought you taught other marketers how to create content marketing plans. Now, would you like to enable them to use your processes? Maybe even some of your recordings or your trainings in their business, whether it’s to their own teams or even distributing it to their own clients.
[00:06:53] So that’s kind of licensing buyer. Option level one. It’s usually a quicker sale and it’s something that can really expand the reach of your work without a lot of heavy sales lifting. It’s really beneficial for you. And of course it’s really beneficial for your clients as well. Level two. Is licensing to your competition.
[00:07:12] Okay. This is an absolute game changer. I love talking about this, how to turn your competition into your clients. So this is for those of you guys who you’re kind of done coaching or consulting or teaching on what you have been doing. You’re ready for this next level of your business. You don’t so much want to continue to do this one to group or even went to individual through your own company buyer level two are actually going and reaching out to businesses that have been your competition and giving them permission to utilize your trainings with their clients in their business.
[00:07:48] So imagine this and oh my gosh, I have so many podcast episodes and resources on this and more videos on this If this is what you want, we can just totally geek out on this whole buy in level option But let me just leave this with you imagine Not having to compete With your competition, creating this really cool, even mastermind community collective of businesses that are doing the same things, and they’re all utilizing either all or even parts of your training and content to actually insert into to Their business so immediately they’re no longer your competition because you’re not selling that content yourself You’ve leveled up their business.
[00:08:29] You’re making more money and you’ve completely moved yourself into a blue ocean So level number one licensing to your clients level number two licensing to what has been your competition? There’s a lot more deep business future strategy we should talk about in that, but for the sake of what we’re talking about here in this video today, it gives you a great baseline of things to be thinking about.
[00:08:50] Okay, so now let’s go a little bit bigger. Now let’s talk about level number three. Level number three are organizations like agencies or smaller businesses. Or even nonprofit organizations. These businesses, these companies are always looking for great content. So that’s that kind of level three buyer.
[00:09:12] And as you’re moving up these levels, I want you to know that in many cases for most of our clients, the cost of their licensed product, basically they make more money goes up. So the higher the organization and the higher the value and the more people Okay. The more people that your content is going to reach, the more money you’re going to make licensing that particular piece of content.
[00:09:32] So at level three is think about agencies or think about other small to mid sized businesses. Think about even chambers of commerce or groups and collectives. So if there are, you know, big business associations, these are great level three buyers. And if this is the place where you’re at, you can even still continue to sell your own content and license your things to agencies.
[00:10:01] So that’s at level 3. So level 3 is at, again, that mid size business or small to mid size business, non profit agency. And I want you to pause just for a second and imagine at least one or a couple pieces of your content and trainings and how that could benefit a mid sized business. And frankly, how it could benefit you and how many more people you could reach with your work and how many more companies you could help.
[00:10:27] And then level four are universities, corporations, and government. And we have clients that actually license their content in all of these different levels, all the way up to universities. We have multiple clients that are licensing their courses and content into universities. And corporations and government.
[00:10:48] And so this higher level, me be honest with you, these deals usually take longer to close, but they’re bigger deals. So just think the bigger the deal, the higher the level that you license to, the longer these deals take to close. There’s more people to talk to more red tape that you kind of need to get through.
[00:11:05] Um, so, you know, again, As you’re watching this and you’re thinking about this strategy, you can be thinking about how fast do I want to profit or do I want to, you know, wait for these big deals to close, but that level four, these are great buyers. So universities, government and corporations are also always on the look out for your content, whether your content is an internal training for their staff to really level up their, their staff’s ability in a certain, Area or whether they’re gonna take your content and distribute it to end users so your content can be internal and it can be distributed.
[00:11:43] And so that next level a buyer is a really great opportunity for you if you have a significant program that can guarantee results to their end users, whether it’s internally to their staff, and of course externally to their buyers. So those are four different, very general levels. And the purpose again of me sharing this with you is to help you just open up your mind to the world of all the things you can do with your content.
[00:12:11] So that training you created that you aren’t selling anymore, maybe frankly, you’re just burned out teaching that topic. Maybe you’re ready to move on to the next level. Maybe you have been working a nine to five job and this is your area of expertise. And you have processes and systems that you have created that are out of your own intellectual property.
[00:12:31] They aren’t owned by a company, they’re yours. And you want to start increasing your profit outside of your work. You are absolutely in a place where you can look to other companies and all these different, may not be your clients. You know, you can’t really license content to your clients if you’re working a nine to five, but other agencies and even other businesses based on your work, of course, as long as it doesn’t compete with your employment agreement.
[00:12:55] So. Those are some things that I want you to be thinking about, and I just want to kind of share a little story with you just to wrap this up about one of the first things that I did with licensing and my thought process around this. So hopefully this helps you. So when I first got into licensing, it was late 2020.
[00:13:13] 2008, 2009, and one of the things I realized about myself was that I really wanted to be helping other businesses, and I had all of this content that I was sitting on. In this content that I was sitting on, I had actually created it for a B2C company and my own B2C company. But prior to that, I had even been a business strategist and coach even before I created this content.
[00:13:37] So I just knew that I wanted to work with other businesses. It’s just where I belong. And so the very first thing that I did is instead of continuing to sell my online courses directly to clients, I connected with every other coach in my industry that was trying to do the exact same thing as I was, and I gave them an opportunity to take all of my classes.
[00:13:59] And this is the language, this is the goal that I want to give you today. This is a language I used with them. I said, Take my courses and make them your own and sell them to your clients. That’s what I said. And when we’re looking at like the cost that it takes or the time that it takes, I have a little cheese sheet note here that I always reference back.
[00:14:22] On average, data shows that it takes 28 to 36 hours to create one hour of an employee training. That’s 28 to 36 hours to create the IP, create the actual curriculum, actually produce the training and have it ready to go 28 to 36 hours to create one hour of training. So going back to what I was offering these other consultants, I had eight courses that were created and each one was about on average an hour long.
[00:14:55] I was literally saving them hundreds of hours by taking my own courses and making them their own and giving them permission to license my own courses. And that was to my competition. And it was an important part of my longterm business strategy for myself. So I always love sharing like real world practical stories about my clients and about how I’ve done licensing to help you really understand how you can apply this to your business.
[00:15:18] And you can be thinking about how you want to move forward with licensing. So again, today. We covered who you can license to. We covered the four different levels of starting out with your exact clients. You can license your material to, and then you can even reach out to your competition. Then you can go to small businesses, agencies, even organizations.
[00:15:37] And then the next level up would be corporations, government, and universities, and all of these are possible for you as long as you have amazing content that gives people transformational results. All right. That is a wrap for episode number 325 for all the resources and even the transcription and the show notes and everything that I talked about.
[00:15:57] Cruise over to SweetLifeCo.com and you can get everything you need there. And if you’re ready for personalized strategic support, you can apply to work with us, attend one of our online workshops, or even attend one of our in person retreats. I would love to work with you and help you Again, all of it can be found over at SweetLifeCo.com I’ll talk to you soon.
Are you sitting on valuable content and wondering how you can monetize it through licensing? This episode is tailor-made for coaches, consultants, and other subject matter experts who possess content that’s just waiting to be shared with a wider audience. We’re going to clarify what content is licensable, how companies are hungry for it, and why knowing this is critical for taking your business operations to new levels of growth and efficiency. If your content is collecting dust, listen up – this is not the show for you if you’re not yet clear on what content licensing is. I suggest first catching up on our previous episode about the basics of content licensing before diving into this one.
In this chat, we unpack three lucrative types of licensable content—each with varying income potential, represented by one, two, or three dollar signs. From leveraging distribution channels with compact pieces like articles and videos, to enhancing other programs with your trainings or workshops, and even offering complete processes that other companies can use independently. I even share a personal story about how I repurposed my own courses, and how that could be a game changer for you, too. We break down these strategies into real-world applications to help you visualize the incredible potential of licensing the valuable content you already have.
End Results:
Recognize short, impactful content that can be used to fill a company’s distribution channels.
Identify how your smaller training modules can augment existing programs to create added value.
Understand the goldmine that is complete programs and courses, ready for you to license.
Get clarity on whether your content fits better as internal training for teams or as client-facing solutions.
Realize the potential profitability of licensing and how it contributes to a scalable business model.
Resources:
For all your licensing resources, free tools, and business strategies, visit sweetlifeco.com.
To tap into a complimentary licensing 101 video, check out licensingtools.com.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you sitting on valuable content and wondering how you can monetize it through licensing? This episode is tailor-made for coaches, consultants, and other subject matter experts who possess content that’s just waiting to be shared with a wider audience. We’re going to clarify what content is licensable, how companies are hungry for it, and why knowing this is critical for taking your business operations to new levels of growth and efficiency. If your content is collecting dust, listen up – this is not the show for you if you’re not yet clear on what content licensing is. I suggest first catching up on our previous episode about the basics of content licensing before diving into this one.
In this chat, we unpack three lucrative types of licensable content—each with varying income potential, represented by one, two, or three dollar signs. From leveraging distribution channels with compact pieces like articles and videos, to enhancing other programs with your trainings or workshops, and even offering complete processes that other companies can use independently. I even share a personal story about how I repurposed my own courses, and how that could be a game changer for you, too. We break down these strategies into real-world applications to help you visualize the incredible potential of licensing the valuable content you already have.
End Results:
Recognize short, impactful content that can be used to fill a company’s distribution channels.
Identify how your smaller training modules can augment existing programs to create added value.
Understand the goldmine that is complete programs and courses, ready for you to license.
Get clarity on whether your content fits better as internal training for teams or as client-facing solutions.
Realize the potential profitability of licensing and how it contributes to a scalable business model.
Resources:
For all your licensing resources, free tools, and business strategies, visit sweetlifeco.com.
To tap into a complimentary licensing 101 video, check out licensingtools.com.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Course Creators: License Your Way to Growth. In this episode, we’re diving into the major question that’s on many of your minds: Can I license my course, training, or content? If you’re a coach, consultant, author or speaker with valuable trainings and content looking to license to other companies, you’ve come to the right place. We’re peeling back the curtain on the prerequisites for licensing to help you gauge if your content is ready for the next step. This isn’t for newbies still finding their footing – we’re looking at established business owners who are already good at what they do. If you’re wondering how to leverage your expertise and extend your influence, then this is for you.
We cover the key ingredients that make your content license-ready. You might be surprised to learn that your program doesn’t need to be fully built before licensing— in fact, it’s better if it’s not. Save yourself time and adopt a strategic mindset to turn your proven methods into licensing gold. I share insights on positioning your business for the future and discuss how important it is to think about how licensing will shape your brand in the long term. Plus, you’ll hear an inspiring case study about a client who licensed her yet-to-be-created course for a whopping seven-figure sum!
End Results:
You’ll be positioned to start considering if licensing is a suitable growth strategy for your business.
Understand the necessity to provide predictable, transformational, measurable results through your content.
Gain insight into the strategic foresight required for long-term thought leadership and brand positioning.
Discover the potential to turn your expertise into a licensed program, even if it’s not fully developed.
Learn from real-life success stories to inspire your own journey in content licensing.
Resources Mentioned:
Free licensing business growth tools: visit sweetlifeco.com
Licensing 101 Video: licensing-tools.com
Million Dollar Licensing Offer Masterclass: For those who need guidance in curating their curriculum for licensing.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
322
[00:00:46] Hey there. Welcome back to the show. Today we are answering the question. Can I license my course? Yes. Training for content. And so if that’s what you’re looking for, you are in the right place. I’m April Beach host here at the Sweetlife Entrepreneur Podcast and CEO of the SweetLife Company. And I’ve been teaching experts, coaches, and consultants to license our content for over a decade.
[00:01:09] And I want to unpack who this episode is actually for. So if you are a subject matter expert, we’re Coach consultant, you may be an author or a speaker and you have trainings and content that you’re interested in licensing to other companies. I want to unpack some prerequisites for licensing here to help you identify whether or not your content is ready.
[00:01:32] So if that’s what you’re looking for, this is episode number 322. You can find all of the resources and tap into our free licensing, business growth, business tools, videos, strategies, worksheets by visiting SweetLifeCo. com. All right. So this is for those of you guys who are established business owners. So.
[00:01:54] Let’s take a little hint from that. The idea here is that you need to be good at what you do. So prerequisite number one, you need to be able to deliver results. If you are a brand new coach, a brand new consultant, welcome to the world of coaching and consulting. It is growing rapidly. It has been growing rapidly, especially over the last decade.
[00:02:16] And we want to make sure that before you give another company permission to actually utilize it, that you have a proven record of getting people results. So prerequisite number one is, do you have a system, process, curriculum, an outline, a methodology, a framework? Do you have a way of taking people from one place to another place?
[00:02:45] Or businesses from one place to another place. We’ve talked about this on shows over the years. We actually teach this when we teach million dollar offer engineering. But the key phrase I want you to ask yourself is, does my program, content curriculum, whatever it is, deliver predictable, transformational, measurable results?
[00:03:10] Are you capable of doing that? Now, one of the things I do want to say is number two is you actually don’t even have to have a thriving, established coaching and consulting business. And I’m going to share with you a case study of one of our clients who was very good at what she did, but she didn’t even have her consulting business launched.
[00:03:29] She wasn’t even in her own independent business space. She was just very good at what she did based on her professional background. So I don’t want you to think, Oh my gosh, I don’t have a business. I don’t have all these followers, by the way, followers do not equal the value of what you deliver. Those are vanity metrics.
[00:03:47] We don’t even look at those. The reality is, is can you deliver companies or individuals reason results and, and have you done that in the past? That is the most important thing. Now, number two, and this is probably going to surprise you and I’m going to save you time. I’m hoping to save you time. Your program does not have to be built all the way out.
[00:04:09] As a matter of fact, and I will be doing more podcast episodes about this, so make sure you’re subscribed and we can hang out together. I can keep pouring into you. As a matter of fact, taking the time to build your program out could greatly hurt you, which I will be unpacking why that is in other episodes.
[00:04:26] It doesn’t have to be built into a place. As a matter of fact, when we talk to new clients that are considering working with us to help them build out their licensing packages and in pricing and sell them, oftentimes I hear, well, I just keep need to work on it. I need to build it first. That is absolutely not the case.
[00:04:46] So if you do not have a course built or a training built yet, I But you still have a proven method for getting people results. You can totally move into licensing and I actually don’t want you to wait. You know, there are so many different strategies when we talk about scaling, coaching and consulting businesses.
[00:05:05] There’s so many different strategies about selling something before you build it. I have to say that I am usually not an advocate of that. In that coaching and consulting space, I at least want us to be frameworked out to have a built in an LMS to understand the user experience and in the client experience and the transformational benchmarks.
[00:05:27] If we were just talking about building and growing your coaching and consulting business on the B to C side. Normally, I’m not a huge advocate about totally winging it, pulling something out of the air. Actually, I’m never an advocate of just pulling something out of the air. And selling it. But a lot of coaches say to do that on that side of the business, and I’m sure they have their reasoning and strategies.
[00:05:49] Normally, I’m not that person, guys. Okay? I’m just going to be honest. But, now we go over and we talk about content licensing and whether or not you are able to release your content. Now we’re talking about the fact of selling a proven method, curriculum, strategy or process that can be built out later, according to who you license it to.
[00:06:13] So number one, you have to be really good at what you do. Number two, you don’t have to have it built yet. As a matter of fact, please don’t take the time to build it, because time is money. Is money, especially when we’re talking about content licensing. If you’re thinking about doing this, you’re thinking about getting into it and you’re like, Oh, well, I don’t really have the time and I don’t, you know, I’m not really ready to start in it.
[00:06:35] You are absolutely losing money. Thousands and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay. So just be mindful of that. And you know, the other thing, and this is number three, I’m going to share with you here on this particular show, I told you these are going to be high value short time, so you can binge them and move on to the next one.
[00:06:54] The other one is something that I really want you, if you can take away anything from today’s show, please take away this in order to license your content. We need to know what you want your next five to 10 years of your business and life to look like. And oftentimes that seems like so big, especially if you are new into an industry like licensing, like most people are, because it’s still this best kept secret.
[00:07:23] It’s one of those things that with licensing, We can’t take it back, okay? So let me expand on that a little bit. If you were to launch a course, or a training program, or a retreat, or a mastermind, and you do it, and you go through the process, and maybe you liked it a couple times, and you got burned out on it, and you just, you can stop.
[00:07:45] You can stop selling it. When you license, And you give permission to another company to distribute your content. It’s for the term of a license agreement. And so once you put it out there, you can’t take it back. And so let me tell you why this is important for the context of, of what we’re saying here today.
[00:08:02] And, and I don’t want to scare you away from this, but I want to be fully honest with you. Because a lot of coaches, consultants, and experts come to me for help licensing something that they did not get coaching on before, and they made a lot of mistakes and they can’t take them back. And that’s one of the reasons why I decided to do this podcast series, because I want to save you from these mistakes.
[00:08:27] Okay? And so here’s what I want you to take away from this show. I want you to ask yourself, what do I want to be known for in regards to this training or content for the next five to 10 years? If you’re in a place like frankly, many of our clients are, let me give you a little bit of behind the scenes here where you’ve been in business and you’re looking for your next level business model, you’re looking to free up your time and increase your profit and truly scale, then licensing is a great opportunity for you.
[00:09:02] But here’s the question. What you license, or I should say, what will you license? Because what you license. We don’t get to take back and I want you to be thinking about how well known you want to be for that content Are you okay with the thought of another business? Distributing your training and content if this is the mountain you’re gonna die on and you want to become the thought leader And you want to be the end all be all company to directly deliver that particular training B2C then who you license it to Matters We’re not going to license it to your competition.
[00:09:44] And so those are just some of the things that I want you to be thinking about. When clients come in to work with us for licensing, the very, very first thing, phase one of our licensing plan is positioning. And that’s what I’m sharing with you here today on this show. I want you to understand the importance of how you want to position yourself in the next three steps.
[00:10:04] Five, 10, 15, 20 years. How do you want your thought leadership to be positioned? How do we want your brand to be positioned? We can do it any way you want. I’m not saying you’re going to lose it all. As a matter of fact, we build thought leaders through licensing. Let me say that again. We build thought leaders through licensing.
[00:10:25] I want you to sit with that, but what we give away, what you’re thinking about extending out to others will be affected based on your personal professional goals in your company goals. And so those are the three things I wanted to unpack on this show. Who can license their content, right? So number one, you have to be good at what you do.
[00:10:49] You have to have a methodology, content, framework, training, course, or process. Whether it’s built or not, that gets people, remember these three words, predictable, transformational, measurable results. If you don’t have that yet, even if it’s not built out, but if you don’t have your content, your method, your process, your curriculum built out, cruise over.
[00:11:16] We are happy to help you. We have our million dollar licensing offer masterclass where we actually teach you how to curate your curriculum to build your licensing offers. It’s called offer engineer. That’s where you should be. And that’s where you are. Awesome. We are here to help you. But if you already have that, you’ve had that for years, you’re an expert in your space, then great.
[00:11:38] Well, you know, skip to step number two, don’t worry about guessing where it needs to be built out. You just take what you have, whatever the structure of that looks like. And then we get to take it into step number three, which understanding how you want to position yourself as a thought leader in the future, that’s going to help you package up your material to license it.
[00:11:57] And so those are the three steps I want you to be processing, and I can’t overestimate how important your understanding of your strategy is in, in this whole process. If you want to be known for your work, thinking about that, and we can make you as known as known can be, or we can make you a ghost and still make hundreds of thousands of dollars through licensing your content.
[00:12:22] But it’s up to you. And the point I’m making to you is once you decide that, we can’t. Really take it back. And so those are the things I want you to be thinking about. And that’s why I am recording this show in this video for you. If you are finding us on YouTube, our new YouTube channel, I’m so stoked that you’re here.
[00:12:39] Please subscribe to this. We would love to continue to pour into you. Now, let me tell you. Go ahead and share with you a case study like I promised I would about one of our clients who didn’t have a consulting business and didn’t even have a course built. As a matter of fact, her case study, um, she just closed.
[00:12:59] Two of our first licensing deals in this past week of recording this show, but I did do a whole 30 minute interview with her where she shares her process. She went through that also can be found cruise over to our YouTube channel as well, where you can really hear behind the scenes and the details. But I just want to share this story with you so that you are aware.
[00:13:18] So this particular client was a professor. Okay. So she did have an established area of expertise. She’s been a teacher. She has her doctorate. You know, she has been in the corporate world for a very long time. So she’s worked with companies. She’s developed plans and processes in curriculum within companies.
[00:13:39] So she, she was great at it. And she just licensed her course, That’s based on her intellectual property, but it’s not yet built anywhere to multiple universities. And her first check is 142, 000. Her licensing deal for one university is over a million dollars for one course that she hasn’t even built yet that’s based on her expertise.
[00:14:07] And if you want to tap into her case study, and she’s not the only one. I mean, it seems ridiculous. As a matter of fact, I was saying this in one of our live streams where I was like, I can’t even share this case study. People are going to think this is absolute bullshit. Like this is crazy to take a course that isn’t even built, but from established IP and license it for over a million dollars.
[00:14:28] She’s a single mom. She’s a professional. She’s awesome. And frankly, she’s just like you. And so those are the things that can happen with licensing. You don’t have to have it built yet. You just have to have content that is proven, even if it’s from your own brain and your own teaching and your own workshops and your own expertise, maybe it’s from your book.
[00:14:49] Many of our clients, we turn their books into a license program. We turn their signature talks into a license program. Maybe it’s from one of those places, but you don’t have to have a built out yet. And that’s what I want you to walk away with. That is the mind blowing that I want you to gather when we’re talking about content licensing.
[00:15:10] So if you want to know more about content licensing, cruise over to our website at SweetLifeCo. com where you will find tools and resources to get started with content licensing totally free. You can also cruise over to licensing co. com. Tools dot com. And it’s going to take you immediately to a licensing 101 video.
[00:15:33] You can put me on fast forward where I’m going to go through case studies to get your wheels spinning even more about different ways that you can take your content, whether or not you’re even selling it could be content you’re selling or contents collecting dust, and we can license it to other companies and expand your reach.
[00:15:51] And I’m not going to be the police here on who’s ready to license our content and who isn’t. I want to be, I’ll be honest with you. We’ve seen, this is a, this is a little raw April beach here. If you’ve been following this podcast, you know that I’ve just kind of say what’s on my mind in the history of the coaching and consulting space, especially as it’s grown online.
[00:16:09] We have seen a lot of coaches that frankly are not good at what they do. Uh, we’ve even seen some opportunities where people are releasing something called the master resale license, where they’re teaching people how to do their thing. And then giving them like a business in a box. And these people are in most cases, not very qualified to do that.
[00:16:26] You know, you’ve probably seen some of these things coming around. That’s not what we do. That’s not what we as a company do with content licensing. We work with established experts to license their content out to other companies, nonprofits, corporations, other coaches and consultants, universities, and not all here in the United States, across the world.
[00:16:47] And that’s what we can do for you too. So please subscribe to this YouTube channel and follow us on Instagram and DM me on LinkedIn. I am always available to answer your questions because I geek out on this stuff because I know it can do for you and your business. Thank you so much for tuning in here to the SweetLife Entrepreneurial Podcast.
[00:17:07] This is episode number 322, and we’re going to be continuing our series where I’m answering the most common questions I receive about how to license your content to scale your business. All right. Bye bye for now.
Why is content licensing one of the fastest ways to scale? If you’ve been establishing your expertise in your domain and possess a trove of valuable content that other businesses could benefit from, this episode of the SweetLife® Podcast is curated with your needs in mind. What we’re talking about today isn’t just an opportunity to broaden your business horizons—it’s a transformative approach that can substantially enhance your profit margins and free up your time. I share insights that are particularly important for subject matter experts, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, and leaders who are looking to upscale the dissemination of their knowledge without increasing their workload.
In this podcast, we unpack specific strategies that fundamentally change the traditional growth model. From sharing firsthand how I licensed a single course and exponentially multiplied its reach, to discussing the potential of licensing your content to other companies who can then market your intellectual property. We cover the successes of content licensing, the practical steps in the process, and how I have helped clients in the past decade, utilize these strategies to reduce their effort while massively scaling up their businesses. My experience and the case studies we dive into serve as a testament to the substantial impact that wisely implemented content licensing can bring to your enterprise.
Key Takeaways from Today’s Episode:
Get to grips with the actual mechanics of content licensing and how it can act as a catalyst for rapid business scaling.
Hear inspiring stories and case studies that demonstrate the successful implementation of content licensing from my clients and me.
Discern specific strategies for using content licensing to multiply your reach without proportionally increasing your effort, time, or costs.
Discover who is best suited for content licensing — it’s aimed at established professionals armed with content ready for wider distribution.
Learn how one course or training can be licensed in various ways, from individual trainers to large organizations, for broad-reaching impact.
Content licensing isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a robust business model that can augment the reach and profitability of your content. We’re talking about a strategic movement that could revolutionize the way you think about and engage with the growth of your business.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Episode Bonus: Video on HOW TO LICENSE YOUR CONTENT TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS & INCREASE PROFIT. To watch visithttps://licensing-tools.com/
We’re starting a new series focused on the transformative power of content licensing – a strategy to scale your business, increase profits, and gain more free time. If you’re an established business owner adept in your field and curious about content licensing, this episode is specifically curated for you. However, if you’re new to the business world, I suggest revisiting our past episodes to build your foundational knowledge first.
In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty of content licensing. What is it, exactly? How can it be a pivotal part of your business growth? I’m here to unpack these questions, offering clear insights and strategies. Content licensing isn’t just a concept; it’s a viable option for expanding your business reach. We’re going to discuss how leveraging the courses, trainings, and content you’ve already developed can open doors to new opportunities. Through real-life examples and case studies, you’ll see how content licensing has been a game-changer for many, including myself and my clients.
Key Takeaways from Today’s Episode:
Deep Dive into Content Licensing: Get a comprehensive understanding of what content licensing involves and how it can be a turning point for your business’s growth.
Real Business Cases: Learn from stories and case studies that illustrate the successful application of content licensing in various businesses.
Strategies for Scaling Up: Discover specific strategies for using content licensing to not only enhance profits but also to assert your expertise and thought leadership in your niche.
For Whom It’s Meant: This episode is tailored for those looking to significantly upgrade their business operations. If you’re not yet at this stage, our previous content will be more suited to your current needs.
Exclusive Insights and Tips: Benefit from the direct experiences and advice I share, grounded in proven success and practical application.
In this episode, we’re talking about leveraging what you’ve already created to add value to other businesses and, in turn, to your own. It’s about understanding the strategic importance of content licensing and how it can radically change the way you do business. So, let’s get started on this exciting journey to unlocking the full potential of your content!
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This episode is a treasure trove for established coaches, consultants, subject matter experts, and service-based entrepreneurs who’ve been serving clients and are ready to take things up a notch. We’re delving into 10 innovative strategies to boost your revenue by $50,000 in the next six weeks. It’s all about actionable advice, proven systems, and strategies that April Beach has refined over 27 years as a business coach. However, if you’re just starting out, this might not be the episode for you just yet. Remember, this is about matching your dedication with the right strategies to build a profitable consulting and coaching business with integrity.
In this episode we’re diving deep into specifics. Expect to learn about personalized mentorship and the unique advantages it offers, like connecting deeply with your clients and sharing your hard-earned wisdom. VIP days, another gem, provide an intensive, focused experience that can significantly uplift your business. And let’s not forget about course licensing“quick sales” – an ingenious method to extend your reach and earnings without the heavy lifting of delivery. We’re also unpacking 7 more powerful ways you can bring in extra money like planning retreats, launching new programs, and effective cost-cutting, and more. All are designed to elevate your business swiftly and effectively.
Takeaways:
Enhanced Revenue Strategies: Learn techniques to significantly increase your income in a short time frame, specifically designed for established professionals in coaching and consulting.
Business Growth Insights: Gain insights into unique and practical strategies, such as personalized mentorship, VIP days, and licensing your content, to expand your business reach and enhance client engagement – plus 7 more options to choose from.
Operational Efficiency: Discover ways to optimize your business operations, including revisiting past programs and smart cost management, to maximize profit fast.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This episode is tailored specifically for you if you’re an established subject matter expert, coach, consultant, strategist, service provider, or if you’re deeply entrenched in the B2C model but feel the pull towards transitioning to B2B. April Beach, a seasoned business strategist with over 27 years of experience, guides you through this critical juncture in your career. This episode is crucial because it addresses a common yet challenging pivot point: shifting your business model while leveraging your expertise and maintaining a balanced life.
April Beach delves into the intricacies of transitioning from a B2C to a B2B business model. You will learn about:
Recognizing when you’re ready for this shift and how to initiate the move.
Strategic questioning to align your future business goals with personal aspirations.
Techniques to repurpose your existing B2C offerings for a B2B audience, such as through licensing and embedded partnerships.
Exploring high-level strategic consulting for B2B, to understand and cater to the new audience’s needs.
At the end of this episode you will:
This episode is a deep dive into how you can redefine your business model while keeping true to your expertise and creating a work-life harmony.
Self-Reflection is Key: Understand the importance of your legacy and how you want to be known in your industry. This will influence how you transition and what parts of your business you carry forward.
Designing Your Future Work-Life: Consider who your new clients will be in a B2B context and how this will change your work dynamics, from daily interactions to the nature of your engagements.
Leveraging Existing Assets: Explore how your current B2C offerings can be transformed into B2B solutions, such as through licensing or partnerships, allowing for a smoother transition.
Embracing Strategic Relationships: Engage in high-level consulting in your new B2B sphere to build relationships and gain clarity on what these clients need and value.
Simplicity and Impact: Learn how transitioning to B2B can often simplify business processes and amplify your impact, potentially leading to more significant results with less direct effort.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clearer vision of how to navigate the shift from B2C to B2B, making strategic decisions that align with your long-term goals and lifestyle aspirations. Tune in to uncover insights and strategies that will empower your journey into a new realm of business.
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You’re in the perfect spot if you’re a subject matter expert, coach, consultant, speaker, author, or leader contemplating or already developing a Train the Trainer program. Whether you’re looking to license your content to other companies or elevate your existing certification program, this episode is a goldmine for you. April Beach, the founder and CEO of the SweetLife® Company, brings her expertise directly to your journey of expanding the reach and impact of your work. With a focus on strategic content structuring, this episode is not just about creating a program but ensuring it is profitable and impactful.
What We Cover and What You Will Learn
In this episode, April Beach delves deep into the intricacies of building an effective Train the Trainer program. You’ll learn how to structure your content strategically to facilitate success for other trainers. This includes providing the necessary materials, such as outlines, speaking topics, benchmarks, training agendas, and the core content like PDFs, slides, and workbooks. More importantly, you will understand how to infuse your unique thinking and genius into these materials, elevating the trainers to deliver the content as effectively as you would.
April doesn’t stop at just content delivery; she also explores the importance of communication skills, the creation of a learning roadmap, user management, and internal marketing techniques. These insights will help trainers not only present the material effectively but also engage and inspire their audience, leading to a more impactful learning experience.
Key Takeaways
Content Foundation: Understand how to break down your program into manageable parts, focusing on both the core materials and the high-level strategic thinking behind each segment.
Communication and Facilitation Skills: Equip your trainers with the necessary skills to handle sensitive topics and foster engaging, productive discussions.
Visual Learning Roadmaps: Create visual aids to help trainers and learners track progress and understand the journey through the program.
User Management Strategies: Learn to manage and track attendees effectively, ensuring a streamlined and accountable learning experience.
Internal Marketing for Buy-In: Develop materials to help trainers advocate for your program, ensuring engagement and enthusiasm from participants, particularly in scenarios where they don’t have a choice in their participation.
This episode is more than just a guide; it’s an empowerment tool for you to elevate your program, making a profound impact while freeing you up to pursue your passions. Tune in to transform your Train the Trainer program into a dynamic, effective, and profitable venture.
Resources:
Join our elite business consulting programs for support building your Train the Trainer program, licensing courses, or creating a certification https://www.sweetlifeco.com/amplifyphase
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This episode is a must-listen for coaches, consultants, and content creators eager to explore the lucrative world of licensing. April Beach delves into the specialized area of licensing intellectual property, particularly focusing on content, trainings, systems, and courses. This topic is crucial as it unlocks new revenue streams and allows for the expansion of business reach and impact.
What We Cover and What You Will Learn
April Beach guides you through the practical steps of pricing your curriculum for licensing. You’ll learn the importance of understanding your operational costs, including software, team expenses, and the logistics of content distribution. The discussion goes further into calculating the Return on Investment(ROI) of your content, emphasizing both tangible training benefits and lifestyle improvements. April introduces two main pricing strategies: bulk pricing and‘Amplify ROI’ pricing, explaining how these can be applied based on the specific needs and outcomes of potential licensees.
Key Takeaways
Understand Operational Costs: Know the expenses associated with licensing your content, like software and team support.
Calculate the ROI: Assess both the tangible and lifestyle impacts of your content.
Customized Approach: Tailor the pricing based on the licensee’s specific situation and outcomes.
Value Communication: Communicate the measurable value and transformation your content brings to the licensee.
After listening to this episode, you’ll be equipped with insights and strategies to confidently price and license your intellectual property, enhancing both your business growth and the value you deliver to your clients.
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This episode is crafted for you, the seasoned consultant or coach, who’s considering moving from B2C to B2B. It’s essential for those of you who have proven success with clients and have developed systematic approaches in your work. This is about taking your impact and profitability to the next level while easing your workload.
In this episode, we specifically guide you through developing and implementing two core strategies for transitioning to B2B consulting. First, we focus on creating a certification program to train other professionals in your field, turning potential competitors into your clients. This approach leverages your expertise and establishes a collaborative network. Second, we explore the process of licensing your unique methodologies to these professionals. This strategy not only extends the reach of your work but also enhances your role as a thought leader in the industry, all while reducing your direct workload.
Takeaways:
Developing a Certification Program: You’ll learn to transform competitors into clients by creating a training or certification program in your expertise.
Licensing Your Expertise: Discover how licensing your methodologies can broaden your business scope and reinforce your thought leadership.
Reducing Workload, Increasing Impact: Understand how these strategies can lessen your day-to-day tasks while boosting your impact and income.
Establishing Thought Leadership: Insights on how to position yourself as an industry thought leader.
Fostering a Professional Community: Emphasizes the value of building a network of professionals using your methods towards shared goals.
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Thinking about selling VIP days and don’t know how to start? You’re in the right place! In this engaging episode, we sit down with Amy Yamada, a seasoned expert in the coaching realm, to explore the ins and outs of creating and offering VIP days. This episode is a goldmine for coaches and consultants eager to inject a fresh, personalized approach into their services. If you’re looking to set yourself apart in the coaching market with offerings that truly resonate with your clients, offering VIP Days might be your answer?
In this show, Amy walks us through the key elements of crafting VIP days that not only meet but exceed client expectations. You’ll learn how to pinpoint exactly what your clients need and tailor your VIP days to address these needs effectively. We also dive into strategies for confidently setting and communicating your prices, ensuring your clients understand the immense value of these specialized sessions. Plus, Amy shares her secrets on post-session follow-ups that keep the momentum going and strengthen client relationships.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a starting roadmap for offering VIP days in your coaching or consulting business. You’ll also be equipped with actionable tips and a deeper understanding of how to create these powerful, transformative experiences. So, if you’re ready to take your coaching game to the next level, tune in and let’s get started.
At the end of this episode, you understand:
Tailoring VIP Days to Client Needs: Understand how to identify and address your clients’ unique challenges and goals, ensuring that each VIP day is a personalized and impactful experience.
Effective Pricing Strategies: Learn how to set and communicate the value of your VIP days, enabling you to confidently charge rates that reflect the high-quality, bespoke service you provide.
Post-Session Engagement: Discover the importance of follow-up support and how it can enhance the effectiveness of your VIP day, leading to stronger, ongoing client relationships.
Marketing Your VIP Days: Gain insights into effectively promoting your VIP days, highlighting their unique benefits and differentiating your services in a competitive market.
Practical Implementation: Walk away with actionable steps to integrate VIP days into your coaching or consulting business, enhancing both client satisfaction and business growth.
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Established coaches and consultants looking to separate from the pack in 2024. You want to do your work differently and reduce friction. The theme of this year is“less in more”. We’ll be focusing on making smart decisions to reduce overwhelm and create more traction in your business. Though there are a lot of things you can do to build your company, in this show we’re focusing on 4 of the most important areas you’ll want to nail first.
For each of the four areas of your business, I’m breaking down key things to consider in evaluating how you’ll upgrade your process and profit including:
2024 industry trends in each of the 4 core areas
How they affect your current business
Innovative ways to upgrade, change, and pivot
…All while reducing work time and doing less.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Know the 4 areas of business you need to focus on to scale in 2024
Have evaluated each area to determine necessary changes
Be able to take action
Episode Bonus:
6 Components of a Scalable Coaching Program – Includes AI Offer Engineering and more!
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This one’s for all you independent consultants, coaches, and experts who are looking to grow your business next year. We’re going to chat about what it really takes to build a million-dollar consulting business.
Yes; you need the right mindset.
Yes; you need to be good at what you do
But did you know there’s an actual mathematical formula to determine if your company is capable of hitting a million dollars in gross revenue a year? There is, and in this episode April Beach, an international business strategist, unpacks the key values you need to be aware of that become the inputs for your million–dollar business formula.
This episode is like your personal guide to growing your business in a smart way. It’s super helpful if you’re working on your own and want to increase your sales without burning out. We’re going to talk about knowing your limits, which is really important, and using that knowledge to make better plans for your business. This way, you can make more money, keep your customers happy, and still have time for yourself! April’s approach has helped people all over the world. She’s got some great strategies that can be tailored to your own unique business.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Assess your Offers: It’s important to really know the ins and outs of the services or advice you provide. This helps you see where you can grow.
Understand Your Limits: Knowing how much you can handle is key. It helps you plan better and grow your business without getting too stressed.
Clean Up Your Offers: Quickly see what offers are dragging you down and where to build improvements
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Entrepreneurs in Phases 2-4 of our Online Business Roadmap™
Summary:
This episode is tailor-made for entrepreneurs who have an established training or program but struggle to generate leads or have a smaller list. If you want ways to increase visibility for your business without diving into conventional advertising routes like Facebook or LinkedIn ads, then this episode is a must-listen.
April’s conversation with JV partnership expert, Charles Byrd, provides an alternative path to business growth that is dependable and requires less effort to generate leads. You will be introduced to the world of joint venture(JV) partnerships through Charles, a renowned figure in this arena. They’ll uncover the four distinct types of JV partnerships, learning how each can be a lucrative option depending on your business’s unique needs. This episode delivers actionable steps on implementing these JV strategies. When you’re finished listening you’ll have more clarity on which type of partnership is best for where you are in business currently.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Understand the 4 types of JV partnerships
Determine which type is best for you based on your offers
Gain confidence in starting JV partnerships even if you have a small offer and no list.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Plan Your Online Business Calendar for Profit and Purpose
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This episode is for those in Phase 2 – 4 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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Summary:
There is certain steps that you can strategically follow to create a predictable online business. This is not pie in the sky in the strategies we talk about in this episode we’ve been applying to our own business and teaching others for almost 10 years.
In the show you will learn the step-by-step process to lay out your entire calendar year for high profit deep impact and lifestyle freedom. Including the nitty-gritty of how to plan out your online offers, your launch campaigns, and those big business projects you have been wanting to work on but I’ve never found the time.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the order of operations in which to plan your yearly calendar
Discover April beach is secret process that has predictably created up to six months of travel time with her family since 2011
You will be able to immediately lay out your calendar and start applying this process to create more intention, and clear marketing campaigns in your online business.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
267
[00:00:46] Hey. Hey, you guys. Welcome back to the show. You are listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast as our intro said, and I’m super glad that you’re here. I’m April Beach Show host. And I can’t wait to dive into today’s topic with you. This [00:01:00] is what you can expect from today’s show. At the end of this episode, you are gonna know exactly my process that I have used now for 12 years to lay out my entire calendar year for my online business that has freed me up to, in this past year, have six.
[00:01:16] Months of travel time with my family and with my kids. You know, we always hear that there’s this pie in the sky or like design your life through entrepreneurship and these kind of fufu unicorn things out there we see on marketing all the time. But here in this show, and what I do is I give you the exact strategy to actually make it happen.
[00:01:37] And there is some strategy, there are some building blocks that we’re gonna talk about in this show that if you do not have them in. You’re not gonna be able to do this. And so I’m gonna break down the processes in which we go through every single year. And actually I just took a group of clients to Florida for a week to lay out their whole entire business for the year to come.
[00:01:55] And I’m gonna unpack this process here for you on this show today. At [00:02:00] the end of this episode, you are gonna know this process and you’re gonna know everything you have to have in place to be able to complete this process. And I’m gonna share with. a little bit more of my strategy, some personal behind the scene things, and what we do here on the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast as well in the process of laying out our year.
[00:02:20] So all of the show notes can be found by going to sweet life co.com. This is episode number 267. So first of all, I wanna give you a bonus with this. I have created the ultimate Guide to online offers. Now, let me explain why this is not just some freebie you download. So I have successfully had multiple different online offers, everything from MRIs to retreats to courses, and all these different type of offers that you can do, and I’m sure you guys.
[00:02:53] Often told, you know, from other people, launch a course or launch a membership. So many people love to insert their opinion [00:03:00] in what they think we should do. , have you experienced that also? Uh, but the reality is, is each one of those business offers is going to affect your life. So in order to be successful in what we’re talking about here on the show, you need to.
[00:03:14] How offering certain programs in your business is going to affect your time and your work cadence, and your family, and even your profit. So to really apply what we’re gonna talk about on this show, go grab the Ultimate Guide to online offers, and you can get that by going to sweet life co.com. Click in on the podcast and you can just search.
[00:03:36] This is episode number 267, or you can very simply text the word. To the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0 and you can download it from there. Okay, so this show is for those of you guys that truly wanna make sure that the business you’re building is going to give you the time and life freedom that you’ve been looking [00:04:00] for.
[00:04:00] Many of you may have very profitable businesses, may. Programs that you have been running a, a variety of offers in your suite, but your world is not functioning the way you want it to, maybe you feel a little bit trapped. So that’s why you’re here listening to this show. I’m gonna break down this step-by-step process that we use to lay out our entire calendar year with you.
[00:04:25] You ready? Okay, here we go. So the first thing is that if you have a old school calendar in front of you, I’m, I’m 46, I’m a big advocate of old school things. If you have an old school calendar in front of you, bust it out, get it someplace down on a piece of paper, cuz I’m actually gonna take you through this step-by-step process.
[00:04:45] And having an old school calendar is really, really helpful. Um, even with post-it notes where we can actually go. Move along our Post-It notes, um, based on what dates that you’re looking at. So step number one, the very first [00:05:00] thing that I do when I lay out my entire calendar. I do this towards the end of one year for the upcoming next year, but I don’t care when you’re listening to this show.
[00:05:08] You can do this whenever you want. Is I block my time off. It’s the very first thing that I do. I block off my travel and my adventures and my time with my kids and my project time. So step number one is to look at your calendar, look at your personal life lifestyle calendar, and I want you to block off and fiercely protect your travel time.
[00:05:31] This is very, very important. If you do not do it first, you’re never gonna get it. . Okay, so if you’re not really sure what that time is, I want you to go through and I want you to block off. Hey, I, I think I wanna take a trip sometime in August. Great. We are gonna block that off. Now here’s the thing about this, guys.
[00:05:49] These things are non-negotiable. Are non-negotiable times off. This is how I approach this. My life always comes first. I learned how to design [00:06:00] businesses from my parents. If you’ve ever heard my story, we have a very long history of a family, of lifestyle entrepreneurs. What does that mean? It means we design our business around our lifestyle.
[00:06:11] These are not hopeful things. We’re not gonna hope that you’re taking time off. You are going to take this time off. My time off when I block it out. Is absolutely end all, be all non-negotiable. And for me, like this past summer, I was back east with my youngest son at lacrosse recruiting. Years before that, I lived in Los Angeles with my middle son, who was a professional hip hop dancer.
[00:06:34] Years before that, I traveled with my oldest son in lacrosse recruiting. So these were actually hard dates, so they actually helped me out because I can actually look at the calendar and say, Hey, listen, okay, we’re gonna be at these tournaments, these. And so it does help if you actually have solid dates regardless.
[00:06:51] Step number one is you need to approach this in a way that is non-negotiable. Mark, off your time, that girl’s trip you wanted to [00:07:00] take, whatever that is, that gets blocked off on your calendar for the entire year First. And it’s like we’re gonna put those big rocks in your jar first. I know you guys have heard this, you know, analogy of, of filling up a jar with your year.
[00:07:12] The biggest rocks go first. Those big rocks are not how we’re making money. They’re not our marketing, they’re your life. Step number one. Step number two, what you’re gonna do then is you are going to block off your business project time. Remember that book that you know that you really have been wanting to work on.
[00:07:32] Maybe it’s a second or a third book you’re getting out there. Maybe you want to go on a speaking tour. Um, actually just got off a, a call with a client and she and her whole entire family are going on a month long speaking tour back east to promote her program. So exciting. , right? We have to plan for that.
[00:07:48] We have to know that’s coming. So whatever project time, as far as work goes, that you need to block that off. That is the second thing you block off your calendar and here is what is gonna happen, [00:08:00] okay? After you’ve blocked off your family time, especially if you’re like me and then you’ve blocked off your project time.
[00:08:06] There isn’t a lot of landscape like the geography is taken up. We’re looking at a calendar that doesn’t quite have a lot of space left to actually work. Praise the Lord . Okay, so what we do next is now we’re gonna take an inventory of your offers. If you know me, I’m an offer engineer. I help businesses build industry leading programs and offers at scale.
[00:08:30] So the next thing and how it ties into. Episode bonus that I told you about of the guide of online offers is we need to take an inventory of your online offers, and you should know, number one, what is the most profitable offer that you have? Number one, what is your most profitable offer? Number two, what is the offer that’s most aligned with your life?
[00:08:53] Basically, which one do you really wanna? , which one do you really wanna put your time into? Which one are you really fired up [00:09:00] about? What people do you really wanna work with? What is the one that like you would do it for free. You love it so much, even though, don’t worry, we are not doing that here. That is what I want you to do.
[00:09:11] So we need to inventory your offers and you need to determine which ones you are going to sell for the year or the months to come, however long you’re planning this. Okay? Based on number one, which one is going to make enough money? for you to then take that other time off. And number two, which ones do you actually love to do?
[00:09:32] Now, we’re not getting into this in this episode, but this is all the answers to these questions align around how you’re engineering your offers and the model and the delivery of it. And then the third thing you’re gonna do is you are literally going to plot out on your calendar your sales and promotion dates for your most profitable offer first.
[00:09:54] Okay? That’s rule number one. Many of you guys have a variety of offers, but [00:10:00] we’re gonna plot out the most profitable one first. Nuro Uno, okay? And you’re gonna plot on your calendar, even if you sell it all year long. We still need to treat that offer as if we were having kind of a launch campaign around it.
[00:10:18] So even things that are available all the time, anybody can join into them. We still need to plot on your calendar when the promotional times around that particular offer are going to. . So you’re going to now block off the calendar those promotional times. Now, if you’re like me, we don’t really have any promo times in June and July.
[00:10:37] You know, like I said, I’m back east on a lacrosse field right now. So because of that, we have to make sure that we plot out our promotional times for people to come work with us other months out of the year. So what does that look like for you? Block off those promotional periods for your primary offer First.
[00:10:56] The next step is to block off your promotional [00:11:00] periods for your secondary offers. So what other offers or programs? Maybe you have like mini master classes, maybe you have, uh, a retreat that you may do once a year or a couple times in a year that fill in around that primary offer, that primary program that you were.
[00:11:20] And then the next step is you are going to block out the sales campaigns at times around each. So I know we’re sitting here if you’re watching this on YouTube or if you’re watching the video version of it. Awesome. I’m very handy. I use a lot of my hands in the air, but what I’m saying to you here is step number one, let’s.
[00:11:40] You’re going to block off your personal travel time. Step number two, your business project time. Step number three, your primary offer. Step number four, your secondary offers, and then you’re gonna fill up the sales and marketing campaign times around them. What do I mean by that? I mean, are you having a a three week launch campaign?
[00:11:58] Do we need to have [00:12:00] webinars? Do we need to build other things around that that are going to require your. And this is an overview of my yearly planning system. I promise you, when you go in this order and when you answer these questions for yourself, again, personal time off business, project time, primary offers, secondary offers, and then the sales campaigns around them.
[00:12:22] Honestly, number one, you’re probably not gonna have that much time to sell. You know, we always talk about the fact that we probably don’t make enough offers, just hear. We talk often that if a business is having trouble selling something, it’s probably cuz they aren’t offering their services enough, they aren’t making enough offers.
[00:12:41] And we see that extreme that we aren’t making enough offers. But then the other side of that is that, There’s some people selling stuff all the time. Nobody wants to buy your shit all the time. Mine either, , okay. Nobody wants that, right? So when [00:13:00] we lay out in the calendar of when we have these promotional times where somebody can pay you all the money for the amazing service that you deliver.
[00:13:09] The other times, what it does usually when you’re traveling is that gives us that time to build relationships with your audience. And so when we look at this calendar, we’re actually gonna see that there’s probably a lot of consolidated sales times and a lot of consolidated relationship building times.
[00:13:28] And that is amazing. If you’re looking at your calendar and you’re thinking, I don’t have enough time to, to sell things, I’m traveling all the time, and whatever that. No problem. Download that online Guide to the Guide, the Ultimate Guide to online offers, and you can create your own custom programming of offers, what I call your own offer ecosystem to actually fill that up.
[00:13:53] You don’t have to have one primary offer that you sell all the time and, and then a secondary and a third. [00:14:00] You can engineer your ecosystem of offers according to what you need for your business and your life, as long as, here’s the rule, as long as that offer is guaranteed to be engineered, to deliver your client’s predictable, transformational, measurable results.
[00:14:16] If you’re not sure about that, then we need to talk about that as. So let me recap the steps here. Number one, in order to lay out your entire year, your entire online business calendar for lifestyle first to actually get that. We have to block off the times that you’re taking personally and professionally off.
[00:14:36] Then what it’s gonna do is going to give, give us a very sobering look at the months we are selling and the benchmarks we need to hit financially for you, and make sure that you have the right offers that are built and being delivered at the other times throughout the year to actually make sure that the whole entire year is covered.
[00:14:55] That’s what we need to do, and that is this process. And then we drill down even deeper [00:15:00] into your content marketing calendar, and we plot out all of your marketing campaigns, all of your content marketing communications around, guess what? Your life and your business and your profit and your offers first.
[00:15:16] And I promise you, when you do it in this order like me, you will get actually more and more time off. Now here, here’s the real truth. The first time I did this, It was really messy. It was back in 2012 and my kids were younger and, um, actually I was planning time off in my offers because my kids, when they were young had a lot of medical needs.
[00:15:38] It wasn’t like I was taken off to Hawaii all the time. Um, and some, and most people actually don’t even know. That’s how I learned to engineer online business. Was because of my kids’ medical needs at first, and they’re totally healed and they’re awesome and praise God for that. But when you have these things that are non-negotiables in your life, believe me, you will build your business in the profit around [00:16:00] it.
[00:16:01] So whether, whatever it is, hopefully your kids are super healthy or whatever that is, you’re designing your, your next generation business for, you know, over 50 or whatever this is for you, you, as long as you see it this time off, this way of engineering your business as a non-negotiable. It’s not flexible.
[00:16:22] We can’t hopefully take this time off. As long as you see this as a non-negotiable, your time off and the offers you need to sell, and when you need to sell them, I promise you, you’ll nail it. It’s when we give ourself space to question whether or not we can do it, that we fail. If you in your mind know that the process of engineering, your offers around your profit and your life are in non-negotiable, I promise you, you will nail it,
[00:16:55] But like I said, the first time I did it, I really didn’t even nail it. I got like three weeks off a [00:17:00] year, and then the next year we got more and more and more. So it has taken me a long time to do this practice. For now over a decade to get more and more time off each year. Each time you do this, you’re gonna get better at it.
[00:17:12] But this process is the number one way. I own multiple companies and now have complete LA lifestyle and location and travel freedom with my family, and I want you to have that same thing. Even if you have a brick and mortar, there’s nothing more powerful than being able to just jump on a plane because you want.
[00:17:33] and or because something cool is happening that you wanna attend or you wanna support a friend. It’s an amazing thing and this is how you do it. Okay, so to recap, in this episode, we talked about how to plan your entire online business calendar for profit and purpose, whatever that profit and purpose is for.
[00:17:53] Awesome. I have given you a tool that you can download again. You can text the word [00:18:00] guide to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. You can download my, I think it’s now, it’s like 30 pages, ultimate guide. It breaks down every single online business offer from courses tos, even to podcasting as a business model.
[00:18:13] To masterminds and retreats and hybrid program design to licensing and certification programs. And I’m gonna break down for you the type of model, and I’m gonna tell you exactly how that model will affect your life. Make sure you grab that, or you can very simply just go to sweetlifeco.com, click on the podcast.
[00:18:31] This is episode number 267, and there will be a link for you to download and grab that guide and the show notes are in here as well, so that you can revisit what we talked about on today’s. I hope you found that super helpful. I promise you, if you follow these order op of operations and these steps, then you will in fact no longer have a pie in the sky.
[00:18:53] I hope my business is designed for lifestyle freedom, uh, hope and a dream instead. It is a [00:19:00] strategy and it is a proven strategy that you can bank on, and I can’t wait to hear how it goes if we’re not connected. Please follow me on LinkedIn and over on Instagram so that I can hear about how you are doing in your process of designing your life for high profit, deep impact, lifestyle, lifestyle freedom. Thanks so much for listening to the show and I will talk to you guys next week.
This quick trailer is for our amazing listeners and those to come! Thank you!
Summary:
The SweetLife™ Entrepreneur Podcast is back and delivering proven business trainings for coaches, consultants, experts, authors and speakers who are ready to scale their business online. We’re committed to another 5 years of helping you create leading online offers, programs, courses and services that scale your business past a million. Including how to license your content, courses or trainings, how to build certification programs and how to market, gain PR and become known as the leader in your space.
Get a unique and unfiltered view behind the scenes with online business leader, April Beach and her trusted leading friends, to build your business for high profit, deep impact, lifestyle freedom.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
266
[00:00:45] Hey you guys, we are back. Welcome back to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast. Year six. I absolutely cannot believe it. Uh, first of all, thank you so much to our amazing listeners who have been sending me messages for the last year [00:01:00] where I took a little bit of a break. And if you are a listener to this show, you know, I share with you all behind the scenes.
[00:01:06] So I’m gonna catch you up on what’s been happening and I am gonna let you know. All the amazing things that we have in store for you coming in the next year for the next five years of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. But step number one, if you have not subscribed to this show, please click the subscribe button wherever you are listening.
[00:01:26] If you have been a previous subscriber, you’re gonna have to resubscribe because Apple loves to boot us out of shows we haven’t listened to in a bit. And so that would be really appreciated, um, to make sure that you’re also not missing out on all of the things that we have. If you and I do not know each other yet, I’m April Beach.
[00:01:43] I have been the host here on this show for five years I’ve been coaching businesses. I’ve been coaching entrepreneurs and mentoring businesses online for lifestyle entrepreneurship for high profit and deep impact and deep purpose for a total of 26 years, you guys . [00:02:00] It’s been a really, really long time.
[00:02:01] With an expertise in online business scaling for the last 17. So you are truly in the right place if you are looking for trusted strategies that you can apply to your business. I’m an online business architect and I’m an offer engineer, so what that means is I help coaches and consultants and authors and speakers scale their business online by creating million dollar programs.
[00:02:24] Courses, trainings, as well as licensed package programs and certification programs for high profit, deep impact lifestyle freedom. So let’s talk a little bit about that. And first of all, I just wanna say thank you guys so much. As you know, I took a little bit of a break after having Covid in the beginning of this past year, and it had a little break.
[00:02:45] Turned out to be, uh, a year. So let’s get very real for a minute. I was, Totally burned out on being here every single week. I can be real honest with you guys. And so the first [00:03:00] thing that I want you to do is think about things in your business that used to just totally light you up. And you may be doing them and you may be feeling a little bit burned out on them.
[00:03:08] And I want you to think about what that could be in your business. And I want you to clean house a little bit, just like I. Because when we set out to do things that fire us up in the beginning and it feels like a job at the end, then that gives us pause to stop it and just decide maybe we need to take a little bit of a break.
[00:03:27] So my little break turned into a long break, which was a beautiful time, as you guys know, because I share a lot of behind the scenes. I travel five to six months a year with my kids. I did that again this year. My kids are. You guys are not even gonna believe it, especially those of you who’ve been listening to this show forever.
[00:03:43] They are 20, 18 and 16 now, so time does fly and uh, it was just really a beautiful opportunity for me to reset and think about what this show actually means to the online business space, what it means to me as a leader in a mentor and a teacher, [00:04:00] but most importantly, what this show is delivering to you and why.
[00:04:05] We want to keep producing this show. I, uh, always say nobody needs more content. They need a transformation. And so before I dove back into committing to do the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast, I really needed some time and space to find what I felt like I wanted to bring to the table for you guys this year as well as, and the years to come, as well as the things that I felt were important.
[00:04:34] For you. And so let’s go back and do a little bit of a history for those of you who’ve been listening to the show for a while. In the beginning we started out and every single thing was get your business online, building your first funnels, launching courses, I mean, just amazing online business foundations.
[00:04:53] and that was way back in 2017, right? So in the beginning we started talking about those things, but now your [00:05:00] businesses have grown. So for the next generation of the Sweet Life Podcast, we are gonna be focusing on scaling companies online, scaling entrepreneurs, those of you guys that. Are not only hitting consistent con 10 K months, but we’re actually working on building programs where we can license them to other companies and other businesses for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
[00:05:21] And having an ecosystem of offers that surpasses seven figures in your business. So for you, the next generation of the show is gonna be completely dedicated to scaling companies online. If you are here and you’re still in that launch phase. Please go back and utilize and listen, the 250 episodes that we dropped in this show for the last five years that are all about leveling you up to get you to this place.
[00:05:49] Because those are amazing and they’re powerful, they’re trusted, and they’re proven, and they are for you to eat up and utilize. And for those of you guys who are scaling your business, I’m so excited to move forward with you [00:06:00] into the next generation of the show and continue to help you level up your.
[00:06:05] And your decision making, creating a business that truly leads to the life that you want while you’re making the impact. And of course, extracting your genius to create results for other people. So this is a little preview for you of what’s to come. First of all, everything, all of the show notes, all the amazing tools we give here on this.
[00:06:26] Can still be found by visiting sweet life co.com and simply click on the podcast. Previous listeners, you guys know that with some of the shows, we actually drop totally free masterclass with certain episodes when you opt into them that week. We have given away thousand dollars masterclass to our listeners that subscribe when they opt in the week of that show.
[00:06:50] So we’re really known. Dropping information for you to actually implement the things we’re talking about each week. So make sure that you’ve subscribed and make sure that you click over [00:07:00] to sweetlifeco.com for all the show notes, all the places to opt in, and of course, getting text messages, updates as well.
[00:07:07] So let me give you a little sneak peek into what’s to come. As I thought about. How best to support you. I wanted to make sure that we’re consolidating our work here together on this show. So we are going to continue to deliver high value, but shorter time episodes. That’s the first change you’re gonna see here on the show.
[00:07:29] The second is that we are grouping together our shows into series. So if you’re working on something in particular or you have an objective, I have already laid out the entire. Content show plan for the entire year, you guys, and I wanna give you a sneak peek of what’s to come for the first episodes.
[00:07:48] After these new ones drop, we are leading into completely helping you become known. We’re talking about becoming known with your method and your frameworks and your value positions. Pitching, [00:08:00] pr, pitching, large scale media to help you become known. Podcast guesting stages and speaking local events. We’re even talking about how to network in your local area to become known after becoming known.
[00:08:14] Then we are diving into million dollar offers, and I have a whole entire series plan for you on how to build a million dollar business with an ecosystem of offers that works for you, including how to do the math and make sure that you are assessing the profitable offers that you actually want to do versus what people out there are just saying, you know, you hear all the time, like lunch of course, or do a membership.
[00:08:39] That doesn’t work for everybody, right? So we’re gonna be diving back into business models online offers in the series we actually did, going even deeper, right before I took a pause in this show, all about million dollar offers. It’s an entire million dollar offer and million dollar business model series, including masterminds, retreats, hybrid programs, content licensing, [00:09:00] certification programs, signature offer engineering, even low ticket offers, and so much more.
[00:09:06] that is going to bring us through weeks and weeks of value that you’re gonna immediately be able to take into your business and apply. And I can’t wait for you to do it. So I promise to be quick. So I’m gonna be quick. Thank you so much for listening to this show. Again, this is just a hello and I missed you.
[00:09:23] and message from me letting you know, first of all, thank you for giving me the time and the space that I needed to really assess this show and what, what it meant to me so that it could mean a lot to you. And I just appreciate you guys more than you know I missed you , and uh, that is, it’s been a real pleasure being able to take time off and have that space.
[00:09:46] But I am super stoked to be back. You here. We have a new intro for you and, uh, this. New Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast should bring another level of energy and profit to your business. [00:10:00] That is my commitment to you, and thank you so much for being here. I’ll see you in the next episode.
The Ultimate Guide To Design Your Perfect Coaching Business
This episode is for those in Phase 2 – 4 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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Who is this episode for?
Phases 2-4
This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to level up and stop copying others. Listeners who tap into this show want to get the formula to choose the perfect online business offers, courses, masterminds or coaching programs that give them the life they want.
Summary:
This episode kicks off a series called “The Ultimate Guide To Your Perfect Business Model; For Experts, Coaches and Consultants”. In these shows we unpack the process of intentional business design, offer engineering, and business architecture to build a business for high-profit, deep impact, lifestyle results.
In this kick off to the series we discuss what business modeling is, who needs to go through this process and why this process is the fastest way to get the life and business you’re working hard for. You’ll also get April’s 7 Questions That Lead To Your Perfect Business Model and Offer Types.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know how to use the power of business modeling to get what you want
Access April’s 7 Questions That Lead To Your Perfect Business Model and Offer Types
Understand where in your business you may need to make changes and alter your offer model
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
265
[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our best of episodes. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes with the most downloads with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen, this episode you did was really powerful for me. Thank you so much.
[00:00:30] And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers and authors. And so this episode is absolutely amazing, though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com.
[00:00:54] You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes [00:01:00] in there, for you with up to date links, making sure that you’re getting to the right place. If you’re looking for a resource. Now special message to those of you guys that have been waiting for this show to come back.
[00:01:15] I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s as we roll into the new year, going from 20 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough. If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but after five years of faithfully dropping a business training or recording, a strategy for you every single week and winning awards for this show, I needed to step back and take a break. And you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that.
[00:01:51] What turned out to be one month off, turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we have [00:02:00] been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, that entrepreneurs have relied on. I needed to take a step back and get a perspective of what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show.
[00:02:15] How should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you are growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like?
[00:02:27] So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the Sweet Life Podcast for you, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited. So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off. But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business.
[00:02:50] You guys are amazing and you have really been the fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen. It’s gonna sound a little bit [00:03:00] different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come for true proven business trainings that are transformational for your company. That is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air from experts, delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular. Over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you.
[00:03:25] I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned. The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known and the Experts, so we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings, without a hook to sell you something. They’re just coming in here to pour into you, are absolutely epic. I can’t wait.
[00:03:42] So if you haven’t yet subscribe to the show, please click subscribe. Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus. And I just love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and [00:04:00] the episode’s coming for you. And in the meantime, enjoy this best of it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast. Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mentor and entrepreneur activator, April Beach.
[00:04:32] Hi guys. I’m so excited to talk to you today. This is one of my favorite topics, actually. We’re gonna be moving into my favorite topic for the next couple of weeks on the show. We are kicking off a series here on the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast that is all geared towards helping you make sure that you are designing your offers and your business structure and your business model correctly in a way that works for you.
[00:04:57] And this is such an important time to do it. It’s the [00:05:00] end of the year. We’re about to roll over into 2022, and so I wanna make sure that you’re fully equipped. To see the business model, the offer structure, and the business design that’s going to equal that lifestyle and the profit that you want moving forward.
[00:05:13] And so the next couple of shows are totally dedicated to helping you tap into the ultimate guide, the ultimate database for you to design your perfect business model. And so that’s what we’re talking about, kicking off today’s show. This is episode number 250 here on the podcast. And I’m April Beach host of this show.
[00:05:36] Thank you so much for being a listener to us. We’re gonna be rolling on five years of producing here in just a couple of months, and I just appreciate you guys so much. So first of all, I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate all of your listenership over the last four and a half years to this show, sharing this show with your friends.
[00:05:53] We don’t have any advertising here intentionally. On the Sweet Life Podcast. I hate listening to podcasts and [00:06:00] they’re like, hang on just a second. Let me share somebody else’s unrelated message so I can make more money. Totally drives me crazy. Um, and so we intentionally have refused advertisers here on this show, and we’ll continue to do that because our goal is giving you business trainings and coaching that you can take to the bank.
[00:06:19] And we would really appreciate if you’d share this show with your friends. And if you have never done so before, if you could just please leave us a review on Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts, that would just really mean a lot to us. So thank you so much for tuning in. I’m April Beach, as I said here at the, the host of this show and founder of the SweetLife Company.
[00:06:40] And everything we do as a company is working with entrepreneurs like you to design your business, your suite of offers, your customer journey roadmap, your leading offers in your programs to deliver high profit deep impact lifestyle freedom. So if you would like to work with us to apply to join our business growth programs, please cruise over to [00:07:00] sweetlifeco.com, and I would love to personally meet with you. Okay.
[00:07:04] Back to today’s show. Here is what you can expect. Again, this is episode number 250, and there is a very important tool that goes along with this episode in the next couple of episodes. That tool is an 18 page, totally free 18 page ultimate guide to online business models. And so before we get started, you can grab that guide in two different very easy ways.
[00:07:28] First of all, you can go to. SweetLifeco.com. Click on the podcast and go to this episode. It’s right there. Number 250, and there will be a link for you to download the Ultimate Guide, totally free. Grab that or if you’re on the go, you can text the word guide. Very simple, just lowercase the word guide and you wanna text it to this number.
[00:07:51] That number is 8 0 5 2 4 5 0 8 8 0. So just text the word [00:08:00] guide to that number and I’ll send you a link so you can go download it there. Okay. This is gonna be an important tool moving forward because the ultimate guide summarizes all of the business models, the most common business models for coaches and consultants and experts and service based businesses in the online space.
[00:08:18] And why this is so important is I’m literally saving you 20 years of time by giving you this guide. I have ran a business model in every single one of these most common ways, and so I break down in this guide the structure of that business model, everything from courses to masterminds, to live events, to membership communities, to group coaching programs.
[00:08:40] I break it all down for you, but then I also tell you exactly how it’s gonna affect your life. because it’s all fine and good and dandy, right, when we see it, you know, structurally on paper. But in the end of the day, I’m a lifestyle business designer, and you went into entrepreneurship to change your life. So let’s make sure that the business model you’re choosing is in fact gonna [00:09:00] equal that lifestyle that you want.
[00:09:02] So I literally drop in 20 years of online business experience. To you in this one ultimate guide so you can see the structure of the business model and I’ll tell you exactly what it’s gonna look like for your life. Here on the next couple of shows, we’re gonna be really diving in more to specific business models and having a conversation about them in depth.
[00:09:21] So again, go grab that ultimate guide. It’s totally there for you and hitting you, not it will save you decades of time. That’s why I created it. Okay, so in this episode, this is what you can expect. This is a great show for those of you guys who wanna level up and stop copying what others are doing.
[00:09:37] Maybe you’ve joined a lot of programs. You have somebody said, oh, you should launch a course. Or, oh, you should host a membership community and it’s not really worked out for you. Or you have thought about doing those things, but you’re not exactly sure whether or not that’s gonna be the right solution for your business. So when you tap into this show, You are gonna get this formula specifically here on this one episode for [00:10:00] how to choose a perfect online business, offers courses and masterminds, and I actually give you my seven questions to ask yourself that lead to your perfect business model and offer types.
[00:10:12] So I’m gonna tell you those seven questions to ask yourself as well, to get even more clarity, and I’m gonna dive into some of the actual workshopping that we do inside the Ultimate Guide. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in together.
[00:10:33] Okay guys. So here we go. Episode number 250. This episode kicks off a series called The Ultimate Guide to your Perfect Business Model for coaches, experts, and consultants. And these next couple shows unpack the process of intentional business design. Offer engineering and business architecture to build a business for high profit, deep impact lifestyle results.
[00:10:55] And so let’s go ahead and kick off this series together and let’s start with just the [00:11:00] basics. Okay. So the first question we’re gonna talk about and answer is, what is a business model? I was just speaking and teaching at a retreat in Costa Rica last week, and I was teaching on business model. Business design, and I asked the women in the room, you know, who can explain to me what a business model is?
[00:11:18] And nobody could answer that question. And so if you’re sitting here and you’re listening and you’re thinking, oh gosh, I don’t really know what a business model is, you’re not alone. Right. So let’s kind of start at the basics, and it’s actually not as overwhelming and complicated as it may seem. So the term business model refers to your plan for making a profit by the types of products and services that you sell. Also known as your business model is the way that you serve your clients and make money.
[00:11:48] So examples of common business models for coaches and consultants and service based providers and experts are coaching one on one, group coaching, [00:12:00] online courses, membership communities, masterminds, retreats, live virtual events, and more.
[00:12:08] Those are types of business models. So as we dive in, especially over the next couple of weeks when I’m talking about, Hey, how to find your perfect business model, what I’m really saying is, should you launch a course? Should you launch a membership community? Should you have a mastermind? Should you be doing live virtual events? Should you have a retreat? Those are all the questions that I would love for you to have more information to answer for yourself, and that’s why we’re doing this series. So if that sounds good, let’s keep going.
[00:12:36] So the next topic that I wanna talk about regarding business modeling is the power and the importance, and the depth of how your business model affects your life. And if you know me, this is not a surprise. If you don’t know me, let me make it really, really clear. I am a life first business designer. That means that for my own companies, and for [00:13:00] people that I work with, the very, very most important thing is like saying, Hey, listen.
[00:13:04] This is all great to make money, but money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness, so let’s make sure the business we’re engineering is in fact gonna give you that lifestyle that you want. And that’s my superpower. That’s my area of expertise. I want you to know that your business model is a primary driver to the life you wanna have. But the reality is, you guys, very few entrepreneurs are actually aware of that. They just think, I’m gonna be happy when I, when I launch a course and sell a thousand seats, or I’m gonna be happy when I have a successful mentorship program. That’s not it at all. The way to happiness is business model design. Then we reverse engineer it into high sales. But it really starts with picking the right business model. If you do not have the right business model for your life, you are not gonna find that happiness that you hoped to find in entrepreneurship.
[00:13:55] And this is for you if you’re brand new in business. But I’ll be honest, the majority of clients I [00:14:00] work with have been in business for years and years, and they’re ready to scale their business and they really wanna intentionally make sure the programs they’re building in the future. Are done really well and mindfully and are gonna give them the results they want.
[00:14:11] So whether you’re new or you’ve been doing this for 10 years, this is something that I wanna make sure that you’re aware of the power and the importance of this. Your business model directs the cadence of your year, your quarter, your month, your week, and your day. So your business model is going to determine how you flow through your year and your quarter, and your week and your day, and your months and your time, and all the things it drives, what you do, who you do it for, and how you do it.
[00:14:43] And so let’s make sure you really, really love those things. And then it also drives your time and your schedule and the expectations that others have of. Those are all the things that your business model does. And so it’s incredibly important that we’re picking the right one for [00:15:00] you. So designing that perfect business model is our superpower, and that’s why I’m gonna geek out on this over the next couple of weeks because it’s pretty much the primary gem and jewel that we start working with clients on when they come into our business growth and mentorship programs.
[00:15:16] And so I wanna make sure that you are tapping into this as. Okay. And then the next question that we need to answer is, what business models are available to you? The most common business models for coaches, consultants, mentors, experts, especially over the last 17 years, are online and virtual coaching and consulting, whether that’s one on one or one on group.
[00:15:40] We also have online courses. And those courses are either evergreen, which means they’re available at any point in time. They’re prerecorded or they can be taught live. We also have memberships and communities masterminds, low ticket item grabs, and that business model we’re gonna dive into. And I’m [00:16:00] really excited to unpack that business model where everything is just like a, a smaller mini offer and a mini price.
[00:16:06] And then of course, our also live virtual events and in-person retreats or in-person. Product based business models, which we are not. Just so you know, really clear up front, we are not diving into product based business models because this podcast is strictly designed for service based entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and experts.
[00:16:25] But we are gonna be talking a little bit about products within the business models. And so those are the most common online business models and they are constantly evolving and as they evolve, one of the things that’s happened over the last couple of years is the business models we’re now designing with our clients are hybrid offers.
[00:16:44] Starting in around 2016, we started designing what’s called hybrid models, so it’s a combination of some of these primary models that we talked about, and we’re also gonna be talking about hybrid offers and really how to engineer the perfect hybrid offer [00:17:00] here on the show in the series as. So those, those are the business models that are most common.
[00:17:05] Now. There are so many cool outside of the boxings that are happening, and as things like virtual reality come into play and different technologies, these are gonna continue to grow. But here on the show, we’re gonna start with the core business models for online coaches, consultants, and service base providers.
[00:17:21] So you can consider those and how they would scale with your business. And so the next question is really to ask yourself what’s happening right now in your sapce. You are an expert in your field or you’re becoming an expert in your field. And so what is available? What are people commonly buying or what are, how are the ways services are being delivered in your field right now?
[00:17:43] And so first of all, I want you just to take a second and do like a mental inventory of how other people are buying your type of services currently in your area of experise and whether or not they have, or maybe they don’t have [00:18:00] a type of business model that you might want to create for yourself. Just because it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that you can’t create it.
[00:18:06] So I wanna encourage you in that. So what business models are available to you truly depends on, first of all, the content that you’re delivering. So your content is going to dictate your business model. That’s rule number one. And that’s also the number one mistake of not doing that that coaches and consultants make, is not letting the content drive the model, what you’re doing, what you’re teaching is gonna dictate the best way to deliver that to people.
[00:18:33] So the formula, and this is the formula I teach and it’s so fun to teach it. The formula is connecting the way you want your lifestyle to function and your area of expertise in your content, and that’s gonna give us your perfect business model. And so let’s go ahead and move forward a little bit. How is it then that we take this business model and really start designing it for you?
[00:18:57] So your business model. [00:19:00] Can be one way for one product or service that you offer, and you can have a suite of offers in your business, so a collection of services and programs in your business, and each of them can have totally a different business model. You don’t have to just have one. So we’re talking about business modeling and we’re relating this to one program or one offer, one leading offer, which I love to teach on, as you guys know, leading offers and leading program.
[00:19:29] Or you can have one business model for all of your offers. And if your offers or your coaching programs take people through a long term journey of progression in working with you, you can have one business model that’s actually broken up into different phases of growth that people would continue to grow with you.
[00:19:51] That’s how our programs work. And that’s some of the ways that we’ve been engineering our programs for and with our clients. And it’s really powerful because when [00:20:00] we’re doing that, we’re creating a long term roadmap and a client journey that keeps clients with you for years and years and years. So we have a ton of clients that have worked with us for over 10 years.
[00:20:11] The reason why is cuz we’re constantly developing a different step to keep them growing more and more and more. And you can have one business model that is all of the steps in a long term journey. Or we can just talk about one business model for one offer of yours. So I wanna make sure I’m sharing that distinction for you.
[00:20:29] If you’re thinking, wow, is this business model just for one program or one coaching program or one offer, or is it for everything? You choose? It can be either. So here are some questions and I want you to break down these questions and I want you to think about them. And this is how we’re gonna end this week’s episode.
[00:20:45] Just processing these. These questions are also put in a worksheet for you in the ultimate Guide to business model, so make sure you download that, but I’m gonna share them with you so your brain can start processing them right now as we wrap up this week’s show. So I want [00:21:00] you to answer these questions as if it were five years from now.
[00:21:03] If you can’t figure out five years from now, go to. If you can’t figure out three years from now, I want you to go to the next 18 months, okay? But start out as far as you can, and I want you to imagine yourself there. And if you’re building a business with intention for time freedom, geographic freedom and freedom to scale your services in a way that’s really gonna make you happy, these are important questions to ask yourself.
[00:21:27] Question number one, how many hours per week do I like to? So again, try to focus five years from now, maybe three. You have to come in close enough. Then you can do 18 months. How many hours per week do you really like to work? How many do you want to be working in the future? How do you really love to serve your clients?
[00:21:49] So I want you to ask yourself, how do I really love to serve my clients? Do you like meeting with them one on one? Do you like coaching in groups? What really fires you? [00:22:00] How do others love working with me? So do you have a team working with you in the future or is it only a solo gig? That’s question number three.
[00:22:12] Question number four, do you move and travel or do you stay in one place? Again, this is in the future. Question number five, do you work at home or do you work in an office? What does that really look like to you? Lesson number 6. What are you really good at? We need to ask yourself, what am I really, really good at?
[00:22:32] And what content are you delivering in your leading program or your leading offer? And then of course you need to ask yourself, what does my perfect client actually really need from me? So how do they need me to work with them? How do they need me to show up for them?
[00:22:50] And those are seven key question. Of starting the process of business model design, and there is an eighth question in there that is the most qu, most important question of all, [00:23:00] and that question is in the worksheet for you. So make sure you go ahead and download that. Now, like I talked about, over the next couple weeks, we’re gonna be diving into this entire series all about business modeling, all about business architecture and design.
[00:23:15] I love this. We have done a ton of shows on this over the last five years because this is my area of expertise, but I’m super excited to do them in a series for you so you can go through and follow with me and process them as we go. And each episode’s gonna focus on one business model type, and I’m gonna give you the pros and the cons of that business model type.
[00:23:35] And I’m gonna tell you the lifestyle result of that particular business model and whether help you figure out whether or not you’re, you would love that. So my goal is to save you literally at least five years of time launching the wrong kind of offer in this show. And you’re gonna be able to go through and choose which one’s gonna be right for you, so you can stop copying what others are doing, and truly design a business that’s gonna give you the profit and the life that you want.
[00:23:58] And the reality is this, though. [00:24:00] Your business is totally gonna change just as you change. So by fully considering your long-term business model, revisiting it and revising it as needed for your life, and as your life changes and taking control of the circumstances by pre-planning and building services that can scale, you’ll always have a business that’s built around your life, not your life around your business.
[00:24:25] And of course, because you know me, I’m always on a plane. I love to travel. If you’re like me or if you want to be like me, if you’re building a business with the, with the intention of time freedom, geographic freedom and freedom to scale your services in a way that makes you happy, then these are the episodes to make sure you’re tuning into.
[00:24:42] And frankly, that’s what our business growth programs are designed for. So if you’d love to work with us, then you are more than welcome to apply. You can cruise over to SweetLifeco.Com and you can check out our Wavemaker program, our offer engineer masterclass, and our business launch programs as [00:25:00] well.
[00:25:00] We would love to hear from you and connect with you. Really work through the process as to whether or not working with us is the right fit. And of course, you have these podcast episodes to eat up and take to the bank. Thank you so much for tuning in with us this week. This is Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast, episode number 250, and all the show notes. Can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com. Simply click on podcast and that is also where you can download the ultimate Guide to Business Models. And last thing, again, if you want to get it by text, just simply text the word guide to the number 8 0 5. 2, 5, 4, 0, 8, 8 0. Okay, that’s it for today. Have an awesome week, and I will talk to you soon.
This episode is for those in Phase 2 – 4 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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This is a great show for entrepreneurs in launch, scale and amplify phases.
Summary:
Whiteboard sessions are a great conversion tool to convert leads to buyers. If you’re a coach, consultant or niche skill provider, you’re always looking for great ways to deepen your relationships with your followers and position yourself as the ideal solution. In this show I unpack how to use“whiteboard” sessions to further connect with your audience and increase sales. This show details the exact steps to fill and deliver your next white board session.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have the exact process to fill and deliver whiteboard client conversion sessions
Know how to plan your next whiteboard session into your launch
Resources Mentioned:
Organize your assets and ideas into a Leading Offer –
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Full Show Transcript:
264
[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our best of episodes. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes with the most downloads with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen, this episode you did was really powerful for me. Thank you so much. And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into, for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers, and authors.
[00:00:43] And so this episode is absolutely amazing, though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com. You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes [00:01:00] in there for you, with up to date links, making sure that you’re getting to the right place if you’re looking for a resource.
[00:01:08] Now special message to those of you guys that have been waiting for this show to come back. I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s. As we roll into the new year, going from 22 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough.
[00:01:30] If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but after five years of faithfully dropping a business training, a recording a strategy for you every single week in winning awards for this show. I needed to step back and take a break, and you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that. So what turned out to be one month off turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we [00:02:00] have been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, that entrepreneurs have relied on. I needed to take a step. And get a perspective of what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show.
[00:02:15] How should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you’re growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like? So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the Sweet Life Podcast for you, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited.
[00:02:37] So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off. But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business. You guys are amazing and you have really been the fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen.
[00:02:58] It’s gonna sound a little bit [00:03:00] different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come to for true proven business trainings that are transformational for your company. That is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air from experts delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you.
[00:03:25] I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned. The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known and the Experts, so we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings without a hook to sell you something. They’re just coming in here to pour into you, are absolutely epic. I can’t wait.
[00:03:42] So if you haven’t yet subscribe to the show, please click subscribe. Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus. And I just love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and the [00:04:00] episode’s coming for you. And in the meantime, enjoy this best of it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to The Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business, and launch a life you love faster with business mentor and entrepreneur activator April Beach.
[00:04:31] Hey, you guys, on this week’s show, we are talking about a very cool conversion tool, in order to turn those people on your list to buyers that fervently follow every single thing that you do. This is episode number 244 at the SweetLife Entrepreneur and Business Podcast, which means that all of the show notes can be found by visiting our website. Which is sweetlifeco.com. Simply clicking on the podcast, and this is episode number [00:05:00] 244. I’m April Beach, the host here at the show, and we are known for delivering proven business trainings that you can absolutely bank on. That other coaches will charge you thousands for you. Get them all here free. Advertisement free on this show because this podcast is an extension of the outreach that we do as a company. So welcome to the show. If you’re a new listener, I’m super glad to be connected with you.
[00:05:25] So this is what you can expect from today’s episode. First of all, this episode is great for businesses in phases two, three, or four of my business growth roadmap. If you are not sure what business phase that you’re in, please visit sweetlifeco.com/quiz, or you can simply text the word quiz to the number 8, 0 ,5, 2, 5, 4, 0, 8, 8, 0, and you can take a very short self assessment, which will give you a complete breakdown [00:06:00] of all the phases of business growth long term, and tell you exactly what you should be focusing on based on the phase of business that you are in right now.
[00:06:09] So this show is great for people in phases two, three, or four. And it’s really great for those of you guys who want a conversion tool that moves your leads into buyers. So if you’re a coach or a consultant or a niche skill provider, you’re always looking for great ways to position yourself as the perfect solution to those people that you’re in connection with.
[00:06:33] And whiteboard sessions are a great way to do that, and that’s what we’re gonna talk about here on today’s show. I’m gonna unpack how to use whiteboard sessions to further connect with your list and increase your sales. And I’m gonna detail out the eight steps that we use as a company and literally giving you our steps of how we plan and host our whiteboard sessions. And at the end of this episode, you’re gonna know our exact [00:07:00] process and you’re gonna be able to plan for your own whiteboard sessions to turn your leads into buyers. All right? So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.
[00:07:19] First of all, let’s go ahead and answer the question. What is a whiteboard session? So a whiteboard session is like a live webinar where you work with your leads, you help them to solve a specific problem, thereby gaining trust and positioning you as the ultimate solution that they were looking for.
[00:07:38] You can host it in Zoom, you can host it in another live streaming platform. But overall, it’s very similar to the webinars of old, but you’re doing it live. It’s not prerecorded where you actually have people show up and you lit, literally get to work their problem with them, and they are an amazing conversion tool. So let’s kind of talk about [00:08:00] that terminology as well. A conversion tool is what we refer to as an event or a way to turn your leads into buyers. So we’re using these whiteboard sessions to turn leads that are already familiar with you into faithful buyers, selling them into your higher ticket programs. Now you can totally use whiteboard sessions to generate new leads as well.
[00:08:24] We, in the past, as a company have primarily used them to take our existing leads, our warm leads, and turn them into buyers. I would love for you to go and test these to cold leads as well, because I’m sure that would actually convert very high as well, because very few people are doing this. So I’m gonna break down the eight steps to host these whiteboard sessions and really just pull back the curtains on what we do as a company and give you this step by step process.
[00:08:50] So let’s go ahead and get started. If you’re taking notes, this is a great episode to take notes. To save it, you can replay it.
[00:08:57] So step number one, I need you to choose a [00:09:00] specific problem that you are solving in your session. So one specific problem that you are going to address in your whiteboard session, your whiteboard session shouldn’t be, you know, let’s go ahead and solve the whole world’s, you know, hunger issue. it should be, let’s talk about one specific problem and let’s go ahead and whiteboard out some potential solutions to.
[00:09:21] And here is a pro tip for those of you that are really interested in being strategic about your business, I want you to make your whiteboard session a piece of the problem that you solve in your leading offer. So hopefully you caught what I just said. Right. So number one, you’re gonna choose one specific problem that you will solve in your whiteboard session, and one only.
[00:09:45] Number two, send out a warmup email to your list, letting them know that you’re aware of the problem that they’re facing and you’re planning something really special for them. It’s like dangling the carrot in front of them. Say, Hey, listen, [00:10:00] you guys, I know that you’re struggling with this. I know that this has been a common issue for many of you, and I just wanted to let you know I’m planning something really special to help you solve that. So stay tuned because I’m gonna tell you what that special thing is that you can be a part of very, very soon. So, step number two is get your list excited about what is to come.
[00:10:22] Step number three is to schedule your session. Now, here’s the deal. I recommend you pick two different times to host your whiteboard session. Usually within the same week, try to do them possibly even in the same day, one in the morning, one in the evening, depending on when your clients are, are most available.
[00:10:39] When your audience is, is most working on the problem that you solve, picking two different sessions gives them an opportunity to say, Hey, yes, I wanna come to session number one or session number two, but make sure that you schedule this in.
[00:10:53] And then step number four is to send out an invite to this session. And when you send that [00:11:00] second email invite out and you’re saying, okay, here it is. This is what I’m doing. Call it a whiteboard session. I’m hosting this whiteboard session and it’s gonna be amazing. But here’s the deal. There are limited seats. Now, one of the things that we are not fully addressing here right now in this show. But if you’re a faithful listener to this podcast for the last four and a half years, you know that you will see these trends, right, where we have gone from these mass programs to boutique, very personalized events and programs and leading offers. People don’t wanna be part of the cattle herd. They don’t wanna be in a cookie cutter thing.
[00:11:37] So when you offer something that’s limited seats, that’s really exclusive, those are the things that people are craving right now at the recording of this in 2021. So just be mindful, mindful for that. So Cindy and I, your invitation and say, Hey, listen, you know, there are limited seats to this. Fyi, make sure you RSVP for your seat right.
[00:11:57] Step number five, get your tech [00:12:00] set up ready. Okay, so when we say a whiteboard session, I actually mean a whiteboard session. So that is usually a combination between an iPad or something that you can cast sketch on and cast it into Zoom. There are so many different tools that you can do this. We use iPad.
[00:12:18] We used to use iPad with Notability, but that kind of broke a little bit. So now some of the solutions that we dive into are EAM mixed with Stream Yard. There are a bunch of different technology setups that you can actually do in order to host and cast your iPad live into a Zoom so people can see you actually sketching your whiteboard session.
[00:12:40] Because this is a true whiteboard session that isn’t like a marketing thing , you’re actually gonna host a whiteboard session and sketch out their results, which I’ll dive into here in just a few minutes. So you need to get your text set up ready.
[00:12:53] So, so far you’ve chosen this specific problem. You’ve sent out an email to your list saying, Hey, listen, I know you’re, you’re having this [00:13:00] problem, something special is coming. You’ve scheduled your session in your own planning calendar, and then you’ve sent out the email to your list saying, Hey, it’s scheduled now. Get on the list right now. You’re filling those seats. Meanwhile, while the seats are filling to your event, get your technology set up, practice it, and get it ready. And that was step number five.
[00:13:21] Step number six is to send reminders out to your list to make sure they fill up those seats. Just cuz people sign up doesn’t mean they show up. So we need to send reminders, send dms. You wanna blanket those people who have registered, letting them know, Hey, you got one of these exclusive seats to this really special whiteboard. Don’t lose it. Like don’t miss it. Don’t miss your seat. This is really, really special. Get them excited about it. Reiterate how exclusive it is and send them tons of reminders so we’re increasing the show up rate for your event.
[00:13:55] And then step number seven is to host this event. And now I’m gonna break it down [00:14:00] into six substeps under the Hosting Your Event. So this is why, if you’re taking notes as a great episode to take notes too. So as you’re hosting your event, I recommend you only do a one hour event, okay? So you’re gonna deliver a lot of value in a very, very short period of time. So you want people wanting more, all right? So in the steps to host your.
[00:14:23] Step number one is start by sharing like your philosophical genius, well rooted view on the problem that you are solving. So start by sharing. Here is a problem, here is why I know this is a problem. Here’s why I’m so well rooted in part of the solution to this problem. And load your view. Load your intro with case studies of how you’ve helped other people solve the problem that you’re helping this group of people whiteboard about. So you open it up, you position yourself as I’m aware of this problem, [00:15:00] I’m part of the solution to this problem. This is what other clients do that we have helped them work through this problem. And hey, now I’m here to work with you. So you’re fully positioning yourself as being completely aware. Being an expert in this space and having helped other people, and that’s how I want you to open up this strategy session, this whiteboard strategy session.
[00:15:22] Step number two is then you open the floor for others to share about their issue with whatever problem it is that you’re solving and why they’re still facing it. What is the problem? What is the struggle? Why are they still here? Why have they not moved forward? What are the other things they’ve. And if you’re a marketer right now in your brain, you’re realizing that these whiteboard sessions are super gold for doing, you know, figuring out what the problem is and doing market research as well.
[00:15:50] Okay, so later we can talk about transcribing this and turning the, the voices and the, the issues people are saying into marketing copy. But right now [00:16:00] you’re hearing your present in this event. And I want you to open up the floor to others to explain those things. This is my problem. This is why I’m still here. This is my frustration. This is what I’ve tried and open the floor to those people that you’re helping in this whiteboard session to share sharing quickly, because we wanna keep the session moving. We wanna keep it fresh. We wanna, we wanna keep everybody engaged and we really do wanna give them a chance to talk, or at least a chance to post into the chat, depending on how many people you’ve allowed in your session.
[00:16:29] And then step number three, you’re going to use your whiteboard to visually represent solutions. Demonstrating what people have said and documenting their comments. And collecting their frustrations. So part of your white boarding can be just writing down on the whiteboard, the words people are using, or a list of the problems, which by the way, you already know their problems.
[00:16:52] But writing down a list. So each time somebody says, oh, this is a problem. Oh, this is a problem. You can be starting to use your whiteboard, [00:17:00] enlist out all of those problem. So you’re gonna document the things that they are saying, and you’re gonna collect it all in this whiteboard session based on what they’re sharing with.
[00:17:11] And then step number four, you’re gonna summarize all of their pains collectively. And you’re gonna say, Hey, listen, I get it. This is what all you guys are saying. And so what we’ve done there in this whiteboard session is we’ve created community, we’ve created camaraderie amongst the people who’ve been there. They don’t feel like they’re alone anymore. They’re in a place where other people are experiencing the same pain. And guess what? You are the king or queen that leads them out of this.
[00:17:36] And so step number six is after you summarize their collective pains, then you start white boarding solutions for them. And this white boarding is gonna look totally different. It’s literally a sketch drawing of how you can take people from one place to one place, or maybe in your white boarding session based on your area of expertise, you can list out key words. Common solutions. [00:18:00] You’re literally going to whiteboard out and draw and draft solutions based on the collective communities problems in your event.
[00:18:09] And if you have time, depending on how many people showed up, I want you to pull a few specific people out and ask them if they would like to have their specific problem solved for them. Right there in detail in the whiteboarding session. And what that has just done is it’s helped this one person, but it’s also shown everybody else your skills and what an amazing coach that you are and how amazing the results you can get people in a very short period of.
[00:18:37] And then at the end of your session, you’re gonna restate why this problem exists and why it’s so hard for them to solve it on their own. And so what you’ve done in this session is you’ve positioned yourself as the perfect painkiller that leads them out of it, letting them know you fully understand what they’re dealing with, and sharing case studies of how you have to help the other clients.
[00:18:58] You’re gonna open the floor for them [00:19:00] to share their collective pains and problems, and then you’re gonna use your whiteboard to visual. Collectively gather together all of their pains and document their comments. The next step is you’re gonna use your whiteboards to start sketching out solutions collectively for the group sharing solutions and doing a short teaching.
[00:19:20] And then if you have time based on how many people show up, you can pick one or two people from your audience and you can actually go through their very hyper niche specific problem. And at the end of it, you’re gonna restate why the problem is big, why it exists, and you’re gonna position yourself as the solution for that which you’ve already done.
[00:19:40] At this point in time, you have already fully established yourself as being not only capable, but the perfect solution to their problem. And so how we end these whiteboard sessions is then you make an offer for your next step to work with. Whatever that looks like. You could use a whiteboard session [00:20:00] as a perfect conversion tool into one of your primary offers, one of your leading offers or your whiteboard session could put them into another funnel that warms them up for maybe a live virtual event, then warms them up to, um, maybe have them apply to work for you, work with you, maybe your program is application based and so it’s continuing to be exclusive to work with you. And so your live whiteboard session could perhaps position them just to apply to work with you or you can sell right into your program, whatever works for you.
[00:20:31] And that is how we use whiteboard sessions, and it’s very, very similar actually. It’s kind of how we use clubhouse rooms, but not as visual, and it doesn’t create such an exclusive community with your group of people that are there. Because when we do this in a whiteboard session, you can see people’s faces.
[00:20:49] You can really get to know them, and you can help them on the next level because you’re not only having a conversation with them, you are giving them the results right there that they can visually see, and they don’t have to. Just [00:21:00] envision. Whiteboard sessions are a powerful, powerful way to turn your list into buyers. Very faithful buyers. And I’m so surprised that more people don’t do them. We’ve been doing them for years and I’m so happy to teach you how to do it here on this show. An insider mastermind who work with our clients very closely to create their whiteboard sessions and really pick out the problem they’re solving in them and how to convert their leads into buyers.
[00:21:28] And so I want you to dive into this. Feel free to put this podcast on replay, share this podcast with your friends, and make sure you’re taking notes, because if you follow the steps that we’ve laid out here, you’ll have the same results that we have in our whiteboard sessions, and they’re hugely successful in order to help people build a closer relationship with us, which then in turn, of course, increase our sales because we’ve done a great job establishing you and establishing ourselves has the perfect solution to their problem.
[00:21:57] Which in the coaching and consulting space, that [00:22:00] is always our number one goal when it comes to marketing. So I hope you found this episode helpful. I feel like I’m losing my voice a little bit here at the end, and I’m so sorry about that. So hope my scratchy voice doesn’t get in the way of your understanding these steps, because I really would love for you to apply them in your business.
[00:22:18] And when you do tag me on, Instagram. Show me, say, Hey April, I am using this whiteboard session strategy. I’m so excited to do it. Here’s what’s happening. Tag me at April Beach Life because I always love seeing how you guys are applying the business training that we give you here on this show, and we’re here to make you more money and of course, help you build predictably the business and life of your dreams.
[00:22:41] Thank you so much for tuning in, sharing this show with your friends and being faithful Listeners here of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast, again, all of the show notes can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com and clicking on podcast and if you’re interested in applying to work with us.
[00:22:58] And have us roll [00:23:00] up our sleeves with you in your business and get very personalized business blueprinting, architecture, and engineering of your leading offers and your entire long-term business plan. You can find us at sweetlifeco.com. That is our superpower, and that is what we love doing. Have a great day.
This episode is for those in Phase 3 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who believe in your offer, program and service and you’re ready to grow.
Summary:
Disqualifying clients is an important part of business growth. This concept comes from the idea that concentrating your sales and marketing on only the most qualified leads is a more successful way to increase sales. But how do you disqualify clients and find the perfect people you’re called to serve? That’s what we’re covering in today’s show.
This is not a training on“ideal client avatars” or niche coaching topics – these are the questions no one is telling you to raise, but they must be asked for your happiness and financial success, and that of your clients.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what topics to qualify and disqualify clients on
Have a list of questions to workshop for yourself to get clear
Gain confidence in developing a disqualification mindset in your business
Leave this episode looking at the current clients you have and immediate being able to see who is the perfect fit and who is not.
Resources Mentioned:
Organize your assets and ideas into a Leading Offer –
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Full Show Transcript:
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[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our best of episodes. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes, with the most downloads, with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, Or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen, this episode you did was really powerful for me. Thank you so much.
[00:00:30] And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers and authors. And so this episode is absolutely amazing. Though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com. You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes [00:01:00] in there for you with up to date links. Making sure that you’re getting to the right place. If you’re looking for resource. Now special message to those of you guys that have been waiting for this show to come back.
[00:01:15] I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s, as we roll into the new year, going from 22 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough. If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but after five years of faithfully dropping a business training or recording, a strategy for you every single week and winning awards for this show, I needed to step back and take a break. And you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that. What turned out to be one month off, turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we have [00:02:00] been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, and entrepreneurs have relied on. I needed to take a step back and get a perspective of what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show. How should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you are growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like?
[00:02:27] So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the SweetLife podcast for you, and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited. So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off. But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business. You guys are amazing and you have really been the fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen. It’s gonna sound a little bit [00:03:00] different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come to for true proven business trainings that are transformational for your company.
[00:03:11] That is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air, from experts delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you. I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned.
[00:03:27] The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known and the Experts, so we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings without a hook to sell you something, they’re just coming in here to pour into you are absolutely epic. I can’t wait. So if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the show, please click subscribe. Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus, and I just, Love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and the [00:04:00] episodes coming for you.
[00:04:01] And in the meantime, enjoy this. Best of it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to The Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business, and launch a life you love faster with business, mentor and entrepreneur activator, april Beach.
[00:04:31] Hi, you guys. Welcome back to the show. This is week and episode number 245. On the Sweet Life Entrepreneurial Business Podcast and I’m April Beach, host of this show and I’m so glad to talk to you. We are coming up on our fifth year podcast anniversary just in a couple of months, and we just really appreciate all of you guys who’ve listened to this show for so many years, and those of you who share it with your friends, we do not intentionally accept any advertising [00:05:00] on this show. I literally get pitched all the time, every single week from companies that wanna advertise in the show. And I just think that screws up with the flow of this show and our connection and how we really hang out together here. And it’s like you and I are sitting across the table from each other or having to cup of coffee, and we intentionally work hard to give you business trainings and coaching that other coaches charge thousands for. Totally free here on the show. So thank you so much for continuing to tune in.
[00:05:27] As you know, if you’ve been here before, all of the show notes and everything we’re gonna talk about today can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com, and this is episode number 245. So let’s get into what you can expect from hanging out with me here for a few minutes on today’s show.
[00:05:45] Today we’re talking about why disqualifying clients actually helps your business grow. And this is for those of you guys who are in particularly in phase three of business. So this is the scale up phase of your [00:06:00] business. But I will say that I understand that I want you to apply this in the launch phase. There is just a little bit more of a psychological barrier to disqualifying clients when frankly you may not have ever served any before. This show really aligns with those of you who have served clients, you know how great your offer, your program, your solution is. And you’re really looking to scale up your business.
[00:06:22] And one of the best ways we do that is by actually disqualifying or firing clients. So this is what you can expect. This is a great show for those of you guys who believe in your offer, your program and your service. And you know that you know that, you know that it gives people transformational, predictable.
[00:06:42] So if that’s you, if you know what you do is amazing and there is no question whatsoever and how great you are at delivering people those results, then continue listening to this show. If you aren’t really sure, then that means that you should probably check out my [00:07:00] OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS, and that’s a totally separate thing to talk about.
[00:07:05] We have literally numerous podcast episodes here about how to create a predictable leading program. But right now, if you are not really sure about the confidence of your program, your course, your membership community, your mastermind, go to theofferengineer.com and there’s a lot of information there to get you started.
[00:07:25] So for those of you who do know that, like you’re the bomb, right? Like you know that what you deliver is amazing, then let’s continue on to what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the fact that disqualifying clients is an important part of business growth, and I get that this concept seems counterproductive to sales and marketing, and here is why it isn’t.
[00:07:47] When you concentrate your sales and marketing on only the most qualified and the best fit leads for your business, then your sales become more productive and the success from your program [00:08:00] increases. And that’s a really important part of what we’re talking about today, and we’re talking about how to go about the process of disqualifying clients and finding the perfect clients that are really the right fit for what it is that you do.
[00:08:12] So this is not, let me preface this. This is not an ideal client avatar or a niche business coaching podcast training, at all. We’re not talking about ICA development or client profiling. Instead, we’re talking about the questions that nobody tells you, that you really should be asking yourself about who you really want to work with, who you really want your clients to be, and they have to be asked and they have to be asked for, number one, your own happiness. Number two, your client’s happiness. Cuz when you have a great working relationship with your clients, then it’s gonna be much more successful for both of you and therefore for the financial success of both your clients and your company.
[00:08:51] At the end of this episode, you’re gonna know what topics or different areas you should be looking at to qualify and disqualify clients on. [00:09:00] You’re gonna have a list of questions to workshop for yourself. These are tough questions that I’m gonna give you in today’s show, and just run through them in your mind. Ask them in the air or when you’re on the treadmill, wherever you are, ask yourself these questions and come up with the answers to these and get some solid clarity, okay?
[00:09:18] You’re gonna be able to gain confidence in developing your disqualification mindset in your business, and you’re gonna leave this episode looking at your current clients. And you are gonna have an immediate understanding of who’s really a perfect client for you and who might have been somebody that might not have been the right fit for your program.
[00:09:40] Okay? So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.
[00:09:53] Okay. Why does qualifying clients helps your business grow? So I totally get, this may sound counterintuitive, but disqualifying clients is an [00:10:00] important part of business growth. I know it sounds scary for those of you guys who are still working to become profitable, but this concept comes from the idea that concentrating your sales and your marketing in only the most qualified and best fit leads is actually more suitable to help your business grow.
[00:10:18] And so the deal first of all, like in most things, it starts with your mindset. So let’s first start there. If you wanna serve everybody, you’re gonna serve nobody. And here is why you’ve probably heard that statement a million times over again from tons of business coaching. It’s because in order to deliver a top notch result, you need to curate and customize your program.
[00:10:43] So lemme say that again. In order to deliver a top notch result for your clients, you need to properly curate and customize your program or your solution. And customize solutions don’t serve everybody, right, or they wouldn’t be [00:11:00] customized. So the first thing that we need to realize it is in order to be really great at what you. You have to customize it for a certain group of people, not for everybody, because it’s not gonna give them amazing results. And then from a marketing standpoint, if you don’t speak to a certain specific audience, your message is just gonna be so broad. It’s gonna be lost in all the noise of, of online marketing and nobody’s gonna resonate with it.
[00:11:23] So let’s get those things out of the way first. Those like negative thoughts outta the way first if, if you might have been having those. And let’s actually dive into the deeper conversation that I wanna have today, which is the point of this show. So we’re talking about disqualifying clients. When you disqualify clients, you make more money because the qualified clients you do accept, number one, have better results with your program.
[00:11:47] And number two, they have a deeper commitment to their own success. And maybe I should’ve flipped those around the other way. it. It really should. They have a deeper commitment to their own success, and therefore they have better [00:12:00] results in your program. So it all starts with a process of determining who wins with your coaching and who actually doesn’t.
[00:12:07] Now, don’t forget the prerequisite to applying this strategy is having a proven leading program that delivers a transformation. So everything we’re talking about today is with the understanding that you’ve already met the prerequisite of understanding that your solution you deliver is full blown, top notch, like the best guaranteed transformation for your people.
[00:12:31] Okay? So it all starts with determining who wins and who doesn’t with that program you’ve already created. All right? So if you’re thinking this ideal client avatar, that’s totally not what I’m talking about. What I’m asking you is this. Do you know where the line in the sand is between the people who are all in for your coaching and service, and those who have one foot in and one foot out? And taking it a step further, [00:13:00] understanding and accepting that only the best clients that are gonna get the best results are the ones who are all in on your program, is what we need to talk about getting to the root of today, and here’s why. Knowing where your clients are psychologically in the belief of themselves and of your services, will affect the results they get with you.
[00:13:23] Okay. So how your clients are mentally entering your service business, your coaching business, is totally gonna affect how great of results they get, regardless of how great your program is. So even if you have this amazing program in course and service and in coaching, and you have gone through all the steps we’re talking about to layout an industry leading program or offer, when it comes down to it, you still have to be able to identify who psychologically is a great fit and who is not a great fit.
[00:13:57] So here’s an example. Let me give you an example of this. You’ve gone through all [00:14:00] the work. You have this amazing leading offer, this amazing program or course, or whatever it is that, that you lead, that your business model within your, in your company, right? So if time or financial commitment is a barrier, a hesitation in somebody who’s having a conversation about working with you, then you have already started out by putting yourself in a bad position that you’re gonna have to handhold them.
[00:14:25] If time or finances or even questioning their own ability to be successful is something they’re already bringing up in the beginning. And these are big red flags, then you’re already starting out by having a struggle to get them results. So these are some of the things that may happen to you. If you’re in a relationship with a client like that.
[00:14:48] You may feel like you need to show up every single day proving yourself again and again as to why you know what the heck you’re doing. You could feel like you’re walking on eggshells. You could have to hold their hand every single day and reassure ’em how great they [00:15:00] are on top of the strategy coaching that you deliver instead of being the expert and coach that they really need a hundred percent. If you are having to show up and, and reconvince, and it’s almost like reselling them on what you do every single day within the process after they’ve already bought, that is a red flag that they are not gonna get great results in your program. And frankly, it has nothing to do with you. It’s the mindset that they had coming into it. So here are six questions to ask yourself to determine who really wins with your coaching.
[00:15:34] Question number one is how committed do they need to be? How committed to themselves, according to your area of expertise and what you teach on, do they need to be to be successful?
[00:15:46] Some of you guys might have a program where you’re building up their self-confidence, and if that’s a case, Then probably not very committed because that’s your area of expertise. If that’s your area of expertise, then it’s gonna be a different degree of [00:16:00] commitment than somebody who may need their clients to show up fully in and vetted already.
[00:16:05] Okay? So this totally is dependent on you and what you deliver in the solution you provide within your offers and program. So question number two is how committed do they need to be? Excuse me. Question number one is how committed do they need to be? Question number two is what time allotment do they need to have?
[00:16:24] If they’re already struggling to find the time to be successful in your program right now, might not be the time for them to join your program. And you should be really honest with them and say, Hey, look it, this is exactly how many hours you need to put into this each, each week, and when you put in this many hours, these are the results you can.
[00:16:43] Those are things you should be able to answer about your leading offer. Okay? And so then you can ask yourself, what time allotment does somebody need to have in order to be super duper successful within the programs that I provide?
[00:16:59] Number three, [00:17:00] what attitude do they need to show up with? So according, again, to you and your expertise in what you do, what is the ideal attitude/ mindset? Of the person who is going to get the very best results with your coaching.
[00:17:17] Number four, what might they need to leave behind? This is a really big deal. So a lot of people, especially people who have bought a ton of courses, they’ve spent literally thousands of dollars on coaches in the past. I hear this all the time, you guys, people come to us and they’re like, oh my gosh, you don’t have any idea. I’ve spent $50,000 on coaches and I still don’t have a result. Right. Well that really sucks for them and that’s really devastating and it shows why you really need to question who you’re receiving coaching from. Again, that’s a totally, another podcast. We should do an episode on that. But if they’re coming to you with that background, [00:18:00] you need to make sure that you’re having a conversation with them about why you’re different, why your solutions are proven, why your transformation in working with you is vetted again and again and again.
[00:18:10] So what might they need to leave behind in past experiences or, you know, bad experiences or good experiences? What preconceived notions or things that don’t serve them might they need to leave behind when they come to work with you?
[00:18:27] Number five, what should they be ready for? Some of you guys deliver insane results within your program. Some results are so good that people are like, oh my gosh, shit, I can’t believe this is, this is so amazing, right? If that’s you and you know you deliver an insane result, what do your clients really need to be ready for in working with you? and what other things do they need to have in place to be ready for that? That is a really big deal. That is definitely something that we vet clients before they come in our OFFER ENGINEER™ [00:19:00] MASTERCLASS. Are they ready for this? And you ask yourself like, are people actually really ready for what I’m about to give them? For this awesome sauce that I’m bringing to the table that I’ve worked so hard to curate for them? Are they actually ready for it? What do they need to do to get ready?
[00:19:14] And then number six, what personality best fits with your program? This is particularly important for those of you guys that have a community within your program. If somebody is like a total B I T C H and you have this amazing community of these sweet people that are in there, I’m telling you what, like that one bad apple can spoil the bunch, right?
[00:19:37] And so your onboarding process, your onboarding presale, pre client acceptance process should include somebody talking and vetting and disqualifying people whose vibe and flow just might not align with the rest of your community. And that’s totally okay. But just be honest with yourself about what personality best fits within your program.[00:20:00]
[00:20:00] So those are six questions, hard questions that you should know the answers to in order to disqualify. And then let’s flip that around. Pre-qualify the perfect people for your program, your service, your solution, your super power. So here are some of the exercises that we can go through to look a little bit deeper to actually make this job of asking yourself these questions a little bit easier for you.
[00:20:27] Number one, what was the mindset? We’re talking about past clients now, what was the mindset of past clients and what was their personality of those that got the best results? So in looking at those people who’ve already been clients in the past, what was their mindset and what was their personality like of the freaking winners? The A gamers, the ones that did everything and they came and they saw and they kicked ass, and then they took names and then they went and they were just absolutely incredible. Shouting from the mountain tops about how amazing your program is, right? [00:21:00] What was their mindset and their personality?
[00:21:02] Also, looking at your past clients, who did you love working? Who was like the best person that when you got on those Zoom calls or when you saw this person on your calendar, you’re like, yay, I get to talk to so and so today. And what was it about them that you loved working with them? Number three, who contributed to others in your course or your community? Again, for those of you guys that have a community base, who was the one that was always cheering other people on?
[00:21:31] Who was the one that was always lifting other people up? Who was like that conversation starter? Who was that cheerleader and what was it about them that made it so amazing when they contributed to that space? Number four, who did the work without question. Like who, no matter what happened, and we all know stuff happens all the time in our life, that’s going to get in the way of some of the things that we’re working on, right?[00:22:00]
[00:22:00] But who did the work, even when all the things got in the way? Who pushed through? Who was super tenacious? Who were the fighters who refused to quit? Number five, who always needed coddling ? Who always showed up and they’re like, oh, well I don’t know. I don’t know how I am today. What do you think? Like, who needed that?
[00:22:24] Is that something that you want to help with? That would not fly so well in some of the programs that I have. Let’s just be honest, right? You can probably tell you, listen to my podcast. Like if somebody showed up every day and they were like having major excuses to why they couldn’t do it, I’d be like, you’re right. You can’t. Cause that’s how you’re showing up here. You know? I mean, are you the same way as I am? Is your program a safe place for people to show up who do need your support, who everything you do is to just to pour into them and you’re [00:23:00] the reminder of how amazing they are because they forgot it or they never were told it in the first place.
[00:23:06] Whatever it is, whatever the degree. Is this, with your past clients who showed up needing that level of support, number six, who complained about the work, the time, or the money. So who complained, if at all? I hope this has never happened to you. I’ve never had this happen to me, but I’m sure this has happened before.
[00:23:25] Like, who was like, oh my gosh, you know, this takes so much time to do That probably means that you didn’t do a good job explaining the commitment in the beginning if that is the case. So certainly look at the structure of your program and, and how you are selling your program. But after you did that, let’s just say like you totally nailed that.
[00:23:42] Who still came complaining about the work, the time and the, or the. Number seven, who questioned your processes? Okay. If you are in a space where you deliver a system, a method, or a framework, like most of our clients do, do [00:24:00] you have people who’ve showed up who’ve always kind of questioned what you do? If that is the case, then take a look at their personality.
[00:24:09] And I’m guessing that that is not the perfect person for your program. Right. Right, and again, this is saying that you’ve gone through the process to develop your leading program in method and framework. That being aside, we’ve established that prerequisite. If people still showed up and they’re like, really?
[00:24:27] Are you assured you really think that’s the way to do it? And they just constantly have a back and forth, I’m guessing that they are not the perfect fit for you. And then number eight, who left and told all of their friends about how amazing you are, who is like, let me give you testimonies. I can’t wait to tell the whole entire world man alive 95. This was the best money I ever spent. Those people, those are the people we wanna go after. Those are the people that are your perfect fit for your program. [00:25:00] So if they are not like those past clients that were doing all the stuff like that in like making a banner because they love you so much, then they probably need to be considered for disqualification.
[00:25:13] So after this episode, I’m about to give you some action steps here and how to apply all this. But after this, Then as you move forward, know that you deserve to be praised for the hard work and the time that you have put in strategically developing a solution for people’s problems. And let’s make sure that you are disqualifying the people that aren’t the perfect recipient of your solution.
[00:25:39] Because when you do this. You’re gonna be able to focus all of your attention, all of your relationship building, all of your actions on those perfect personality mindset, people that are the right fit for your program, and when they are successful, you are successful. Your client’s success. [00:26:00] My client’s success is a direct reflection, A direct correlation to my success. To your success.
[00:26:08] So we wanna pick the people that are the A gamers, right? We wanna pick the ones that we know we’re coming to the table mentally and physically prepared for what it is that you are going to give them solutions in, for your solution. And these are just some of the questions that when we talk about like ideal client avatar and client profiling and customer targeting, nobody’s saying to ask these questions and so I really felt like it was important to talk about this.
[00:26:38] We actually, I actually had this conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of women in our business client family, and this has really come up and I think it’s an important conversation to have and so, Is your action plan moving forward?
[00:26:53] Number one, look at your sales copy and see if it clearly disqualifies the wrong people. [00:27:00] So after you’ve gone through the questions above, now let’s like put it into action, right? We’re gonna say, and how do we do this? We’re gonna take it from high level to eye level. Number one, look at your sales copy, copy, look at your marketing copy, and make sure that you’re clearly disqualifying the people that are not the perfect right fit. For you or your service or your program.
[00:27:21] Number two, add questions to your sales call process to filter those who are not the perfect fit. So if you use sales calls to qualify or disqualify clients, Make sure you’re adding questions in there that correlate with the answers you’re looking for to either qualify or disqualify clients. Make sure you add those into your sales process. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions. Where in this sales call, they might be like, oh wow, yeah, you know what? That’s not me. And that is a great opportunity for you to say, you know what? I am so glad we had this conversation because guess what? [00:28:00] What I have is not the right fit for you. And I don’t want you spending another X, Y, Z amount of money on a program that’s not gonna be the right fit for you. But I have a great friend I can refer you to that might be a better fit, right? These are important things to do in your sales call. You don’t want this person as a client if they do not fit into what you need to deliver the great solutions within your program. And so don’t be afraid to disqualify them right there in the triage call, in the sales. And send them somewhere else. Just bless them to go somewhere else. But you have to make sure you’re adding questions into your sales call process that can give you the answers to that.
[00:28:40] And number three, talk to your team. This is for those of you guys with teams that manage your marketing. Some of you, you know, have people that help you do your sales call, help you do your coaching, talk to them about the importance of positioning your solution and your service as the prize. It’s very, very important that once [00:29:00] you have done the work to create a leading program or course or offer, it is the prize.
[00:29:07] It is the pain killer, as one of my clients calls it, it, it’s like the perfect language. Oh yes, it’s a pain killer. Okay? Make sure that you hold it close to your own confidence level that you worked your booty off to make sure it was a perfect pain killer for them, and that is the prize. And this quote is like one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard from Angela Lauria. She said, ‘the prize never chases’. Let me say that again. The prize never chases, and so here are some final thoughts I wanna leave you with. I totally get that. The thought of disqualifying somebody that comes your way that isn’t the right fit, sounds really scary, especially when you haven’t hit consistent 10 K months or 20 K months, 30 K months, especially when you’re first starting out.
[00:29:59][00:30:00] And that’s why at the beginning of this episode, I said, if you are in the launch phase and you haven’t served a ton of clients yet. I get and understand that it’s important for us to go through the process to test your solution on different clients, making sure that you are going through the testing and the traction to find the right fit after, of course, doing market research.
[00:30:21] So I understand that if you’re listening to this and you’re in the launch phase, definitely take this with a grain of salt. I’m keeping it real, but never, ever, ever sell your program to somebody that you don’t believe a hundred percent, that you can give them results. That is for sure. I don’t care what business phase you’re in that is aligned, we don’t ever cross.
[00:30:41] If somebody is not a good fit, do not sell to them. Right? But for the rest of you, Don’t be afraid to say no to the money because when you say no to something, you’re opening up your capacity to say yes to more things, and you don’t wanna be [00:31:00] stuck with clients that take a ton of extra time in order to get them results because they didn’t show up with the mindset and the prerequisites in place to get the best results with the service.
[00:31:13] You. The truth is, you should be disqualifying clients to work with you if they don’t come wanting the results you deliver in full force. If their personality won’t jive with others in your community, if they consistently need affirmation that you know what the heck you’re doing, although please make sure that you know what the heck you’re doing and if they’re only partially committed to their own transformation.
[00:31:38] And one last thing I’m gonna leave you with today, stop wondering if you’re good enough. And taking clients that don’t fit the whole bill of what you deliver. When you go through the process to diligently develop your leading offer, stop taking clients that don’t fit the bill for the solution you [00:32:00] provide, because we know that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. And I really, really, really want to remind you to only work with clients that are super duper thirsty.
[00:32:15] Okay, this was episode number 245 here at the SweeLife Entrepreneur Podcast. You can find the show notes and all of the other amazing info that our guests drop in here for free by visiting sweetlifeco.com. And if you are struggling. If you do not know how to turn your ideas into a leading industry, leading course, offer program, mastermind coaching event or retreat, then go to theofferengineer.com. Our OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS is reopening in October. We only open this masterclass twice a year.
[00:32:54] That’s it. Only twice a year can you get into this masterclass, and it is opening in [00:33:00] October, 2021. So depending on when you listen to this, that’s an important date to note for your calendar. In the event that you’re not listening to this live, you can also go to theofferengineer.com at any time and be notified when this masterclass opens up again.
[00:33:15] All right, you guys, go grab all the show notes. Thank you so much for staying tuned to this show. I hope you’re having an amazing day, and I truly appreciate your listenership and just being a supporter of this show. Have a great one. Bye-bye.
This episode is for those in Phase 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for entrepreneurs who have an established method, framework or process and are ready to scale exponentially.
Summary:
People don’t talk about licensing. In fact, it’s a secret weapon that most companies don’t tap in to. However, licensing when done properly can be the catalyst to higher profit than you ever dreamed possible. And there’s no catch! In fact, the business model of licensing your content, course, or program is quite simple. This week we’re continuing our conversation about from episode #235 and talking about the types of content companies line up to license.
I’m also sharing behind the scenes details of how I’ve licensed my content, methods, frameworks and processes for over a decade. And you can too!
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what makes your content valuable enough to be licensed
Know how to license what you already have and not re-create the wheel
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Full Show Transcript:
262 (236)
[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our best of episodes. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes with the most downloads, with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen this episode you did was really powerful for me.
[00:00:28] Thank you so much. And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers and authors. And so this episode is absolutely amazing, though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com.
[00:00:54] You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes in there for you with up to date links, making sure that you’re getting to the right place if you’re looking for a resource. Now special message to those of you guys that have been
[00:01:12] waiting for this show to come back. I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s. As we roll into the new year, going from 22 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough. If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about, but after five years of faithfully dropping a business, training, a recording, a, a strategy for you every single week in winning awards for this show. I needed to step back and take a break, and you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that. So what turned out to be one month off turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we have been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, and entrepreneurs have relied on.
[00:02:06] I needed to take a step back and get a perspective. If what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show, how should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you are growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like?
[00:02:27] So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the SweetLife podcast for you and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited. So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off. But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business. You guys are amazing and you have really been. The fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen. It’s gonna sound a little bit different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come to for true proven business trainings that are transformational for your company.
[00:03:10] That is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air. From experts delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you. I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned.
[00:03:27] The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known in the Experts. So we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings without a hook to sell you something. They’re just coming in here to pour into you are Absolut. Epic. I can’t wait. So if you haven’t yet subscribe to the show, please click subscribe. Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus. And I just love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and the episode’s coming for you. And in the meantime, enjoy this best of it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason. I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mentor and entrepreneur activator April Beach.
[00:04:31] Hi guys, and welcome back to this show. I’m April, and I’m so glad to be talking to you. Today’s podcast is an extension of last week’s podcast, episode number 235. Honestly, if you haven’t listened to episode 2 35 yet on licensing 1 0 1, how to license your course and your content to scale your company exponentially, that’s where I would start.
[00:04:53] But if you were with me last week, I’m so glad that you were back here again and I can’t wait unravel this conversation a little bit more today. We’re continuing our conversation by specifically talking about three types of content. Companies will line up to license from you and all the show notes and everything that we’re discussing today can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com.
[00:05:19] You can just click on the podcast and everything is right there for. Now a couple of kind of behind the scenes as I’m recording this for you guys. This morning I took an ice bath. It was the polar plunge, and I still feel like I’m a little bit shaky, but frankly, I feel better than I ever have in my life.
[00:05:38] We were hosting a human performance summit at our lab, and I usually don’t talk about this very much here on the show, but we actually own an entrepreneur lab, which is a place where we help entrepreneurs turn their thoughts into reality in Boulder, Colorado. And we dive into a lot of peak performance things and it’s really amazing. So four 30 this morning I was in an ice bath, completely focused and visualizing what we want our 2022 to look like and um, I just wanted to share that with you first of all, because I get so many comments from you guys about when I share stuff behind the scenes and the fact that you appreciate it.
[00:06:20] But then also to show that it’s so important that we’re always working on ourselves, physically on top of what we’re doing in our business. And all these shows, all these podcast episodes are quote ,unquote business strategies and trainings that you can take to the bank, right? But the truth is, it really does all start with you.
[00:06:40] And so I wanted to bring that up. So before we start diving, How literally you can blow your business up through licensing. I wanted you just to take a pause and just to reflect on what did you do for your physical body and for your mind this week, because that’s where it all starts. And I just wanted to encourage you in that.
[00:07:02] Okay. Squirrel moment over . Let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. Here is what you can expect by hanging out with me for the next couple of minutes. First of all, this is gonna be a shorter episode because the last couple episodes have been a little lengthy longer than we usually do for the summertime, and I know that you’re busy and out there living the dream or building the dream or both.
[00:07:24] And so I wanna be respectful of your time. This particular episode is for those of you guys who are in business phases three, four, or five. If you don’t know what phase of business you’re in, you can take the quiz by visiting sweet life co.com/quiz. And this is a great show for those of you guys who have an established method, framework or process, and you are ready to scale your business exponentially.
[00:07:51] So here’s the deal. People don’t really talk about licensing. In fact, it’s like a secret weapon that most companies don’t even realize that they can tap into. However, licensing, when it’s done right, can be like the super catalyst for a higher profit than you truly ever dreamed possible because, and if you listen to that last week, you know this.
[00:08:15] Because we are giving other companies the power to distribute your content. It’s not always coming directly from you. And frankly, there isn’t any catch to this. The business model of licensing is really simple, and that’s what we’re talking about even more in depth than last week. So if you didn’t listen to last week’s again, go back and listen to episode number 235.
[00:08:36] At the end of today’s episode, you’re, you are gonna know what makes your content valuable. And whether or not you are ready to license your content and you’re gonna have more information so that you can really lean on and even evaluate the opportunity of licensing. Most companies that we talk to love the idea, but it’s very new to them because frankly, business coaches don’t talk on or teach on this very often. And so I understand this might be a totally new concept to you, and so you’re gonna have more awareness and understanding of whether or not this is a great opportunity for you and your company moving forward. So let’s go ahead and dive into the show.
[00:09:23] Okay, so let’s do a mini recap of last week’s episode. This will not replace listening to last week’s episode, and I really don’t want you to miss out. So this is just kind of a refresher if it’s been a hot minute since you listened to last week’s. First of all, what is licensing? Licensing is creating content for other companies to use so that they can grow faster, they can make more money. Or they can provide better services because of licensing your content.
[00:09:52] The sister, I’ll call it a sister, the twin of licensing, which the process of doing this is almost identical to the process of creating your license material, is training other people in your method. So if you have a signature method or a signature framework or a signature process that you wanna train other people, even if it’s under your brand or they can become certified in your process. It’s the same thing we’re talking about here. So really getting your wheels spinning. Have you been listening maybe the last weeks and you’re like, gosh, you know, I don’t really know if I wanna do this.
[00:10:29] But then when I say, Hey, but what about bring in other people underneath you and training them on your method, just so you know, pretty much the exact same process to get your content. So that’s a little recap of last week. The benefits of licensing are number one, for you to demonstrate thought leadership in your space.
[00:10:48] So when you start licensing your material, all of a sudden people look and they’re like, oh, wow, man, she’s awesome. Look at that. She’s licensing her material that they, you know, other companies or he, you know, number two, increases credibility across your own audience. So even if your audience isn’t the one, Licensing the material from you, they think you’re even more badass because of the fact that you’re licensing your material to other people.
[00:11:14] It certainly helps you exponentially scale because in the process of licensing, we really create something one time and then you can profit through multiple different opportunities and it is a perfect bridge for those of you guys who have been a B to C. Moving over to a B2B or even a B2 G, like a business to government.
[00:11:36] Great opportunity here for those of you guys who are, who are interested in that. So whether or not you are ready to license your programs and you’ve met kind of those prerequisites for licensing, go back and listen to the last week’s episode because we, we dive into that even more in depth. So today we’re talking about the three types of content that companies literally will line up to license from you.
[00:11:59] I have companies line up and join my wait list to license our courses and I release them one month a year, and that has been happening for over 11 years. Actually, probably should look at the date and throw myself a big ass party for that. I think that’s actually more than that. The deal is, is we create something that is amazing, that gives you the advantage that other companies want and they need, and then they literally will line up to license this material.
[00:12:29] Why is it, why do they do that? Why do they pay so much money? Is because you are giving them the ability to profit faster and or you’re making their life easier. And or you are positioning them to be better at the content they’re already delivering. Maybe what you are licensing fits a missing piece to what a company needed, or maybe they’re taking your whole entire program in white labeling it, which we talk about last week. So those are kind of some of the reasons why this is such an incredible opportunity for you.
[00:13:05] So three types of content that companies will line up to license. Number one is actual content itself. So content that people need to fill every distribution channel. Let me say that again. The first type of content that people will line up to license, I say people that companies, organizations, or other entrepreneurs will line up to license from you is content that feeds every distribution channel.
[00:13:32] Examples of that are blogs, articles, newsletters, emails, so written emails, imagesand videos are examples of that type of content. So anything that another company needs to fill their content distribution channels, if you already have great content in that area, believe me, I mean, let’s take another sidebar here for a second.
[00:14:01] You and I both know how tiring and time consuming and exhausting it is sometimes to create content, video content, written content, podcast. Content. Right? Content is king, right? The truth of the matter is, is that if you can speed up that process by delivering amazing content for other companies to distribute on their channels, through their channels, they will line up to license that content from you.
[00:14:29] That’s number one. Number two, type of content that they will line up to license are. Let me give you an example of assets. Assets are anything that these companies need to communicate an end result or to add to their established content or program. So an example of an asset could be, it’s something very workable and usable.
[00:14:54] It’s like a tool. Examples of those could be worksheets or blueprints or templates or forms. Anything that is an asset, that is a tool that they need, that they can add to their established content, that becomes a tool within what they are already delivering. So number one is content to feed their distribution channels.
[00:15:20] Number two are assets. And third, and which is the king of them all are, I call them completes. These are complete package. That companies and other entrepreneurs or organizations need. Here are examples of completes. These could be your complete program or services, your complete courses curriculum, even if it isn’t built into a course yet. Steps of service systems or processes, so these are complete packages that companies can take. It is like full blown turnkey. You already have these complete programs. and you are giving another company, an organization or another business, an opportunity to plug and play where you’ve already created your complete package, your videos, your content, your worksheets.
[00:16:17] It could even include you coming in and teaching some part of that live. And this is when you have the great privilege of creating an amazing custom package. Whatever works out for you and the licensee. Completes are where it is you guys completes, are the ones that companies are really paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for.
[00:16:40] Or you can start really down, and I don’t even mean to say down, but you, you know, it doesn’t have to be licensing your whole program to a corporation org organization. You can start by licensing your content to other small businesses starting at only a couple thousand dollars. Whatever works based on the value of the content that you are delivering.
[00:17:01] But completes are really where it is. And the more complete and the more valuable your program, the more of a transformation you deliver within your program, then the more somebody is going to pay you to use it to license it from you. So let’s go ahead and recap the three types of content that companies line up to license.
[00:17:21] Now, if you’re driving and you can’t take. I wanna invite you to a totally free one hour video. It’s called Content Licensing 1 0 1, where I go even more in depth than all of this, and you guys can tap into that video anytime. I would call it a webinar, but I’m not selling you anything on it, there’s, you know, I’m not like there with you live saying, and now, you know, do this.
[00:17:44] It’s literally a video. For those of you guys who are interested in learning more about content licensing, you can tap into this video anytime by visiting license, and then the number two and then the word scale.com, or by visiting our website sweetlifeco.com. So if you can’t take notes, I break down these three types of content. And I actually show examples of these inside that video, and you’re welcome to tap into that. So let’s do a really quick recap. Number one, content to feed any distribution channel. Number two, any sort of assets or tools. Again, these are worksheets or blueprints or templates or forms. And then number three are completes. These are your curriculum or your course, or your complete program, or your complete service package that’s already done and ready to go. And those are the three types of content that companies, organizations, and corporations and other entrepreneurs will line up to pay you to please let them use it in their content distribution or in their program.
[00:18:48] Please let them sell it, and it’s a win-win for everybody. A couple things moving forward, and I’m not gonna dive into these things in depth because we’ve covered so much over the last two podcast episodes, but I want to make sure I’m at least getting your wheels turning because I want you making more money faster by using the work you’ve already done.
[00:19:10] And so what I want you to do at this point, if you’re thinking about this, definitely cruise over to license2scale.com. Grab the resources we have there for you, but just be thinking right now, what do you already have? What do you already have in your arsenal? What do you already have that you have already created that other companies could use that you see other companies missing? It could be a good opportunity for both you and another company. What do you already have that you can maybe repurpose or tweak? Maybe you just need to scale it up just a little bit and then you can have an opportunity to sell that exponentially. It could be a course or a mini course or a training, written content, programs.
[00:19:54] And don’t forget, going through the process of packaging your material to license to another company is the same process we would take you through if you want to certify or accredit or train others on your method. These are the same steps in the same process. It’s just the distribution and the actual usage.
[00:20:15] The sales side of it looks a little bit different. So licensing your content is the same process that we take clients through as those of you guys who are launching a certification or a train the trainer type program. So if you don’t have assets, then we wanna really think about what are you currently building in your business that we can mindfully in advance, build in a way for part of it to be licensed out.
[00:20:41] And there are a lot of things to consider really, like what is best for your brand. I was in a clubhouse room a couple of months ago and I was talking about licensing and, and somebody asked me, you know, what’s the deal with white labeling? And I answered that question. In last week’s podcast about whether or not white labeling is is right for you. And so again, make sure you tapped into last week’s podcast. And of course I discuss it more in that license to scale video for you as well.
[00:21:09] So other decisions you need to make, and we again talk about it in this video, are, should you license your material only locally to businesses, or are we talking about licensing your content to companies that have a global reach and they’re completely online? Should you geographically bind or restrict the content you license to maybe only a limited number of companies or organizations, either within a certain geographic area or perhaps within a certain niche. Those are all strategic questions that we go through in this video training, but also that those are great things to think about, and I want you to be thinking about how the answers to these affect you and your brand and your leadership first, before we’re thinking about how they affect the end user.
[00:21:57] And then of course, other things like do you license your content as is or are you willing to update. What’s the minimum price? What is the license length? How many people is your licensee allowed to distribute your content to? There’s so many other details frankly, there are questions you didn’t even know you had, but I wanted to hone in on these two podcast episodes and start with the foundations.
[00:22:19] This is content licensing 1 0 1. This is the conversation that is so exciting you guys. This is literally how I brought my first business consulting firm to seven figures and it. Hard work. I’m not gonna lie about that. It was definitely hard work, but it was way easier than I ever expected because I have, and I had something that was incredibly valuable that other companies want.
[00:22:44] If you have something that other companies, organizations, entrepreneurs, want and need, that again makes them make more money faster. It makes them be better at what they do. It can level up their brand and it cuts their time. Then you have just made yourself the most valuable person in the room. I guarantee it, and I’m super excited about talking about this content, this, this topic.
[00:23:10] I geek out on it because I’ve experienced it personally and I’ve seen the opportunities my clients have had when we help them build out their license programs, and I want you to have those opportunities as well. So this is episode number 236 at the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast. I’m April Beach your host.
[00:23:30] Thank you so much for hanging out with me. Happy summertime. I hope you’re doing something that you love that makes you laugh. That’s good for you and good for all the people that you love, and that you get a chance to really spend some quality time. And don’t forget to invest in yourself. You might not wanna jump in an ice bath at 04:30 in the morning like I did, but whatever it is for you, okay, now I’m just gonna do a little, little teeny tangent.
[00:23:55] This is what I learned about myself today. I am way stronger mentally than I even thought I. And I’m really proud of myself for what I did today, and it feels really, really good. And frankly, I was in that ice bath for a really, really long time, and it was unexpected how good not my body did. My brain and my mental toughness surprised me today.
[00:24:21] And that was freaking awesome. And so I just wanna encourage you to push yourself and you will surprise yourself. We are so much more than we even think we are. We have so many more resources and so much more strength that we can tap into. And when we put ourselves in those positions where we have to see what we’re made, You will not only rise to the occasion, you will blow past it.
[00:24:47] I know you will. Whether we’re talking about licensing your content or building funnels or launching your first online course, or your business or mastermind or we’re sitting here and we’re helping you determine how to take a great article you wrote and get it distributed so that you can make thousands of dollars, whatever it is, we’re into holistic business building here, and that is your body, your mind, your family.
[00:25:12] and of course, High profit, deep impact lifestyle for you. Thanks so much for hanging me, hanging out with me today. See, I’m still a little bit shaky here. I’m like drinking my coffee. I really appreciate you guys. I can’t wait to connect with you. Connect with me on Instagram at April Beach life and of course on Clubhouse where I’m there every single week at April Beach, and I would love to hear what you are doing to invest in yourself this summer.
[00:25:39] And I am there to take your licensing questions, especially in Clubhouse. So don’t forget to hit me up with those because that’s what I’m there for, is to support you guys in these business. Okay. Have an awesome day, and I will talk to you next week. Bye-bye for now.
This episode is for those in Phase 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for established entrepreneurs who are interested in learning how to scale your business exponentially through licensing your content, course or program.
Summary:
If you’re an established entrepreneurs with a proven programs, courses, or content, and you’re looking to grow exponentially, then this episode is for you. By creating content to license you can demonstrate thought leadership in your space, increase credibility across your audience, expand your business to B2B or create a dual business model.
This an intro to licensing for entrepreneurs those want to know how content licensing works, those who want to demonstrate thought leadership in your space through Licensing, those interested in transitioning from B2C to B2B in some capacity. This show will give you a good foundation and knowledge base to consider your options.
At the end of this episode you will:
know what licensing is and how to make money doing it
know the business model of licensing and if it’s right for you
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
261 (235)
[00:00:00] Hi you guys and welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast. I’m April Beach, your host, and I am so glad you’re here. You have tapped into one of our “Best of Episodes”. These episodes are cherry picked from our most popular episodes with the most downloads with the most comments. So these are the ones where whether it’s in a speaking engagement, or whether it’s by writing to us or sending us messages on social media where you guys have reached out and said, Hey, listen, this episode you did was really powerful for me. Thank you so much.
[00:00:30] And they’re also the other episodes that we believe are the most important as we move into the next year for the online business landscape that we are going into for coaches and consultants and experts and speakers and authors. And so this episode is absolutely amazing, though it’s previously recorded, all of the resources can be found by clicking on sweetlifeco.com.
[00:00:54] You can visit us online and just very simply select the podcast and you’ll find all of the show notes in there for you with up to date links, making sure that you’re getting to the right place. If you’re looking for a resource. Now special message to those of you guys that have been
[00:01:12] waiting for this show to come back. I am so excited to announce that the next generation of the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast is dropping the week after Christmas, before New Year’s as we roll into the new year, going from 22 to 23, and I can’t thank you guys enough. If you are a new listener to the show, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about but after five years of faithfully dropping a business training, a recording, a strategy for you every single week, and winning awards for this show, I needed to step back and take a break.
[00:01:46] And you guys have been so gracious in actually encouraging me to do that. What turned out to be one month off, turned out to be about a year off of recording this show, but the reality is, is that we have been producing so many business trainings, hundreds and hundreds of them for five years, that entrepreneurs have relied on.
[00:02:06] I needed to take a step back and get a perspective of what you guys really needed for the next generation of the show. How should this show actually help you to continue to grow your businesses? And many of your businesses have significantly grown since we first started this show. And you are growing and we’re growing and what does that actually look like?
[00:02:27] So I have had the gift of spending almost a year to build the entire next generation of the SweetLife Podcast for you and I can’t wait for you guys to hear it. I’m so excited. So the wait is almost over and I wanted to send you a message about it. Thank you for the emails and the comments on social media encouraging me to enjoy my time off.
[00:02:46] But April, please come back. I need your show to grow my business. You guys are amazing and you have really been the fuel to the fire. That has helped me see clearly, clearly of where this show is gonna go in the next gen. It’s gonna sound a little bit different, but it will continue to be the place where you can come to for true, proven business trainings that are transformational.
[00:03:09] For your company, that is business coaching that isn’t pulled out of thin air, from experts delivered to you in such a way that you can implement it. That’s why this show has been so popular over the years, and that’s what we will continue to do for you. I can’t wait for you to hear what we have planned.
[00:03:27] The first series we’re kicking off is called Becoming Known in the Experts. So we have in here that are teaching you these proven business trainings. Without a hook to sell you something, they’re just coming in here to pour into you are absolutely epic. I can’t wait. So if you haven’t yet, subscribe to the show, please click subscribe.
[00:03:45] Please share this with your friends. Please resubscribe in case that you were unsubscribed during my little hiatus, and I just, Love you guys so much, and I’m so excited to be back here. I can’t wait to drop the whole entire NextGen of the show and the episodes coming for you and in the meantime, enjoy this best of, it is very powerful and it’s been chosen for you for a reason.
[00:04:08] I’ll talk to you guys soon.
[00:04:13] You’re listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast, Simplified strategies to grow your service business, and launch a life you love faster with business, mentor and entrepreneur activator April Beach.
[00:04:32] Hey guys, and welcome to episode number 235. This one is really juicy. It is jam packed with the secrets to how I grew my first business consulting firm to over seven figures. So I’m super excited to share this with you and all the resources that we have here available for you on the show can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com. And this is episode number 235.
[00:05:00] Welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur and Business Podcast of your new my name’s April Beach. I am the host here of this show. I am a business consultant and strategist that works with entrepreneurs and experts to design, launch, and scale your business in today’s episode is literally a secret weapon.
[00:05:18] If you are listening to this, if you’re a regular subscriber or you just happen to land here, this is something that nobody’s talking about and I’m so excited to share it with you on today’s show. We’re talking about how to license your content to scale your business and increase profit.
[00:05:35] And this particular episode is a best for you, it’s most appropriate for you if you are in phases three, four, or five. Of my entrepreneur roadmap. What that means is that you have to be in a specific phase to be ready for this level of business, scalability and this level of growth. And so if you’re in phases three, four, or five, this is a great episode for you to listen to.
[00:06:00] If you don’t know what phase of business design, growth, scale, and impact you are in. Take a second pause here and cruise over to sweetlifeco.com/quiz and you can take a really short quiz and I’ll tell you exactly where you are in your business and what you should be working on right now. You can also text the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0.
[00:06:32] So here’s what we have in today’s show. It’s really great for those of you guys who are established entrepreneurs and you’re interested in learning how to scale your business exponentially through licensing your content course or program. If you have a proven program, course or content, and you are looking to see even the greater impact that you can make.
[00:06:55] You’re trying to find even more ways to make more money and to create the impact that you know that your program can, than this episode is for you. And so at the end of this episode, you are gonna know what licensing is and how to make money doing it. You are gonna know the business model of licensing and be able to have insight on whether or not this is even right for you, and you’re gonna know the prerequisites that you need to have in place in order to license your content.
[00:07:24] And there is a super special bonus with today’s episode. If you wanna know more about this, you do not want to miss this bonus. I am giving you a completely free one hour licensing your content, Quick Start video training, and you really don’t wanna miss it. It’s one hour training on the quick start guide of how to prepare and license your content, and you can find that totally free by visiting licensetoscale.com.
[00:07:58] It’s the word license. The number two and then the word scale.com, and I’ll make sure that that is in the show notes for you. So that’s another resource for you to grab here. I love giving you guys awesome very highly valuable stuff here for free that other businesses charge you thousands for. So definitely go grab that.
[00:08:18] Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. This is episode number 235, and so all the show notes can be found by visiting sweetlifeco.com number 235 under podcast.
[00:08:41] Okay, so let’s start out by answering the question. What is licensing? Licensing is creating content for other companies to use. Think of it as renting your content, renting your course, renting your program, so it’s creating content for other companies to use, and they rent it from you and it’s called licensing so that they can grow faster or so that they can make more money or so that they can provide better services or training or support for their people, whoever their people happen to be. And now let me read you the legal definition of licensing. But just so you know, I wanted to make sure I gave you the, the April entrepreneur regular person’s definition of it too. So the legal definition of licensing is content licensing is a legal agreement between two parties known as a licensee and a licensure.
[00:09:38] Licensees can purchase the rights to republish content from a licensor. Licensing is extremely versatile and allows for brands to repackage content in a variety of forms across desktop and mobile platforms. And that official definition came from news cred. So let’s go ahead and dive in a little bit more.
[00:09:59] You have a program or you have a course and you wanna make more money, you want to go from what I call in our business, where we take our clients from scale to amplify. There is a difference between scaling your business and amplifying your business. And this my friends, is how you do it. So the benefits of licensing are really important to think about as you’re considering whether or not you wanna license your program to other companies.
[00:10:28] Here are some of the benefits that you can flow through your mind as I’m saying these to you, and really hold each one up and see if it fits you right. The first one is if you wanna demonstrate thought leadership in your space. If you wanna become a thought leader in your particular niche, your particular area of expertise, then licensing is a benefit in that area.
[00:10:53] Number two, licensing increases credibility across your own audience. So even though you’re creating content that’s used by other companies, when your audience knows that other companies are buying your content, all of a sudden they are really confident in your ability to get them direct results.
[00:11:14] Number three, licensing enables for what I call exponential scalability. So let’s talk about scale for a second. Scale in most cases, as we talk about here on the podcast, and most entrepreneurs and online businesses are familiar with it. In that case, we’re talking about taking a one-on-one service or a one-on-one program and turning it into one on group. We’re creating different business models so that you can reach more people and increase your profit usually in the same amount of time.
[00:11:46] Scaling is a precursor to licensing. Licensing is where you still create that one piece of content and then you’ve tested it in the scale capacity and now you are willing to rent it or allow other companies to borrow it from you called licensing it for them to distribute. So we have gone from scaling you to literally exploding so fast your reach with your content through licens. And then another benefit of licensing is for those of you, if you’re listening to this and you wanna figure out how to go from B to C, so you have a consulting firm or a coaching firm, or you’re a speaker or an author, and you are used to serving one particular client that gets direct results from you and you wanna transition, you wanna start coaching other businesses.
[00:12:39] Licensing is also a really great benefit for you. So there are multiple benefits to licensing your content, if any of those fit into what aligns with your strategic objectives for your life and your brand.
[00:12:53] So really the question that we need to dive into here before I share anything else is, is licensing right for you? But not only that, are you ready to license? I have so many people. Literally, we have a waiting list of entrepreneurs who really want to learn how to license their materials, but they aren’t ready yet. So let’s talk about what is a prerequisite for being. To join my masterclass called License to Scale. To learn how to do this, the prerequisite is that you have to have a proven course or program or content that’s gotten people transformational results in the past.
[00:13:39] So this means if you have never created a course before, or if you do not have a membership community with curriculum, if you have not developed transformational curriculum or a transformational program and you have not tested that, you are not ready for licensing. And so at this point in time, if that is you, of course you’re welcome to sit here and hang out with me for the rest of this episode, but I would put it on pause because we have a program to teach you how to do that.
[00:14:07] You can find that program by visiting theofferengineer.com. And so the process we take companies through is first we help businesses launch, and then the second phase is scale, where entrepreneurs join our transformational program Design masterclass. Again, you can find that at theofferengineer.com if this is where you are.
[00:14:26] And then you can go onto licensing your material. So the prerequisite is you have to have a proven program course or content that’s gotten people results in the past. If you don’t have that, you’re not quite ready for that yet, and that’s okay. This is a very cool episode to know what is the potential for you is in the future.
[00:14:44] So I’m gonna give you guys a peek behind the scenes. I’m pulling back the curtains, and I’m gonna share with you two case studies out of five different case studies in which I have licensed my content for over 12 years, because I want you to get your wheels spinning about what you have or what you can do with your business.
[00:15:02] All five case studies and they’re all different. All five case studies are available by going to licensetoscale.com and joining that licensing 101 webinar. But I’m just for the sake of time and to get your wheels spinning. I’m gonna share with you two here. Okay, so the first case study I wanna share is the fact that I had a collection of courses, a collection of online courses back in 2009.
[00:15:29] I’ve been doing online courses before they were even a thing. You listen to the show, you know that, right? So I had a collection of eight full online courses and there were eight different courses that were for a very specific niche. They were totaled 198 slides, 13 hours of recorded classes, and they came with teacher guides and supplemental worksheets and even project plans.
[00:15:53] I licensed. That collection of courses and I have licensed these collection of eight courses that is currently still to this day, licensed in over 13 countries to other businesses. They included business coaching videos, swipe files, and we licensed it in different formats so that the business could use it in even co-brand it.
[00:16:15] So that is case study number one. So I had a collection of courses that served a specific audience. And people line up, people literally join my waiting list to license my courses. I only release them once a year in the month of November, and they join a waiting list to license my courses once a year.
[00:16:36] And I have been doing that since the beginning of 2009. And so that’s one way. So if you have a collection of courses, not just one. Think about all of the material you have created, all of the mini videos, all the things that you’ve done, that we can package together into a complete package. And I promise you, when it’s done correctly, they will line up to license that from you.
[00:17:01] So I’ve done this for years and I’m still doing this today. So that’s case study number one. And then case study number two is that I have a full coaching program that includes the courses, but it also includes consulting for corporations and content that that corporation can distribute to all of.
[00:17:21] People, in this case it’s a corporate program, and so they wanna take my content and my courses and use my consulting. And that’s another case study. And I first started doing this back in 2010. So these are two case studies and again, I have five some smaller ones for those of you guys that are just getting started.
[00:17:39] And you can see all five by going to the license to scale.com and you can join that information webinar. So hopefully that gets your wheels spinning a little bit about what you already have. We want to dive into your assets, dive into your method, dive into your process and what you’ve already created, and then have a conversation about who can this really benefit so it’ll benefit your business and it’ll benefit their corporation and their company as well.
[00:18:09] The next thing I wanna kind of transition here because I know that for many of you, this is a new conversation. This is a new topic, is sharing with you that there are three primary ways to license your content, and each one of these ways is going to equal the branding and the future goals for you that you have for your.
[00:18:32] So the first way you can license your content is straight as it is with your branding, your logo all over it. So that would be somebody borrows or quote unquote licenses, rents your course or your class, and they plug it into their lms. They plug it into their system or wherever they’re distributing it, but it’s your logo all over it.
[00:18:54] That’s way number. Way number two is co-branded, where you allow for your them to add their name and logo to it. It could be co-presented by, co-branded by, and that’s a really great way for you to retain the ownership and the authority of that content, but also to really help your licensee level up as well.
[00:19:17] And then the third way you can license your content is completely white labeled. White labeled is where nobody even knows it’s yours. Some operations expect that to happen, so some companies will only license your content if it’s completely white labeled. Some companies only wanna license your content if it’s co-branded, and so every single one of the licensees has their own goals for licensing in your content.
[00:19:42] Now let’s like talk about for a second what is really actually good for you, those three levels. Number one, straight As is, is your trademark. Number two, co-branded, or number three, white labeled. They follow the flow of the value, which means that someone will pay you less to take it straight as your own, a little bit more to co-brand it and a little bit more to white label it, or in some cases, a significantly more amount of money to let white label your content.
[00:20:15] But let’s ask the really important question here. Is that right for you? Is it right for you to have no stake and for nobody to know that that was your genius? And out of all the companies and all the entrepreneurs that I coach to license their courses and their content, very, very few of them go with the white label, even though the end user, the licensee, will pay all the tea in China.
[00:20:43] Is that really worth it to not get recognition for your brand? And so those are some things that I just want you to be thinking about. I know this is an intro to licensing conversation, so I wanted to make sure that you knew about those three primary ways to license your content. So as you’re going through, as you’re thinking about what you have that you can license, you’re also thinking about in what capacity that that could work best for you and what you want your brand to be 2, 6, 10 years down the road.
[00:21:14] And then the last question I wanna answer for you today is, who licenses your content? Who should you license it? This is a very common question. I answer this in clubhouse rooms all the time, and I get emails very often, especially when we are leading up to opening up my license to scale masterclass and people are saying, Well, who, who wants this? Who do I sell it to? So let me give you two very clear examples of who should you license your li your content too. The first one is other companies who are not in direct competition with you. But they serve the same audience and they wanna look better or expand their reach, grow their list, increase their sales, and save time.
[00:21:57] The second opportunity for an audience for you are companies that are exactly like yours, but they’re missing something they need, and they want your expert content. They want turnkey offers, so they wanna be able to take your course and just plug it in to their system and sell it right away. And they wanna have faster, instant results.
[00:22:21] So you can license your content to a company whose audience needs it, but the company is not in direct competition with you. Or you can license your content to a company that is just like yours, but perhaps they don’t have as great of content as you do. Perhaps they need some more content to level up what they already have to shore up their offering, and they need your help to do that.
[00:22:44] So those are two general examples of audiences who you could consider licensing your content. So today we’re talking about how to license your content to scale your business and increase profit. And I talked about a lot of things. We talked about what is licensing. We talked about the benefits of licensing.
[00:23:04] We discussed whether or not you’re ready to license. I gave you two of five different case studies of when I have licensed my content. And hopefully in doing so, your wheels are spinning and you’re thinking about what you already have that you can license or how you can package together. Content courses, programs, your framework, your methodology to license to other people.
[00:23:28] We also talked about three primary ways to license your content, and we talked about who should you license your content to. So we discussed a lot, but I’ll be really honest. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. I have so much more to share with you. So if you are interested in licensing your content or learning more about licensing your content, I highly recommend you join the licensing 1 0 1 training, and it’s totally free where I’m also gonna give you a quick start guide.
[00:24:01] To learn how to get your content licensed faster and to determine if it’s right for you, and you can grab that anytime by visiting license. And then the number two, and then the word scale, S C A L E.com Or of course, all of the show notes will be found in the episode show notes. This is episode number 235.
[00:24:25] And you can visit us at sweetlifeco.com, click on the podcast, and this is number 235. And just so you know, this is part one of a two part podcast episode I’m doing for you. Next week in episode number 236, I’m going to tell you the four types of content that companies line up to license. They will literally line up flood your list, begging for you to license your content to them.
[00:24:56] And there’s four different kinds of content that companies line up to license. We’re talking about that next week on the show. That’s gonna be episode number 236. So thank you so much for joining me. I am very excited to share this. This has been my secret weapon. Many of you might not know. I own two different business consulting firms and this is how my first, very first business consulting firm really broke through that glass ceiling, and I’m so excited to share this with you. It’s been kind of a secret. I’ve been holding in my pocket for quite a few years, and I’ve had the privilege of working with so many businesses, one on one to do this, but we do have our license to scale masterclass.
[00:25:38] Visit licensetoscale.com. If you are ready to take the steps and license your content to hit that amplified level in your business. All right, you guys have an amazing night. Happy July, 2021 when I’m recording this. I hope you’re doing something super fun that you love that really fills you up. I’ll talk to you in another episode soon.
Established entrepreneurs in all phases of business development.
Summary:
There’s a key to success that you’ve heard before, but it’s harder to implement than it sounds. This key is“simplicity”. When you’re able to clarify and simplify the punch list that needs to be done in your business, your implementation will be faster, you’ll be less overwhelmed and you’ll make your life as an entrepreneur much happier.
This week on the show, I’m sharing the simple framework I give to our clients, to get fast clarity and immediate results. When you what to focus on, when to apply that focus, and how… you’ll make massive business gains.
At the end of this episode you will:
Get April Beach’s secret framework for focus and success
Know how to think about business focus in a new and faster way
Understand what you need to do to implement this framework and start taking action in your business
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Start to Scale Up System™ Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Small business owners who are looking to gain control of time and manage family and company growth.
Summary:
Growing a company while raising a family is a lot of work. Oftentimes entrepreneurs feel maxed out, and“Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin breaks your heart. You started your company for freedom, and you know you can obtain it, but you don’t want to wait to sell or years more of hard work before reaping family life’s rewards.
In this episode we break down 3 practical systems you can implement this week, that require minimal work and will gain you maximum time freedom.
At the End of This Episode You Will
See how you can tweak your business model right now to create more time
Know the power of messy days, how to schedule them and why you’ll love them
Know more creative ways you can connect with your #1 team(family)
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi, you guys. And welcome to episode number 206 of the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, and Merry Christmas to those of you who are listening to this live and happy holidays to everybody, regardless of what you celebrate here,
we are celebrating family, and I just hope that this show reaches you and that you’re blessed by what we talk about today. Thank you so much for tuning in with us over the holidays. We’ve never missed an episode so far. And this year with all that’s happened in 2020 is no exception. And so today we are talking about three simple ways to put family first as an entrepreneur and create more time.
So whether you’re listening to this live and it is Christmas week here in 2020, or you’re listening to this down the road, everything we’re talking about is a proven business strategy that you’re going to be able to take to the bank and create more time in your life, whatever you want your life to look like. I know that many of you who’ve listened to this show for years.
You know, that half of the time my teenage boys are walking in and out of the door. On the other side of, of my office recording here, you know, with their friends or to the skate park, you know, wherever it is that you are doing life, we need to create a business model, a lifestyle around enabling that. And so this show fits really well into what we’re talking about right now with the holidays,
with, you know, really cherishing life. I think the one thing that for us, it was just such a hidden blessing that came out of 2020 is just really loving being together at home and cherishing time. The one thing that money can’t buy is a second of time. And so a lot of things we’re talking about here on the show we’ve been talking about for years,
but in this episode is all strategies to control time into a create as much time so that you are enabling family first in your business. This episode is for those of you guys who are in any phase of my start to scale up system. And so that’s phase one through five, whether you’re just thinking about starting a business, or you are a seasoned entrepreneur,
that’s making a huge impact this show. And what we’re talking about here applies to all of you guys who are looking to gain control of time and manage family and company growth. Because the reality is, is a growing a company and raising a family is a lot of work. And oftentimes we as entrepreneurs feel super maxed out right in that song, cats in the cradle,
I’d sing it to you, but I’ve a really terrible voice that song comes on and it’s like heartbreaking. And, and I was actually just listening to it last week with my boys. And one of my kids asked guys, you know, I love song, but what does it actually mean? And I was like, ah, you know, it’s about this dad that worked so hard that he never had time for his kid and he regretted it.
And it was like, Oh, that through the gut, I know we feel that as entrepreneurs. So that’s how we were talking about some strategies here on the show. At the end of this episode, this is what you’re going to know. So you are going to see how you can tweak your current business model right now to create more time like instantly right now,
as you’re listening to the show, we are going to talk about the power of messy days, how you can schedule them and why you will love messy days. And I’m going to share with you some behind the scenes about how I schedule these types of things. And you are going to know more creative ways that you can connect with your number one team,
which is your family. And if you don’t have kids in your listening to this show, this family, your family is your support system, your network, whatever that looks like to you, all of our lives are beautifully different. And so whatever that looks like to you, you’re going to be able to take the strategies that we talk about here on this episode and apply them right away to your business and for all the show notes and the resources we mentioned here in the show,
cruise over to Sweetlife co.com. Again, that Sweetlife co.com click on podcast. And this is episode number two, zero six. Okay. Let’s dive into today’s strategies. It’s going to be a real quick show cause it’s a holiday week, but really powerful. So stick with me.<inaudible> Step number one, in order to create more time in your business for family and lifestyle freedom,
we need to look at your business model. So your business model can either bury you or save you. So the first thing I want you to look at is really how you’re serving clients. How much of that time does that of your time, does that take within a week and understand the demands of delivering certain projects or services places on your time, energy and your ability to focus.
First of all, what do you do? Take a look at what you do. Just kind of picture your, your week and how you’re working with clients. Do you work with people? One-on-one do you work with people, one on group? How does that really look in your life? And right now I want you to assess that. And I want you to understand the time that’s required,
that you are spending currently working with your clients and take a look at this current business model that you have. What does that look like? How do you work with people? Is it one-on-one? Is it one on group? How frequently in the first thing you want to do is you want to ask yourself, you know, Hey, is this working for me or is the actual amount of time that I’m spending with my clients taking away time from family?
Now one might say, well, wow, isn’t that great? You know, you’re, you’re so busy. Your business is so busy. You have so many clients. Yes, that is true, but busy doesn’t equal. Good. So we’re going to give you some tips here to take a look at turning busy-ness into profit and time. And so the first thing I want you to do is I want you to ask yourself,
what can I change right now? So that would be, are you seeing clients five days a week? You and these are just some suggestions for you. Can you block and tackle your client days as an example, I only work with clients privately on Thursdays and Fridays. And I’ve shared this with you guys on the show before, and I’ll share with you again,
because I just get great feedback from this time. Number one, I think, I think best when I consolidate my work. So if I know that Thursdays and Fridays are, or my business coaching days, when I work with entrepreneurs and small businesses, then I get in that mindset and I know what I’m doing. I also then can look at my business model and I can say,
okay, all of these businesses are in this same type of need, this same type of area. And so now I’m going to create groups and I actually scale my business model and I always do this again, reassess it. So I have, if I have five clients that are in the same place and need the same things, I actually will offer a group strategy call for those clients.
It’s great for me, it’s great for them to network with other people and everybody gets the same results. So I want you to look at your business right now and ask yourself, can I number one block and tackle my days. And then within those days, what sort of smart scaling can I do for my business model? So can you create group offers?
Can you create some on-demand content that your clients or your customers might want to absorb, instead of saying the same thing to different people? One-on-one can you create maybe an online resource center for your clients to tap into some of your more, more frequently asked questions to help save some of that time or even create a course or an actual program for them to go through online.
Other strategies for you are creating maybe a membership committee, unity, or an online forum this year can be done with Slack or something easily with boxer, where you create a group of people that you want to connect with and you want to help them Connect with each other, but you don’t want to launch a full-blown membership site because that might not really work with your actual business model.
So those are some suggestions of things that you can look at right now in your business, so that you can say, Hey, listen, what can I actually change immediately? What can I actually group together to save my time? And what are the dates phase where I would like to serve my clients? Another reason I haven’t mentioned it here, but why I serve clients on Thursdays and Fridays is because of the entire beginning of my week is on business building content creation and actual strategy.
And so I take care of the business building inside in the beginning of my week, when my mind is fresh. For example, I’m recording this podcast episode on a Monday, usually record on Mondays or Tuesdays. When I know that I can put really powerful, highly impacting content. And then I take care of serving my clients because once I go in and I start immersing myself in my client’s businesses,
it fully takes over all my thought processes. So that’s one of the reasons why I serve clients towards the end of the week. And then I have that weekend break in between. So action item. Number one is take a look at your current business model. Can you group together the days that you serve your customers, serve your clients, and can you make some changes to how you’re serving your clients?
Creating group offers a membership community, or even just an online forum and really take a look at controlling instead of spreading yourself out throughout the week, consolidating your work into different types of work that you were doing at a time. That’s really strategy. Number one, within that same strategy. We talked about this a few episodes ago on the show within that same strategy,
you should be planning your year in advance. So planning what you’re selling when you’re selling it. So, you know, we have a big macro plan and then we have a micro plan week by week. So you really should be taking a look at what’s happening for the year to come. Regardless of when you’re listening to this episode, you can do this at any point in time and really know what you’re selling when you’re selling it and what demands that’s going to put on your life and your family,
okay. Strategy, or I should say, tip number two is my favorite. And I call it for the love of messy days. This is what a messy day is. A messy day is a day that I have scheduled in the middle of my week. My messy day is always Wednesday. And that day is a break between my strategy and my content creation at the beginning of the week.
And my client service at the end of the week, messy days are totally to be spontaneous. And this is an amazing thing. It’s especially amazing if you have teenagers like I do. So on my messy days, I really don’t schedule any client meetings, but this is the day I schedule like the kids’ teeth cleaning, or if I need to stop by the grocery store or any appointments like I would have for myself,
like going to get my eyelashes glued on or a haircut, all of those things are always scheduled on a Wednesday. This is also the day where I am completely able to be spontaneous with my kids. Do I have to get work done? Yes. I still work on messy days. So Wednesday is my favorite day to be this day. But it’s also the day that,
you know, if my kids just want to sit down and, and have a cup of coffee and hang out where I always don’t have somewhere to be, I always can make sure that that is in that day. And they literally throw the plan out the window again. Do you have a list of things you have to get done on messages? Yes.
Are they so regimented and scheduled? Not at all is one of the things I love doing with my kids on messy days is we have this taco wagon down the street and it’s just this amazing Mexican food that’s here in Lafayette, Colorado love taco wagon, and the kids will just be hungry. I’ll say, Hey, let’s, let’s go to taco wagon and grab some tacos and it’s super spontaneous and they love it.
We listen to music. We play music messy days are the days where I can just stop and walk out of my office and share songs with the kids and listening to what they’re listening to, or watch YouTube videos or sit down and play call of duty, which by the way I suck at on Xbox. But I try, you know, those are the things we do on messy days.
And so messy days are a day sometime in your week, if you can’t fit it in every single week, maybe plan and schedule a messy day every two weeks. And again, this is the time for you to know this is when you can fit in your haircuts teeth, cleaning, having to run an errand, maybe go to the post office. But it’s also the day where you can totally stop and have a cup of coffee with a friend who just might really need you call your aunt on the phone,
who you haven’t talked to in forever. And all those things that get scheduled out because the schedule is too regimented. Messy days is totally to not be regimented, but you will love it because you’ll actually get more work done in the other days. When you know, you have your messy day, wherever that may land in your week. And then the third tip I have for you is to really over communicate with your family over communicate with your team.
Again, whoever that is, it can be, you know, young, old, it can be your dog. You know, I used to communicate with my toddlers, my boys, when I was working from home and say, okay, you know, mommy really has a lot of work to do for the next two hours. But after that, we’ll sit down and we’ll watch Mickey mouse together or whatever.
And so as long as you’re over communicating, what’s about to happen with your team. Then everybody is going into that with open eyes and they understand how they can support you in that process. Again, it doesn’t matter if they’re three or if they’re 35, they all understand that. So some suggestions on how to over communicate with everybody, but in a way,
that’s not going to take you too much time because that’s would be against the point of this whole entire episode is number one. Every single Sunday night, just have a quick weekly powwow. We do this all the time. We go through the week, we look at our calendars, see what’s coming up and everybody’s just on the same page. It literally takes five minutes and that’s for a family of five to do,
but it helps to just communicate and what’s to come. It also helps us all mentally prepare for the week ahead and how we want to show up in that week. We also have a nightly pregame. And so a nightly pregame again, literally takes like one minute saying, okay, this is what the morning is going to look like. This is what I have today.
This is what you know, you have going on this next day. This is what this looks like for our family. Let’s again, have everybody be on the same page. It’s also the place where I can take a minute. If my kids need to talk about school or things they’re struggling with and help them strategize a plan to, you know, maybe make up some schoolwork,
which frankly has been a lot since everybody’s doing online school and it’s a freaking mess. I won’t go down that rabbit hole, but it’s a time for me to really connect with my boys and hear like, yeah, I just have this, I have this math test tomorrow. I have no clue what I’m doing and really be able to focus in on them.
And I know that they really appreciate this nightly pre-game as well. Couple of things we also do and we’ve done for years and years and years is we calendar share. We’ve also taught our boys how to add things to our family calendar. So we have one Gmail address where we manage all of our kid and family things. And so anytime one of our kids has something they want to do.
They want to ride to the skate park or they want to go sleep over with a friend or whatever it may be. My boys can add that event and share it to our family calendar. So without even talking, we all know what everybody wants and needs over a period of time. And so everybody’s on the same page without taking any time whatsoever. And you might be asking like,
okay, how do I do this? My kids are five. Well, of course this is age appropriate, but I will say that we started teaching our boys to add things to our family, shared Gmail calendar when they were as young as nine years old. So these kids can do anything with tech, right? So you would be very surprised at the wishes we receive on our family calendar.
And it’s really cool. That’s how our kids get to do things because it’s planned in a way that works for everybody. And then the last suggestion that I would have for you is a family chat or a family WhatsApp channel or family Voxer. If you’ve never tried any of that, those are all awesome places to create a group chat where everybody’s on the same page.
And you as the business owner can even just shoot, instead of calling this person and telling this person to pick up that person, you can just get on your boxer and just say, okay, you know, I’m running 10 minutes late from this meeting. We’re having chicken for dinner. I’ll see you soon, whatever it is that you need to say,
you can, you can put in a box or chat to your family. And it’s a really efficient way to actually create more time. Again, if your family is, is a roommate, if your family is, you know, your other business team, or if it’s friends, whoever your people are, these are three simple ways to put those people,
to put your family first as an entrepreneur and create more time in your business. And so here’s what we talked about today. We talked about how does your current business model and know how to group your days together and what you can tweak and scale and your business model right now, in order to create more time each week, we also talked about messy days,
why you need messy days, why you’ll love them, why your family will love your messy days and really why it just frankly, it’s going to make you think, wow, I’m so glad I’m an entrepreneur instead of wow, crap. This is way harder than I thought it would be. Is there ever going to be a light at the end of this,
you know, constant tunnel of demands, messy days, fix that, like in an instant. So if any of these things I can say, I love my messy days the most. And then the third thing is think of more creative ways to connect with your family, whether it’s calendar share or Voxer and different ways to communicate, whether it’s a weekly powwow or a nightly powwow.
We talked about that as well. I hope you found some of these suggestions helpful to you and your team, your people, all the people that love you. And you know what it’s really special to have people in your life that love you so much. They just want more of you and they need more of you. That’s a gift. And you know,
I know we’re also grateful for that. So it’s really important as small business owners that we take strategies like this business model, calendar share and more practical lifestyle strategies in order to create this time and in life freedom, I’m here to help. I’m here to support you. It’s what I do here on the show. I’m a business strategist, but I’ve built multiple companies with kids.
I think I launched my first business when my youngest was six weeks old. So I totally get it. Whatever phase you’re in of parenting. Thank you so much for listening to this show. Again, happy holidays. Happy new year, let’s kick 2020, like to the curb behind us. And I’m so excited to start 2021 with you. We have a lot of amazing things coming up on the show,
including commitment week 20, 21, five days. I’m only 10 minutes a day to completely lay out your entire 20, 21 business plan coming up here next week. And so I dive into commitment week 2021 with us next week’s episode number 207. All right, you guys, I will talk to you soon. Have an awesome day.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs who are thinking about launching a podcast.
Summary:
When it comes to podcasting, everyone thinks ads are the way to monetize, but in this episode I’m breaking down other ways to grow your business with a podcast, and how to choose which is right for you. Podcasting is a great way to become known, grow your following and build relationships with your audience. Podcasting is also a great way to fill your coaching services, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
Tune into this show to hear behind the scenes of the business of podcasting, how to use a podcast for business exposure, and how to monetize your podcast in the best way for your goals and capacity. For most people, monetizing a podcast is a no-brainer but figuring out how to go about doing it in the right way for your company can be tricky. This show solves that issue.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have a clear understanding if you should launch a podcast
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs who are thinking about launching a podcast.
Summary:
When it comes to podcasting, everyone thinks ads are the way to monetize, but in this episode I’m breaking down other ways to grow your business with a podcast, and how to choose which is right for you. Podcasting is a great way to become known, grow your following and build relationships with your audience. Podcasting is also a great way to fill your coaching services, but it’s definitely not for everyone.
Tune into this show to hear behind the scenes of the business of podcasting, how to use a podcast for business exposure, and how to monetize your podcast in the best way for your goals and capacity. For most people, monetizing a podcast is a no-brainer but figuring out how to go about doing it in the right way for your company can be tricky. This show solves that issue.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have a clear understanding if you should launch a podcast
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for businesses who are investigating the idea of launching a membership community.
Summary:
This is a great show for businesses who are investigating the idea of launching a membership community. If you want to increase profit and serve more people at a time in the form of a membership community, this show will give you more clarity on how that type of program structure will work in your business and your life.
Membership programs deliver reoccurring information, content, trainings and/or engagement to clients on an ongoing basis. But, to create an excellent membership program that keeps people engaged, with ongoing monthly reoccurring revenue, you need to do a few things right. In this episode, we’re talking about those things…
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand membership offer structures
Get insider help on how to keep your members engaged
Have a structure to scale your time for more money with less work
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for coaches and consultants who are ready to grow and increase sales.
Summary:
When it comes to the business of coaching or consulting, 1-1 services dominate the market, However, coaching people 1-1 takes a great deal of time and you’ll hit a financial and physical ceiling. This mistake often causes coaches to stay stuck in busy work and lifestyle cages and then many burn out completely. Instead, we’re diving into the business model of group coaching and how to shift your business from 1-1 to 1-group.
At the end of this episode you will:
Hear how easy it is to go from 1-1 to 1-group
Know why your 1-1 clients will like group coaching better
Have the steps to move into group coaching services
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to level up and stop copying others. Listeners who tap into this show want to get the formula to choose the perfect online business offers, courses, masterminds or coaching programs that give them the life they want.
Summary:
This is the second episode in our series called “The Ultimate Guide To Your Perfect Business Model; For Experts, Coaches and Consultants”. In these shows we unpack the process of intentional business design, offer engineering, and business architecture to build a business for high-profit, deep impact, lifestyle results.
In this show we break down the structure of online courses and how to use them to grow and scale your business. We talk about the history of online courses, why many today are failing, the types of online courses you may want to consider and how to use online courses the correct way to increase profit.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the two primary ways online courses are delivered
Know what audiences are currently buying online courses
Know if online courses should be part of your business model architecture
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to level up and stop copying others. Listeners who tap into this show want to get the formula to choose the perfect online business offers, courses, masterminds or coaching programs that give them the life they want.
Summary:
This episode kicks off a series called “The Ultimate Guide To Your Perfect Business Model; For Experts, Coaches and Consultants”. In these shows we unpack the process of intentional business design, offer engineering, and business architecture to build a business for high-profit, deep impact, lifestyle results.
In this kick off to the series we discuss what business modeling is, who needs to go through this process and why this process is the fastest way to get the life and business you’re working hard for. You’ll also get April’s 7 Questions That Lead To Your Perfect Business Model and Offer Types.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know how to use the power of business modeling to get what you want
Access April’s 7 Questions That Lead To Your Perfect Business Model and Offer Types
Understand where in your business you may need to make changes and alter your offer model
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach Hi guys. I’m so excited to talk to you today. This is one of my favorite topics. Actually, we’re going to be moving into my favorite topic for the next couple of weeks on the show.
We are kicking off a series here on this wheat life entrepreneur and business podcast that is all geared towards helping you make sure that you are designing your offers and your business structure and your business model correctly in a way that works for you. And this is such an important time to do it. It’s the end of the year. We’re about to roll over into 2022.
And so I want to make sure that you’re fully equipped to see the business model, the offer structure and the business design. That’s going to equal that lifestyle and the profit that you want moving forward. And so the next couple of shows are totally dedicated to helping you tap into the ultimate guide, the ultimate database for you to design your perfect business model.
And so that’s what we’re talking about. Kicking off today’s show. This is episode number 250 here on the podcast, and I’m April beach host of this show. Thank you so much for being a listener to us. We’re going to be rolling on five years of producing here and just a couple of months. And I just appreciate you guys so much. So first of all,
I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate all of your listenership over the last four and a half years. So this show sharing the show with your friends. We don’t have any advertising here intentionally on the sweet life podcast. I hate listening to podcasts and they’re like, hang on just a second. Let me share somebody. Else’s unrelated message so I can make more money.
Totally drives me crazy. And so we intentionally have refused advertisers here on this show, and we will continue to do that because our goal is giving you business trainings and coaching that you can take to the bank. And we would really appreciate if you’d share this show with your friends and if you have never done so before, if you could just please leave us a review on apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts,
that would just really mean a lot to us. So thank you so much for tuning in I’m April beach. As I said here at the host of this show and founder of this wheat live company and everything we do as a company is working with entrepreneurs like you to design your business. Your suite of offers your customer journey, roadmap, your signature offers in your programs to deliver high profit deep impact lifestyle freedom.
So if you would like to work with us to apply, to join our business growth programs, please cruise over to sweet life co.com. And I would love to personally meet with you. Okay. So back to today’s show here is what you can expect. Again, this is episode number 250, and there is a very important tool that goes along with this episode in the next couple of episodes,
that tool is an 18 page, totally free 18 page ultimate guide to online business models. And so before we get started, you can grab that guide in two different, very easy ways. First of all, you can go to sweet life co.com, click on the podcast and go to this episode. It’s right there at number 250, and there will be a link for you to download the ultimate guide.
Totally free to grab that. Or if you’re on the go, you can text the word guide, very simple, just lowercase the word guide, and you want to text it to this number. That number is 8 0 5 2 4 5 0 8 8 0. So just text the word guide to that number and I’ll send you a link so you can go download it there. Okay. There’s going to be an important tool moving forward because the ultimate guide summarizes all of the business models,
the most common business models for coaches and consultants and experts in service-based businesses in the online space and why this is so important as I’m literally saving you 20 years of time by giving you this guide, I have ran a business model and every single one of these most common ways. And so I break down in this guide, the structure of that business model,
everything from courses to masterminds, to live events, to membership communities, to group coaching programs, I break it all down for you, but then I also tell you exactly how it’s going to affect your life because it’s all fine and good and dandy, right? When we see it structurally on paper, but in the end of the day, I’m a lifestyle business designer and you went into entrepreneurship to change your life.
So let’s make sure that the business model you’re choosing is in fact, going to equal that lifestyle that you want. So I literally drop in 20 years of online business experience to you in this one ultimate guide. So you can see the structure of the business model, and I’ll tell you exactly what it’s going to look like for your life here on the next couple of shows.
We’re going to be really diving in more to specific business models and having a conversation about them in depth. So again, go grab that ultimate guide. It’s totally there for you and getting you not, it will save you decades of time. That’s why I created it. Okay. So in this episode, this is what you can expect. This is a great show for those of you guys who want to level up and stop copying what others are doing.
Maybe you’ve joined a lot of programs. You have somebody said, oh, you should launch a course or, oh, you should host a membership community. And it’s not really worked out for you, or you have thought about doing those things, but you’re not exactly sure whether or not that’s going to be the right solution for your business. So when you tap into this show,
you are going to get this formula specifically here on this one episode for how to choose a perfect online business offers courses and masterminds. And I actually give you my seven questions to ask yourself that lead to your perfect business model and offer types. So I’m going to tell you those seven questions to ask yourself as well, to get even more clarity. And I’m going to dive into some of the actual workshopping that we do inside the ultimate guide.
So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in together. Okay guys. So here we go. Episode number 250. This episode kicks off a series called the ultimate guide to your perfect business model for coaches, experts, and consultants. And these next couple of shows unpack the process of intentional business design, offer engineering and business architecture to build a business for high profit,
deep impact lifestyle Results. And so let’s go ahead and kick off this series together and let’s start with just the basics. Okay. So the first question we’re going to talk about in answer is what is a business model? I was just speaking and teaching at a retreat in Costa Rica last week. And I was teaching on business model and business design. And I asked the women in the room,
you know, who can explain to me what a business model is in. Nobody could answer that question. And so if you’re sitting here and you’re listening, you’re thinking, oh gosh, I don’t really know what a business model is. You’re not alone. All right. So let’s kind of start at the basics and it’s actually not, is overwhelming and complicated as it may seem.
So the term business model refers to your plan for making a profit by the types of products and services that you sell. Also known as your business model is the way that you serve your clients and make money. So examples of common business models for coaches and consultants and service-based providers and experts are coaching one-on-one group coaching, online courses, membership communities, masterminds,
retreats, live virtual events, and more, those are types of business models. So as we dive in, especially over the next couple of weeks, when I’m talking about, Hey, how to find your perfect business model, what I’m really saying is, should you relaunch a course? Should you launch a membership community? Should you have a mastermind? Should you be doing live virtual events?
Should you have a retreat? Those are all the questions that I would love for you to have more information to answer for yourself. And that’s why we’re doing this series. So if that sounds good, let’s keep going. So the next topic that I want to talk about regarding business modeling is the power and the importance and the depth of how your business model affects your life.
And if you know me, this is not a surprise. If you don’t know me, let me make it really, really clear. I am a life first business designer. That means that for my own companies and for people that I work with, the very, very most important thing is like saying, Hey, listen, this is all great to make money,
but money doesn’t necessarily buy happiness. So let’s make sure the business we’re engineering is in fact and give you that lifestyle that you want. And that’s my superpower. That’s my area of expertise. I want you to know that your business model is a primary driver to the life you want to have, but the reality is you guys, very few entrepreneurs are actually aware of that.
They just think I’m going to be happy. When I, when I launch a course and sell a thousand seats, or I’m going to be happy when I have a successful mentorship program, that’s not it at all. The way to happiness is business model design. And then we reverse engineer it into high sales, but it really starts with picking the right business model.
If you do not have the right business model for your life, you are not going to find that happiness that you hoped to find in entrepreneurship. And this is for you if you’re brand new in business, but I’ll be honest. The majority of clients I work with have been in business for years and years, and they’re ready to scale their business. And they really want to intentionally make sure the programs they’re building in the future are done really well and mindfully,
and are going to give them the results they want. So whether you’re new or you’ve been doing this for 10 years, this is something that I want to make sure that you’re aware of the power and the importance of this. You’re a business model directs the cadence of your year, your quarter, your month, your week and your day. So your business model is going to determine how you flow through your year and your quarter and your week and your day and your months and your time and all the things it drives,
what you do, who you do it for and how you do it. And so let’s make sure you really, really love those things. And then it also drives your time and your schedule and the expectations that others have of you. Those are all the things that your business model does. And so it’s incredibly important that we’re picking the right one for you.
So designing that perfect business model is our super power. And that’s why I’m going to geek out on this over the next couple of weeks, because it’s pretty much the primary gem and Juul that we start working with clients on when they come into our business growth and mentorship programs. And so I want to make sure that you are tapping into this as well.
Okay. And then the next question that we need to answer is what business models are available to you? The most common business models for coaches, consultants, mentors, experts, especially over the last 17 years are online and virtual coaching and consulting, whether that’s one-on-one or one on group, we also have online courses and those courses are either evergreen, which means they’re available at any point in time,
they’re prerecorded, or they can be taught live. We also have memberships and communities masterminds, low ticket item grabs that business model we’re going to dive into. And I’m really excited to unpack that business model, where everything is just like a, a smaller mini offer and a mini price. And then of course are also wide virtual events and in-person retreats or in-person events,
product based business models, which we are not just so, you know, really clear up front. We are not diving into product based business models because this podcast is strictly designed for service-based entrepreneurs, coaches, consultants, and experts. But we are going to be talking a little bit about products within the business models. And so those are the most common online business models and they are constantly evolving and as they evolve,
one of the things that’s happened over the last couple of years is the business models. We’re now designing with our clients are hybrid offers starting in around 2016, we started designing what’s called hybrid models. So it’s a combination of some of these primary models that we talked about. We’re also going to be talking about hybrid offers and really how to engineer the perfect hybrid offer here on the show in the series as well.
So those, those are the business models that are most common. Now, there are so many cool outside of the box, things that are happening. And as things like virtual reality come into play in different technologies. These are going to continue to grow, but here in the show, we’re going to start with the core business models for online coaches, consultants,
and service-based providers. So you can consider those and how they would scale with your business. And so the next question is really to ask yourself, what’s happening right now in your space, you are an expert in your field or you’re becoming an expert in your field. And so what is available? What are people commonly buying or what are, how are the ways services are being delivered in your field right now?
And so, first of all, I want you just to take a second and do like a mental inventory of how other people are buying your type of services currently in your area of expertise and whether or not they have, or maybe they don’t have a type of business model that you might want to create for yourself, just because it doesn’t exist doesn’t mean that you can’t create it.
So I want to encourage you in that. So what business models are available to you truly depends on first of all, the content that you’re delivering. So your content is going to dictate your business model, that’s rule number one. And that’s also the number one mistake of not doing that, that coaches and consultants make is not letting the content drive the model,
what you’re doing, what you’re teaching is going to dictate the best way to deliver that to people. So the formula, and this is the formula I teach, and it’s so fun to teach it. The formula is connecting the way you want your lifestyle to function and your area of expertise in your content. And that’s going to give us your perfect business model.
And so let’s go ahead and move forward a little bit. How is it then that we take this business model and really start designing it for you? So your business model can be one for one product or service that you offer. And you can have a suite of offers in your business. So collection of services and programs in your business, and each of them can have totally different business model.
You don’t have to just have one. So we’re talking about business modeling and we’re relating this to one program or one offer one signature offer, which I love to teach on. As you guys know signature offers and signature programs, or you can have one business model for all of your offers. And if your offers or your coaching programs take people through a long-term journey of progression in working with you,
you can have one business model. That’s actually broken up into different phases of growth that people would continue to grow with you. That’s how our programs work. And that’s some of the ways that we’ve been engineering our programs for and with our clients. And it’s really powerful because when we’re doing that, we’re creating a longterm roadmap and a client journey that keeps clients with you for years and years and years.
So we have a ton of clients that have worked with us for over 10 years. The reason why is because we’re constantly developing the different step to keep them growing more and more and more, and you can have one business model that is all of the steps in a longterm journey. Or we can just talk about one business model for one offer of yours.
So I want to make sure I’m sharing that distinction for you. If you’re thinking, wow, is this business model just for one program or one coaching program or one offer, or is it for everything you choose? It can be either or so here’s some questions. And I want you to break down these questions and I want you to think about them.
And this is how we’re going to end this week’s episode, just processing these, these questions are also put in a worksheet for you in the ultimate guide to business models. So make sure you download that, but I’m going to share them with you so your brain can start processing them right now, as we wrap up this week show. So I want you to answer these questions as if it were five years from now.
If you can’t figure out five years from now, go to three. If you can’t figure out three years from now, I want you to go to the next 18 months. Okay. But start out as far as you can. And I want you to imagine yourself there. If you’re building a business with intention for time, freedom, geographic, freedom,
and freedom to scale your services in a way that’s really going to make you happy. These are important questions to ask yourself, question number one. How many hours per week do I like to work? So again, try to focus five years from now, maybe three, you have to come in close enough and you can do 18 months. How many hours per week do you really like to work?
How many do you want to be working in the future? How do you really love to serve your clients? So I want you to ask yourself, how do I really love to serve my clients? Do you like meeting with them? One-on-one do you like coaching in groups? What really fires you? How do others love working with me? So do you have a team working with you in the future or is it only a solo gig?
That’s question number three, question number four. Do you move and travel or do you stay in one place again? This is in the future question. Number five. Do you work at home or do you work in an office? What does that really look like to you? What’s the number six. What are you really good at? We had ask yourself,
what am I really, really good at? And what content are you delivering in your signature program? Or you’re going to drop her. And then of course you need to ask yourself, what does my perfect client actually really need from me? So how did they need me to work with them? How do they need me to show up for them? And those are seven key questions of starting the process of business model design.
And there is an eighth question in there that is the most, most important question of all. And that question is in the worksheet for you. So make sure you go ahead and download that. Now, like I talked about over the next couple of weeks, we’re going to be diving into this entire series, all about business modeling, all about business architecture and design.
I love this. We have done a ton of shows on this over the last five years, because this is my area of expertise, but I’m super excited to do them in a series for you. So you can go through and follow with me and process them as we go. And each episode is going to focus on one business model type, and I’m going to give you the pros and the cons of that business model type.
And I’m going to tell you the lifestyle Results of that particular business model and whether it help you figure out whether or not you’re you would love that. So my goal is to save you literally at least five years of time, launching the wrong kind of offer in this show. And you’re going to be able to go through and choose which one’s going to be right for you.
So you can stop copying what others are doing and truly design a business. That’s going to give you the profit and the life that you want. And the reality is this, though, your business is totally going to change just as you change. So by fully considering your longterm business model, revisiting it and revising it as needed for your life and as your life changes and taking control of the circumstances by pre-planning and building services that can scale.
You’ll always have a business it’s built around your life, not your life around your business. And of course, because you know me, I’m always on a plane. I love to travel. If you’re like me, or if you want to be like me, if you’re building a business, when the, with the intention of time, freedom, geographic,
freedom, and freedom to scale your services in a way that makes you happy, then these are the episodes to make sure you’re tuning into. And frankly, that’s what our business growth programs are designed for. So if you love to work with us, then you are more than welcome to apply. You can cruise over to sweet life co.com and you can check out our wave makers program,
our, your signature offer masterclass and our business launch programs as well. We would love to hear from you and connect with you and really work through the process as to whether or not working with us is the right fit. And of course you have these podcast episodes to eat up and take to the bank. Thank you so much for tuning in with us this week.
This is Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, episode number 250, and all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and simply click on podcast. And that is also where you can download the ultimate guide to business models. And last thing again, you want to get it by text, just simply text the word guide to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. Okay. That’s it for today?
Have an awesome week. And I will talk to you soon.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who need to generate leads and grow your list.
Summary:
You need a constant flow of new leads coming into your business, but marketing can be overwhelming and time consuming. Entrepreneurs spin their wheels all the time, wondering what to do, where to post and how to find their perfect clients. In this show we’re simplifying the process of marketing, but breaking up the 4 way to find clients. The greatest news is that you only need to nail one of these ways to build a thriving expert, coaching or consulting business.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the 4 ways to find clients
Have powerful clarity in which is the best for your company
Level up your marketing and strategy in a simple way that works
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for introverted coaches and consultants, who want to build a group program, but don’t love being on video.
Summary:
In this show we’re breaking down a new structure of offering a coaching program via audio only. There are many traditional coaching program models that include video, live streaming or in person face to face. But not all great coaches want to be on video and that’s okay. Today I’m dropping the framework to create an audio-only based coaching program that delivers great results.
At the end of this episode you will:
Discover an audio-based coaching model
Tech recipe for this type of offer
Know how to create an audio-only offer utilizing clubhouse, Kajabi and marketing with Instagram
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife Entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey guys, and welcome back to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach, and I’m super stoked to be talking to you yet another week here on the show, delivering you business coaching and strategies that other coaches will charge you thousands for.
And so we love giving you step-by-step processes and orders of operation and frameworks, and literally strategies that you can totally take to the bank right away in your business. All of the show notes and everything that we’re talking about, or if you frankly just want to check out more about this Sweetlife company and how we work with experts and coaches and consultants to build your business,
you can do so by visiting Sweetlife co.com, it’s the best place to find all of the resources, including the show notes for this podcast. This is episode number 248. And all of the details of what we’re talking about will be found there as well. So let me give you the behind the scenes story about why I decided to do a podcast episode on this particular topic.
So I was hosting another one of the whiteboard strategy sessions that we do within our community and a woman came in and she’s a coach. She’s a health coach. And she was really honest. She said, you know, I just really don’t love being on video. And I appreciated her honesty because in this whiteboard strategy session, we were talking about the importance of creating programs and offers that really highlight your strengths and that you love to deliver.
And just because everybody says, and I I’m holding like air quotes, while I’m saying this, everybody says you should be doing video and you need to be on live. That actually is not necessarily the perfect fit for you. So I want to have a conversation with the rest of you guys about how to build your coaching programs that are totally audio only based because I am a firm believer that we can engineer anything that you want when it comes to your offers.
We can take a look at how you want your life to be and how you want the cadence to function as far as how you meet with people in what model, what mode of delivery does that actually look like for you that you’re going to love. And of course, that’s going to give your, your clients, your people transformational results. And so it was a really cool conversation we had in this whiteboard session that I wanted to bring to you in this episode.
So if that sounds good to you, that’s what we’re going to go ahead and dive into for those of you guys that are new to the show and like to tag the episodes with a phase of business that you were in. So this particular episode is for you in really any of the launch and scale phases of business, if you are not sure what business phase you’re in,
just cruise over to our website@sweetlifeco.com forward slash quiz. And you can take a little mini quiz finding out exactly what stage of business you’re at and a whole entire checklist of what you should be working on based on your business phase. So this is for those of you guys who are either just launching your first coaching program, or maybe you’ve had like a ton of programs before,
and you want to shore up what you have. You want to clean up what you have and really launch what I call your leading program or offer. This is really, really good for you guys for also introverts who don’t want to be on video. And you might hesitate to even be on Instagram because you don’t want to put yourself out there, but you really want and need to connect with your people.
That video just might not be the right way for you to do that. And what’s cool about what we’re going to unpack in today’s show is video might not be the right way for your clients to receive information from you as well. So those are the things that we can dive into. At the end of this episode, you can expect to discover the audio based coaching model.
You can also discover that I’m going to unpack for you, the tech recipe for this type of offer. I’m going to give you specific software that we believe could be a great fit for you as you were building out this type of offer. And you’re going to know how to actually structure not only the offer part of it, but I’m also giving you tips and recommendations on how you can lead people into your audio offer in a way that really aligns with an audio only type coaching program.
So again, this is episode number 248, and let’s go ahead and dive in Okay, you guys, in this show, I’m going to totally break down for you. This new structure of offering a coaching program. That is audio only here is why this is so important. There are so many people out there that are launching traditional coaching models that include video include live streaming include face-to-face.
I love those things. So I do those things, but I totally get and appreciate that. You may not. So what we’re going to unpack is this different structure of a coaching program that is audio only based because not all great coaches want to be on video and it’s totally okay. And so the framework of how we create an audio only coaching program is what we’re going to talk about.
It can still deliver amazing results to your people. And so let’s kind of unpack some of the considerations. If you were thinking about whether or not this is a good fit for you. So when we are creating your coaching programs, your offers, it’s really, really important that your offers highlight your strengths. So if you are ready, don’t want to be on video,
but you’re really good at what you do. You’re a really great coach or a consultant in video. It just might even actually take away from what a great expert you are. Because if you get nervous on video, if you just don’t really feel comfortable on video, then we don’t want that to take away from the expertise that you do bring to the table.
And if your trepidation, or if you’re just lack of comfort with video, is that big of a deal. Then that is actually a really important conversation. I think that we should have. And I know that there are so many people out there that’ll tell you, oh, you just have to get over it. Oh, you just have to practice a bunch of times.
Now, let me say that is totally true. There are very few people that just come out the gate super confident on video. All right, there is a learning curve to video. And I do promise you that the more you do it, the more comfortable you’ll get, and then you’ll just rock it. I promise you that. But if you just don’t want to do video flat out,
you only want to work on it. It’s just not even what you’re thinking. It’s not on your scope anywhere. Then this is a great conversation to have, because we need to highlight your strengths. When we do something that takes away from your expertise that you deliver to people, because you might build forced into a certain way of doing it. It can really cause problems.
It can cause sales problems. It can cause connection problems with your audience when you just really aren’t being authentic and true to you. So I am just a huge advocate of engineering offers and programs that are really, really good for you. And so I think in that process, we always not only think we do in this process as a team, when we’re working with clients,
have a conversation, just really unpacking what actually feels good to you. And so that’s why I’m really excited to dive into this. And when we’re talking about video, let’s also talk not only about you let’s talk about your clients. If the clients you are serving might not also feel comfortable on video. Let’s say you don’t feel comfortable on video and you launch a coaching program where everybody has to come in on video and see each other’s faces.
If the clients you’re serving are of a personality, which is a little bit more private introverted, they might actually not want to go on video to learn from you. And so it’s important to not only highlight your strengths, but also to understand psychologically where your clients are as well. And so this is another great reason to talk about an audio program. And then even if you love video,
even if your clients love video, right video, video video, it’s a big party of our video. Even if that’s the case, having a conversation about an audio only coaching program is really, really important because we are in an audio era and we’ve been in a video area in that era, and that will continue. But we’re also in an audio area with the introduction of apps like clubhouse in so many more people getting into podcasting.
And the reason why they love these things is because they can learn and implement and function while they’re on the go. So I love just having the conversation about an audio only coaching program, even if video, isn’t a problem, just to talk about disrupting the way things are done to find a better way. I think it’s a great idea and it doesn’t have to be just because you don’t like video.
So those are all the things I want to dive into today. So first of all, let’s dive into the first part of this. How on earth, you know, as you’re saying, how on earth April, do I deliver an audio only coaching program? So obviously the prerequisite to this is to make sure that your whole entire content for your program is laid out.
So we’re not even going to talk about that on today’s show. That’s what we teach in my OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS. Those are the things we break apart with you on numerous other podcast episodes. If you’re a struggling to create the actual content of your leading offer, just cruise over to our website and you can literally search our podcast website, just type in the words,
leading offer. And it will populate all of the podcast episodes that I have talked about that and taught about that. So obviously I want to make sure that you’re not missing that piece of it, but saying that that prerequisite is met. Let’s say you’ve engineered the content that goes in your offer, and you now need to build it out into a model to distribute it,
to infuse the content into your people. And so when we’re talking about delivering the coaching program and audio only here are some software suggestions so that you can look into that, see what works best for you. These are only suggestions. Some of these we do endorse and use as a company and others. I haven’t even tried, but I’ve heard great things about them.
So I’m going to give you a couple of different ways here, where you can actually deliver the audio side of your coaching business. So the first thing is Kajabi. You know, we work really closely with Kajabi. We do endorse Kajabi is a matter of fact, and I haven’t really even talked about it on the podcast. We now have a completely separate division of my consulting business called Sweetlife digital.
And in Sweetlife digital, all we do is build out websites and online courses and coaching programs for Kajabi. So we are in, and our sleeves are rolled up and then Kajabi. We really like these guys and all of our systems have been built with Kajabi since 2013, 2014. We’re actually founding partners with them. One of the things that Kajabi does really well is helps you to deliver audio content and they did it way back in the beginning.
And honestly, they took it away for a little while. And that was a bummer where you couldn’t really upload audio. Well, they’ve just put that back. And so you can actually create a complete online course as you would. And if you don’t want to do this slide and you don’t want to be in video don’t, you can just record an audio file,
just like I am recording this audio file to in a podcast form. And you can upload the audio of your coaching as modules inside Kajabi. And this is a really, really cool idea. And you can even design it and have obviously graphic design in there because we need to have some sort of design in the back end of that program, but you don’t have to do video.
And it’s really important. I want you to know that, that there actually is a structure in place that’s done really well in a software that you don’t have to do any video at all. So that is tech option. Number one, number two, you can actually do a paid podcast. So I don’t know if you guys have ever thought about this before,
but there are podcasts that are free. Like this one that’s available to everybody, but you can actually do a paid only podcast where people subscribe and they pay to hear your coaching or hear your teaching. And in this case, we’re talking about just a coaching program where you could deliver your whole entire coaching program, but not in a platform like an online courses platform.
You could deliver it in a private law, locked down podcast. And one of the software that we like, so this is tech option. Number three is my friend, Carla white. I met her on clubhouse and I’ve been able to meet her in person. A couple of times, she actually has an amazing software called hero FM and hero FM, I will say in full transparency,
I’ve never tested it. I’ve never used it, but I like her as a person. She’s super cool. You guys, and I know the heart behind what she’s creating and she’s worked very hard to develop this software and I’ll make sure a link to this is in the show notes for you guys. And so you can go check this out, but hero FM is a platform specifically for paid podcasts only so that you can lock down and you can protect your intellectual property behind a paywall.
And so it’s a very, very cool idea. And her software is built specifically just for that. And then the fourth option I want to give you. And I know this sounds very old school. Okay? So don’t laugh at me when I’m going to say this, but this works all right. If you are considering doing an audio only coaching program,
you got a problem with me. You aren’t gonna laugh when I tell you this, because you’re gonna think I totally went back to the eighties, but here’s the deal. What about doing phone calls, phone calls only you guys. This is the way we used to deliver group coaching back in like the two thousands sounds so funny when I say that. So like in the nineties,
1990s, and I swear I’m not that old, I’ve just been coaching for a long time. And in the two thousands, we would bring in a software like free conference call.com and people would dial in and they would dial into our group coaching. There is no reason why you can’t do live group coaching program by calling to people and talking to them on the phone in depending on who you’re serving.
So let’s just say you have an audience that’s over 50 years old in that’s your ideal target. Like you’re a serving midlifers and that is exactly who you want to deliver your content to. I guarantee you, those people want to hear from you on a phone call, much more than trying to navigate techie software. Now there are a ton of techie people in midlife,
but just really depending on your audience, they may love it. And just because it’s the way we deliver coaching 20 years ago, doesn’t mean that you can’t still build an amazing coaching program around phone calls. And having people call in, you can even build a new structure where they can submit their questions ahead of time. And you can answer questions in the group call that have been submitted ahead of time,
so everybody can hear. And so I just really want to encourage you that just because there are so many things on a technical side that are advancing, it doesn’t mean that they have to. So really I promise you not like to tell me you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t laugh at me when I said that, but actually just think about it. Or if you have another coaching program,
if you’re listening to this and you actually have a traditional course or a traditional coaching program, there is nothing wrong with going back to these call in coaching programs. So you’re not making people log into zoom and you’re not making them log into something else. You’re just getting them on the phone. As a matter of fact, I have an amazing client. She is a very well-known author.
She is a coach. She is a speaker. Actually. She teaches very special high-end programs at Tony Robbins masterminds, and she has this incredible program. She still has people call in on their group coaching help sessions to a 800 number. Okay. And so I just want to tell you that even though nobody talks about it doesn’t mean it can’t still be done and it isn’t still being done.
So I just want to encourage you in that. And then the very last thing that I want to share with you as a tool we use all, all the time behind the scenes in that is Voxer. I know many of you guys are, you know, about box or you, you use Voxer, but there are a lot of people who’ve never heard of it before.
And Foxer is a really great way to connect with your clients and to connect with groups where you can leave audio messages like a walkie talkie. It’s a great opportunity. You don’t have to show up there physically in like show your face. You can post some videos and Voxer a little bit shorter, but it’s really designed to be an audio platform. And so that is another way to deliver great content or even ongoing group coaching,
where you don’t want to have to ask people to show up in your zoom rooms or show up to a live stream in a Facebook group. And you just really want to meet them where they are. So talking about a tech stack of where to build your coaching programs. We talked about Kajabi audio. We about paid podcast just across the board, including they gave you the example of hero F M and we talked about old school phone calls and Voxer.
These are great ways to deliver amazing coaching programs if they work for you. And of course they need to work for your clients and your students as well. And so the next thing and the really the last thing I want to unpack for you here, while hopefully your wheels are spinning on what you already have, or what you might want to create in this sense is what I call like the mode of transportation,
transportation, to get people into your program. So what is the funnel? What is the pipeline? There’s always different reviews. You know, the sales strategy, the sales pipeline, the funnel, what is that? To get people into an audio only coaching program. This is often not talked about, but I want to make sure that I say this here.
I share it on clubhouse a lot. And I just want to make sure I’m really, really clear your pipeline. Your funnel that leads into your program should play very well with how you deliver the actual leading program itself. So if you’re a leading program is an audio only coaching program, whether it’s live audio or on demand, then how we get people into your program should also give them part,
at least part of the experience of what it’s going to be like to be in your programs. It’s the prerequisite, it’s the warmup. We want to start conditioning people to understand what it’s like to work with you so they can make a decision to jump into your coaching programs. If you do a funnel and you start connecting with people and you’re on video and it’s just big and huge and all these things,
right? And you have a green screen behind you, and it’s great. And to get into your coaching program, and they’re only hearing your voice, there is going to be a problem. People are going to be like, wait, wait, wait, what, where did she go? What, where does she go? She just told me this great program and she’s no around,
I just hear her voice. And so the point I’m making is that it’s really, really important that the pipeline that leads into your program is also cohesive with how you deliver your program. So a couple of great places to fill up your leading program. If it’s an audio program is number one, clubhouse. Clubhouse is amazing. I know for those of you like me,
that we’ve been on clubhouse for almost a year. Now it’s not the same as it was in the beginning days, but based on your coaching business, it’s still an incredibly powerful place to build relationships with clients and talk about what you do and bring them off of clubhouse. Especially if you have an audio only program talking about your audio coaching program and bringing them off clubhouse into another audio coaching program,
those type of models are directly the same. They speak to the same people. So you already know your people are there because they already enjoy listening to audio. So that is a very great place to work on building a pipeline in a funnel, your program. And I do have other podcast episodes on how to do that in clubhouse. So make sure you were looking those up because I’ve broken down all those steps for you in previous podcast episodes in the beginning of 2021.
So that’s the first thing. The second option for you is to launch a mini podcast. It’s like this little teeny micro podcast. I heard somebody call it like a capsule podcast. I don’t even know exactly what that means to me. It’s like a mini podcast and it ends, and that is a podcast. It’s only a couple of episodes. And you work from like three to seven episodes in you’re priming people for moving into your paid podcast.
So we use it like a lead magnet. You can drop it in, it stays there. It’s evergreen content, which means people can always jump into it. And we can actually run ads to people to listen to your mini free podcast. And then at the end of your mini free podcasts, you ask them to upgrade, to join your paid podcast,
see how that works. So it’s flowing all together and you already know your audience likes that you already know your audience connects with that. So it just totally make sense to keep offering that business model in your next level coaching. And then one of the things I also wanted to share with just, just one last tip is when we’re talking about social media,
I totally get that there is so much pressure to be on video. And I appreciate that if this isn’t you, if this isn’t who you are, then that’s okay. And I, I want us to actually lean into who we’re not just as much as who we think we should become. You know, you see that quote, gosh, I’ve even quoted at myself on Instagram all the time that says like,
in order to be who you’re supposed to be, you have to like, basically like become somebody else. That is not the context that I want to make sure that like when we share that, that, that is, I don’t want you to think that you need to change because I believe that we are made how we are supposed to be made. We always need to be upgraded.
We always need to be doing things that what I call a challenge lifestyle, where you we’re constantly challenging ourselves to be better, to push out the barriers that are around us and grow more and do things that scare us. I think that’s a very powerful and an important part of who we are as leaders, business leaders, just frankly as human beings. But I also want to value how you were perfectly created.
And if that is to not show up with your face on video all the time, we can do other things. So challenge you and get you outside of your box, but build a program and build a business and build an offer that really is in line with who you are as a person. So taking that awareness, let’s talk about Instagram. There are ways that you can just post audio on Instagram,
even if don’t want to show your face. Now, I do think it’s important to show your face. If you’re a coach or a consultant, or at least something behind the scenes, because people really do need to know you and trust you. But when we take podcasting into account, people have heard my voice for years, and there is a certain sense of just hearing my voice makes them feel like they know me.
I’ve actually had people come up to me who I’ve never seen before. One lady at funnel hacking live. It made me feel so special. I was like, oh my gosh, she’s so sweet. Like I was literally in a bathroom. She’s like your April beach. I know your voice. And it really, I was like, wow, okay,
this is, this is kind of cool. I’m going to go tell my kids. You know, it was really, really sweet, right? And so people can connect with your voice. It doesn’t always have to be a video. I do want you to be sharing your face and a bit of behind the scenes as much as possible, because that certainly helps build the relationships as well.
But when we’re talking about Instagram, you can just post audio on Instagram, use a software like headliner, where you can take your audio and you can overlay it on top of a beautiful picture or your logo or something that tells a story, even a solid background in just drop audio on your Instagram feed, just upload audio clips to your Instagram stories. There’s no reason why you can’t do that.
As a matter of fact, I really kind of loved doing stuff that nobody else is doing just to test it out and see how it goes, if that is who you are and that’s how you deliver your programs. It totally makes sense to me that we would at least take certain aspects of that and bring that into your marketing and to share that inside the ecosystem of what you do,
that everything you do is audio in what we’re doing in that process is we’re getting clients to pre qualify and disqualify themselves to identify whether or not they can learn from this audio setting. And so we always want to make sure that we do that in part of the way we do that is through your marketing strategy and it’s through the funnel and all of those things aligned with the way your program is delivered.
So those are the things I wanted to share with you on today’s show. I just hope your wheels are spinning, whether you’re a new coach or you’re an established coach, kosha, how we can again, disrupt the status quo and create something that might be great for you and excellent for your clients as well. And perhaps, maybe that is an audio only coaching program.
And so if you’ve never thought about this before, DM me on Instagram at April beach life, I would love to hear about your thoughts on this. This could be for your huge leading offer that you might build. It could be for a smaller, simple leading offer that you build. It can be for anything. And I just love having this conversation because I think there are a lot of people out there that just don’t want to do things the way that everybody is quote unquote,
telling them they should post to do it. And I’m a big advocate for disrupting. And just saying that just because everybody else is doing something doesn’t mean that’s the great way for you to do it. So hopefully you found this show helpful. Hopefully you found this audio only coaching program structure is something to get your wheels spinning. And I would love to hear about what you do with this information.
Thank you so much for tuning into the show again, to learn more about what we do in our team and how we work with experts, coaches, and consultants, cruise over to sweet life co.com. And I would love to get to know you more. All right, you guys have an amazing night. It’s always so great to have an opportunity to speak to you.
Thanks so much.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who deliver big results, but struggle to dumb-down what you do.
Summary:
So you’re a genius. You can do many things and deliver a variety of results to your clients, but sometimes what you do is so big, people can’t wrap their heads around it. They can’t see it. It’s too far away – a mirage or pipe dream. In this week’s show we’re helping you create an easy entry point that clients understand, so they can enter your ego system and move into more.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand why you need a small entry
Understand how to choose your entry point
Have a plan to create an entry offer that you can live with
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hi guys. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 247 and I’m April. And so lad to talk to you today. Thanks for joining me. We are diving into a topic that I actually just got out of a very cool mastermind session with an amazing group of people.
And I was saying, gosh, I’m just about to go record a podcast episode, and I really want to deliver something that is pertinent right now. And every single one of ’em was like, this is what we were talking about in this space tonight. And you should totally unpack everything we talked about behind the scenes in this whiteboard session that I hosted live on the podcast.
And so I laid out my notes for you. I have structured tonight’s training and it’s going to be a bit of an extension of some of the live conversation. I was just having with a handful of clients. I was guiding through this same process. So welcome to behind the scenes of working with me as if you were in a private client, micro mastermind with me,
but then also to the strategies that you need to apply to your own business. This is the suite life entrepreneur podcast. And I’m so glad that you have joined me. If you have never listened to the show before, thank you so much for checking us out. We really, really pride ourselves on being known for the podcast that delivers you business coaching that is vetted and proven that you can bank on.
That is so good. It’s coaching that other coaches will charge you thousands of dollars for in their own business. In every single one of our shows is a step-by-step business training. You’re going to play a right away and you can bank on what we’re talking about here on the show. So welcome all of the show notes. All of the things that we deliver to you can also be found by visiting sweet life co.com
as well as the business coaching programs that we offer to entrepreneurs like yourself. You can go to Sweetlife co.com to check it out. And we would certainly love to hear your story and get to know you and the business that you’re in the process of growing more. So today we’re going to talk about what is your minimum viable coaching niche. We’re going to dive into a few really important things,
especially extracting from this micro mastermind that I was hosting. And we’re going to talk about the fact that you have a lot of things you can do in your business. And because you can do a million things doesn’t mean that people can fully wrap their head around that. So I totally get in here that you are a genius. You’ve done a lot of things.
Most clients, when they come to us have had offers many services, even books that have been written there, they have a lot of things that they have done, but they’re struggling to put it into a blueprint that all fits together. That’s going to line up with the life they want in the future and their profit plan. And so just because we can do a lot of things when we turn around and we try to sell that to somebody that might not be as familiar with,
you might not know how great you are. They might not have been following you for the last couple of years. Sometimes it’s hard for them to fully wrap their head around all that you can and do deliver to your clients. And so on today’s show, we’re talking about what is a minimum viable coaching offer and a niche. So I’m going to give you the strategies to go and extract out of all of your assets.
The one thing that we want to sell so that somebody totally aligns and understands what it is that you do. And they’re ready to take that first step into what I call your business ecosystem. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in. All right. So this show is great for those of you guys who deliver a lot of big,
huge Results, be you struggle to kind of dumb it down to people that you’re talking to in the beginning, you may speak to them and it’s like this deer in the headlights look, and they’re thinking, wow, you do so much. I can’t even identify where I would start working with you. So I get it. I totally get it. And I’m going to share some stories and how I’ve struggled with this and today’s show and the solutions that we put in place and how we fix this.
It was not easy. I will tell you that it was an ongoing struggle for a long period of time. And I know that it might be for you also, because you’re basically a genius and there are a lot of things you can do. There are a lot of things you’ve done. There are a lot of things you want to do, but just because you deliver a variety of things,
your clients doesn’t mean that they fully can see it. They can’t wrap their head around it. And so if they can’t see it, then it’s like too far away for them. It’s a Mirage. It’s like this pipe dream. It seems so big. And so far away for them to accomplish all of the things in which you can help them with.
So today we’re really breaking this down and helping you create an easy entry point or an easy offer in your coaching or consulting business. A clients can totally understand so that you can have them enter your ecosystem and then move forward with you more. We’re going to talk about understanding why you need this entry point. We’re going to dive into helping you choose this entry point and helping you have a plan of how to put this into action.
The truth of the matter is, is we have to simplify your offers. You guys know I’m the leading offer engineering framework girl, right? Like that is our jam. That is what we’re known for is helping entrepreneurs develop your intellectual property into transformational leading offers and programs. And when you hear that word leading offer, you probably think it’s so big and so huge,
but it doesn’t have to be. And so sometimes when you, what you do is so big and so huge, we want to take a little piece of that and we want to extract it out. We want to simplify it because the problem is, is again, just because there’s a lot you can do. There’s a lot that you do do for your clients.
It’s just too big. They can’t even see past this emergency that they’re having right now in their business. And so the solution is to create this easy entry point. And so what that means is you are going to sell what the people know they need right now, so that you can have an opportunity to then teach them and help them overcome what they don’t know is coming down the road.
So let me say that again. We sell them what they know they need right now in order to bring them into your ecosystem of all the other things that you can do so that you can solve their tomorrow problems, because they can’t even see those big trial problems. You can see it cause you’re an expert. You can see it because you’re so close to what you do and you see it.
So in depth, in the intricacies of all of the solutions and all of the different angles that you want people to be thinking about, but they can’t even get there. They cannot get there in their mind. And so we have to meet them where they are right now. And we have to solve their first pain problem, not like all their pain problems,
but we just have to solve the closest one to where they are now, the closest one that they know. And they understand that they are talking about on a daily basis because when you provide a longer term solution in what you do, so you’re listening to this, you’re probably an expert of some kind or a coach or consultant, or you provide a service.
So when, what you do is rolled out over an extended period of time and they might not get like this instant result, but, you know, in order to get the big life-changing or business changing Results, they have to do the work, right. So if it doesn’t happen overnight, people just can’t see it. They’re just far away from it.
And it just seems so big. And so this is something I struggled with for years, you guys. So what I really do is I help entrepreneurs, blueprint and engineered their entire business. I help entrepreneurs map your entire business based on exactly how you want your life to look. If you want to be in a hut over crystal, clear water and Tahiti,
I will help you blueprint that if you want to travel around your kids, lacrosse games and, and be on the road, traveling with your family five months a year, like I do, I will help you blueprint that. Okay. But it’s so huge, right? So I say that, and even as I’m saying it, you’re like, oh yeah,
in your mind, you’re like, oh yeah, sure, whatever. Like teaching me how to build a business and blueprint in my offers so that, you know, I know for a fact I’m going to be in this great hat over, you know, dangling my toes in the crystal, clear water and Tahiti. It just seems so big. Right.
But that is what I do. I’ve done it for 25 years and I’ve done it for a lifetime of entrepreneurship for myself. I literally have a lifetime of proven experience doing that for myself and clients all over the world, but it’s too big. So when I say that and I used to say this all the time, and I used to go back and forth with my teams and I used to say,
well, why can’t we just put out on there that, you know, I do, you know, lifestyle, business, design, lifestyle, business engineering. And my team would come back to me and they would just say, April, it is so far away. People think you’re full of shit, basically. You know what I mean? Like they just can’t even get there because right now in their business,
they need to land their first 10 plants. Or right now in their business, they need to hit consistent 10 or 20 K months, or right now in their business, they need to hire their first team member or a podcast producer. Like that is all they can see when I’m like out there saying, Hey, listen, but guess what don’t you want to be here and Tahiti with your toasting clean in the water with me.
Sure. Yeah, of course that resonates, but it doesn’t hit home because after this podcast is over, you would hang up and you would leave and you would turn this thing off. And then that immediate problem would still be in front of your face. So I want you to take that scenario in your business. You deliver so much more than what you do.
I know that you know, that your expertise, your ideas and your thoughts is so much bigger than your audience is capable of wrapping their head around. Right. But the problem is when we approach them with that big picture thing, they’re going to bounce right off of you because you seem too good to be true, because it seems kind of fake because it’s not solving their immediate problems.
And this is something that I struggled with for ever like 12 years seriously in my team is finally like no, April. We really have to lead in with the first micro solution that we deliver to clients, which is engineering and structuring their intellectual property into a leading offer. Because the truth of the matter is, is without that one thing, without your leading offer,
we can blueprint it all out. But you’re not going to get to Tahiti, sitting on a pier with your toes, dangling in the water, unless you have a world-class leading coaching program that changes people’s lives. And so I had to start with saying, okay, I really want to talk about all of it because it makes me so excited. And I literally had to live it every single day,
but where my people are is the fact that they don’t have a leading course or a second draw for a leading program. And so I want you to be thinking about, although you can do all the things, where are your people right now and what are they saying to themselves right now in relation to one piece of the big picture that you solve. So when you commit to put your client’s biggest fire out,
and I’m not saying it’s like the biggest one in truth, but in their eyes, what is it? Truth is in the eyes of the beholder or whatever it is, right? Like this is how they see it. This is a very big problem for them. So based on what they see from their perspective, it’s a big fire that needs to be put out.
And so by solving this immediate problem to them in what we call a foundational leading offer, then it gives you the privilege and the opportunity to build a relationship of trust with them, and then open the doors to them, to the rest of your, the wonder land that you can solve to the rest of this amazing mind blowing world of all these different levels they can go through with you.
But if you lead with all the big, huge weakness, and you don’t already have a big, huge audience, it is going to be very, very difficult for you to bring people into your ecosystem, to expose them to the overall client journey that you can bring them to. And so, one of the terms that is used is called the minimum viable offer.
Okay. And we use this often. Okay. So minimum viable offer a minimum viable product is a one thing that you can sell that you know, that you can sustain your business and you can prove your audience by having this minimum viable offer. This is what I want you to think of. And I seriously don’t even care if you have been in business for 10 years and you’re rolling in the dough.
If you’re struggling with bringing people in and you haven’t pinpointed that entry point, by the way, side note, you would be surprised at how many businesses that I’m connected with that are making 30 and $40,000 a month. That still struggle with basic things like ideal client messaging and offer creation. So I’m just going to take a little sidebar here, just you and I talking on the side,
these things come up again and again, and again, it’s really important. We nail these things in the beginning of the business because they will continue to haunt you as your business grows. They won’t always inhibit you from making a ton of money, but they will be a problem. So our little sidebar is done there, going back to our offer. When we’re talking about how to have people enter your big program,
your big year long, whatever you do, or like it could be years long, whatever your leading program is. We have to talk about this minimum viable offer minimum viable program. And so when you do a lot of things and you want to change somebody’s life and you want to change some of these business, I understand that you’re so close to it,
that you do it so well that you live it and you breathe it. And we have to then dumb it down. I mean, I don’t even know what a better word to say other than that is besides simplify, dumb it down and not to insult your audience, not to insult my audience, but we have to meet them in a place where they’re already having these conversations with themselves.
And so here are some ways you can go through, if you have a lot of things that you do offer for your clients, and you can kind of pick what this one, a minimum entry point is going to be for your clients. So if you have a ton of things, the first thing I want you to do is I want you to lay out all of the things that you actually are good at getting results for your clients.
So I want you to lay out, you know, these are the things I do. These are the services we provide. These are the different areas of consulting you may do. And I want you to look at all of them. And then number two, I want you to put them in an order of operations, what is the best order of operations that somebody would proceed through the journey of working with you?
First of all, don’t structure your business like this, having all these little teeny offers, it’s a hot mess. And that is not the ideal way. We’re just doing this for organizing your ideas right now in your head. So lay out the different things that you can offer them. I’m not saying that I recommend you do all these little teeny offers.
Let me just make that clear. Okay. And when you’re laying that out in that line, that timeline, if you will, of all the different Results, then I want you to just get really real. I want you to ask yourself what part of what you do do you absolutely love the best because I’m really a firm believer that we have to really love what we do otherwise.
It would be really difficult to continue when you’re tired, when things get hard, do you have to totally love what you do? Here’s another little sidebar. Can I tell you a secret? I am recording this podcast episode at 11:56 PM. Is this how I usually roll? No. We usually batch our, our podcast and it’s all structured and perfect, but the last three weeks have been crazy because I’ve been traveling so much and I’ve had sick kids.
That’s the reality. Okay. If I didn’t love what I do, if I did not love talking to you about finding your minimum viable coaching product, then there is no way I would be up right now at 1156 recording this episode. You know what I would’ve done. I would have taken an old episode because I have five years of podcast episodes. And I would have just told my producer to repurpose it,
but I’m getting on a plane tomorrow to go visit my son at college. I can’t record it over the weekend. I have a deadline with my producer and I just had this awesome conversation with this cool group of entrepreneurs in a whiteboard mastermind session that I was hosting. And I wanted to come share it with you. There’s no way I would have done that if I didn’t totally love what I do.
And that’s what I want for you to love. When we’re talking about extracting out your minimum viable offer, I want you to love it so much that when it’s like 1157 at night and you are tired and you got to get on a plane the next day, and you could have just taken an old episode and repurposed it. Cause it’s been so many darn years,
but no, you want to share with your audience a thing you want to share. Okay? And that’s what I’m doing here. I absolutely love coaching entrepreneurs and seeing their minds just explode with their own genius. When it comes to life, there is nothing more rewarding than the business world to me than that. So what is the one thing in all the things that you do in the layout of your coaching that you totally love?
So that’s number one. And then here’s where the hard part comes in, though. Okay. What is the part of that? That is the center of their daily thoughts. So just because of what you love is what you love. Doesn’t mean that’s going to be the thing that they are thinking about every day. And we really need to create a minimum viable offer or a foundational leading offer based on the thing that they are thinking about every single day.
And that’s keeping them up at night. If there is a combination between it happens to be what you love and it happens to be what you need or what they need. And they’re thinking about, well, then look no further, but if you’re like most people and you’re like, well, shoot, really don’t love this entry level offer, but people are having this conversation and I need to meet them where they are.
And this is what we strategizing about. And this is what I was working with my clients about in this mastermind session. The deal is, is that you might not necessarily love that foundational offer. We do need you to love the entire leading offer part of it. But what I am an advocate for, and I do have to say, you really,
really have to, is you have to love and the way in which you are delivering it, at least. So the content itself may not like floats your boat, but you’re really, really good at it. You can get people really fantastic results from it. And therefore we want to build it into a model that you do love doing. How do you love working with people?
How do you love interacting with people? Do you love seeing their expressions? Do you want to do something live? Do you want to do something in small groups? So if you don’t necessarily love the content that you’re delivering in this minimum viable product or this minimum viable program or offer, I want you to love the model in which you’re delivering it. And that will keep you going,
because if you love the way you’re doing that, and you’re seeing people get results that is fuel for your fire, if you are a, and then again, it opens a door to bring people into the entire ecosystem and all of the stuff that you really, really, really do love. So make sure you love the model, make sure you’re, you know,
that you love delivering the model and the way it is first, because that’s going to keep it sustainable, working with your life and finding that sweet spot of what your clients are thinking about on a daily basis. And one piece of the huge picture that you deliver to your clients long-term then you are going to have that entry point. It is going to be that minimum buyable entry point or product that is strategically designed to lead to the leading offer the next big thing,
or your entire suite of offers that you deliver for your clients. Okay. Don’t just pick up randomly. And one more thing before I end, there is a conversation. We have a lot in our communities with our clients, and that is a difference between now money and tomorrow money. And let’s keep it really real, right? Most people need now money,
right? You want to build and design a tomorrow business. We need to make sure the work you’re doing now is going to get you where you want to be in the future. And again, this is like the whole big picture thing that I coach people on that it’s hard to understand where I need to meet you, where you are right now is I totally get the fact that you might be like listening to this.
And you’re like, I have got to hit a 10 K a month for the next three months, or I have to hit my first freaking client. You know, everybody’s at a different place, right? So I identify that having a conversation around now money and tomorrow money are very, very important things. And I want to make sure that whether you’re working with us to do it,
or you have a mastermind that you’re connecting with, that you’re any place where you can come up with a strategy to make sure that you are nailing the now money so that you have an opportunity to build out your business for the tomorrow money. This minimum viable program offer that we’re talking about on this show. This should also fill the spot of your now money.
Okay? So this should fill your financial need for the immediate fast. I’m snapping my fingers back here. You can probably hear that on my mic fast now money. And so it’s an entry level point into your business. It gives people great results. It opens them up to all the rest of the ecosystem and it’s solving a financial issue for you right now in a,
hopefully we can keep putting it on autopilot and scaling it so it can continue to consistently bring in new leads into your business, giving these new leads, amazing results, and then moving them into your next level leading offer program. So I just wanted to say that I hear you. And I know that probably 70% of you listening to this show are dealing with a now money issue.
And you want to be dealing with a tomorrow money issue and you should be dealing with both of them at the same time, strategic business design mapping, everything out mapping your business needs to take into consideration, making sure you’re building your tomorrow business model, but it’s reverse engineered. Even if your now many is something that you might just need to do for only two or three months.
That’s fine. I’m fine with that. But I identify that you might need to have some now money and this strategy of creating this minimum viable offer this minimum viable program that you have also fills that need for those of you that need now money just wanted to say that. Okay. So I am losing my voice. I have been coaching whiteboard sessions all week long.
OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS, that’s called a, your leading offer opens this week. And so we have these amazing conversations with people, both clients and new clients to us in these whiteboard sessions, leading up to it. And my voice is totally shot. And I’m about to go cheer for my son’s college lacrosse game this weekend. So who knows what’s going to happen to my voice after this,
but anyway, wanted to get this episode out to you guys. And, and I just felt like these conversations. So we have in our community, these are the ones that we really want to put out on the podcast. It might not be something that’s planned six weeks down the road in my overall 2022 content strategy. But I would much rather be here with you now at 12:04 AM recording this show and dropping it to you because I believe this is something that’s going to benefit you.
Something in here we talked about, hopefully we’ll hit an immediate problem that you have and give you an immediate idea or a thought process for a solution. And I love hearing about how you guys are applying this and your business. So hit me up on Instagram, send me a DM. I love getting your guys’ DMS. I’m at April beach life. And if you do want to learn about joining our mastermind,
our coaching programs, our masterclasses to lay out your business for both the now many in the future money, definitely cruise over to sweet life co.com. I would love to work with you. I’d love to get to know you more, make sure that you qualify to work with us and just really hear your story. Thanks for being here. You guys hope you have a fabulous day.
I hope you’re listening to this in the middle of the day, not in the middle of the night, and I will talk to you next week on episode number 248. Can’t wait to see you then.
This is a great show if you’re an entrepreneur in any phase of business who sets out to accomplish a lot, and leave every week feeling like a failure.
Summary:
You have a lot to do in a short period of time. Add the fact that much of the work you need to complete as an entrepreneur requires training to complete, feeling accomplished evades you. I get it! I’m a pro at planning more than I’m capable and in this show I am giving you the framework I needed to create for myself, so that you can win your week’s too. This is a short episode with simple but big takeaways that can work for all entrepreneurs, even those who struggle to stay focused. I also share my favorite tools for staying focused and how to push through when my mind wanders.
At the end of this episode you will:
Hack my simple plan to do more in a week than ever before
Know how to pre-plan for failure so it never happens
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach Hey there. And welcome to this week’s episode. This is number 246 and I’m April beach. It’s so good to talk to you again. Forgive my cracky voice. I just got back from funnel hacking live in Florida and just had a million amazing conversations and my voices hurting just a little bit here.
So I hope it’s not too scratchy as we go through today’s episode, because this is really important. I’m so excited to talk to you about simple ways to plan. And when your week, this is going to be a shorter episode with a lot of information and is jam packed for you. And this is important because of a couple of reasons. First of all,
I know you have so many ideas and so many things going on and you want to win every single week, right? You want to go into that week. You want to feel like you just nailed it, right? When is the last time you actually had a week that it was a Friday night or even a Sunday night? And you’re like, man,
I did awesome that week. It usually actually doesn’t happen as often as we’d like or worst case. If it does happen, you’re always one of those overachievers like me, where we never actually stopped to realize we won the week. We’re just looking to the next week. And so I’m talking to those of you who really truly want to win every single week.
And you want to feel good about that and you want to stay focused. So all of the show notes and everything we’re talking about can be found at episode 246 on our website. And our website is Sweetlife po.com. And if you’re new here, it’s so good to meet you. I’m April beach, I’m a business coach and strategist, an online business architect and an offer engineer.
And I work with experts and coaches and consultants. And I have done this for over 25 years. I help you turn your ideas and your thoughts and your assets into high profit, deep impact business reality. And everything we talk about on this show are tidbits of amazing strategies that our clients get when they work with us. And this show is known for giving business coaching that other two coaches charge thousands for.
So I’m so glad to connect with you. Again, everything can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. So let’s lay the groundwork of exactly what you can expect at the end of the show. You can expect that I’m actually going to break down our hyper focused weekly worksheet with you here on the show. I’m going to take you through the steps and really break down how that worksheet is laid out.
This is a worksheet that we save for our clients. Only. We actually go through this process, our clients getting them ready and nailing every single week. And you’re talking clients that make multiple, multiple six figures up to seven figures all the way down to starting entrepreneurs that haven’t even launched. Our first product. These strategies are really important for everybody, regardless of where you are in your business.
And we’re going to go through that process and I’m going to share it with you on today’s show. You’re also going to know how to plan for failure and how to overcome that. And it’s a really simple way as soon as I explain it to you, you’re going to be like, oh yeah, totally. I got it. I’m going to break that down for you.
And then at the end of this show, a very special bonus. I’m even giving you all of the tools that I use. Now. These are physical tools. You guys like tools that you can get off Amazon to help you stay focused. And so that you can keep moving forward and sharing with you. Some of my very favorite apps as well,
so that you can totally win every single week. So again, all the show notes are found@twohundredandfortysixonsweetlifecode.com. And if you’re ready, let’s go ahead and dive into this week show. Okay. You guys were talking about simple ways to plan and win every single week. Now, let me give you a little bit of a backstory. I am highly confident that I have undiagnosed ADHD and I probably have my whole life.
I actually love the way my brain works and I love the way that God made me, but I will say it is a bit challenging to stay focused. If you follow me on Instagram, sometimes you’ll see me. We’re all right, posts that sometimes I will literally just find myself that my brain is so full or the work I’m doing is so hard.
I will just wander around in my home. I have a home office and just start looking out different windows. And so winning the week is really, really hard for me. And so I’ve had to come up with a strategy that could kind of bring me back to earth when I start to float away in my mind during the day. And I own for those of you guys that don’t know me,
I actually own five companies. Two of them are my own and three of them are my husband’s. And so we constantly have a million things going on. The only way we can do this and be very profitable and successful in what we do is to win every single week. And so I’m sharing with you that this is a huge struggle for me. And to be really honest,
let’s keep it really real. I don’t win every single week, but this is a proven strategy that I’ve used in that we coach our clients on to come pretty damn close. And so I want to download you on this this week. I totally get the fact that you have so much work that you need to do and complete as an entrepreneur. And here is what is even harder about being an entrepreneur is that most of you are in that first five years of business.
So in order to complete much of the work you have to do, you’re probably also learning how to do that. So you’re not just having to nail the task at hand. You’re having to figure out how to nail the task at hand and why to nail the task at hand. So when we’re talking about accomplishing one thing, there usually are 20 steps to learn how to accomplish that one thing,
which by the way, this is a perfect reason why you should be in our business coaching programs, because we just give you all the steps and the SOP and the template. So you don’t have to go through that. But most people do go through those processes to do all the learning upfront before the executing. And I understand that it might be a slower process for you.
This is why people tend to start out with in the beginning of the week, all these things that you might want to do, and then you get to the end of the week and you don’t feel as accomplished as frankly, you should, because the reality is is you probably did a ton of stuff. So I’m going to show you and break down our framework that I really needed to create for myself.
And now that we use with our clients so that you can win your week too. So let’s first start with my hyper-focused weekly worksheet. Okay? So this is literally one piece of paper that our clients get every single week. And then they get to meet with Kyle Taylor in our other business dream team, expert coaches that are super killer, awesome people at keeping them focused.
And I’m going to unpack this for you here, but literally as you’re listening to this show, I just want you to imagine one piece of paper. And on this piece of paper, there are just three very simple columns. That’s it? It’s not fancy because if we make this paper fancy, then all of a sudden this paper is going to become a task to complete instead of a tool to help you complete the tasks at hand.
So the very first thing that we do in our hyper focus to week weekly worksheet in our meetups is choosing the number one most important task. Now it’s not rocket science, but the reality is, is what task you choose will affect the whole rest of your week. And so let me give you some tips on how to choose that task. And we like to talk about taking a task that by choosing that task,
it makes everything else easier or obsolete. And that really comes from the strategies, taught in a book called the one thing, which we love and recommend for our clients to read. And so it’s really figuring out what is that one thing that I need to do to make EV that makes everything else easier or obsolete. But now let’s go ahead and take it a step a little bit deeper for you.
Okay. Usually now hear me out, raise your hand. I don’t care where you are. If this is you, usually clients have some really immediate fires to put out and then they have some longer-term business blueprints that they’re building out. So we kind of have these two different categories, like the fire and the blueprint, or for most of our clients,
it’s like money. They need to bring in immediately right now, like their kid’s college payment is due or they have to pay their team or, you know, whatever else they just want to make more money. You know, like in this quarter they haven’t had their quarterly budget yet that they wanted to hit. So there’s immediate tasks and there are farther out tasks.
I don’t care which one you choose in your week, as long as it aligns with the cycle of work that you’re currently doing in your business. Okay. But you need to pick one and only one. All right. So number one, if you’re listening to this right now, just say to yourself out loud, what is the number one most important thing that I need to do or nail or complete or build or whatever the verbiage is this week in my business.
And write that down. Number two, you are going to take a second and you’re going to list out the first three to five action steps to complete that task. So the first three to five things you have to do in order to start the process of completing your number one task, and it could be making a decision on software. It could be signing in and checking my email and cleaning out my email inbox.
It doesn’t matter how small it is. As a matter of fact, the smaller, the better when we’re really getting down to the nitty-gritty of how to complete a task. But I want you to list out the top three to five action steps that complete that task. And there could certainly be more than that, but just list out the first three to five.
And then here’s really where it gets important. Step number three is determining what can get in your way or stop you from completing this task. So ask yourself what is one thing that can totally derail me? What is some reason why I might not be able to complete it? Maybe it’s you don’t know how to use the software that you have to make a decision on.
Maybe it’s that you don’t have somebody to help you learn how to run a Facebook ad. Maybe it’s that you’re afraid and you are your problem. You are your block because you’re having to put yourself out there in a way you never have before, but I want you to really figure out what is that brick wall that is going to come up this week and stand in the way of you being successful at nailing this number one task.
And after you’ve identified your brick wall, I want you to list out a plan that you are going to enact when that happens to overcome it. So you need to determine what can get in your way, and you need to make a plan before it even happens to crush that, and that is step number three. And step number four is blocking out the times or one day on your calendar to focus on this one task.
You can take all of the steps in the world, but if you don’t then plug it into your calendar and designate a time that you are going to plug this in, in actually get it done. There’s a really good chance you’ll procrastinate it. And it won’t get done because in most cases, we still even underestimate the amount of time. It takes us to complete something.
One of my very favorite special business mentors, Carrie Wilkerson says, don’t wait until Friday or Thursday, even to start working on your number one task of the week, do it on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, because inevitably something’s going to happen. Some kid is going to get sick, or the dog has to go to the vet or you have to catch a flight somewhere you weren’t expecting,
or a client needs you for extra help, whatever it may be that is going to happen until we want you to start it earlier in the week and the first three days of the week so that you can win your week. And so let me recap those steps for you really quickly. This is how we complete the hyper-focus weekly worksheet with our clients. Number one is choosing your most important task.
Number two is listing the first three to five action steps to complete that task. Number three is determine what can get in the way and make a plan to get over that. And number four is to block out the time in your calendar in which you will work to complete this task. Very, very simple. And after you’ve done this for your most important task,
then you have permission to go on and follow these same four steps for task number two, and for task number three in each week, but make sure you do the work for each one, starting with number one and make sure that you complete number one before you start moving on to tasks. Number two and three. All right. So now I promised you,
I would share with you some of the tools that we use behind the scenes and some of the things I’ve learned to use over the years just to keep me focused. So these are literally physical tools and some of them are apps and you’re probably going to laugh at me, but they helped me. And so I thought maybe if they helped me that they might help you as well.
The first one is actually a technique and it’s called a Pomodoro technique and Pomodoros were created by Francisco Cirillo. And I’m sure I’m butchering his name because he’s Italian and I don’t speak very great Italian in the Pomodoro technique as a time management method. And it was developed by Francisco in the 18, excuse me, in the 1980s. So it isn’t that old in the word.
Pomodoro actually comes from the word tomato named after like a tomato kitchen timer. I know sounds really silly, but this is how it goes. These are the in order to complete a Pomodoro, basically it’s a way to stay focused. And I will tell you, I have taught this to my teenage boys when they have so much homework and they have trouble staying focused.
If you do Pomodoros, and if you teach your kids Pomodoros, their homework will become so much easier. It’s a very, very simple thing. So the original way to complete a Pomodoro is in six different steps. So, number one, you decide on what you want to do, the task that you want to complete. We’ve already done that with your hyper-focused weekly worksheet,
right? So you have your task at hand. Number two, you set a timer and it could be a tomato timer in the kitchen or an egg timer I use. And this is one of the tools I was going to share with you. I use a sand timer. I have this old sand hour glass with this beautiful blue colored sand in it.
And you can buy sand timers anywhere. You can buy them from local artists in your area. I love supporting local, like glassblowers and local artists in your town, or you can buy them off Amazon, you know, and you can buy them in different time increments. So Pomodoros usually start out in 25 minute increments. If you’re teaching this to your kids,
or if you’re doing this for your first time, yourself started out at a smaller increment of time, like 25 minutes. When I first started doing Pomodoros, I only could do them for 25 minutes. Now my Pomodoros run 45 minutes, but typically set it for around 25 minutes to start. And during that 25 minutes of time, you’re going to work on that task.
Okay. And you are a hundred, a hundred percent focused on that task. Don’t pick up your phone, you know, try not to even get up to go potty. I mean like that is your time you’re in there a hundred percent. And then when that timer goes off, when that timer ends, even when your work is not done, you have to get up and take a short break.
Typical breaks on the normal Pomodoro routine are five to 10 minutes. So you’re technically taking a five to 10 minute break every 25 minutes. Okay. So you can run these. If you’re only taking a five minute break, then you can run two Tom Pomodoro cycles in a one hour period of time. If you have less than three Pomodoros, you know,
in an hour, if you’re getting things done faster than you can group together, work to complete within a Pomodoro and try to run this cycle of Pomodoros at least three times in a row. So try to do Pomodoro cycle maybe in the morning before lunchtime, or maybe another one in the afternoon, after three cycles of Pomodoros, you need to get up and you need to take a bowl 20 to 30 minute break.
So that’s how we run Pomodoros. It’s literally a time chunking and time blocking way to stay focused. But the only way it works is if you make yourself get up, when that timer goes off, regardless of whether or not your work is completed, otherwise subconsciously in your mind, if you just blow through that timer, you’re never going to be able to train your mind to stay focused because subconsciously your mind is thinking,
yeah, she’s not really sticking with the timer and I’m going to be stuck here working on this a lot longer. So that’s why we use Pomodoros. And like I said, it’s a great technique for your teenagers as well. All right. And then the other tool I want to share with you is that Sam timer, or just a regular kitchen timer,
believe me, it is so helpful to you. You can also set a timer on your phone, you know, but it’s just not quite as fun to me. I like looking at my sand timer and actually kind of makes me work faster. When I see this and stripping in there. Number three is the flora green focus app. First of all,
there are tons of focus apps. There’s tons of apps you can download on your phone in order to stay focused and complete the task at hand. One of my problems is that I automatically pick up my phone and literally like my teenage boys. Okay. I’ll just automatically find myself just picking it up out of habit. It has become a habit that I’ll pick up my phone.
So I either have to leave my phone in another room of the house, or I literally it’ll love these little apps where you can grow trees on your phone. So the flora green focus timer, I’ll put a link in the show notes. It’s a free app on apple and iOS device. And there’s other ones similar for Android. And it literally grows a garden.
And the more that you don’t touch your phone, the more your garden grows. And there are also opportunities with this app to actually plant physical trees and to do a lot of give back, which I really love companies that do that. So grab something like that. If you need that, if you’re like me and you constantly are picking up your phone,
don’t use your phone as your Pomodoro focus, timer, use something else like that and use a regular clock or set a timer on your kitchen stove. Or like we talked about use the sand timer or, or an electric timer of some kind. And then the last tool I wanted to share with you is a tool called brain FM. I have shared this tool before on the podcast.
I absolutely love brain FM brain FM is an app that you can play on your phone, or you can play on your desktop computer. And it literally plays, focus, music, relaxing music, sleep music, and the rhythms and the beats within the music are scientifically proven to give the outcome based on what you chose. So when you’re doing creative flow work,
you can literally play music that makes your brain creatively flow more based on tapping into brain FM. You can say, oh, this is a creative flow work time. Or this is a focused work time, or this is a steady time. And they have different types of sounds and rhythms and nature sounds and drums. And it’s absolutely fantastic. Everything from piano to guitar.
It’s my favorite app in the whole entire world. You guys, I will tell you, and I use it all the time. I always have brain FM on. And so those are my tools I wanted to share with you just keeping it real here, sharing with you that I do as well, struggle with staying focused. And I think honestly, every one of us does.
And so I wanted to share with you the hyper weekly worksheet, even though you can’t see it, it’s a part of the process that we roll up our sleeves with our clients every single week, and then share with you the process in order to complete that identify your most important task of the week and how to make sure that you have a plan to always overcome that.
Then nothing’s ever going to catch you by surprise. And then I want to share with you those really practical tools that we use that our team uses. And some of them are silly and funny, but you know what? They totally work. And if something works, we’re going to dive into it and we’re going to share it with you because every single one of us needs to be able to have the leg up that you deserve in your business.
It was really, really funny. I’ll I’ll end with this. I had the privilege of being able to spend about six hours last Saturday with Tony Robbins. And he was speaking live at funnel hacking live, and he was only supposed to speak for a shorter period of time, but he ended up staying with those of us in this room. And it was a really small space,
especially for a Tony Robbins event. He ended up staying with us for almost double the time he was supposed to be there and really went off course of things. He usually teaches to the masses. It was a very special opportunity. And one of the things he said, I found very, very striking. He said, entrepreneurship is the most dangerous sport around because of the fact that if you don’t make it out,
you die. And it was really like, wow, you are right. This is like do or die. Can you try it again? Can you get another life like a video game of your first, second, third, fourth business. Doesn’t make it. Yes, but it’s true. You either sink or swim and you can kind of doggy paddle through this in anything like a silly sand timer or an app on your phone that grows trees.
It has little hot pink and Flores and green birdies. If that’s going to help you, you go with it because you deserve all the support in the world because you are doing something that almost nobody does. You’re building your dreams and you’re helping other people do the same and keeping you focused and keeping you moving forward is how we get that done. So thank you so much for tuning into the show.
I love connecting with you again, apologies for my scratchy voice. Hopefully it will be back before we record the next episode you guys be awesome. And seriously, thank you for sharing the show with friends and connecting with us for so many years. Again, all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number 246. All right.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who believe in your offer, program and service and you’re ready to grow.
Summary:
Disqualifying clients is an important part of business growth. This concept comes from the idea that concentrating your sales and marketing on only the most qualified leads is a more successful way to increase sales. But how do you disqualify clients and find the perfect people you’re called to serve? That’s what we’re covering in today’s show.
This is not a training on“ideal client avatars” or niche coaching topics – these are the questions no one is telling you to raise, but they must be asked for your happiness and financial success, and that of your clients.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what topics to qualify and disqualify clients on
Have a list of questions to workshop for yourself to get clear
Gain confidence in developing a disqualification mindset in your business
Leave this episode looking at the current clients you have and immediately being able to see who is the perfect fit and who is not.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hi, you guys. Welcome back to the show. This is week and episode number 245 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneurial business podcast. And I’m April beach host of this show. And I’m so glad to talk to you.
We are coming up on our fifth year podcast anniversary just in a couple of months, and we just really appreciate all of you guys. Who’ve listened to the show for so many years. And those of you who share it with your friends, we do not intentionally accept any advertising on this show. I literally get pitched all the time, every single week from companies that want to advertise in the show.
And I just think that screws up with the flow of the show and our connection and how we really hang out together here. And it’s like, you and I are sitting across the table from each other or having a cup of coffee. And we intentionally work hard to give you business trainings and coaching that other coaches charge thousands for totally free here on the show.
So thank you so much for continuing to tune in. As you know, if you’ve been here before all of the show notes and everything we’re going to talk about today can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number 245. So let’s get into what you can expect from hanging out with me here for a few minutes on today’s show today,
we’re talking about why disqualifying clients actually helps your business grow. And this is for those of you guys who are in particularly in phase three of business. So this is the scale up phase of your business. But I will say that I understand that I want you to apply this in the launch phase. There is just a little bit more of a psychological barrier to disqualifying clients.
When frankly, you may not have ever served any before this show really aligns with those of you who have served clients, you know, how great your offer your program your solution is. And you’re really looking to scale up your business. And one of the best ways we do that is by actually disqualifying or firing clients. So this is what you can expect.
This is a great show for those of you guys who believe in your offer, your program and your service. And you know that you know that you know, that it gives people transformational, predictable results. So if that’s you, if you know what you do is amazing, and there is no question whatsoever and how great you are at delivering people, those results then continue listening to this show if you aren’t really sure,
then that means that you should probably check out my, your leading offer masterclass. And that’s a totally separate thing to talk about. We have literally numerous podcast episodes about how to create a predictable leading program. But right now, if you are not really sure about the confidence of your program, your course, your membership community, your mastermind go to theofferengineer.com and there’s a lot of information there to get you started. So for those of you who do know that, like you’re the bomb, right? Like, you know that what you deliver is amazing, then let’s continue on to what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the fact that disqualifying clients is an important part of business growth. And I get that this concept seems counterproductive to sales and marketing,
and here is why it isn’t when you concentrate your sales and marketing on only the most qualified in the best fit leads for your business, then your sales become more productive and the success from your program increases. And that’s a really important part of what we’re talking about today. And we’re talking about how to go about the process of disqualifying clients and finding the perfect clients that are really the right fit for what it is that you do.
So this is not let me preface this. This is not an ideal client avatar or a niche business coaching podcast training at all. We’re not talking about ICA development or client profiling. Instead, we’re talking about the questions that nobody tells you, that you really should be asking yourself about who you really want to work with, who you really want your clients to be.
And they have to be asked and they have to be asked for number one, your own happiness, number two, your client’s happiness, because when you have a great working relationship with your clients, then it’s going to be much more successful for both of you and therefore for the financial success of both your clients and your company. At the end of this episode,
you’re going to know what topics or different areas you should be looking at to qualify and disqualify clients on. You’re going to have a list of questions to workshop for yourself. These are tough questions that I’m going to give you in today’s show and just run through them in your mind, ask them in the air or when you’re on the treadmill or wherever you are,
ask yourself these questions and come up with the answers to these and get some solid clarity. Okay, you’re going to be able to gain confidence in developing your disqualification mindset in your business. And you’re going to leave this episode, looking at your current clients and you are going to have an immediate understanding of who’s really a perfect client for you and who might’ve been.
Somebody that might not have been the right fit for your program. Okay. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s shop Okay. Why does qualifying clients helps your business grow? So I totally get this may sound counterintuitive, but disqualifying clients is an important part of business growth. I know it sounds scary for those of you guys who are still working to become profitable.
This concept comes from the idea that concentrating your sales and your marketing, and only the most qualified and best fit leads is actually more suitable to help your business grow. And so the deal is, first of all, like in most things, it starts with your mindset. So let’s first start there. If you want to serve everybody, you’re going to serve nobody.
And here is why you’ve probably heard that statement a million times over again from tons of business coaching it’s because in order to deliver a top-notch result, you need to curate and customize your programs. So let me say that again, in order to deliver a top notch result for your clients, you need to properly curate and customize your program or your solution and customized solutions don’t serve everybody,
right. Or they wouldn’t be customized. So the first thing that we need to realize that is in order to be really great at what you do, you have to customize it for a certain group of people, not for everybody, because it’s not going to give them amazing results. And then from a marketing standpoint, if you don’t speak to a certain specific audience,
your message is just going to be so broad. It’s going to be lost in all the noise of, of online marketing and nobody’s going to resonate with it. So let’s get those things out of the way. First, those like negative thoughts out of the way first, if, if you might’ve been having those, and let’s actually dive into the deeper conversation that I want to have today,
which is the point of this show. So we’re talking about disqualifying clients. When you disqualify clients, you make more money because the qualified clients, you do accept. Number one, have better results with your program. And number two, they have a deeper commitment to their own success. And maybe I should have flipped those around the other way. It really should be.
They have a deeper commitment to their own success and therefore they have better results in your program. So it all starts with a process of determining who wins with your coaching and who actually doesn’t. Now don’t forget the prerequisite to applying this strategy is having a proven leading program that delivers a transformation. So everything we’re talking about today is with the understanding that you’ve already met,
the prerequisite of understanding that your solution you deliver is full-blown top notch, like the best guaranteed transformation for your people. Okay? So it all starts with determining who wins and who doesn’t with that program you’ve already created. All right. So if you’re thinking this ideal client avatar, that’s totally not what I’m talking about. What I’m asking you is this, do you know where the line in the sand is between the people who are all in for your coaching and service and those who have one foot in and one foot out and taking it a step further understanding and accepting that only the best clients that are going to get the best results are the ones who are all in on your program is what we need to talk about getting to the root of today.
And here’s why knowing where your clients are psychologically in the belief of themselves and of your services will affect the results they get with you. Okay? So how your clients are mentally entering your service business, your coaching business is totally going to affect how great of results they get, regardless of how great your program is. So even if you have this amazing program,
in course, and service and in coaching, and you have gone through all the steps that we’re talking about to lay out an industry leading program or offer, when it comes down to it, you still have to be able to identify who psychologically is a great fit and who is not a great fit. So here’s an example. Let me give you an example of this.
You’ve gone through all the work. You have this amazing leading offer, this amazing program or course or whatever it is that you lead that your business model within your, in your company, right? So if time or financial commitment is a barrier or a hesitation in somebody who’s having a conversation about working with you, then you have already started out by putting herself in a bad position that you’re going to have to hand hold them.
So if time or finances or even questioning their own ability to be successful is something they’re already bringing up in the beginning. And these are big red flags. Then you’re already starting out by having a struggle to get them results. So these are some of the things that may happen to you. If you’re in a relationship with a client like that, you may feel like you need to show up every single day,
proving yourself again and again, as to why, you know what the heck you’re doing, you could feel like you’re walking on eggshells. You could have to hold their hand every single day and reassure them how great they are on top of the strategy coaching that you deliver instead of being the expert and coach that they really need a hundred percent, if you are having to show up and in reconvince,
and it’s almost like reselling them on what you do every single day within the process, after they’ve already bought that is a red flag, that they are not going to get great results in your program. And frankly, it has nothing to do with you. It’s the mindset that they had coming into it. So here are six questions to ask yourself, to determine who really wins with your coaching question.
Number one is how committed do they need to be? How committed to themselves, according to your area of expertise and what you teach on, do they need to be, to be successful? Some of you guys might have a program where you’re building up their self-confidence and if that’s the case, then probably not very committed because that’s your area of expertise. If that’s your area of expertise,
then it’s going to be a different degree of commitment than somebody who may need their clients to show up fully in and vetted already. Okay? So this totally is dependent on you and what you deliver and the solution you provide within your offers and programs. So question number two is how committed do they need to be? Excuse me, question number one is how committed do they need to be?
Question number two is what time allotment do they need to have? If they’re already struggling to find the time to be successful in your program right now might not be the time for them to join your program. And you should be really honest with them and say, Hey, look at, this is exactly how many hours you need to put into this each,
each week. And when you put in this many hours, these are the results you can expect. Those are things you should be able to answer about your leading offer. Okay? And so then you can ask yourself what time allotment does somebody need to have in order to be super duper successful within the programs that I provide, number three, what ads to do do they need to show up with?
So according again to you and your expertise and what you do, what is the ideal attitude slash mindset of the person who is going to get the very best results with your coaching? Number four, what might they need to leave behind? This is a really big deal. So a lot of people, specially people who have bought a ton of courses, they’ve spent literally thousands of dollars on coaches in the past.
I hear this all the time. You guys, people come to us and they’re like, oh my gosh, you don’t have any idea. I’ve spent $50,000 on coaches. I still don’t have a result. Right? Well, that really sucks for them. And that’s really devastating. And it shows why you really need to question who you’re receiving coaching from.
Again, that’s a totally another podcast. We should do an episode on that, right? But if they’re coming to you with that background, you need to make sure that you’re having a conversation with them about why you’re different, why your solutions are proven, why your transformation and working with you is vetted again and again and again. So what might they need to leave behind in past experiences or bad experiences or good experiences,
what preconceived notions or things that don’t serve them might they need to leave behind when they come to work with you, number five, what should they be ready for? Some of you guys deliver insane results within your program. Some results are so good that people are like, oh my gosh, shit. I can’t believe this is, this is so amazing,
right? If that’s you and you know, you deliver an insane result, what do your clients really need to be ready for in working with you in what other things do they need to have in place to be ready for that, that is a really big deal. That is definitely something that we vet clients before they come in. Our OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS,
are they ready for this? And you ask yourself, like, are people actually really ready for what I’m about to give them for this awesome sauce that I’m bringing to the table that I’ve worked so hard to curate for them? Are they actually ready for it? What do they need to do to get ready for this? And then number six, what personality best fits with your program?
This is particularly important for those of you guys that have a community within your program. If somebody is like a total BITC H and you have this amazing community of these sweet people that are in there, I’m telling you what, like that one bad apple can spoil the bunch, right? And so your onboarding process, your onboarding pre-sale pre client acceptance process should include somebody talking and vetting and disqualifying people whose vibe and flow just might not align with the rest of your community.
And that’s totally okay, but just be honest with yourself about what personality best fits within your program. So those are six questions, hard questions that you should know the answers to in order to disqualify. And then let’s flip that around. Pre-qualify the perfect people for your program, your service, your solution, and your superpower. And so here’s some of the exercises that we can go through to look a little bit deeper to actually make this job of asking yourself these questions a little bit easier for you.
Number one, what was the mindset we’re talking about past clients now? What was the mindset of past clients and what was their personality of those that got the best results? So in looking at those people, who’ve already been clients in the past, what was their mindset and what was their personality like of the fricking winners, the, a gamer. So once it did everything and they came and they saw it and they kicked ass,
and then they took names and then they went and they were just absolutely incredible. Shouting from the mountain tops about how amazing your program is, right? What was their mindset and their personality. Also looking at your past clients, who did you love working with? Who was like the best person that when you got on those zoom calls, or when you saw this person on your calendar,
you’re like, yay. I get to talk to so-and-so today. And what was it about them that you loved working with them? Number three, who contributed to others in your course or your community? Again, for those of you guys that have a community base, who was the one that was always cheering, other people on who was the one that was always lifting other people up,
who was like that conversation starter, who is that cheerleader in? What was it about them that made it so amazing when they contributed to that space? Number four, who did the work without question like who, no matter what happened. And we all know stuff happens all the time in our life, that’s going to get in the way of some of the things that we’re working on.
Right. But who did the work? Even when all the things got in the way who pushed through, who was super tenacious, who were the fighters who refused to quit, number five, who always needed coddling, who always showed up. And they’re like, oh, well, I don’t know. I don’t know how I am today. What do you think?
Like who needed that? Is that something that you want to help with that would not fly so well in some of the programs that I have, let’s just be honest. Right? You can probably tell you, he listen to my podcasts. Like if somebody showed up every day and they were like having major excuses to why they couldn’t do it, I’d be like,
you’re right. You can’t, because that’s how you’re showing up here. You know? I mean, are you the same way as I am? Or is your program a safe place for people to show up who do need your support, who everything you do is to just to pour into them. And you’re the reminder of how amazing they are because they forgot it.
Or they never were told it in the first place, whatever it is, whatever the degree is, this with your past clients who showed up needing that level of support, number six, who complained about the work, the time or the money. All right. So who complained if at all, I hope this has never happened to you. I’ve never had this happen to me,
but I’m sure this has happened before. Like who was like, oh my gosh, you know, this takes so much time to do that probably means that you didn’t do a good job explaining the commitment in the beginning, if that is the case. So certainly look at the structure of your program and in how you are selling your program. But after you did that,
let’s just say like, you totally nailed that. Who still came complaining about the work, the time and the, or the money, number seven, who questioned your processes. Okay. If you are in a space where you deliver a system, a method or a framework, like most of our clients do, do you have people who’ve showed up, who’ve always kind of questioned what you do.
If that is the case, then take a look at their personality. And I’m guessing that that is not the perfect person for your program. Right? Right. And again, this is saying that you’ve gone through the process to develop your leading program in method and framework. That being aside, we’ve established that prerequisite, if people still showed up and they’re like,
really, are you sure? Do you really think that’s the way to do it? And they just constantly have a back and forth. I’m guessing that they are not the perfect fit for you. And then number eight, who left in told all of their friends about how amazing you are, who is like, let me give you testimonies. I can’t wait to tell the whole entire world,
man, alive 95. This was the best money I ever spent. Those people. Those are the people we want to go after. Those are the people that are perfect fit for your program. So if they are not like those past clients that were doing all this stuff like that in like making a banner, because they love you so much, then they probably need to be considered for disqualification.
So after this episode, I’m about to give you some action steps here and how to apply all this. But after this, then as you move forward and know that you deserve to be praised for the hard work and the time that you have put in strategically developing a solution for people’s problems. And let’s make sure that you are disqualifying the people that aren’t the perfect recipient of your solution.
Because when you do this, you’re going to be able to focus all of your attention, all of your relationship, building all of your actions on those perfect personality mindset, people that are the right fit for your program. And when they are successful, you are successful. Your client’s success. My client success is a direct reflection, a direct correlation to my success,
to your success. So we want to pick the people there, the, a gamers, right? We want to pick the ones that we know are coming to the table mentally and physically prepared for what it is that you are going to give them solutions in for your solution. And these are just some of the questions that when we talk about like ideal client avatar and client profiling and customer targeting,
nobody’s saying to ask these questions. And so I really felt like it was important to talk about this. We actually, I actually had this conversation a few weeks ago with a couple of women in our business, client, family, and this has really come up and I think it’s an important conversation to have. And so here is your action plan, moving forward.
Number one, look at your sales copy and see if it clearly disqualifies the wrong people. All right. So after you’ve gone through the questions above now, let’s like, put it into action, right? We’re going to say, and how do we do this? We’re going to take it from high level, the high level. Number one, look at your sales copy,
copy. Look at your marketing copy and make sure that you’re clearly disqualifying the people that are not the perfect right fit for you or your service or your program. Number two, add questions to your sales call process, to filter those who are not the perfect fit. So if you use sales calls to qualify or disqualify clients, make sure you’re adding questions in there that correlate with the answers you’re looking for to either qualify or disqualify clients,
make sure you add those into your sales process. Don’t be afraid to ask the tough questions where in this sales call, they might be like, oh wow. Yeah. You know what? That’s not me. And that is a great for you to say, you know what? I am so glad we have this conversation, because guess what, what I have is not the right fit for you.
And I don’t want you spending another XYZ amount of money on a program. That’s not going to be the right fit for you. But I have a great friend I can refer you to. That might be a better fit, right? These are important things to do in your sales call. You don’t want this person as a client. If they do not fit into what you need to deliver the great solutions within your program.
And so don’t be afraid to disqualify them right there in the triage, call in the sales call and send them somewhere else. Just bless them to go somewhere else. But you have to make sure you’re adding questions into your sales call process that can give you the answers to that. And number three, talk to your team. This is for those of you guys,
would teams that manage your marketing. Some of you, you know, have people that help you do your sales call, help you do your coaching. Talk to them about the importance of positioning, your solution and your service as the prize. It’s very, very important that once you have done the work to create a leading program or course or offer it is the prize.
It is the painkiller. As one of my clients calls it. It’s like the perfect language. Oh yes. It’s a painkiller. Okay. Make sure that you hold it close to your own confidence level that you worked your booty off to make sure it was a perfect painkiller for them. And that is the prize. And this quote is like one of the best quotes I’ve ever heard from Angela Lauria.
She said the prize never chases. Let me say that again. The prize never chases. And so here are some final thoughts I want to leave you with. I totally get that. The thought of disqualifying, somebody that comes your way, that isn’t the right fit. Sounds really scary, especially when you haven’t hit consistent 10 K months or 20 K months,
30 K months, especially when you’re first starting out. And that’s why at the beginning of this episode, I said, if you’re in the launch phase and you haven’t served a ton of clients yet, I get and understand that it’s important for us to go through the process, to test your solution on different clients, making sure that you are going through the testing and the traction to find the right fit after of course doing market research.
So I understand that if you’re listening to this and you’re in the launch phase, definitely take this with a grain of salt. I’m keeping it real, but never, ever, ever sell your program to somebody that you don’t believe a hundred percent, that you can give them Results. That is for sure, I don’t care what business phase you’re in. That is aligned.
We don’t ever cross. If somebody is not a good fit, do not sell to them. Right? But for the rest of you, don’t be afraid to say no to the money. Because when you say to something, you’re opening up your capacity to say yes to more things, and you don’t want to be stuck with clients that take a ton of extra time in order to get them results,
because they didn’t show up with the mindset and the prerequisites in place to get the best results with the service you provide. So the truth is you should be disqualifying clients to work with you. If they don’t come wanting the results you deliver in full force, if their personality won’t jive with others in your community, if they consistently need affirmation that you know what the heck you’re doing,
although please make sure that you know what the heck you’re doing. And if they’re only partially committed to their own transformation in one last thing, I’m going to leave you with today. Stop wondering if you’re good enough and taking clients that don’t fit the whole bill of what you deliver. When you go through the process to diligently develop your leading offer, stop taking clients that don’t fit the bill for the solution you provide,
because we know that you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. And I really, really, really want to remind you to only work with clients that are super duper thirsty. Okay? Okay. This was episode number 245 here at the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. You can find the show notes and all of the other amazing info that our guests drop in here for free by visiting Sweetlifeco.com.
And if you are struggling, if you do not know how to turn your ideas into a leading industry, leading course offer program mastermind coaching event or retreat, then go to theofferengineer.com. Our OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS is reopening in October. We only opened this masterclass twice a year. That’s it only twice a year you can get into this masterclass?
And it is opening in October, 2021. So depending on when you listen to this, that’s an important date to note for your calendar in the event that you’re not listening to this live. You can also go to theofferengineer.com at any time and be notified when this masterclass opens up again. All right, you guys go grab all the show notes. Thank you so much for staying tuned to this show.
I hope you’re having an amazing day and I truly appreciate your listenership. And just being a supporter of this show, have a great way.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs in launch, scale and amplify phases.
Summary:
Whiteboard sessions are a great conversion tool to convert leads to buyers. If you’re a coach, consultant or niche skill provider, you’re always looking for great ways to deepen your relationships with your followers and position yourself as the ideal solution. In this show I unpack how to use“whiteboard” sessions to further connect with your audience and increase sales. This show details the exact steps to fill and deliver your next white board session.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have the exact process to fill and deliver whiteboard client conversion sessions
Know how to plan your next whiteboard session into your launch
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey, you guys, on this week’s show, we are talking about a very cool conversion tool in order to turn those people on your list to buyers that fervently follow every single thing that you do.
This is episode number 244 at this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, which means that all of the show notes can be found by visiting our website, which is Sweetlife co.com simply clicking on the podcast. And this is episode number 244. I’m April beach, the host here at the show, and we are known for delivering proven business trainings that you can absolutely bank on that other coaches will charge you thousands for you.
Get them all here, free advertisement free on this show because this podcast is an extension of the outreach that we do as a company. So welcome to the show. If you’re a new listener, I’m super glad to be connected with you. So this is what you can expect from today’s episode. First of all, this episode is great for businesses and phases.
Two, three, or four of my business growth roadmap. If you are not sure what business phase you’re in, please visit Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. Or you can simply text the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. And you can take a very short self-assessment, which will give you a complete breakdown of all the phases of business growth long-term and tell you exactly what you should be focusing on based on the phase of business that you are in right now.
So this show is great for people in phases, two, three, or four, and it’s really great for those of you guys who want a conversion tool that moves your leads into buyers. So if you’re a coach or a consultant or a niche skill provider, you’re always looking for great ways to position yourself as the perfect solution to those people that you’re in connection with.
And whiteboard sessions are a great way to do that. And that’s what we’re going to talk about here on today’s show. I’m going to unpack how to use whiteboard sessions to further connect with your list and increase your sales. And I’m going to detail out the eight steps that we use as a company, and literally giving you our steps of how we plan and host our whiteboard sessions.
And at the end of this episode, you’re going to know our exact process, and you’re going to be able to plan for your own whiteboard sessions to turn your leads into buyers. All right. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show First of all, let’s go ahead and answer the question. What is a whiteboard session?
So a whiteboard session is like a live webinar where you work with your leads. You help them to solve a specific problem, thereby gaining trust and positioning you as the ultimate solution that they were looking for. You can host it in zoom. You can host it in another live streaming platform, but overall it’s very similar to the webinars of bold, but you’re doing it live.
It’s not pre recorded and where you actually have people show up and you literally literally get to work their problem with them. And they are an amazing conversion tool. So let’s kind of talk about that terminology as well. A conversion tool is what we refer to as an event or a way to turn your leads into buyers. So we’re using these whiteboard sessions to turn leads that are already familiar with you into faithful buyers,
selling them into your higher ticket programs. Now you can totally use whiteboard sessions to generate new leads as well. We, in the past, as a company have primarily used them to take our existing leads or warm leads and turn them into buyers. But I would love for you to go and test these to cold leads as well, because I’m sure that would actually convert very high as well because very few people are doing this.
So I’m going to break down the eight steps to host these whiteboard sessions and really just pull back the curtains on what we do as a company and give you this step-by-step process. So let’s go ahead and get started. If you’re taking notes, this is a great episode to take notes, to save it. You can replay it later. So step number one,
I need you to choose a specific problem that you’re solving in your session. So one specific problem that you are going to address in your whiteboard session, your whiteboard session, shouldn’t be, you know, let’s go ahead and solve the whole world’s, you know, hunger issue. It should be. Let’s talk about one specific problem and let’s go ahead and whiteboard out some potential solutions to that.
And here’s a pro tip for those of you that are really interested in being strategic about your business. I want you to make your whiteboard session a piece of the problem that you solve in your leading offer. So hopefully you caught what I just said. All right. So number one, you’re going to choose one specific problem that you will solve in your whiteboard session.
And one only, number two, send out a warmup email to your list, letting them know that you’re aware of the problem that they’re facing. And you’re planning something really special for them. It’s like dangling the carrot in front of them, say, Hey, listen, you guys, I know that you’re struggling with this. I know that this has been a common issue for many of you.
And I just wanted to let you know, I’m planning something really special to help you solve that. So stay tuned because I’m going to tell you what that special thing is that you can be a part of very, very soon. So step number two is get your list excited about what is to come step. Number three is to schedule your session out.
Now here’s the deal. I recommend you pick two different times to host your whiteboard session. Usually within the same week, try to do them possibly even in the same day, one in the morning, one in the evening, depending on when your clients are most available, when your audiences is most working on the problem that you solve, picking two different sessions,
gives them an opportunity to say, Hey, yes, I want to come to session number one or session number two, but make sure that you schedule this in advance. And then step number four is to send out an invite to this session. And when you send that second email invite out, and you’re saying, okay, here it is. This is what I’m doing.
Call it a whiteboard session. I’m hosing this whiteboard session and it’s going to be amazing, but here’s the deal. There are limited seats. Now, one of the things that we are not only addressing here right now in this show, but if you’re a faithful listener to this podcast for the last four and a half years, you know that you will see these trends,
right? Where we have gone from these mass programs to boutique very personalized events and programs and leading offers. People don’t want to be part of the cattle herd. They don’t want to be in a cookie cutter thing. So when you offer something that’s limited seats, that’s really exclusive. Those are the things that people are craving right now at the recording of this in 2021.
So just be mindful, mindful for that. So sending out your invitation and say, Hey, listen, you know, there are limited seats to this FYI, make sure you RSVP for your seat right now. Step number five, get your tech set up. Ready? Okay. So when we say a whiteboard session, I actually mean a whiteboard session.
So that is usually a combination between an iPad or something that you can cast sketch on and cast it into zoom. There are so many different tools that you can do this. We use iPad. We used to use iPad with Notability, but that kind of broke a little bit. So now some of the solutions that we dive into are E cam mixed with stream yard.
There are a bunch of different technology setups that you can actually do in order to host and cast your iPad, live into a zoom. So people can see you actually sketching your whiteboard session, because this is a true web word session that isn’t like a marketing thing. You’re actually going to host a whiteboard session and schedule their results, which I’ll dive into here in just a few minutes.
Okay? So you need to get your tech set up, right? So, so far you’ve chosen the specific problem. You’ve sent out an email to your list saying, Hey, listen, I know you’re, you’re having this problem. Something special is coming. You’ve scheduled your session in your own planning. And then you sent out the email to your list saying,
Hey, it’s scheduled now get on the list right now. You’re filling those seats. Meanwhile, while the seats are filling to your event, get your technology set up, practice it and get it ready. And that was step number five. Okay. Step number six is to send reminders out to your list to make sure they fill up those seats. Because just because people sign up doesn’t mean they show up.
So we need to send reminders and DMS. You want to blanket those people. Who’ve registered, letting them know, Hey, you got one of these exclusive seats to this really special whiteboard event. Don’t lose it. Like don’t miss it. Don’t miss your seat. This is really, really special. Getting them excited about it. Reiterate how exclusive it is and send them tons of reminders.
So we’re increasing the show up rate for your event. And then step number seven is to host this event. And now I’m going to break it down into six steps under the hosting your event. So this is why if you’re taking notes as a great episode to take notes, do so as you’re hosting your event, I recommend you only do a one hour event.
Okay? So you’re going to deliver a lot of value in a very, very short period of time. So you want people wanting more. All right. So in the steps to host your event, step number one is start by sharing. Like you were philosophical genius well-rooted view on the problem that you are solving. So start by sharing here is a problem.
Here’s why I know this as a problem. Here’s why I’m so well rooted in part of the solution to this problem in load your view, load your intro with T studies of how you’ve helped other people solve the problem that you’re helping this group of people whiteboard about. So you open it up, you position yourself as I’m aware of this problem. I’m part of the solution to this problem.
This is what other clients do that we have helped them work through this problem. And Hey, now I’m here to work with you. So you’re fully positioning yourself as being completely aware, being an expert in this space and having helped other people. And that’s how I want you to open up this strategy session. This whiteboard strategy session. Step number two is then you open the floor for others to share about their issue with whatever problem it is that you’re solving in,
why they’re still facing it. What is the problem? What is the struggle? Why are they still here? Why have they not moved forward? What are the other things they’ve tried? And if you’re a marketer right now in your brain, you’re realizing that these whiteboard sessions are super gold for doing, you know, figuring out what the problem is and doing market research as well.
Okay. So later we can talk about transcribing this in turning the, the voices and the issues people are saying into marketing copy. But right now you’re hearing you’re present in this event. And I want you to open up the floor to others to explain those things. This is my problem. This is why I’m still here. This is my frustration. This is what I’ve tried and open the floor to those people that you’re helping in this whiteboard session to share sharing quickly,
because we want to keep the session moving. We want to keep it fresh. We want to, we want to keep everybody engaged and we really do want to give them a chance to talk, or at least a chance to post into the chat, depending on how many people you’ve allowed in your session. And then step number three, you’re going to use your whiteboard to visually represent solutions,
demonstrating what people have said in documenting their comments and collecting their frustrations. So part of your white boarding can be just writing down on the whiteboard, the words people are using, or a list of the problems, which by the way, you already know their problems, but writing down a list. So each time somebody says, oh, this is a problem.
Or this is a problem. You can be starting to use your whiteboard and listing out all of those problems. And so you’re going to document the things that they are saying, and you’re going to collect it all in this whiteboard session based on what they’re sharing with you. And then step number four, you’re going to summarize all of their pains collectively. And you’re going to say,
Hey, listen, I get it. This is what all you guys are saying. And so what we’ve done there in this whiteboard sessions, we’ve created community. We’ve created a comradery amongst the people who’ve been there. They don’t feel like they’re alone anymore. They’re in a place where other people are experiencing the same pain and guess what you are the king or queen that leads them out of this pain.
And so step number six is after you summarize their collective pains, then you start white boarding solutions for them. And this white boarding is going to look totally different. It’s literally a sketch drawing of how you can take people from one place to one place, or maybe in your white boarding session, based on your area of expertise. You can list out key words or common solutions.
You’re literally going to whiteboard out and draw and draft solutions based on the collective community’s problems in your event. And if you have time, depending on how many people showed up, I want you to pull a few specific people out and ask them if they would like to have their specific problem solved for them right there in detail in the white boarding session. And what that is just done is it’s helped this one person,
but it’s also shown everybody else your skills and what an amazing coach that you are and how amazing the results that you can get people in a very short period of time. And then at the end of your session, you’re going to restate why this problem exists and why it’s so hard for them to solve it on their own. And so what you’ve done in this session is you’ve positioned yourself as the perfect painkiller that leads them out of it,
letting them know you fully understand what they’re dealing with and sharing case studies of how you have to help the other clients. You’re going to open the floor for them to share their collective pains and problems. And then you’re going to use your whiteboard to visually collectively gather together all of their pains and document their comments. The next step is you’re going to use your whiteboards to start sketching out solutions collectively for the group sharing solutions and doing a short teaching.
And then if you have time based on how many people show up, you can pick one or two people from your audience and you can actually go through their very hyper niche, specific problems. And at the end of it, you’re going to restate why the problem is big, why it exists. And you’re going to position yourself as the solution for that,
which you’ve already done at this point in time. You’ve already Billy established yourself as being not only capable, but the perfect solution to their problem. And so how we end these whiteboard sessions is then you make an offer for your next step to work with you, whatever that looks like you could use a whiteboard session as a perfect conversion tool into one of your primary offers.
One of your leading offers or your whiteboard session could put them into another funnel that warms them up for maybe a live virtual event, warms them up to maybe have them apply to work for you, work with you. Maybe your program is application-based. And so it’s continuing to be exclusive to work with you. And so your alive whiteboard session could perhaps position them just to apply to work with you or even sell right into your program,
whatever works for you. And that is how we use whiteboard sessions. And it’s very, very similar actually to kind of how we use clubhouse rooms, but not as visual. And it doesn’t create such an exclusive community with your group of people that are there. Because when we do this in a whiteboard session, you can see people’s faces. You can really get to know them and you can help them on the next level,
because you’re not only having a conversation with them. You are giving them the results right there that they can visually see, and they don’t have to just envision whiteboard sessions are a powerful, powerful way to turn your list into buyers, very faithful buyers. And I’m so surprised that more people don’t do them. We’ve been doing them for years, and I’m so happy to teach you how to do it here on this show.
And inside our masterminds, who work with our clients very closely to create their whiteboard sessions and really pick out the problem they’re solving and them and how to convert their leads into buyers. And so I want you to dive into this, feel free to put this podcast on replay, share this podcast with your friends and make sure you’re taking notes. Because if you follow the steps that we’ve laid out here,
you will have the same results that we have in our whiteboard sessions. And they’re hugely successful in order to help people build a closer relationship with us, which then in turn, of course increase our sales because we’ve done a great job establishing you and establishing ourselves has the perfect solution to their problem, which in the coaching consulting space, that is always our number one goal when it comes to marketing.
So I hope you found this episode helpful. I feel like I’m losing my voice a little bit here at the end, and I’m so sorry about that. So hope my scratchy voice doesn’t get in the way of your understanding the steps, because I really would love for you to apply them in your business. And when you do tag me on Instagram, show me say,
Hey, Ebro, I am using this whiteboard session strategy. I’m so excited to do it. Here’s what’s happening tag me at April beach life because I always love seeing how you guys are applying the business trainings that we give you here on this show, and we’re here to make you more money. And of course help you build predictably, the business and life of your dreams.
Thank you so much for tuning in sharing the show with your friends and being faithful listeners here of the suite life entrepreneur and business podcast. Again, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and clicking on podcast. And if you’re interested in applying to work with us and have us roll up our sleeves with you and your business and get very personalized business,
blueprinting, architecture, and engineering of your leading offers and your entire long-term business plan, you can find us@sweetlifeco.com. That is our superpower, and that is what we love doing. Have a great day. I’ll talk to you next week.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs with limited time, who are looking to grow a warm audience with Clubhouse.
Summary:
Clubhouse is an amazing platform to grow your audience, but most of our listeners have limited time and you want to be strategic about how you spend it. So, in this week’s episode, we dive in with Annabelle Bayhan, Clubhouse marketing expert, to clarify 3 strategic objectives that can save you time and make you money while using the app. We also pull back the curtains on our Clubhouse to Masterclass sales funnel, and tell you exactly how to increase sales with decreased time.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the 3 money making activities on Clubhouse
Know the 3 secondary strategies that will lead to money down the road
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hi guys. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 243, and I am April beach host here and founder of the Sweetlife company, where we help coaches, consultants and niche experts,
launch and scale your company online through proven strategies with decades of business success. And here on this podcast, it’s our extension where you can get business trainings that you can bank on. So welcome to the show today. We’re talking about how to make the most of your time on clubhouse. Now, this is a really important topic because if you’ve been listening to the show for a while,
you know that I am a big clubhouse fan. We dove in headfirst into clubhouse last December, and it’s been a really great special platform to build relationships. And for us to grow our list as a business, we’ve had multiple clubhouse episodes that we’ve recorded. You are welcome to search those on how to get started on clubhouse and how to grow your club.
But today we’re talking about kind of the elephant in the room here in that is how to make the most of your time on clubhouse, because we like many people dove in to clubhouse, but we have also taken the last three months off of the app for the summertime for us to travel in. So have the majority of leaders that we moderate rooms with,
they have taken time off the app as well, but as seasons change, everybody’s diving back into clubhouse. Now, as we go into September and October and the end of 2021. And so the real question is how do you make the most of your time? What are the activities that you can be doing in order to make money in a limited amount of time and be really strategic about what you’re doing on clubhouse in a way that really aligns with your business.
And so this particular episode is great for those of you guys who do have a limited time, and you’re looking to grow your warm audience and increase sales using clubhouse. This is also great for you guys in any phase of my lifestyle, entrepreneur business roadmap, if you are not sure what phase of business you’re in, you can go take a little quiz and I’ll tell you exactly where you are and what stage of business and give you a checklist of what you should be focusing on to grow your business to the next profit stage.
You can grab that anytime by going to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz. So now let’s go ahead and talk about what you can expect from hanging out with us here today. This is the deal, you know, clubhouse is an amazing platform to grow your audience, but most of you guys have really limited time and you want to be strategic about how you spend it.
So in today’s episode, we’re going to dive in with Annabel by hand. Now she is a friend I met on clubhouse. She’s one of the many amazing business friends that I have met on the app. And she’s a clubhouse marketing expert in today’s show. We’re going to talk about three different strategic objectives that can save you time and make you money while using the app.
We’re also talking about three other secondary activities that are also great to do on the app, based on your goals, that you are setting your strategic objectives for the time that you spend there. And then at the end of this show, I actually pull back the curtain and you can totally hack our funnel. I lay out our entire clubhouse list, growth to sales funnel into our,
OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS, how we did it at the beginning of this year and how we’re actually about to start it again right now. So I just give you everything and I lay it out there for you, so you can see how we’re doing it because it works really well. And when things are working really well, we want you to be able to apply those strategies in your business too.
So at the end of this episode, you’re going to know the three moneymaking activities to do on clubhouse. You’re going to know the three secondary strategies. You can also do that lead to money, just not immediate money in your pocket, but there are also good activities to do on the app. And you are going to understand and know our complete clubhouse sales funnel and that’s ours at the Sweetlife Company.
So I frankly just give you all of that. I try to give you so much here on the show and just lay it all out there for you. So let’s talk about our expert and our guests. So first of all, I met Anabel on clubhouse. And when you spend any time on clubhouse, you can just tell the people you want to hang out with and the people that you want to get to know more.
And she’s really one of those people where I had my eye on her in the beginning, and she kind of shares her story about how she has risen as a clubhouse marketing expert, which that in itself is a really amazing lesson about just diving in, even when people around you think that maybe that’s not such a great idea. And so you’ll get to hear her story.
And she is the founder of clubhouse for bosses in the business and digital marketing strategists for coaches and consultants who want to increase their influence income and impact using clubhouse prior to becoming a business and marketing coach Annabel worked with digital marketing for over a decade. And you can learn more about Anabel by visiting Annabel bay han.com. And of course, we will go ahead and link to that in this show.
She also gives you her whole entire clubhouse productivity strategy workbook. And so you’re really getting a ton out of this episode. So I hope you stick with us if you want to grow your business on clubhouse and you have very limited time. Like I do, like Annabelle does, like most of our clients do. Then this is a really important episode for you to listen to in order to get all of the loaded and free things that Annabel has for you and all the notes for this show,
you can visit Sweetlifeco.com simply click on the podcast button. And this is episode number 243, and Annabel will be live with us because we are just kicking off our wave makers, mastermind rooms again on Tuesday night after our three months off. We’re so excited. We had a room this evening in there and it was just so great to see so many faces and people we haven’t spoken to in a long time.
So we hope that you join us Annabel. We’ll be live in clubhouse with us in the wave makers club, talking about the same things we’re talking about here on the podcast and taking your questions. So make sure you’re following Annabel. You’re following me at April beach on clubhouse so that we can connect with you and help you grow your business further through clubhouse and other proven online business strategies.
Okay, let’s go ahead and dive by then. All right. Hi, you guys. We are so excited to be talking again today about clubhouse. Yes. My new favorite. I have my friend Annabel here with us today and I asked her to come because of the fact that she has really become the clubhouse guru when it comes to building your business on clubhouse.
And whereas I totally went Mia and took three months off of clubhouse this summer. You have people like Anabel who have been consistently on this app, understanding the ins and the outs and the strategies of business, and really being faithful to watching this app grow and helping you grow in your business. So I’m so excited to invite Annabel today, to come and talk to us about the realities of how to use clubhouse as a strategy,
but also for people like me and probably most of our listeners, how to actually fit this into your life and your time and your business. So welcome to this Wheatland entrepreneur podcast and about, we are so glad that you are here. Thank you for having me. I love your whole entire kind of transition into being the marketing guru, the business guru of clubhouse.
Can you just briefly tell everybody a little bit about your business and how you help entrepreneurs? Yeah, So I am the founder of clubhouse for buses it’s to my knowledge, one of the very first business coaching programs using clubhouse. Before that I’ve worked behind the scenes with a lot of small businesses growing their businesses. Many of them being, you know, people who work on Instagram and they teach people how to use Instagram to grow their business.
And so I was very familiar with the model and actually very interested in doing it for myself. And so when I noticed that clubhouse was something that’s up and coming there was nobody working like this in this space yet. I thought, okay, this is my chance to be a very early adopter of this app and teach people what I know about growing businesses from,
you know, Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. It’s all very similar model with a different basically funnel head, I guess you could say, or a marketing positioning. And so I decided to just dive right in, like right when I had 300 followers, which was really intimidating and I would go into rooms and tell people that like I was a clubhouse for a business coach and they would laugh at me,
but now seven months later that has worked really well because I positioned myself very well to be somebody that people turn to for this information. But like I said, I took like about 10 years of experience growing companies, whether corporate or small business, all in my overbroad company called scalability, marketing and coaching, where I’m now taking those principles and those concepts,
but I’m making them applicable to clubhouse specifically. Well, I love that you dive right in. Okay. So let’s just take a pause for any of our listeners. Like this is the story of growth and success. You guys, it goes with diving in, even when other people might be like, oh, what is she doing? Or who does she think she is to do that?
So like, this is a perfect example of how you only need to focus on your vision, what, you know, you’re supposed to be doing and just like race, horse blinders on and dive fully in. So take Annabel’s experience, apply it to wherever you are, if you are afraid to die fully into something, but you know, you should be and you want to be,
go for it. So that’s a whole entire separate podcast episode. I love that you share that. So let’s go ahead and roll into what we’re going to talk about today. So here are the problems that we know entrepreneurs experience on the app definitely burn out for sure, from being on clubhouse in the middle of December, I think is when I joined clubhouse and fashion,
I don’t even know how many of there, a couple of thousand, maybe at the most. And it was so exciting to be on there in the beginning. And I remember like we don’t fully in, and I loved having these amazing, authentic conversations. And I know that other entrepreneurs felt the same way because basically we had been so disconnected in the world with what has happened until we’re craving these amazing conversations.
And then I discovered something that I know you’re going to talk about today, which is the goal of professional and personal development. And I was able to literally sit at the feet of people like Myron golden and go through total masterclasses on live virtual events with people like Barry and blue. I mean, and really be in these spaces with these leaders that I otherwise never could have had an opportunity to become connected with and now become,
you know, business professional friends with. And so it was really amazing in the beginning. But then as a mom of three kids, I owned five companies. All of a sudden I really started feeling that fatigue as well, especially as we got into our summer travel season. And I know that so many other businesses feel that way. And so it’s so important what you teach and your expertise because I love clubhouse,
you know, we’re back on it. Jose, I think I was telling you that behind the scenes, before we started recording we’re back on it tonight, launching our regular weekly wave makers mastermind room, which is so much fun. And I’ve really missed everybody, but man alive, we have to have a strategy behind this in order. It’s like not a sprint,
it’s a marathon for sure. Can you talk about some of the things that you have noticed are problems with businesses in having a long-term strategy for this and maybe some of the stuff that you’ve even experienced yourself and being consistent on clubhouse. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m going to tell you three places. You could spend your time on clubhouse that won’t pay your bills.
So let’s start with that. And one big mistake that I think people make right from the beginning is not being clear about why they’re on clubhouse, what they’re there to do and who they want to be known as on clubhouse. And this is the same for every single social media network, right? If you go on social media and your purpose, there is either.
So here’s the first one, your own personal development, although it’s great. It won’t pay your bills unless you turn it into something else and give yourself that time to implement it, your own entertainment, right? You can go on Instagram all day and take talk and watch them all day long, but they won’t pay your bills. And the last one really is something that’s more of a long-term strategy,
which is networking, right? It’s great to network with people, but if you aren’t getting yourself positioned and your brand position to actually convert people when you’re just meeting people, it’s all fluffy. It’s all nice. You might be developing. You might feel really good. But you know, when we think about burnout and we think about business owners is that it feels really good until it really doesn’t.
And so you start asking yourself, like, I’ve actually invested a bunch of time on this app and all of a sudden, now I’m asking myself, why did I just do that? Like, it felt really good. I was lonely. I made some friends, but now, okay, I’m six months in and I spent 20 hours a week on an app.
What does this actually mean for me and my future? And this is the point that I think a lot of clubhouse users are coming to. And a point that I want to maybe help people avoid if they’re just getting on the app or just building a strategy around how to use it, because it’s real, right? Because here’s the thing. Unlike Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn,
really, where you could pay someone else to actually engage for you, get in front of your audiences, you can pay ads. You can’t do that on clubhouse. It’s you in a room talking to people. Now the power of it is that when you’re in a room, talking to people, you build relationships, you build networks, you get yourself in front of prospective clients,
but if you’re not in the right place and you’re not talking and you’re not in the right positioning, and you’re not clear about what you want to do, all of that is literally just wasting time. And you have to decide, like, there are moments of my day where I want to scroll tech talk because it’s stress relief for me, it’s fun.
But if I do that every day, I’m not going to reach my goals. So I think what it comes down to is like to avoid burnout in the first place. What do you really want in your life? What is that driving force? What is that life that, that you want to design? And then as we kind of like get behind that,
we can then say, okay, how can we use clubhouse to create that? And that’s what I’m really passionate about. I think that, you know, something that a lot of people don’t know is that like underneath every single thing that I do it’s to empower women, to have more decision making power, because they’re able to create and monetize the lives that they love.
Like every single thing that I do clubhouse is just the tool that I use to do that. And so for me, that’s why I drive that message so clear. And that’s the best way to avoid burnout is know what you want, if you know what you want. It’s so easy to say, like, is the action that I’m taking right now getting me what I want.
And then when you say, no, it’s very easy to not do that thing. So yeah, that’s what I wanted to say, Writing down your quotes and like writing them down here and I’m going to go make these quotes and put them out on it. You are so, right, right. So like, understanding why are we doing this? How does this play a role in the bigger part of this?
And that’s why I’m so excited to have you here on this show. Because as you know, like that’s everything we talk about, it’s reverse engineering, the lifestyle, and then we build the business to get you there. So love everything you’re saying, of course, which is why I love you. So let’s talk about the ways that do make you money on clubhouse.
And let’s kind of hone in on those business trainings. There are three primary ways that you teach entrepreneurs and small businesses to interact into function on the clubhouse app. And so can you dive into, let’s start with number one, what is the first money-making way for somebody to spend their time on this app? So it’s awareness, right? It’s building visibility around who you are.
If nobody knows you on the app, nobody’s coming to your room is going to be very hard to then take them down the rest of the journey. This is something that I actually see a lot of people getting in the awareness trap, right? It’s very addicting. Especially for entrepreneurs. We get a little bit mixed up with like, oh, I can grow here.
And so we come to this point where we have to decide how much exposure do I actually want before I try to then take people along a journey to actually sell something to them. And that’s also a very personal question. How much time do you have, right? How much time does your business have before you need to drive leads before you need to turn this traffic into leads and what would best serve the people that you’re generating awareness around.
Right? If you kind of like go on a clubhouse stage and you’re talking about something that people could really use more information on that they could use more of a transformational journey, and you’re not providing that, just be rest assured that your competition will, right, but you might be the person to like create the awareness around it. You might be the person to let those people know that they have their problem,
right? Those are like kind of two things to really think about, like how much time do you want to spend as simply building your account, building up your social media profiles. That’s more of like an influencer strategy, but also every single brand, every single business needs people to know that they exist. And so the ways that you really do that on clubhouse is by either being on other people’s stages within other people’s clubs,
opening up rooms within other people’s clubs. And of course, opening up your own rooms with other mud squads and you know, that type of thing. And the whole goal of this awareness strategy is really to get in front of as many new people as possible and have them remember you for what you do, right? So you want to make sure that your bio set up,
you want to make sure that you have a clear introduction. You want to make sure that the rooms that you’re going to are going to make sense with, you know, the topics that you open up when you open up a room, you know, you don’t want to be like in a music room talking about how you like create business strategy, right?
It probably would not make as much sense, but people literally do this. Like you want to be in a place where you can get in front of an audience that needs what you do. So the first question you want to yourself is, you know, from my ideal client, from the person that I want to be on clubhouse, whether or not you’re becoming it,
you’re it, whatever it may be, where are the people that you could serve the most sitting on clubhouse right now and showing up in those places in the biggest way possible. That is what the awareness phase looks like is getting people to really know who you are, Where are the people that you can serve the most on clubhouse right now. And so for those people that are new and they haven’t actually dove into clubhouse,
let’s give them a hack. How would they find those people? What are some of the ways they can use the app to actually find their people that they want to be in front of? Yeah. So something really cool is happening right now on clubhouse, where they’re using interests, that’s to tie in people and clubs together. So the first thing you can do is really make sure that your interests match the interests of the ideal client that you’re trying to actually attract.
So for business owners, when they’re setting up their clubhouse profile, I recommend that you try to show up in the places where your ideal customer is going to be. And then you can add in a couple of your own interests, but for now I think that’s very smart to make sure that that’s niche down to your category. So that clubhouse begins to recommend you in the places that matter most.
So clubhouse did not use to recommend people based off their interests, but they’re about to, so I want everybody to set up their interests. The next is to make sure that you show up in keyword search for your industry. So whatever that ideal client might be searching for, make sure that you show up in your bio and your entire clubhouse bio is searchable.
So just make sure that those keywords and you can use a lot of them are all there, but also reverse engineer that right? If we know that people are putting keywords in their profiles, we can also go out and find the community leaders, the thought leaders, the people that might want in our network, the people we might want to be on stages with the people who have already collected the community.
We can go through and follow some of those people so that we start to see their rooms in our hallway. And then the last way is really using that keyword search in a similar way, but for clubs and I think clubs, they work very much like Facebook groups. There’s something that we’re all, you know, intuitively aware of, but maybe not everybody is as strategic about it.
When they first joined, they probably think, what clubs do I want to be in. But then we’re always asking the question, which club does my ICA most likely spend time in. Right? And so those are the things that you want to ask yourself, because what this is going to do is basically open up the content and the communities that are already being created with your ideal client already in it.
It’s going to accelerate your growth because when you show up in those places, when you’re like, okay, I want to become aware of there’s a room of like 100 to 200 people that are all within my ICA set. I’m going to get up. I’m going to talk, I’m going to build awareness. It becomes very easy, but all we have to do is make sure that we’re showing up in the right places.
And the best way to do that is really through keyword search to start from there though, what’s really cool about clubhouse. And I don’t know if this level of visibility is going to always be available, but if you find somebody that’s a thought leader in your space, you find somebody that maybe is serving your ICA. Maybe they’re complimentary to you. You can go through their entire network.
You can go through every club that they’re in, you can everything. So if you want to take this to the next level, the next thing to do is once you have your clubs set up, is that you go in and you see if there’s anything that you maybe didn’t think about that somebody else did. And so that’s what I would do. I think that’s the most strategic approach to really set yourself up for maximum awareness.
Oh my gosh. That is so great. Thank you so much for all of that wisdom. Quick question. Before we go into money-making strategy, number two, because I have been off clubhouse for the last two, three months traveling, and I know this is always something we were trying to figure out before, but I’m wondering if it’s become clearer. Are there now proven better times here for those of us in the USA,
when certain audiences are on the app, are we starting to see that like the business people are usually primarily using the app during the daytime? Are we starting to really have been on this app now for now a year, almost a year, it’s starting to see those flows in those trends and when are people active on that? Is that becoming clearer? Yeah.
Yeah, it is. So most people are on in the morning. And the reason why is because you have, you know, India in the evening, you have Europe, you have us up. And so maximum times are really at the top and bottom of our time zone. So I’m in Pacific standard time zone. And so was clubhouse HQ. So it tends to be like anything like 8:00 AM and before,
and like 5:00 PM. And after there seems to be a lot of people on the app. But if you think about your ideal audience, right? When are they on the app, if it’s an entrepreneur or maybe it’s during work day of your hours, the trend that I’m seeing is that, or the trend that clubhouse has talked about is that all the rooms are going to start getting bigger because fewer people are creating more people are listening.
So I would say like the number one thing to worry about would be when is the best time for you and your business, right? So that you could do this sustainably over time in the future. And this was a big question I had for myself. Okay. What is the absolute best time that I can do this for a long time? So I had to ask myself that question,
but on top of that, what you can do is you can go in the app and you can see how many members are on the app and in certain clubs at every single hour. And you can start to think, okay, you know, I have two different time slots I could do on a Tuesday. Let me see which one of those might have the maximum potential.
Let me also see who is doing regular rooms during that time slot. So I can see what if I have a competitive advantage or a competitive, you know, situation here where there might be other rooms that are pulling people in the same direction for the same topic. So I think that that is a little bit individualistic, but I will say that there’s more people on the app in a global sense in the mornings and at night,
but that might not matter for everybody. For instance, I coach people mostly in the U S right. So I’m okay with hitting people in the U S but just know that as people go back to work, you want to set yourself up for success for thinking, you know, when our people that my ideal client, if it’s somebody that’s working, when will they most likely be on a social media app?
So those are the questions we want to ask them. Great advice. Great advice. Yeah. And that’s exactly what you were saying. So we picked Tuesday night for our wave makers mastermind room, because I know I’m usually not on an airplane. I know that sounds silly, but like, when I’m traveling to see my kids, I’m on an airplane,
like Friday to Monday, right. I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to be there every single Tuesday night. So as we roll back into the fall, I never have to wonder about a Tuesday night because I’m always there. And so I love that you said that, and then I have so many questions for you clearly.
Hopefully all of our listeners are getting value out of the questions. I’m asking you as well for our Australia participants. Are we starting to see more of a growth in Australian participation on clubhouse than we were in the beginning? Yeah. Yeah, we are. And I think it had to do with like more lockdowns, more like of the pandemic actually grew the user base.
So we do think that there’s more people from Australia. I’m meeting them. They’re a little bit of an opposite time zone for me. So I don’t meet as many of them, but there’s growth in that side of the world has accelerated a lot, like all the way from India to Asia, to Australia. Europe has also grown a lot too. I think that us kind of had a strong user base before you left,
but that side of the world, I mean, they’re, they’re creating communities and the app just continues to grow. Like it really only has like a few million people on, like the growth potential is still in the billions for the app. So it’s something to really think about. It’s still a baby. Yeah. You guys are all a drop in the bucket.
So this is why we love clubhouse so much. You know what Annabel was saying? Like, she’s an early adopter, even you who would be on this app now would be an early adopter. So you are not late on the upswing on that at all. Thank you so much. And those were kind of very specific questions, but these are questions.
I knew that our clients and our audience is asking, we have a huge client base in Australia and yes, it’s like three to five o’clock, you know, in the afternoon here in mountain time. When, when, when it is there tomorrow morning. And so there are some, some different times in there. Okay. So way to build your business and be productive with your time is number one awareness and everything we just talked about can fit kind of into that awareness category.
What is the second way to make money off of clubhouse and be strategic about your time? Yeah. And these next two, I think, are things that I told you, a lot of people are getting in the awareness trap. They’re just building awareness, building awareness, building awareness. Okay. Let’s think about the human beings, right? That we’re meeting,
we’re building relationships with and the fact that we’re going to see them again, because here’s the thing on clubhouse. We’re all clustered together. Everybody that’s interested in business development. We are in a cluster. As people follow more people in your social graph, you are going to be more visible to them, especially now. So going back to what you said,
where this is a great time for people to be an early adopter. Yeah. Because discoverability just started right before the rest of us were kind of like, I hope you see me over here. You can’t really find me by my keywords unless you’re being super strategic, like that doesn’t exist anymore. So here’s the thing is that if you are setting yourself up to get to know people really well,
you’re treating them well. You’re giving them a ton of value in that awareness phase. They’re going to like and want to maybe see you again. But as we know with the business buying cycle, people don’t necessarily buy from you the first day they meet from you. So I think what a lot of people need to do is nurture their audience, right?
You are literally building a community on the app. There’s something called clubs on the app, which we talked about a little bit, but you could have your own, right? Most people when you’ve been active for like maybe a week, you could start your own club if it’s aligned with your brand even better, but that’s basically your hub, right? You can take people also,
I just want to put this out there into a community of your own. Like maybe you have a Facebook group, something like that. You can take people, but the level of readiness for them to take that journey with you is going to depend on how you treat them and how you bring them into your world. So, one thing that I think is really important to do is through that awareness phase,
bring people onto your email list so that they can see even more value from you. See if you can get them to take the journey over to Instagram and follow you there so that you have more touch points. These touch points are so important in like developing that trust. When you see somebody on video and you also heard their voice, you’re going to trust them a lot more.
And also what this also informs is that I know that there’s people who are aware of me, but they don’t know me that well. And my content, I need to nurture them on clubhouse, right? I need to create rooms that maybe are not the big, bold, like huge rooms where everybody sees me that are nurturing people in specific needs. So if somebody comes up in a clubhouse room and they ask a specific question,
I may create a room about that specific question to best serve them. If I think it’s going to, you know, serve the community that I have, because I want to nurture that community and help them with their needs and give them a chance to get to know me in a smaller setting. And so that’s really nurture is like kind of moving people along,
getting them to like you more, giving them more resources, maybe engaging with them on social media. So you can hit them in more ways. It just depends on how robust you want to be. But at the very minimum form, it’s, you know, you might meet me in a room with other people on a stage. You might like me,
you might follow me. Now, I’m going to take you into a container where you can really learn from me specifically, have an incredibly clear idea about who I am and know my style, know what I have to offer. And so that’s, the second part is nurture. I love that level of that. Okay. And then number three, the third way to make money,
grow your business and be very productive and strategic of your time on clubhouse. Yeah. This is the one that almost nobody is doing and it’s conversion. It’s converting straight from the stage. So what I’ve noticed is that people can sell anything from an SLO or a very low ticket offer all the way up to something that’s a few thousand dollars. Sometimes even more from the stage,
like you don’t even have to like get them into a fancy funnel, but if you have one, it does help support you, but it’s having those rooms and being in that position where you are literally by yourself, hosting a room. And the whole intent is to get your super fans into the room. The people who are the hottest that know you the most and basically drive them down a sales sequence.
So that content might look like why you need an email list to build your business. Then you would sell to them like some sort of email list building service at the end of the day. But having something that’s like very coherent with the room to what you are selling and selling it directly from the stage. And in order to do that in the way that has the highest integrity,
in my opinion is to really be the only moderator to not have any conflict between offers and to have that be a very small niche down room that, you know, like, okay, somebody came into a clubhouse room and awareness phase. They asked the question, I did a nurture room on that. And then, you know, maybe, you know,
as I’ve, I’ve warmed them up, I’ve gotten to know them on socials. I’m now going to sell them something that answers that. But it’s me as part of the solution. And so bringing people down those journeys on clubhouse, it’s really, really working well, but people have to do it. They have to be okay with being in a room with one or two people that said,
heck yes to them. And sometimes it’s more than that. Right. I noticed that as you grow, it’s more than that. But this conversion content is really, I think what makes or breaks businesses as being okay, sitting there and saying like, by myself, do you like me? Do you like what I have to offer? Are you interested in taking a further journey and then offering that to them in a way that’s like,
of course of service. And so those are the three types of content to grow your business on club. Yes. Okay. So I want to give an example of that. I always try to pull the curtain back on what we do in our business. So this is a strategy that we’ve used on clubhouse since the beginning of January. So let me reverse engineer for you guys,
because some of you guys have actually been in this strategy who are listening and we’re about to do it again. Okay. So I’m going to tell you here on the podcast, and then you will be able to go and watch us do this. Okay. So we have a masterclass. So we only hold a couple of times a year called your leading offer.
Right? So where we teach everybody how to build out their industry, leading leading online course and program mastermind coaching program. So that is starting here in October. We were talking about that behind the scenes, right? So before that we have a challenge like creating your industry, leading offer challenge, right? What we do is we host clubhouse rooms for three weeks leading up to that on the primary questions that are answered in the beginning parts of our masterclass and in our challenge.
So the rooms are going to be like how to create your leading framework or method, you know, how to choose a leading offer. That’s right. For you, you know, is launching a course, right? For you, like all of those questions that people are asking. So that’s, I’m just telling you guys exactly how we do it,
and you’re going to see us doing it on clubhouse here over the next couple of weeks towards the end of September and October, because that’s leading that up. And that’s exactly like Annabel was showing you that when you do this, that conversions are incredible because you’ve been able to have conversations with people. They know that, you know, what the heck you’re talking about.
They know that you actually can, that you are proven to give them the results they’re looking for. They know that you understand their frustrations and their pain points, and you are like the golden arrow to the problem they’ve been probably trying to solve for a very long time. It’s full of integrity. It’s very straightforward. There’s nothing hidden or tricky about it.
It just goes from a conversation to a smaller solution to our masterclass and those people that want it, they totally want it, right. They’re like, yes, please let me do this. I need this industry leading program. And so that’s just sharing with you guys and just laying it all out there on the table. Exactly how we do this strategy.
And, you know, it’s interesting that you said something in there, you know, as long as you’re okay, being on being on stage and being like the one. Totally. And I think that makes people scared. Right? I think the reason why some people get scared of that is because they aren’t so sure about their solution about their leading program and offer.
If you aren’t sure about your solution, then, then that’s a problem we need to solve for you. Right. But I think that they are not so sure about themselves. And so that’s how they, you know, don’t want to do that. Some people that are just shy, what we have seen people do in the past is bringing in. So instead of it just being them on the stage,
bringing in affiliates and friends or clients who have actually experienced their services, and I will have some people ask a question, I’m like, Hey, you know what, that’s a better question for, you know, Nicole or somebody else to answer it because Nicole has actually been in our class and we’re always very upfront. We sell the solution to this. We’re never,
you know, like cryptic about it. We’re like we actually sell the solution to this. And so I just wanted to share that with you guys, as we’re talking about it. So as Annabel’s teaching you the structure of it, that you will also have like set example of it in action as well. And it does work really well. And I’m really surprised that you say that more people aren’t necessarily doing that.
Why do you think that they aren’t doing that so much? Yeah. You know, I think it’s because they don’t have a business. Like they don’t have an offer exactly what you’re saying. They got on the app. Now they have all the awareness. They know people like them. They know they like their ideas. They probably know the problems they could solve,
but at the end of the day, they don’t really have either that confidence or that flow. So there’s some people that like, maybe they start with, okay, you can get on a discovery call with me and I’ll try to sell you coaching. Right? Like that’s probably the level that they’re at with their funnel, but they don’t really realize that you could do a masterclass or you could have like freebies to build your email list or you could have some sort of launch sequence.
And so I think that all of that’s really important, but at the end of the day, you have to know what it is that you’re offering people so that you can then back that up and say, okay, what’s the bridge between you knowing who I am in a clubhouse room, me actually make an offer to you and you actually buying the thing.
Right. So people kind of need to know that bridge. And so I think that it’s a little bit like a happy surprise for many people that they grew group, they got all this awareness. They have all these people that like the thing is about a clubhouse is if people are interested in you, they’re going to come to your inbox and say, can I work with you?
And then if you don’t have an offer, you’re like, Hmm, yes, you can. Let me just like, create something for you right now. Like, let me just, if you want that, yes, I’ll do it. But we want to get people into a model that’s really scalable, right. Something that they could do over and over again,
just like you are like, you know, that it works, you’ve measured. It, you practice it. You know, that like if people go from clubhouse room to masterclass to challenge, they’re going to buy the product. Right. And so that’s kind of the thing that we want to build for everyone is just knowing that that conversion content will always work for you on a consistent basis because your offer matters.
It’s something that people want. It’s something that they will take that journey on with you. And so that’s why I think it is, is that a lot of people are disliked kind of like in that development phase. And it’s totally okay. I think that’s awesome. Yeah. And we have actually had multiple clients come to us for that exact reason. Like,
I don’t have an offer. I don’t know what I’m selling any of my leading offer. I help them out. So totally. Yeah. A hundred percent. All right. So today we talked about how to be really wise on your time, but we actually didn’t talk about the numbers of time in itself, but I know everybody’s different. So before there’s my children calling in my emergency breakthrough listeners,
there’s another child podcast listeners calling for more lunch money, probably for our listeners that are really kind of wondering how much time do I actually need to spend on this in order for it to actually be worth my while. Is there at least a minimum time or is it a cadence or a consistency that you recommend? Yeah. Okay. So I would say that like,
you’re probably not going to move the needle a lot if you’re not willing to spend at least four hours a week on an app and at least one of those hours being you having your own room. So I think that that’s something that’s really important. It’s a time intensive app, but here’s the other side is that the sky’s the limit with influence awareness and all of that.
So to me, the real question is what do you actually want? Do you want to build something that’s more evergreen? When we talk about the offer, when we talk about the funnel, do you want to build something where it’s like, you can be on the, in the conversations? Do you enjoy them? Does clubhouse let you up? There’s a lot of people that are like,
I love it. I just love it here. I just want to spend all day every day. Okay, great. Let’s build the model that lets you do that and be profitable. So that’s kind of like the question that goes to my mind. But at the same time, there’s people like Janet who does Pinterest marketing and she’s made a ton of money on the app.
And she does her two regular rooms every single week. And in her free time outside of her business, she goes into other rooms and she creates awareness around who she is. And her funnel is really strong, but it’s a service based funnel, right? She has coaching. She has her courses. She has a little bit of a mix. She’s made a lot of money on the app to spending around four hours a week.
So the sky’s the limit for you. If you’re somebody that has the desire to build your personal brand and build your social media, and maybe you are starting at zero and you have a lot of time use the time to grow that, build that. I think it will serve you for years to come. If you’re somebody that’s super busy, you have a great funnel already in place.
Maybe you have a Facebook funnel or something that’s already existing. Maybe you want to add a little bit more. You want to actually use clubhouse to nurture your community or get in front of some new eyeballs or be an expert guests. That’s great position yourself for that. I really think that anytime, but I would say the minimum is around four a week.
And I think most people could probably figure out four hours a week. Right. And it’s worth it. We love being on the app. I love the app so much and I get to meet amazing people like you. So thank you so much for being on the show. So you actually have a guide that you’re going to give to our listeners, a clubhouse productivity guide,
just share what is in that. And then we’re going to make sure it’s in the show notes of this episode so everybody can grab it for free. Yeah. Yeah. So this guide really came out of the question of so many people say like is clubhouse worth my time. And so it’s literally your answer to that. So we go over the six different places where you can show up on clubhouse effectively.
But then we also asked the very hard question is like, what is your ideal life and week actually like, right. Take the time to actually do the worksheet in order. I tell you my winning formula, how to use awareness, how to use, you know, nurture how to use, you know, conversion. You can do all of that,
but none of that matters to me unless it fits into your ideal day and week. And that is going to help you to decide, okay, what are the hours that I might spend on clubhouse? Why is it worth it to me? Because I want you to define what you want. Right? What makes it worth your time to show up in a clubhouse room,
do the scary thing, add some value, get in front of people, build your brand, do the work around clarity. Like what is it that gets you to actually do that? And then once you do that, then it’s like, okay, so what time am I going to do it like that? That’s where I want to get you. And that’s how I designed the guy Love.
That sounds so awesome. I know our listeners really appreciate it. And I really appreciate you sharing that with everybody. This is episode number 243, and all of our listeners can find you and how to connect with you@theshownotesatsweetlifeco.com, just click on the podcast button. It’s episode number 243. But before we go, what is your clubhouse handled? So everybody can follow you.
Yeah. At Annabel, by Han. And then if you went to follow my club, it’s now the club under clubhouse mastermind. And so you could follow me in both places and that will get you right into the content that you want to see. It has mastermind. I love that. Okay. Well we’ll for sure be jumping in your rooms from your club too.
I appreciate your expertise and your time so much. Thank you so much. And Thank you for having me.
This is a great show for coaches, consultants and service based experts who want to grow their leads and increase their sales with pre-qualified buyers.
Summary:
In this show we unpack the online business model of“live virtual events” and help you determine if they should be part of your business strategy moving forward.
Live Virtual Events are not new. In fact, we’ve been hosting them for years. They’re an upgrade from sales webinars and could be a good option to increase sales in your business. But, like all business models, Live Virtual Events aren’t for everyone. In this episode we dive into the model of Live Virtual Events and how offering them can impact your business and lifestyle both positively and negatively.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand the structure of a Live Virtual Event
Compare Virtual Events to Sales Webinars
Know the most common way to fill your Virtual Event
Have complete clarity as to if Live Virtual Events are the right strategy for you
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach I, you guys, and welcome back to the show. We have a little bit of housekeeping to do before, before we dive into tonight’s episode. And so let’s go ahead and talk about that first,
For those of you who are faithful, sweet life podcast listeners, thank you so much. You may have noticed that the previous episode, 241, which dropped on August the 23rd, 2021 was removed. And I want to talk about that. I’m always honest with you guys. And I want to just cut right to the chase. Our guest, who is an amazing human was asked by a former business partner to remove the episode out of respect for our guests.
We removed it, but in almost five years of podcasting, we have never removed an episode or we have never not produced an episode. So first and foremost, I want to apologize to you. This was an amazing episode. It was so good. I want to tell you this, that if you would like to have a recording of this episode, you can get a recording of it by emailing podcast@sweetlifeco.com.
It was an incredible episode, and I will release a recording to you. As long as you send the request to podcast@sweetlifeco.com. So there was a previous episode that was titled how to build a million dollar business with live virtual events. It is incredible. And if you still want a copy of that, I will release it to you. However, we did pull it off of iTunes,
out of respect for our guests and frankly, a very, just messy situation that I’m not going to take our time to talk about what I will say, learning moment here. This is exactly why I don’t like partnerships. You guys is because shit like this happens. So that’s all I’m going to say about it, but I want to thank you for being a listener to this show.
Again, happy to give you a copy of that episode. If you missed it, as long as you email it, the request for episode number 2, 4, 1. Now what’s happened because we had to remove the episode is that our numbers got a little messed up. So last week’s episode, you’ll hear me referring to the show notes as going to episode number 242,
but our numbers kind of squished back one. So this episode that we’re going to talk about here, and yes, I’m talking about live virtual events. It’s a really hot topic we’ve been talking about for almost a year. This episode is officially numbered, 242, but there’s a little bit of some confusion in there because last week’s episode was supposed to be 2 42.
I hope that makes sense to you. You can find all of the show notes for all of the episodes by going to sweet life co.com. Even the show notes for the previously removed episode. And there you have it. So let’s go ahead and dive into what we are going to talk about today. So we’re going to talk about today is answering the question should live virtual events,
be part of your offer. And we’re going to be talking a lot more about live virtual events here on the podcast. We’re going to continue to talk about it and clubhouse with live event, amazing leaders like Barry and blue with Sage and all these great entrepreneurial leaders who are hosting live virtual events. And so we’re going to continue to talk about this here on the show.
So this is definitely not the end of the story. This is the beginning of a, I don’t want to say a launch, an awareness of an amazing way to warm up your audience and pre-qualified buyers, and to increase your sales. So on today’s show, this is for all of you who are ready to scale your business online, and you’re considering maybe webinars in the past.
We’re going to talk about the status of webinars in this show. And we’re going to talk a little bit about how live virtual events compare to webinars as well. So it’s a great show for those of you guys who are coaches and consultants, who are all of our listeners, are your service-based expert who want to grow your leads and increase your sales with pre qualified buyers.
In this show, we unpack the online business model of live virtual events and help you determine if they should be part of your strategy moving forward. So here’s the deal live. Virtual events are not new. In fact, we’ve been doing them for years. They’re an upgrade from the previous old-school sales webinars, and they can be a good option for your business,
but like all business models, they’re totally going to affect your lifestyle and your time. And you know that I geek out on those things for you. There’s nothing worth building. If it’s not going to give you the lifestyle and the time and the profit freedom that you want. And so we’re going to dive into those discussions on two day ship. At the end of this episode,
you will understand the structure of live virtual events. You will compare live virtual events to sales webinars, and know really which one, if either could be a good fit for you. You’re going to know the most common way to fill your live virtual event. So how do we get people in there? And you’re going to have complete clarity as to whether or not this business,
this business model is for you. So again, all this show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and just click on over there. And this will be the most, most current podcast available if you’re listening to this real time. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show So the first question we have to talk about when we’re talking about live virtual events is to answer the question are webinars dead.
If you are in business and you are selling to other entrepreneurs, webinars have been not converting well for about two years. Let me give you some history on this. We first started selling our courses and programs through webinars back in 2008. I mean, that’s like ancient times. That’s like the dark ages of online business. Okay. So webinars and sales conversion,
Weber’s about it had been around for a really long time. So if you are selling to other entrepreneurs who are used to being in webinars all the time, you’re going to have a hard time filling your webinars and converting from your webinars. And so inter live virtual events. Now, if you have a business that doesn’t sell to establish entrepreneurs that are new to webinars,
webinars can work great for you. So we don’t want to totally throw the webinar baby out with the bath water, but I just want to address kind of the elephant in the room and like, Hey, what’s really happening to sales webinars. And so those are just some of the trends that we have seen. So let’s just take a moment of silence of gratitude for the sales webinars of old that have made many of us thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars.
Okay. Moment of silence over at times are changing. And here’s the deal. When is the last time that you like raise your hand to be in somebody’s webinar funnel, right? And you’re saying, Hey, you know, please let me sign up for your webinars. So I know you’re going to sell to me. And the last 10 minutes, none of us want that over the last couple years,
we have bond back, which I know when you’re thinking automation and, you know, press and go businesses where you do not want to be present webinars on demand. Evergreen webinars are great, but we’ve been moving back from so much on demand because people, especially in the last year and a half want curated experiences, they want personal attention. They want to know that you know their name or that,
you know, what they look like or that, you know, their story or, you know, people frankly just really like to talk and they like to share what’s going on with them. And so they can’t do that in a webinar setting. But when we curate an atmosphere where people can share where they can talk, where they can share a little bit about why they’re there and what their story is,
all of a sudden we have created an environment where they feel like they belong and that environment can be done in your live virtual event. And it’s magical. So let’s kind of talk about live virtual event structures. The first thing you need to about a leverage event is pretty much just like a webinar format, but instead of using a system like zoom webinar,
where it’s just you up there on the big jumbo screen talking, some of the best live virtual events are where, you know, we can see all your others, attendees faces. So we can use zoom meeting and different software for that as well. Live virtual events are most commonly held in 1, 2, 3 or five day settings. Now these are live events, okay?
These are not prerecorded. These are live events where you get to show up and you bring all your energy and you interact with people and they offer powerful strategies in a workshop setting. It’s like a duet with you setting. That’s what you do when you offer live virtual event. And what’s so cool about them is you can bring in your expert content that perfectly tees up your high end offer,
which you sell at the end, kind of to the middle, to the end of your live virtual event. And because you’re weaving in these emotional journeys and these emotional connections for your attendees throughout your live virtual event, by virtual events, commonly have breakout rooms. People commonly get personal attention, and there’s a lot of implementation that happens within that, the event itself.
So whether or not people actually choose to join your high ticket offer, I fill up virtual events, really give them an amazing transformation. And if you’ve been listening to me in any of my shows for the last four years, you know that I am an engineer of transformational offers. And so anything we do, I believe we need to deliver a transformation and live virtual events are one of the best ways to do this.
Now let me peel back the curtain a little bit more for you. Like I said, we’ve been doing leverage events for years, but the king and queen of live virtual events and how to use live virtual events are Berry and blue with Sage. Let me tell you a little bit about them and I’m going to make sure that you have their information to connect with them further here in our show notes.
So at first connected with barium blue and clubhouse, and they delivered some amazing masterclasses, totally free to hundreds of people throughout late 2020 at the beginning of 2021, when we first all got on clubhouse. And since then I’ve co moderated multiple rooms with blue. And so a lot of the strategies that we use, we have learned from them. This is very important to know like who is the king and queen and the live virtual event space.
Currently. I know there are a lot of other people that are doing it really well. And my friend Eileen Wilder does live virtual events well. And so I just want to make sure that you’re getting all the resources and that you get to tap into and learn from the same amazing leaders that we have been. So we hosting live virtual events for years before this,
in this same setting, but my IQ and how we do our live events is, has really changed. And we’ve been able to curate even better experiences because of these leaders. So I always want to give credit where credit’s due. And so I’ll make sure that you have their resources to some of these amazing leaders in our show notes. So let’s go ahead and we’re going to dive into three different areas of live virtual events.
Now that we’ve talked about the structure of what it is as a business model, before we move on, if you have not yet grab my ultimate guide to online business models and offers, I just updated it to include the details of live virtual events. It’s totally free. It’s 18 pages of the ins and outs of all the different offers and business models that you can deliver in your business.
And I tell you exactly how they will affect your time in your life and your profit. You can pause this podcast episode in just text the word guide to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. Or you can very simply go to the show notes@sweetlifeco.com and I’ll make sure that that is in there for you as well. Okay. We’re going to talk about live virtual event pros.
We’re going to talk about live virtual event, mid considerations, and we’re going to talk about live virtual events, lifestyle considerations, because at the end of this episode, I want you to be able to answer the question, which is the title of the episode should live virtual events, be part of your offer. And this is how I’m going to help you do that.
So let’s, first of all, talk about the pros of live virtual events, live virtual events, deliver an amazing customer experience. They build deep relationships with your leads and they build trust faster. Now, one of the things you need to know is live virtual events are not offered free. You sell tickets to your library to event or a library to event ticket.
Currently at the recording of this, we commonly host a live virtual event is $77. So it’s not a ton of money. It’s just a little bit of change. But the thing is, is it helps people know that, Hey, you know what, I’m going to show up because I paid for this and I’m expecting to get value. So at the recording of this,
the most common price for live virtual events that are used as conversion tools into higher ticket offers are anywhere from $47 to $97. We picked 77 right in the middle, just so you know. So they’re super fun and high energy. I mean, it feels so good to interact with people and get them results in people really feel like they belong. Live virtual events are answering the need of isolation for a lot of people over the last year and a half.
And they’re different from Sydney to the zoom. They’re just not sitting there in a zoom, you know, having a chat, having a boring chat engineered, just like in person events, live virtual events are engineered and laid out just like we’re there in a room together having this amazing interaction at time live local event, but we’re engineering them to be hosted virtual.
And they’re very, very special and very powerful when you do them, right? And they establish you as an expert and the solution holder for what people need. And they do that in a really fast way. And so therefore live virtual events pre-qualify and they disqualify your perfect buyers. So those are some of the pros of live virtual events. And I want to make sure we just head out the gate with those,
you know, live virtual events for us, again, pulling back the curtain for you in order to host our library to events, we lay out our 12 month calendar of when we’re going to host our live virtual events multiple times a year, and they lead into our signature offer and program. And so it’s really powerful and people love it. And we even have huge faithful fans that chose not to purchase our signature higher ticket program because they got amazing results in our live virtual events.
And they are lifetime fans. They love us because our engineer or the way we engineered our event was so powerful for them. So that’s great. Again, there are some of the pros of live virtual events. Now let’s talk about some of the mid consideration. So these are kind of like lukewarm, not hot, not cold. I just want to make sure you’re aware of these.
If you’re thinking about doing live virtual events, they are alive. They are not pre recorded, live means live. So you have to show up in. So does that align with your personality? Does it align with your schedule? Is that something that you feel like doing? Are you like somebody with high energy energy that loves to interact with people or does that not really align with,
with your personality as a leader? So those are some of the things yeah. You really need to consider when you’re considering this type of business model. Are you good live, are you good on the fly? Can you stand up in front of anybody in teachers zone of genius and how easy is it for you to flow in that? Even though obviously your content is planned,
you’re still alive. It’s like you’re speaking for an extended period of time. And so you need to be comfortable with that. And the other mid consideration before you just go and start launching a live virtual event, is that the architecture of the rest of your funnel. So your marketing in your ads, your lead magnet, and then after your live virtual event,
your call to action into your higher ticket offer has to be nailed. You don’t want to host a live virtual event all by itself until all of the, of the rooms in that house are built. Okay. So it’s, it’s something important I want to mention, because I don’t want you to leave in this show and being like, oh yeah, I’m going to get a live virtual event on the calendar.
We want to reverse engineer your success. If you’re one of my clients and you’re listening to this, you hear me say this all the time. First, we have to know what you’re selling, right? What is that signature program and an offer. And then we can go a little bit closer in, so, okay, what’s a conversion tool in this case,
we’re talking about live virtual events, and then we can go a little bit closer. We can say, okay, what’s that lead back that that’s going to lead into that leverage hold events, lead magnets can be challenges that can be quick little videos. They can be downloads. They could be quizzes or assessments. There’s a variety of lead magnets that people use to feed into leverage events.
The most common lead magnet that everybody is using is a challenge. Just so you know, everybody is using that right now. And it’s working really well. We use that ourselves. Okay. And then you reverse engineer that little bit closer, and what’s your marketing strategy. What’s your ad spend and how are you, how are you filling your live event?
So those are some mid-level considerations that I want you to think about. You know, first we talked about the pros, like the high highs, and now we’re like, okay, let’s come down to earth a little bit here. What actually has to happen in order for you to pull this off and nail it. Okay. Want to make sure that I’m uncovering all of that for you,
and you need to have a consistent flow of new leads to run this model more frequently. So if you want to run a live virtual event every single month, you need to make sure that you have an adequate ad spend or another source to generate leads, new leads into your business to continue to continue to fill your live virtual event every single month. Okay.
Now let’s talk about how this is going to affect your life. And again, this is my favorite thing to talk about because, well, you know, I just came back from taking like all summer off, going around and adventuring and traveling with my kids and, and moving my oldest son back to college and all the things that we do or all of the things we want to do.
Right? And so every time we consider a business model, we first want to consider what is this going to do to your life and your time? And so when we’re talking about live virtual events, it is definitely going to affect your lifestyle and your travel and your family time. And there are some ways around that. As an example, I host zero live virtual events in the summertime because I’m Mia,
right? And you can do that too, but just know that if this is going to be part of your flow, it is going to affect your family time positively or negatively. This could work great for you. Number two, plan your live virtual event, calendar 12 months in advance. You can always then plan your travel, your adventure, your other business operations,
your passion projects, your philanthropy, whatever it is you do, right? So you want to take a 12 month calendar and you want to plot when you are selling or opening your signature program. And then prior to that is when you want to host your live virtual events. So how often are you selling or opening your signature program? Is it available all the time?
Those are some of the things that you want to consider. Number three, many live virtual events that do well are held on the weekends Friday, Saturday, Sundays. How does that work for you? I work on weekends quite often during the months of the year that I work and I love it. My brain works really great. And then some weekends,
I don’t feel like working at all and I totally check out, you know, what does that look like for you? Are you okay with having a business model where the people that are going to attend really need to be there on a Friday, maybe even a Friday night and Saturday and a Sunday. How does that work with you and for your life?
Number four live virtual events that are currently performing well are done in one, two and three day segments. We have shorter live virtual events that do well. So our current live virtual event is a half of a day. It’s awesome. We’re in and out. You’ll love it. Other friends of ours host live virtual events that are for five days. It really depends on what your signature program is and what you’re selling and what content or what transformation needs to happen in that live virtual event.
If you’re talking to Barry in blue with Sage, they love three-day live virtual bats, but just know for you. Are you cool with doing leverage events that could be three days straight or five days straight? What does that look like to you? Number five, really think about scheduling these on repeat for your lifestyle considerations. These do need to be on repeat.
So some of our clients, and we have a lot of clients right now that we’re coaching and working with them to design and build their live virtual event. Some of our clients are doing them every six weeks hosting their live virtual event. Every six weeks, some of them are doing them quarterly. So what does that look like for you? Do you want to host a live virtual event every month or every quarter or every trimester,
whatever that works, whatever that looks like for you, just make sure that you are looking at that 12 month calendar. Like we talked about before and scheduling them on repeat, do you have to do this? No. I’m just teaching you and sharing with you, how we scale businesses for higher profit, right? You can host one live virtual event and it can be just one little Allah cart event and it’s great and you’re done,
but that becomes more like a signature offer program that changes your live virtual event from being a conversion tool into your signature offer or program. If that makes sense. And then the last thing, just being really honest, what does that really look like? As far as your energy and your personality, are you like the super high energy person and you love engaging with others or you,
somebody that is like, wow, you know what? I just don’t know if I can be at that higher energy for that period of time. Now let’s dive into that being very real. First of all, your live virtual event is going to be yours. It does not mean you have to have dance parties. Can I just say for the record?
I hope I don’t hurt anybody’s feelings. I can’t stand the dance parties. If you get me on your live virtual event and have me dance, I am not liking you very much. It’s just not who I am. So what I’m seeing is you do you in our live virtual events, I will never make you dance, but I do like have you get up and have you get a drink and have you get a snack.
And we do put on music. We do a lot of music, but I’m not going to make you dance on zoom. And I’m a dance mom. Okay. So you do you, your leverage events don’t have to be like super high energy.<inaudible> I’m not like that. You don’t have to be like that. And you can still have an amazing event.
You can have a three-day meditation prayer event. I don’t care what it is, but just make sure that whatever event you are curating, that it aligns with your energy and that you want to do it. Because if you’re building something that you don’t really want to do, number one, you’re going to suck at it. And number two, your sales are going to suffer.
And that is a fact, okay. Keeping it real here on the show. Okay. So let’s recap today. We talked about should live live virtual events, be part of your offer. We talked about what they are, the structure of live virtual events, the pros and cons of library, virtual event, and some mid tier business model considerations. We talked about the current format of the funnels that are being built into live virtual events.
We talked about, who’s doing them. We talked about how we do them. And we uncovered, you know, and pulled back the curtains about our live virtual events. And we also covered whether or not you should be selling with webinars. We actually covered a lot of ground in this episode, and I’m meant for this to be more of a foundational episode about live virtual events,
but we’re going to be talking about them a lot more. We teach our clients in our wave makers program about live virtual events and we help people engineer live virtual events. If you want to work with us to learn how to engineer and layout your live virtual events, you can find us@sweetlifecoat.com and apply to work with us at any time. We would love to meet you.
And if you just want to take this information and run with it, awesome, please do it. Take a screenshot of this episode. Let me know if you’re thinking about doing live virtual events, I would love to follow you on Instagram and cheer you on. You can find me at April beach life. All right, you guys. And again, all of the show notes for this can be found@sweetlifeco.com
to recap. This is technically going to be number two for two, but last week’s episode was also talked about being number 2 42. And that was only because we had to take down the episode the week before that lots of drama. I hate drama. Okay. So we’re cleaning this up for you and moving forward next week, moving into fall. So excited for fall here to be here on the Northern hemisphere.
And then for those of our friends, and we have so many of you guys that listen that are down and under, first of all, praying for you guys that you’re all well and thinking about you guys, and hopefully as the seasons change for you down there, that circumstances will change for you as well. Okay. You guys have an awesome week and I appreciate your listenership and I appreciate your subscribing and I appreciate Your sharing this episode,
As a lifelong entrepreneur, I can’t imagine a life where someone else directed my time, energy, location and schedule. So this episode like all others, is geared for people like me. The dreamers and doers.
Summary:
Money doesn’t buy happiness. Yes, it definitely takes the edge off… but when it comes to being truly happy and fulfilled, most people consider time, family, health, love, giving, helping, and adventuring as the real prize of life.
In this show, I’m breaking down the two-punch formula for a profitable business that makes you really REALLY happy.
This episode is dedicated to my oldest son, who asked me this exact question over breakfast. He’s grown up in our lifestyle entrepreneur family and was the special guest in episode #84“Inside The Life Of An Entrepreneur’s Kid”. But now, two years later as a college student, he’s determining how he wants to design his life, and this question is at the forefront of his mind.
At the end of this episode you will:
What is a lifestyle entrepreneur?
How to engineer your offers so people always buy
How to know if an open and close cart is really for you
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach, Come back to the show. I’m April beach. And today we are talking about how to make it money while still having fun. Now, I know that sounds like a Super cheesy title, and you might think that we’re not going to talk about anything very serious here,
but that is definitely not the case in this show. I am breaking down the strategies to actually make this happen. So let me go ahead and set the stage for what we’re going to talk about today. First of all, this is episode number 242. So if you’re a new listener, all the things that we talk about, all the links that I share,
oftentimes we give away these huge free resources with episodes can be found by going to sweet life co.com clicking on podcast. And you can just search by episode number 2 42. So if you’re on the go, don’t worry about missing any of this because we will have it waiting there for you in the show notes at our website. This episode is great for those of you in any stage of business.
So our company, the Sweetlife company, we consult entrepreneurs who are launching, scaling and amplifying a coaching consulting or service focused business. And usually I’d like to break up the episodes because we give you step-by-step business strategies that other coaches charge thousands for here on the show, totally free, but not every business strategy is great for every business, right? So where you are in your business tells us what strategies you need to be using to get to the next level.
And so oftentimes I break up these episodes saying, okay, if you’re in this phase of business, listened to this show, or if you’re in this second phase and listen, honestly, this show is great for everybody. So regardless of where you are in our business growth system phase, this show is going to be really good for you because there are a lot of people that are making a lot of money that are not happy at all.
And we talk about that on the show today. So your bonus resource, which is really powerful, which you can just pause and grab right now is the ultimate guide to online business models. Okay? So this means online offers. We have a massive ultimate guide that you can grab just by going to Sweetlife co.com forward slash ultimate business guide. Okay? So that’s available for you now,
again, anybody in any phase of business, this show’s going to be a great one for you as a lifestyle entrepreneurial lifelong entrepreneur. I seriously cannot imagine a life where somebody else has directed my time and my energy and my location, my schedule. So this episode, like all others were talking about how to make money while being happy, but it’s just for entrepreneurs.
You’re not going to catch a drift for me here on the show about how to do this by working for corporate America. So the summary of what we’re talking about is the fact that money doesn’t buy happiness definitely takes the edge off. I hear you for sure, but when it comes to being truly happy and fulfilled, most people will consider time. Family health love giving,
helping others, adventuring and traveling as the real prize of life. And so in this show, I’m breaking down a two punch formula for a profitable business that makes you really, really happy. And here’s a really quick behind the scenes. Okay? This show is dedicated to my son, Tim, and he’s actually been a guest here on the sweet life entrepreneur podcast.
Before years ago, I interviewed my son, Tim beach on episode number 84. You can go back and listen to it about what it’s like growing up in a lifestyle, entrepreneur and family. But this morning we’re literally packing his car right now to take him back to college. I’m about to, I’m literally recording this episode. So funny share with you guys like ultimate beside the seeds.
I’m recording this show because I didn’t get a chance to batch because we’ve been out having so much fun this week, I’m recording the show, sending it to my amazing producer. And I’m getting in the car with him and driving him all the way from Colorado to Delaware to go back to college. And so we’re sitting here and I’m thinking to myself today,
man, I really need to record this great show. And I have this other show totally lined up that I was going to record for you guys today. And he asked me the question, which is the title of this show. And so this show is dedicated to him. He said, how do I make money while still being happy, mom? And I was like,
yeah, it’s such a great question. And I will teach you. I’ll teach you how to do it. Just like I’m going to teach you guys here on this episode. So anyway, this show is dedicated to Tim. And by the time you listened to this, I will be somewhere in a car halfway across the country or on my way home from dropping him off.
So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show today. We’re going to talk about what is a lifestyle entrepreneur, how to engineer your offer so that people always buy them and how to know if an opening close cart is right for your lifestyle and your business. Ooh, that was a long intro. Thanks for hanging. All right, let’s go ahead and do it.
So, first of all, how to make money while having fun. All right. So to answer that question, it’s also asking the question, how to become a lifestyle entrepreneur. All right. So how to make money while having fun, AKA, how to be a lifestyle entrepreneur. So, first of all, we need to dive into the definition of a lifestyle entrepreneur.
If you go right now on Instagram and you search the hashtag lifestyle entrepreneur, you are going to see like Ferrari’s and like half naked girls on the beach, all the things. I’m not sure where we went wrong, but expensive cars and huge mansions do not me, lifestyle entrepreneurship. So somebody hacked that hashtag, but I’m telling you, I grew up in a true lifestyle,
entrepreneur family. I have a true lifestyle, entrepreneur family, and it’s not driven primarily by money. So what is a lifestyle entrepreneur, a lifestyle entrepreneur designs, their business in such a way that it enables the lifestyle they want to live true. Lifestyle entrepreneurs are not driven by profit. They’re driven by the ability to have the freedom lifestyle that they want.
Oftentimes this freedom lifestyle is centered around action, adventure, sports traveling, and a flexible schedule. And while some lifestyle entrepreneurs have a primary business location, other lifestyle entrepreneurs want to be location independent. So it has to do with what you’re doing with your time. There are ways to make money working for other people, working for corporate America, but a true lifestyle.
Entrepreneur is one where no one else is directing your energy, your location, your schedule. And so this lifestyle entrepreneurship is how we engineer your business to actually give you the lifestyle that you love. And so to answer this question, I am breaking this episode into two parts within this one show here where it’s just two punch right here. Okay. So first of all,
we’re going to take on the question, how to make money, and then we’re going to dive into the question about having fun. Okay. So first of all, let’s talk about how to make money. So how you make money as an entrepreneur is by designing and delivering a highly valuable offer. Okay. So I’m an offer architect. I know that sounds so geeky,
but it really all starts with your offer. You guys, right? All the marketing in the world cannot save you if you have a shitty offer and you’re not good at giving people amazing results. All right. So number one is designing this highly valuable offer and here are some steps to do that. First of all, you need to solve a big problem.
So my, one of my amazing clients, I love her so much. Her name is Lauren lavender. She says it is a painkiller, Lauren lavender calls the solution to somebody’s problem, the painkiller like the medicine. And so I love that analogy and it just helps a lot of people see it clearer. And so I love to share that that’s what Lauren calls it.
So solving a big problem. And this goes with identifying your ideal client’s struggles as it relates to your area of expertise. So really pinpointing this. And if you were new in business and you’re listening to this episode, this is also what we call your M P your minimum buyable product, okay. Or program, because we’re not, you know, making physical products here.
In most cases, most of our listeners don’t do that. So this is the first solution that you need people to understand that you deliver and that they’re willing to pay for. So how to design a highly valuable offer, you have to solve a highly important problem, or you can fulfill a highly desirable solution. Okay. Number two, design, a winning customer experience.
This is huge you guys. And especially as we’re seeing the evolution and the change in online business offers the growth in the coaching and the consulting industry over the last couple of decades, it’s really important that your offer is able to be personalized, that you have the ability to enable some sort of customization. That’s how we design highly valuable offers. It is not by doing it with cookie cutter solutions,
unless your business model is to serve the masses. Some of the ways I know you’re probably thinking April, you know, highly customized offers. It’s really hard to scale. It’s actually not. When you break down your method and your framework, then you put it into a winning customer experience where that your customers, it’s kind of like those choose your own adventure books that,
that many of us used to read as kids, your customers can pick their path and enabling things like artificial intelligence and bringing in like CX focused team members. For those of you guys that are scaling your business and allowing them to customize their journey through your leading program is how we design a winning customer experience. Even if you have 500 people in your program at once,
we can still customize it. And I just challenge you right now, just if you have an existing offer to take a look at that and make sure that you are delivering that personalized, custom winning experience for your clients as much as possible within your content. The next step to designing a highly valuable offer is to determine your position on scarcity versus availability, right?
So let me say that again, determine your personal viewpoint, your decision on scarcity versus availability. This is answering the question. Should I offer my product all the time, or should I offer my product on a limited time basis? This applies to those of you guys who are considering doing what we call an evergreen course or an evergreen program, or creating a program where somebody can join all the time,
or is this something that they can only join once, twice or three times a year? And here’s why this is important when we’re talking about how to make money. If you are new in business, this is a warning to you. If you are new in business, open and close programs are tough for businesses that have not reached consistent 10 K months in businesses that have not hit list growth.
Like you don’t have an audience yet. If you were brand new, open and closed programs are tough because it puts all your eggs in one basket and you can’t open your program and then close it. And then two weeks later say, oh yeah, I’m going to open it again because only two people joined scarcity versus availability. There is no right or wrong way,
but I do want to make sure that you’re thinking about how that affects your life. And you have to determine, are you okay with only making money a couple times a year? Or does it bring you personally more peace to have a consistent revenue generation every single month or quarterly or whatever that flow looks like to you? So psychologically as a business owner,
you need to think about how it affects you. But also if you’re a new in business, I just going to send a warning about being very careful about open and closed programs, because we need to make you known. We need to have you gain traction before you close the door and not letting any new clients in, just because some marketing person told you,
you should do it for scarcity sales, the next thing nail your minimum viable product. Okay? So this is what you’re known for. You want to determine what it is that you really want to be known for. You can be known for all the things, but it’s going to take you a long time to get there, like a lifetime. We want to pick one.
We want to pick one thing at first and I promise you, I promise you. You’re not going to get stuck at it, but you want to pick one thing at first that you want to be known for and you sell the heck out of that painkiller, you sell the heck out of that solution and you own that space. And then you can grow into other solutions and then you can grow into other ways.
Here is an example of that. I bet you had no idea that my first consulting firm, oh my gosh. How long ago is this? Now about 17 years ago that I am the creator of the parent coaching and baby planning industry. The whole industry, I wrote the scope of practice for it. This company is still run. See, and you leave.
You don’t even know that probably I have entire separate business consulting firm that coaches businesses, that market to new and expecting families. And we have clients in 17 countries. It’s crazy, right? I wasn’t stuck there. And so I’m just telling you this. I promise you when you nail one thing, right? It gives you a springboard to do all the other things.
So make sure that you’re nailing this one thing that you want to be known for. And then you can grow into other things and really sit down the last step to designing a highly valuable oper is crunching your numbers. And we call this your profit matrix. You need to understand how many people you need to sell to at your determined program price. And then you need to decide,
and these are kind of scary numbers that nobody really tells you. So I want to make sure, you know, you need to decide how many people that you need to reach in order to convert into sales at your goal number of people to sell each month, right? So if you want a 15 or 20% sales conversion, and you want to have 10 new people join your program each month,
then that means you need to reach that total number with your marketing, taking into consideration, converting it 15, 20, 30%, whatever you believe based on your conversion strategy that you can convert at. And so you have to crunch the numbers. You have to know your numbers, and once you know how many people you need to reach, then that leads us into your marketing strategy.
Do you do paid ads? Do you do affiliate partnerships or are you doing everything in sweat equity, content creation and posting, and it’s really going to give you some clarity on how you’re going to hit that highly valuable, highly profitable marker. You have to look at your numbers. And so that’s answering the first part of what we’re talking about today on how to make money.
Again, we’re talking about how to make money while still having fun. So the money part is basically you need to have an industry leading rock star leading program. That truly leads the way. And as a complete side plug, don’t forget, we have our, your leading offer masterclass that is available for you to take at any time cruise over to sweetlifeco.com. And you can learn more about how to be involved in the,
your leading offer masterclass. And we go through the whole process with you in developing industry, leading programs and offers. Okay, now let’s talk about the second part of this. How to have fun. Now I know it’s silly question, right? Like I’m not an expert in you. You’re an expert in you, but I’m an expert in the business modeling standpoint.
So let me just give you some tips on how to understand how to really have fun doing what you’re doing and it all starts with your business model. Do you remember in the beginning of this episode, when I’m like go grab the ultimate guide to business models and online offers that is going to give you all of the answers that you have been looking for on what’s going to make me happy,
what I should launch. So your business model is how you work with clients and deliver your services. So examples are one-on-one coaching group coaching hybrid coaching live courses on demand courses, hybrid courses, memberships, or re occurring revenue programs, live virtual events, local events, retreats, masterminds, accelerator programs, incubator programs, licensing programs, certification programs, train the trainer programs,
just straight business consulting. This also helps you how you want to deliver your services. Are you delivering services that are done with you done for you or consult you? And what I mean by that is how are you taking the content that you’re giving to your amazing clients? And are you giving it to them in such a way that you’re actually doing the work for them?
Are they hiring you just to do it all and say, here you go, fix it for me. Is it a hybrid way between you helping them figure it out and doing a little bit of the work with them? Or is it strictly where you were showing up and telling them how to do it? And they have to go out and do it all on their own.
And so the very first thing to determine how to have fun is that it all starts with your business model. And let me pull back the curtain some more and share why I know this. So I have run successful programs and profitable programs in every single one of these business models. And I’ll be honest. It affects my life as a mom. They affect my life.
As you know, just leading my family and wanting to travel. Each business model is going to affect your life. So your choice on whichever one of these, you want to release as your leading profit making program. Again, you know, courses, coaching memberships, masterminds in your ability to create your blueprint. So your suite of offers and bringing it together is totally going to affect your life.
So we want you to start at the end and inside that ultimate guide, I break down each one of these primary leading online coaching and consulting business models for you. But then what you’re going to read in there, as I tell you how it’s going to affect your life, how it affects your time, how it affects your cadence, how it affects your family,
how it affects your travel and how it affects your bottom line and your profit. So you’re not only going to get a list of those offers that you can choose from. I tell you literally how it will affect your life and you can bank on that because I have done it. And I want to make sure that what you’re building you’re really going to love.
So I want to save you years of building something that you hate, because somebody told you to, or because it looks sexy on an Instagram ad. So first go grab that guide. Secondly, determine your weekly cadence. Okay? So this is how you flow through your perfect week. What do you want to be doing? And I know this kind of sounds a little pie in the sky,
but this is very serious work. You need to determine what do you want to be doing in your perfect weekly cadence when your business is where you really want it to be? Do you work out in the morning? Do you work out in the afternoon? Do you go for walks? Do you go ride your horse, you know, to go surfing,
whatever it is, what is your family time look like? What is your time in personal development? Look like? Do you want to be reading a book or reading a book? Do you want to be helping other people? Do you want to be really active in philanthropy and giving back to your community? What does that perfect weekly cadence look like to you?
And then also ask yourself, how do I want to be working with clients? How do I want to be connecting with my team? How do I want to be connecting with my colleagues and other business partners? The answer to this is going to give you super power, vision and clarity on what business model is going to equal that for you. How many days a week will you work?
How many months, a year do you work? There are some business models that are so powerful. This is content licensing that literally, I only work one month, a year in my other consulting business because of the fact that we license out our courses and our content to others, the companies and companies line up literally the way for me to work one month,
a year to approve releases of content. You can do that. You can grade that business model. If you only want to work one month. Great, let’s build that for you. And so I want you to know that that is available to you. And you know, really another question I think is really important that isn’t discussed so much is we talked about it again a few minutes ago,
but are you comfortable only making money a couple of times a year? That can be pretty scary, you know, needing to have a six figure launch because that’s, what’s going to sustain you for the rest of the year. How does that really work for you? Does that really work for you? Is that the way that works best for your clients?
If it does awesome. We have so many clients that love their live launch business models. I’m telling you personally, I hate them personally for me, but it doesn’t mean that my clients aren’t great at them and they love them for them. That’s what’s the power of business design is deciding what works best for you and reverse engineering it to make sure it’s making you money and really diving into those questions and getting really real with yourself about how you feel about those.
And then the next question I want you to ask yourself is what actually makes you happy? Like, what do you love to do in your work? Do you love working with people? One-on-one do you love hosting zoom meetings where your whole community is coming together? Do you love delegating and empowering all this stuff to your team? And what do you love to do outside your work?
What are your sports for hobbies? What hobbies did you used to have when you’re a kid that maybe you and you haven’t done? And you’re like, man, I really wish I could take up this thing again, because I was really great at it. We want to that into your business future so that you will actually be able to do that. So to be happy in your work,
you need to design your work to make you happy to make money in your work. We need to design your offers to make you money. And that’s how we go about it. So it’s offer plus business model equals how to make money while having fun. And it’s a simple formula and it’s super surprising how many people don’t do it. And so I want to make sure that you have the power and the insight and the knowledge so that you can do it.
You know, most people think, gosh, if I make money, I’m just going to be happy and that’s not oftentimes the case. So we want you to make a ton of money and do it in such a way that you’re going to be super-duper over the top happy. And it’s going to be no big deal for you to jump in the car and drive halfway across the country.
After recording a podcast episode, after taking three weeks off work, just to go play with your kids or whatever it is that you want to do, I’m here to support you and give you the proven strategies to do that. The truth is honestly, when you’re happy in your life and your work, that’s when you make the most amount of money. And so to recap,
we talked about how to make money and be happy. We broke it into two parts. We broke out, offer architecture as the primary part of this, your offer is going to be the driver. And then your business model is the part that makes you happy. The offer strategy, the value of your offer. That’s how we get you to the profit benchmarks that you want to be at.
Your business model is how we design it within your life in a way that you’re super going to love everything that you’re doing and the ultimate guide to online offers and business models. Just go grab it. It’s totally free is going to save you years and years and years of time by seeing behind the scenes of how each one of these business models has affected our family.
And I just lay it all out there for you, for you to consider how that could affect yours as well. You can grab that by going to Sweetlife co.com forward slash online business guide, or you can also get it by texting the word guide. So just one word guide to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. Again, text the word guide to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0.
And of course we’ll have all this in the show notes for you as well. All right. Thank you so much for tuning in. I have a very eager college student waiting outside in the driveway with his car, packed, waiting for mom to pile in and take another road trip adventure. So with that, I will talk to you guys next week.
Be awesome. And I can’t wait to hear how you guys are using your business model and what you’ve chosen to be best for you. If we aren’t connected on Instagram yet hit me up. I’m April beach life on Instagram, and I would love to know your ultimate business model in the one you are building For high profit. All right. You guys be awesome.
Talk to you soon.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and small businesses who want to collaborate with other teams and need a plan to make it happen.
Summary:
The best source of business comes from word of mouth. In this episode we’re talking about forming your business affiliate dream team. These are other companies you partner with for mutual benefits. By creating dream affiliate partners you can provide broader scale options for your clients while receiving pre-qualified clients ready to give you money. In this show we talk about how to choose the right partners for your business and how to reach out to them appropriately.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know exactly which businesses make the perfect partners for your company
Know how to choose those partners
Know how to approach them for the outcome you want
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life. You love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach, come back to the show. This is episode number 240, and I am April beach, your host and founder of this sweet life company. And today we’re talking about how to form your business affiliate dream team.
So this is literally a collective team of other companies that can serve your clients, and that can extend the service you already provide to your clients, but how do you pick them? How do you reach out to them? Those are all the things that we’re talking about today, because when you do a great job, creating these affiliate relationships, it can be really lucrative for your business and really better for your clients.
And if you do it right, like we’re going to talk about today. It gives you an opportunity to get in front of your perfect audience in a very creative way. So all of the details and everything we’re chatting about can be found on the sh in the show notes, if you are driving and you can’t write any of the things down we were talking about,
there is going to be one time today when I’m like, okay, get a piece of paper out. Here are the exact steps, which I really love to give you guys these exact steps of exactly how to take what we talk about in implemented immediately in your business. So if you miss those and you can’t write it down, just know you can go to sweet life,
co.com, click on the podcast and all the show notes will be there for you as well. Okay. So today’s episode is for those of you who are in the launch through scaling phases. So if you were in the launch phase, you’re still working towards consistent 10 K months, or we’re scaling you to 20, 30 K months. This is a great episode for you to listen to if you’re not really sure where you are in your business development phase,
take a pause, go over to Sweetlife code.com forward slash quiz and take the short assessment we have for you. This assessment is going to give you a customized business plan based on where you are to get you to the next level. It’s totally free until you can take that by going to our website, or by simply texting the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0.
Okay. So here’s the deal. What we’re chatting about the very best source of business comes from word of mouth. We know that. And so in this episode, we’re diving into forming these amazing business alliances. I call them business dream teams, and these are where the other companies you partner with for mutual benefits. And by creating this dream affiliate team,
you get to provide a broader scale of service options to your clients, but you also get to receive really well pre-qualified clients ready to give you money. And so we’re diving into all of that. And at the end of this episode, you’re going to know exactly which businesses are going to make the perfect partners for your company. How did choose these partners and how to approach them to get the outcome that you want.
So I’m going to try to keep this short. I know that it’s been summertime, by the way. I hope you’re having an amazing summer season if you’re here in the Northern hemisphere. So all of our friends down at hope, you’re having an amazing rest time that everybody’s staying well down there. And we have some big episodes. There are some huge,
powerful episodes next week, coming up on the show, just a side note, Bart, Miller’s going to be in the show next week show is so epic. You guys, we even whiteboard. And so, yes, this is an audio podcast, but we videoed it because the strategy that Bart is giving next week on the show, we even sketch out for you.
So make sure that you tune into next week because we’re going to be dropping a video on that one as well. And so today I wanted to keep it short and sweet and to the point and give you something you can run with right away. So you’re ready. Let’s go. Okay. So number one, how to choose an ideal business affiliate. Okay.
So first of all, decide what you want to be known for. You know, it’s actually a surprise. You think that you should nail this kind of in the first couple of years of business, this is something that companies struggle with for decades, just so that you know, so if you’re still struggling with this, like what do I really want to be known for?
What do I want to offer my clients? And what’s that specific niche I want to hit. Don’t beat yourself up about it. But in this particular case, and for many marketing and business profit reasons, we really do need you to hone in on that. And so once you decide what you known for what you want to be known for, then it gives you an opportunity to look around and say,
okay, what else are my clients missing? And when you go through this process of when you’re not trying to be everything to everyone and really stay in your lane, then you can refer out and you can receive clients from other businesses in each one of your companies gets to really specialize in your clients actually receive a better specialized service. So if you haven’t kind of checked off that list,
at least when it comes to what offer or program you are creating your business affiliates for really hone in and really decide what is this that I want to be known for and what are my clients missing? What else is in this ecosystem? So if you imagine your service, the solution you provide as the center of the universe, what are the other kind of planets that are floating around that other things that your clients could need that might not even necessarily be directly related to what you do,
but the other things people are doing or thinking about around that same period of time when they’re looking for your solution. And then what I want you to do is I want you to go, and I want you to make a list, a wishlist, a partner, and see you already know, and we want to go after people, you know, first number,
obviously, any company that you have worked with before, that’s going to be the best. Okay. Somebody you’ve worked with before that, you like them, you know, a little bit further out from that close of contact. It’s somebody that you have met before. Maybe it’s, you know them from a mastermind group or they’re a friend of a friend,
and then you can get a little bit further out, you know, maybe somebody you’ve met on clubhouse or somebody that you’ve connected with on Instagram before. So we want to go after people that you have a connection with first and make a wishlist of those companies and be really specific. We don’t just want to go after like any company, don’t forget, step number one is identifying what you do.
And then what other things your clients could be missing around what you do. We don’t want to just go get a whole bunch of partners just to get them. We want to be strategic about how you’re doing this. So you already know what holes or supplements you want to fill for your clients. And so make a wishlist of people, you know, and then make a wishlist of people that you want to connect with that you might not know directly,
but that you’ve been following them. You admire them, whatever that is, but try to go after people that, you know, first. So this is really, really important. Okay? And so this is the thing I wanted you to write down. When I said there’s going to be something to write down. Here’s a checklist of what makes a good business affiliate.
Following this checklist is going to save you time from just randomly, you know, hanging out all day on the internet, wondering, you know, who you can find as a partner. And it’s also going to save your business integrity and your brain from picking the wrong people. So who makes a good business affiliate? Number one, they serve the same audience,
but they provide a different service in your client’s journey. So we need them to serve the same audience. Okay. We need them to provide a different type of service to your audience. So that’s step number one. Number two, I ideally their service is a precursor to yours. The very best affiliates that we can find for you are the ones that provide a service or connect with your clients in some capacity,
two or three steps before. They’re about to make a decision to need you next. Ideally, we want to find an affiliate partner that your service is the natural next step after what they provide, but great affiliate partners are also businesses that provide services that could be considered like cross sells that are happening at the same time. And then even for you to be able to off-board your clients to them after what you do.
So, you know, I want you to find them as precursors, but it doesn’t always work out that way. So number two is ideally their services, a precursor to yours. Number three, they offer complimentary supplements to your service. So if you have a service and let’s say you are providing the bulk of it, but somebody is missing a small piece,
like a website build out or copywriting or you know, meal delivery, you know, whatever it is that you do, if their services can compliment yours and make yours even better, they’re also a great affiliate partner. Number four, they hold similar values and abide by the same ethics. This is probably the most important thing in here. Okay. And sometimes we don’t know these things unless we’ve worked with them or unless you’ve really taken the time.
And so with each one of these steps, I want you to go through literally and treat it like a checklist of each affiliate partner you’re looking at. So do they hold similar values? Do they abide by the same ethics as much as you can possibly tell, because that will absolutely affect you. Number five, their brand messaging is comparable to yours. Now this is also equally important,
but in a different way. So let me explain this. If you are more of a passive personality and your business is, you know, just a gentle type of a brand, the personality of your brand is, you know, chill and gentle and whatever, you know, and then you refer somebody out to an affiliate, a partner that is like in Your face,
let’s go soldiers. You know what I mean? That is not going to go well in European. I’m going to be like, why did you hand me over to this person that is such a different brand personality venue? It’s not that they have to be like that. You, but you just have to make sure that their brand messaging and their brand personality is an extension or a flow from yours because your clients hired you or your clients will resonate with you.
So it can go both ways because of the fact that they resonate with your brand personality, that resonate with your brand messaging. Right? And so if you have, let’s just kind of go with that more of a gentle type of a very strategic brand personality in your business. And you’re trying to get affiliates from this kind of ball or a brand. You know,
if you will, that’s really, really add row then, and they get to you, it’s going to kind of be like, oh, wow, okay. This is, this is a bit yeah, different. And so in a perfect affiliate dream team world, I would love for your brand messaging with your company. So from other companies to other companies,
there is a hand holding process. That makes sense. So that, that personality is a bridge from one company to the next, because that’s ideally how we’re going to continue to get business through your affiliate partners. So number five is making sure their brand messaging is comparable. Number six, they have to provide exceptional customer and client care. There’s no exceptions to this at all right.
They have to be very good at what they do, how well they are at what they do is going to be a direct reflection of you, even if they’re a totally separate business. So do your homework, go through the process and make sure that they provide exceptional client care and number seven, ideally, we want them to have lifelong clients and raving fans,
because if they are a company that has had fans coming back again and again, and they had clients and they have this amazing customer journey, their clients trust them so much that as soon as that business says, Hey, you know, go to April, she’s the one to do for all this. They won’t even bad their eye. They’ll just be like,
sure, whatever you say, Hey man, you know, if you say that she’s the one to go to. I am absolutely working with her, right? That’s what we need them to say about you. And we do that by looking at their established relationship with their audience and with our customers. So let me do a quick recap of those seven steps for you.
So who makes a good business affiliate? Number one, they serve the same audience, but they provide a different service in the client journey. Number two, ideally their services, a precursor to yours, but it doesn’t have to be number three. They offer complimentary supplements to your services. Number four, they holds similar values and abide by the same ethics.
Number five, their brand and messaging is comparable to yours. Number six, they provide exceptional client care and number seven, they have lifelong clients and raving fans. Now I promise I’m going to make this quick because I know I promised this would be one of our quickie episodes, but let me give you an example of this because it was really cool. I received a phone call a few weeks ago from a woman I met on clubhouse months ago and she had remembered me and she wanted to reach out because she has a business in New York and she was interested in sending clients my way.
And so she had a lot of questions and she reached out and we’re going to, I’m going to give you the steps to reach out here in a second. And she reached out in the pretty much, the exact way that I’m talking about here on this show, but she asked me really tough questions. And in the process of asking these really tough questions,
she was covering her integrity for her clients. And it was important for her to ask me these really, really tough questions. And I really appreciated that. And so as we go into this next part on how to pitch your partners and want you to remember this, I want you to know that it’s important that you interview these affiliates when you’re reaching out to them to truly make sure they are the right fit.
And don’t be afraid to ask tough questions. Now, when we’re talking about who makes a good business affiliate notice, I did not say that they are willing to pay you or require an affiliate commission. Please note that some of the very best affiliate relationships don’t offer monetary exchanges. Now I’m a big advocate for paid affiliate programs. My friend, Laura sprinkle has been on this show before.
She’s like the go-to for creating paid affiliate programs. I love paid affiliate programs. We’ve had paid affiliate programs before. All I’m saying is they don’t have to be paid because the value of tapping into another perfect affiliates audience with personal recommendations from them and exposure to their audience can be far greater than any commission that you could receive. Okay. So just remember that I’m not necessarily saying this has to be a financial exchange.
Sometimes the exposure that you would get, you could never even pay for and the amount of money that you would receive, because it’s so good. So just a side note there. Okay. Now five steps to pitch your affiliate partners. So step number one, do your research write a personal letter, kind of like you would be pitching a podcast, but even more,
you have to do even more homework. If you’ve pitched yourself or had somebody else pitch you on podcasts before, you know, you have to do the research on that podcast and write a good pitch letter. You’re going to do that like times a hundred. Okay. So write a personal letter, explaining your intention for reaching out why you’ve selected that. Now in that letter,
you need to be very, very clear saying that I’m not sending this to everybody. I have done extensive research on your business and I am not reaching out to everyone, just you. I just want you. Okay. It’s really, really important because we need them to know that you have taken the time and that you care a lot and that you would rather walk away from this partnership and have a partnership that isn’t good.
Number two, in this letter, explain who you are and who you help in, what your superpower is. So be very clear what you do, the end result you provide, why you’re the best at that number three, explain that you would like to send clients to them. Do not write a letter saying, Hey, I would really love to talk to you about sending people my way people are going to be like,
no, I’m totally not doing that. I mean, like I would delete your email in two seconds, right? But if you send me an email, say, Hey, April, I have done the research on your company. I love what you’re doing. This is who we are. This is what we do. And I want to talk about sending clients to you.
Like the woman who called me and she called instead of sending a letter, but she sent me an Instagram direct message first, just so you guys know. And when we got on the phone, she explained it. She goes, I want to talk about sending clients to you, but I need to know much more about your company first. And I was like,
this is awesome. Thank you so much because already I know that anybody that she sends my way is going to be a rock star because of how thorough she is. Right? And so you say the same thing that she said to me, I want to talk about sending clients to you. All right. So explain to them what you do, what your superpower is.
The fact that you’ve researched them a lot, that you have looked into everything that they do. You love what they’re doing. You want to discuss sending clients to them. Number four, ask to set up a call and number five, possibly share some case studies about what you do and the details of what you do. And an example of how working together could look like in that initial letter.
And it doesn’t have to be a letter. We can do this creatively. We’ll talk about that is from a tech standpoint. And just a second with what I’m saying to you, be very intentional. Don’t make it too long, right? It can’t be a long letter. It can’t be a novel. It’s hard for people to even read emails anyway.
So a couple of ways to get around this are sending an Instagram direct message and just saying, Hey, listen, I want to let you know, I’m emailing you a quick note right now. This is what I want to talk to you about. Then looking into your company. I want to talk about sending clients to you. This is my email address,
where it’s coming from, and I’m sending it over to you right now. So giving them a heads up like on Instagram or sending them a LinkedIn direct message, letting them know that you are reaching out to them is another great way in that email that you send them. You can also send them a video. So a couple of favorite tools that I love for video emails are loom and loom has a Chrome extension.
If you use Gmail or Gmail for business, loom has a Chrome extension. That is really cool. And you can just say the things that instead of typing in the letter, but do include some sort of text type in the letter as well. Or you can do a BombBomb or any other sort of video insert into your email as well. So those are some suggestions for you.
Let me go back over those five steps to pitch partners. So that you’re really clear on, on what they are. Number one, personal letter, reaching out, saying that you’re not reaching out to everybody, just them. Number two, explain who you are, who you help and what your superpower is. Number three, explain that you’d like to discuss sending clients to them.
Obviously you’re going to get on the call and it’s going to be a mutual discussion going back and forth, but you want to discuss how you can partner and send clients to them, request to set up a call with them and possibly include a case study of an example of what this relationship could look like. Okay, you guys, that is the summary or the full show of what we’re talking about today.
You know, let me just show you. I always try to share with you a little bit behind the scenes. We have had our business dream team for about 14 years, and we have some businesses that we have partnered with for so long. They are just in our collective. We call them like our collective Sweetlife business collective, and these relationships are so good.
They’re so good for you as a business owner, because then you end up growing and building a relationship with these other companies and your company grows as the other company grows. And they’re so good for your clients. When your clients know that you’re sending them to somebody that you personally know that you’ve worked with in the past, that you trust, they have so much more peace and they hired you for the answers.
And so it’s such a great opportunity for you to expand your services, become even more of a trusted source for your clients and provide a better end result for your clients in whether or not these are set up through monetary or not. It is a really powerful way for you to grow your business and to provide it much greater resource. So wanted to share this episode with you guys.
And hopefully it’s been quicker than some of the other ones here. I know, like I said, we have some great shows coming up. So this was episode number 240. This can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com or as you know, cause you’re already listening to this. We are on every single podcast, listening app out there, including Pandora and Amazon music and just all of them.
And I just appreciate you guys so much listening to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for clicking subscribe because sometimes apple loves to add, subscribe us in for sharing the show with your friends. If you found this show helpful, would you please just take a screenshot of this and tag me on Instagram at April beach life.
I would love to just see that you’re listening to this or see how you’re implementing this in connect with you further. You guys have an awesome day. I hope that your summer or your winter season is going exactly the way that you’d hoped. And I look forward to talking to you again next week.
This is for those of you who’ve nailed your first offers and you want to scale.
Summary:
Predictable systems are what makes the work flow. Systems to scale, systems to grow your team, systems to manage your marketing, client facing systems, and more…
This 2-part show with systems scaling queen Racheal Cook makes understanding how, why and when to create systems within your business, simple. There was so much business IQ delivered that we broke this show up into 2 parts, so be sure to tune in to both for the full effect in your profit. In detail we discuss, scaling versus growth, the 3 systems every business needs and why you don’t need to try to do everything to create a profitable online service or consulting practice.
At the end of this episode you will:
Learn the difference between growth and scaling
Understand why the best sales start with subtraction
Gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere online to be profitable
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. You guys welcome back to two of the systems that scale show here on the Sweetlife entrepreneurial business podcast, we have a very special guest Rachel Cook. And if you missed episode number 238, please just pause it here.
You can come back to this right after you listened to episode number 238, because I want to make sure you don’t miss any foundational parts of what we’re talking about today. I want to make sure you leave with a whole entire clear business picture on the systems that you need to scale your business. Today’s guest is our returning expert. Racheal Cook. She’s an award-winning business strategist who believes entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so complicated.
And over the last decade, she’s helped thousands of women entrepreneurs designed predictably profitable businesses without the hustle and burnout. And Rachel’s work has been featured in places like fast company, us chamber of commerce and other resources online. And she is an Amazon, Amazon bestselling author of the fire and up and focused challenge in your business sweet spot. And when you tune into last week’s episode,
you’ll hear that I have been a huge fan of Rachel Cokes for a very long time. So this is a very special treat for me personally, to be able to bring her on today’s show so that you can learn her amazing simplified strategies to scale your business. In today’s show, we’re going to talk about the importance of following systems and creating systems for your business,
including marketing systems, sales systems, and customer-facing user experience systems for coaches, consultants and service-based online businesses. So if you are at the point where you are trying to scale, you’re struggling to scale and you know that the systems part of it is the missing piece. Then this is the episode that you need to be paying attention to of course, partnering with last week’s episode,
number 238 and all of the show notes and everything we’re talking about today can be found by visiting sweet life co.com and simply click on the podcast as well as all the places where you can connect with Rachel tap into Rachel’s amazing challenges. The ones that initially connected me to her over eight years ago in so many other places where you can learn from Rachel directly.
All right, so let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. Now let’s jump to the next area of systems that companies need to have in place to scale. Yeah, we had talked, I the earlier about, you know, each time you add a new offer to your business, you have to make sure you have a marketing system, a sales system,
and a customer experience or a delivery system for each offer. So you almost need to do an audit of your business and figure out what are the things that you’re doing in each of those that are working and what aren’t working. Because often I find that we’re doing things because we feel like we should do them or that’s because how everyone else does it or how the industry says to do it.
But if we pop the hood and take a look under there, we realize, oh, maybe this actually doesn’t work that great for me. So thinking about marketing, I’m always thinking through the framework I mentioned before the marketing pieces attract, engage, nurture, so attract getting it in front of brand new people. Who’ve never heard about, you don’t know who you are,
what you do, what your brand is about. Engage is getting those people to kind of raise their hand and go, oh, I’m interested in learning a little bit more. I want to connect with you and learn more about what you talk about, what you have to offer. And then nurture is actually building the relationship and helping them to build that know like,
and trust so that they are like, oh yeah, April is the person I want to learn from. Or April’s the person who’s going to solve this problem for me. And then I’m ready to have a conversation about what the thing is that I’m buying from you. If you don’t have a clear idea of what your strategy for each one of those is going to be,
it tends to be throw spaghetti at the wall marketing, right? And that is the biggest waste of time. And this is where I see so many people burning themselves out. They create these ideas of all the things they think they need to do all the places they think they need to be, but nothing works together and pulls people in a singular direction.
So for example, in my business, my number one attract strategy is doing interviews on podcasts. See, And you guys are all gonna follow her after this and eat up everything she puts Out. So interviews on podcast is my number one strategy. How did I realize it was my number one strategy? I actually went back, looked at my last 10 or 25 or a hundred clients.
I pay attention to where they came from. And if 80% are coming from podcast interviews, then I’m going to do more podcast interviews. And I intentionally designed systems around it. And when I was able to, I hired someone whose whole role in my business is to pitch me for podcast interviews, because we know that it drives results. So we’re putting a system in place we’re tracking it.
We’re adjusting when we realized this one thing is working really well. Once I do a podcast interview, what happens? Well, I’ve already mentioned the fired up and focused challenge, which one is one of my best performing engaged pieces of content I’ve ever created. So it’s free value where people can come get into my ecosystem and learn more about me and how I operate once they do that.
We’re nurturing them with our podcast, promote yourself, CEO. And every week they’re getting more content along the same types of topics as the fired up and focused challenge and what we’re talking about now. So it’s all very congruent. It’s keeping people on a similar learning path. So everything is mostly audio because we know if they like podcasts and they like podcast interviews,
and we want to make it really congruent for people to access all the content that I’m sharing. It’s all designed to travel with them. And that system is just rinse and repeat for us rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat you. Won’t see me add much complexity to that. I might do experiments here and there. We’re going to drag you on clubhouse.
Well, And that’ll be a fun experiment. Like I am. I’m always open for experiments. When I have the bandwidth to play around with them. I find that there are certain things I could take away from my business and it would not impact the bottom line. I could go silent on Instagram and it would not change the revenue I bring into my business.
But if I go silent on my podcast, it will absolutely change the revenue I bring into my business. Right. So you have to know what actually works for you and be able to track so that you can make those smarter decisions. And it follows that 1, 1, 1 rule, like you just need one thing in each thing and make sure it makes sense for your people.
So that’s kind of a marketing system is what is your attract strategy? Where are you sending them? How are you engaging with them? And then what’s your nurture strategy? How can you make sure that all of those things are very symbiotic. They’re all working together in this really easy to manage ecosystem. Now, as the CEO, it doesn’t mean you have to be doing all of those things a hundred percent by yourself.
Your goal should be to have other people who are helping you deliver those things, because the most important thing for any business is consistent marketing. If you turn off the marketing, it’s like driving your gas tank down to empty, and then hoping you’re going to go somewhere. You’re just not. So if you’re starting to feel like you’re on a content hamster wheel and you’re exhausted and you feel like I don’t have time for this stuff,
then you had to hire some help and have team to help you with that. So I have team that helps me with every part of that. Literally the biggest part of my role in all of it is to sit right here in this chair with this big microphone and talk, everybody else handles all the other moving parts of that. All I have to do is sit down and talk,
which makes it sustainable. So if you can answer those three things, you will have a marketing strategy that becomes scalable. And if you’re willing to keep it simple and instead focus on the quality of what you’re putting out there, instead of the quantity of places you are on, you will see amazing results. Hmm. I love that. And I think that’s important for our listeners to hear as well,
you know, especially with so much push to, to be everywhere and do all the things. And I really, it’s just so important in, in fundamentally proven and Just think about everybody points back to, we talked about Gary V and how he’s like be everywhere. Do all the things. If you follow him long enough, you’ll realize he has a team of about 15 to 20 people who all they do is follow him around all day,
record everything coming out of his mouth and then repurpose that into tons of content. So he is not doing that on his own. He has a massive team that is producing at that volume. And his play is as an influencer. He has to be everywhere because that is his approach is widespread messaging. That’s not everybody’s approach. So if your approach is you have a very specific topic,
a very specific niche, a very specific person you’re trying to talk to go deep. You don’t have to be shallow and playing on the surface level, trying to reach as many people as possible. You can go deep with a smaller group. Well, And I love that you said that too. And I think that this will resonate quite a bit with our audience as well.
Is it? You said something. I think I wrote it down here, somewhere in my, in my notes, but you said that you’d rather be, you know, incredibly significant for a smaller group of people than superficial and barely making an impact to thousands and millions. And I think that that is really an important differentiator because it is a different business model.
And I think that maybe even starting there, if you guys are listening to this and you’re like, oh, you know, which, which approach do I really take? Listen to what Rachel said and think about what aligns with what you want to do, your significance, your impact, and frankly, your, your business model in your, your life.
I mean, listen to the show, you guys know me, we’re always talking about building, you know, really the life we build the business, you build life. Like, what do you, what do you really want? And so building a profitable business with a small audience is done all the time again and again and again and again. And so I think that that is maybe the first step as our listeners are thinking through what you said for you guys to think about,
you know, how does this really fit into, you know, really what I want my big picture to be, who do I really want to be in this space? And how does that align with how I see myself in my significance? And so I really appreciate that. You said that. So we talked about scaling with teams. We talked about scaling with marketing.
I really, your simple marketing three-step system is amazing. And then the third area that you were going to share with us today is scaling through your customer experience. Yeah, yeah. That I love this too, because I feel like no one talks about customer experience. Everybody is so focused on the brand new people coming in the front door that they forget about all their clients are losing out the back door.
And the reality is most strong, successful, sustainable businesses. It’s not about the one-time sale. It’s about the repeating sale. It’s about the lifetime customer value. And these are things that I feel like no one talks about these days. But if you look at any traditional business model, which is the world I come from, they’re always looking at who is their customer and how are they getting those people to continue,
right. Customers. So retaining them as customers getting repeat business from them, getting rave reviews from them, getting referrals from them and just having those people continuously engage with them. And if we change it, our perspective there, instead of putting all of our effort on the front end and into putting it behind the scenes and how we take care of our clients,
it gets a customer for life versus a customer that’s one time. And I think this is a huge differentiator for a lot of people. If you think about the research shows that it’s seven times easier to keep an existing customer than to go out there and buy a new one. Well, we know right now that there’s more noise than ever before. Ad costs are going up.
It’s harder to break through than ever before. Our industries are becoming more saturated. They’re becoming more sophisticated. Taking care of your people is one of the simplest things that will help you to stand out. And it does not mean that it needs to be complicated or it needs to be expensive. It just needs to be thoughtful. So a huge piece of this is actually thinking through the delivery of what you’re doing.
And this is like the bare minimum, the delivery of your promise and your product program or service needs to be thoughtfully done and not just thrown together at the last minute. And I’ve seen this happen so many times, especially in this online world where people are so focused on how big the launch is that they forget that on the back end of those launches is upwards of a 10 to 20% default or refund rate.
And the reason that is so high across the industry is because the customer experience is terrible because there’s no follow up with those clients because they buy something. And then it’s like, thanks for your purchase. And they never hear from that person again, there’s no personal attention given. So this is one thing where we want to scale deliverability in a way that brings back the human touch to business.
And I think we’ve gone so far in the direction of automation that it’s been to our own detriment. Like the idea of everything should be evergreen. Everything should be automated. It’s left a whole lot of people right now who are saying things like, I don’t want to buy another course, right? I didn’t open this course. I didn’t complete this course.
I didn’t get as much value as I thought I’d get out of this. But if we do a few things differently, they would have a different opinion and a few simple, simple things. You can do one, you can continue doing the automated things like you should have some sort of email delivery reminding people to go in and use the thing. They just bought coaching them through it,
answering questions, highlighting cool things going on in the community that is like the bare minimum that is highly scalable. But then do the things that don’t scale because the things that don’t scale or the things that are memorable Heights, this is one huge thing. We forget that some of the most amazing businesses in the world will still pick out a few people to send amazing experiences to they’re still upgrade people’s experiences.
And that’s how we end up with these customers for life. So one of the things that we do, I mean, these are just little things. One is we actually track our clients progress through our programs. And if we see in our coaching platform that we use that they’re getting stuck, or they’re not moving forward in their plan that we’re tracking with them.
If they’re not responding, if they’re hiding, we proactively reach out and we’re like, Hey, what’s going on? Right? And half the time they’re surprised. They’re like, hold on. How’d you know, and it’s like, well, we can tell that you haven’t logged into anything. We haven’t seen you on any calls. And so we’re concerned,
are you okay? How can we help? And to some people, that’s all they need. They just need that little nudge. And sometimes it opens up a whole like, oh, I’m stuck or I’m having a hard time and we can get them back on track and deliver the promise of our offer. But if we let them default into overwhelm or I don’t know what to do,
then they’ll fall off. And there’s another customer who feels less than happy about the experience they had with us, as opposed to a customer. Who’s like, oh my gosh, they actually reached out and checked in on me. Right. It’s just bringing that human approach. Right. And, you know, and even small things like you were saying, writing like a handwritten card and dropping it in the mail.
And we were talking about this. And one of our programs is where identifying where that places, where people can, whether it’s the hardest work in the program or the part that’s not fun and doing that phone call then. And, and I think that, so it’s really interesting. Again, there’s a certain need to have a, a higher level perspective on the evolution of online business to have this conversation about,
you know, being in this space for a good deal of time. So I actually speak about this often on the show, but just for our listeners that haven’t heard that yet. There’s an evolution of like courses like the, we’re talking about where we used to do these like huge courses and set it and forget it. And evergreen, huge launches and people ate him up and he was amazing.
And then like 2015 came along, 17 came along and now we’re to the point where only 6% of people are completing online courses. And I love what you said, it’s doing the things that don’t scale. It’s doing the things that actually matter. Like, okay, if I’m a teacher and I’m actually trying to teach people and not just sell them into my big launch,
what do they really need from me? And I love that you share that you guys do that because you, that those are the things that separate the oil from the water. When we’re talking about businesses that really, really delivering a transformation to their clients and their students. Yeah. And this is important if you’re delivering a transformation, you just have to know that the industry has shifted away from the automation,
the evergreen, I know that’s what everybody’s selling right now because they made their money on it five years ago. But right now, what is getting those clients stick around. And like, we had a 90% renewal rate of our program this past year, 90% of the people who took it last year, renewed again this year. Okay. And you guys,
Rachel has a year-long CEO program. We’re going to make sure you know about, so this isn’t like joining us for, these are people that have worked with her for a year. 90% of them are like, I want to stay with you. They want to continue. And they’re either continuing in the same program or they’re upleveling to work with my team in a higher level one-on-one way.
And when you start looking at it from that different lens, it’s like, does it make sense for us to send a handwritten note? Yeah. Does it make sense for us to say, Hey, do you want to come to Richmond for just a small peer mastermind day? Here’s some people who live in the area, let’s just send them a quick invite.
Heck yet, does, does it make sense that we ship out books and print planners and all these things that five years ago, people thought I was crazy when I was mailing out little bundles to my clients. And I’m like, but you don’t understand. These are the tools that I think will help them and they get it. And they’re like, it feels like Christmas because no one gets that stuff.
So it’s not about sending a gift. That’s just like a fun thing. It’s about how can you make this experience thoughtful? How can you show people that you’re really committed to the result that you’ve promised them? Does it mean that if you see somebody struggling, you offer to jump on a quick 15 minute call. Yeah. I mean, this past year we have gone through new babies.
We have gone through miscarriages. We have gone through divorces. We’ve gone through weddings. We have gone through movies across the country. We’ve gone through spouses, losing jobs. We went through the global pandemic. We went through a crazy election cycle. We went through all sorts of things. And at the end of the day, it’s the commitment to saying,
you know what? As a team, it doesn’t take us a ton of extra time each week to sit down and go, Hey, who could use a little extra love and check in with our team of mentors, check in with who’s running our communities and say, who could use a little extra something from us? Do they need a little email? I’ll send video emails out to people.
Do they need a little extra love? Do they need a reminder? Hey, we’re here for you. Those are the things that stand out compared to just feeling like another number on a list that paid, you know, a couple of thousand dollars for a program. And that program designer, celebrity, entrepreneur doesn’t know who you are, right? It’s a whole different experience.
Does that mean every business needs to be as high touch in their approach as I am at this point, no, you don’t have to be at all. You can definitely scale up lower price point things and have a more hands-off delivery of it. But I think this is where you have to know your purpose and the work that you’re doing in the world and how you want to do it.
There’s no right or wrong. I’m just giving a different perspective of, I would rather work in a really meaningful way. Go really deep with people have clients who work with me for a few years at a time. And then they come around and tell me the things they’ve been able to do. You know, like my husband quit his job and is working with me full time.
I was able to take two months off this summer and the business kept making money. I was able to hire people in my team to deliver my course. And all I have to do is show up a couple times a month. Like those types of things are really exciting to me because it does give them back the freedom and the life that they really want.
And I love how you design businesses. And that’s why I’ve followed you for so many years. All of these really, I don’t want to say common sense because they, they aren’t common unless you’ve gone through the process of seeing what else is out there. But fundamentally we’re teachers, we’re, we’re coaches, you know, we’re we’re teachers. And especially if we just compare it to like how our kids,
third grade teachers are to them, you know, they’re doing these things are trying to figure out all the ways like to make them laugh and make them happy and make them, you know, do all these things. And granted it’s totally different situation, but as teachers and as people that people pay us money and they trust us to help them. Yeah.
I love the way you engineer your programs. And I love the way that you explained that customer experience. So we talked about a lot, totally to break this episode up into two episodes. This might be a, two-parter Going to be a two-parter. You guys are recording it Now, not a plan, but this will be a two-parter if you know,
I think that what is so important, what I want people to take away. In addition to all the things you should see, all the Rachel Cook quotes. I have that written down on this paper. You guys, you’re a scale is about adding and it’s not, no scale is not about adding it’s about subtracting. I can’t even read my own writing.
What comes easiest to you is most often your greatest asset. I mean that you are gold. You’re like just gold or gold. I have like five quotes in my chicken, scratch written here on my paper. You know what I want you guys, listeners, you know, every, every show we want to give you proven processes, trainings, tactics,
and strategies that you guys can take to the bank, but it doesn’t mean you should take every one of them, right? We have shows and all these different topics, but why I’m so excited to have Rachel here is because of the fact that if you are designing a, like, Rachel does, like I do, you know, family, how frequently we work,
how often we work, the capacity in which we work simple is always better. And it doesn’t mean that it’s the right way for everybody, but it is very, very profitable. And it’s very tempting to make things really complex. It’s really tempting to make things complex. So I really want you guys just to like, take a deep breath as you’re listening to these now,
two shows and put them on repeat, make sure you’re following Rachel. And the first and the first episode, I, you know, we, we sent you to go do the fire up and focus challenge. So hopefully you did that. If you’re listening to part two of this, go back and listen to part one, take a deep breath and just,
and just be like, this is doable. This is smart business. This is taking what you were saying, traditional business and applying it to the online landscape, which not very many people do. Looking at those metrics, referrals in, you know, lifetime customer value, things that are very important to look at that again are oftentimes missed and not discussed in the shiny world of the online coaching space.
Go back and listen to this episode of repeat, just absorb. And then we really want you guys to reflect in what aspects of what Rachel talked about today, that you could be implementing into your business because it’s not about adding it’s about taking away in the simplification in order to scale in getting away from the grind, the more, and really coming back to the key factors that are going to increase profit and decrease time and capacity is such an important,
there’s so many lessons in gold that, that you share today. Rachel. And so I appreciate you being here so much. We’ve talked about a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. You know, tell everybody, you know, in the end of this episode, day time that we’re spending together, what do you think that you know about yourself as a leader,
through this process of what you’ve done? What do you, what do you feel like that you really love of how you grown as a CEO in this space over, you know, over how long have you been in business over a decade? For sure. Right. I mean, Yeah. I think I started my business in April of 2008. So it’s been awhile.
It’s been awhile. I would say, you know, the biggest thing I’ve come to love about myself as a leader is that I’m continuously willing to be uncomfortable. I think as a leader, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable and to be able to sit in discomfort, which does not make leadership sound too appealing. But what happens when you’re willing to sit in the discomfort,
when you’re willing to sit in the discomfort of coming up against your own inner critic, coming up against your own imposter syndrome, coming up against your own resistance, being willing to look at the different sides of yourself that maybe you really don’t want to look at. That’s where the leadership growth has been for me has been when I’m willing to sit in that discomfort and lean into it and push myself through it.
Because often for me, the leadership parts that have been the hardest have been the one about the parts about surrender and letting go of control and getting out of the way and trusting that I am hiring amazing, amazing, smart, brilliant women who also have a gift. And who also have things that they’re here to leave the world with. And I’m providing them an amazing opportunity to make an impact within the scope of this container called my business.
And if I’m just willing to continue leading into my own discomfort and stop trying to control the heck out of everything and let other people do great work, too, we’re going to do amazing things together and it’s going to be incredible, but I can only do that if I’m willing to push myself out of my own comfort zone. And right now that comfort zone is learning how to rest.
It’s tracking my sleep. It’s taking intentional time off and not feeling like the urge to jump in and start a new, a new thing because what I really need right now is rest. And I really need time off. And sometimes as an entrepreneur and as a leader, it’s hard to really fiercely protect that thinking time, that recovery time, but it’s so true.
The more higher up you get in your career and your journey as a leader, the more you need to protect that so that you can come back to your team and really give them everything you’ve got. Everybody’s just kind of gone nodding their head listening. Yep, yep. Exactly. Free to aware. Can besides we said it in what will now be the first part of this episode?
I really highly encourage all of our listeners to follow you. I, like I said, I’ve done it for years. I have my team follow your stuff. You’re very, very smart. And the way you teach is very understandable. And so I appreciate you consistently showing that you have consistently shown up. And that says a lot, that says a lot.
So, so we appreciate that. Where can people find you The best place to find me is going to be on my podcast, promote yourself to CEO. We have an episode going out every week, all about how to scale a sustainable business without the hustle and burnout. So I’d love to see you over there. And of course, we talked about the fired up and focused challenge.
You can get the full 10 days@firedupandfocused.com it’s available on demand and absolutely gratis. So go dive in. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for all your time and, and making this a two-parter cause there was so many things. I just, anytime you, anytime you’re talking, I’m like writing it down. If I know our listeners so much appreciated getting to know you,
if they don’t know you already as well. And so all of the show notes will be available for you guys@sweetlifeco.com, click on the podcast. We’ll have everything there, all the resources that Rachel said and how you guys can continue to follow her as well. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate finally getting to meet you face to face after all that you have poured into our company from your knowledge and wisdom over the years.
Well, thank you so very much for having me. It was such a pleasure. Okay. Thank you so much for sticking with us. That was amazing. Rachel is one of my favorite people and now you know why, again, don’t hesitate to follow Rachel, reach out to her and connect with her. And of course, Rachel and I are also connecting on clubhouse live in all the places that you can find her and tap into the solution she provides can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com,
simply click on the podcast. And thank you so much for listening to this show. It’s because of you guys that we’ve been named the top 50 moms in podcasting, and this show is going on our fifth year. Really, really appreciate you guys and appreciate you sharing the show with your friends. Have an awesome day and I’ll talk to you next week.
This is for those of you who’ve nailed your first offers and you want to scale.
Summary:
Predictable systems are what makes the work flow. Systems to scale, systems to grow your team, systems to manage your marketing, client facing systems, and more…
This 2-part show with systems scaling queen Racheal Cook makes understanding how, why and when to create systems within your business, simple. There was so much business IQ delivered that we broke this show up into 2 parts, so be sure to tune in to both for the full effect in your profit. In detail we discuss, scaling versus growth, the 3 systems every business needs and why you don’t need to try to do everything to create a profitable online service or consulting practice.
At the end of this episode you will:
Learn the difference between growth and scaling
Understand why the best sales start with subtraction
Gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere online to be profitable
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate Back to the show and welcome to a very special two-part episode here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast, episodes, number 2 38 and 2 39 coming straight at you. As a matter of fact, these episodes are so good.
I didn’t actually set out to take the value today’s guests offers and break it up into two shows, but it was so great. There was so much information and I want to make sure you have an opportunity to absorb and implement it, that we did break it into two shows for you. So welcome. If you are a new listener here, I’m April beach,
founder of the Sweetlife company host here of the Sweetlife entrepreneurial podcast and everything we do is to help entrepreneurs design, launch and scale their business online since 2006. And we are so glad that you are here in tuning into today’s show. Today’s guest is somebody, let me be really honest that I have totally fan girl over four years. And if you know me,
I don’t fan girl often like ever actually it takes a lot to impress me, but I totally fell hard for this one woman because of her scaling systems. When I first found her back in 2013, and I have followed learned from it admired her ever since this is Rachel Cook MBA. If you do not know her, I am super excited to be the one to be able to introduce you to her.
She is literally a systems genius and all the way back in 2013, 14, her lead magnet guys lead magnet, it was called fired up and focused was so good that I put my entire team through her lead magnet. So let me give you a formal introduction into who Rachel is. She’s an award-winning business strategists who believes entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so complicated over the last decade.
She’s helped thousands of women, entrepreneurs, design, predictably, profitable businesses without the hustle in burnout. She’s the author of Amazon bestselling books fired up and focused and your business sweet spot and hosts a weekly podcast promote yourself to CEO. She’s a sought after speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing productivity, productivity. Look, I can’t even flow through that word because Rachel is so amazing.
She’s just going to make everything so much more productive on this show. And her work has been featured by the us chamber of commerce Ford’s coaches, council, fast company, and more, and we are going to dive right into today’s because I want to give you an opportunity to truly focus in on what we’re talking about, implemented in your business and walk away on the other side,
changed and transformed by what you applied from, what you learned today. At the end of this episode, you’re going to learn the difference between growth and scaling. You’re going to understand why the best sales starts with subtraction little puzzle there. You’re totally going to understand what I’m talking about at the end of the show. And you’re going to gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere,
online to be profitable. So all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And let’s go ahead and dive in to episode number 238. All right, you guys, I am super excited to be joined by this very, very special guest. And you need to know a little bit about why this woman is so special to me. First of all,
maybe eight years later, she never knew how special she was to me and how powerful she was to our business Intel. Like right now, this is the one person I can say that I have probably fan girl over for almost a decade in this space. And so here’s a story why, okay? She said here, I’m telling embarrassing her behind the scenes,
but here’s the story why you guys know I’ve been in all my business for a very long time, since 2006, but inherently, I am not somebody that thrives by creating systems. And so 2013 was coming around and although we had our online offers, we didn’t have the systems in place that we really needed to scale. And I came across this amazing woman who’s here today and literally her lead magnet back in 2013 was so amazing.
I put my entire team through it and it completely got our business organized and in place. So that’s the intro. This is literally very surreal for me to be here with this woman that I have found, because what she teaches has literally changed our business. And I know it will change your suit. Welcome to this. And we live podcast, Rachel Cook.
I’m so glad that you, Oh my gosh, April. I think I need that little intro to just come with me for every interview and every talk that I give from now on. Thank you for having me. This is going to be a fun conversation. You are amazing. Okay. So tell everybody let’s like take it back. Was it 2013?
Is that how long ago was, yeah, It was end of 2013, beginning of 2014 when I created the fired up and focused challenge. And it’s still around today. Yeah. Everybody, what that was and the situation, the circumstances in which you created it, because that’s what makes it even more bad-ass than it already is. Oh gosh. So the circumstances for me creating the fired up and focused challenge is I was at that point,
it was actually going into new year’s 2014. And I had already planned this very fancy online marketing launch for my, at the time signature course, I had hired a videographer. We had done the three-part video series. I had a makeup artist, I got my hair done, all the things. And about a week before I was set to release that very professional,
fancy looking launch, I was just getting this feeling like this. Isn’t what I want to talk about. I don’t think this is as relevant to my community right now. So I sent out an email. It was like that quiet week between Christmas and new year’s. And I was like, Hey, I’m just curious as I’m creating content for the new year,
what is your biggest challenge when it comes to getting things done in your business? And I sent that little quick email out. I said, just hit reply. I did not realize that within a day I would have hundreds of replies. And I went through all of the responses and just saw that there were these themes coming up. And what I realized was,
you know what? Entrepreneurs have no shortage of great ideas. We have no shortage of creativity. What we tend to have a shortage of though is follow through is the sticktuitiveness to actually implement those big ideas and to get to the other side so that we can see these goals become reality. And that’s when I decided I was going to create the fired up and focus challenge,
because I realized where a lot of people were getting stuck wasn’t that they didn’t understand the opportunities in front of them or ideas for how they wanted to grow their business. They were simply running out of time and didn’t know how to manage your time and didn’t know how to structure their schedule. They didn’t know how to structure their team. They didn’t know how to structure much in their business.
And unfortunately, when you hand a bunch of creative people, no structure, not much gets accomplished of really good at starting things, not so good at finishing them. So we created the fired up and focused challenge. I remember my son who was born earlier that year was a baby, which means I was up probably to one or two every morning. I was only a couple of days ahead of recording the challenge and releasing it at the time.
It was 28 days. It’s now 10, but it became such a huge pivotal piece of work that I’ve created because it was a moment for me where I realized things that I had learned and had intuitively or, you know, implemented in my life and my business that I took for granted for how I was approaching my work and how I was approaching my business.
Other people didn’t know those. And I think it comes back to what comes easiest to you is often your best asset, because it comes easy to you because you have mastered it. You have a level of mastery over it. And that is something a lot of times other people want and need is someone who has that level of mastery to show them how,
or to help them do things at that level. So, yeah, so we created this challenge. It skyrocketed my business. It totally took me on a different path because up until that point, I hadn’t really been talking as much about systems and productivity and the operations and internal structure of businesses. I had been talking a lot more about just marketing and sales and I realized that marketing and sales is what draws often a lot of people in,
because let’s face it. It’s very sexy to talk about marketing and sales, but when you have the operations in place, that’s when you actually have a scalable, sustainable business. Right. And that’s a perfect flow into what we’re going to talk about today. And really that challenge. I went through all 28 days, all of my team went through the 28 days,
like I said, and we ate up every single bit of it. And it was amazing. And that’s exactly what we needed at that point of time as a company. Yes, we had, you know, we had the marketing down, we have the offers down, but there’s this middle place. And I can’t wait to talk about it today where,
you know, everybody says, they want to scale. Scale is sexy, right. You know, scale is what we do. But, you know, without these things in place, it’s going to be a bottleneck for your business. And oftentimes companies fail. And like the word that you use behind the scenes that we were recording was like, they implode on themselves.
So now this is something I’m so glad that you’re here on the show, because I don’t think that you’re saying that yeah, the marketing brings people in the marketing and the sales is what everybody wants to talk about, but what really people struggle with or the systems, the actual systems to scale. So first of all, did you ever watch that thing?
I don’t even remember. I just was so into the fired up and focused challenge, what did you do with your, did you still want your signature program? Yeah, it was actually our best lunch ever. It was my first six-figure launch after that very first time running the challenge. But you know, it’s interesting is fast-forward I turned that challenge into a book,
into a podcast and two signature talks it’s turned into multiple other things. The challenge continues to be one of my biggest assets and I give it away pretty freely just because I know it’s so valuable to people. Yeah. Let’s tell everybody where they can find that before we move on because listen, you guys seriously. It is absolutely amazing. Amazing. It really is.
It’s very clear, very precise, very like pinpointed to what people need to do. So how can they Find that fired up and focused.com? You can go there and get access to the full 10 day version of the challenge and it’s available on demand. So you can go get that at any time. You guys totally go get that, especially for those of you,
for our listeners. If you’re in phase one or two of our business growth system, if you’re a listener to, you know, our different phases. So it’s really planning really the launch or you’re in that launch phase, moving on to scale, you guys need this. So I think that’s a great asset and resource. Okay. So we have a problem.
We globally here, you know, we have a problem. The problem is systems systems to scale systems to grow the teams systems, to manage the marketing, all of the systems that really make a well-oiled machine, whether you know, our listeners have just themselves on their team or they have a team of eight or they have a team of 80 systems are still necessary.
So what do you feel like right now? And we’re going to dive into your most important systems to scale here. What are you seeing? It’s 20, 21. There’s a lot more online businesses now than there were, you know, back in 2013, what are you seeing now are like the biggest bottlenecks that your students are experiencing when it comes to growing their business?
Yeah. Well, one thing when it comes to systems at scale is remembering that scale does not equal growth. They’re not words that you can just transpose and think they mean the same thing in business growth can happen where it takes just as much effort to achieve each level of growth. So you can bring in more revenue in your business by just working harder,
putting in more hours, bringing in more and more team scale comes from economy of scale, where you’re actually having less resources produce higher results. So that’s where you’re getting to the point where the growth is more exponential with less resources, less time, less energy, less money, less team going into achieving that higher level of revenue. And I think that’s a really important discernment because oftentimes I find people think that scaling their business just means working harder,
just means throwing more at it. And those two things couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not about working harder. In fact, if you start talking to CEOs of businesses that are making multiple 6, 7, 8 figures, you will find that they get to the point where they prioritize their thinking time, just as much as they prioritize time that they’re in their office,
because they know how important that time away is in order for them to show up and lead and be creative and be strategic. So it’s not about more time and energy and efforting. That’s not what scale is about. It’s also not about just throwing more at it. Scale is not about adding it’s about subtracting scale is about taking away all the excess. And this is something that I think when we’re in earlier stages of business,
we have to try out a lot of things to find out what works. Because with each thing that we’re offering, we have to have a marketing system, a sales system, and a customer delivery and experience system in place. So for each offer, you have, it doesn’t matter if it’s working one-on-one or having an online course or having a product, you have to market it,
sell it and then deliver it. So when you add more and more and more offers, which is often what happens for a lot of people, they they’re like, oh, I have an idea for another program. I’ll have another thing for this next thing. And what happens is each time they’re adding a new thing, they’re not adding one thing, they’re adding three.
So they’re adding layers of complexity. And when you add layers of complexity to your business, it makes it harder for it to run efficiently. It makes it harder for you to reach economies of scale in any area. And it also makes it harder for your team because your team never knows what’s the priority. What are we focused on? Where should my time and energy be?
What is the goal right now? Because there’s too many things going on behind the scenes in the business, cause it’s too complex. So if you want to scale, if you want economies of scale, the key really is to do less, to hone in and look at your metrics, look at your numbers, figure out what’s actually working and double down on what works and strip away anything that is extraneous to that we don’t need to just keep adding more and more and more.
So I often see this happening in, like, let’s say in marketing, there’s always something new happening in the world of marketing, right? And so what you’ll start to see is people who, and this is one that’s easy to see what’s happening just because it’s very obvious when people are trying out lots of things, right? We see them suddenly. They’re not only on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn,
but now they’re on Tik TOK and they’re on clubhouse and they’re doing all of these other channels. And if you try to do too many things and spread yourself too thin, it is very, very difficult to do any of them. Well. But what if you find one that you started as just an experiment like April, you found clubhouse is working really well for your business.
Well, if clubhouse is working great, but you’re getting nothing really off of Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. Then the scalable approach would be okay. The channel that works best for us is live audio. So I’m going to strip away anything that is not aligned with live audio. And I’m going to take that time and energy and resources and apply it towards the marketing channel that is working for us instead of saying,
oh, clubhouse is working, let’s go do Tik TOK and this and that. You know, I really, I love that you said that because one of the things that is really being spoken about so much as Omni presence of needing to be everywhere and all the channels, and it’s this old, you know, Gary V approach to crushing it. And it’s really,
really tempting. And it does make entrepreneurs and small business owners feel like they need to be everywhere and they need to be doing everything. And so I just think that this is, so this is so fundamental to building profitable companies. And I love that. I love that you’re sharing this. I also love that you showed the difference between growth and scaling.
We talked about that a couple of weeks ago on the podcast and actually did a clubhouse room on this. Nobody I asked when I started the room, like, do you understand the difference between growth and scaling? Not one person could define that. And so it was really interesting. So when we’re in clubhouse together talking about this episode, we should talk about that because it’s,
it’s really, really important in that. Have you heard of the rule Of ones? The rule of ones? Yeah. So I, I didn’t come up with this. I, I heard this Program, one client, one marketing tool, one sales strategy. Yeah. That’s pretty much the approach I take is I have one core, one core strategy for each area of my business.
And I use a framework that I teach a lot, which aligns your marketing and sales with the customer journey, where we have one attract strategy, one engaged strategy, one nurture strategy, one invite strategy, and one delight strategy. And once we, once we figure out what our primary one in each of those are, I just doubled down on those and try to avoid anything that is taking too much effort away from each of those.
Yeah. The rule of one, I haven’t heard it that way in a long time. Yeah. All that. It’s super old and that’s why it’s like old is good, but you know, and yeah. I was wondering that. Yeah. And so, and I think, I mean, we’re not old, but when, I guess when we think about online business,
we’ve been an online business for like we’re old on my business. People we’ve been online business for a long time. And so yeah, as you were saying that, I was like, oh yeah, this is like that rule of lens. This is really great. And it’s so smart. So when we’re talking about scaling and we’re really talking about these systems and thank you so much for sharing your method,
if you guys should pause this episode, rewind it 20 seconds. And listen to Rachel’s method. I have her like five or six steps of whatever that was. I was genius. Let’s talk about these scaling team, scaling, marketing, you know, scaling client experience. Let’s jam on each one of those a little bit. Can you dive in and help our listeners understand when we’re talking about scaling with teams?
What does that mean? And where can they start in this process of doing this and what are the problems I’ve shared this before on the show? My greatest weakness is delegation. I have been a terrible person to work for for years, and I have amazing people that work for me. Not because I don’t honor a value them, but because I don’t stop and think about what I’m doing to best communicate and to empower them.
And about seven years ago, I had an amazing woman working for me who loved me enough to say, Hey, listen, I don’t want to quit. Cause I love you. But you know, you’re not good at this. You’re a terrible boss. And I knew it. I knew it, but I didn’t know. I guess it was more than seven years ago.
Cause it was before I found the fired up. It was like 2010, 2011. And so I say this to say that I think are a lot of leaders like me who struggle in this area. At least I’m conscious about it now. And I work really, really hard at that, but it does not something that comes naturally To me. It is not something that comes naturally.
And I think, again, as entrepreneurs, we have a lot of those double edged sword parts to our personality and our kind of mindset. It’s like, we’re really great at what we do because of this. But it’s also the thing that holds us back. So being raised by entrepreneurs as I was, I had a built-in mentor in my dad and he told me the most important lessons in leadership that I could’ve ever learned.
And he said, your job as a business owner is to fire yourself from every job in the company. It’s to fire yourself as quickly as you can. And some people are like, well, what do you mean if I fire myself, then what am I doing? You’re being the CEO and the business owner. You’re not being the marketing director and the project manager and the assistant and the bookkeeper.
You’re not doing all those things, but this is really hard for entrepreneurs to embrace because especially for those of us who are building our businesses from the ground up, our businesses are built on our experience and expertise and our intellectual property, our passion, the thing we care about the most, it can be so hard for us to pull ourselves out of our business.
And when we are really bad at it, what tends to happen is we get in everyone’s way, every person who we try to hire on the team, we end up getting in their way. And that’s where they’re emailing you finally and being like, can you just get the hell out of the inbox? Because I am trying to do my job here.
And can you just let me do my job, right? So you have to learn how to fire yourself. And this is one of the most important lessons when it comes to scaling your business is every time you bring someone new into your business, it is changing your job description as the CEO, because you’re no longer the CEO and whatever their role is that you just brought in.
You’re eliminating again, you’re taking things off, you’re taking things off your plate. So one of the exercises I always have people do that are working with me inside of the CEO. Collective is whenever they’re bringing new people into their business, I make them rewrite their job description as CEO. Now this is an exercise that most people have never done because we go out there and rewrite job descriptions for everybody that we’re bringing on the team.
But we never sit down and say, what is my role as the CEO of this company? What are the most important things for me to be focused on? And each person is going to be a little bit different because we all have our own different strengths as the CEO of our business, right? We all have something a little bit different to bring to the table,
but you have to get really clear on what your role as CEO is. And when you hire people in, you have to reevaluate, okay, what is most important? So for me and the CEO of my business, my top three tasks that drive results, that I only allow myself to focus on content. So my business is built around my intellectual property.
So I’m either creating content free or paid my clients really diving in and understanding who they are, what their needs are, what their challenges are, having a deep understanding and connection to my clients. And then connection, connection drives my business. I am not here to be an influencer and make a small impact in lots of people’s lives. I’m here to be someone who makes a big impact in fewer people’s lives.
So I know that that connection is what drives my business. And so each time I bring somebody on my team, I’m like, okay, those tests are off my plate. What do I need to stay focused on? Is it related to these three things? If it’s not related to these three things, then it should not be where I’m spending my time and my energy.
And that has prevented me from doing things like getting into the inbox or making graphics in Canva or editing podcasts or, you know, any of those things that we start to do when we are like itchy to get our hands back in the day-to-day of our business, you’ve got to get used to pulling yourself out of it. And a huge part of that when it comes to bringing on your team is just knowing that you have to be constantly firing yourself.
And re-evaluating your role. And even as you reevaluate your role, you will have to be constantly asking yourself, what is my zone of genius versus my zone of excellence? Because for a lot of us, we’ve had to get really good at lots of things, but it doesn’t mean it’s what we’re best at. Like I can put together a really great slide deck.
Is it what I am best at? No. Is that the highest and best use of my time? Absolutely not. If I am bored and I don’t know what else to do with myself, will I sit down and start getting into Canva? Absolutely. That’s my favorite way to procrastinate doing the real work that I’m supposed to be doing is to be getting into Canva And say,
Canva black hole mine. It is, It totally is. But if I talk to my team, they’re like, well, why did you do that? Why didn’t you record something new? Why didn’t you go take some time off so that you can have that thinking space. We know that you need, why didn’t you write the first chapter of the book that you’ve been putting off for six months,
because the canvas is easy and right there, and I’m pretty good at it. That’s why. So we have to be aware of that and really get into, as you’re growing your business, you’re pushing up against your growth edge as a CEO in your own leadership. And it is uncomfortable and it’s not always easy to sit down and do the higher level things that we know will move our business forward.
Like sitting down and writing my book is more likely to move my business forward, then making another slide deck in Canva. But I’m more comfortable making the slide deck in canvas than I am sitting down and figuring out what do I want to say right now? Right? And when you do say it, I want to be on that team. So make sure whatever,
whatever you put out there, I’m waiting. And I think that’s important to know too. So let’s talk about it from my perspective, everything you said is so, and you guys now know why leverage heal so much, right? And like, yes, that is exactly what is happening in my mind right now. I’m thinking the exact same thing. I do the exact same thing,
but then they put me on perspective as somebody who’s learned from you, I need your content. And I think that, that is like sometimes I think that helps me as a CEO to think like, I’m the only one that can do this. Right. And I know that there’s somebody out there that literally needs to hear what I’m going to say, whether your books about whatever,
raising kids or systems or whatever you write about, I don’t care because I’m going to read it because I, I appreciate everything that you say and I resonate with it. And so I think that that has been a driver for me to push through that. And I feel that there is, it’s almost like walking up a river, like upstream, like your thigh deep,
and you’re walking up upstream and you really want to just go to the side and sit on a rock and work on canvas because it’s fun. But instead you need to get back out in the middle of that river and walk upstream in think like my husband always says, she’s like the hardest work that we do as entrepreneurs is, is that thinking it is for sure.
Absolutely. And so I, I appreciate everything that you just said. And because I, I literally, that is me you’re is resonating and with our listeners too. I know. So this team aspect of it, where we’re talking about scaling with teams, let me ask you, how is it, how many people do you have on your team if you’re willing to share that?
I think we’ve got about 15 right now. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we have seven, eight now and I mean, I honestly, it’s like a shared, like, that’s hard for me to help each one of them, Brad, just because of who I am as a leader. How do you pick people for your team? Like how do you know they’re the right people?
I know we could do a whole, I think I just did an episode with this on it and somebody else, but I love asking these questions because I think it’s very important when we talk about scaling. I know that the selection of team members is a bottleneck for leaders. How do you navigate That? It is because you have to be able to not just outsource and delegate,
you have to be able to give ownership and that’s a whole different level. And this is one of things. It does prevent a lot of people from scaling because they will hire someone to delegate the marketing or to delegate the launch process or to delegate all the onboarding their new clients. But they always end up in a bottleneck because if all you’re doing is delegating,
it means those people are going to be coming back to you to ask questions and for decisions to be made. And if you are the only person in your organization that has clarity about where the business is going, that understands the values that you have and your purpose, and that understands your kind of internal framework for making decisions. Then you will always be the bottleneck because you will always have people coming back to you to ask a thousand things.
They will always need things from you. So building a self managing team is like a whole nother level. Another show about that. I mean, it is, it’s a whole nother thing, but for me, when it comes time to hiring people, I mean, I have people on my team. Who’ve been with me for over 10 years now and they’ve grown with me.
And the biggest reason why I think I’ve had so many people, I mean, I hear all the time people saying, I can’t find a great assistant. I can’t find a great project manager. I can’t find this. I can’t find that. And they’re like churning through people. And I’m like, do you have clarity on what your purpose is and your business and who you’re really trying to help and how you really want to show up and what your business stands for.
Because if you don’t have clarity on any of those things, it doesn’t matter who you try to bring in. Because at the end of the day, you can train anybody to do just about anything from a tactical practical perspective, but you can’t train people to care about your business or about your clients or about why at any of it matters. So when it comes to hiring great people for your team,
it takes time and you just have to know, it’s just like dating the first person you’d go out on a date with might not be the love of your life. You might have to kiss a few frogs and eventually you find the right person. And maybe sometimes you end up with somebody who’s great for a while, but then you kind of grow apart and you need to go find somebody else.
Like it’s a relationship. So like any other relationship you have to spend time having clarity about who you are showing up as and who the ideal person is. Who’s going to be that good compliment for you in the role that you’re looking for and take your time and finding that person, just know that it’s, it might not be the first person you talk to,
or the first person you hire. You might have to try a few different times, but if it’s a fit and you’re willing to invest in the person and in the relationship, then the delegation part of it becomes easy because they understand who you are, what you stand for and how you would make a decision about something. So they can take ownership over that.
Thank you so much for sharing your, your perspective on that. I know our listeners are already thinking about that. The processes we’re talking about delegating the team. So I think that that was really, really helpful to share that All right. You guys, that was an amazing show. I know we cut it off there in the middle. And as I said,
we didn’t start out this interview to actually break the show up into two episodes. But Rachel was so generous with her expertise and she delivered so many tangible things you can take right now and apply to your business. I really wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to actually do that. So make sure you tune in with us next week on episode number 239 to catch the second half of systems to scale your business.
And again, all of the show notes, all of the resources and all of the ways that you can connect with Rachel directly can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and simply click on the package. All right, guys, talk to you next week. Bye bye. For now.
This is a great show for those of you who want to build a global brand or international empire without paid ads.
Summary:
Today we’re diving into the actual, step by step, proven process of building a global empire organically without paid ads. Following Lorraine Dallmeier’s proven process, you’ll not only be inspired but leave this show with tactical marketing you can apply to your brand right now, even if you have no marketing team or little marketing experience.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the 6 steps to create a global empire
Be inspired that little marketing skills are required to grow a loyal following
Understand the power of brand protection and how to apply this to your company
Learn about“edu-tainment” and how to apply this to your content marketing
Have yet another confirmation that consistency is king
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi guys, and welcome to episode number 237. Here it is the end of July, 2021. And we are so glad you’re listening to this episode. I’m April beach host here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast and founder and CEO of the Sweetlife company,
where we help entrepreneurs did not design launch and scale a business for high profit, deep impact lifestyle. Freedom today’s episode is really special. You’re going to love this guest. She is an absolute delight, and we’re talking about the actual proven step-by-step process to build a global empire. This woman did it starting only 11 years ago with a baby on her hip.
And she is breaking down her exact formulation for how she did it without running high cost ads and really in a way that creates brand consistency and gets her message across. And so I’m very excited to introduce you to our guests today, and if you’re new to the show and you have never listened, thank you so much for tuning in. There are a lot of really amazing podcast episodes out there from different hosts all over the world.
And I’m so appreciative that you are here hanging out with us today. All of the show notes, everything we do as a company, to help you design, launch and scale your coaching business, your consulting business, or your expert focused business can be found by visiting us@sweetlifeco.com as well as all of the show notes and all of the resources we have available for you.
Let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. I am pleased to introduce you to Lorraine doll Meyer. She is absolutely literally an amazing woman. You’re going to be so inspired. She’s an award-winning CEO of formula. Botanica the organic cosmetic formulation and business school, which has trained over 13,000 organic cosmetic formulators and ND beauty entrepreneurs in 177 countries. And probably counting.
She’s voted the most influential person in natural beauty for 2020 and awarded the digital achiever of the year for the cosmetics industry by Google. Lorraine is on a mission to teach the world to formulate and in this process and you’ll hear her story. It is so cool. She’s going to break down what it was like moving from an employee role, becoming a mother,
realizing that that isn’t what she wanted and that she just had so much more that she wanted to do. And you are going to leave this episode, understanding the exact six pieces. I should say, being six steps to her formulation. She breaks it down very, very clearly her six step formula on how she created this global empire. So the end of this episode,
you’re going to know her exact six step formula. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in the beauty industry or whatever you’re in. If you were in the education industry, if you were a coach or consultant, this is the level of business that you want to design. You’re going to walk away knowing her step-by-step process. And you’re also going to realize that you can absolutely do this yourself.
So I’m so excited to dive in today’s episode. It is episode number 237. So all of the show notes, everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com simply click on the podcast. And this is episode number 2, 3 7. All right, let’s dive into the show. Hi everybody. I am so excited to be joined by my new friend,
Lorraine Domar and she is going to blow your mind. You are literally going to be inspired just by the little chat that we have done behind the scenes here to get ready for what she is going to teach on this show. I am taking crazy notes and you are going to absolutely love this woman and be incredibly inspired and learn so much from this show today.
Lorraine, welcome to the show. Can you give everybody an introduction, share who you are, how you started out and all about this amazing online empire that you have built. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me on the show April. It is amazing to be here and I can’t wait for our chat. So I’m Lorraine. I run formula Botanica,
I’m a biologist, I’m a chartered environmentalist and I am on a mission to teach the world to formulate. So I run formula Botanica the online organic cosmetic formulation at school, and we train people how to make their own natural skincare and haircare using botanical ingredients are we are taking the world by storm with what we’re doing at the moment. It has been phenomenal.
So I’ve been running the school for almost eight years now, I guess. And I have 40 staff. We have over 13,000 students and graduates for in 177 countries. It has been a roller coaster to get here, but it wasn’t always like that. So just to give you a short intro into how I got here, I was on maternity leave with my eldest son who will be 11 in a few weeks.
And I decided that I couldn’t go back to my day job anymore. I had to work for myself. You know, I’d had really good jobs, but I just couldn’t handle working for other people anymore. And having listened to a few podcasts with you now, April, I think you probably heard that vaping quite well. So I decided I was going to start my own business.
I was watching the BBC’s apprentice. I was sitting there on the sofa with breastfeeding, my son. And I like, if these idiots can do it then, so can I, so that’s, I guess where it started. And then by the time I was on my second maternity leave, I had my business up and running. I was teaching people online already.
I had an app, I was teaching people how to make simple beauty products. And then I had the chance to actually buy formula Botanica in its infancy. It was a one woman side hustle. At that point I was, as I said, I had my second baby with me at that point. And I thought, you know what? This could be a fun hobby project.
And then I went back from attentively for a second time and my employer has ghosted me entirely. And so I thought I got to make this work and I have, so that’s like a potted history of, of how I got to where I am today. I guess You said something to me before we were recording. You know, you said I went from being this,
you know, mom would just a baby on my hip to having this global empire in 117, a hundred. How many different countries? It’s insane. Saudi 777 different countries, friends. Okay. This amazing woman has done this. And you literally have a formula just like you teach people how to formulate natural beauty products on their own. And I want to,
I want you to share your mission because I think that’s incredibly important. But what you’re going to share today on the podcast is the act is the actual formula from how you went from a mom with the baby on your hip, to where you are right now. But I think it’s important to know that for people to know, like, why are you doing this?
You shared this a bit with me before. Why are you so particularly passionate about what you teach women to do? Well, I love formulation because it takes us right back to our roots. It’s a skill that we’ve lost, that we’ve forgotten. And yet everyone used to do it. Like they’ve even found like fossilized face creams from Roman times. You know,
this is not something new and we can all formulate. Cause formulation is fun. It’s easy, it’s empowering. And most importantly, it disrupts the mainstream beauty industry because they want you to go and buy that product for 150 years. They’ve been telling us we’re not good enough. We don’t look right. We don’t smell right. We don’t conform to that.
Blonde stick thin what teeth person that they put, all the adverts, you know, everyone is different and we can embrace our own beauty by reclaiming that power from the beauty industry and learning how to formulate ourselves. And that is so incredibly empowering because then not only can you make your own skincare and haircare and even makeup whenever you need it. But it’s also more sustainable because the beauty industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging a year with that is just staggering.
And most of that ends up in landfill or in our oceans. And we can do better than that. And we can do that by learning how to formulate for ourselves and making things as in when we need them. So I am on a mission to make formulation as commonplace cookery and the entire world had to do it. And thankfully the world is very receptive,
which is a good thing. And you’re doing a very Good job out of that. You are doing an incredible job. And so thank you for sharing that. So before we even go into these six steps to how you have built this online empire in hearing these six steps, and I know our listeners after they hear them are going to be like, wow,
I can absolutely do this as well. I want to point something out. You are so incredibly deeply fiercely fire, really passionate about what you do. And you are very clearly leading with that determination. It’s not leading with the money because you want to build an empire to take over the world. You want to change and you want to create a transformation for women and disrupt an industry that needs to be disrupted.
So I say that. So as our listeners are listening to understand that underneath all of these things that we’re going to talk about in content marketing and all the other strategies to build literally a global empire with your online courses and your education business, that under that all is a fierce passion and conviction for what you are doing. And I think that in order to be successful,
frankly, anything, unless you just want to make a lot of money and not have a deeply purposeful company. I believe that that’s a requirement. And so I just wanted to point that out to our listeners and our listeners and pick up on that anyway, they’d be like, wow, this, you know, this, this woman’s amazing. She loves what she does diving into,
you know, history and, and the history of what she’s doing. So let’s transition. Let’s dive into that a little bit. How on earth did you go from this mom who was kind of working kind of decided she wanted to stay home, had an app, bought a company, having another baby to where you are now. You literally have a formula for this as well Through it.
Well, first of all, thank you for all those lovely things you said as well. I mean, yes, you have to drive forward with that passion, but then there are various steps that as you say, anyone can do. And the first one for me and I live in a brief there, so I absolutely love this is content marketing. Now I have been a prolific content creator since I was 15 years old.
And I badgered my parents to get the internet at the home. We were one of the first adopters of the internet where I lived. Everyone was like, why do you have the internet? I didn’t know what to write to, you know, web pages that really had anything of use for me. But I started blogging when I was 15. I started designing websites then,
and that has stuck with me ever since. So a big, big part of what we do is putting out content and I call it edutainment, which is a slightly pretentious word. I mean, you’re mixing education entertainment, but it says what it does on the 10 basically. And so we write, we film, we record content every single week that our followers want to read,
want to listen to what to watch. And a lot of people say to me, well, how’d, you know what to record? And I’m like, well, I go to ask people, you know, because they tell me what they want to know. And we put that content out there and that has been so, so successful for us because by showing up every week,
it doesn’t matter if it’s raining. It doesn’t matter if I’m on holiday, it doesn’t matter. What’s happening. That content will go out. And that means that our followers become dependent on it. They want to read it. And actually as a result of that, we’ve become like a publication as well as an online school. And we get more visitors now than the many of the sort of mainstream publications in,
on niche as well, which has been phenomenal. So let me ask you, where do you distribute the majority of your content? I know our listeners are thinking, okay, well, they’re doing this content. What are your, I know every industry is different. What are your primary social channels or content distribution channels that seem to have worked for you?
Well, social does well for us, but I have to say the main channel has been email. I mean, it’s all in the list, right? And I’m sure everyone listening who wants to do this understands you have to have a list. And I started off at 300 people on my list. I now have 125,000 and we clean that list rigorously.
Let me boot people off all the time because they don’t open our emails. Otherwise we’d have hundreds of thousands of peoples out there. So that is the primary outlet for content because people then sign up and they know they’re going to receive value in that inbox every single week. And that is so powerful because it means they stay subscribed as well. So you guys send a weekly email.
Yep, absolutely. We’re thinking of making that bi-weekly, but at the moment it’s just weekly and yet then the rest goes out on social. I mean our main channels, I suppose, are Instagram. I mean, we have, we’ll have over a hundred thousand followers by the time this episode ads, which quite exciting Facebook, we have big groups on Facebook.
I have a big networking group there with 47,000 people, which is free. So those are the main channels ready, but email first and foremost. And then, and I suppose that’s 0.2 and the sort of six step process. It’s all about the SEO as well. And I’ve only recently hired someone for the first time to do that before that it was just me writing lots of really good content,
then hiring people to write really good content. And I’ve always believed that rather than delving into what Google says about its algorithm, the best thing you can do is to just write top notch content, make sure it’s a good length and make sure people want to keep coming back to read it basically. So, you know, one of the things you said to me behind the scenes as well before we started recording this with that,
and I think this is important for people to know that you have been consistently hitting the pavement with content and putting content out for seven years. I think that’s important for people to know that consistency is king here. And I’d love also how you say that you clean your list. And I think people are afraid to do that as well. You know, get people that have an open things off their list.
I think people are really afraid to do that. And I love that you said that because we want a vibrant list of people that are actually absorbing your content in and really love what you’re doing rather than a dead list. And when people really don’t, who wants to talk to people that don’t want to listen. And so I love that you said that as well,
but I feel like one of the important things to say here about this number two is that you were just out there posting, like you said, rain or shine for seven years, and this is organic growth. You guys, we aren’t buying a hundred thousand people to end up on the reins list. This is, you know, fully putting amazing content out there that people want to absorb and organic growth.
And so I’m really admire how hard you’ve worked at doing this. And I just want to commend you for that. People want to shortcut all the time and it’s not that you can’t be successful fast, but there is, there’s much more to the iceberg underneath the water, for Sure. Absolutely. And I’ve seen so many people sort of try to shortcut or get bored of doing it.
And then if it doesn’t work within three months, they’re like, oh, I’ll do something else. And so many of the entrepreneurs who started in my sort of year group, I suppose, when I got going, they’re all doing something different now and I’m sitting there going why? And they’re like, I’m really impressed. You kept going with like, well,
yeah. And look at what I’ve achieved by just plugging away at the same thing every single day. It’s been amazing. Wow. Well that alone, what a great testimony and just a great amount of encouragement. That’s exactly right. And I think that we get so afraid that maybe we’re doing the right things, or we need a confirmation faster in that trust in what you’re doing and what you’re creating and the consistency in doing it.
And that’s a whole podcast episode on itself. So I just want to highlight that. And I just think that’s incredibly powerful. So we talked about step number one and then step number two is just really being out there consistently posting SEO, you know, really diving into that. And then step number three is one of my favorites in people. It’s not that I think that entrepreneurs don’t want to do that.
They all do, but I don’t necessarily believe that there are many entrepreneurs that fully understand how to fiercely protect their brand. So let’s talk about number three. Yeah. So three is all about the brand and I’ve created a really, really strong brand around formula Botanica. And when I look at a lot of digital marketers online, they often bypass that step.
They just go straight for the ads, the shortcut, as we said, and actually building that strong brand is something that has made the company so unshakeable. So rock solid that if something terrible happened to us, we would weather it because the brand is so strong. And I protect that brand fiercely. Now I have brand guidelines. I make people read them all the time.
I, I tweak little, you know, the very fact that I’m sat here in a green top, in a green office, it’s just all part of the brand. I live in every single components of it. And that comes down to how we speak the tone we use in the emails that go out, even in our help desk, the way we support people,
the way the courses are put together, the way we show up for events, just literally every little detail is overlooked by that brand. And people often come to me and they’re like, can I say this? And I’ll go, ah, let’s rejig it slightly. So it looks like that. And this is the reason behind it. So I’m constantly trying to educate my team as well so that they can live and breathe that with me because no one can take that away from you.
You know, if your ads bomb or if no one comes to a website, oh, you know, if something goes horribly wrong on social media, your brand is still there. And that is a thing of beauty that I think, yeah, as you said, lots of people overlooked, but yet it’s the core components to growing an online empire. Wow.
That is so powerful as I have my, my wave mug and my, my way of wall. And it’s what we do. If you guys are watching behind the scenes in the video, you have to, you have to go to the YouTube channel. You have to see Lorraine behind the scenes and see all her great. It’s fabulous. And this is an example of that,
but I also love what you said with the language and the tone and the brand personality. And I think that that is so incredibly important as well. So thank you for that. I love number three. So what’s number four. What was a fourth thing? What’s a fourth step in your formulation for building this online empire. So we’ve got the content,
we’ve got the distribution, we’ve got the brand step. Number four is all about the community. I mean, it’s the people who sits at the heart of all of this in some respects, they should be step number one, but I thought let’s walk through all of them in sequential order. So I’ve built a really strong community around formula Botanica as has my team as well.
And these are people who we know we love, even though we have over 13,000, almost 14,000 students and graduates. We know so many of them and we get really excited by them because we know what they’re doing. You know, I have, if you’re watching the video, I have all of that products behind me. I sit here with them on my desk.
I’m always sort of holding them up, going, oh, this is so-and-so. She lives in Denmark. And this is so and so she lives in India and you know, the community is what makes us who we are. We wouldn’t be where we are without these incredible people. And I’ve met so many of them over the years. I know their stories.
I’ve become friends with so many of them as well. And they inspire me to do better as well, because that constantly out there changing the world, being part of this global green beauty movement that we’re spearheading and yeah, they’re helping us drive it forward. So to do that, we’ve used social media. We use Facebook groups. It sounds really simple.
And it is in a way, and in the beginning I would be in that and I would show up all the time for our students and graduates. And that was how we built this incredible heartwarming community where are really kind and generous to each other. And that still exist today. Even though we have, I think about 10,000 students in our online classroom,
it’s got huge, but still that, that really heartwarming aspect is that. And if someone posts and says, I’m having a bad day, you know, there are hundreds of comments from people just going, we’ve got your back. And most of the people who go through our courses and launch a brand, go, I love the courses I learnt so much.
I can formulate, you know, you’ve empowered me, but oh my goodness, the community, I wouldn’t have got to where I am without my, my sisterhood, basically, because as you can imagine, it is mostly women who go through our courses and that has just been heartwarming and incredible to watch. So that’s step number four. And Question about that.
You have both a free, and so we’re talking, you know, we’re talking about business modeling, restructuring for our listeners. You have both a free and paid community, Correct? Yeah. We have a big free networking group as well, which has almost 50,000 members. And that’s incredible too. And now I have a community manager, but not just that.
We also have a whole team of people around the world, our student mentors, so that we have 24 7 coverage in our groups because otherwise, you know, it is like a groups. You have to be there to sort of support, to help, to moderate sometimes as well. And so I have staff members literally around the globe so that there is always someone on and they have a rotor.
So they’re going through the groups all the time. And that has been incredible actually. So the community is everything to her. I love that. I love that. And Facebook makes sense, you know, the global community Facebook makes sense. And, you know, it’s when we talk about structure and tech and enabling what you want to do and the experience that that does,
you know, it’s really completely make sense. Okay. So then number five, what is the fifth step to your formulation to building a global empire? So stage, you’ve got your ducks in a row and now you have to start really putting yourself out into the world. And so step number five is very much that I’ve made sure that we are viewed as thought leaders in our space.
And again, that can sound like quite a pretentious word. You know, what is a thought leader? It’s someone who has an opinion, the other people readily take on board and follow. And we have that. Now people follow us because we teach them all viewpoints and all sorts of what natural means and what green beauty means and what clean beauty means.
You know, we’ve redefined a lot of these concepts and we’re regularly tagged in social media posts where people go, I listened to this podcast from formula Botanica and I now understand that the three or four shades of natural, and I’m going to show you have made my own little infographic. And I finally understand these concepts and I’ve learned them from these guides. And we do that thought leadership through,
I have my own podcast as well called green beauty conversations, which is all about green and sustainable beauty and the science and indie beauty. But I’m also constantly on summits, on podcasts, giving interviews, speaking to journalists, you know, I out that all the time as is my team. And that means that people view us as the people to follow because we hold opinions on things.
We share those opinions. I make sure that they’re always balanced. They fit with the brand. They’re very sort of rational and scientific and the heartwarming and friendly and natural and people buy into that. So you have to have opinions when you’re running a business. And I see a lot of people really struggle with this because they don’t want to put themselves out there,
but it is. Yeah. Step number five, for reason, it’s been a huge part of our growth in becoming this global empire. It is so important. And I understand that. And I, I think that there is a, there is a fear about not having everybody agree with you, but that’s also part of the destruction and the part of leadership and,
and most leaders don’t have, you know, everybody that loves them. I mean, that’s the way it is when we’re doing works. That work, that really matters. It means it’s work, that’s different. And to do work that’s different. It means that you’re probably going against the grain on the way that the commonplace has been. And so I really love that.
You said that. And I think that that is, that’s just very encouraging for some of our listeners to hear. Okay. And then step number six, what is this final icing on the cake to bring it all together? So following on, from what I said about putting yourself out there, now you have to go and form a network. And that means getting to know people,
big players, small players, any players, really people who also hold opinions and who are active in your world in your sector. And we now have partnerships with NBC brands, with our graduates, with bloggers, with influences, but also with the mainstream beauty industry. You know, I have stood on major stages in front of the big players, the L’Oreals,
the Unilevers, the Proctor and gambles, but also the indie players at the same time. And I’m trying to bring people into our world so that they understand that we’re the bridge that brings everything together. So for instance, we are, we’re the formal NDBC partner for the world’s largest cosmetic ingredients exhibition. They have 12,000 visitors a year. You know, they tour around Europe.
It’s like going into three aircraft hangers. You know, when you go and visit these trade shows and we’re there in DVC part in that. Now I have spoken at major industry events because of a lot of the work that we’ve done and the networking that we’ve done. And because of that, that’s opened the door whereby people don’t do formula Botanica as Lorraine’s little side hustle with her baby on their hip anymore.
They view us as a big accredited award-winning online institution. And obviously that’s all part of the seven years of just showing up every week and just putting yourself at that. But you have to make a network and you have to invest in that network and be kind and really give back because it will come back to you tenfold every single time. And that’s certainly what I’ve found over the years.
That’s Incredible. And so let’s recap these six steps, and then I have one last question for you. So Lorraine’s formula to build a global empire, but not just any global empower you guys that really matters. It’s really, really making a change in this space are your six steps. Okay? Step number one, content creation, educate and entertain your followers at the same time.
Step to constantly promote that content, put it at that great SEO, social media outreach, but most importantly, your list, you need one step, number three, build a strong brand that you fiercely protect and build. And you’re constantly growing it. Step number four, create a thriving and happy community. Make sure that the people around you know, that you love them because they’re your biggest assets,
your biggest fans, they’re everything. Step number five, be viewed as a thought leader, have opinions and put those opinions out there and make sure that people buy into those opinions and hear you. And step number six, build a network and build a strong network that you pour your love and heart into because it will come back to you. Tenfold, how I Love that.
I love that. Thank you so much for sharing all this wisdom. This is an amazing lesson. You guys hear that you are hearing and I’m taking notes and listening right along, right along with you. And so I have one last question for you. And I don’t ask this. Isn’t like a set question. I ask all the guests. I just really,
I would love to know this answer from you. What have you learned about yourself along the way through this process? What do you believe about your, I know I didn’t even prepare you for, this is such a tough question, right? Sorry. You know, like what, what do you know and believe about yourself that only could have come through your tenacity,
your resilience, your consistency. What have you learned about yourself in this process? That is a great question. So before I took them formula Botanica I worked all over the world. I lived in multiple countries. I worked in high-powered jobs. You know, I ran all sorts of fantastic projects, but I kept coming up against this massive glass ceiling everywhere I went.
You’re too young. You’re too inexperienced. Lorraine. It’s too scary, too outspoken too. In your face, you voice your opinions too much. I do that. And it got to the point that it started to chip away at me because you start to internalize a lot of what you hear. And when you’re constantly told you need to tone it down,
you need to be less outspoken. Yeah. You need to put your opinions out there less. You start to do that. And I now know that the only way I think for women to achieve true gender equality in the workplace is by building something like this for themselves and driving it forward. And I know myself that I am more confident and more able,
and I believe in myself more than I ever have before because of the work that I’ve done here over the last seven years. And no one can take that away from me and I will never walk into a workplace ever again, where someone will tell me I’m too scary because I will eat them alive. Thank you so much for everything that you have shared.
I know our listeners just like Marriott, we just want to eat up everything you’re giving to us. So, you know, and just absorb from you. So this is, I’m just so honored to meet you. Thank you so much for applying to be on this show and wanting to come here and share your story with this audience. It’s incredibly powerful and proven and you know,
that’s what we, that’s what we do. We bring in experts like you, that have created their expertise through resilience and, and determination. And, and I’m just so glad that you’re here. So how can people find you? How can they connect with you? All of you join your, your formulation school. If we have listeners that want to start doing their own thing and they haven’t done it yet,
or go and follow you to learn and watch and observe how you are building and how you’re continuing to grow your empire, where can we find you? So wherever formula botanica.com, where we have a free online organic cosmetic formulation course that anyone can take Instagram is the biggest platform for formula Botanica as well. But I am also on Instagram and on Facebook where you can follow me.
And I talk more about the business side of things, the sustainability side of things. Cause that’s my bag. And I just want to say, thank you so much April for having this amazing podcast and for welcoming me onto it, because it’s fantastic to talk to you. And it’s a real honor to be here. It’s such A pleasure and Lorraine and I will be live in clubhouse.
You guys. So this is episode number 237. It will be episode number 237 when it drops. So Lorraine and I are going to be here to talk to you. And you guys get to come in, ask Lorraine all of your questions, whether it’s about formulations or how she went from baby on the hip to literal global empire creator through online business.
These steps work. This process works with consistency. And so we’re going to be live in clubhouse on July 28th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Please come join us there. We’ll make sure all of the links to where you can connect with us in clubhouse are found in the show notes of this episode@sweetlifeco.com. Ryan, thank you so much. We really, really appreciate it.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs who have an established method, framework or process and are ready to scale exponentially.
Summary:
People don’t talk about licensing. In fact, it’s a secret weapon that most companies don’t tap in to. However, licensing when done properly can be the catalyst to higher profit than you ever dreamed possible. And there’s no catch! In fact, the business model of licensing your content, course, or program is quite simple. This week we’re continuing our conversation about from episode #235 and talking about the types of content companies line up to license.
I’m also sharing behind the scenes details of how I’ve licensed my content, methods, frameworks and processes for over a decade. And you can too!
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what makes your content valuable enough to be licensed
Know how to license what you already have and not re-create the wheel
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This is a great show for established entrepreneurs who are interested in learning how to scale your business exponentially through licensing your content, course or program.
Summary:
If you’re an established entrepreneur with proven programs, courses, or content, and you’re looking to grow exponentially, then this episode is for you. By creating content to license you can demonstrate thought leadership in your space, increase credibility across your audience, expand your business to B2B or create a dual business model.
This an intro to licensing for entrepreneurs who want to know how content licensing works, those who want to demonstrate thought leadership in your space through Licensing, those interested in transitioning from B2C to B2B in some capacity. This show will give you a good foundation and knowledge base to consider your options.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what licensing is and how to make money doing it
Know the business model of licensing and if it’s right for you
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach, and welcome to episode number 235. This one is really juicy. It is jam packed with the secrets to how I grew my first business consulting firm to over seven figures. So I’m super excited to share this with you and all of the resources that we have here available for you on the show can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com.
And this is episode number 235. Welcome to the suite life entrepreneur and business podcast. If you’re new, my name is April beach. I am the host here of this show. I am a business consultant and strategists that works with entrepreneurs and experts to design, launch, and scale. Your business in today’s episode is literally a secret weapon. If you are listening to this, if you’re a regular subscriber or you just happened to land here, this is something that nobody’s talking about, and I’m so excited to share it with you on today’s show, we’re talking about how to license your content to scale your business and increase profit. And this particular episode is a best for you. It’s most appropriate for you. If you are in phases three, four or five of my entrepreneur roadmap, what that means is that you have to be in a specific phase to be ready for this level of business scalability and this level of growth. And so if you’re in phases three, four or five, this is a great episode for you to listen to. If you don’t know what phase of business design growth scale and impact you are in, please take a second pause here and cruise over to Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. And you can take a really short quiz and I’ll tell you exactly where you are in your business and what you should be working on right now. You can also text the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. Okay. So here’s what we have in today’s show. It’s really great for those of you guys who are established entrepreneurs, and you’re interested in learning how to scale your business exponentially through licensing your content course or program. If you have a proven program course or content, and you are looking to see even the greater impact that you can make, you’re trying to find even more ways to make more money into create the impact that you know, that your program can, then this episode is for you. And so at the end of this episode, you are going to know what licensing is and how to make money doing it. You are going to know the business model of licensing and be able to have insight on whether or not this is even right for you. And you’re going to know the prerequisites that you need to have in place in order to license your content. And there is a super special bonus with today’s episode. If you want to know more about this, you do not want to miss this bonus. I am giving you a completely free one hour licensing your content quick start video training, and you really don’t want to miss it. It’s one hour training on the quick start guide of how to prepare and license your content. And you can find that totally free by visiting licensed to scale.com. It’s the word license, the number two, and then the word scale.com. And I’ll make sure that that is in the show notes for you. So that’s another resource for you to grab here at love, giving you guys awesome, very highly valuable stuff here for free that other businesses charge you thousands for. So definitely go grab that. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. This is episode number 235. And so all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. Number 2 35 under podcast<inaudible>. So let’s start out by answering the question. What is licensing licensing is creating content for other companies to use. Think of it as renting your content, renting your course, renting your program. So it’s creating content for other companies to use and they rent it from you and it’s called licensing so that they can grow faster or so that they can make more money or so that they can provide better services or training or support for their people, whoever their people happen to be. And now let me read you the legal definition of licensing, but just so you know, I wanted to make sure I gave you the April entrepreneur, regular person’s definition of it too. So the legal definition of licensing is content licensing is a legal agreement between two parties known as a licensee and a license or licensees can purchase the rights to re-publish content from a license or licensing is extremely versatile and allows her brands to repackage content in a variety of forms across desktop and mobile platforms. And that official definition came from news cred. So let’s go ahead and dive in a little bit more. You have a program where you have a course and you want to make more money. You want to go from what I call in our business, where we take our clients from scale to amplify, there is a difference between scaling your business and amplifying your business in this. My friends is how you do it. So the benefits of licensing are really important to think about as you’re considering whether or not you want to license your program to other companies. Here are some of the benefits that you can flow through your mind. As I’m saying these to you and really hold each one up and see if it fits you right. The first one is, if you want to demonstrate thought leadership in your space, if you want to become a thought leader in your particular niche, your particular area of expertise, then licensing is a benefit in that area. Number two, licensing increases credibility across your own audience. So even though you’re creating content, that’s used by other companies, when your audience knows that other companies are buying your content, all of a sudden, they are really confident in your ability to get them direct results. Number three, licensing enables for what I call exponential scalability. So let’s talk about scale for a second scale. In most cases, as we talk about here on the podcast in most entrepreneurs and online businesses are familiar with it. In that case, we’re talking about taking a one-on-one service or a one-on-one program and turning it into one on group or creating different business models so that you can reach more people and increase your profit. Usually in the same amount of time, scaling is a precursor to licensing licensing is where you still create that one piece of content, and then you’ve tested it in the scale capacity. And now you are willing to rent it or allow other companies to borrow it from you called licensing it for them to distribute. So we have gone from scaling you to literally exploding so fast, your reach with your content through licensing. And then another benefit of licensing is for those of you, if you’re listening to this and you want to figure out how to go from B to C, so you have a consulting firm or a coaching firm, or you’re a speaker, an author, and you are used to serving one particular client that gets direct results from you. And you want to transition. You want to start coaching other businesses. Licensing is also a really great benefit for you. So there are multiple benefits to licensing your content, if any of those fit into what aligns with your strategic objectives for your life in your brand. So really the question that we need to dive into here before I share anything else is, is licensing right for you, but not only that are ready to license. I have so many people, literally we have a waiting list of entrepreneurs who really want to learn how to license their materials, but they aren’t ready yet. So let’s talk about what is the prerequisite for being able to join my masterclass called license to scale, to learn how to do this. The prerequisite is that you have to have a proven course or program or content. That’s gotten people transformational results in the past. Okay? So this means if you have never created a course before, or if you do not have a membership community with curriculum, if you have not developed transformational curriculum or a transformational program, and you have not tested that you are not ready for licensing. And so at this point in time, if that is you, of course, you’re welcome to sit here and hang out with me for the rest of this episode, but I would put it on pause because we have a program to teach you how to do that. It’s you can find that program by visiting theofferengineer.com. And so the process we take companies through is first we help businesses launch. And then the second phase is scale where entrepreneurs join our transformational program, design masterclass. Again, you can find that at theofferengineer.com and this is where you are, and then you can go onto licensing your material. So the prerequisite is you have to have a proven program course or content. That’s gotten people results in the past. If you don’t have that, you’re not quite ready for that yet. And that’s okay. This is a very Coopa. So to know what is the potential for you is in the future. So I’m going to give you guys a peek behind the scenes. I’m pulling back the curtains, and I’m going to share with you two case studies out of five different case days in which I have licensed my content for over 12 years, because I want you to get your wheels spinning about what you have or what you can do with your business, all five case studies, and they’re all different. All five case studies are available by going to license to scale.com and joining that licensing 1 0 1 webinar. But I’m just for the sake of time and to get your wheels spinning, I’m going to share with you two here. Okay. So the first case study I want to share is the fact that I had a collection of courses, a collection of online courses back in 2009, I’ve been doing all my courses before. They’re even a thing. If you listen to the show, you know that right? So I had a collection of eight full online courses, and there were eight different courses that were as for a very specific niche audience. And they were totaled 198 slides, 13 hours of recorded classes. And they came with teacher guides and supplemental worksheets and even project plans. I licensed that collection of courses, and I have licensed these collection of eight courses that is currently still to this day, licensed in over 13 countries to other businesses. They included business coaching videos, swipe files, and we licensed it in different formats so that the business could use it. And even co-branded. So that is case study number one. So I had a collection of courses that served a specific audience and people line up, people literally joined my waiting lists to license my courses. I only release them once a year in the month of November. And they join a waiting list to license my courses once a year. And I have been doing that since that beginning of 2009. And so that’s one way. So if you have a collection, of course, it’s not just one course. Think about all of the material you have created all of the mini videos, all the things that you’ve done, that we can package together into a complete package. And I promise you when it’s done correctly, they will line up to license that from you. And so I’ve done this for years and I’m still doing this today. So that’s case study number one and then case study number two is that I have a full coaching program that includes the courses, but it also includes consulting for corporations and content that that corporation can distribute to all of their people in this case, it’s a corporate program. And so they want to take my content and my courses and use my consulting. And that’s another case study. And I first started doing this back in 2010. So these are two case studies. And again, I have five, some smaller ones for those of you guys that are just getting started and you can see all five by going to the license to scale.com and you can join that information webinar. So hopefully that gets your wheels spinning a little bit about what you already have. We want to dive into your assets, dive into your method, dive into your process and what you’ve already created, and then have a conversation about who can this really benefit. So it’ll benefit your business and it’ll benefit their corporation and their company as well. The next thing I want to kind of transition here, because I know that for many of you, this is a new conversation. This is a new topic is sharing with you that there are three primary ways to license your content. And each one of these ways is going to equal the branding in the future goals for you that you have for your company. So the first way you can license your content is straight as it is with your branding, your logo all over it. So that would be somebody borrows or quote unquote licenses, rents your course, or your class. And they plug it into their LMS. They plug it into their system or wherever they’re distributing it, but it’s your logo all over it. That’s way. Number one way. Number two is co-branded where you allow your them to add their name and logo to it. It could be co presented by co-branded by, and that’s a really great way for you to retain the ownership and the authority of that content, but also to really help your licensee level up as well. And then the third way you can license your content is completely white. Labeled white labeled is where nobody even knows it’s yours. Some operations expect that to happen. So some companies will only license your content. If it’s completely white labeled some companies only want to license your content if it’s co-branded. And so every single one of the licensees has their own goals for licensing your content. Now let’s talk about for a second. What is really actually good for you? Those three levels. Number one straight as is, is your trademark number two co-branded or number three white labeled. They follow the flow of the value, which means that someone will pay you less to take it straight as your own, a little bit more to co-brand it, and a little bit more to white label it, or in some cases there’s significantly more amount of money to let white label content, but let’s ask the really important question here is that right for you? Is it right for you to have no stake? And for nobody to know that that was your genius and out of it, all the companies and all the entrepreneurs that I coach to license their courses and their content, very, very few of them go with the white label. Even though the end user, the licensee will pay all the tea in China, is that really worth it to not get recognition or your brand. And so those are some things that I just want you to be thinking about. I know this isn’t yeah. Intro to licensing conversation. So I wanted to make sure that you knew about those three primary ways to license your content. So as you’re going through, as you’re thinking about what you have, or that you can license, you’re also thinking about in what capacity that that could work best for you and what you want your branch to be 2, 6, 10 years down the road. And then the last question I want to answer for you today is who licenses your content? Who should you license it to? This is a very common question. I answer this in clubhouse rooms all the time. And I get emails very often, especially when we’re leading up to opening up my license to scale masterclass. And people are saying, well, who, who wants this? Who do I sell it to? So let me give you two very clear examples of who should you license your light, your content to the first one is other companies who are not in direct competition with you, but they serve the same audience and they want to look better or expand their reach, grow their list, increase their sales and save time. This second opportunity for an audience for you are companies that are exactly like yours, but they’re missing something they need. And they want your expert content. They want turnkey offers. So they want to be able to take your course and just plug it in to their system and sell it right away. And they want to have faster instant results. So you can license your content to a company whose audience needs it. But the company is not in direct competition with you, or you can license your content to a company that is just like yours, but perhaps they don’t have as great of content as you do. Perhaps they need some more content to level up where they already have to shore up their offering and they need your help to do that. So those are two general examples of audiences who you could consider licensing your content to. So today we’re talking about how to license your content to scale your business and increase profit. And I talked about a lot of things. We talked about, what is licensing? We talked about the benefits of licensing. We discussed whether or not you’re ready to license. I gave you two of five different case studies of when I have licensed my content and hopefully in doing so, your wheels are spinning and you’re thinking about what you already have, that you can license or how you can package together content, courses, programs, your framework, your methodology, to license, to other people. We also talked about three primary ways to license your content. And we talked about who should you license your content to? So we discussed a lot, but I’ll be really honest. This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. I have so much more to share with you. So if you are interested in licensing your content or learning more about licensing your content, I highly recommend you join the licensing 1 0 1 training, and it’s totally free where I’m also going to give you a quick start guide to learn how to get your content licensed faster, and to determine if it’s right for you. And you can grab that anytime by visiting license and then the number two, and then the word scale, S C a L e.com. Or of course, all of the show notes will be found in the episode show notes. This is episode number 235, and you can visit us@sweetlifeco.com click on the podcast. And this is number 235. And just so you know, this is part one of a two part podcast episode I’m doing for you next week in episode number 236, I’m going to tell you the four types of content that companies line up to license. They will literally line up Fletcher list begging for you to license your content to them. And there’s four kinds of content that companies line up to license. We’re talking about that next week on the show, that’s going to be episode number 236. So thank you so much for joining me. I am very excited to share this. This has been my secret weapon. Many of you might not know. I own two different business consulting firms. And this is how my first, very first business consulting firm really broke through that glass ceiling. And I’m so excited to share this with you. It’s been kind of a secret. I’ve been holding in my pocket for quite a few years, and I’ve had the privilege of working with so many businesses one-on-one to do this, but we do have our license to scale masterclass, visit licensed to scale.com. If you are ready to take the steps and license your content to hit that amplify level in your business, all right, you guys have an amazing night happy July, 2021. When I’m recording this, I hope you’re doing something super fun that you love that really fills you up. I’ll talk to you on another episode soon.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to generate quality leads and build an audience of ideal clients.
Summary:
Lead magnets are a fundamental to grow your list of prospective buyers. But, unlike 2012, you can’t just throw a fancy .pdf out there and expect to get high-quality leads, if you get any leads at all? In this show we’re discussing the changes to lead magnets and what is considered valuable to those you really want to attract.
How we use lead magnets has significantly changed over the last decade and in this week’s episode we’re diving into what’s working to generate leads and what is not. Generating high-quality leads with the right prospects is a vital part of your marketing.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand what a lead magnet is and what it should accomplish
Have ten lead magnet ideas that are working in 2021
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey there. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 234, and I’m April beach, your host. And I’m so glad that you have tuned in to hang out with me today here on the sweet life entrepreneur business podcast.
Today is a great episode and we’re diving back into some online business foundations. So for those of you who have been listeners to this show for over four and a half years, you know, especially in the very beginning, it feels like forever ago, we really dug into funnel building list, building lead gen all of these online business foundations. And since then things have changed.
And so I felt like it was really important for me to come back in here and for us to have a conversation so that you’re aware of what is changed, what has changed when it comes to lead magnets that are working right now in 2021. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about on today’s show, because I want you to be generating amazing high quality leads with the perfect ideal buyers.
And so we’re going to dive in here on this episode, just a little item of business. If you have not listened to this show before, thank you so much for hanging out with me. I’m April beach, I’m the host here at the show founder of the Sweetlife company. And we serve coaches, consultants, experts, and service based businesses who are ready to launch scale or amplify their business online specifically for high profit,
deep purpose, to make sure that business we’re designing for you is in fact going to equal the lifestyle that you want. So everything we talk about here on the show and all of our coaching services and programs@thesweetlifecompanythatcanbefoundatsweetlifeco.com are all for that purpose. And all the show notes can be found@sweetlifeco.com as well. And this is episode number 234. So if you’re listening to me,
it is July, 2021. Praise the Lord. The world is reopening. We are out as a family, a little bit behind the scenes for us headed up to Vail, Colorado. Like we do every single summer for a few weeks. And I hope that you have some amazing adventures planned on your end as well. So I try to keep these summer episodes a little bit shorter than most.
So let’s go ahead and dive right in this episode is for you. If you were in phases one, two or three of my start to scale up system, that’s a roadmap that entrepreneurs follow from the very beginning of deciding you want a business all the way through building a high profit business that equals lifestyle freedom. If you don’t know what phase of business you’re in cruise over to sweet life,
co.com forward slash quiz, and you can answer a five really quick questions and you will get a list of exactly where you are in your business and what you should be working on. So this episode is for those of you guys who are in phases, one, two or three, primarily two or three, if you’re in one, you’re still in the beginning,
but I want you to know these business foundations. And it’s great for those of you who want to generate high quality leads and build an audience of your ideal clients. And frankly, if you’re listening to this episode, you’ve probably been in business for long enough to know that traditional what I call old school lead gen really isn’t working that well in generating high quality leads is becoming more and more of a challenge.
So we’re diving into all that on today’s show. So let’s go ahead and get to business Okay. So let’s chat about what is a lead magnet for those of you who are new, a lead magnet is something of high value that you give away for free in exchange to receive an email address and name and possibly a phone number or other contact or data information from somebody who may be interested in your services.
So we call it a lead magnet because it’s a post to literally magnetizes leads to your business and get the perfect people. But that term is a little inaccurate because you know, a magnet just attracts anything that’s metal. We don’t want to just attract anybody. You do your business. We want to attract the right people. So let’s talk a little bit about what those examples of a lead magnet could be.
Particularly if your new lead magnet could be a downloadable PDF, or it could be a free video series, anything that you are giving away for free that is high value to your client. But now the conversation’s shifting a little bit. That’s what we have been saying for the last 11 years. And here’s a, some history I want you to know about online business.
And for those of you guys who might not be listening to have been listening to this show for a long time, I have been a online business coach for over 14 years in. So we’ve seen a lot of changes in the online business space and what’s working and what isn’t. And so back in 2012, we used to be able to just throw out these really fancy,
cool PDFs and get high quality leads. And now you’re lucky to get any leads at all. And if you do, you’re just kind of throwing something to the wall to see if it sticks without strategy behind it. You’re ending up with the wrong kind of leads. So a lead magnet, again, is something you give away for free in exchange for a name and an email address.
Primarily some of you guys might want to collect other information like phone numbers so that you can follow up or dive in a little bit deeper and build a relationship with that perspective client to find out if you are right for each other. And the history of lead magnets is, has definitely changed. What we used to do is not working anymore. So in the past,
we used to be able to give out bowl how to guide sides, reports, white papers, complete eBooks, you know, from 2012 to 2017, honestly, you guys, the, or the lead magnet, the better those businesses were that were winning were the ones where we were giving away, you know, an hour long video series and 30 page white paper documents,
and that’s not working anymore. And so I don’t want to make like a blanket statement across the board because it really actually depends on your industry, but you’re listening to this podcast. If you’re a coach or a consultant or a service based business provider, you’re a speaker or you’re an author. And so let’s just talk to us. This is you and I having this conversation.
If you are in a different industry, those lead magnets are probably still working really well for this coaching and consult teen space. It’s not working so well, but what is working so well? Is this a lead magnet that is high value and low time? Let me say that again. Hi, and you load time. So short, fast transformational, not just informational.
And I’ve said this a million times, no buddy is out there waving their hands for more content. Right? Right. Now nobody’s doing that guys. Nobody’s saying, please flood me, firehose me with a million zillion pages, even if it’s the best darn information in the whole entire world, because nobody has time for that. We have reached our threshold and we are on content overload,
right? But they’re babies need to be transformed. They’re begging to learn something that they didn’t know before, or they’re begging to see a change or a transformation in their business or their life or whatever it is that you coach. Okay. So short, fast transformational, just informational lead magnets are what is working. And just a little side note here, you guys might have heard Brittany,
my podcast editor. She probably won’t even cut this out anymore. If you’ve been listening to the show, we keep it real here. You’ll probably hear the garage door slamming next to my recording studio. I have three teenage boys and it’s summertime, and they’re all here going in and out of the house. So why cut that out? I love my life.
So let’s continue on with what we were talking about in order to generate the right leads. You have to, you absolutely must know your customer’s problems and you must be able to offer an immediate solution to them when you offer a very specific solution in your business. So when your leading program, your mastermind, your membership, your coaching program, your online event,
whatever it is you sell, when the value of your product reaches a very particular audience, a very specific audience, your lead magnet is going to be able to attract that right client. So adjust a tip. If you do not yet have knowledge information, or you’ve not yet built that leading coaching program that you want to need for your business, or you’re ready to scale up and have a variety of programs,
make sure that really specific, make sure that they give a specific transformational measurable result in that knowledge, in your own generation of that leading program is going to then allow you to reverse engineer. So you can look at this lead magnet, this free thing you’re giving away and really attract people that are already interested in the specific solution that you are providing through your solution and your services.
So let’s talk about what is working right now because that’s what this podcast is all about. So hi time, hi, inundation of fire, hose of content. Nobody’s raising their hands saying, please, can you send me something for free? Because I can’t wait to sit there for an hour and a half and review it this weekend. That’s not our life,
but let’s talk about what is working. What is working right now are customized and curated high value, low time lead magnets. Here’s some examples of that. A quiz or an assessment are two great examples of customized and curated lead magnets that are working. And I have a bunch of other podcasts here about how to create a quiz. I even give away a free hour long training.
There you go. That’s more in depth. If you want to create a quiz, you can go back and search that here in this sweet life entrepreneur podcast, with this being said for you just generating or updating a lead magnet, a quiz or an assessment is an ideal lead magnet. And they’re doing really, really well. I’m a big fan of these.
We have used a quiz and an assessment for years. It’s now been about eight years. We’ve been using a quiz and an assessment. And do you remember in the beginning of this podcast episode, when I shared with you that link where you can go take our quiz to find out what phase of business growth you’re in, that is still our number one lead generator,
and I’m giving you real behind the scenes here. Okay. And here is why that’s amazing. Number one, it only takes literally a minute to take it if that, but number two, it delivers really high quality curated information. And number three, it gives me and our team and the client, or you a lot of really great high value information.
That’s curated to where you are. So when people take our quiz, they immediately know what phase of business they’re in. And according to my method of growing and scaling companies, I have five phases. So they get a very specific list. It’s curated to where they are about what they should be focusing on right now to get to the next level. So take a second and think about what could you create a quiz or an assessment about if you have a process that is already created in your business or a process that you walk people through in your programs,
that could be really cool to create a quiz, having them get some information and knowledge about where they may be, or how successful they are in different phases of your process. If you are looking for a certain type of person, whether they have a certain personality or whether they’re lacking in some sort of skills, do you teach that is that your solution,
a quiz could be a really great asset for you and for your potential clients. Because again, we want to give high value, low time, and we want to deliver a transformation, not just information. We want to give them a transformation. So they’ve gone from not knowing something about themselves to having more knowledge and knowledge is power. So the first tip I want to give you is if you are not using a customized quiz or an assessment,
we highly recommended. And for most of our clients that work with us to design and grow their business, a quiz and an assessment who has been working very, very well for frankly, over six years. So that one still is really working well in 2021. Number two, the next type of lead magnet that’s working really well is something that entertains people.
Okay? So this is gamification. These are quick accomplishments or challenges or something with group interaction. So if you have a way to get people entertained, have them laugh or feel good, or be part of something. Those lead magnets are working really well. And of course, that’s going to be all relative based on what your area of expertise is, but those are doing really,
really well. The next tip is a magnet that levels up your audiences IQ. So anytime we can level up somebody’s knowledge, we’ve given them a transformation, right? So if you, if this fits along the lines with what you’re doing, if you have short videos with juicy information that make people wanting more, those lead magnets are doing really great. And I’m not talking about things you give away for free on Tik talk or a little videos that you put out in IgE live or YouTube shorts or whatever it is.
I’m talking something that’s locked down, that’s even better when then what they can see for free. And it makes them feel more special that this is even more curated and it’s going to level up their IQ. And again, a short period of time. So short videos with juicy information that pay, make people wanting more, the next tip for a lead magnet.
That’s working really well right now are audio files with the introduction of clubhouse and now Spotify greenroom and all these other things that are coming around. People love audio because they don’t have to be staring at a screen while they’re driving down the road or while they’re at a gym. So actually any length of audio that is personalized for your audience is working really well right now.
If you have an exclusive interview that you want to share, that could be a very cool thing. Maybe you’re not a podcaster. Maybe you want to keep that just for your audience, but sharing it, access to an audio file is very cool. And people are really into it right now in 2021. The other thing they can do is frankly, in a lot of cases,
they can speed it up. And again, we’re busy people so they can get information and, you know, sometimes put you on two or three X, the speed and, and really get information even faster. Another example of this, and we have actually quite a few clients that are doing this, or like drips of daily, meditation’s drips of inspirational quotes.
And these are all audio files where you can drop into somebody’s email box, or they can be texted to your clients. That’s just something like, Hey, good morning, gorgeous. How are you today? You are enough. You know, that’s an example of an audio file if that fits in line with your business. So, and then another example of this and,
and clients are using this as well are tips for leaders. So if you have leaderships leaders that follow you in your, your leadership coach or an executive coach of some kind, any sort of tips, they don’t even have to be daily. It can be five days of audio files. These things are really doing well and people are eating them up. The next tip of a lead magnet.
This is working really well right now in 2021 or trials. And these have usually always worked really well. So this particular thing has not changed. So trials demos of a product, testing your offer for a short period of time to experience it. Those things are really good. People love experiencing things. And when they’re really looking for a solution, especially if you don’t have a software product or a physical product,
they want to know that they jive with you, that they can trust you, that they feel you in. So it’s really important if you are selling them into a higher end program, that’s an experience that you give them a little piece in your lead magnet of some way to experience you. Then next tip for you is a lead magnet that provides a quick win in a PDF form.
Now, I really hesitate to be recommending PDF lead magnets, but people still are opting into them. Here is the important thing. They have to be super juicy and not very long. So if you have like a meal plan or a calendar, a marketing calendar that you could give away for free or a workout plan, or perhaps it’s a, a written step-by-step on how to,
self-publish a book, those lead magnets are still doing really well, but just make sure that they’re short and giving people a quick transformation so that they are immediately totally in love with you. You’re the bee’s knees and they want more of what you have. And here’s something, this is a really interesting one. I admit I have not personally used this one,
but in making sure I’m doing my due diligence in the research of preparing for this episode for you, I was going through and found a suggestion of a lead magnet. That to me, frankly, seems genius. So I just want to share it with you. This is a state of the industry survey. And I remember a long time ago, like three,
four years ago, I think Amy Porterfield did something like this and somebody put out a state of the industry of something. And this is really, really cool. And so I’ve found this from Sam rush blog, and I wanted to share it with you guys. So this is a survey that exists primarily for your market research and can also be used as seriously,
one of the best lead magnets ever. So what you do is you encourage users to answer a few survey questions and share their contact details in exchange for getting the whole report. So you make it super clear that you’re putting a report together. They obviously need to be in that space and you want to gather their state of whatever it is that you’re collecting on.
Could be the state of self publishing in America. It could be the state of branding. You know, it could be the state of whatever it is, the state of mindfulness, the state of health, whatever that may be for you, collect the data and then share the report with them. And again, just make it really clear to them that you’re putting the report together,
that their opinions matter to you and other people in your niche and that you will be sharing that report. So I wanted to make sure I included mentioning that because I can’t say yes, this is one of those ones that’s really working great in 2021. But let me just take a sidestep here for a second. One of the divisions that we coach clients is,
is what I call amplify. It’s our amplify phase. We have launched clients, we have scale clients and we have amplified clients for my amplify clients. They are in the process of creating courses and programs, or they’ve already created courses and programs. And they’re doing one of two things. They’re either licensing those corporate, those programs or courses to corporations, or they’re in the process of creating their own certification program and training other people on their method.
That’s our amplify phase. And I’m going to do another episode for you guys about the difference between the launch scale and amplify coming up here on the show, because we get a lot of questions about that. I share that because this state of the industry survey for our clients that are licensing their content or their courses to other companies, this could work really,
really well. So I can’t wait to get back and talk to that group of clients and share this information with them. And I see this as being a really big asset, depending on who you’re serving. I think that could be a really good asset. So just want to share that if you are brand new in the coaching space, this is probably not appropriate for you,
but those of you guys that fit into our scale and amplify clients. So again, you’re in phase three or four of my roadmap, then this could be really good for you by. So I wanted to make sure I included it. And in the show notes, there’s a link to where I found this data from. Okay, three more. And then I’m going to recap them all for you.
I promise this episode would be short because the sun is shining and we need to go out and play. So the next one, our events. So these are round table discussions and virtual events live virtual events. Those are converting really, really well for lead magnets. The next one is templates. So any sort of a template, a marketing calendar template,
any sort of a template where somebody can make it their own. Those are always great. Again, high value, and you’ve just saved them a ton of time. And then the last one, which isn’t kind of really a lead magnet, but it’s an important way to engage with your audience is having a popup on your website, which is a live chat and in the process,
collecting their information in exchange for giving them an opportunity to chat with you. So we’ve talked about a lot today. We covered the state of lead magnets that they’re changing from these big mega things. Nobody wants our 500 page free book anymore. Now they want high value, short time transformation. And depending on your industry, it’s going to look a little different,
whatever it is you give away as a lead magnet. But here is the most important thing I would love to make sure that we nail into the ground. Your lead magnet is a prerequisite to your leading programs and offers and packages. So don’t just throw anything out there, make sure it’s reverse engineered and it meets prerequisites for what you’re trying to sell. As long as it does that.
Now let’s talk about what’s converting. Number one, customized curated lead magnets, like quizzes and assessments. We talked about number two, entertainment. So quick accomplishments challenges, group interaction. Number three is leveling up their IQ with short juicy videos that make people want, I mean, more number four or audio files, frankly, of any length. They can be dripped out daily.
They can be a long form interview. People are really loving audio right now. Number five are trials, demos and testing of your offer so that they can experience six quick wins in PDF form. Quick, short, juicy PDF wins. But I will said move that to the bottom of the list. We’ve used PDs literally for over 13 years and people are not quick grabbing them anymore,
but if that’s what you need to do, if that’s what aligns, if that’s really the best prerequisite that you can do do it. Seven surveys, state of the industry surveys for those of you guys that are at that level of business. And you’re moving from scale, the amplified five, eight events, virtual events, round table discussions. That’s basically relationships.
People want to hang out and they want to be part of something really special and they want to share their voice nine templates and number 10 are live chats that are done through your website. Wow. Okay. I hope you found that very informative. I’m here to make sure that the work you’re doing because entrepreneurship is really fricking hard work, that the work that you’re doing gets traction your business.
We don’t just want to do stuff because other people are doing it or you saw somebody else doing it. I’m a business strategist. And so my mission literally here on this podcast, we’ve been doing this podcast for almost five years, literally giving away free trainings that other coaches charge thousands for. And the purpose for that is so that every single minute you were doing something in your work,
anything you build, anything, you plan, anything you release, anything you do in your daily activities. All of it is very clearly leading towards a purpose. It is high profit, deep impact lifestyle, freedom for you. And it looks different for everybody, but it starts with mindfully doing things, not just following the herd. And so I really felt like this episode was important to record.
I know it’s a holiday week here in the United States, but we have listeners all over the world and hopefully you’ll tap into this when you have an opportunity. And if you have a lead magnet, that’s not converting. Let’s take a look at it. Join me in clubhouse. I’m always in clubhouse, every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock in the sweet life entrepreneurs club.
And I would love to chat with you about your lead magnet, troubleshoot your lead magnet, and really help you find a good solution. That’s going to attract the right people. Don’t forget. We don’t want all the people. We only want the right people and therefore funneling all those right people in so they can become raving fans of you and your business forever.
Okay, you guys, that’s a wrap. This is episode number 234. Again, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. We have some amazing quick win business coaching programs. Both our sweet life business launch program is coming back out. We’ve just totally updated that program. I’m so excited about it. So if you’re here and you are in the process of launching your coaching and consulting business,
then this is the proven program that has been launching online entrepreneurs since 2008, all across the world. And we would love to have you be part of it. We’d love to link arms with you and get your business off the ground. All of this can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and I hope you have an awesome day. Thanks for hanging out.
I’ll talk to you. Bye-bye.
Experts who are ready to increase sales with video.
Summary:
You’re an expert, and you’re pretty incredible at what you do, but sales from your online videos aren’t exactly reflecting just how amazing you are. This means there’s a disconnect between who you truly are and how you’re showing up on video. Or there could also be some bumpy roads between how you show compassion on video, establishing your authority, or entertaining viewers long enough to stay until the call to action. Does this sound like you?
No worries my friend! McCall Jones, creator of Charisma Hacking, is here to break down her proven framework to“make strangers trust you and followers become aggressively devoted to you.”
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the F.A.C.E. Framework and how to apply this to your videos
See the formula to pin-point your own areas of improvement
Solve the disconnect between the great videos you already make, and your lack of sales
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey everybody. And welcome to episode number 200 in 33, we have a very special treat in store for you today. You’re Going to leave today’s episode with fully knowing how to look at your own videos,
how you’re showing up in video and edit and change anything so that you can create an, a crazy devotion to you where people love you and increase your sales. So we’re going to dive into all of that in just a second with our guest expert today, McCall Jones, before we get started, first of all, welcome if you’ve never listened to this show before I’m April beach,
founder of the Sweetlife company and host here at the sweet life entrepreneurial podcast. Thank you guys so much. I keep forgetting to share back with our audience. I’ve been trying to in the last couple of episodes that you guys have just voted me top 50 moms and podcasting, and I appreciate you so much that never would have happened without you turning in your votes and lifting this show up and lifting me up.
And I appreciate it so much. So I just want to say thank you to you guys. We’ve been producing this show for about four and a half years, and if you’ve been a faithful listener here on the show, you know that the Sweetlife entrepreneurial podcast gives you business trainings from the trenches proven business trainings from decades and decades of proven frameworks systems pass and coaching to bring your business to the next level.
We like to say that this is the podcast that other coaches would charge thousands for the information you hear on this show. And I just want to thank you so much personally, for being a listener. If you are not officially a subscribed yet, please click that subscribe button and take a screenshot and tag me in it. Take a screenshot tag at April beach life.
And so I can know you. I can know who’s listening, and then I want to follow you back and I want to follow your business back, and then we can keep supporting you back on Instagram. So I would love to do that for you as well as if you haven’t connected with us yet. Every single week we host a live Sweetlife entrepreneur pot house podcast room on clubhouse at 12 o’clock Eastern time on Wednesdays.
That is your time to come to me, come to our guests and ask your questions. We want to workshop with you based on the podcast trainings that we drop here on the show. So listen to the show as a drop some Monday, join us live in clubhouse on Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And we’re there to workshop with you in order to find us on clubhouse.
All you need to do is search my name. You can search at April beach and then click follow up and click the bell little bell next to it, to turn on notifications. And you will actually also see a schedule of rooms that I’m hosting, and you can even RSVP for those rooms to get a notification on your own calendar, as well as we always post the clubhouse calendar every single week to my Instagram,
which is at April beach life. So lots of places for you to get connected and to get answers and to get support. We’re just not here talking to ourselves. Everything we do here is about giving you proven strategies and giving you support to take your business to the next level. And let’s go ahead and dive in and talk about what we’re talking about on this episode with our amazing,
amazing guests. So who this episode is for first of all, if you don’t know what stage of business you’re in, just stop for a second. We actually have a self-assessment you can take, you can go to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, and you can take a self-assessment and you can find out exactly what stage or phase of business you’re in as composed as compared,
I should say to my lifestyle entrepreneur roadmap. And the reason why I say that is because every single one of our episodes here on the podcast are tagged to a stage of business, because I don’t want to just give you more content. We want to give you a transformation, but if you’re not ready for what we’re teaching you and talking about on today’s show,
based on where you are in business, then go pick another episode to listen to this. That is, that means that, you know, you, aren’t in alignment with where your business is growing right now. And we want to make sure that you continually stay in alignment. So I say all of that to say that this episode is for those of you who are in phases two,
three or four. So primarily you two and threes, but also some of you fours. So if you don’t know where you are, again, you can pause this and just open up a new window on your phone. Really quick, go to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, or you can text the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. And we will send you a link to take that,
to make sure that what you’re being taught, what we’re pouring out today aligns with something that is going to take your business to the next level, because you’re ready for it. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive in. This show is very important because you’re an expert and you’re probably really pretty incredible at what you do, but sales from your online videos.
Aren’t maybe re exactly reflecting how incredible you are, how great your services are. This means there’s a disconnect between who you are and how you’re showing up a video. Or there could be some bumpy roads between how you show compassion on video, establishing your authority, or maybe making your videos a little bit more entertaining. So that’s what we’re solving today on the show.
And my friend McCall Jones, creator of charisma hacking is here and she is breaking down her proven formula to solve these problems. So let me tell you whom a call is. She’s going to introduce herself a bit. So I’ll just read a little bit here to get you prepared. She’s a founder of charisma, hacky, and a set of business systems built from Hollywood tactics that make audiences notice you then obsess over you and then compulsively buy from you.
And she goes in and she’ll share her whole entertainment story on this show. It’s fascinating. And the connection between her background in entrepreneur growth is this perfect superpower that she has is there. You’re really gonna love today’s show the secrets of charisma hacking success is in its systems and how they adapt to each entrepreneur’s personalities. McCall says we’ve cracked the code on how any entrepreneur can amplify the best parts of themselves to build a rabid fan base,
regardless of whether they are as intense as Gary V nurturing his Bernay brown, energetic as Russell Bronson, or matter of fact is Dave Ramsey with charisma hacking clients have increased YouTube video watch times by up to 242% tripled their revenue, 20 X, their Facebook ad click-through rate, and more than anything else, finally, we’re able to connect with their audience and meaningful way and deliver their message in a way where they responded by being the best versions of themselves.
That’s everything you get today on the show. And it is a little bit longer than most of our episodes. So I just wanted to prepare you for that. You are going to want to stay till the end. I promise you, you are those of you go getters that never leave before the end. You guys are so rad. We love you,
but if you can’t stay too long, make sure you pause the episode and you come back to it. All right, let’s go ahead and dive in and all of the show notes and everything I mentioned previously, and everything that is going to be mentioned on the show can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number 233. Let’s go Hey guys,
welcome to episode number 233 here on the sweet left entrepreneur and business podcast. And I am joined by my new good friend. I say new good friends because yes, of course, all my listeners are laughing and be like, oh yeah, I bet you met her on clubhouse. Yes, you’re right. I’ve met McAllen clubhouse. By the way, side note,
if you aren’t over there yet, you need to come over there and chat with us on clubhouse, because this is what it’s all about. Meeting amazing people that can pour into your business that can pour into my business and create these amazing dream teams, a business collaborations that bring us all to the next level. And I have had such a great time the last five months getting to know my friend McCall Jones.
And I’m so excited. She’s here on the show today. So I’m so proud of be April. Yeah, guys, you got to get over to clubhouse is the place to be. We’re just making all new friends kind of hang out with us. Kim, hang out with us with that being said, one of the things that we know about clubhouses is it’s a great place to establish your superpower,
your true superpower for how you get people results and your exact method and strategy. And you have risen to the top. It’s like the best rise to the top and clubhouse because of your very niche, amazingly charismatic, important like important superpower. So tell everybody who you are, what you do and how you got into doing what you do first. Let’s start there.
Yeah, of course. So I own a company called charisma hacking. So with charisma hacking, we work with coaches to solve two problems in their business. Number one, people aren’t watching my videos and number two, people are watching my videos, but they are not buying. So we tap into your specific personality to make sure that you are being yourself so that you get higher value customers that stay forever.
The way that I got into charisma have you, I’ll give you the short version. It’s a long story, but I grew up actually as a child performer. So I was performing in front of audiences of 25,000 when I was eight and 35,000 when I was 11. And I was performing on a very consistent basis, did a couple of movies in high school.
I was in high school musical two a, which was really fun. But the whole time I have this incredible performance anxiety, that was pretty crippling. All of my worth in my mind was wrapped up in the fact that I was a performer and I had this recurring nightmare. That one day I would wake up and not be able to sing, not be able to act,
not be able to perform and that nobody would love me anymore. And this nightmare started when I was a really little girl and it led me to, you know, long story short, it led me to creating these frameworks back then I called them checklists so that I could wake up and feel like I could teach myself how to do what I did the night before.
I also started paying attention to what audiences paid attention to and what they cheered for louder, things like that. It all started with Donnie. Ozmen, it’s a long story, but basically I was watching him perform. He saying right before me at the Steve young benefit retirement cruise. And when I was having this panic attack backstage, basically I saw the audience interact with him in a way that I had never seen before.
And I snuck over to the side of this room divider that they used as this backstage area. And I honestly got really envious and really jealous. And I thought to myself, I could do exactly what he’s doing. And I started to make a checklist of like, oh, what he’s doing with his hands, what he’s doing with his space, what he’s doing with his voice,
who is he pointing at? How is he walking on the stage? And I started to log these things into this checklist. And then I realized that these checklists were going to lower my anxiety considerably. And I just made checklist for everything. After that, I realized that it’s more of a science and it led to creating checklists for acting, for dance for all different types of audiences and sizes.
I used it for auditions. And then when I was 18, I was fired from an acting job for being too fat. They literally dismissed me from set because I had been wait between the audition and when we were actually filming, which it isn’t their right to do that. But it was very devastating to me. All of a sudden this fear of rejection became just rejection.
And in that moment I vowed to never get on camera. Again. I knew that I never wanted to do that again. I, I didn’t want to feel the way that I was feeling in that moment. So I didn’t, and I stayed low for a couple of years. Then the really depressing thing about that. I went into this very deep depression.
I had spent my whole life at this point, perfecting the art of being in front of people really perfecting it of, you know, all of these checklists of like, this works, this doesn’t in front of these audiences. You move this large and in front of these audiences, here’s what you’re supposed to do. And you know, an auditions. And then I wasn’t using the skills that I built over,
you know, my entire life. And within a couple of years I had somebody come to me and asked me if I would help then with an audition. And I said, yes, under very strict circumstances, because I didn’t want to be the reason they succeeded or failed. And I told her that I would help her as long as we did it before after video.
And if I could prove that I made a difference, then yes, we could do it again. I could take her money and we can move forward that way. And I just taught her some of the checklists that I had really never verbalized out or verbalized yet outside of, of my brain. And it worked in a very real way. The before after video was insane,
which led to my whole first business, which was helping entertainers basically be better in front of people. And then about a year and a half ago now I went to funnel hacking live, which is a big internet marketing convention. And I just went to see my sister-in-law speak. She was speaking. I knew it was big deal for her, but I knew nothing about the internet marketing world.
And as I looked around, I started taking notes of all these entrepreneurs that when they would come up to me, they would light up and share all of their solutions and the amazing things they were doing. And then we’d go five feet, you know, to the left or to the right. And they would be networking with other people and they would shut down and it would be a completely different person.
And then I’d see them filming things for ads or joint ventures or logs. And they were just not great. They were not themselves. And I realized that nobody would ever hear their solutions. Nobody would ever listened to them. People on stage that I was just like, oh my gosh, they just had these techniques. I could help them. And as I looked around,
I realized, you know, with entertainers my whole life, I had gone through, you know, the, that I’m going to change the world first as a performer was, I’m going to make people happy. Then as a coach of entertainers, I’m going to change the world by basically trying to help people be famous. And then as I sat there surrounded by people who had these incredible solutions that truly were going to change people’s lives.
I realized that my impact on the world could be infinite because theirs was, if I empowered them to make people, listen to them, basically. So Prisma hacking it’s been going really well. And it’s really fun. All of the techniques that we use, like I said, have been proven. I’ve used them since I was eight years old. I have hundreds of before after videos proving their effectiveness.
Yeah. That’s what brought us here. That’s I really, I don’t think I could do anything else. This is so much a part of my identity and everything that had been since I was a little girl. Wow. I have honestly, never heard that whole entire story. I never knew that that was your background actually in all the time we spent together on clubhouse.
It’s really interesting what you say. So I don’t know if you knew this, but my middle son is a professional hip hop dancer. And so we have lived in Los Angeles before COVID a week, a month. He was there working. And interestingly enough, since COVID, and since he’s kind of not currently dancing right now, but in some of them,
some of the, the wave that you were sharing, like about viewing yourself and how you show up. I see some of that. I’ve seen some of that in him and some of those same challenges actually. And so it is really, really fascinating to hear that. And just being like a mom in that industry, there is nothing like that industry.
And how cool is that that absolutely a completely, perfectly positioned you to help other kinds of stars, people that have amazing solutions for businesses, but actually utilize what you know, from the entertainment space, because it’s like, what does that reminded me of gladiator of Russell Crowe when he’s like, are you not entertained? You know what I mean? I just think that’s such an amazing story and absolutely you’re the perfect person to give this solution to people.
And you know, me being in the entrepreneur space, my whole life you’re right. I see so many people that have these amazing solutions, but yet it’s not getting out. There’s like a block of some kind and you have the gift to see that. So I’m so excited. You’re on the show today. We’re going to talk about your framework that you’ve developed,
literally, since you were eight, this genius started following your framework that people need. And when we give people frameworks to build their own genius within that’s when we truly created something, that’s amazing. That’s going to, like you said, your one framework impacts literally a magnitude and a multitude of people. Let’s talk about what does this look like? Like,
first of all, when people say, what is actual charisma hacking? Like what actually is the definition of charisma hacking? Let’s start there. Absolutely. So I defined charisma a little bit different and I will tell you why. The first thing that I feel like people define charisma as is like what the masses consider high energy. And they’re like, oh,
they can command a room because they’re this very specific personality type. I do not define charisma that way with all the research that I’ve done with all the clients that I’ve worked with. And with my own experience, I defined charisma as making strangers trust you and making those who know you aggressively devoted to you, that does not matter. And it’s not dependent on your personality type.
It only matters the level in which you communicate with people. So for me, you know, it’s exactly what you said with the entertainment industry. Everything is about rejection. You get so many more rejections than you actually get jobs, really. And you know, people who like you or dislike you and people are picking apart every single part of your personality.
And for me, you know, growing up a lot of times, people wanted me to be something different. And because I was an actress, I could do that. I had a very specific skillset that any time somebody didn’t like a very specific part of my personality, I would change. And a lot of times they wanted me to be sexier or I was called step Ferdie.
Once some people have told me that because I am bubbly, they thought I was stupid. Like, there’s so many different things that kind of built up this, what people want me to be, which I know a lot of times that’s how people define charisma. They say, what do people want me to be? What do they need me to be?
And I will be that when I started charisma hacking, you know, remember I made this vow to myself that I would never get on camera again. And at funnel hacking live, I had this really interesting experience where the whole first day that I was planning, you know, creating this new business model, I was trying to figure out a way for me to do it behind the scenes.
Cause without whole first business, I was, I was very much behind the scenes. I was pushing other people, you know, out in front of the spotlight on the stage on camera. I was the director, the producer, and I felt like I was happy and satisfied with that. So that’s what I tried to do the whole first day. I tried to figure out a way to not be on camera,
to not be the face of my business. And I very quickly realized that that was not possible if I wanted to make the impact that I wanted to. And there was a wonderful woman who spoke at funnel hacking librarians, Heather Quizzle, she’s a friend of ours now. And I went up to compliment her on her speech and she stopped me and said,
what do you do? And I tried on my new business title and my new business description. And she just told me it was like, she saw through me. She’s like, whatever you do, make sure the face of it, make sure that you are on every video, on every ad on everything. And it really struck me. I was like,
oh my gosh, I’m being seen. So when I got home, I had to make this promise to myself that I made all of my clients also promise themselves that they have to be themselves 100% of the time. They cannot try to think, Hey, if I’m going to be charismatic, I need to be whatever people want me to be. Whatever people think I should be,
whatever will attract the masses or satisfy the masses, whatever they will. Like. Instead we focus on this aggressive devote. And like I said before, that actually draws people to your specific personality. I will tell you, I am not for everyone. And a lot of people will tell you that, right? I am cooky and crazy and silly and all these.
And I wasn’t that for a really long time. And my greatest achievement, I believe with charisma hacking is building a business around actually who I am. Because every time people watch my videos, every time they move higher in my programs or up my value ladder, they only want to get to know me more or at the very bottom. They know if I’m not for them and they leave don’t waste any time,
I don’t spend any money marketing towards people who are not a good fit. So with this, when we put it okay, charisma hacking, right? We make people themselves and we make them not only themselves, but that version of themselves, that level of themselves is the very best person they can be in their business and for their clients. So when I said like,
I didn’t want to be the face of my company or led me to taking all of these amazing things, all of these things and really breaking down what was important, how do we make you yourself? Because the frightening thing is you absolutely can build an audience if you are not being yourself. And that should terrify you because all of a sudden you’re creating a new problem.
You are building an audience for a person who does not exist. If you create an alter ego and a character that you feel we’ll help you be less nervous and you just no put on your Sasha fierce face and you go on camera, you are building an audience for that person. They are investing in that version of you. That is not sustainable. You can build an audience that way,
but you will spend time and money acquiring an audience, acquiring a customer that is not a good fit for any of your higher programs, especially as a coach, because the closer they get to you, the more they will realize. First, you create distrust. You create a sense of discomfort because they realize you’re not the same person and they leave, right.
So instead we say, okay, you’re going to be the face of your company. You’re going to be the same 100% of the time so that we can create trust and we can make them aggressively devoted to you by being the face of your company. So I know we have a big face framework that we’re going to go through too, but that’s the core Prismic mapping.
And that’s a scary statement to hear for some of our listeners. And I am so glad that you said that the fact that you are literally building an audience around somebody that doesn’t exist, because it isn’t you and you aren’t showing up authentically to who you are and who you’re going to be after they buy you and, you know, refunds and, you know,
disgruntled people. I mean, that’s all part of what happens in that. And so it’s so important that you said what you said, but I also think it’s pretty sobering in the fact that you said it as clearly as you did. And so I also know that, you know, we have a lot of listeners and with the process of where they are in business,
when you are starting to launch, I actually think that in my experience, in coaching businesses, through the development and growth phase, the launch people, surprisingly, they, yes, they deal with kind of struggling with this so much. They actually are pretty good at being themselves. It’s after they start getting a little traction, I have seen them go to this next point of saying,
oh, but I’m not enough. Oh, now I need to become somebody different in order to actually keep getting a little bit more attraction. This is usually like in the first 18 months, sometimes I see that transition. And so I love that you said that because eventually that’s going to be a brick wall for them. And thank you so much for speaking the truth.
And that’s what we do here on this show. And I know our listeners really want and need to hear it. So let’s talk about this face framework. What is it, why do people need it, break it down for us? Absolutely. So with the space framework, what we are really assessing is two things. So it’s your personality style or type,
or your charisma style or type that’s one side of it. And the second side of it is the level, right? So the first thing that we establish is making sure that your personality type is right, or we can even say is true, right? And I’ll break down the different parts of your personality that we make sure that we assess the second part of that.
It never changes your personality or charisma type never changes, but the level does as you get more competent or more, you know, at an expert level on video, these very specific things are going to level up, but who you are and your personality type doesn’t change them up super important. So we go through F a C E so F is the floor,
or we can save a level. We can call it the Flavell level if you want. Right. And this is where we assess how competent you are or how effective you are at making sure these next three, the AC and E are the right type and what level they’re at. So Fs floor. So we’re going to assess the level a is authority.
C is and E is entertainment. So with all of our research that we’ve done, you know, not only over the last year and a half, but obviously for the last, you know, 20 years, I have found that you have to have these three things in order to fully connect with a human. Now everybody has them within their personality. So it’s really important that on-camera,
we make sure that all three of these things are present in very specific times. So authority makes people act, it makes people buy. And I’ll tell you how we measure that in just a second. Compassion makes people confess. It makes you safe. It makes them engage in the comments. And I’ll tell you how we measure that. And then entertainment makes people watch,
right? So with each one of these things, we have a way to measure, not how you are in person, right? What we’re saying is we have to make sure how you are in person when you are with your very favorite person in the world is the exact same person. We call this emotional accuracy as you are on camera. So we look at these very specific types of your personality or parts of your personality.
So authority would be like, when you’re in charge of something, when you are in your element, teaching something, how do you act when you are with your very favorite person? We have very specific ways. We measure that with compassion. It’s when you’re being empathetic with people, when you are counseling them, when they come to about hard things or when you’re being vulnerable,
how are you sounding? Right. Voice face, body language, right? How do you sound? How do you move? How do you speak when you are actually doing those things with your favorite person in real life? And that entertainment is when you are goofing off, when you are being lighthearted, all those different things. Now, each one of these things are going to look very different for different people.
Some people’s authority is based in strength and empowering, and it can even feel a little bit aggressive. Some people’s authority is very much based in patients and making sure that people know that they know what they’re talking about by being very patient with them, right? Compassion, same thing. Some people are like, Hey, I’m gonna kick you in the butt.
Like we got to go. This is how I’m being compassionate. And other people are deep listeners. And they want people to feel very seen entertainment. Some people are dry, some people are bubbly. Some people are, you know, the kid in the back, coroner making jokes under his breath, right? There are different types of all of these different things.
So making sure that you assess how you are when you’re with your very favorite person, once again, I’ll give you the ways to measure these. You say, how is my voice? Right? The most common thing that I see with my clients is when they’re on video with me and they’ll be like, oh my gosh, I’m so excited. This is so great.
And then they get on video when we’re filming now. Like I am so excited to be here. And I’m like, okay, well, if your voice like this, we’re actually excited. And then you sound like this. When you’re on camera, when you’re excited, it’s not emotionally accurate. Right? A lot of people say the word authentic. I don’t actually like to use the word authentic for this very specific reason.
I like systems. I like to measure. I like to be measurable and repeatable. And authenticity is just a little bit vague. Right? I know what they mean. And I, I think that that’s fantastic, but emotional accuracy with exactly what I just did with my voice, we can say, is it accurate? Or is it not? Is that actually how you sound move speed when you’re excited,
when you’re being compassionate, when you’re being authoritative or not. Right? So we dive into all these different things. So now with the level, so once we find the type, once we find your specific personality type, then we assess the level. And as you go up in level, you are able to retain attention more. Your watch times go up.
That’s the entertainment part. You are able to know pain points, objections, and get more comments and engagement because your compassion is higher and you are able to move people to action in very real ways, any call to action that you give them, whether it’s by opt in, watch the next video. If it’s in a course, it’s very effective. And people do what you basically tell them to do,
right? So we have your type and then we start moving up your level. So within the authority, I’ll give you this. And then I’ll tell you a quick story. So within authority, we have five different levels. Only the top three, make you any money. The bottom two do not. The very bottom level of authority is the level of authority where,
okay, have you guys ever watched somebody and thought they have no idea what they’re talking? Right? You watch them in your life, their stuff, or associate my business with them. It would do bad things to my business. It would not be a good idea, right? Yes. Bottom level of authority. The next level is the most interesting level because it still does not make you money,
but this person is very likable. You watch their stuff, you share their stuff. You like route them on from the side, but you would never pay them money if you will watch them. But you’re like, oh my gosh, they’re making their dreams come true. This is so great. I would never hire them as a coach, but I would totally,
you root for them, right? I’ll share their stuff. This is great, right? Still doesn’t make you money. You can be the most likable person in the world have the most views in the world. But if you’re missing that authority, you still aren’t making any money. The next level up from there is employee authority. What this means, we’re basically saying how much control will somebody give you of their business?
Right? So with employee authority, somebody would give you a checklist. They would feel, and a lot of coaching clients, guys, if you are a coach and you get clients that feel like they will give you the checklist of what you’re going to do, you have employee level authority. Even if you can get them to bring you money. At first,
it is not a good client for you, right? Because they feel if they gave you a checklist of exactly what to do, you would be competent to accomplish it. The next one is contractor level authority. This is the good, because of the glides who feel like every single thing you do is up for discussion and that they can decide which actions they want to take.
And not because with contractor level authority, they trust you in one very specific area, but they don’t trust you with steps. They don’t trust you with direction. These are things like funnel builders, where we say, okay, you know, I am in charge, but I trust that you have expertise in building this funnel. But every single thing we do is up for discussion.
And in the very top level of authority is coach level authority. When you get to this level of authority, not only will people pay you and see you as a coach, but when you get coaching clients, you have been given control. They do what you say. They trust your expertise in your area. It’s something where you can give them steps and direction.
And they are ideal clients. They pay you money. And then they thank you for taking their money because you have this level of authority. They don’t question that, which is really great. So with all these things, like I said, I have not said anything about some personality types have more authority than others, right? Every single personality type, regardless if you’re introverted,
extroverted, loud, quiet, whatever, right. Every single personality type goes through these levels. Right. And the way that we measure, if you’re being effective in this is do people move to action, right? Do they buy, or do they opt in or whatever your call to action is at the end of your video, if they don’t, you know,
your authority is probably down in the second from bottom level, right. They probably like you, if they’re engaging with you and be like, oh my gosh, I’m being myself. Right. But they do not see the authority enough to buy from you. Go ahead. Given you so much. So yes, obviously so much to say, I’m sure our listeners are like,
oh my gosh, okay. I’m like, I’m not taking notes by the way, side note, Macola and I are always co moderating clubhouse rooms. So just join us in a clubhouse room and, and McCall, and even expand on this for you personally as well. So this is really interesting as you were breaking it out. One of the things that I,
from like the offer development side of it that I see as I see like level three and four, for those businesses that do like the done for you or the done with you type services, which is interesting because some coaches obviously also have another separate of their division of their company that is like the build-out or, you know, whatever that is the done for you.
But one of the things that I coach my clients on is you’re not the person that does that. You’re the coach. Like you have to have a separate team to do that, that works with that client to actually implement that. That is a way to grow and scale your business. But I’ve never clearly, I like the way I’m communicating it has gotten through,
but the way you communicated, even now, I’ll be able to say yes, because that’s a different level of authority in taking your coach authority and bringing it back down to the contractor or that employee authority is actually reducing your expertise and bringing you down a scale after they have paid you top dollar or whatever it is that you do. And so, as you were saying,
all of that, that’s immediately. What I was thinking is these entrepreneurs that are listening to this show, small businesses that are listening to this show that have the coaching authority, but also this separate, oh, I’ll do it with you or I’ll do it for you after I coach you and strategize how to do that. It’s a great business model. It’s a great way to scale and grow your business.
Like we even have a separate design division of our company, but I don’t do it. And so it’s just really interesting that you were saying that. So getting back to these coaches though, what do they do? McCall, if they are like, oh my gosh, I think I’m at this. I’m looking at my notes here. And like millions of McCall notes behind the scenes and with a pencil because my children steal all my pens.
It’s all we have left in the house and you know, like, what is the deal? If they’re like, oh my gosh, I met this employee level. I’m not showing up with confidence. How do you get them from where they are now to that level five that I have the authority here. I know what I’m doing. You know, me,
I’m like, I have a framework. Everybody has to have their own framework or method. How do we help them? Absolutely. Such a good question. So the very first thing that everybody needs to do is they need to make sure that their type is correct. Right. So you can be very competent. And if you’re trying to, you know,
I don’t know how many of your listeners know who Garrett J white is, but if Garrett J white and Russell Brunson, right? These are two internet marketers in the online space. If Garrett J white and Russell Brunson, or let’s say Tony Robbins and Bernay brown, or Marie Forleo, if they tried to use the same tactics, they would work for one of them.
And they would not work for the other one of them because they’re very different people, right? So if you look at Marie Forleo, the way that she entertains is very authentic to her, right? He uses her voice kind of like this, and she’s kind of spilling all over the place with Bernay brown. If Bernay brown, tried would be Marie Forleo,
it would be a disaster. And Renee brown people would be like, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy, it would not only like lower her entertainment level, but it would also lower her authority level. Right? The first thing that people can sense is just a yes or a no, they just say is something off here, right? Is something off.
So the first thing that you want to make sure that you do is we’re going to find emotional accuracy in all three of these areas. I’m going to give you a very specific thing that you can do in order to do that. Because being emotionally accurate first, then you can actually be likable, right? As soon as you’re likable, we can start to increase your authority with very specific things as well.
So the first thing that you’re going to do, I’m going to tell you a very quick story. That’s going to make sense of how to do this. So we’re looking for emotional accuracy. So when I was a voice teacher, voice acting performance teacher, I had this wonderful nine-year-old student named Beck. He was incredible, was like a bounce off the wall,
kind of spastic kid who seriously, it was one of my very favorite humans ever. And I had taught him singing lessons, voice lessons for the last six months. But this was the first time he wanted to try acting. It was big audition coming up. It was this all male version of Annie, which was really interesting. And he had a three line audition.
He had a script that gave him three lines and a description of how to say it. And he memorized his script because he was a go getter. And remember, my whole first business was before or after videos. So he comes down to my studio and he’s all ready to go. And I’m taught him singing any hard to get him to stand still.
Right. And I read this description. I like, he hands me the script. I read this description. It just says very excited, basically excited out of his mind, there’s boats in the Harbor. He’s never seen boats and it’s, it’s supposed to be really exciting for him. And I was like, oh my gosh, he’s going to nail.
This is going to be thing. So I’m like, okay, back, we’re going to do your before video. Are you ready? He’s like, yeah, I’m totally ready. And you kind of see him, like looking off to the side to recall his script, that he’s memorized. These three lines. I was like, okay, ready? Action.
And he goes, the boats, mama, you were holding me up to see the boats. And they were right there. I was like, yeah. Okay, cut. Let me kind of like bounce around. He’s like how’d I do all day. Well, I was like this time. I just want you to be excited about the boat. Right.
We just need to be excited about the boats. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I’m like, okay, ready? Action. He’s like the boat’s mama. You were holding me up to see the boats and they were right there. I was like, okay, let’s try something different. So Becca wants you to tell me about your very favorite thing in the entire world.
My puppy snickerdoodle it was the best puppy in the world. When you tell her to sit, she sits. And when you tell her to stay, she stayed. I was like, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to talk about snickerdoodle. We want to be just as excited as we are when we talk about snickerdoodle. But instead of saying snickerdoodle we are going to talk about the boats.
You understand? He was like, oh yeah, totally. I was like, okay, ready? Action. Just like the bumps, mommy girl, you have to see the bumps. And I can see the bright there. And what I understood in this moment with this wonderful nine-year-old is he didn’t have any emotional context for his copy. He had memorized it,
which for a lot of people, if they have something memorized or scripted, they feel like they are doing it well, when instead that accuracy was not there, he knew need to have something in his life that was emotionally accurate for the emotion he was supposed to be on camera. And then he just had to make the match. Right? Coolest thing.
I’ve had people when I’ve done this in trainings before say, well, what if I’m not like that? What if I’m not bouncing off the walls? Right? What if my snickerdoodle story? Cause this is what we call them. Sounded like the boats, mama, you were holding me up to see the boats. I can see them right there. That’s perfect.
Right? Because then the way he talked about snickerdoodle will be, you know, my puppy snickerdoodle, Snickerdoodles coolest. As long as it’s emotionally accurate, it’s effective. Doesn’t matter what personality type. It just has to be accurate, has to be emotionally accurate. So with which one of these things we want to create or have snickerdoodle stories for authority, compassion,
and entertainment, right? These are going to be, our triggers are trigger snickerdoodle stories. So when you are authority, when you’re in charge, when you’re in your element at home, right. With your friends, when you’re giving advice and you’re making sure that they’re moving to act in the way that you tell them, right. As a parent, whatever,
as a teacher, right? In person, what are you like when you are doing these things? Things, how do you sound? Next voice was different. It was from the boats, mama snickerdoodle to the boats, mama. Right? Don’t let that happen. If it’s snickerdoodle, then it needs to be the boats. Right? How do you move when these things are happening?
What do you do with your arms? What do you, how do you speak if you use very formal language online, but you will never use that in person. It is not going to translate very well. Right? So you need snickerdoodle stories for all three of these things. Once you find your personality type, you also can start to charisma that other people who have the same personality type in one of these areas,
but a higher level than you, right? Easiest way to do this, find somebody who you feel you can. I can see yourself in and pay attention to how they communicate with people, pay attention to what’s effective, take notes, see what they’re doing with their voice, with their face, with their language body, right. You can say, oh,
I like this person. They are like me authoritatively, but there’s so much more effective. Okay. I’m going to, I’m going to charisma, hack those things. I’m going to write them down. And I’m gonna use that. If it’s somebody who has a different personality type than you, like I said, Renee brown can not be Marie Forleo. If they tried to be something different,
it would be a disaster. Right? So find your personality type. First with authority, we have content strategy and we have charisma strategy, right? Making sure that we have emotional accuracy. And second it’s making sure that you’re hitting very specific things in your content that lead them to buy before you ever to what all of my clients called the pitch transition.
If you’re doing it right there, shouldn’t be a transition, right? The entire time you’re pitching or telling a story, you’re establishing your authority in a very specific way so that people ask people, ask for your programs. So when you get to the call to action, it is so easy. All of a sudden they just buy. They just buy from you because you have highlighted their pain in very specific ways.
You’ve highlighted your solution in very specific ways, right? The way that you deliver it and the content that you bring to the table, the way that you structure your own frameworks that I know April has helped you with. Cause she’s a genius. That’s what I would say. That’s where I would start. Oh my gosh, the sneaker, everybody needs a,
here’s my notes. This is what I wrote down. That we all need a snicker doodle story for each one of these areas, authority, compassion, and entertainment. So, okay. Next question. So when we are speaking in authority, when we’re speaking in compassion, when we’re speaking with the entertainment component, I know it all comes together into one video.
What if those different stories bring up like another part of our personality? Does that make sense? Like what if like when you’re talking, like some of this is like, this is really serious and blah, blah, blah. But then it goes into my, but like, does that make sense? Am I making sense? Like if part of when somebody is on video,
if the flow of the stories brings them through experiencing multiple, I don’t want to say multiple personalities. Cause that’s not the right word, but multiple emotions from me or whoever’s making the video. What about that? Like we’re taking them through a wave of different types of experiences through that. Is that okay or not? Okay. So you’re a genius because that’s what we call emotional mapping.
That is 100% of thing that we do in everything. So with very short videos, usually you will have one snickerdoodle story, right? Very short videos. You have one emotional point that needs to get across. That is one, but with longer form content, right? We have what we call an emotional map with every single part of your speech, of your life,
of your webinar, of your ad, whatever it is, right. If it’s long form video, then you are going to map out the different emotions that people need to feel. And then if you have a script you’re going to color coordinate it, right? You’re going to color code it. If you have bullet points, you’ll color code those, right?
So you’ll have a color for entertainment. You’ll have a color for authority. You’ll have a color for compassion. Now, every single video doesn’t have to hit all three, but your audience has to see all three in order to fully connect with you. A lot of times, compassion isn’t introduced into every single video, right? Deep compassion, vulnerability. Sometimes you don’t see that in an ad,
right? You only see entertainment and you only see authority, right? A lot of times when we get to sales calls, because those are also on video, compassion is extra high. You need people to confess their pain to you in very specific ways. So that compassion piece needs to be higher. So as you map out your video and you map out these snickerdoodle stories,
you’re going to emotionally map it at which points do they need to make sure that they are feeling very specific things. Now, what I have my clients do is write out, post it notes and just stick them to your computer with those snickerdoodle story triggers in them. So when you get to those stories, you can look at your trigger and you can say,
oh right, that’s the emotionally accurate thing. The other thing I would say is before every single video, we call it a cold open versus a warm open. You have to make sure that you get into that snickerdoodle story that you get emotionally accurate before you ever push record. The analogy that I like to use is imagine you were an Olympic sprinter and you decided,
right. You’re like I got this or you were nervous and you had a 400 rates, right? Four times around the track. And you decided that because you got it or because you were nervous, you were not going to warm up. The first lap of your race would be your warmup, right? Either your warmup is chosen for you or you choose your warmup,
right? So you would hit your stride after that first lap, after you’ve warmed up. Same thing with video. So many people push record. And then they’re like, well, five minutes into the video, I really get to be myself or like eight minutes into the video. All of a sudden I hit my stride. It’s because you are not in an emotionally accurate place before you hit record.
Instead you push record. And then you’re like, hello everybody. I’m going to try to do this right. 30 to 45 seconds before your video starts, before you push record, before you start a clubhouse room, before you start your podcast, before you start whatever, speak out loud, your snickerdoodle story. But we turn it into an I M phrase,
if your snickerdoodle story is all about, okay. Yeah, my entertainment, oh, that is silly. Right? Then you say, I am silly. I am silly. Right? Whatever this snickerdoodle story puts you in the frame of mind to write voice-based body language, right? You say, I am silly. I am silly until you get to the point where it is emotionally accurate and say other things out loud as well.
If it’s authoritative and you’re like, I am empowering. I am empowering. So then when you start your video, you’re not like, hi guys, I’m here. You’re like, hi guys. I’m here. And here’s what I’m going to do. I’m an emotionally accurate person. Who’s being authoritative right now. Instead of having to warm up, having that time and losing people at the beginning of your videos.
So you have a snickerdoodle story for each one of them. You map out those points. If it’s a long form video. And before you ever start those videos, you warm up, you do a warm, open 30 to 45 seconds before you get in that emotionally accurate place that we practiced with those snickerdoodle stories. So that it’s effective from the time you push record.
Amazing. You guys, this is so much more McCall, just poured so much more into us. And we discussed before we started recording that she was going to talk about on this show. So as usual you have shown up and delivered and supported our listeners and you are freaking amazing. It’s just, it’s super unique in what you do. And I love that you have found your stride and your super power that is so different from everybody else’s out there.
And it’s such a pleasure to work with you and to know you and do fun collaboration stuff with you. It’s just, it’s just always a blast. And I appreciate you so much. So this is ton of great information, and I know our listeners are going to go and really start applying the actionable steps that we talked about here. But like we have tomorrow’s next level entrepreneurs to listen to this show.
People hone in here because they want to know that they’re getting trusted business advice, not just anything it’s really proven and trusted by us. And so we also have people that are action takers here, where they know if this is something that you guys know that you suck at this, that this is something that it is like, this has been it everywhere else in your business.
You might be nailing or maybe you’re even not there, but you keep trying and trying and trying. And there’s just something off about the way you’re showing up. Then I want them to make sure that you guys know how to connect with McCall. In addition to our clubhouse rooms, in addition to the places where I would highly, highly recommend that you follow McCall and clubhouse,
and that you do join our rooms, because we talk about these things, she’s goes in there and workshops it, all these things and helps. But like what would be the first step for somebody who is thinking, Hey, listen, I am really struggling with showing up authentically. I have tried. I want to be myself. I want to be true to myself.
It’s deep rooted. I really want to be what I know that I am to my people, but I can’t figure out how, how do they work with you to start going through that process? Yes. The first thing that I want to be very clear on is most of my clients. So yes, absolutely showing up authentically. We work on that,
but a lot of my clients feel like they rock on video, but their sales are not great. Right? They’re like, I am very likable. I am myself, but I am not selling right. Or they are rock stars. 90% of my clients speak in front of audiences of hundreds, of thousands of people in person. But for some reason can’t sell on video,
right. Something doesn’t translate. So the way that you guys can work with me. I know that April’s going to put all of the links in the show notes that you guys can check out all the things, but I felt like the very best thing that you can do. I have a free thing for you. It’s charisma vault.com on charisma vault.com. I break down five days a week on Facebook live,
and then I put them into this vault different personalities using my charisma hacking tactics. So you can see people of all different personalities, all different levels broken down using these tactics so that you can find those people who have the same type of different levels@charismavault.com. When you sign up, you get an email that literally says, be my friend. And if you want to work with me,
you book a call. When that comes through to be my friend and we can bond and you can hire me as a coach and do all the things you also will get the free thing. No, you signed up, you get access to every single episode. There was like 120 episodes in there separated by different people, different personality types, different video types,
whether you’re wanting to do ads, whether you’re wanting to do Facebook lives, YouTube webinars, live presentations on stage. Any of those things, they’re all broken into different categories and really, really easy to find. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. That is incredible. Charisma, vault.com. You guys. All right, Ms. McCall, we really appreciate you.
Thank you so much for your wisdom and pouring into our guests today on the show. Super pleasure. Hey guys, such a great episode. I love that McCall was here and she spent so much time with us today. Again, all the show notes and everything we talked about can be found by visiting sweet life co.com clicking on podcast. And this is episode number 233.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Please take a screenshot of this episode, tag me at April beach life and tag McCall Jones in it. And let us know your favorite part of this episode and how you’re going to apply her charisma hacking formula. I can tell you right now, I literally have two pages of notes from everything we talked about and I get to hang out with a McCall all the time.
And I learned so much on today’s show and I really trust that you did as well. Thank you so much for tuning in here on this sweet life entrepreneur podcast and sharing this episode with your friends. We really, really Appreciate you. You guys have an awesome week and I will talk to you again.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to have successful retreats.
Summary:
So, you’re hosting a team retreat? Amazing! Team retreats are one of the best uses of our time and resources. Though I’ve hosted team retreats for decades, I’ve finally nailed a planning process that helps us actually accomplish the goals I set forth, in a way my team loves, that blows the ROI out of the water.
This is a great episode if you’re looking for structure in your business retreats, but you’re equally focused on building up your team, accomplishing crazy big goals and having a lot of fun in the process.
At the end of this episode you will:
Learn my pre-retreat planning process
Know how I set my team up for success before, during and after our retreats
Get excited about the power of breakout sessions and mini-masterminds amongst your team members
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi, you guys. Welcome episode number 232 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I’m April beach host of this show and founder of the Sweetlife company and everything. We do everything you find here on the show are proven,
trusted business strategies to launch scale and amplify your online business for four and a half years and counting. And I’m so glad that you are here. Joining me today. Welcome to summer 2021. It is not kidding you a hundred degrees here in Colorado. It’s it’s what it’s been all week. So I hope wherever you are, you’re in a nice, cool place,
surrounded by water or doing something that you love as you’re listening to this show today, we are talking about a little bit behind the scenes. I’m actually opening up a little bit behind the scenes about our operations here at the Sweetlife company. And I’m sharing with you how I plan for our team retreats. As a matter of fact, as you’re growing your team,
if you haven’t yet started having team retreats. They’re one of the most powerful ways that I have found to not only grow our company and our footprint and the people that we impact, but grow those people who are part of our family, our company, family, and really elevate them into their purpose within our company. And if you listen to last week’s show with Tracy Lowe,
she was talking about how to get over the fear of hiring. And so I felt like this was a really good episode to continue on that journey. Last week, we talked about hiring this week. I’m talking to you about planning for this next team retreat, and we’re talking a physical retreat. And so welcome behind the scenes of the Sweetlife company, all of the show notes and everything that we’re talking about here can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com.
And this is episode number 232 in this show today, you can expect to hear the three steps that I plan before holding our team retreat. And some of the philosophies that I have about growing teams and getting work done during the retreat, both for me personally, and for my team. So thanks so much for joining me in, don’t forget to join me every single week at,
in clubhouse at 12 o’clock Eastern time for the clubhouse room, where we get to jam on this topic. And I get to know you more. If we are not connected yet on clubhouse, you can find me at April beach. Okay. Let’s dive into today’s show. Okay. Welcome to the scenes of the Sweetlife company. You guys, let me give you a little history about this company.
This is my second business consulting firm, and this company has really been active in motion for about a decade and in my first year consulting firm, which is still an active company, we used to have these huge, amazing retreats, and they were all centered around work and business. And we used to head to trade shows together in Vegas, and it was so much it’s fun.
It was life-changing. I know for the women who are part of that company, and for me, it was really important. And then we went through this lull here with the Sweetlife company where we really didn’t do any of them until fall of 2020. Yes. In the middle of a pandemic, we hosted our first in-person team retreat for the suite life company after eight years.
And it was the most powerful week that we had ever spent together as a team. So we have team members all across the world. We have a team member in the Philippines, in the UK. Okay. And over here in the United States and we don’t have a big team. There are only eight of us, but our core team, it’s really important that we’re together in that we’re lifting each other up.
And I’m a big advocate of doing that for my team members as a company, when we come together, the ideas that we have produce and the energy in this space, and frankly, the love and respect and admiration for each other, Heather just overflows my heart. And so it was, it’s a really powerful thing when we did this in October and I wanted to do it again as quickly as possible.
So the one I had to share with you a bit behind the scenes of how I plan for team retreats, and then also to share just recently here in Colorado, Kelly, who is the COO of our company was here and we had a mini retreat. So I want to share these tips with you and explain to you my process and the three areas that I plan for before I host team retreats,
whether you’re doing a whole entire team retreat or whether you’re hosting a retreat for just you and one other person, it doesn’t matter. As a matter of fact, as I’m saying this out loud, these three steps could totally work for your own solo two retreats. I’m also a big advocate of escaping by yourself for retreat, weekends, whether it’s a writing weekend or a creative weekend or learning weekend,
whatever that is. I’m a big advocate of that as well. So tonight I’m going to give you these three steps and share with you behind the scenes. How I do this in an effort to help you, if you’re planning for your next team retreat, or maybe you’ve just never thought about hosting an in-person retreat, here’s some steps that can help you help you make that time that you’ve invested in spending together even more productive and frankly so much more fun than you ever imagined.
So the very first thing I do when I am planning for a retreat is I set our primary objective for the time away. It’s not necessarily just to retreat to hang out which that is a great part of it, but these are working retreats. And so as a leader, it’s important for me to set the primary aim, where are we going? What are we focusing on?
What are the goals of this particular short period of time together? And if you’re like me, that means that you always think that you have more time than you actually do. If you schedule for a five day retreat, those five days are going to fly by and what feels like five hours. So it’s really important that you’re realistic with yourself in what you can accomplish.
And you set a primary aim for the company as a whole. And the things that you’d like to have clarity on the things that you’d like to have built or created, or those primary aim outcomes after you set that primary aim. My very next step that I do is I share that primary aim with my team members. And I say, this is what I want to have accomplished.
This is what I want the end result of this time together to be in. Then I ask each one of the team members to dive into each of their areas of expertise before they ever get there in think about how their part, their super power, which is one piece to our entire company puzzle comes together to form that complete picture of the primary aim,
objective that we want to accomplish in that retreat. So before we ever get to the retreat, I want them thinking about what things could get in the way of them being successful, what processes that we might need to discuss before they ever get there. So it’s not a problem so we can flow through and really get things done. So I want them to think about any blocks that are going to inhibit them from working through that primary objective.
And then the second thing is I really want them to think about what it is that they want to bring to the table. I want them to get excited about how their specific area of genius or management fits into the primary goals. And so their creative juices are flowing far before we ever get to this. So they can start doing research. They can start doing whatever they need to do.
And here’s the most important part to me is that they can feel ownership, that they know that they’re important, that their area of expertise is needed. That without their part, we can’t do it, that all, you know, the sum of all parts equals the whole. Those are the things that are incredibly important to me as a leader. And that is why I do this.
So first I set the primary aim and the objective, and I have to be really realistic. Again, the reminder on that one is if you’re like me and you think that you can accomplish so many things, scale it back because I’ve done that way too many times. And I ended up leaving feeling like, ah, I didn’t do enough, or I didn’t get enough done.
So set smaller primary aims or objectives, or very clearly just one primary aim or objective. And then you can always add on to that as you go through. And as you do an awesome job being efficient in your goals during your retreat time. But my recommendation is to set something that’s clear and a little less aggressive, but also something that’s going to definitely move the marker on your business and give your company a transformation.
And then the second thing is I do is I share that with my team and I asked them to start getting ready to contribute to this awesome main goal, get them really excited about it. How can you make this great? How can you bring more to this? What creative genius do you have or thought or training? Is there something that you need to train the rest of the team on your area of expertise,
as it relates to what we’re trying to accomplish together as a company, and when they bring these genius to the table, it will blow your mind as long as you are intentional. And you share this with them ahead of time and you ask them to start dreaming big and getting ready to present in their area of expertise. It is so powerful. And I’m so grateful personally to my team for always being so incredible about this and in teaching me and teaching all of us and contributing to the greater whole,
the sum of what we’re trying to accomplish together. And then the third step. The third thing that I do is I make sure that we have an, what I call an afterburn implementation plan. So after you leave, there’s a lot of work to be done. It’s oftentimes like going to a conference and leaving with a whole bunch of things. And so it’s really important that even before we get to the retreat that I build in implementation time for whatever it was we accomplished during that retreat.
And then my team does it as well. So we have afterburn meetings. We have the afterburn benchmarks based on the primary objective that we need to meet together collectively as a team and independently. And before we leave there every single person who is part of this retreat, whether they’ve joined us physically there, or some of our team members have to join virtual,
unfortunately not everybody can always make it, but every single one of them has their own afterburn implementation plan and really aggressive benchmarks in order to accomplish this company, aim this company objective from our retreat together. Now, here are a couple of things about that, that I want it, that I will also want to share. That is much more behind the scenes,
but this is real business. Oftentimes one of our team members can’t get something done without support. And so what we do is we pair up our team members. So team members that need help accomplishing things during the retreat time, they will go and they will have their own mini strategy sessions or their own mini, like scrum sessions to work on certain things because they can’t do it alone.
And frankly, the whole entire group, can’t always be working together as a whole entire group for the whole retreat. That’s unrealistic. So sharing with you a little bit behind the scenes, we break off into these little groups, almost like these mini masterminds to accomplish certain things. And last year in the retreat that we had, you would find that like two people would be working on something sometimes up until two and three o’clock in the morning.
Cause they were on fire and everybody else’s, you know, passed out asleep, totally exhausted. And then the next morning three other people would be outside, you know, having coffee right on the ocean, talking about another project. So when you structure your retreat like this, like I do, it’s really powerful because you’re creating an environment that honors genius,
that honors disruption, that honors collaboration and that honors thinking outside of the box and in, so doing, you are going to honor the people that you’ve brought together in your team and your company is going to be so overly, amazingly blessed like mine is when you structure it. Like this is a, let me give you a really quick recap about how I structure these team retreats.
And so that if you were thinking about hosting your next internal team retreat in person, hopefully these steps and these strategies can help you achieve amazing results like we do at our retreats as well. So first of all, again, set your primary objective and be very clear about it. Number two, make sure you’re communicating this primary objective to each one of your team members and giving them permission and encouragement and an opportunity to pre-work about their zone of genius and how their Joan of genius can contribute to this greater company.
Objective that is going to happen in this retreat or the bigger project you’re working on. But also having them think about what things could get in their way, either to strategy-wise or systematically before they ever get to their tree treats. So when you guys are there, you are hitting the ground running. And then the third thing I do is I have a very,
very clear afterburn plan all for the company as a whole and the benchmarks that we’re going to hit, but each individual who is there develops their own afterburn implementation plan, and they set their own realistic, but aggressive benchmarks to get things done. And then the overall culture just sharing behind the scenes of what we do here at the Sweetlife company is that we hire based on specific areas of expertise.
And so we honor those people who are part of our team and we honor their expertise. And so we elevate each person and I’m a believer that when each one of our team members can see and grow their future lifestyle, profit plan and wishes within this company, then it’s better for everybody. And so with that being said, I advocate for independent thought disruptive thought.
And I also advocate for mini mastermind in amongst my team members, because truly that is how we collaborate and get more things done. And I just wanted to share this quick episode with you. Some of these solo trainings I do here on the podcast in the summertime are a bit shorter intentionally because I want you to get great proven business strategies and information that you can take to the bank right away and get you back to the beach when dive in that ocean headfirst or climb that mountain or wherever you are faster.
So thank you so much for hanging out with me here on this wheat life podcast. This is episode number 232 and all of the show notes and everything we talked about can be visited, can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com, simply click on podcast and click on 2 32. And if you felt like this was a great episode and you took something valuable out of it,
I would love to hear from you. You can ping me on Instagram at April beach life, or take a screenshot of this episode and tag me in it. Or of course, connect with me on clubhouse. I’m happy to jam with you and talk about how to plan your next person, company retreat, any time important to you to make sure it’s really effective and efficient.
And you are truly leaving that retreat and everybody in your team is leaving that retreat, getting your company to the next level. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. Thank you for subscribing to the show. I appreciate you guys so much. Thank you. And I know I’ve said this a bunch of times in the last few episodes, but thank you again for the honor of naming me,
taught at the moms and podcasting. You guys are absolutely amazing. And I will talk to you next week here on the show with the one and only McCall Jones. And we are diving into all about charisma hacking. You are going to love her. If you don’t know this woman, yet you also, if you are doing video marketing, don’t want to miss me next week’s episode.
All right. You guys be awesome. And I’ll talk to you soon.
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Who This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and who are ready to grow to the next level.
Summary:
You know you need help. You’ve been doing most of the work in your business and it’s time to move your valuable time to the CEO role. To do so, you need a team, or at least one person to begin your delegation process. But you haven’t moved to take action for a variety of reasons but they primarily all come down to mindset. And, you’re probably thinking one of these thoughts:
“I can’t afford to hire help.”
“I’m uncertain of which role to hire first”
“I don’t have systems in place yet to delegate to someone else”
If you’re thinking one of these things, you’re not alone. You should already know these are very common issues for many leaders… or we would not dedicate a whole show to discuss it. You’re in good company, but let’s get you into the right company with next level leaders who know how to manage their high-value time, delegate tasks to others, and give you the steps to find the right people to bring on board.
In this show, Theresa Loe, founder of streamlinedandscaled.com, talks you through proven solutions to overcome hiring hurdles so we can take your business from 6 to 7 figures.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the most important mind shift you must make – and by doing so, everything falls into place
Know how to hire the right person, not just any person with a skills
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate Friends. Thanks for tuning. In this episode, you are listening to this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast. As my friend, Alexa, so beautifully introduced in our intro for this show. I’m April beach,
the host here on the sweet life podcast. And thank you so much for being listeners big announcement. I can’t believe I’ve been forgetting to tell you guys this for the last, actually couple of weeks on the show, I was just named one of the top 50 moms in podcasting. And I just want to say, thank you so much to all of you guys,
because you are the ones that made that happen. So many of you voted so many of you voted for me and voted for this show. And I just wanted to say, thank you so much. I appreciate you guys so very much for being honored out of all the moms to be in the top 50 in podcasting, you know, this isn’t a moms podcast,
but having somebody recognize that it is hard to be a mom and run the businesses that we do and produce a show, especially for so many years consistently. I just want to share that with you guys and share with you. It’s all because of you. And I just thank you so very much. So just had to take a moment to appreciate all of the listeners here on the show.
This is episode number 231, as I said, and today’s guest is somebody who’s going to really help you get over the issues that may be in your way from scaling and growing your business to the next level. Today, we are talking about getting over your fear of hiring people. So first of all, let’s talk about why the heck this is a fear.
What is the deal? What is the matter with us? Here’s the issue as an entrepreneur, we have amazing ideas in our mind. And I’m saying, we, because this is definitely me. You guys, I have struggled with management over the years. It’s not my strength. I have had to work very hard to learn, to become a better leader and manager and delegator.
And so we have all these ideas in our head and we think it’s so much easier. It’s so much faster if we just do it ourselves, but I’m going to tell you that. And I learned this the hard way your business is not going to get to the next level until you know how to create systems delegate. And most importantly, find the right people find the right people.
You know, you need help. You have probably been doing most of the work in your business, and it’s definitely time to move your value time. Your dollar, your time is high is worth higher dollar, and we need to move you to that CEO role and to do so. You need a team or at least one person to begin your delegation process.
But if you haven’t moved yourself out of a mindset blockages to the place of taking action for a variety of different reasons and you know, that it’s time to do so then this particular episode is definitely one that you want to hang out and listen to. You might be saying things to yourself, like I can’t afford to hire help, or I’m uncertain of exactly who to hire and what role they should fill,
or you might be thinking, wow, I don’t even know how to help them onboard. I don’t have any systems in place. This is not just a beginner, entrepreneurial problem friends. We have so many clients that we can’t scale you guys into higher level online services until your delegation is in place until it’s not going to be a bottleneck. When we bring more clients into your business with higher level amazing programs and offers,
this is a problem that my multiple six figure clients face as well. It definitely something, as I said, that I have struggled with over the years and I’ve had to force myself to work through and you’ll hear a little bit of kind of some of my struggles and some of the things I do behind the scenes when we talk about this episode. So if you’re thinking about these things,
you are not alone. That is why we are recording a podcast this week about it. So let me go ahead and introduce you to our guest expert today. Her name is Theresa LOE and Theresa is a leadership and business coach for overworked entrepreneurs. She helps them streamline their operations to build self-managed teams so they can finally get their time back in scale with ease Theresa guides,
people through that sticky transition from wearing all the hats. Raise your hand if that’s where you are right now, to just wearing the most important, how to evolve the CEO in the visionary hat. Nobody else can wear that hat, but we can help you get some of the tasks off your plate with other perfect people. And Theresa specializes in cultivating small,
but mighty teams for online course, creators, coaches and other creatives. She’s amazing. And we’re going to be diving into all of this today here on the show. In addition, as you know, now, Theresa is going to be live with us on Wednesday, June the 16th, taking your team building questions in clubhouse. So join us under our club for this podcast.
It’s called sweet life entrepreneurs, of course, and join us at 12 o’clock Eastern time on June the 16th, 2021. If you’re listening to this show live this week, and we’re going to roll up our sleeves with you. And so what we’re talking about here on the show, then we take it on to clubhouse and we workshop it with you. That’s what we do here on the podcast to really make sure that you are getting implementation for the business strategies here on the show that you know,
you can’t take to the bank. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode with Theresa Lowe.<inaudible> Hi everybody. And welcome to episode number 231. My friend Theresa LOE is with us today. And you guys are in for a huge tree, especially if you are to the point where, you know, you’re ready to grow, but you felt like you have this bottleneck.
And the bottleneck is, is that, you know, you can’t do everything. You know, you need to hire help, but there are some fears around that and I can personally attest to these feelings. So I’m so excited that Theresa LOE is here today to help you streamline and scale your business by growing your team by overcoming these fears, Theresa, welcome to the show.
Will you please share everybody your background and a bit about you and how this became your area of expertise? Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. So what I do is I help people, entrepreneurs who are overworked, they’re stressed, they’re stretched to the limits. I help them streamline the back end of their business so that they can get their time back.
But also I help them build self-managed teams. And it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or you are multi-six multi seven multi-age you always want to have your team be self-managed so that you’re not doing all the managing and you can, instead of wearing all the hats, you’re just wearing the most important hat, which is the CEO hat. And so I work with people at different levels because the sooner you can start this the better.
And the way I got into this was I was a co-executive TV producer for nine years for the top organic gardening show on PBS. And as the co-executive TV producer, it’s what we would call in the digital industry and integrator or a chief operational officer. So I was second in command and I had to run multiple episodes at the same time. So it was a very project management heavy,
but at the same time, I had to have teams filming around the country and they all had to be completely self-managed. They had to understand what their jobs were. They had to be able to get all the episodes out the door, which is like little mini launches in our world of digital marketing. And so when I started my own business, six years ago,
it took off really rapidly because I started getting a team right away. And as I started coaching other people in the industry, I realized that team was one of the things that was holding people back, though. We all start out with our laptop and a dream, and we start out doing all the things and wearing all the hats. Well, the sooner you can bring in a supportive team and not just anyone but a self-managed team,
and you can have everything streamlined and clean on the backend that allows you to scale. So I help businesses scale with ease by streamlining and having self-managed team. Wow. And you’re right. I mean, I can imagine just the thought when you said that of all these little mini launches just gave me like a little like, oh my gosh, that sounds,
that sounds terrible. To me, 96, We did 26 episodes a season. So it was A lot. Oh my goodness. So you’re constantly living in this mode of like getting this produced, making sure our systems are streamlined and that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing at each phase along the way. And I can only imagine how many different moving parts that that would take.
Yes. So you and your history, your experience, your expertise coming into online business totally makes sense. Why you can see things that most online entrepreneurs can’t in a way that it can make it completely easier. And I imagine really simplified compared to your project plans that you were managing and what you were doing. So one of the things that oftentimes we run into with new businesses is the fact that they either don’t know when it’s time to hire,
or they think that it might not be time to hire, but they’re really dealing with some mindset issues around hiring. And we talked about this a little bit behind the scenes and how I personally struggled with this for a very long time. But talk to us about what are some of these mental blocks? What is the mindset of an entrepreneur who’s ready to scale?
Absolutely. And before I even dive into that, sometimes like what you said, how do people know that they’re ready? So let me just address that. You know, that it’s time to get help when you are stretched too thin, you’re overworking, or you’re sacrificing yourself for the business. You’re sacrificing your time, your health, your marriage time with your family,
your weekends, your evenings. We all have these ups and downs in our business where it might grow. And we have little moments of that. But when it goes on for long periods of time, that’s when you absolutely need to get more support and structure in your business because you didn’t start the business to be working 18 hour days. That was not your goal or your dream.
And yet we can get stuck there because we don’t know how to fix this. And one of the things like you said, it’s a mindset issue. And I should also probably say right off the bat, that it doesn’t matter what level we’re going to be talking about, what the different things are that you can do in your business to get help. But it doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out,
there are different ways to hire. So you can hire someone overseas. If you are really strapped on money, you can hire a virtual assistant that’s part time. It can be a working mom who maybe used to work in corporate and has incredible skills, but when her kids are in school or go back to school and aren’t, she’s no longer homeschooling, then she was going to be looking for something that she can do in those other hours.
And so you can bring in someone part-time, but it can also mean when you are a multi-six multi seven multi-asset that you’re bringing in a full-time employee. So what we’re going to talk about here happens at all levels. So the first thing that happens with most people is they get stuck in a solo preneur mindset, and it doesn’t matter how much money you’re bringing in.
You can get stuck thinking too small. And so what I mean by that is that they’ll say to themselves, when my business gets to the next level, then I will bring in the next help that I need in my business. And then my business will allow me to be a higher level CEO. And what I want you to do is flip the script on that.
The truth is that you’re never going to feel ready to take it to the next level that doesn’t just magically happen when you wake up. So you have to start thinking differently. You have to step into your future self and start making strategic decisions. And so the truth is that when you start acting and making decisions as a CEO, then that means you would realize that you need to bring in help.
And that is actually what gets your business to the next level. So rather than just waiting for the next level to happen and then bringing in help, you need to bring in help to get to the next level. Can you Say that again? Yeah. Say that again. This is really please, as you’re listening to this, you guys are, you know,
hit, rewind on this or just hit pause Theresa. I want you to say that again in the reason why this hits home for me and I, I just appreciate it so much learning from you on the show as our listeners are learning right now is because I literally have on a whiteboard. I have my very own little whiteboard of what I’m eating each day and today’s intentions and kind of little notes to myself.
But on that whiteboard, just like two weeks ago, I put on there for my things I need to do each day was millionaire mindset. And I realized this. So I have built a 7, 6, 7 figure business in the past. But this company that we’re working with right now, the Sweetlife company is on our way to seven figures consistently. And I realized that this was,
I was not having that mindset. You guys, this is so important. And since I wrote this on the board, like Theresa is saying, and I’ll go and look at what I’m eating every day. And my goals, my workout plans, it’s all right there. That’s what I wrote. And I think that people think, oh, well, that’s just like a weird note thing,
a weird mindset thing, but it has shifted my activity significantly in my business over the last couple of weeks. So can you say that again? So people hear that. Absolutely. So what we’re talking about here is the be, do have model. And that means that you need to be the CEO of your future and do activities that they would be doing in order to have what your goals are,
your business that you want. Right? So people go, okay, well, how do I do that? Here’s a real, simple thing. Every single morning. When you’re looking at your list, I want you to ask yourself your, to do list. I’m talking about when you’re looking at your to-do list, I want you to ask yourself, what does my business need from me today?
Who do I need to be today? And which activities on this long list are going to get me to the next level that I’m trying to get to, rather than working in those smaller activities, those things that you could actually hire out for it makes you realize that you’re spending a lot of time in the mundane and not in the 20% that moves your business forward.
In fact, you’re so busy. You have like a 1% little sliver that you’re trying to fit. All those CEO activities in and the rest of your day is taken up with other things. So that’s why I started with this one. You want to be the CEO of your future. And so everything that you do needs to be aligned with that so that you can reach your goal.
Yes, Yes, yes. And you should see my notes behind the scenes. You guys like a million million Teresa low notes already from this episode. And I think that, you know, people look to strategies, they look to benchmarks to accomplish. They look to be able to check off this list when in fact doing exactly, as you say is going to then reverse engineer what those activities are each day.
And it’s just such a powerful thing. So I just wanted to pause there for a second. It’s a good one. Okay. Like this is not like, woo you guys. This is like, this is a set solid strategy. That is very important. And I can personally attest to it. So what’s next after we do that. So another belief that can hold people back,
because we want to hit people from all different angles. Maybe that was it. Maybe they were waiting because they’re waiting for their business. A lot of times we’ll say, and this is probably the most common one. They’ll say I can’t afford to hire anyone. Right. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at. You might say, I can’t afford to hire the next person or a high level person.
And so the analogy I like to give here is if I were to come to you April and I were to say, I’m going to open a hotel and I just want to tell you all about it. And you’re like, cool. Tell me all about the hotel. And I said, well, I am going to be the person who checks people in at the front desk.
And then I’m going to help everyone carry their luggage up to their room. I’m going to be the maid. I’m going to do the cleaning. And then when they come back down, I’m going to be at the restaurant and I’m going to take their order. And I’m going to cook the food and deliver the food and then run back out to the front desk for the next person.
You would think I was a nut. And you’d say, you can’t do all those things well, and you can’t grow. And yet that’s what we do in our businesses, because we started with just us. And we were doing all the things and we kept getting spread thinner and thinner and thinner. So when you’re saying, I can’t afford to hire a team,
what you’re really saying is that you aren’t putting yourself first and you don’t want to grow. And what I want you to do is realize that there are different ways to hire at different levels. So if you are just starting out, you can hire someone part-time. If you already have a business, then you can hire someone who is virtual, but maybe works more hours.
And if you’re at a higher level, you can bring in someone as an employee. But the truth is that you can always hire. It’s a matter of finding the right person for the right seat to do the right things so that you’re not wasting your time or your money. And we’re going to talk more about that as we go through the other ones.
Great. Thank you for that. And that’s a great analogy. So after this is established, right, we’ve established that you absolutely cannot grow without help. And this is very important. And certainly there are, some of you are listening who want to be solopreneurs. And this episode probably is not for you when you are ready to grow this, isn’t it.
These are important strategies. So what comes next, Theresa, after we have gotten over these mindset hurdles that we’ve discussed so far, Right? So then the another thing that can hold you back is that you’ll say, well, good. People are hard to find. So let’s talk about that piece right there. Because if you are holding yourself back, because you think you can’t like,
okay, maybe I understand that I will never feel ready. Maybe I understand that I need to hire, but I don’t even know where to start in hiring. And what I want people to understand is that there are good people out there. The trick is that you have to hire the right person by looking at character over resume. So a lot of people teach how to go out and hire,
and they’ll tell you to put a post out a job listing, and then you bring in the person and you’re just looking at their resume to see if they have experienced. And I actually teach hiring in a very different way. I want people to be really, really clear on the type of person that they want to bring in. And I’m talking about character,
what type of person do they need to be? Because even if you only have a team of one other person besides you, you’re building something here. So you want to start doing that right out of the gate. And as you get bigger, you want everyone on your team to have a certain character level. So when I’m hiring, I’m looking at character because the truth is that if I can get someone who’s a go getter,
a problem solver, they’re excited about my work. They’re excited about my mission. I can teach them anything. They don’t even have to have the experience on their resume. So when you are going through the hiring process, be looking for the type of person who can grow with you and can learn, even if they don’t have experience, if you just feel right about them,
because they’re like pumped and excited, then you were hiring more to character than to resume. Hmm. That’s such a good point. And that is, that’s how I hire is with, with an established skillset. But one of the greatest things that I, if I can just share for those of you guys who are listening, one of the greatest things that I have,
I decided to do about 10 years ago, when hiring was, I decided to hire people that wanted to see their future in my business as well, could see their own, what, anything they’d life they wanted to build the time they wanted to be working, the kind of work that they were fired up. And although it might not have been the actual activity that they wanted yet,
what was really helpful and how we’ve grown. Our teams is listening to them, trying to figure out what they want to do. What are their big, huge moonshots? What are their dreams and how can they accomplish those dreams underneath our brand. And I think that that’s why we have had a team who’s worked with us for so long is because of that now definitely skill set as well.
But then I will also pay to have the right people trained in this skill set. So I’ll pay to have the right people in my team learn a skillset that I want them to have, even if they were just totally clueless, because it’s more about the person Kelly Buckner who’s our director of operations is that she is like my dream COO. And I just don’t know where I’d be without her,
but the things she’s doing, don’t always align with her biggest dream, but she knows her biggest dream is within the future of our company. And so just wanting to kind of add that in there, as it is an example, for those of you guys who are listening. Yeah. Having lifelong learners is one of our core values. So we do the same thing.
I have had different members go through courses so that they could get up to speed and it’s a game changer and they feel even more committed to you because now you are helping them grow as a person. So we’re all about growth and stepping into a bigger you. And sometimes someone on my team will find a course and they’re like, I really think this would be helpful.
I would love to take it. And I’m all for it. I will pay for them to take that class. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And, and I think that what we’re talking about is the future of culture of small and micro sized businesses. And it really is true that so many people look for the skillset we’re in clubhouse rooms.
You and I both are in clubhouse rooms all the time where people are talking about how do I hire and how do I do this? And how do I do that? And they’re getting great advice. Like, we’ll go to this and search for this skillset, but I love a warhead, the conversation we’re having here too, because you can have a person who’s really great at something,
but doesn’t fit into the culture in the future. And, and I think the hardest thing, and I’ll just share kind of this fear since we’re talking about the fears of hiring, one of the hardest things that I had to deal with before I really started hiring for the right person, rather than the skillset was hiring somebody, training them, investing that time.
And then they leave and being so fearful of so much time lost. And I know this isn’t just a, an April problem or a Teresa problem. These are problems that corporations deal with, you know, at this replacement costs in this replacement time. But I just, I remember feeling so fearful of going, gosh, I’m going to invest in this person and they’re just going to ditch me,
You know? Yeah. And will, that can happen. And so one of the things that I work with people when I’m, I’m helping them streamline their business, there’s really three pillars we go through. And it’s the structure, the support piece, which is what we’re talking about here. But what you’re talking about is the scalability piece and that is having contingency plans.
So that’s really having the structure behind the scenes so that if someone steps out, someone else can step in and having systems and processes. So that, that happens. But absolutely, we are also investing part of our heart when we bring someone in because we’re small businesses. So it’s a very small but mighty team. And there’s a lot of heart that goes into bringing someone in.
But here’s the way I like to look at it. When someone is leaving for me, it’s happening for me rather than to me. And I want them to grow and go find a better fit because something that was not a good fit for them. And if it’s not a good fit for them, they’re not going to thrive. Just like if we take a flower and put it in the desert,
that flower might be beautiful somewhere else, but in the desert, it’s going to wither and die. Right? And so if we have someone on our team who really is not aligned with staying with the team, it’s better that they go sooner rather than later. So sometimes we’ll have signs. And that’s some of the things that I coach people through. There’ll be little signs that we missed or along the way that we weren’t really paying attention to.
But when someone is going to leave, I’ve had people leave to go on and start their own business. And I actually give them some of my coaching programs because I want them to do well because we’ve built a relationship. But if someone is stepping out, it’s actually happening for you because there’s going to be someone else that can step in that will take you even further than that person ever could.
What a great set mind you have to read it. Yeah. Mindset is like everything. Yes. Thank you for sharing that. That is an amazing different viewpoint on that. Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s so incredibly powerful. So let’s get back to some of these fears that our listeners might be feeling. Some of these, almost like we could have named this like that,
the four, the five lies you’re telling yourself, but you really need to be hiring by now. You know, what are some of the, what are some of these other thought processes that people need to overcome to really get into this let’s scale? This business let’s hire I’m ready for the next level. Absolutely. So one of the other roadblocks and this actually tends to happen with people who have,
are already a little bit more further along is that they worry that they have to manage the team, or they are currently managing the team. And that’s why I specialize in self managed teams. If you are managing the team, as the CEO, something is wrong, you should never be managing the team. You want to be bringing in people who are in the right seats,
doing the right things. And they are self-managed. So the way that you can tell if you are in the management, rather than the CEO role is if you are helicoptering them, right. We know we all know what a helicopter parent is. There’s also a helicopter CEO and it’s where you’re hovering. Like, are they doing it? Are they doing it?
Are they doing it right? And some of that can be your systems that you have set up. Like maybe, maybe you don’t have touch points where you can kind of keep your finger on the pulse without being in the weeds. That’s something that I help people set up so that they don’t have to be in the weeds to know what’s going on. But sometimes it’s really a matter of learning to let go and let go in the right way.
So what I want you to realize is that what we want to do, what we want to be stepping into is mentoring our team, not managing the team. This means having real clear expectations and results that we’re looking for. So they have a very clear lighthouse and we can have like, you know, 30, 60, 90 day check-ins and be able to say, okay,
you know, we’ve got a little off track here, but as long as they know what lighthouse is, we shouldn’t have to helicopter them. They should be able to figure out how to get there. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Helicopter CEO. I’m definitely, I’m definitely writing that down. It’s so it absolutely makes sense. It was a great analogy.
Yeah. And this is a random question. Just putting you on the spot here for our listeners. Is there a favorite team software for communication that you have that you like to recommend to your clients? Absolutely. So most of the industry uses a sauna and a sauna is great. I have used a sauna, but for project management, I really like monday.com.
That’s actually my favorite. And the reason is because not everybody adapts well to a sauna and monday.com is much more visual. And I find for entrepreneurs, they’re very creative and they tend to have a lot of creative people on their teams and the team. If you have never used any project management software, and you currently have a team, it’s a much easier transition onto Monday than it is to a sauna.
Now that said a sauna is great. I’m not saying a is bad. If you’re already using a sauna, don’t switch. If you love it. And it works for you. Great. But if you’ve never used project management software or you’re intimidated, or your team is Monday works really well. It also is very intuitive. And so it makes it easy for the team to,
to adapt to that. If that makes sense. It does make sense. Thank you for sharing that. Our listeners always want to know everybody’s software stack of what we’re using. And I know a lot of our listeners use Trello air table is where we manage our, our podcast production. But back in the day, we used to use Smartsheet and Gantt charts and all these things that were just not user-friendly at all.
And they were so detailed that we would send it to people and they would just be like deer in the headlights. And they’re just done. What is this? W w what is this? And so I absolutely loved Monday. We’ve had a guest recently who is talking about, is it like click up? I mean, whatever works for you guys. And I think that is the thing here,
but I’d love, you’re an expert in this. And so I love hearing of what, what you recommend and what works for you. So thank you for sharing that. And any, yeah, go ahead. I was just Going to say what’s most important is that, is that you use it. So if you try something and it doesn’t work, try something else because everyone’s brains work differently.
So it’s okay. If something else works for you, right. Perfect. Yes. The great advice. And then any final thoughts to, you know, this hesitation to hiring that you want to leave with our listeners, any like actionable steps. You’re saying, okay, listen, you’re listening to this episode because you know, you need to be hiring,
but there’s a wall. There is a mindset shift that needs to happen, but there are actually things that you, as a leader are putting in your own way. And those are the things we talked about today. Like, I can’t afford to hire a team or what if they leave, or, you know, how do I actually go through the process delegation?
And you shared some really important thoughts that people are already having. I know our listeners are hearing being like, oh yeah, that’s me. I’m thinking this in this process, what do they do now from this episode, from listening to the show, what are some actual actionable items right now where they can leave in that they can start fixing this problem today.
Right? Well, if we circle all the way back to stepping into being a CEO and thinking like your future CEO self, what I want you to do is start doing a time audit. Now, when I say time, audit people’s eyes glaze over and they go, oh, that sounds so corporate. And I have to write down all the things I did all day,
but here’s what I want you to realize. You may think, you know what you’re doing every day, but you’re probably doing some things you shouldn’t be doing, and you don’t even realize it. And you keep thinking, oh, I’ll just do it real quick myself. And it ends up taking an hour, or I can just whip this together. And you end up your whole day is totally shifted because you got down a rabbit hole in Canva or something.
So what I want you to do is to do a time audit on yourself so that you can see, where am I currently spending my time and then put on your CEO hat and take a hard look at that. Are those the things that I should be doing? Which of these things do I know I just shouldn’t be doing, or I’m not very good at them?
Which of these things could I hand off to a current team member or do I need to bring in a team member? So really doing a time audit should be your very first step. And then absolutely every single morning looking at that to do list, do I really have to do these things, which of these things are going to move the needle the most in my business,
which of these things are the moneymakers, which of these things are driving me to my goals and make sure that you’re working on the right things, because we can very easily get busy, busy, busy doing the wrong things, and nothing can slow down your growth faster than doing that. Great. Teresa you’re you are so wise, thank you so much for your leadership in this.
And you coach entrepreneurs who are in six figures, seven figures to eight figures, and you have a couple of different programs. So if you guys are listening here, you know, this isn’t a podcast where we sell you anything. We don’t even accept advertisers on this show. The deal is, is we want you to have the next steps to take action.
So Theresa, can you tell people how they can connect with you and based on where they are, what phase they’re in, what do you have available to get them to that next level with their teams? Absolutely. So where people can connect with me is streamlined and scaled.com, all one word. And on the website, I have information, lots of free resources.
What I have in the way of programs is if you are just hiring your very first team member, or if you have just hired poorly and you need help hiring the next team member, I have a program called team up like a boss. It’s a very low, very inexpensive program that has all my templates and processes my whole methodology for hiring to character first.
Okay. Then the second program that I have is a group coaching program, multi multi figure, and multi seven. And that’s where we streamlined the backend of your business and get your team to be self-managed and make your set you up to be scalable so that you can scale with ease and have your time back. And that is streamlined and scaled. And then I do consulting for multi eight figure businesses who already have major teams and headaches going on,
and they need someone to come in and check out where are the issues? And I do that as well. Theresa, thank you so much. So based on where you guys are, there is a program, there is a solution start like Theresa said with going through your activities today, really focusing on the things that only you, and you can only,
you can do, maybe like me write on your whiteboard or a sticky note or on your mirror and lipstick or whatever it is that you need to be honing in on the millionaire activities in your business. And that is, it starts, it sounds very basic, but this is truly, I can personally attest to this. This is truly where it all starts rolling from there.
And we do have a very special tree for you guys, as you know, that we promote and share in network with you and help you link arms with you and coach you in clubhouse now. So if you’re an active subscriber to this show, that means it drops on Monday. This particular episode is dropping on Monday, June 14th and Theresa and I are going to be live answering your questions workshopping with you,
taking your specific team, building questions, helping you strategize through the struggles or your concerns or your fears or your issues of growing your team on Wednesday, June 16th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. It’s totally free for you to be in there. If you’re really ready to take your business to the next level, it starts by taking action. And that starts by joining us at 12 o’clock on June 16th in our clubhouse room about this topic and to find the clubhouse room,
you can very simply follow our club, join our club, even all you Android users now, by going to sweet life, community.com, again, that Sweetlife community.com. You can talk to Teresa, she’s there for you, and we’re, we’re all here to support you and all of the show notes of course, to reach Teresa beyond. What we talked about here will be in the show notes for this episode.
This is episode number 231. Thank you so much Theresa for your time and your wisdom and your expertise and pouring into us on today’s show. We really appreciate You. Thank you so much for having me. It was fun. It was fun. Thanks.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who are ready to scale and grow, but lacking systems to make it happen.
Summary:
It’s time to scale your business, and you know that systems and SOPs need to be in place. But, if you’re like me, the thought of sitting down and documenting your tasks sounds as fun as having teeth pulled. Thankfully Brittany Keeling, our guest expert, is sharing practical ways and clear, simple systems you can follow to start scaling now.
In this show we’ll also cover the difference between a platform, a system and automation. These common terms are misunderstood but important to understand. Stick with us and join us live on Clubhouse to meet with Brittany personally and get your questions answered after listening to this show.
At the end of this episode you will:
Brittany’s 5 Steps To Scale
How to create SOPs without crying
The importance of choosing the right platform to make your business easier to manage
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. We are so excited to dive in depth. So number 230 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, and today’s guest is simplifying your systems and helping you put standard operating procedures in place so that you can scale your business.
And this is why this is incredibly important. We have so many companies that come to us and they want to launch courses and masterminds and memberships, and they want their suite of offers created. But oftentimes when we do a really good job launching scalable online programs, there are some systems that are missing in the backend. And when these systems in the backend are missing,
then what happens is a bottleneck. And you actually can’t even absorb all of the money and the clients and the hard work that you’ve gone into in order to actually launch and reap the benefits of the hard work. And so today on episode number 230, we’re diving in with Brittany Keeling, she’s the CEO of be elevated a business operations and launch expert. And she’s going to take you through the processes of how to really simplify your systems.
Now you’re going to laugh. I am being really transparent about how I hate creating SOP on this. So if you’re like me, you’re going to be able to relate real well to what Brittany’s saying. And we’re going to give you some amazing strategies to get through that today on this episode. So this is a great show for those of you guys who are in phases two through four of my Sweetlife business roadmap,
that’s the startup to scale up system that we’ve created. And in order to figure out what phase of business you’re in simply go to sweet life co.com board slash quiz, and you can take a very short self-assessment. So this episode, this business training that we’re talking about is specifically for those of you guys in phases, two, three or four of that business system.
What you can expect at the end of this is to first of all, know the most common standard rating standard operating procedures that should be in place for your business. You’re also going to get tips on software that can simplify your processes. And you’re going to know how to use the way that you work as a leader, as an entrepreneur, in order to put it into systems in a way that is actually going to happen for your business.
So I’m so excited to dive into all this. And of course, Brittany will be with us live on clubhouse, the Wednesday that this show drops. So if you are not a member or following the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club on clubhouse, please make sure you search us on clubhouse life. One word, just like this podcast. And you’re going to get access to that room where Brittany is going to be able to take your questions.
She’s amazing. And I’m guessing you’re going to want to have somebody like Brittany workshop with you, and that’s what the clubhouse is for. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. All of the show knows everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting our website@sweetlifeco.com forward slash two three zero. Oh, wait. I lied about that. All of the show notes can be found by visiting sweet life coat.com
and then you got to click on podcast, but then it is episode two, three, zero. All right, you guys, I can’t wait to dive in with you. Let’s do it. All right. You guys welcome to episode number 230 here at this sweet life entrepreneur business podcast. I am joined by Brittany Keeling and yes, you’re probably getting entired me saying this.
I met Brittany on clubhouse, like all of our guests, like lately, all my new clubhouse friends and she is amazing. I was in a clubhouse room with Brittany and she said three words that I was like, oh my gosh, I need this woman to come and talk to us and really simplify and clarify these three terms. And you’re going to find out what they are here and just a little bit on the show,
but, you know, Brittany is a scaling with systems expert. And so that’s what we’re all about here on the show, giving you tools and strategies to move forward and scale your business. And so here we are, Brittany, thank you so much for joining us. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself and how you became such a systems ninja. Yeah,
I’m so excited to be here. So I have a really sort of unconventional background. A lot of people get into this space from, you know, they were in the corporate world and they decided to go off on their own. And I actually started my first business straight out of high school. So I was a serial entrepreneur for a few years, with a few various different businesses.
They were actually all online businesses as well. So been in the space a while and towards the end of 2018, I was feeling really burnt out with what I was doing. I wanted to change it. I just didn’t know what to do. And so I started asking people who knew me like, Hey, what do you think of when you think about me?
What am I good at? What are my strengths? Literally, everybody came back and was like, oh, you’re type a you’re detail oriented. You’re great at like being productive and helping people reach their goals. And I was like, okay, I can do something with this. So heading into 2019, I started trying to like make that shift. But right at that same time,
my dad who was a business owner actually passed away unexpectedly. And so I took over his company the day after he died. So yeah, I put my business hold and took over his company. I was 21 and it was a mess. He did not have. I mean, obviously I was grieving, but also he didn’t have anything documented. He did not have,
you know, a second in command. It was basically two months of me being on the phone all day, every day with clients saying, sorry, he’s not here anymore, but we’re still business as usual. It was very weird. But another thing that we ran into a lot was like the questions being asked and us not having answers. And that didn’t feel good for anyone.
Of course, we didn’t want to say, sorry, we don’t know the answer to that. But at the same time, my dad kept so much in his head, in his head and all over his desk. I mean, papers everywhere. So it was just really hard to try to run once he was gone. And thankfully we did end up selling that business four months later.
And at that time I had planned a move across the country for like a month later. And I was like, oh, I have now no income and no clients and no business, I should do something. So I relaunched my business and I went like full force headfirst into the deep end as an online business manager. And so at that time, this was like August of 2019.
And I just dove in, I invested in a mentor and I was like, you know, I’m just going to help other entrepreneurs create something that actually can outlive them. For me. It grew really quickly. I’ll give you the cliff notes version here, but essentially I created a bit of a monster that was doing for me the opposite of what I was trying to do for others.
And so I ended up restructuring a bit around this, actually around the same time, last year. So around like August, September of 2020, and now we work with clients in either one day or one week and we have a few leading offers, but we really essentially help them either get their systems in check, do like an overhaul, get them things simplified,
make it make sense for the long haul for them. Or we help them have a large-scale launch of a digital product or service in a short timeframe. We do like a seven day package for lunches or a one day for one week package for systems, depending on how robust it is. And clearly to have that done. We have to have a lot of really clear systems internally as well.
Yes you do. Oh my gosh. So first of all, congratulations on all your success. It’s so hard when you know you’re doing something well and all of a sudden it’s running your life. I love how you have modeled. We talk a lot about life, first business modeling here on this show, and I love how you’ve modeled your offer to actually deliver that time in life that you want.
Secondly, I’m so sorry about your dad. I lost my dad a couple of years ago and that is it just really hard still sometimes today I’ll like forget, and I’ll go to pick up a phone and call him and it’s just this weird thing or I’ll think, oh, I can’t wait to tell dad or whatever. And so I totally get that.
And I’m so sorry about that. Your dad also was a total entrepreneur like that entrepreneur brain, like the notes everywhere, papers everywhere. I’m literally not going to turn the camera. You guys, before this, behind the scenes, you were typing something out to think like that’s way out. I need to write in order to think and process in. But because of that,
then I have a million pieces of paper. And so your dad sounded like amazing man and very typical classic entrepreneur. And then the last thing, you know, I love how you have always been an entrepreneur out of high school. Like we have very similar stories. I absolutely love that. And so I’m just so glad that you were here on the show.
Now what you’re talking about from a business sense, first of all, it’s no surprise that you are so successful because what you need are what people need are the tactical things that you actually deliver. It’s the not sexy part that everybody desperately wants and needs. They’re the systems and that like the SOP and the client pipelines and the launch plans and the content plans and all those things.
So I’m so excited to talk about what we’re going to dive in today. And I know our listeners will be like, okay, bro, gen up so we can hear her talk. So, so like, so this is very exciting. And so I’m really, really excited about what you’re going to download for us today. So one of the things that we find as a company is a lot of companies come to us and they’re like,
oh, we’re so excited to scale with courses and offers. And all these things help us design them, but it’s like, let’s stop because they don’t have their systems and processes in place. Yet. I was actually in a clubhouse room last week when I was saying that to somebody and the woman ended up DME me on Instagram saying, so you said I shouldn’t do this yet until I have systems in place.
What are the exact systems? People don’t know, like you were saying before we started recording what they don’t know. So can we first for our listeners who might not be familiar with that, we first talk about what systems should you actually have in place before you start really scaling your business. Yeah, 100%. And I love that we’re talking about this because every business I’ve ever worked with that has overlooked these steps in the beginning has had to spend more time and more money and more energy backtracking to redo the things that were not done properly.
So my hope is that if you’re listening to this, you will not get in that position. It is never too late to start creating systems. And just like April said, it is not at face value, super sexy to talk about, but it is super sexy when you get weeks of your life back. So, yeah. So I have sort of a top five systems that I like to focus in on whenever talking about like getting started with systems,
mind you, there are a million systems in the world and I totally understand that, like can be really overwhelming. So I always just suggest starting with these five. And if I feel like too much, start with one, like just do one at a time because it’s going to be better than nothing. Okay. So let me make sure you guys heard this before.
She says this. When you walk away from this show commit to start with one, if this is an area you need to grow. So sometimes when we hear all five, it is overwhelming, but Brittany is going to download you on what they are. So I’m really excited about this. Okay. What are they? Yeah. So quick overview of the five systems I like to hone in on are a task management and project management system.
So this is where you can keep all of your ideas. So instead of having 12,000 places to look for things, it’s all in one place, an SOP standard operating procedure creation system. So you may or may not have heard of SOP before. And if you have heard of them, it may be in a corporate setting or it may just be like,
sure, I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what to do with it. How do I create them? Having SOP are important, but you need actually know how to create them. So having a system for creating new SOP is on an ongoing basis is going to be huge. The third system is a content planning and repurposing system. Let’s be real,
pretty much all of us are marketing through social media. So we probably need to have a system there so that we’re not having to spend hours every single day typing up a last-minute caption just to get it off the door. Right then the fourth is a client management system. This one is huge, huge, huge, I’m such a huge fan of white glove experience and really kind of going above and beyond with the client experience because we want everyone in our sphere to feel really valued and a huge way you can do that is with your client management system.
And then the fifth and final is email marketing. And if you’re like, well, maybe I don’t have a list. This is fifth for a reason. It is very important of course, but you don’t have to start with this one if it’s not the easiest one for you to dive into, but we can keep it super simple. Maybe you have an automated welcome sequence or some sort of automated email marketing in place.
But even if you just have some sort of system for showing up regularly in your email marketing, like a task for yourself to write a new email once a month and send that out, it’s so much better than nothing, and you’re still going, nurturing your audience chat. Okay. So let me state those again for our listeners. And then we’re going to move on.
We’re going to dive into a couple of those today. So the five systems you recommend people have in place to start our task management, SLPs and a process for actually creating SOP and an SOP. If you’re listening in stands for standard operating procedures for any of you guys that didn’t know that number three is a system for content planning. Number four is the system for client management and number five,
it’s a system for email marketing. Is that right? That’s right. Okay. Let’s kind of pivot in. Let’s just focus in actually on those first two things tax management and SOP is here on this podcast. So when we’re talking about task management, there are so many things that businesses are doing on a regular basis. And oftentimes companies that are looking to scale,
you have just very few people doing all the things, talk to us about how you recommend and how you really kind of lasso all of these things that are happening in order to get them into one place. Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is like, you know, there are first of all, so many ideas in our brain at any given time.
And even if we just think about the ideas alone, not even the to-dos, it’s like you could have a million dollar idea, but if you write it on a sticky note and forget it exists, there goes your million dollars. Right? So I’m a huge advocate for getting things in one place. So initially, I mean, I would start with hunting down all the things you have all over the place.
If you’ve got just tasks and ideas and to do’s everywhere, get them all streamlined in one place from there, you can probably then start diving into breaking things into categories. And again, this can be really overwhelming. And like a lot of times people are like, well, I just have one big list. What do you mean I need categories, but we can structure things very strategically when we are intentional about it.
So if you zoom out of the day-to-day of your business and actually look at everything from a bird’s eye view and look at all of the tasks on your list, look at everything that’s popping up. Do you want assessment of what do I, and if I have team members, my team do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, so on and so forth basis.
And what maybe aren’t we doing that needs to be done more regularly and even seeing like what tasks have popped up that are not recurring tasks, but you’re noticing them coming up more and more often that can really help guide you and figuring out what the departments of your business really are. So being able to identify it, doesn’t have to be like 18 departments.
You don’t have to have a whole marketing team to have a department for that. When I say departments, I’m really, especially for small business owners, mostly honing in on the fact that like, there really are still segments of our business, where if we were to scale to a much larger level, we’d likely be outsourcing those two different team members. Yeah.
And that’s usually where most of our listeners are. They’re like really ready to the point they want to scale. They have all these things that are happening. And many of them have even really started building their teams. But yet they’re not exactly sure. Also with that being said, many of our listeners are to this point where they also have a, just a ton of,
VA’s doing a couple little things for them at once. So as they’re listening to this, I’m guessing you’re the expert here in this process. You also really recommend that even all these little pieces, even if it’s somebody who’s only working a couple hours a month doing a task for you that you develop SOP for that as well. Correct. 100% a gauge that I like to use is like,
okay, if you were to take on 10 clients tomorrow, would you be ready? Yeah. My business mentor talking more says that all the time. He’s like, you know, it doesn’t matter if we get you all these clients in here, he’s like, you know, it can be like, it’s like a fire hose. If you do not have these systems in place,
like don’t go out and grow. Right. Oh, that’s so good. That is such a great analogy. Oh my gosh. So you’re just going to lose them. All right. And that’s why when companies come to us and they’re like, we want to develop our leading offer. We want our leading courses or masterminds. We’re like, okay, are you going to be able to handle it?
Because if you can’t then literally everything. That’s like an overflow out of the top and you know, let’s make sure your stuff is in place. And so I love this conversation we’re having. So in the process and behind the scenes, you were sharing how you guys go about doing this. You have a software that you love, and I’m just going to say out loud,
you know, Kelly Buckner, our director of operations for our company is going to geek out when she hears this episode. Because I think that what you’re talking about is like right along the lines of something that she would love to look into more. So talk to us about how you go about this process for people. And, and also, I mean, they are in a million different places.
All these things are in a million different places. Let’s talk about simplifying software for a minute. Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of entrepreneurs are, and you know, we’re in 18 different softwares when in reality there’s probably one or two that could replace the bulk of them. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, maybe you’re going to pay more for one software,
but then you’re going to be able to let go of three others. And it’s so worth it. Now, if you’re using six softwares and it’s like, you know, you don’t have any problems and it’s working well for you and future casting. You’re not going to have any problems. Great. If it’s not working or if it is working, you don’t need to necessarily change it.
But if you’re starting to grow and you’re ready to scale, and you’re like, you know what, being in all this software is just really not working for me. Then. I mean, something that my business does all the time is like helping businesses get streamlined into less software or at least suffer. That makes more sense for them. And so one of the things that we do is we utilize click up and this is where we use like our task management and our project management.
But also we use this as like the one-stop for the whole business. And we do this with our own business, as well as for our client’s businesses. Because if you’re listening, I can almost guarantee if you don’t have some sort of system in place, you’ve probably got your Google docs, a hundred different docs or folders in your drive. You’ve got your handwritten notes,
sticky notes, your whiteboard, your mirror, that you’re writing on your, your, everything, just everything notes on your phone. You’ve got your, your 18 journals on your desk. Like it’s just all over the place. And so being able to create an atmosphere where it doesn’t feel like, oh God, another place I have to look every day and instead positioning it in your mind.
And also in the way you structure it as the only place you need to go and look at things every day, it really is a game changer because instead of waking up, you know, three hours into your slumber, remembering that you forgot to do three tasks that are like really important, and now you’re going to be panicking about it. You can have one place to put them all as soon as they pop into your head and then literally forget about it.
Like you can just forget about it and come back to it later. Yeah. I love that. And that’s so important for entrepreneurs like me too. Not officially, but pretty officially have ADHD. And so this process of going through and understand like the tasks, changing task management, having things in one place is, is really, really, really important.
And another thing you said just triggered something that I like to tell businesses all the time. And this is what Brittany is talking about. This is why this is important. I like to say, you know, how would you carry your business today? If you were already a millionaire, you’d already have these systems in place, and you’re never going to be there until you have these systems in place.
This is the bottleneck. And this is so important. And you know, we’re not saying you have to use one software or another, like you can do it whatever way works for you. But the reality is, is simplified systems scale. They do simplified system scale. And so this is so incredibly important. Okay? So in this process you’re going through and people have all their ideas and they’re bringing their,
all their ideas together, taken all their sticky notes and their pieces of paper. And they’re getting it. Like you guys use click up for this. How do you recognize, are there like certain departments of a business that are standard or typical for, you know, service-based businesses and online entrepreneurs where you tend to group together type of department. So you sort of,
our listeners can kind of at least clarify their mind and start heading in one direction of how to organize their stuff. Yeah. Such good question. So some like standard departments that we like to utilize are like your headquarters, right? So for us, at least in here, we house various things like our capacity so that anyone on the team can come in and see what we’re working on.
Like what big package, but also what’s coming. We have like the next several months booked out and we can all see it and be prepared. And then also if I’m on a sales call, I know what’s available and what’s not I’m meeting notes, go in there, employee onboarding various things like that. Team resources go in there. So like SOP is our brand kit,
affiliate links, testimonials our team agreement. So we have like, all the team has come together and agree. Like this is our way of working so we can all reference that. And then another department is operations. So you’re going to have your recurring operations more than likely that may be broken down into various things like social media. So Instagram, Facebook,
LinkedIn, so on and so forth. Maybe your email marketing can go and hear your metrics management. So if you’re needing to check on your numbers weekly, the list, of course. Yeah. Right. I mean, I’m thinking in my mind, I’m like podcast processes, like for us, you know, podcast processes, you know, PR speaking,
client management. So as you guys are listening to Brittany talk, just think about like the grouping of repetitive tasks that you’re doing in your business and start to figure out what falls under each one. And then take an opportunity to understand that for each one of these, you need to develop these standard operating procedures, which brings me to the next question. So we hear this all the time and I’ll be really honest with you.
Especially somebody that’s like always in all directions. I own four companies. I have three kids. I’m always on an airplane somewhere when somebody tells me and it’s okay if you have to tell me this, but let’s just keep it real here. When somebody tells me that I have to sit down and document every single thing that I’m doing in some capacity or some way for like a week straight,
first of all, I’ve never, ever, ever done that. I can’t think of anything worse than doing that. And so what I ended up doing, and this is why, if you’ve also listened to the show before, I’m like not the best person to work for. I mean, I have an amazing team, thank God. But you know,
it, it’s kind of hard. So it literally, I’m not kidding. You it’s taken me 25 years to get through. And so when I go down and I document like an SOP, it is usually like in a scrub, like we’re working on a project like that day. That is my work I’m going to do. But going through my everyday,
you know, week just kind of documenting my time and managing my time and stuff. You couldn’t actually, I’m being so honest. You’re going to like school me here. Probably like you couldn’t pay me to do that for my own company. Like I am Wade. I’m like all off in a role. Is there any other way to do it? Yeah,
totally. Okay. Good. Cause that way sucks. Right? At the end of the day, it’s like we’re busy and the thought of creating a whole system and process and documenting the SOP, Internet’s going to take me three hours longer than if I would just do it all myself and then never outsource it. Right. Right. But of course in the long run,
we know that’s not true, but it doesn’t make it any to do in the moment. So I do have a philosophy that I like to follow a system. I like to follow with creating these because most business owners are very similar to you. Like I can’t say that I have a lot of fun sitting down and creating all of SOP for my business.
And so if you don’t like it, then that’s yeah. Then they really are tough work. Okay. Right. And any, you don’t have to do it alone. And it’s actually to be so much easier than we think. So here’s what I like to do. And here’s what I tell people to do. Start identifying what needs to be documented.
Right? So obviously your recurring tasks, easiest thing to start with, you know, it’s going to happen on a recurring basis. So start there. And once you’ve identified, this needs an SOP, take a loom screen recording. The next time you do the task, you can literally do the task, the exact same way you would without documenting anything,
but screen record it and talk through what you’re doing as you’re going. And then if you have a strategic and like, well put together template for the written SOP, you can then give the loom or whatever kind of screen recording. You utilize to another team member. You can give it to somebody else and they can build out the SOP, the written version.
They can include the video version in there. They can plug it into whatever. You know, if you’re using a task management software, get it in the right places, create templates within that. If you want, it can get really nice and crazy robust, but it doesn’t have to. And even better when you do it that way, you now have a video,
an audio with your video and a written. And so no matter what kind of way somebody learns on your team, you’re meeting them where they’re at. Okay. Thank you. So I do that. I do LUME recordings and then you’re like Dropbox fanatics, and then I’ll put it in Dropbox. But I really thought that I was like duck taping the process together.
And then, you know, we can get them transcribed through our Searchie and everything that we do. So thank you for saying that because I literally is like, this is just the way I work and it’s just the way it’s going to be. And this is the way I work and I just, I’m never going to change me. So I hope this works out for y’all,
which, which it has. I mean, I have an amazing team, but in the back of my mind, I’m always like, you suck at doing this because you’re not doing it the way it’s supposed to be, but I know I would never, ever like literally over my dead body, am I going to sit down and write down my steps that I am doing?
So, yay. I feel a little redeemed here on this show and then Kelly in the process, like she does this as well. And so like listening to the podcast, you guys all know like what we really like struggle with behind the scenes. We try to share it all with you. This is one of those things that I haven’t really liked so much.
Okay. So in that process, you know, documenting it in whatever way that works. I also do audio recordings on my phone. So I do audio as well too. And that has seemed to work, you know, to upload them for certain files as well for my team and our team Dropbox folder, I should say, hopefully that’s acceptable, but it does work.
Okay. So after somebody has, you know, really documented these processes, let’s go back and let’s kind of circle back and let’s talk about the importance of simplified software. Share with us more about click up, why you guys use that, why this is your chosen spot to do this in really why, of all the things out there, as, you know,
there’s a million there’s Monday and Salesforce and all these other things, like why is this your go-to? And so our listeners is, is there processing can think, oh, well maybe I should check that out. Yeah. Great question. So let’s tie it in with SOP is right. If you create a hundred SLPs and they’re sitting in a Google drive that nobody knows exists,
what’s the point, right? Versus if we can pull them in to a software, like click up, or if you’re using something else, you know, whatever you’re using, bring it into one place so that someone can super easily search the name of what they’re looking for, or go to the SOP folder or list and look through it, what they need to find.
And you can even from there, so like in click up, you can create like a template of tasks essentially. So you could also turn your SLPs into templates if it’s like things that need to be tasked out. So if you’re onboarding a new team member, for example, that can be a template. Every time you onboard a new team member, you duplicate the template,
you assign things out and boom, like you’re good to go. Okay. So this is making my mind totally gone in a different direction, which I won’t on this show, but I also teach entrepreneurs how to license and scale their content programs and systems. And every single one of them has a different place where they build those systems. And so what I’m hearing you say is it click up,
could possibly be a place for those of you guys that this is really advanced scaling. But those of you guys who are listening to this show who are licensing your courses, your content, you’re creating a certification program. All of these mixed level scaling could use a software like this to really streamline the distribution of your processes and templates a hundred percent. And you can even like,
you can like sell templates. You can share templates. I mean, you can do so much with it. And the reason that I really love click up above all the other platforms, I’ve, haven’t been in all of them, but I’ve been in many of them. And what I tend to find is kind of twofold. One click up is 10 steps ahead.
Of many of the other platforms, other platforms are coming out with a lot of the things click up has, but they’ve had it for months. So why not choose the software that is going to be 10 steps ahead. And two, it has a very, very, very customizable interface. The aesthetic of it. You can look at it in so many ways and customize fields and can do it everything in your own brand colors.
I mean, there’s so many ways to go about it. So I, I love it. I it’s just the, in my opinion, I clearly am a nerd about this platform, but I’m a huge fan. I’ve been in so many different ones and it just has proved to be the best and has the most robust options for what we need. Okay.
This is, I really love this episode. Thank you so much for everything you’re pouring into us. Okay. Before we wrap this up, I do have to say, I love the aesthetic side women entrepreneurs. We really like this side. Like, I really love the fact that I can change the picture on the back of my Trello board. I mean the stupid stuff like that makes me really happy.
So I love the fact that it does offer that option as well. And I appreciate you sharing this resource so much here. You guys, as you’re listening, we’ll make sure that we are going to share Brittany’s affiliate link to click up with you so you guys can go and play with it and try it out. There are three different words I would love for you to,
this is the circle back from the beginning, define for us as we close up this show. And I think that the clarity and the definition of each one of these, whether whoever’s listening is new or established is going to be very, very helpful. Can you please define the difference between a platform, a system and automation for any of our listeners that aren’t crystal clear on these saints?
Absolutely. And it’s really common to not be crystal clear on this because some of these buzz words right there, total buzzwords are used interchangeably when they shouldn’t be. And so it’s confusing for most people. And so what I have found is that if you’re not clear on what each of those are, it can be really difficult to know what you need or ask for help or find the right resources.
So I’m really passionate about helping find clarity throughout these. So let’s start from, you know, a platform. So a platform is like a click up, right? Click up is a platform. Or of course there are other platforms like, you know, later first scheduling on Instagram or depths auto active campaign. There’s so many, right, but having a platform does not mean you have a system.
It’s really how you utilize the platform that you can create systems within a platform being signed up on click up does not mean you have a system being signed up on any software does not necessarily mean you have a system. You can create systems within the platforms. Like we create systems all throughout clicker and they can go hand in hand, but they are different things.
So a system is something that can actually be documented, right? A system is something we can put into an SOP that we can duplicate and do over and over again. And then an automation of course, is something that is going to be automatic. But again, it’s different. Not all of your systems are going to be automated. Some of your systems are not going to be automated and that it can still be a system.
It doesn’t have to be automated to be a system and you can house. So an example here too, all three of these things can go hand in hand is within click up. There are automations. So you can have the platform I’m just using click up as an example here, you have to pay me to say this, but wish they were. So you could use click up as your platform.
You could house your content creation system in here, and you can have automations in here as well to move things accordingly. So they can all go hand in hand. They are very different things though. And so I think being able to define those is really, really helpful. And being able to talk about things. Yeah, I love it. I wrote down that quote,
having a platform does not mean you have a system. And I think that is so powerful and that’s really a great way to wrap up today’s show. Of course my like business coaching minus went crazy. Now I actually want you to reach out, to click up and have them sponsor a room on clubhouse in pay you to talk about it. Like, let’s get this right.
So click up, we’re going to tag you in this and you need to be, listen, you need to hit Brittany up, sponsor her clubhouse rooms because it’s, it’s good for everybody. So, all right, well, I just really appreciate your expertise so much. And we are going to be live in clubhouse on June. What did we say?
I think it was June the night at 12 o’clock Eastern time in the club that goes with this podcast. So this podcast club is called the sweet life entrepreneurs club. Search it up on clubhouse, hit me up, hit Brittany up, like send us a DM. If you want to know where the club is because Brittany sent me coming in live and we’re gonna be taking your questions from today’s show.
And this episode is going to drop on Monday. You have two days to listen to this and come in and let Brittany roll up her sleeves with you and help you guys get your SLPs and systems in place, you know, answering platform questions, whatever it is, we are here to serve and support you. Not just listen to this show, but to implement the show and put it into action.
So now you have a couple of, you have a resource as well, and I’m going to make sure all the things that we’re talking about here in the show notes for you guys. So what is a free resource you have for our listeners? Yes. I have a pretty doozy guide. It’s called five systems to take your business from scattered to scaling.
And it goes a little more in depth into all five of the systems we touched on at the beginning of this episode. And then also I actually include in the guide my own SOP templates. So there you go. Yeah. I’m so glad. Oh my gosh. An SOP template. Okay. So all of the show notes are going to be found@sweetlifeco.com like on the podcast.
And this is episode number 230, and everything’s going to be in there for you as well. But we want to see you guys in clubhouse, even you, Android users are getting invites now. So we want to see you guys in clubhouse. And if you need an invite, hit me up on Instagram. We have actually a lot of club invites they’re releasing to us.
So we’re excited. You can RSVP for this event and we’ll get you an invite to that, Brittany, thank you so much for your time. I’d love to everything we’ve talked about and clearly appreciate you confirm me. I’m not totally crazy about the way I’m supposed to be doing things and just really appreciate all your expertise, how clearly you explained things and those you guys who are listening,
please follow Brittany, pay her and follow and just thanking her for her expertise in Korean and tossed bang. It’s great. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. Have a lot of fun.
This is a great show for small business owners who are looking to scale but they’re missing the strategic foundational plan.
Summary:
When it comes to entrepreneurship, people just start working. But, sooner or later when the time comes to scale, 60% of businesses realize they are missing a strategic financial plan and the foundations needed to move forward. Today’s guest expert Arnesha Bobo, Founder of CFOForWomen.com breaks down her Smart Financial Roadmap and the first 3 steps to building your strategic plan in detail.
If you don’t know your numbers, don’t know how to analyze KPIs and you want your business to grow, this is an ideal business coaching episode to get your foundation in place. You’ll be surprised that the first steps actually have nothing to do with your numbers at all.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have 3 clear steps to start creating a clear financial plan
Understand how vision and core values must be part of your financial plan
Be aware of the 4 numbers you should know every month in your company
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate This week on episode number 229 of the suite life entrepreneur podcast. We are talking with Arnesha Bobo about how to create strategic financial plan for your business. Now, this episode is incredibly important because she actually says it’s 60% of businesses come to her.
Who’ve already been in business for an extended period of time and never have a strategic financial plan. So in this episode, Arnesha breaks down everything that you need to know, and the first three steps to create your strategic financial plan. So the reality is as entrepreneurs, we just kind of get in there and start doing the work, doing the business,
selling the service and miss a lot of foundational steps. But when it’s time to scale your business, or when it’s time to get funding, when it’s time to apply to be a member of, of some sort of a, a board or an organization, people are going to want to see your numbers and you need to see your numbers in order to continue to be profitable.
And then this is the episode where we dive in and help you really start building that out. And so that, you know, the process that you get to go through in order to fully take control of your numbers and your business. So let me give you an indication here of who this amazing woman is. First of all, yes, I met her on clubhouse.
I know don’t laugh at me. We are going to be going live in clubhouse on Wednesday that this show airs again. This is episode number 229, and that is going to be Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021, 12 o’clock Eastern time. Join us in clubhouse because what we’re talking about here, I understand that you might have some questions. So it’s really important that we are then taking this from just a podcast,
this one way conversation and giving you an opportunity to really workshop with our Neesha, to get your questions answered. And so Wednesday, June 2nd, join us at 12 o’clock Eastern. Let me give you an idea of who this amazing woman is. She tells her story. So I’m going to summarize this here, but our niche as a small business CFO in strategic planner,
she works with women, led organizations who are ready to gain visibility in their finances and build a smart growth strategy together with her clients. She focuses on three key areas, capital structure, profitability, and growth planning. She is absolutely amazing. I know that you’re going to love her. And I’m so excited to invite you to tune into this episode. Again,
as we always say, all the show notes can be found by going to Sweetlife co.com. This is episode number 229. So all these links, everything that we’re talking about here are going to be waiting for you on tap. And if you’re a new listener to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, thank you so much for coming. I’m April beach, founder of the suite life company.
And I am absolutely stoked to have an opportunity to welcome you on this show. This show we’ve been named top 50 moms in podcast, but the show isn’t just for moms, all of you are welcome here. And we deliver a business strategies and trainings that other coaches charge thousands for. As a matter of fact, this podcast is part of one of the giving missions of our company.
And we’re pouring into you week after week for four and a half years straight so that you know that you can take the business trainings and strategies that you hear here, here on here, here, here, here on this show, and truly implement them and take them to the bank. So thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for being a subscriber of this show.
And I appreciate you so very much. Now let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. All right, friends. We are joined by my new clubhouse friend. Yes. I know another new amazing club friend that I have met. And so grateful for clubhouse are Nisha Bobo. And she is here because of the fact that she has been in clubhouse rooms with me,
literally drilling down on what women need to know about their money. She is absolutely amazing. She’s a CFO for women. I can’t wait for you to meet her. And today on the show, we’re talking about creating a strategic financial roadmap for your business. And our Nisha is going to walk you through the steps in order to do that. So, or Nisha,
thank you so much for coming to the show. Thank you for spending time with me here and all the time that we’ve spent together on clubhouse. And tell us a little bit about you and what you do. Yes, absolutely. I help women become better leaders in their business by improving their decision-making women are the fastest growing demographic of business owner. Yet they are the least paid.
They’re not growing in other industries. And most importantly, they’re not getting access to funding that they need to help either grow their business or expand in other markets. So I help women. We’re all things, money with all things, money. I love that. Okay. So reminds me. I was actually in a meeting a week ago with an author of a book it’s about the new entrepreneurship and he was talking about women and minorities and immigrants as well coming in,
and that they don’t have funding, but this gentleman who funds a lot of regular business was saying, they’re looking at ways to create new programs to do that. So just decide now, but it was very interesting to hear and just triggered me to say that because I do think that the funding hopefully is coming around, but like what we’re going to talk about today,
there’s a lot of things that every business owner needs to do to get their ducks in a row before anybody will even pay attention to fund them. And those are the things you’re going to share with us today, but tell us a little bit about you and you know, really how you got into this, why you started your company and your, your journey about getting yes,
absolutely. I have a 14 year corporate accounting career. So I’ve worked with very large companies. I’ve managed multi-billion dollar portfolios. And when I first started my company, I was at a nine to five or so I was a part-time entrepreneur, like many businesses starting out. So I would, you know, work my full time job, my nine to five.
And then I would go home and work on my business, five to nine, how I became a consultant. I actually work with the procurement department for some corporations. And if you are familiar with the procurement department, that’s the department you go through as a business owner to get corporate contracts. So you have to go through a procurement process, you have to register your company with them.
You have to submit financial information, you have to apply. And then you start bidding on different contracts that they have. So you can do this at a corporate level, government level, city, state, and federal, but I was at the corporate level and I noticed a lot of businesses did not qualify to do business with these corporations because their business head,
no proper foundation. So they were not set up correctly. They didn’t have access to financial information because they only met with their tax accountant once a year. So I found myself a lot of days working with business owners to set their foundation up just so they could do business with that corporation. I am not a gatekeeper. If there’s an opportunity for me to help you come on and come on,
but I want to make sure that everything is done correctly. So that’s how I started my business is helping other small businesses get into these corporations to do business with them. And then it started to grow from there. I later joined a national organization for women. It’s called<inaudible> the national association of women business owners. And I joined to become a better business owner because I had that corporate mindset and everything was structured,
but I wanted to learn how to be a business owner. So I joined this organization, you know, attended some events, was able to do a couple of reasons, patients or answer questions that event. And I caught the eye of the president at no idea that she had watched me or she, you know, I was on her radar. Well,
she asked me to join the board. And as I actually, yeah, I joined the board as a financial secretary. So I was responsible for doing all of the financial reporting for the organization at our chapter level. And I started working with a lot of female owned businesses. So that’s how I, you know, that’s why my core are women because I was able to help them birth.
And I’m a woman. I love women. I love to see women win mommies, aunties, everybody. I want all women to win because I coming from corporate America and just seeing the huge disparities between men and women, the earnings, all of that, I was like, oh no, any opportunity I can help women. I’m going to do that.
So that’s how I kind of got started. And I actually left the organization because relocated to Atlanta. So I’m in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of entrepreneurship. And I actually joined another business organization. It’s called the Atlanta black chambers. It’s a chamber dedicated to helping black businesses grow coffee. I have the executive director of course started. So, you know,
do a lot of great, amazing things. Patients with the chamber got into leadership. So I chaired a couple of committees. I co-chaired another counting the financial services committee at one event. One of my chamber members actually invited me to speak at an event because she was a program manager for a city accelerator. And I was able to get a contract with the city.
So I got my first contract sole source. I didn’t have to go through a bidding process. And that’s one of the longest standing contracts that I have. So now I teach a financial consulting to new and small businesses here. Wow. That is an amazing story. I mean, your story is just amazing. There’s so many things that people can take away from that story alone.
And I think that like, it is remarkable. You are clearly very good at what you do, but I love the part of it where you just did it and people recognized it because you did the work and people recognize you for just like being true, doing your skill, doing the work and connecting important into others. Yes. Thank you. If I was building a personal brand and didn’t know that I was building a personal brand.
Yeah. You had no idea. That is so amazing. That is so cool. Congratulations to you. And I hope our listeners are like, okay, like I can do this. Like there, isn’t always some big, huge, hidden strategy behind it. It’s just leading with what you know, doing good work and pouring into people and you get recognized and you get elevated.
You get brought up. Yes. We could just end the podcast. This is today’s lesson, boys and girls. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you currently teach businesses on a regular basis. How to get their financial Jackson row, how to get their foundation in place. You do it on clubhouse all the time. If you guys are not following our Nishawn clubhouse,
please make sure you do that. Is it our Nisha Bobo? Yes. We’ll make sure that’s in the show notes for you guys as well. Plus of course our Nisha is going to be going live with us in our suite life podcast, clubhouse room though, week this show drops and you get to connect with her even more directly and bring your business questions.
So that’s just a side note, those of our listeners that know that, and can’t wait to have this conversation in a live setting. So you can get a chance to really workshop with our listeners too. So what we’re talking about today is really creating a roadmap for your business. And you have a method, you have a way that you bring businesses through this and it’s so important.
And when you explained it to me, kind of behind the scenes, before we started recording, I was like, oh yeah. Oh yeah, that’s really, really good. So today you’re going to guide us through really the first three steps of that process of that business roadmap. So why don’t you go ahead and get us started here for those of our listeners.
You guys should have a pen and paper, please make sure you’re taking notes or if you’re driving or at the gym or wherever, you know, you can always come back and replay this. So what is the first thing businesses should do in order to really start creating a great foundation? Thank you. Yes. So the very first step is creating a solid foundation.
I work with hundreds of business owners a year and they, most of them just get into it. They just get into business. You just started doing it. There was no business plan. There was no page today. Your business is not registered. You don’t know which state you’re at should pay taxes. And like they’re all over the place. So I’m going to help you right now,
create a foundation, a solid foundation. You need a business plan or some type of strategic plan, right? We’re known in our industry for strategic planning. That’s our jam. We do strategic planning from the top to the bottom of your organization. I have a top down approach. You need a plan. The very first step of creating your foundation, whether you are a new business established business,
you’ve been in business 15 years, every single year, you should have a plan. And that plan should start with your vision. What is your vision for your company for this year short term and long term, right? Where do you want to grow this year? What do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to improve this year?
What do you want to be this year? What is your vision? Create a vision and stick to it because you are the leader of your organization and your team is going to follow you in your leadership style. They need to understand your vision. They need to understand where you’re trying to go. I had a meeting this morning with my marketing strategies that I just hired.
And I sent her my strategic plan and she was like, oh my God, I’ve never had this happen before. Right. Never had a strategic plan. It lists our goals, our objectives, everything. I want her to have clear direction on what I need her to do for my company. I absolutely love that. Okay. I totally geek out on that whole entire thing.
As you know, like we do strategic planning when it comes to drill out Venus suite of offers. And we were talking about this behind the scenes too, but like the whole financial side of it is so big and there’s so much more of a process that people don’t even talk about. And I’m not an expert in that I don’t, you know, build out their,
their financial plans. And so that’s why, like, I’m just geeking out on the whole strategic plan thing. So let me ask you a question here. And this is, I think a lot of our listeners, we have businesses that are scaling, who are listeners. We have brand new businesses when we are talking about guilt or like, this is a problem.
Like when is it usually with, and sadly, this is the case. Although it shouldn’t be entrepreneurs, aren’t very proactive on the things that, you know, we really just don’t want to do that. Isn’t fun. It doesn’t feel like we’re creating anything. So obviously they need to do this in the very beginning. Every business should be doing this in the very beginning,
but honestly, how many businesses do you guys have coming at you that have been in business for a long time? And they don’t have any of this? I’ll say about 60% because, and the reason why they don’t have it in a place, like I said, when they start off, it just started doing business. There isn’t a roadmap in place.
You just started doing business because you are good at it. Or you don’t really think it through or plan it out. And typically when you start to hurt in business or something goes wrong or not making the money yourselves or not increasing in your conversion rates are low. There’s a problem somewhere. And you need to just pause, pause so we can figure out what’s not working where the issues are and create a plan to fix that issue or implement some type of solution that will fix that issue.
But if we don’t know what the problem, if you don’t have visibility on the problem, and you’re just trying to figure it out, that you’re going to continue to build yourself in a hole. So you need to just stop and figure out what’s going wrong. I’ll use myself as an example. I struggled with creating content because as an accountant, when I first started my business,
I sounded really technical. My language was very technical and my content was not combining. I hired a content strategist. I was like, because look, I have tried Facebook. I’ve tried Pinterest, I’ve tried this. I’ve tried that. And I’m just not seeing the conversions or the view. I’m making the money. That’s not the problem. It’s the view.
And she was like, oh, this is the issue. And this is the issue. But I had to hire an expert to tell me where the issue was. And I was like, oh, okay. So now we have a map in place. Now she’s like this. We start here to create this and you create this. And this builds on that.
And then boom, there’s that content static every over, like over the next, maybe seven days, I saw a drastic improvement on our views. I was like, okay, thank you. I love that. Okay. So you guys are listening. If you haven’t done this yet, like, don’t feel bad. Don’t feel guilty, but it’s probably time to stop.
If you don’t have this financial foundation as our Nisha is saying and place, all right. So after this strategic plan is created, what comes next? What’s step number two, that people should really start diving in to understanding. So step number one is creating the foundation, solidifying your vision. After you create your vision, you also need to create core values and smart goals.
Your core values. You know, this is how your compass is what your company believes in. This is what you support. And this is how you pretty much operate. We have six core values in our company, and I always work with a business to create them when we’re going through the strategic planning process. So step one, creating a foundation, eat a vision,
core values, and smart goals, right? And a lot of times with the goal planning every year, every January, we all get excited. We’re going to create these 15 goals and we want to achieve all these things. You have to structure your goals and organize them, right? You don’t need 10 goals. Maybe you just need three, three short term,
three long term. That’s six that’s enough for the last year, the entire year. So creating those goals is enough, right? So step one, foundation, step two. We’re going to get into business performance. You need to analyze and assess your business. So once we solidify your vision with your company, the next step is I’m going to do a full,
I’m going to analyze your business top to bottom. What’s not working in operations. What’s not working in finance. What’s not working with you. Hiring people. I’m looking for missing processes. Do you have a hiring process in place? Because if you don’t, you’re probably not compliant with the state you’re operating in, right? Do you have a business budget in place?
Do you understand how much money you’re projected to make? How much are predicted to spend and your contribution margins? Do you understand your profit margin? So we get into some KPI reporting. I’m a numbers person. So I’m going straight for processes and then numbers. So making sure you have bird’s eye view and business owners, they typically only want to know how much money they may,
how much is left over and how much they only taxes. There are so many other moving it’s telling me this. I’m fine. Just tell me the rest I’ll be on. I’ll be on a beach somewhere. Yeah. Just give me those three things and we’re good. Oh my gosh. Those three things are, there are still other factors that you need to understand total income,
right? What are your top revenue performing items? If you offer, if you have a full product landscape by April, you work with businesses to build out their product suite. So business owners need to know what are their top performing, you know, products or startups. Don’t just dump everything in sales, right? That you need to see everything listed out expenses.
What are your top expenses, right? How much of your expenses contribute to your labor? What are your labor margins? If you have a team, how much is your team costing you? Right. I know for a fact on a 70, 30, no product that I released is going to cost me more than 30% of their product so that I can remain 70% profitable.
That’s how we build our service landscape. I’m not reducing my total projected income or increasing additional costs. Say that again. That was so powerful. Can you say that again? Cause I want to make sure our listeners did not just pass that up. Okay. So listen to this financial structure for your products. Okay. So what is your, what is your,
when are your numbers right? 70 30. So that means out of a hundred percent, it only costs me 30% to produce my services so that I walk away 70% profitable. That’s a very small conversation around pricing, which that’s a whole different conversation, but you need to understand your profit margins going in. How much is it going to cost you to produce this product or service?
How profitable do you want to walk away be? So I know every time we create something, whether it’s a bootcamp, a group coaching program, authoring a book, whatever it is, we’re going to walk away. So many percent profitable. If I cannot do that, I need to restructure the cost. Amen. Yes. And this is a thing,
and I was actually speaking to a client about this this week. And we talk about it all the time. Like in your clubhouse rooms, I was in there and you were talking about this. The thing is, is that when we’re, most of our listeners obviously are online, businesses are offline going online. And so what I tend to see is that they purchase so much software and they have no idea how much money they’re spending on an ongoing basis as well,
and what they actually need to use to produce that particular offer or a product. And so this whole entire conversation is, is just so helpful. So thank you again for being here, talking my best today on the show. Okay. So know your numbers and like down and dirty, what are the numbers that people need to know? So knowing your total revenue,
knowing your total income, how much money did you make, even if you use a lot of payment gateways, like, Hey, Pao, Stripe, square, collectively, you need to know your total income, right? You need to know number two, your total expenses, how much money are you spending? Like you just mentioned, April people use all of these tools.
We downsized all the time. I have what’s called shared services. So if we are creating digital products or consulting services, I want to utilize the same system. So I can just do a percentage allocation across the board. I’m not going to implement a ton of systems because that affects my profit margin. So total expenses, total income, and your bottom line.
The difference between your total income and total revenue is your bottom line. Are you operating at a net loss or are you operating at a profit? You need to monitor that every single month because that’s going to affect you at tax time or when it’s time to seek capital when it’s time to grow. When it’s time to have the bit management conversation where you want to apply for funding,
you need to understand your bottom line and all the factors that positively or negatively impact your bottom line. Yes. And a lot of businesses right now have also spoken to clients about this. As far as that, the relief loan, like the COVID relief loan. Like if you don’t have these numbers and you don’t know if there’s been a loss or a decrease or whatever,
then you know, they aren’t there. Aren’t qualifying for some of this really powerful cash injection that they can get it. They weren’t in 2020, they can get into their business. So, so important. And then KPIs, can you really like dumb that down? Explain that. So people really understand how to look for this in their own business. Yes.
KPIs are key performance indicators. So these, there are ratios to help you analyze areas of your business. Like your have revenue KPIs, you have labor KPIs, you have production KPIs. So when I say KPIs like they’re in ratio form, so you’re just taking numbers and providing them over to percentages. My favorite is revenue growth. How is your revenue growing period to period when,
I mean, period, every single month is your revenue growing month, month, month, per quarter, or a month to a year. So how is your revenue growing while your a monthly recurring revenue, each department of your business is going to have their own KPIs? So you have financial KPIs, which I monitor. You have operational, you have logistics depending on the nature of your business,
traffic to conversion. So there are different types of numbers. It depends on your operations, you know, marketing, they’re going to look at visits to conversions or visits to sales, to figure out what’s working. What’s not working in this particular marketing strategy or marketing campaign. So just understanding how to analyze your revenue and your income, or all of your numbers for your business in a percentage capacity.
And don’t worry has a guide. We’re going to make sure that you have so that you can really start diving in this and make sure that you guys are taking action. As you know, here in the show, like we’re going to give you the step-by-steps business trainings here, things you can look for, but then, you know, it’s your job to go and implement this.
And so our Neesha has a guide. That’s going to really start walking you through that process. We’ll make sure that you have a link to download after we’re done chatting here. Okay. And then what is this third step that you recommend businesses go through? The third step is creating a long-term plan. So once you have you slip out of your foundation,
you’ve created a operational plan for the year. It’s time to think long-term and long-term in the, the mains of everything, right? Capital are you, do you have the right capital structure? Do you have the right money in place? You have access to excess capital like lines of credit and business credit. Are you able to grow that you have debt in place?
Are you able to properly manage your debt? One of my clients incurred a lot of debt over the last few years. So we put together a very aggressive bit management plan to reduce their bit because it was affecting her bottom line. So you had this heavy umbrella of debt over your business. And if you’re in the rat race every single day. So being able to create opportunities to reduce that debt without hurting,
you know, operations, too much team, your team and operations capacity planning, what is your team doing now? What can I do better in the future? And how long can they do it? Right. We have a lot of technology that’s coming down the pipeline. A lot of AI, what can be automated in your business for us? We actually started out as a bookkeeping firm.
So we started out providing bookkeeping services and we’re quickly able to scale up to CFO services because a lot of bookkeeping services offer automated bookkeeping. So we’re doing the day to day, that can be done automatically. You don’t have to pay a lot of money for that, but the strategy and the planning you’re going to spend money on because a computer can’t tell you that you have to have somebody to sit down and read through the numbers with you and read through your operations and fill in that.
So number three is definitely planning for the loan term. Wow. What a powerful thing. I mean, that must feel so good for businesses to have you go in there now probably virtually and be able to help them unpack what they want and hand them a strategic plan to get that. I mean, just like for a second, you guys listening, like imagine what that would feel like to you to have somebody like our Neesha come in there and unpack all of this for you and what you’d walk away with.
And no, I don’t get like commissioned for making sure. She’s just saying, you know, like imagine how much that would take off your plate of wondering what you’re missing. See, here’s the thing I find that most business owners worry so much about the things they don’t know that they’re missing. They don’t even know specifically what they’re worried about, but they know that they don’t know enough about certain things that they don’t know enough about.
And they know that they’re there in sometimes business owners, even clients of ours, who’ve been in business for years and years. It’s like, they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And that is no way to run a business, especially creating a business. That’s going to skill you into the future. So I love everything that you’re saying. And it’s so incredibly important that businesses go through this process.
And after they figure out their long-term plan, you guys are Nisha has a full guide. That’s going to go into detail, but just really, really like top level. What are the next couple steps that people go through in this process? The next step will be assessing your tech deck. So what is what tech interviews is using? You know, do you have outdated processes?
Do you have outdated systems? A lot of times we found that companies that have smaller team, they have a team size. That’s unnecessary because too many people are doing too many manual things. There’s no automation in place. There’s no, there aren’t any sequences set up to trigger this action. When you have poor outdated processes, you have unhappy employees, you have a lot of manual work.
That’s costing you a lot of billable hours for your company. And most importantly, you have people doing a job that could be automated. I was an unhappy employee in one of my corporate dives because the tech was just so old and it was so manual. And I was just, this is, I felt like I wasn’t living up to my potential because I was trying to figure out how to automate this process instead of doing the actual job.
And you don’t want unhappy employees, you want people that are happy to do the work for you to help you in your organization. And they can help take things to the next level. Asset protection is another one, making sure your intellectual property is protected. I just had a meeting with my attorney because we were talking about some programs I want to roll out.
And she was like, make sure you send the prelim over to me so I can look at it to make sure it’s part of our IP deck. So making sure that your IP is protected and then last but not least for my small businesses tax planning, please, please, please free tax plan. That’s why no longer a number is important. You should not wait until tax season to know your numbers,
especially in a year like this. When we had an administration shift, we are in a pandemic there a particular way. Things have to be calculated. Are you ahead of the game? Are you being reactive or are you being proactive? I would prefer for you to be proactive when it comes to the pre-tax planning phase. So those would be the remainder of the steps in the rule.
Wow. Okay. So today we talked about creating a strategic financial roadmap for businesses and you are the founder of CFO for women and everything was so informative today. You’re always just giving so much not, you know, we say that I’m also giving so much value. Well, yes, it was incredible value. But today I just appreciate you so much.
And you do this in clubhouse as well because you really, really dialed it down to the tactics. It’s not just all about idea or strategy or what needs to be done, but it’s going through the tactics. And so I appreciate your time so much on the show today and how can people find you? And we’re going to make sure the links to your download are in the show notes as well.
So if you’re driving, you can’t write this down. No worries guys, but how can people really connect with you more? Absolutely. You can always find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at CFL for women. Those are the handles for those three platforms and I’m on clubhouse ads. Our mission speaks up there every Monday at 3:00 PM. I am also there some Tuesday evenings hanging out with April,
but I’m always there. I’m just slide in my DMS. If you have any questions, I’ll make sure you get access to the right resource. If you are in the city of Atlanta and you are a new or established business, but you need some additional support, you can contact the urban league, the entrepreneurship center and register for one of our free accelerated programs.
This is about $20,000 worth of free training for you and your business. I am one of the coaches for their program. So please come out and receive the assistance. That’s why you can find me. Wow. Yeah. Luckily Blog that goes out every first, Monday of the month, it’s called your bottom line. So you can go to www.cfoforwomen.com and click on blog.
It’ll take you straight to our blog. So we upload a blog every single month to help you get access to resources and strategies for your amazing, amazing, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. And this is Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, episode number 229. So everything that our Nisha just said, and you weren’t able to jot that down will also be found@sweetlifeco.com
click on the podcast. And this is episode two 29, and don’t forget to join us. Live in clubhouse under the sweet left entrepreneur’s club on Wednesday, the week this show drops, I’m looking at my calendar right now. I think we said, that’s going to be June 2nd, Wednesday, June 2nd, at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And Arnesha and I are going to be in there taking this conversation a bit further and strategically there to make sure you guys are getting your questions answered.
So thank you so much for joining us Arnesha. I appreciate your time and expertise. Thank you so much for having me
This is a great show for women who know they are called to lead and need a plan to accomplish their goals.
Summary:
Goal setting is only as good as the plan you have to achieve them, your personal drive, and self-ownership of your goals to assure they come true. When it comes to building your future, you are the driver of that car and sometimes life and business get off track. In all cases, to get where you really want to go, you need a map that’s customized to your personal destination. On this week’s show Ashlye V. Wilkerson, empowerment and leadership coach for women, shares her Phenomenal Women Leading Pink Print Process™: 4 proven steps to get from where you are to where you want to be.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have framework of Ashlye’s Pink Print™ Process and know how to apply it to your life
Have immediate steps you can do today to make positive change in your future
Get tips on ways other entrepreneurs measure their goals to create your very own success measurement system
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate Welcome to episode number 228 here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach host and founder of the Sweetlife company, where we give you proven tools and strategies to design, launch, and scale your business online for 26 years collectively with our business and four years here on the podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us everything that we’re going to talk about. All of the resources, if you’re a listener, you know that you get a lot of gold from this show. This show is known for delivering business trainings and strategies that you can take to the bank, but business coaches charge thousands for you. Get them all here, free on the show.
So because of that, I want to make sure you know where to find the recap and the links and the resources mentioned on today’s episode, you can cruise over to sweet life co.com simply click on podcast. And this is number 228 today on the show. This episode is for entrepreneurs in the first three phases of my sweet life business system of the start to scale up online business system.
What does that mean? If you haven’t yet? We have a very short self-assessment that you can go take very simply by going to Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. And it will tell you exactly what phase of business growth you’re in and based on the base of business growth you’re in, there are certain things you should be focusing on this particular show falls into an appropriate tool for you to be focusing on if you were in phases one through three of that business system.
So that’s where you can access it. Make sure you’ve done that all the resources are of course, proven, trusted, and they are available to you completely free again@sweetlifeco.com forward slash quiz. So today on the show, this is what you can expect. We are talking about unlocking your potential in achieving your goals and dreams with the one and only Ashley Wilkerson. I can’t wait for you to meet this powerhouse woman.
She truly is dedicating her time and she’s dedicated her life to teach and elevate other professionals. And so she is such a gem and a treasure, and you are going to walk away with tangible tools. You’re even going to get access and understand her proven method to help women walk into empowerment and unlock their potential to achieve their dreams. She actually gives that to you here on the show,
and we dive in a little bit deeper to help you implement that process. So there’s a lot of great things coming to you today. So let me give you a little bit of an introduction. Ashley has received distinguished honors, such as being named the who’s, who among professional women, the state 2040 Columbia business, monthly best and brightest 35 under 35 national council of Negro women living a legacy award,
the ramp foundation education trailblazer Midlands chapter, the American business women’s association business associate of the year, Brooklyn Baptist church, millennial magic award, South Carolina, black pages, 2040 Columbia metropolitan magazine, top 10 Columbia young professionals, alpha Kappa alpha sorority incorporated. South Atlantic region married the vote in outstanding graduate member incorporated cluster seven leadership award United way of Midlands live United cheeky award and Columbia regional business report,
2020 phenom. Wow, she’s amazing. Let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show<inaudible> Hey, you guys welcome back to the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I am so excited to be joined here by my new friend, Ashley Wilkerson. And yes, we met on clubhouse actually is an absolute rockstar. As a matter of fact, she’s one of these people that,
you know, those people like you’re in a room and that’s the person walks in the room and everybody just gets happier because they’re there the whole atmosphere and the room is just like, Ashley’s here. Well, that’s what it’s like on clubhouse. You’re watching the video. You’re going to see this, you know, behind the scenes in this episode. And I’m so excited to have her on the show.
Ashley, welcome to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. Tell everybody about you, what you do and your superpower. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure, thankful for the opportunity. Love you April beach. And thank you clubhouse for club because I’ve had the opportunity to meet some phenomenal women such as yourself. So I greatly appreciate the here with the sleep life.
So I am a health and thought leader of the phenomenal women leading a community. It is a women empowerment community where we strive to help women become better versions of themselves, unlock their full potential and achieve the goals and dreams that they have for themselves and their lives personally and professionally. So it is an honor to serve as a coach, to the ladies in my community,
as well as a mentor and a friend, everyone in the community does not necessarily need coaching itself. They may be a part of the community for the support for the empowerment for the connections network with others is so there are different reasons why people join the community, but they do have the option to utilize the coaching services if they need to as well. And you know,
I know it’s such a fantastic resource because on clubhouse people actually come in the rooms that you’re hosting and talk about, oh yeah, I’m in your community. And I love it there. And I mean, there, there’s nothing more powerful as a coach than having other people who you didn’t even ask to be there, show up and be like, oh my gosh,
I love Ashley’s stuff. I love being part of this. So kudos to you for truly designing an engineering it place that is so real and safe for women to grow. So it’s amazing. The stories that I’ve heard people say about this community, and we’re going to be making sure you guys know how to tap into Ashley here. So let’s go ahead and talk about what business training,
you know, this, this show is known for business trainings and strategies that other coaches charge thousands for. And so our listeners I know, are fully excited to come and show up here and be like, oh my gosh, what is Ashley going to teach today? And so today you and your area of expertise, you are going to guide us through your framework.
And let me set you guys up for this framework because yes, I, I get to get a little peak to it before Ashley walks us through it today. But you guys listeners, you guys, you know how a lot of those coaches out there are saying, Hey, listen, you know, really live your dream life or walk into who you are.
And there’s a lot of motivation. There’s a lot of amazing inspiration out there, but there is a gap between where we want to be and actually how to get there. Well, what is so special about Ashley is she has a method and she has a framework to actually guide you to that process. And you’re going to get a sneak peek of that framework here today.
Actually, can you tell us just a little bit about how long you have been working with people and how you really got into this space of, of guiding women to empowerment and achieving their goals and dreams? Absolutely. So my background is actually in early childhood education and psychology child psychology. And so I’m a former kindergarten, first grade teacher and that’s how I entered into the space of education in the field of education.
But then as my career evolved, I became a teacher trainer. My first year teaching the school district hired me to lead a series of professional development sessions, teaching other teachers how to best teach reading. And a lot of the teachers were senior level teachers, meaning they had over 10, 15 years of experience and I was a first-year teacher leading and conducting those sessions.
And so in that moment, that’s when I developed a love, not only for children, but a love for adult learners as well and the entire continuum of education. And so that is really the core part of everything that I do. I believe that education is my true framework. That’s my pillar, that’s my foundation. And I bring that into everything that I do even as I facilitate and moderate sessions on clubhouse education is a part of my moderating style on clubhouse.
So that’s where I started with bringing adult learners into the fold of what I do. And from there, I ended up transitioning into higher ed. And so from teaching those professional development workshops, hosting conferences, leading seminars, developing curriculum, I then transitioned into the higher ed space. And I became a adjunct professor, a professor, a sitting on a university board of trustees and being really ingrained in higher education and the adult learning process.
And so transitioning into that, I initially taught in the college of education, but then I was approached by our local women’s college. And they asked me to do something that no one ever asked me prior to them, which was, Hey, can you develop a course for our women in leadership studies? Hmm. Interesting. You want me to develop that course?
Because my background is in education. So the courses that I usually develop are pertaining to education it’s early childhood and elementary education and they say, yes, well, your background is education, but you’re elected to a university. It’s a state level board. You’re the youngest, you’re the only woman of color. You lead leadership initiatives in the area you’ve completed different leadership preparation programs.
You would be ideal to lead the charge for developing this course and you’ll serve as the inaugural professor. And so I said, okay, I’d be happy to do that. But know that if I do that, I need the autonomy to develop the course as I see fit. And they said, sure, that’s totally fine. So I said, okay.
So I developed the course and I included an educational component. My husband always says that learning happens in a conversation. That’s what I sought to do in that course. So in that course, I didn’t structure it as me being the instructional authority for 14 weeks, I actually developed the course to include a panel discussion 10 of the 14 weeks. And what we did was I focused each week on a different topic.
And I feature women leading the charge in that topic area, in that area of expertise. And so one week it was women in religion. Another week, it was women in medicine. Another week, it was women in politics with another week. It was women in media. And so for 10 weeks I had women from all over the state of South Carolina,
come in, we had CEOs, we had senators, we had mayors, we had everyone doctors, attorneys, everyone from all backgrounds come in and they share their trajectory. They share their journeys, they share their teachable moments. They share their backgrounds. And that is where the true learning takes place. When we can glean from the insight of others, where we can learn from their experiences where we can ask them it real time questions that we have,
that’s how we then answer and unlock our full potential. That’s how we then develop ways that we want to improve, enhance what we do, what we offer, who we are or identify who we’re trying to be. So that’s how I entered into the space, but the course was for two semesters, it lasted for one year. And then that department was downsized in that course was not offered again after that.
And I became a mother of two during that second semester. And so I transitioned my schedule and I transitioned my life. And when I did that, the ladies missed the community because I actually opened up the courses. I opened up the sessions of the course for people in the community who weren’t students of my class. I made it open to the public and free admission.
So we had women coming in from all over to sit in and listen to these conversations. It’s a really grow and learn with the attendees and the participants and the feature speakers. And so I did that and they did not want the community to end. And so, as a result of them not wanting the community to EDD four years ago, it didn’t transition over into a Facebook community,
a small intimate Facebook community, a few hundred people. And then from there, it evolved into mentoring sessions and webinars offerings and our conference, our women empowerment conference. And so it just kept evolving and evolving based on the needs of the members of the community. And it grew even more so as a result of COVID and clubhouse, I say the two CS COVID club app.
And so I grew as a result of those two days, and now we have a platform on clubhouse. We have a platform on Facebook, we have touchpoints on other social media processes. And then we also have a targeted group on mighty networks through our mentoring circle. So it’s really evolved over the past four years. It’s evolved significantly. So over the past year,
as a result of COVID in clubhouse and yeah, that’s how we’ve started. Okay. So many this could go in a million directions from there. I’m going to, I’m going to hold to the promise of stain so that you can teach everybody your, your method here. A couple of things about this for our listeners. I think it’s really important for you guys to pick up on,
and I want to just highlight this. And what Ashley was saying is that you see the evolution of the process of business development. So often it is tempting to think that you want to start at the very end that you want to launch this thing. And it’s just going to be what it is. As a matter of fact, I had a client this morning that was struggling to move forward because she wanted it to be perfect.
She wanted it to be at the end, but it wasn’t an evolution of the business. And Ashley’s story is a perfect example, how your ideas and your intellectual property evolves and grows. And so this is just such a great example of such a powerful story. And so want our listeners to take that away. We could have just end the episode right there and just say,
see what Ashley did. It’s it’s so cool. So I, I just appreciate you sharing that so much. It’s just a lot of wisdom and business growth and development there. So as we’re sitting here right now, we did meet on clubhouse. I actually remember now, I think we’re in one of John Lee’s rooms and you were asking a question about mighty networks,
which is a whole nother conversation that we can have. And I think that was the first time that I ever saw you. And I love how you have curated a bunch of different places for conversations to happen. So smart, the way you’ve done that in here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, we’re extending the conversation too, as well with your method. This is an very important topic because of the fact that this is what every woman really wants,
but yet again, they lack the framework to get to this injury result. There is an idea there is this picture painted and there’s a feeling inside women of, of what they want to be and who they know they’re called to be. But there’s usually these barriers to get there in this process. So start guiding us through your process. First of all,
what is your process called so that everybody knows the phenomenal pink print? Yes. Okay. It is absolutely amazing. So this pink Framp process is Ashley’s and you ladies can bank on it. I will tell you, so, you know, kicking this off, you said the very first step in this process is really helping women to identify their goals. Can you walk us through the first step in this process?
Yep. So oftentimes, and I work with women on all ends of the spectrum. I work with a women who are transitioning out of college and they don’t know exactly what they want to do to begin their adult lives in their careers. I work with women who moms and significant others, and they spent a lot of time pouring into their children and their family so much so that they feel they’ve lost themselves,
or don’t quite know what they want to do next in their lives for themselves. And then I work with women who have had amazingly successful careers. They’ve achieved all the goals, they’ve done all the things, and they’re still stuck with what’s next, right? And so those are three different age points, but it’s really the same pain point that they’re experiencing.
Who am I, what do I want to do? Who do I want to become important aspect, an important element of our journey. And as women, we experience that element several times through, out our lifespan, our lifetime, our journey. And so really, really focusing in on what goals do we have and what do we want to do next is so important.
And you have to really map out what those goals are. And those goals are not just for your professional side, it’s for your personal side too. So what are your personal goals? What are your professional goals? Where do you see yourself in the next year, two years, three years, 10 years, 15 years. Where do you want to be?
What are the goals you want to achieve during that time period? Where do you want to go? That is so critical. And that’s the first step of the pink print is identifying. What are those goals? I have a question for you. Do you find that when women come to this place and they want to identify their goals, do they ever feel,
I guess guilt is the word I’m thinking of? Do they ever feel guilty or shy or embarrassed? Because sometimes I know the women have huge goals. Like I want to be a TEDx speaker, or I want to do these really big things. And are women sometimes afraid of actually sharing how big they really want to be, because they feel bad about that.
Is that something that you see very often? So I see a couple of things. I see the confidence. Isn’t always there to work towards or to go towards those things. And so they’re not confident in who they are, their abilities, their value. They don’t feel worthy of attaining certain things at high levels. They feel embarrassed sharing. They get caught into the comparison trap of,
I don’t have what this person has. I haven’t done what this person’s done. I haven’t attained with this person hesitate. So I must not be able to get those things. And so they get sucked into that comparison trap that happens oftentimes. And then ultimately, sometimes the issue really is being able to name exactly what it is that you want for your life,
what that desire is, and then be able to walk towards that safe. And that’s why the pink print is so important because it helps you to name it. It’s to identify. What’s a part of it. What are the components of it what’s required to achieve it. And then it takes you through that roadmap of identifying strategies for doing that thing in achieving that thing.
Wow, it’s so powerful. Absolutely. And I can imagine that that is you have a great deal of experience in all these different situations, all these different reasons why women come to the table with a big heart’s desire, but yet all the excuses are the reasons why that they maybe shouldn’t or don’t deserve to achieve or do those things. So again, why your pink print is so powerful.
So after somebody goes through this process of really identifying what those goals are, what’s the next step? What do they do? So then the next thing I have them do is to get focused, gain clarity, because it’s one thing to have all of these goals. But if you are actively trying to accomplish all of these goals, but they don’t contribute to each other,
or they don’t compliment each other in any way, then you’re going to find yourself And Running all over the place. Right? And so you have to gain clarity and you have to get focused in, in order to do that. I walk them through prioritizing their goals. All right? So all of these are goals. Ours. I have a lot of goals,
but let’s put these goals into priority. And that priority is up to how you see fit, the priority that you set for your goals. So it could be a time priority. It could be a finance priority. It could be whatever it is, whatever way you define that, how already system it’s neither right or wrong, it’s yours. So you identify how you’re going to define that.
And then you prioritize it that way. Once you do that, once you prioritize it, then you go through and you get focused and you gain clarity on these are my goals. This is how I prioritize it. This is my roadmap. Because now that you have this, guess what the books you read are going to be determined by this rooms you attend on clubhouse are going to be determined by this.
The conversations you participate in are going to be determined by this, the things you watch and listen to, they’re going to be determined, this, the actions that you take, they’re going to be determined by this. And that’s what clarity and gaining focus for you. Woo that’s Right. That’s so great. So powerful. So powerful. I mean, just,
I had somebody called the other day a shiny squirrel. So it’s this, it’s this shiny object and squirrel absolute fix. And I think also when women can, I don’t know, everybody relates and sees things the way I do, but I know a lot of us are visual and we need to see things. And when we actually see that pink print,
we can actually see it there. And there’s just so much power in, in having something come to life in this very clear action plan. Okay. So somebody has gone through this process, they’ve gone through the process. They have this clarity, they have their roadmap that you’ve guided them through. They are seeing things the way they have never seen it before.
Almost a simplified way. A very, like all the noises calmed down. They’re hyper-focused, their goals are crystallized what now? So this is the step where we actually develop the pink print itself. One of the words that I use in, within my framework is called smart goals. Okay. And so for smart goals, you’re breaking down the acronym, smart.
You are making sure you have all of the components that are a part of that goal. So you have the specifics, you write specific details, information needed for that goal. All right. And then the M is for measurement. How do you measure if you’ve achieved that goal? How do you measure your progress? If you are on track towards completion of that goal,
what’s the measurement that you’re going to use? The a is for achievable. Is this goal achievable for you with the time, with your effort, with your skillset? Can you achieve it? The next letter R is for realistic. All right. Is this something that’s realistic for you to do? Is it realistic within a time frame? Is it realistic within your skill set?
Is it realistic based on the measurement? Is it realistic based on the specifics of the details you’ve identified. And then the T is for time, you set a time for when you want to start this goal and you set an anticipated time for when you would like for this goal to be complete so time. So I use smart goals, which is a framework within my framework of developing your peat print.
And once you’ve already identified those goals, you’ve gained clarity. You’ve prioritize those goals. You’ve made sure that those goals are smart goals. Now it’s about developing your strategy within your pink print. So what are your strategies for achieving each one of these smart goals? What are those action items that you need to complete for each smart goal to be achieved? And that’s the pink print that is genius.
That is absolute genius. As someone who teaches people, how to develop frameworks, this is why people in your programs are so successful is because you have taken the time to truly create a transformational program for them using these frameworks and frameworks within frameworks. And I have a lot of listeners that are laughing. Cause we talk about frameworks within frameworks and methods within frameworks here on this show all the time.
And sometimes they get our listeners are like really confused about that. Cause they’re trying to do it. What’s the difference? What comes first, a method or framework? Well, this is a perfect example of how Ashley has brought this to life in her transformational program. So great, amazing explanation and job. So I have a question for you also, because this is constantly a topic you’re on the show.
Totally random question. How do you find people tend to measure their own results? What are some examples of the way people? Obviously the goal is different. So that’s going to dictate the measurement, but just generally speaking, if some of our listeners are like, gosh, you know, I really, I really want to start measuring my results. What are some examples of the ways people can measure their own results as you’ve seen your students do in your programs.
And so some of this is a probing thing and I have to probe out of them, what I really want, what I need to know about what they want to achieve. And so for instance, one of my clients, they knew that they, they wanted to sell their new book project, right? And some question for her was how many units do you want to sell?
And I said, Hmm, let me think about it. And I said, well, you need to identify, you need to know how many units you’re trying to sell. Because knowing how many units you trying to sell will help guide you when you are utilizing your strategies. And you are really targeting in on your book promotion, you’ll know exactly how many people you want to target.
How many groups you need to speak to. If you’re on track for selling the number of books that you’re trying to sell. And then I challenged her to take it a step further. Now that you know how many books you want to sell. I want you to break that down into three categories that you offer. How many paper book, back books,
how many hardback books, how many Kindle versions? No, what you are striving to do, and then identify the measurement. So if a business owner says, I want to increase my revenue. By how much, if a business owner says, I want to sell more products, how many units, if someone says, I want to lose weight, how many pounds,
if I want to save money, how much do you want to say? If I want to eliminate debt, how much debt do you need to eliminate? Knowing what that number in that measurement is helps you to then target in, right? If you’re trying to make an additional $20,000 a month and you have services and products that are 1000, 5,000, 10,000 a year,
trying to make an additional $20,000 a month. Okay? It’s different to say, I’m trying to make an additional $20,000 a month versus saying, I’m trying to close two, $10,000 clients, right? Close $4 clients to close $21,000 clients. Great example. We took our goal from I’m trying to make more money a month. I’m trying to make an additional $20,000 a month.
I’m trying to close $21,000 clients too. I’m trying to close five of four or $5,000 clients too. I’m trying to close to $10,000 clients. Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent. What a great example of that. What Ashley just shared. So bring it down, down, down, down, ask yourself more specifically, more specifically, more specifically such a great example.
Okay. So your students, they’ve gone through this point. They have their pink print, by the way, such a cool name of your signature framework. I love it. And they have, they have their phenomenal women leading pink print. Yes. What happens next? And I already know what you’re going to say. And obviously our listeners are probably like,
okay, well then they need to do it. But like, let’s actually talk about what this really looks like in real life. What’s what’s next. So all of my clients will tell you that I’d say three things to them. Number one, take action. Number two. Don’t let me work harder on your goals than you’re working on your own goals.
And number three, I will fire my clients. Meaning I will fire you. If you’re not taking action, I will fire you. If I don’t see you committed to your process, I will fire you. If you’re not making progress, I will fire you. If you’re not doing your homework, which are whatever the action items are. I will fire you.
If you’re not honoring your commitment in yourself and your investment in yourself a year time needed support into yourself, into things that you want to achieve. Make absolutely that you’re taking action that you’re working hard on your goals is that you’re honoring the commitment with yourself. Amen. That is so important. And I love that you fire your clients. I think that is such an important thing to do.
It’s almost like you’re, there you go. I’m going to fire you because something needs to change here. And I, and I, and what was your second thing? Don’t let me work harder on your goals than you. We’re going to, we’re going to get that out. That’s going to be an Ashley Wilkerson quote that goes out how good This podcast episode.
All right. So my team, as you’re listening to this, pull that quote out of that is like the winner. It’s just amazing. And there’s one other point you said, you know, as we’re wrapping this up in the beginning is that you said to me before, behind the scenes, before we started recording and I wrote it down, cause I was like,
it’s just so important. Is it? You said, we, we bring all of what we are to what we do. We buy all of who we are to everything we do to everything we do that is also so important because I think that especially those of our listeners that are transferring from corporate and really getting into entrepreneurship or those people who have been entrepreneurs for a great deal of time,
which is a lot of our most registers. Now in that scale phase of their business, there is this division where people think, okay, well this is life and this is business, but I love your philosophy. It’s a philosophy that my husband and I abide to as well and our family. It really is. It’s everything who you are, is brought into this.
And I love how you teach creating this cohesive harmony between everything we were designed to do for the people that we were called to serve. And so I, I really love everything that you teach Ashley, and I love you being here on the show. I appreciate it. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. You just a gem. I absolutely love it. So let’s talk about how you guys can connect with Ashley.
So as you know, now we have our regular weekly Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast room on clubhouse happening every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time where you guys get to jump in and jam with our guests. Talk about the topic of this week. So this week, especially if you’re alive subscriber to this show on all of our podcasts listening channels, which is everyone,
as you guys know, even Pandora and apple music, now we’re everywhere as you’re listening, make sure you join us on Wednesday and you get to connect with Ashley directly as an extension of this podcast episode. So she is going to be there like she always is on clubhouse. Totally. They’re pouring into you and taking your questions and workshopping with you beyond what we’re talking about here on the episode of this show.
And besides that, okay, so those of you guys are like, oh my gosh, Ashley is exactly what I need. I’m ready to move. I want my pink print right now. Ashley, how can people move forward and get in line as far as joining your program or working with you privately? Absolutely. So they have a few ways they can do it.
They can connect with me personally. It’s a S H L Y E V on all social media platforms. You can connect with me at Ashley B on all social media platforms. They can also go to my link tree slash Ashley B. And when they go to my link tree slash Ashley B, they will be able to see, they’ll see the community group that’s on Facebook,
the free community groups. They’ll also see the option to get registered. So tin our second annual moving and leading phenomenally conference taking place on October 23rd, they will see details for coaching with me. They can join the group, mentoring, coaching circle community, or they can register to sign up for a free consultation with me for one-on-one coaching services. So either way,
whether they are in the free community, whether they are joining us on clubhouse. They’ll also see my, all of my social media connections on my late tree, so they can email me directly. They can tap into any and all of my social media pages right there on that page. Everything is right there, easy peasy for them to access me and access the phenomenal women leading.
Awesome. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show. I just have to send, or it’s my pleasure. Absolutely. For everything you’re doing and thank you, clubhouse for our listeners already been on there yet. So they’re Android listeners. So I promise you guys, you guys are getting on there soon in the meantime, connect with us on Instagram here.
And of course this is episode number 228 of these two great live entrepreneur podcasts. So we will make sure that all of the show notes are available for you@sweetlifeco.com click on the podcast and you guys know the drill episode two 28. We’ll have all the goods. All right, thanks again, Ashley. Appreciate you.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to understand how to use Clubhouse to grow your brand and business.
Summary:
On this week’s show we’re diving into how to grow on Clubhouse through Moderator Teams. Clubhouse is the ultimate collaboration platform. It’s a powerful place to build brand awareness(as we talked about last week) and generate revenue, but Clubhouse is unlike other platforms so how you approach your audience is through intention, giving and collaboration. This episode will show you how to get started.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know how to find your clients on clubhouse
Know how to create collaborations on clubhouse
Understand how to bring value to those you connect with and serve
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate April beach here, founder of the suite led company and host here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. And this is yet another week of business training and coaching. You can take to the bank today. We are continuing our conversation,
actually, an ongoing conversation that we’ve been having about clubhouse. And I’ll be honest, about five minutes before I’m sitting down here to record this show for you. I was just in over my head with eighth grade science and trying to help my son with science and wow. I had no idea what I was doing. And so it really feels good to be able to come and record a podcast in an area where I do feel like I know exactly what I’m doing so I can pour into you.
It is very humbling having teenagers and you can’t do their math or their science. I’m just saying that for the record, just a little behind the scenes here in the beach house, or you, they use so much for tuning in this week. This again is episode number 227. And this is what you can expect from hanging out with here with me here on today’s show.
First of all, this is for those of you guys in every single stage of my suite life business roadmap. And that is phase one through five. If you don’t know, you can go take a very simple quiz right now by visiting Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz and find out exactly what stage and phase of business you’re in and get a curated, customized checklist of exactly what you should be working on right now to get to the next level.
So this is for those of you in any phase, and I want to make sure that, you know, this is a good show for you to tune into it is for those of you who want to understand how to use clubhouse to grow your business and brand. Now on this week’s show, we’re diving into how to grow your clubhouse moderator team very specifically,
and talking about clubhouse in general, it’s truly the ultimate collaboration platform, and it’s a powerful place to build brand awareness. As we talked about a last week show. So tune in to episode number 226, if you haven’t listened to that one yet, and clubhouse is a really powerful place to generate revenue. And I also shared our stats and our numbers just within the first couple of weeks of participating on clubhouse in last week show.
But clubhouse is really not like any other social media platform out there. So I know that businesses are having trouble understanding really how to approach it, how to grow your audience. And so that is what we’re talking about on today’s show. At the end of this episode, you will know how to find your clients on clubhouse. You will understand and know how to create collaborations with other business and leaders on clubhouse.
And you will understand how to create a moderator team or join a moderator team, and really how to approach other people to create amazing collaborations that are good for you. Good for them, and good for the people who are in your room, listening and getting help from you. So if you’re ready for that, then we’re going to go ahead and dive in here.
And also, if you haven’t yet, please follow me on clubhouse in raise your hand, wave your hand and say, Hey, April, I’m a listener to your podcast. And I would love to welcome you on any of my stages. And of course, if you were not yet in our club, we actually have a couple of clubs. That first one is sweet life entrepreneurs.
You can just search sweet life entrepreneurs under clubs in clubhouse and join our club. That is an extension of what we talk about here on the podcast. So I would love to workshop with you and every single week at 12 o’clock Eastern time on Wednesday. So Wednesday 12 o’clock Eastern time, we host the sweet life podcast live room, and that is where we take your questions and workshop with you and give you extra support based on the podcast topic of the week.
So if you want more help and you have questions about how to join and build moderator teams, make sure you are joining me in clubhouse this week on Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And I’ll be there waiting for you to support you in doing that. All right. Are you ready? Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. All the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com
click on podcast. And this is episode number 227. I give a little bit of background information before we really dive into moderator teams. For those of you that are unfamiliar with actually how to use clubhouse. So, first of all, if you haven’t dove into clubhouse, or if you’ve been in there, talk to a lot of businesses that have tapped in there,
and they’re just like, I just really don’t see how to use it. Like I don’t get it, like just bunch of people talking to each other. So here are some foundational steps to get started. First of all, you want to curate the content that you see and clubhouse helps you to do that by selecting topics, you can go into clubhouse and you can select topics that interest you.
So that is step number one. If you have not done that, you can search clubhouse by topics and you can also search people and clubs by typing in certain key words. So if you are a speaking coach and you don’t how to use clubhouse yet, go ahead and type in public speaking or speaking trainings, and you’ll be able to join conversations on top of that.
You can also start following other people on clubhouse and clubhouse. We’ll give you some suggestions to do that. Now, once you get onto clubhouse, my first recommendation is just to start by observing, start by joining rooms, listening to rooms, listen to rooms of all kinds, not just in your area of business. Listen to how people, moderate rooms listen to the,
the culture that is being created in certain rooms in certain spaces and just chill and listen, you can take clubhouse with you on the go to the gym and the car, everybody multitasks on clubhouse. So first of all, step number one is curating the content you see, secondly, if you follow me and if you follow our clubs that like the Sweetlife life entrepreneur club or my second club called the wave makers club,
you’re going to be able to see who else is part of that club. It’s a, you’re going to be able to see a list of other like-minded people that’s already curated right there for you. So you could just simply go to sweet life entrepreneurs club and fall other members of the club. And that’s a really great way to get started. So step number one is curating the content you see,
start observing and follow people that have similar interests to you or serve a similar audience. Step number two is really connecting follow people. You want to connect more with off of clubhouse and on to Instagram. And this is something that I talked about last week, more in depth about taking your clients off of clubhouse. And so I’m not going to go in depth right now,
but I just want to share with you how this works in a really great way. So when you’re connected with somebody and you’re listening to them, speak on clubhouse, or you’re looking at their profile, they should have a link to their Instagram account. Some people use Twitter, but most people use Instagram. And so you can tap on that and you’ll still stay in clubhouse,
but your phone will open up another window, opening up Instagram directly to that person’s profile. And so if you heard somebody that said something that just really moved you, or if it’s somebody that you roll and want to connect with more, go ahead and follow them on Instagram, make a few comments on some of their posts and send them a direct message and say something to the effect of like,
I’ve heard John clubhouse. And I like what you said about XYZ. So start building relationships and start building great collaborations and friendships and, you know, really start complimenting and connecting with people. Just be really specific. I get so many messages on clubhouse. Some of them are just like, Hey bro, I saw you in clubhouse, which I love getting those,
but the best ones that I really stop and I’m able to respond to is when somebody says, Hey, April, I heard you on clubhouse today talking about this. And I just wanted to say that that helped me so much. Those are the messages where then I’ll respond back and I’ll be like, okay, great. I’m so glad that helped. Why,
how did that help? Why did that help? And then I can build more of a relationship. So, you know, try to be specific about the messages you’re sending to people in Instagram, from clubhouse. So this is just some foundational information about relationship building and how clubhouse works. Now, seven number three. First, I want to talk about joining other moderator teams.
Okay. So if you see a room and you go to a room and you just really love this room, you’ll start to notice it. Usually some of the same people are moderating again and again, you’ll start to recognize faces. And so those are what we call moderator teams. You’ll also see the way that teams work together. Whereas some of the hosts may leave for a period of time and they’ll really intentionally say,
Hey, listen, you know, Lindsey’s going to take over or Sarah is gonna take over. And so the moderator teams that are good moderator teams do a good job, communicating the fact that they are a team. And so when you’re in rooms and you see rooms that you want to be part of and you’re thinking, wow, I really could lend a lot of value to this.
Then talk about the opportunity of joining their moderator team. And here are my tips to do that. First of all, all of the hosts and all of the moderators, be respectful, follow the hosts and the moderators of the rooms that you want to speak up and raise your hand in. And just really a big advocate for that, that if you were going into a room and contributing in somebody else’s space,
that you should be following the host or the moderators that you know, at least those that you want to connect with, and those that invited you up on stage to speak. So that’s really step number one, step number two is follow their club. Make sure you are following the club of the moderator teams that you want to join or be a part of,
and then raise your hand to speak. Okay, here’s something I want to say about this. Don’t just join a room immediately, raise your hand to speak. Just like chill for a sec. Like feel the vibe in the room, listen to the conversation that’s already happening. Cause as soon as you’re brought up in stage rooms, run where you’ll either sit there for a really long time before you have an opportunity to speak,
or you could be brought up on stage and just be like fun right then. And somebody is expecting you to speak. So you really don’t want to be in a position where you come in a room, raise your hand to speak. And you’re like, Oh shit. Like what are we talking about? That’s really, really disrespectful. So just stay there for a minute,
get the vibe of the room and make sure that you can in fact lend some value to that room. Or if you have a question, please do not hesitate to raise your hand, clubhouses the place to ask questions. I know that there are some rooms that are really intimidating to ask questions for, or ask questions in. And I just want to encourage you to be bold,
speak up and ask what you want to ask. I also want to let you know that all of the rooms hosted under my clubs are really safe, great places to speak. Our moderator teams are amazing, and we really want you to always come into our clubs and raise your hand and ask any question that really applies to what we’re speaking about or how we can serve you.
Just a little side note. There, there are amazing clubs that have amazing welcoming moderator teams, obviously in addition to mine. But I do understand that sometimes it can be a little intimidating. So step number three, and talking about joining other moderator teams is raise your hand and ask to speak and add value to that room without selling. So if somebody is talking about a topic that is perhaps in your area of expertise or paired with collaborates well with your area of expertise and you want to lend to it,
raise your hand, ask to go up on stage when you’re invited to go up on stage, ask if you can contribute some value to the room. So first of all, you want to, you want to ask and be respectful for the moderators and just say, is it okay if I contribute some value based on a question perhaps somebody else had and don’t dine in dash,
okay. I called this like dining in dashi. Okay. When you go into a room and you’re up on stage, especially if it is a room comprised of moderators, and you’re really interested in joining their moderator team, stay there, like be present, show your commitment to the room and respect for the conversation and for those hosting that room. And of course for those people that are being served in that space.
So if you’re really trying to join a moderator team, I highly recommend that you intentionally be there. Like I say this all the time to my kids. And sometimes my students might business. Students is like this term be here. Now there’s a lot of multitasking. Like I just mentioned happening on clubhouse. You can be at the gym, you can be driving a car.
Most of us are, but still be mindful and present to the room that you’re in to be respectful of that space in stay, be present, continue to land value if you’re invited to do so and just stay as long as you are allowed to stay showing your commitment to that space and always lending with value, never leading with selling. You say that again,
always lending value, never leading with selling. In fact, when you’re joining a room where it’s another moderator team, you should never come up and pitch your own stuff. Period. You should only be lending value to that space unless somebody says to you, Hey, would you like to tell us what you do? You know, really who you serve and what programs are or what services you have available right now.
I mean, this is common sense. I think it’s common sense. You guys, you would be blown away by how many people, this actually is not common sense for, but be respectful. That’s all I’m saying is just chill. Be present, be supportive and be respectful. And then what you’re going to do is make sure you’re following all the moderators and the hosts in that room and ping the moderators off the platform and on Instagram and ask them,
compliment them, say, Hey, I love your rooms. I come every single week. You know, I’m showing up here consistently. I would love to add value. This is my areas of expertise or these are my superpowers. If you believe I add or could add value to your room, would you please consider allowing me to join your moderator team?
It just a very respectful, but it is important to ask because clubhouse is a busy place. And if you don’t ask for what you need, it’s going to be hard to get it. And so be bold, be respectful, show up to the room on a regular basis and then ask, in most cases you don’t want to just show up to a room.
You’ve never seen anybody before and ask them to join their mod team. They’re going to want to see you consistently and know that you’re trustworthy. When somebody adds you to their moderator team, they’re trusting you to serve their people. And that’s a great deal of trust and it’s direct representation of them and their club and their brand. So that’s how to join other moderator teams currently.
And I say currently, because clubhouses fluid, you guys, they are constantly updating this platform by the time this comes out, you know, we’ll have DMS in clubhouse and I don’t know, there’s no predicting, but I just want to make sure that you know, that the fundamentals we’re talking about here are going to apply based on however, the technology evolves.
And then the next thing I want to share with you, the final thing is how to create your own team, how to create your moderator team. So step number one is create your own club. You can create a club after you’ve been trusted by clubhouse. And that’s usually just a couple of days. You’ve kind of lost some lost some warning flags a year,
a newbie, but I would wait a little bit to create a club and make sure that you know, how your club is going to fit in amongst the other clubs and the value you’re going to bring to your space and how you’re different. So you can create your club. You want to brand it well, and just follow the steps that clubhouse has put before to create your club rules and club description.
And you also can put tags in your club about what the general topics that your club speaks to. Step. Number two is to establish a set schedule. You want to show up regularly. As a matter of fact, when I first joined clubhouse, we had to host regular rooms for at least three weeks in a row. In order for clubhouse to consider us launching the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club.
Now anybody can go in there and anybody can create a club, but it took us literally weeks and weeks of backlogs of proving that we were worthy in order to create a club. So you don’t have to go through all that. But I do recommend that you create a club and create a set schedule of when you’re going to show up every single week so that you can train your audience.
You can train your people. And not that you can’t change that schedule, but you want to start out with something set and something consistent. So plan your room schedule and your room content. What are you talking about? Name your rooms, really cool, catchy names. You know, open-ended questions for people to join that they know that they can contribute in your spaces.
And of course in all things, make sure that aligns with your brand and really how you want to establish your club as a leader and your company leading in a certain area of conversation. And then the next step is reach out to others and invite moderators who align with your brand and your voice and your mission to help co moderate rooms with you. Now,
there are a couple different strategies about how to go about doing this and they aren’t right or wrong. I’m just going to share with you the strategies and then you can choose what’s best for you. Strategy one is to find other people that do pretty much the same thing you do, other therapists or other fitness coaches, other van, life travelers, other surfers,
other speaking coaches, other graphic designers. So that’s step number one is finding other people that do the same thing as you and collaborating. I have hosted rooms in clubhouse with people that do very, very similar services to what we provide here in the suite company. And it’s so cool to be able to collaborate with them because still the people in that room,
they’re going to choose who they resonate with more. It’s not a competition in this space. So however you speak and show up. If you invite people to do the similar thing, some people are going to love you. And some people just aren’t and then that’s okay. Some people are going to want to work in your programs and some people are going to choose,
you know, the other moderator and that’s okay, too. So option number one is finding people who do pretty much what you do. Option. Number two is define those who provide different services and different areas of expertise, but who reached the same audience. So let me say that again, other businesses that serve the same audience, but they don’t do what you do.
And that’s the dream team that we have formed in our wave makers club. We have literally a business dream team of moderators and each person. And there’s usually a few people that have an area of expertise that are similar to each others, but we have created an entire complete pie. There are many pieces to a complete business, profitable impact business pie from Instagram strategy to how to use IgE TV.
You know, I have different experts that are on our moderator team, but one person talks about reels. One person talks about hashtags and of course, you know, marketing and branding and website development, but also leadership speakers and people that can come to how to delegate well, how to grow your teams. And so we curate a really amazing moderator team in that way that we go and we search because we know what the people who come to our rooms want and need,
and you can do the same thing. So whatever you do ask yourself, what are other things in my clients really, really need that we may not directly provide? How can I curate a team around like that dream team approach for our listeners in our rooms, that we can really curate a space where people want to come back to because they know that they are getting helped mindfully intentionally getting helped.
And then the last step, and this is just a logistical last step for you. I could do a whole I’d should, and we’ll do a whole episode on this is just to know, to create a back channel for your moderator team. You know, back channels are created primarily on Instagram, but also in text strings and WhatsApp. And so bring all the moderators who’ve agreed to moderate for you and your rooms into one place.
So you can communicate in the back channel while the room is happening live. I have had to numerous times send messages to my moderator T and saying, I’m so sorry, my dog won’t stop barking. Can somebody else emcee the room right now? Or I’m so sorry. I have to go potty, which like you got to go pee sometimes when you’re on clubhouse stages for hours and hours,
or I’m so sorry, I’m walking out of the grocery store, you know, having this back channel, sorry guys. I’m just keeping it real. That’s what I do. You know, having this back channel, just make sure your mic is on mute if you go pie. Okay. I mean this back channel and I’m communicating with your moderator team is really an amazing way to create a cohesive group of people that show up every single week.
And a couple of just insider tips that I do with my mob team. I usually present a question and the topic. So my moderator teams know what we’re talking about before every room. So they in their mind can start strategizing. They don’t just kind of show up to a room and be like, Hey, whatever. They already know how they can start strategizing and how they can help people in the room.
They also know how that topic can help their businesses grow. You know, our moderator teams they’re just to grow our company. You know, we love to position our moderators to help their businesses grow. It’s really a win-win win for everybody. It’s a win for us. It’s win for our moderator teams. And most importantly, it’s a win for the people that join our rooms.
So in summary, we have certainly talked about a lot today. This is how to build or join clubhouse, moderator teams, moderator dream teams. And that is a term that we use in clubhouse. That’s actually a term that we use in our business. We have business dream teams for our clients as well. And I’m so happy to be able to have an opportunity to talk to you today and to share these strategies with you.
If you would like more help on this, please join me on Wednesday at 12 o’clock and our suite life podcast live room under the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club. And we are here to pour into you again, this is episode number 227 at the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. And all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com click on the podcast. And this is episode number 227 and next week in episode number 228,
we have Ashley Wilkerson who is an absolute clubhouse powerhouse as a guest on the show. You just wait, you are in for a treat. She breaks down her entire methodology on how she helps women build a pink print to achieve your dreams. It’s amazing. And I can’t wait for you to hear her speak. Thanks so much for tuning in and being a faithful listener of the show.
Take a screenshot of this and tag me at April beach life on Instagram. And I will message you directly with the link to join our rooms this week so that you and I can personally Connect be awesome. I’ll talk to you again next time. Bye bye for now.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who want to understand Clubhouse.
Summary:
Clubhouse is a social audio app that enables conversations. It’s a great place to show your expertise by lending valuable information to live conversations. Clubhouse is also a great place to learn from others, network, build your brand, curate collaborations and simply connect with like-minded people with similar interests. Clubhouse is also a perfect place to find your ideal clients, and this is what we’re discussing on today’s show.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand how to increase brand awareness on Clubhouse
Understand how to write your Clubhouse bio as a multi-passionate entrepreneur
Know how to funnel people off Clubhouse and into your business
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. I’m so excited to have another conversation with you about clubhouse. In today’s episode, we’re talking about how to use clubhouse to grow your business. And I’m going to give you some examples of how you can dive in on the app,
whether you’re building a personal brand or a company brand, or whether you’re just not exactly sure what direction and what positioning you want to take professionally using the clubhouse app. So today this is what we’re going to cover. We are going to cover the fact that clubhouse is the place to be. I am not joking you the place to be, to build your personal and business brand,
to connect with amazing people and really how to understand how you can use this app. It’s a great place to show your expertise by lending valuable information to live conversations. But I also know, and fully understand that it’s kind of confusing for some businesses, depending on what niche you’re in, or maybe it’s even a little overwhelming. Now, even though the app is still in beta mode,
beta testing at the time I recorded this episode for you, you know, you go in there sometimes and you’re in rooms with couple thousand people. That can be a little intimidating. So I’m here to help you onboard. This is an extension of the last podcast episode we did for you. Episode number two Oh nine, if you have not yet listened to episode number two Oh nine,
about how to get started on clubhouse. Take just a second. Go listen to that episode first and then come back here. This is episode 226. So if you’ve not listened to two Oh nine and you’re just getting started from scratch on clubhouse, go listen to two Oh nine first and then come back and reconnect with me here. I will be here waiting for you.
Those of you guys who are ready to dive in more and know how to use clubhouse to build your business, to increase sales. This is what you can expect at the end of today’s episode. You can expect to understand how to increase your brand awareness on clubhouse, understand how to write your clubhouse bio, especially for those of you guys that are multi-passionate entrepreneurs.
We’re going to dive into that and just jam on that a little bit. So I can give you some direction and clarity, and you’re going to know how to funnel people off of clubhouse and into your business. This podcast episode is for those of you in any phase of my sweet life business roadmap, that start to scale up system that tells you what phase of business you’re in.
So regardless of where you are, this is a great episode for those of you in every phase of business growth and development, all the show notes and everything we’re talking about today, of course can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode two 26. And before we dive into the meat and potatoes here, I have a very special bonus to this episode.
If you have not grabbed it yet, it is the ultimate guide to choose the online business model. That is right for you. It’s an amazing guide. There’s over 15 pages in there that break out the difference between memberships and courses and masterminds. And I break out and explain to you how watching each one of those will affect your life. What the lifestyle side of it looks like.
So if you haven’t yet grabbed it, definitely pause this episode and very simply just go to April beach.com forward slash guide. And you’re going to get taken directly to the page where you can download that and access that right away. So it’s a really special bonus episode that is with today’s show. So if you’re ready to know how to grow your business by using clubhouse,
let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. Okay. So let’s first start talking about what is clubhouse, right. Again, if you haven’t listened to episode number two Oh nine, please go do so. Otherwise let’s keep going. Clubhouse is a social audio app that enables conversations. It’s a great place. And I mean, a great place to show your expertise by lending valuable information to live conversations is also an incredible place to learn from others network,
build your brand curate collaborations, and simply connect with other people that are like-minded. They have similar interests as you do. And clubhouse is also a perfect place to find your ideal clients. And this is what we’re talking about on today’s show. So let’s go ahead and do just a little teeny recap of episode two Oh nine, to make sure that we are all on the same level base information of what we’re talking about.
So the thing with clubhouse is clubhouse enables human level conversations, human connection. It is a place to have actual real life, real time live conversations. So I want you to imagine being on clubhouse as if you have gone to an in-person networking event and you’re having amazing conversations, you’re sharing what you do. You’re listening from other people who are sharing their magic.
Usually there’s probably somebody who is the host of that networking event. And they’re kind of orchestrating that event. That is what it’s like to be in a clubhouse room. You show up to this networking event. There’s one person who’s usually the primary host of that particular one room. And they have other people that are there helping them moderate. They are leaders in creating the great networking environment.
That is what it’s like being on clubhouse. It’s an excellent way to build relationships with people you have never met before. And it is rare time right now at the recording of this show, where I was in a room last week, listening to MC hammer. And there was only 50 people in that room. So there’s an amazing opportunity to really connect with people in a very real level.
And I understand if you’re listening to this and it might feel a little frustrating if you aren’t on clubhouse yet, even if you’re, you know, especially if you’re an Android user, but we do have great news to you that they are rolling out beta testing for Android right now. So all of us are going to get to hang out there together on clubhouse very,
very soon. So when we’re talking about clubhouse, I want you to understand that clubhouse creates an instant warm connection with you and somebody else. You have just had a conversation with somebody else, or somebody just listened to you speak. That is a very important thing as a business leader or an expert. We want the opportunity to get in front of people that we can serve and help.
And that’s what clubhouse does. So today I’m going to share three different tips, three different steps to build your business on clubhouse. And I’m going to do them in somewhat of a sequential order. So first I want you to do one thing and then the next, and then the next, and I’m also going to show you the flow of how we get people off the clubhouse app in,
into your business. How do we take them from that company to a client? Cause that’s what, that’s what you’re here for in this episode. So I want to make sure you know, that this is how I’m going to take you through this today. So step number one, what’s talk about your clubhouse, bio unwell, like other social media platforms,
where you really can’t say much about yourself. Clubhouse gives you generous space to share your expertise, who you help, what your intentions are for being there on the app. And your bio gives other people an opportunity to connect with you right there in your bio. You have a generous space of information and the top two lines are the most important part of that.
Because as nobody’s looking at your bio, they’re only able to see a short preview. It’s like, it’s almost similar to the same thing. We call it above the fold on a website there’s above the fold on your clubhouse bio. And it’s just first couple of lines. Not only that, those first couple of lines are also searchable. So what you put in there is very important for how you want people to find you and what you want them to know about you and getting them to trigger whether or not they want to keep reading on to read your bio more as an example,
the top couple of lines in my bio, the very first three words, our online business strategist. And so when you search me and clubhouse, I’m coming up all the way at the top when you search online business strategists, because I’ve been really yes, pun intended strategic about those words. That’s how I want to be found because that is what I do.
And so, as you’re writing your bio, I want you to know that it is really a piece of it content. So I want you to treat it accordingly. And I want you to go through outline what you do on the top and give people some really fun, special things to know about you. Also in the top couple, you know, lines of my bio currently in there,
it says lifelong lifestyle entrepreneur. That’s something that’s unique about me and a little bit different. And so I also include that in the top part of my bio. So your bio is a generous piece of space and you need to use it accordingly. It is truly a piece of content. Now, one of the questions that I often get actually all the time in clubhouse rooms is how do I share my bio?
If I have a lot of things going on, if I have a ton of different things that I’m working on and a ton of different things I’ve done, you know, what do I, what do I put in my out? Well, let me give you an example between my husband and myself, we own four different companies and I’m a nonprofit founder and I’m a mom of boys and I’m an author.
And, and, and you’re the same way. And I’m a podcast host. And so you want to be very good about using that space. Now here’s tip number one. You want to choose the primary business or service that you want to be known for. We’re on clubhouse, both here in your bio and how you show up speaking in rooms. That’d be very clear about what you do and who you help primarily,
but clubhouse is an amazing opportunity to share multiple things that you’ve done. Share your street, credibility, share the projects that you’re working on and share other fun things about you. So, as an example, in my clubhouse bio, you’ll find my expertise on top and some interesting, kind of funny quirky facts about me. You’ll find a statement of the exact problem that I solve and who I solve it for.
And some further street, credibility press different ways to connect with me, but also in my bio, you’ll find a list of funny things. Like I love taking fermented mushrooms and I’ve lived on my own since I was 13 years old. Those are the things that you’ll find. And so your bio should be a place where you can establish your expertise, but also a place where you can list other things that are very special about you that make you human.
And that is why this is such a powerful opportunity that clubhouse gives you. So please don’t overlook, creating an amazing bio. And with this said, I’m going to put a link in the show notes for this episode. My friend Mario Armstrong is like the bio King. He’s the one that taught me how to write my bio. And he has an amazing bio and furthermore,
she’s always updating it. So with that being said, I’m going to put a link to Mario Armstrong, and I want you to follow him on clubhouse. If you’re on the app and you are there already, or soon as you get on clubhouse, because he will always have this top notch example of how you write your bio on this app and create connections.
I also learned something very powerful from him that didn’t come from me. So I want to make sure, you know, it came from him and I’m just sharing it with you on today’s show. One of the things that he does it recommends for people to do is if you have very, very different companies, you run very, very different things that he actually writes up his bio and a note pad on his phone in when he enters different rooms,
he can very quickly copy and paste and change out his bios, according to the room that he is in. So that is a great tip from him. I have not done that. I’ll be honest. I have not personally done that, but I have, I know that he does that and I know that other people do that. So I wanted to share that tip with you on this show as well.
So step number one is updating your clubhouse bio step number two, connect your Instagram to it. And it should be your business. Instagram, if you have a personal Instagram, but yet you have a business clubhouse works in tandem with Instagram. So it highly recommends you connect your business Instagram. Or if you don’t have one, upgrade your Instagram to a business account conversations that happen on clubhouse,
get taken off clubhouse and they become conversations that happen on Instagram or Twitter. I’m going to talk and dive into the Instagram aspect of it because most people use Instagram and connection with clubhouse. Currently. Now this is what is important about this. When somebody meets you or hears you speak on clubhouse, or maybe they just are standing next to you in a room and you aren’t even speaking on a stage and they,
because there’s nothing else for them to look at, see your amazing profile picture, click on it. And then they go and they click from your bio. There’s a direct LinkedIn. They’re going to check you out. One of the things that’s important is your Instagram should back up what you say in your clubhouse bio. And it should back up what you speak about on clubhouse stages.
Your Instagram is an extension of who you are and how you show up on the clubhouse app. So what happens when you do this well is your Instagram starts to grow as well because people will follow you on Instagram from clubhouse. So it’s very important that you understand that the conversations that happen on clubhouse, then get taken off the app on to Instagram. And here are some tips of how you convert people from clubhouse.
Even when you’re speaking live on the stage, send them over to their Instagram, to book or buy for you from you. One of the most important things that you can do if, and when you are a hosting room in have an opportunity to share how to work with you is to give very clear instructions on what people should do. I’ve seen it done a million different ways that are not clear.
And I want you to know the clear way to do it. As you were speaking on stage, I want you to give clear instructions to what somebody should do when they get to your Instagram account. You don’t want to just say, Oh yeah, just shoot me a message on Instagram, because then what we’re asking somebody’s brain to do is come up with what they want to say in that message to you instead,
make it very, very easy. I want you to come up with one key word and I want you to say, and if you were here in this room and you would like to connect with me more regarding what we’re talking about, or if you would like to download the piece of content, the lead magnet that I’m talking about, or read the article,
or, you know, join my, my event that I’m having. We’re going to talk about that here in just a sec, pick one word. So in rooms that I’m in, when I’m talking about how to create your suite of offers, I will say DM me the word guide right now, go to my Instagram. As I’m speaking, as we’re hanging out here in this clubhouse room and very simply DME,
the word guide, just one word, and I will send you the link on how you can grab my guide, see how easy that works. Instead of me saying, Hey, by the way, go send me a message and then I’ll send you the guide. So we want to make it super simple for them. Another tip that many people do as well is instead of sending you a DM,
they make a comment on your first post on Instagram. So if you want to increase the SEO in your Instagram and have people comment on your Instagram posts, you can very simply say to them, go to the first picture on my Instagram profile in DME, the word guide, and I will ping you directly and send you the link. So there’s a couple of different ways to go about doing that.
It’s very important that you connect your Instagram to clubhouse in that you have a system, a very clear system with very clear instructions. So people don’t even have to think you’ve made it so easy for them. And you’ve picked one key word, and that’s how we get them from the clubhouse app into a relationship with you. And then here is step number three,
step number three is answering the question. What happens next? How do I then get them from Instagram to a converted client? And so here are these tips. First one is have an open next step call to immediately available. Here’s some examples of what that could be. Number one, you can have an online scheduler, always sitting ready and waiting in the bio in the link tree or associate tab or link on your website where you share links from Instagram.
Totally ready to go. So there’s always a way to get people then from Instagram to have a conversation with you, you also should have links in your bio that lead to buying now or register now or download now. So the things that you’re talking about in your clubhouse rooms, you want to make sure they’re also live links in your Instagram for people to connect and grab right away.
You can say, and I will say it’s worked really, really well and beautifully for our followers. Who’ve taken off clubhouse into our Instagram is I do say sometimes, Hey, just go to the link in my bio and you can download this guide so they don’t have to DM me. And oftentimes I will actually get two different calls to action. Both of those have been very successful for us.
And so I wanted to make sure that I am sharing that with you. I will tell you, and you’ve, you’ve hung out here with me for a long time till the end of the show. So I want to tell you something and it’s a secret, but not so secret. In our first 11 days on clubhouse, we invoiced out $27,000 in business coaching.
And that’s really important to know, because I want you to know that what I’m telling you in today’s episode is not just me pulling this out of, you know, where this is, how we’ve built so many amazing relationships on club house, and started to be able to work with so many more clients that we would never have been able to reach. If it wasn’t through showing about then typically giving first and building relationships with the right people,
knowing who you serve is a very important part of enabling your leverage on this app, being true to who you are, understanding how to communicate the end results you provide. And if you do that, I promise you it will pay off in your business. And I want to see that happen to, for you, to you and for you. So just to recap today,
we talked about how to grow your business, your clubhouse, this isn’t some big funnel strategy. It’s common sense. That’s why it’s worked for us in so many people because it’s natural, it’s authentic. And it’s just common sense. If somebody loves what you have to say in a room they’re of course going to want to connect with you more in this as a process in which we do it.
So number one is making sure your bio is amazing. It’s very clear what you do, but also share some unique and funny and quirky things about you. That show that you are a human number two, make sure your Instagram is connected. And how do you communicate going to Instagram? Make sure you have a strategy of, of a word of a keyword that you can say when you’re speaking in rooms to have somebody download your lead magnet,
or they could perhaps just share the word to type the word schedule. And then the third thing is a conversion that happens in the next step. The third step is off Instagram. How do you get people then off Instagram and into a sales call with you into a webinar funnel or a live event? What does that next step of taking them off Instagram so that they can connect with you deeper and become a lifelong client?
If you’ve done a good job of building out your client journey services and a raving fan. And that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I absolutely love connecting with you as you know, thanks for being a faithful listener, especially those of you guys. Who’ve been listening to this show for over four and a half years.
And if you aren’t yet following me on clubhouse, I want to connect with you. I am very simply found it at April beach. And of course we have two brand new, amazing clubs that I want you to connect with. First of all, we have our podcast club, which is sweet life entrepreneurs and every single Wednesday at noon, Eastern time,
I host a room where we are rolling up our sleeves and talking about all these strategies. So if you’re listening to this live and you’re a subscriber to the show, join me at noon Eastern on Wednesday, and we will roll up our sleeves and help you work on your clubhouse strategy with you. Also, if you’ve never spoken in a clubhouse room before,
maybe you’re a little nervous to come to stage. Those are the rooms we host and that’s why I make a safe space for you. So please plan to join me on Wednesday. I can’t wait to get to know you. And then the other club that we have is our wave makers club wave makers is all about designing transformational, predictable measurable online services,
leading programs, and a suite of offers for high profit and deep purpose. Tuesday nights. Currently we are hosting wave makers rooms. So make sure you’re also following the wave makers club so that you can get access to those rooms. And I will, of course share all of this in the show notes for today, it’s show, which can be found by visiting Sweetlifeco.com.
This is episode number 226 and left talking to you have an awesome day and I’ll talk to you on clubhouse.
Online services, courses, memberships and coaching programs are a great way to scale your business. However, how you structure your suite of offers can make or break your business. In this week’s show April Beach shares her Strategic Business Design Method™ and how you can design your company for long term lifestyle and profit goals now, and why launching any program outside this method is a risk.
At the end of this episode you will:
Get the high level steps of April’s Strategic Business Design Method™
Know where to start when considering your offers
Have clarity on what you should be working on right now
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate guys, and welcome to So number 225 here on the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. We’re going to go ahead and dive right in today. And we were talking about how to structure your suite of offers.
I know this is a common question. I’m literally in clubhouse rooms every single week, talking about this, because there’s so many things that you could do that you could launch in your business to scale, but who knows is that the right thing for you? Is that what we really need for you in your company? And that’s is that really what’s going to equal the profit plan that you want.
So in this week show, I’m actually breaking down a process that I take entrepreneurs through called strategic business design. And so we’re going to dive into all things, how to structure your suite of offers to give you the results that you want. So let’s do a little bit of housekeeping first, and then we’ll go ahead and get started. This episode is for established entrepreneurs.
So this is for those of you guys who are in phase three of my suite life business launch system. It’s also called the start to scale up system. Basically it is a roadmap of five different steps and you know, which phase of business that you’re in, it’s really important. You know, where you are. So you know what you should be working on,
so you can scale your business faster. And so if you’re in phase three, this episode is for you. So keep tuning in here and we’re going to go ahead and dive in if you aren’t really sure what phase of business you’re in simply go to Sweetlife code.com forward slash quiz, and you can take the quiz there and get your exact download customized to where you are in business right now.
So this is what we’re talking about on today’s show. We’re talking about the fact that online services courses, masterminds, coaching programs are all a great way to scale your business. However, how you structure your suite of offers can make or break your business, your lifestyle and your profit plan. So on this show, I am breaking down my strategic business design method,
and I’m giving it to you high level, because frankly, it’s so simple. You can run with it high level right now. And I want you to leave this show with exactly what to do to get started to design your suite of offers. At the end of this show, you are going to know exactly the high-level steps of what that method is.
You are going to know where you can start right now in considering your suite of offers. And you’re going to have clarity of what you are going for in the future and how that actually equals the lifestyle results that you want. So if that’s what you’re here for this show is for you. Let’s go ahead and get started. Okay. Welcome. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today.
This is episode number 225 here on the sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast and all the show notes and everything that we’re going to talk about on today’s show can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com, simply click on the podcast. And this is episode number two 25. And today we’re talking about how to structure your suite of offers. So I’m going to give you three high-level steps and within each step,
we’re going to break them down. So if you have a piece of paper and a pen, take notes, if you’re on the go join me in clubhouse live this week, because I’m going to be taking your specific offer design questions on Wednesdays at noon Eastern time. And if you’re not yet, you can follow me on clubhouse at April beach. You’ll get notification of that room.
And I would love to include you and workshop this with you. So let’s go ahead and dive in. First of all, let’s talk about why this is important. I coach entrepreneurs obviously all the time. That’s what I do. And what we’re seeing is a huge trend of companies coming to us, new and established companies coming to us who have launched a course or launched a membership,
launched a grouping of offers because everybody else is doing it. And a couple of things are happening. Number one, they’re failing, they’re falling on their face and nobody’s showing them number two, what they’re doing for the people that are successful, doesn’t really align with what they wanted to do and why they became an entrepreneur in the first place. And what happens is they are tapped out.
They haven’t designed their offers strategically in a way that is going to deliver a couple of things. Number one, the profit that they want. Number two, the lifestyle that they want and number three, the transformation that their clients want and need and deserve from them. So they’re tapped out. They don’t know how to do more. They don’t know how to create this,
what we call a suite of offers. And this is how we build profitable million dollar coaching businesses that if you want, if you do it right, you can turn around some day and sell it. And so what I’m going to do is I’m going to take you guys through high level. These are the three steps of my strategic business design method. And people fly to me here in Colorado,
all the time to meet with me for one day to go through this process with them. This is a very important process. And I really want to make sure that it’s in your hands. To course, I would love to have you join me here in Colorado or a virtual strategic business design session, but let’s get you started where you are right now and make sure that,
you know, the steps of going through this. When you go through a process called strategic business design, you’re going to end up in three to five years from now with a company that you really, really love. You’re going to end up walking into that brand influence that you’ve wanted. So what you want to be known for how you want to be seen,
and really in my opinion, one of the most important parts is you’re going to end up with the life that you you’ve listened to this show before. If you’re new, welcome. Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I travel with my kids four to five months a year, and it’s broken up. I’m always on a plane. We’re always somewhere adventuring.
And that is because I learned at a very young age from my parents, how to design businesses for lifestyle freedom in this as a process, really high level. And so I want to make sure you have it. So let’s go ahead and dive into step number one. And I’m sure this sounds so crazy. You’re like, Oh my gosh, this isn’t,
this isn’t revolutionary April. When I tell you what step number one is, but it’s really important to most people skip it. So step number one is starting with the end in mind. See what I said? You’re probably thinking, Oh great. I’m listening to this podcast. And I’ve already heard all this before everybody says, start with the end in mind,
but let’s, let’s actually talk about what this means for you and why this is important. So starting with the end in mind means that you’re going to take a second. And I really mean take a second, just sit for a minute and stop in envision. What do you want your average week to look like in three to five years, that means who do you want to be working with?
What do you want that to actually look like? So I want you to dive in. I want you to close your eyes unless you’re driving, don’t close your eyes and I want you to picture yourself, what are you doing on an average week? And in an average day, what does your average day look like? And perhaps what is your average month look like?
And here’s some questions I want you to see in your own mind when we’re going through this exercise, how are you working with your clients, for your customers? What does your interaction between you and your customers actually look like? Where are you working from? Are you working from an office space? Are you working from your home? Are you working from a sailboat?
Where are you working from? I want you to really feel both of those things. Cause both of those things that equals the business model, we need to design for you. And then, I mean, it’s not just a pipe dream and that’s why this is pretty crazy deep, strategic business planning. This is not a business coach coming in here and saying,
decide that you want to be on a boat. You’ll never get that from me. We need to talk about where you want to be. And I’m going to give you the exact steps to actually make that happen. The next process is I want you to go through and who are you talking to? Who are you working with? Who flows through your day with you?
Who flows through your activities, who is on your team and how, what, how are they operating? What does that look like to you? The next question, after you go through and imagine that I want you to figure out what is happening. That is not work-related and this is where the lifestyle entrepreneur aside comes into play. What are you doing?
That’s not work-related. How are you interacting with the people that you love? What does that look like in? What do those relationships look like? And then when you go through this process to actually envision this three to five years from now, really want you to see it because these answers equal the business model and they are going to lead to the suite of offers that you’re going to want to create in your business.
Along those lines, I do have a tool for you. Go grab it. It is a 17 page ultimate guide to online business models. If you have not grabbed that yet, grab it. It breaks down every single type of offer structure that you could do for an online business. And I tell you exactly how it’s going to affect your life. You can grab that simply by going to sweet life,
co.com clicking on podcast number two 25, and we’ll make sure there’s a link here for you in the show notes. So that’s step number one is starting with the end in mind, but I need you. Most people actually don’t go through this process because of the fact that they think it’s just this pipe dream they’re building. Now we’re going to go a step deeper.
We’re going to reverse engineer it even more. So hang with me here. Okay. So after you’ve gone through that process to really figure out what that looks like for you, what you want that to look like for you? Step number two is curating your suite of offers, programs and products. So here is what I mean by this. What programs do you offer under your business and your brand?
What types of programs do you want to offer to people? What do you want to be serving them? In what regard? How do you want to be coaching them? What type of results you want to give to them? So what programs plural make up your suite of offers? The next question to that is what are the business models of each one of those programs you could in your business only have one leading program that brings in half a million dollars a year.
You don’t have to have multiple programs, but most companies do. I’m a big advocate for multiple streams of income. And frankly, you know, if you only have one program, we’re not really creating a journey for your clients to grow with you and to keep clients long term. And so I am a big advocate of creating a suite of programs that creates a journey for your clients to work with you for years and years to come as they grow.
So in your mind, what programs are you offering when you imagine yourself, five years down the road from now, and what is the business model of each offer and what I mean by business model? These are the common terms is one of course is one, a membership site is one a live virtual event. Do you have retreats? Do you offer one-on-one coaching?
What is the collection of programs and the business model of each that is going to help you get to where you want to be doing in an average week, in an average month and an average year in here’s one thing I want you to lean in on. And we do talk about this a lot in clubhouse. This is what we teach in my masterclass on how to create your leading programs is I don’t want you to be afraid to create a custom business model and deliver your programs in a way that meets your needs while also still delivering a transformation to your clients.
If you want to do a hybrid mix of models, which every single one of our clients are now, don’t be afraid to do that. Don’t be afraid to think outside the box. And of course, what you create here and what we’re thinking about and workshopping in your brain right now in this podcast, it’s going to change as technology changes. And you know,
we get three, five years down the road and we bring in artificial intelligence and virtual reality and all these other cool, amazing things. But we need to start with somewhere and I want to make sure you have the roadmap to do this. Next question I want you to ask is what digital or physical products also make up your offer suite? Do you have any,
do you have a book? Do you have t-shirts that you sell? You know, what sort of digital or physical products might also be in that suite of offers? Are you writing your third book or your fourth broker? Are you launching a podcast? What other ways are you contributing to the excellence of your clients? And then here is where the hard work comes in.
And this is where most of you guys are going to totally do. But those keep listening are going to be the ones that actually build the life that you want it, your business. The next part is to value and create a profit forecast for each one of your offers. So you need to sit down and write the forecast of sales for each one of your offers and the value each one of your offers holds separately and collectively in crunch those numbers and make sure they’re going to equal that lifestyle you want.
And then the third step is to Herman, what do you need to build right now? What do you need to start building right now in the next 30, 60 or 90 days? What’s the top leading program that you want to launch or gain traction on first? What do you want to be known for first? And most importantly, how does this first program,
we are launching fit into that long term suite of offers. And that’s what I want you to lean in on. And those are the questions that you should be able to answer. If you can not answer those questions, you know where to find me, this is my jam. This is what I do. You can send me an Instagram DM. I would happy to be happy to set up a strategy session with you.
But the first thing is we need to do one thing really, really well. We can’t do all the things at once. And it’s also really hard with all the noise across marketing to become known for something. So I want you to lean into this one first leading program that you are building, and you need to see and understand how that fits, how that one brick,
if you will fits into the bigger house that you’re building with all the other bricks or leading programs that you will create. And once you nail your leading offer, once you’ve scaled, this first that you’re doing in that includes the program delivery, you’ve reached your first benchmark of your profit goal. Then you can move on to developing the next program in your suite of offers.
And as you go, and as you grow, your clients go and grow with you. It’s an amazing thing. And when it’s well thought out, and there’s a strategy, I guarantee you, it works every single time when we don’t add in strategy and tactics to creating business design, that’s where entrepreneurs run into trouble. And so I wanted to download you on this today,
and I wanted to give you these really three high-level steps. Literally people fly to me in Colorado to spend a day with me to go through this and design this for their company. And I want you to have these tools to your you’re my people, you’re my podcast family. And thank you so much for listening to the show. And I’ve been getting a lot of questions about this lately.
And so I really wanted to make sure that one of these shows here, as soon as I could fit it in, we were talking about these high level steps. So this is my strategic business design process. And I want you to have it. Let’s go ahead and recap. They’re very basic, right? It doesn’t have to be complicated to build a profitable business is a matter of fact,
simple is what creates traction, both for you and for your followers and for your students, your clients, your customers. So number one is starting with the end in mind, but in a much deeper way than you have done before, it’s understanding how, what you want your life to look like is controlled by the business model. You choose. Number two is curating your suite of offers programs and products,
and not only doing that, but then going the extra step to creating a profit forecast for each of them and understanding and making sure that the hard work you’re doing is in fact, going to equal the profit that you need in order to create the lifestyle and the impact that you want to make. And then the third step is to understand what you need to do first and build right now and the next 30,
60, 90 days, what you need to be leaning in on what leading program that brick and the, in the big building of your whole house has to happen. First. What’s the first brick that has to be laid. And this isn’t for new businesses. As a matter of fact, if you are a new business, thank you for listening to this,
but these are the things that we work with with established companies, established experts that are scaling offline to online, or who have just done a lot of things. I think one of the biggest confusion, places in this are companies and entrepreneurs that have launched a whole bunch of things. And it’s all just a bunch of things thrown out there. There’s no strategic business design plan.
And so it’s taking what, you know, what you’ve done well and putting it into a strategic plan because I really, I want you to have what I have. I feel so blessed, but it’s taken a lot of hard work and it’s a lot of strategy. And it’s a lot of understanding how the importance of reverse engineering, your business model equals that lifestyle and that,
that you want. And so this is a wrap on today’s show. I want you to lean in from here, and I would highly recommend connecting with man clubhouse. I would love to workshop with you on this in lean in. And instead of saying, I want to launch a course or I want onto a mastermind, or I want to launch a membership.
I recommend that you go through the process of strategic business design to understand how it affects your life. And truly what’s the best transformation that you can give to your clients. Are those business models, truly the best ways that you can get them, the transformational predictable measurable results that we want you to give them in your suite of offers. So that’s what we talked about today on the show.
Thank you so much for spending time with me here. Again, this is a sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, episode number 225. I know your time is super valuable. So I hope that you felt that it was valuable spending this time here, listening to me, and I would love to connect with you further. As I said on clubhouse, you can follow me@aprilbeachandalloftheshownotesandeverythingwetalkedabouttodaycanbefoundbyvisitingsweetlifeco.com,
simply click on the podcast button. And this is episode number 225. Thanks so much. And I can’t wait to talk to you guys again with another proven business training. You can take it Next week. Bye bye. For now.
Launching an online course isn’t enough. In fact, the sale of on-demand online courses fell by 13.4 billion dollars because people are weary of buying another course they’ll never finish, the material is not good, or they don’t receive the outcome they had hoped.
For entrepreneurs and businesses looking to scale, online courses are still a powerful tool, but how to curate your content and deliver a transformation to your participants will determine whether your course is a huge hit or a huge fail.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand the basics of Transformational Course Design™
Be able to assess your current course for needed change
Have 4 steps to take action if you’re building an online course right now
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach to the show. I’m April beach host here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast and founder of the Sweetlife company. Thanks for joining me again on another episode where you can take what we deliver to the bank.
This show is known for delivering new business trainings and coaching that other businesses and coaches charge thousands for. So thank you so much for tuning in with us before we get started today. And we’re about to talk all about online courses, which I know is a popular topic for so many of you. I want to make sure that you know how you can connect further with us here on the podcast.
Delivering information is one thing, but then you usually have questions or you want to know maybe how this applies in your business. So if you are on clubhouse every single week on Wednesdays at 12 o’clock, we host a room and this room is all about the podcast topic of the week. And I take your specific questions on what we talked about on this week show.
So if you’re listening right now to episode number 223, and you want to know all about how to launch a transformational online course, you’re listening to this podcast, and then you want to workshop with me and ask your questions. That is where you can find me totally free every single Wednesday on clubhouse at 12 o’clock Eastern time. In order to find that room,
you just need to follow me on clubhouse and I can be found at April beach, super simple. So let’s take this podcast from where we are now over to clubhouse, and I’m happy to have a deeper conversation with you and give you support in this area. So who is this episode for this episode is for those of you guys that are in the business launch or scale phase,
and you’re thinking about doing so with an online course. So here are a couple of important things to note launching an online course isn’t enough. All right. In fact, the sale of on-demand online courses in free courses actually dropped the consumption of them has dropped over the last couple of years. And that’s because so many people are weary of buying another course or,
or even spending their time on a free course. And they understand the material they’re getting really isn’t good, or it isn’t transformational. And they aren’t really getting the outcome that they had hoped that they would receive. So if you are, which you are listening to me here, an entrepreneur or a business, and you’re looking to scale online courses are still really a powerful way to do that.
In fact, we help most of our clients watch online courses, but how you curate your content and deliver a transformation to your students, to your clients will determine whether or not your course is a huge hit or a huge fail. And so that’s what we’re talking about today on the show. At the end of this episode, you’re going to understand the basics of transformational course creation and design.
You’re going to be able to assess your current courses and whether or not you need to make changes. And you’re going to have four steps to take action if you’re building an online course right now. So if you’re ready, let’s go ahead and dive into the show and all of the show notes and everything we have here for you can be found by going to sweet life co.com
Okay. So let’s first dive in and talk about what is a transformational course. A transformational course is an online course that delivers measurable transformational results, where your students, your, your clients actually are able to understand what you have taught them and actually practice and put it into action. Instead of so a lot of course, creators, actually, most of them just teach you how to kind of outline your content in benchmarks and basic reverse engineering.
You need to do much more of that. If you want to scale your business and become an undisputed leader in your space by creating a transformational online course. So that’s why this is so important. The problem is more content is not better. You know, nobody needs more content. Nobody is out there saying, please inundate me with more content. I know I’m not.
And I’m sure you’re not either your students and your clients and the people that are going to go through your course. They just need a transformation. And that transformation could be a micro transformation, or it could be a major transformational outcome for them. So in able to do that, or being able to do that as a course, creator means that you need to understand how to design your course,
that includes delivering a transformational measurable result in the end. And according to canto.com content overload is when too many different blog posts and articles and ideas and suggestions cover one specific area. And I know that as entrepreneurs, that you’re struggling with that if you’re talking about something that so many other people are talking about in that same area, it is a huge issue for your business.
And it has a couple of negative effects for one, it creates a vast quantity of material covering this one topic, and it makes a really hard for you to stand out. Another problem is that it turns off a potential audience and they don’t want to shift through endless content to find the one thing they’re looking to achieve. And you can read that article.
We’ll go ahead and put that link to that article in the show notes for you guys on our website. And so as an entrepreneur, I know you’re struggling with this. I know that you need to understand how to stand out, how to become known, how to become, like what I call undisputed leader. And I talked to hundreds of entrepreneurs every single month that are asking,
how do I make my course or my program or my service stand out. And it all starts with simplified transformational program design. So I want you to write those words down in your memory. If you’re driving your car to say with me transformational course or service or program design. Okay. And that’s what we’re talking about here today. That’s what we teach within the Sweetlife company.
If you’re looking for a resource beyond this podcast in this area. And so here are some steps I want to give you that you can walk away with though immediately so that you can take a look at your course. Step. Number one is if you already have a course, take a look at your curriculum, take a look at it. And if you’re in the process of building your online course,
take a look at what you’re proposing to build, and you need to be able to articulate the injuries Results so that people can expect, know what to expect fully in the end with the transformation they’re going to get from your course, not just what is the end, but what is the detailed transformation that they can expect? You don’t want to just say,
Oh, they’ll feel better as a parent, if you’re launching a parent coaching course, or they’ll know how to land speaking gigs, if you’re a speaking coach or they’ll know how to run or moderate a part, a clubhouse room, those are all too general. I recommend that you were able to specifically articulate and identify the transformation like this. So instead of they’ll feel better as a parent,
you should be able to say something about your course, like they will have crafted their parenting plan with confidence. So it’s really specific. And you’re talking about how they’re getting the transformation, or instead of they’ll know how to land a speaking gig. It’s something to the effect of, they will have completed the pitch process to land their dream stages. See it’s much more specific.
And it also alludes to how you’re teaching them, how to do that. And instead of launching a course that just says, Hey, you know, they’re going to know how to run a great clubhouse room. Instead. We want you to identify the transformation you’re delivering. And an example could be, they understand the guidelines of moderating inclusive clubhouse rooms. You see the difference in that.
So step number one is really taken a good look at your curriculum. Number one, do you actually understand the transformation that you’re giving people? Is that really, really clear to you? And if you don’t it’s okay. I don’t want you to feel like, Oh my gosh, I can’t believe, I don’t know the transformation because I literally speak with entrepreneurs all the time that are like,
wow, April, I’ve created this course. I bought all these other course creation programs. And I put all this content in there and laid it out. I still can’t articulate the transformation I’m giving people. So if that’s you just, first of all, know that you’re not alone. There’s a lot of people out there talking about how to teach course creation that might not even understand instructional curriculum design.
And so that’s not a reflection of you, and it’s certainly not a reflection of your content. So the very first thing to do is to look at the curriculum and be able to clearly identify the transformation in a detailed description. Number two, create transformational benchmarks. And so let’s talk about what I mean by this. I was just hosting a clubhouse room on this topic last week.
And I was asked this question and a woman said she’s had a course forever. And they were, I was so excited for her because they were going back through her course and actually understanding the importance of transformational course design they’re going back. And they were updating to redoing their course. It’s been, this killer course has made a ton of money for years.
And she asked me, should I measure the transformation in the whole entire course, or also, should I do it in each one of the benchmarks, each one of the modules. And here is the answer to that. Yes. As an expert, you need to understand, to be able to articulate the sub transformations within each benchmark of your course, or of your service,
or really this applies to any single business model. We teach transformational program development and design that applies to mastermind creation, membership creation. This can apply to a one hour coaching call with somebody. This can apply to any way that you deliver your content right now in this podcast, we’re just talking specifically about course creation. So step number two is create transformations within each one of your benchmarks and take a look and make sure that you understand them,
that you can articulate in a detailed way, the sub transformations within each one of your modules or benchmarks as well. And number three is to curate content the way people learn. Okay, this is really, really important understanding. The more content does not equal a better course or a program. We talked about that in the beginning, right? So your responsibility is to actually remove the content that does not directly apply to the end result that you are giving.
That is step number one, take a look at your course, or if you’re in the process of building the course, take a look at it and say, okay, what doesn’t actually have to be in here to deliver the transformation that I’m guaranteeing people, but there’s even more than that. As an entrepreneur, I understand that you’re not an instructional design expert or a scientific learning expert,
but if you’re offering a course, you have to curate curriculum with transformational program or service or coaching design. This is how you lead people to amazing results. And this is how you become an undisputed leader in your space. So I want you to understand this. Most people believe that repeated exposure to material, right? So going over the things that you teach them in each module and rereading it and practicing it and memorizing it is like the best way to get people Results.
But according to the McGraw center for teaching and learning at Princeton university, this is super time consuming and it’s actually less effective. Instead. They recommend making, learning difficult in strategic and desirable ways to enhance retention, retrieval and transfer of knowledge. Let me see, say that all again. You’re probably going like, Whoa, Whoa, you’re talking about Princeton university,
April, I’m a nutritionist or I’m a marketing coach, or, you know, whatever it is is totally doesn’t apply to me, but yet it does as course creators. It is important that we understand instructional design, especially if you are building your company and scaling your business with creating a product that gives people results and they have to go through a process of learning.
Let me say that again. A lot of course, creators<inaudible> course creators out there, put a bunch of content in a course, lay it out in a time in line and then give people homework for each benchmark. That is true. Really not the way to get people Results in your program. And what we find is just going over their notes or rereading the things that you’ve done isn’t necessarily the way to do it.
In fact, to this study by Princeton university, they actually recommend understanding and absorbing some of your content in your program and intentionally making it difficult, but doing so in desirable ways, creating challenges within your course that people want to overcome. They want to do. And it’s not super easy, but let’s go ahead and dive a little bit more into this because you might just be like,
totally tuning me out at this point, which I really hope you’re not because again, as a course creator or somebody that wants to offer a course, it’s important that you understand this in the process of building your curriculum. So does it irritable difficulties? So let’s kind of dive into that. What does that actually mean? Desirable difficulties is a term that Dr.
Robert York from UCLA came up with over 20 years and refers to conditions of learning that create challenges for the learners and even slow down some of the rate of learning. But in the end, they actually enhance the long-term retention of the knowledge and the skills that you’re giving that. So tell us, okay, this is, this is very instructional design and scientific learning,
and I totally get it. You’re like, okay, April, I’m not offering it MBA. I’m like just teaching somebody how to get more YouTube fans or whatever it may be. I totally totally get it. But you are a course creator and bringing your clients also known as your students from one place to another in knowledge or skill is what you’re promising them.
Right? And therefore you should include some measure of desirable difficulties. And again, what is that? So let’s take a look at your course either you’ve created a course or you’re thinking about creating a course. It desirable difficulty is placing a challenges, certain number of challenges and everybody’s program is different within your course, that they’re ready for non a challenge at every single week or every single module,
but really great challenges that your clients are ready to face. And by doing so, they get excited about doing it. They want to do it. They want to take what you’ve been teaching them and delivering to them over the past couple of weeks or months or however long or your program is. And they want to put it into action. It’s hard.
It’s really, really hard, but it’s the best kind of hard because they know that doing it is for sure. What’s going to raise them from where they are to the next level of where they want to be with you. Here’s an example of this at my company, at the SweetLife Company, we have a program that’s called your leading offer, and we teach small businesses and entrepreneurs how to develop industry leading online courses.
We have taught this for over 13 years, as a matter of fact, way back when in 2008, we launched an online course on how to create online courses like before the whole entire online world was talking about it. And here is why the process of curating your curriculum and building courses in a way that embraces what you are capable of as an expert,
as far as scientific learning. But it also levels up your customer’s outcome. Your clients not only retention in your program, but the Results in your program. That’s how we build leading entrepreneurs and businesses. And we teach a process in my program called your leading offer. That actually takes your thoughts out of your mind and your expertise and puts them into a process that creates what we call transformational program design.
It is really hard work, but by the time we actually teach that in my, your leading offer program, people are ready for that. And so they’ve gone through the places in the benchmarks where they’re like, okay, bring it on. I am so amped up for this. I’m totally Agra, ready to grow. It’s going to be great work.
This is good, important work, because they’re ready for it. If we huge challenges for them throughout the whole entire program, they would never do it. If we created no challenges for them throughout the program, they would learn nothing and they’d have no transformation. So I always loved kind of showing you guys behind the scenes on our company and how we do things.
So let’s take that example and let’s look at your course or your program that you’re creating or that you’ve already launched. Do you have desirable levels of difficulty that are strategically placed that cause challenges that enhanced the outcome and the transformation people are getting within your course, if you don’t, then it’s time to take a look at that. And if you feel like you’re actually having a panic attack right now,
and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I don’t even know where to start then cruise over to theofferengineer.com and you can join one of my next white boarding sessions. I do these white boarding sessions for free all the time. And we’ll whiteboard out your course together. Or like I said, join me on clubhouse at noon on Wednesday, the week this show drops and we’ll,
we’ll be diving into this together. And here’s some things I want for you to consider as we’re wrapping up this really important episode here on the show. Number one, understand that action is part of your client’s learning process, but how are you going to implement that action? What is the difference between them taking action? And you just giving them work to say you gave them work,
or frankly you giving them no work because you just wanted your course easy to get through. Where is the measure there based on the transformation that you are promising they’ll receive from your course, number two, create challenges at the right points within your program, not just to create these challenges, but understand when and where people are ready to be challenged. And of course,
number three, which is how we started out this show, cut the content and focus on the transformation and the output of the process that you are teaching more content is not better. And if you take anything away from this episode, because I know we talked about a lot, number one is to simplify the content within your course, don’t overload people with more and more and more content.
Instead, look at the content within your course or your program and ask yourself, how am I going to make this transformational it, every single touch point within what I’m delivering to my clients. If you want to take your course, you want your course to take the lead in your space. You’re going to need to design it like a leader designs courses.
And this applies to mini courses, leading courses, and frankly, any program that requires learning and implementation based on the information that you teach. So we talked about a lot of things today, today in episode number 222 here on this wheat life entrepreneurial business podcast, we were talking about how to launch a transformational online course. This again is for those of you guys who are just starting to scale your business with online courses,
whether you have had a course for years like the woman I was speaking to in clubhouse, or you’re just now trying to tap into the power of scaling your business. Your online courses understand that launching a course alone is not enough. Also understand that the completion of online courses has fallen so much, that you have to understand how to engineer your curriculum in order to get people transformational,
measurable, predictable results, and the resources we have for you. Again, our join me in clubhouse. Let’s have a conversation about this. I’m happy to dive in, roll up my sleeves and link arms with you in our regular weekly clubhouse room on Wednesdays at noon. Again, follow me at April beach and we’ll dive in with this together. Or I want you to also check out theofferengineer.com
if you, to the place where you’re ready to take the lead in your industry. And you want to make sure that the courses that you’re developing are transformational industry, leading courses. That is where you get the steps to do it again. That theofferengineer.com and all of the show notes from this episode here can be found by visiting sweet life co.com. And I kind of geeked out on the research for this one.
So in those show notes, there’s a couple of really important resources. We have actually put the Princeton resource in there for you as well, as well as I’m putting a link to how to create strategic levels of difficulty from Dr. Robert Bjork here in the show notes as well. So if you want to dive in deeper to that, I’ve made sure all of these resources are here for you.
All right, you guys, thanks so much for tuning into the show. I can’t wait to talk to you again next week on a, another podcast that delivers a business coach. You can take to the bank. You guys have an awesome week. Bye for now.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Who This Episode is Great For:
Those who want to know how to file for and use copyright protection.
Summary:
In this episode we’re talking with The Trademark Attorney, Francesca Witzburg, about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your creative works by filing for copyright protection. If you’re a course or content creator, and you have work that is not protected, this is an urgent episode for you. We dive into who needs copyright protection, what you must be careful to do when hiring help to create works for you, and how to start the process of protecting your work.
This is part 2 of a 2 part show with Francesca Witzburg. In part 1 we dove into Trademark protections for your work.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know if you have work that needs to be protected
Understand how to own the work that others create for you
Have the first steps to file for copyright protection today
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome back. So the show April beach here, host of this show and founder of this wheat life company. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us again. This is part two of a two part series that we’re doing with our special guests,
Francesca Whitesburg. Last week, we dove in to trademarking protection who needs trademarking, the difference between word marketing and design marking. And so if you miss that, please pause this show, go back and start with last week of that is an area of need in your business. That was episode number 221. And today this is episode number 222. This episode is for those of you who are in any stage of business development in that stage is connected to our start to scale up system.
If you don’t know what phase of business development you’re in, we have an amazing, powerful, free resource for you where you can take a short assessment and get the exact stage and phase of business development you’re in and get a complete list of what you should be working on right now. And you can get that short assessment and access all of those tools by visiting Sweetlife co.com
forward slash quiz. If you haven’t done that, or if it’s been a while, since you’ve tested where you are in your business growth phase, I highly recommend you tap into that amazing resource. Now let’s talk about what we can expect from today’s show. So this episode is for those of you who want to know how to step into the process of protecting your creative work through filing for copyright protection,
our guest is absolutely hands down amazing. She has done work for our company and many of our clients, and I’m so pleased that she agreed to be on this show. Today, we are talking with the trademarking attorney, Francesca Whitesburg about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your creative works by filing for copyright protection. If you’re a course creator,
if you’re a content creator, if you have work that you have actually built, brought to life in tangible form and you have not protected it yet, we need you to be very careful. That is your creative work. That is your genius, and you need to protect it so nobody else can take it from you. And so we’re talking about how to go about that in today’s show clearly a very important show for our audience.
Now, the end of this episode, you’re going to know if you have work that needs to be protected. You’re going to know the process of going through the first steps to filing for protection. And you’re going to understand a few other very important things like how to own the work that others create for you. Other independent contractors, and even how to avoid getting into trouble when using protected material from other businesses within your marketing.
There’s so many important things that we discuss on today’s show. And so I’m so glad that you’re here and you’re not missing it. So let’s talk about our guest. If you did not hear her amazing introduction last week, let me give you an introduction. Francesca Whitesburg is an award winning intellectual property law attorney specializing in trademarks brands and copyrights. She advises Tom businesses,
brands, entrepreneurs, professionals, talent, startups, and individuals. Francesca has experienced working at various in-house global luxury brands. She has also worked in the world’s largest law firm today. She’s a partner at an IP law firm, Loza and Loza and creates content on her Instagram. And she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram. She’s absolutely amazing.
So I’m very glad that you’re here, power packed episode. So let’s go ahead and dive in all of this show notes and the resources that we’re discussing can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and simply click on podcast. And this is episode number two 22. Also, we have one more important bonus. So Mark your calendar. If you are on clubhouse,
we invite you to join Francesca and me in our regular Wednesday room on Wednesday, April the 14th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Now, what does that mean? That means you get to jump into a clubhouse room and you get to ask Francesca your copyright questions, your direct business questions. That’s what we love clubhouse. And we actually use clubhouses our community extension to this podcast now.
So we have a regular room. We host every single Wednesday at noon. You are invited to join us there this week on April, the 14th, Francesca is going to be there taking your copywriting questions as an extension from this podcast episode. So it’s an amazing opportunity of course, completely free and a chance for you to really get your business legal questions answered.
If you’d like to join this room, here are the steps to do that. Visit me on Instagram at April beach life. And you can click on the link in my bio and simply follow me on clubhouse and follow our club on clubhouse. When you do that, you’re going to have notifications and with clubs house, when your notifications are on, that gives you access to these very special rooms.
So very simply follow me on clubhouse. And I can be found at, at April beach on clubhouse, where you can go to my Instagram at April beach life on Instagram. And both of those opportunities will give you a chance to follow me there or giving you notifications in access to Francesca. So that’s our special bonus with today’s episode. And I know that’s going to be so powerful for so many of you who really do have important business questions you need answered right now.
So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast episodes. Welcome back to another episode here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I am joined again by my very favorite person this year, Francesca Whitesburg. She is here diving in with everything legal for you to protect your content, your intellectual property. And this is actually part two of a two part podcast episode we did last week.
We dove all into trademarking. So if you miss last week, pause this, go back to episode two 21 and start with that one and then come back here and join us. If you listened to last week, let’s get ready to go. We have so much to cover today and you are going to gain so much knowledge by this wonderful woman who is here just strictly to pour into you to protect your intellectual property.
So welcome back to the show. Francesca, thank you so much for me. Thank you for having me April. I’m excited to talk about copyrights. Yeah. Okay. So actually let’s go ahead and dive right in. So really what is copywriting for anybody who is absolutely brand new at this? They know they need to know what it is, but they don’t even have a baseline starting point.
Yeah, of course. So copyright is a form of intellectual property protection that the text creative works that can be your videos, your photos, your courses, the layout of their website, your podcasts. It covers anything that you’ve created. That’s fixed in a tangible media. So it can’t be like an idea in your head gotta be written down, actually like manifested in the real,
but once it’s out there, it’s protected automatically under copyright law. Okay. So let’s take a step back. I know we talked about it extensively in last week’s episode, but can you just give a general description to our listeners in what is intellectual property, Of course, intellectual property, which is IP, which we refer to as refers to creations of the mind.
They’re your invention. Anything that’s proprietary that you can upload your photos, your grants, your slogans, trade secrets. These are all things that you have created that either you or your business owns. I like to say you have your IP toolbox. And then in that tool box, there’s different tools you can use like patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
So good. Okay. So incredibly foundational, but yet so many businesses aren’t aware of that. All right. So my next question for you, and I know our listeners, especially those who listened to last week are automatically asking this question right now. What is the difference between a copyright protection and trademarking? Yes. Trademarks really protect source identifiers. So Sweetlife when you read that name,
you know, that that’s April beaches programs, she’s offering her consulting services April. You’ve seen, created a full brand around that. And also it’s your company name too, but to consumers, we know that that’s April. So that word tells people that if you get consulting from this person, it’s April, who’s behind it. The same thing. When you see Coca-Cola or burger King,
you go to a McDonald’s in Spain, you’re in a know that it’s the same person who’s behind that. That’s the function of a trademark. Now a copyright is a very different tool, but they can overlap. So copyright extends to any creative expressions. So if you have a really unique logo that went along with sweet life, I it’s like a little like circle with some interesting artwork in there that you use.
And when I, anyone one sees that I think April, but also it’s very detailed. It’s original. That can also be protected by copyright. So if you are working with IP counsel, a good lawyer is going to advise you holistically and really tell you all the tools that you can use to protect your intellectual property from different angles. Okay. Fascinating.
And so for our listeners, do they need to register their works for copyright protection? So copyrights are similar to trademarks in that they are granted automatically. As soon as you create something you posted online, put it, like we said, in the fixed medium, then you have protection. However, if someone is using your work in an unauthorized manner, that your permission,
right. To actually get them to stop in the United States, you need a registration certificate. So I like to say, you know, you could send them a letter, you can send them a DM telling them to take it down. Cause it’s, you know, using your copyrighted material. But with that, without a registration, it’s like waving an empty gun.
You’re really not gonna have any teeth behind it. Got it. Okay. And so let’s kind of just pause here because I want to get back into content around courses and really big written works that many of our listeners do, but let’s just kind of take a jog for a second and talk about a couple of areas where people tend to run into trouble and they have absolutely no idea when they’re using other people’s works.
So the first one is photography and using somebody else’s photography within your business, what do people need to know in relation to copyright? Anytime you use photos taken from the internet or anyone else’s photos, technically you need permission and you can get yourself into a lot of trouble if you use it even on just a random post or you’re using it for something more visible,
even mental, a lot of trouble. And so the way that you get around it is you either use photos and images that you’ve taken yourself, or you can purchase the rights to some of these images. That’s where you can use database as like Getty images to buy a license, to use those infants for certain purposes. Yeah. And I think that the,
you know, so many new businesses and actually even established businesses that are just trying to scale online, just kind of starting to get their Instagram out there. They don’t realize that grabbing another photo out there, you know, there is a license, but behind that and that you have to be within your legal rights to use that. And so just wanted to make sure that we were discussing that here on the show as well,
because I, I know that people have ran into problems with that in the past. Another kind of side question for you here, going back to our listeners original piece of work, their course that they’re creating the content that they’re delivering within their coaching programs or their mastermind, or they’re teaching their intellectual property, their methods, their signature programs, right. With some of our listeners hire other people to create parts of their work for them.
What do they need to know and be careful about when they’re doing that? Yeah, that’s a great point April. So when you hire someone to create whether it’s a logo with design web design, anytime you’re paying someone to build software or whatever it is, if they’re not an employee within the scope of employment, paying them a salary or hourly, or the bank benefits,
then technically they are the owner of the intellectual property. So you need a written assignment called an assignment for what an assignment means is a transfer of rights. So that person needs to sign a document that says all the intellectual property created around this program. And it’s more detailed than that, but I give all that copyright and all that property is transferred to two and you’re comfortable.
It’s very critical, especially if you’re going to pay a lot of money, really need to get this in writing because otherwise they own what you thought you paid for and they can continue to use themselves, or they can give it away to other people and competitors. Yeah. Imagine that nightmare hiring somebody to, you know, create something for you and your course or your program.
And then it’s not actually yours. So important. So thank you so much for discussing that. And that assignment is, is really incredibly important. And, you know, I know that the majority of our listeners, their teams that they have are actually independent contractors. So this is completely something that is critical for them to be aware of is this assignment within their independent contractor agreements.
And that’s why working with an expert like you to make sure it is, it says exactly what they used to say is so incredibly. Okay. So let’s go back to this process of protecting copyright. So another side question for you when our listeners are using the notation on the bottom of their slides or their PDFs or delivering, or their written work, and they have the little copyright protection and then they have the gear on there and then their ownership,
why is that important? And what is the correct way? If there is a correct way just to enter into that sort of, Yeah, you, you hit the nail on the head, you see the copyright symbol, which will say do it in an emoji you’re on like on your phone. And then you put either your name or your company’s name.
Whoever’s really claiming rights to that ID. And then the year, and what that does April is that’s putting third parties on notice it’s again, reminding people, Hey, this is my copyright. This is protectable information. If you use it without my authorization, it’s illegal. So don’t do it. We’ll do it. The only way that you can really get them to stop is if you file that registration.
Got it. Okay. And so I know that we get that question all the time. Clearly if I don’t answer it because I’m not an attorney and I know that so many of our users are wondering that, you know, they see that when can I use it? How do I use it? Especially those that have multiple years listed on that listing and in exactly how to go about doing that.
And so does the year usually reflect the original work or does the year cover when it is currently being protected in that listing on it? It could vary, right? So like sometimes it’s like people open up a book, you’ll see the original publication copyright notice, but then they’ll be the most current version. But for our purposes, I think it’s fine to do it.
Like, let’s say you had to create your website in 2020, you can have 20, 20 is the date, but then if you make changes to it, which you’re going to just keep updating, updating the year. Okay. So many, I already know that these are questions people listening or are having, okay. So now let’s go back to kind of the center of what we’re talking about here today for our listeners,
how do they start the process of protecting their intellectual property, their content course program outlines, where do they begin with this process? Yeah. I’d love the way you put it April, because you implicitly said, how do they protect what they already have? Everyone already has IP. It’s just a matter of understanding, which are your most important assets and how you go about protecting them.
So I actually offer an Ikea audit where I will look at websites, social media pages, courses, some of my clients give me access to their, you know, their subscription-based or whatever, log in to see their forces. I do a very holistic review. And then we will go get on the phone and do a 30 minute call to discuss what their most important assets are or we could talk about,
okay, here’s the name of your operating vendor? Have you thought about three markets that’s going to filing for that copyrights? Do you have your independent contractor agreement language? We’ll kind of go through and just do like a checklist, like as if I literally am doing an audit on your seat and make sure you have everything there. I recommend that as a starting point,
and there’s also an IP audit and I can action plan, which is like the deluxe version of that, which is going to really do a deep dive. And then we come up with eight phase one plan, which is your first three to six months on what filings to do. And then also the next like six to 12 plus months for the next round of filings,
because everyone has so much great content. That’s great IP. It gets a little overwhelming to think, Oh, I have to do everything. The reality is that you don’t, you stage it out. And if you have a plan strategy about it, it’s really not going to be that expensive. It’ll be way more expensive than the end. If you don’t do this.
And if you try to do deal with cease and desist letters or sending this letters as they arise. Yeah. Nightmare. So once somebody submits their work for copyright protection, each time they update it, do they need to resubmit that Great question. So anytime you modify a work that it becomes a new popular, it’s a new work. So I would say as long as the modification is substantially similar to the original work,
then you can rely on that. But if it’s very different and using that a lot publicly, it’s probably worth at least running it by an IP lawyer to come up with a strategy. Okay. So much great information, Francesca, thank you so much for being our guest again here on the show and joining us in clubhouse rooms where we talk about this.
There’s so many places where people can connect with you. You know, we highly recommend that people take up the opportunity to go through an IP audit. And what I love about why I have you on this show is that you understand the way service-based online entrepreneurs work and you understand what they’re creating and you understand courses and masterminds and signature programs, and you understand all these things.
And so it’s hard, frankly, to find an expert like you, that fully understands the assets that our listeners are creating. So thank you so much for being on the show and being an amazing resource and the best place for people to connect with you is through your Instagram. Is that correct? Yes. I have a link in my bio. It’s my counselee.
I’m happy to get on a 15 minute call just to hear about your business And to discuss if you want to do an IP audit or if you just want to Connect. Yeah. Great. All of you guys should take her up on that. It’s a very, I know it’s crazy. It’s totally free. So you can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and we will make sure that a link to that of course is in our show notes as well.
So it’s the trademark attorney on Instagram. And what is your clubhouse handle the trademark at the trademark attorney on clubhouse as well? Of course. Thank you so much for being here again and being our guest expert this week. I know that everybody really needed to hear a way, the things we’ve been talking about the last two weeks on the show. So certainly appreciate your time.
Absolutely. Thanks April. Thank you so much for sticking around with us. What an amazing episode Francesca is a super genius and perfectly in line with what our listeners and our clients need. If you would like to work with Francesca, if you would like to just take her up on her opportunity to connect with her for a free IP audit, please visit Francesca directly by visiting at the trademark attorney on Instagram.
So for handle is the trademark attorney on Instagram and the trademark attorney on clubhouse. She can be found at both of those places. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Again, all the show notes and everything we talked about, and all these links can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. You guys have an awesome day. Bye bye for now.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Who This Episode is Great For:
As you name your business, programs, courses or creative work, you want people to recognize them as your brand, and it’s important that you know how to protect your creations so that others can’t use it.
Summary:
In this episode, we’re talking with The Trademark Attorney, Francesca Witzburg, about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your company name, tag lines and creative work including your courses, branded programs and more. In this jam-packed powerful episode, we’re diving into; Who needs trademark protection? How much it costs? How to check if the name you want to use is available? How to block someone from using your trademark and more.
This is part 1 of a 2 part show with Francesca Witzburg. In part 2 we dive into Copyright protections for your work.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know if you need to file for trademark protection
Understand the difference between word and design marks
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome to episode two. You one here, we’re diving into an important topic today, and that’s how to protect your business through the process of trademarking. And there are so many questions around trademarking.
We get this all the time in our business programs, especially in my year leading offer business program, where people are really coming in and branding their method, branding their industry, leading leading programs. And so there are always questions around how do I protect the name of what I’m creating? And so I invited today’s guests to come in, pour into you.
And this is what we can expect by spending time together here today. First of all, this episode is for those of you who are in any stage of business growth and development. Now, this really aligns with one of the tools here that we give away completely free with the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. And that is a self-assessment where you can find out exactly what stage of business you are in.
And you can take this self-assessment by simply visiting Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. So when we’re talking about who this particular podcast episode is for this episode happens to be for any of you wherever you fall in the phase of business development. Because if you haven’t protected your intellectual property yet through trademarking, then this is an important topic to pay attention to. So as you go through the process of naming your business and your programs and your courses and your creative work,
you want people to recognize that they’re yours, they’re your brand. It’s an important part of building your business, a recognizable brand. And so in this episode, we’re talking to trademark attorney Francesca Whitesburg about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your company, name, your tagline, to your creative work, including your courses, your branded programs,
and more, this is a jam packed episode. And she talks about powerful things in here that every single business owner needs to know. And then we’re diving into who needs a trademark protection. How much does it cost? How to check if the name that you want is available, how to block someone who could be using your trademark or infringing upon your trademark.
And there’s so many different things we’re going to dive into. So I’m going to go ahead and get right over to the episode. However, I want to make sure that you know, that this is part one of two episodes where we have Francesca on the show. And so next week we’re talking all about copyright protection and today is all about trademark. At the end of this episode,
you will know if you need to file for trademark protection, you will understand the difference between a wordmark and a design Mark, and you’ll know where to start in your protection process. Everything we’re talking about here can be found@theshownotesbyvisitingusatsweetlifeco.com. This is episode number 221. And one last thing we are going to be live with has got on clubhouse the Wednesday that this show drops.
So that will be Wednesday, April the seventh at 12 o’clock Eastern time. So if you were not following me yet on clubhouse at April beach, and you want to connect with Francesca in, take your questions from this episode to her, live in clubhouse, then make sure that you join us. And you can simply do that by following me at April beach on clubhouse and turn on the little bell for the notifications.
And you will get notified when we’re going live, which will give you access to Francesca. It will give you access to this room. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s business training.<inaudible> Hi everybody. I am so excited to be joined by Francesca Wittenberg, who has been instrumental in helping our business, make sure that everything that we have is our ducks in a row.
If you will say, and she’s here joining me on the podcast today, talking about quite a few very important legal foundations that you really need to have a no for your business. And so Francesco, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself in UHIN, who you serve and really how you got to where you are right now,
professionally. Thank you so much, April. I’m super excited to be here. My name is Francesca Pittsburgh. I go by the trademark attorney on Instagram and I’m an IP lawyer. We’re going to talk about what IP is, but basically I help creators businesses, anyone who has created something using their intellectual creativity and especially people who are trying to monetize that I help,
whether it’s trademarks, copyrights, helping businesses get started to monetize and protect what they created is what I do. And I service really a variety of industries. I have fashion experience, story brands, online businesses in particular, and navigating how to protect content and all of the assets that you’ve created online. That’s really been my niche for the past year or two.
And, you know, I got started by going to law school. I had no idea what intellectual property was like most people. And I thought it was so amazing how, what you create are your real assets. These are real things that you can command. You can protect, you can sell. So I really fell in love with that. And also helping businesses get off the ground.
I feel like I’m able to kind of give back really help people launch. And so I got into it. I worked at a small IP boutique. I also had experience working in the legal departments at Prada and Tory Burch and the international jewelry brand from there. I really got the bug and I just wanted to learn everything in anything about intellectual property, in whatever industry.
And then I worked at the world’s biggest law firm called Dentons. I worked in Manhattan and Brock center for a little bit over three years, and then I made a big change. Yeah. I mean a big change becoming a partner at an IP boutique firm, meaning we only do intellectual property from start to finish like firms located in LA, but I’m based in New York and New Jersey.
I can service clients everywhere. And since September, I’ve just been really hitting the ground, running, helping a lot of online businesses, connecting on clubhouse, meeting people like you April. So I’m super excited to share my knowledge with everyone today. I’m so excited that you’re here and you know what? You do this super hyper niche area of serving online businesses.
I mean, you help our listeners protect their ideas and protect their services and their programs and their courses and their actual digital products, which is absolutely right on. And I know that there are so many people in this business space that are creating content that are creating different assets and what we call IP that have no idea, even the first step on, on how to protect that.
So let’s go ahead and start there. What actually is IP? What is intellectual property? Sure. So intellectual property refers to creations of the mind. They are inventions designs, creative works, brands, slogans, or anything that you’ve created kind of creatively. And so the law is divided up into certain categories and I like to call it, you know,
you have your IP toolbox. So there’s certain tools that you can use to protect whatever it is that you created or your business there’s patents, which protects inventions. Sometimes it protects certain ways of doing things processes, and it also sometimes protects designs. If it meets certain thresholds, then there’s trade secrets, which kind of works in tandem with aunts. If you’re not eligible for a patent may be able to protect confidential and secret information that is proprietary to your business so long as you’ve kept it private and you haven’t publicly disclosed it.
Then what we’re really going to focus on today is trademarks and copyrights. Trademarks are your brands. They are the symbols. And the names that you have created to tell that this is my business. I April beach am the owner of your leading offer. I upgraded this course, and that is my protectable content. The function of trademarks are to point to the source.
And then there’s copyright. Copyright is the creative regime. It really extends to creative, works such as content photos, certain texts, if it’s eligible videos, website layout. So, you know, just by saying that alone, there are so many different tools that you can use to protect an online business. And so we can talk about that. Wow.
Okay. So in, this is exactly why, I mean, just in that definition that you just gave, you talked about four really important areas that our listeners can and should be possibly if they qualify, protecting what they have created and what they plan to create. And I really want to dive specifically into trademarks today and we’re going to have Francesca back on the show.
Everybody don’t worry, and we’re going to be diving into other things as well. But I think this is really the most important place to start out. You know, just in my, your leading offer master class, we were having this kind of behind the scenes conversation about this. And even those students of mine that have been in business for over a decade are just almost like in this panic mode when this conversation came up because they realized they might not have done things correctly.
And so that’s why I’m really excited to dive into trademarking today. So first of all, I understand that there are two types of different trademarks that you can protect. Is it like a design Mark and a word Mark? Can you explain what those two different types of, of marks are to our, Yeah, I get asked all the time I have a brand name and I have a logo,
which one should I file for what’s protectable? And the short answer is that the word market itself, if you file an application with the government, just for the word in standard characters, that will automatically protect the name and any siloization. So if you go to re rebrand and change your logo, if you have a wordmark registration, that’ll extend any specializations colors,
whatever format. So we do searches for the word. And if that’s available, I usually say, go for the word Mark, but you’re right, that sometimes clients will have, let’s say it’s not just a script, right? Let’s say that they came up with a unique character or some sort of interesting artwork that they have in a circle next to the word,
a good example of this is target, right? You know, target has the word target and red, and then you’ll see the bullseye above that bullseye they use as a trademark. So they could file for the word target without a stylization and be protected. They can also file just for the bullseye, which is the design element, and that will be protected or they can file for a lockup version,
which includes the word and the design. So there are a variety of ways and it really is case by case specific, but more importantly, it’s about budget. And I always tell clients, start with your corny for your forklifts and services, because it can get very expensive. And also as a point of strategy, it may not be worth filing for every single variation of the bark.
Just start with your core name and your core goods or services. Okay. And who needs to file trademark protection? Let’s kind of really cover some basics like who needs it. You know, what’s funny is that if you were asking this question 10, 15 years ago, the answer different, it used to be fortune 500 companies had trademark lawyers and they were the ones Coca-Cola Pepsi,
big brands were the ones registering trademarks that has completely shifted with online businesses. And I think we need to take a step back and explain an important concept April that you and I have discussed. So in the United States, trademark rights are based on use. So I’m sure all of you have one point or another. Someone has said to you, Oh, you don’t need a trademark right now.
You don’t need to file the trademark. You have rights just based on use, just continue to use the problem with that is, like I said, 15, 20, 30 years ago, that wasn’t really an issue because you were a store in one particular market in one city, right. Or your restaurant, or you were consulting in one area in person.
So it didn’t matter. Really. If someone was using the same name, you’re in New Jersey and someone’s using it in LA necessarily. So the law as it States is you have Commonwealth rights. Your rights are limited to that, to where you’re actually using who you’re servicing with online businesses that has caused to be blunt chaos, because how do you prove where your servicing clients by being on Instagram online,
you know, having websites that technically target and market, not only all 50 States, but even outside the us. So the way that you get around those issues is by filing the application with the government, having a registration gives you a presumption of rights in all 50 States. So that way, if someone is using your name, all you have to do is send them that piece of paper.
That’s triplicate of registration and show them that you’re the owner and they should in theory. Got it. So many questions that, and I’m obviously, you know, I’m bringing questions from clients that I, that I know have been asking as well. So let’s kind of start back at the beginning. If there’s somebody who’s listening to this and they have program that they’ve named,
let’s say it’s best business, one, two, three, or whatever that they have been using for a long period of time. What are their first steps as of now versus somebody who hasn’t even, who’s coming up with a new name, let’s start with the established people that are saying, Hey, listen, my company name isn’t registered my program, or my course name or my mastermind name,
isn’t registered. What should those people that are already have an existing piece of work that they own do at this point in time? Yeah. And I think it comes back again to budgeting and understanding that a little bit of money can go a long way if you’re strategic about it. What I like to do differently, I think than most lawyers is clients come to me and say,
Oh, for test that I want to file for this. I say, let’s take a step back. We can definitely file. But did you protect your brand name, your core name? I have clients that come and say, Oh, this slogan, I want to protect it’s brand new and it’s new. No one’s using it. So what I do is I do an IP audit for a lot of clients,
but when they come to me, I say, let’s just take a step back. Let’s look at all of your websites, all of your courses, and let’s figure out what’s the most important instead of you deciding or someone telling you which trademark to file let’s think strategically and say, what are your most core names, your core content and connection with your core services?
Because it gets very expensive very quickly. So I would tell people who are using, and they haven’t had anything registered to really, you know, touch base. I’m happy to do this, to discuss and do the IP audit, but you can also do it yourself and just think like, what are the core names that I’m using and for what particular services,
and then get those on file. Yes. Maybe you came up with like a super cool name slogan that you’re using, but are you really going to be using that in six months to a year versus I would say the name that you’re operating under, that may be the first starting point. So I would say, you know, either check in with an IP attorney who can do that with you,
for you, or think about it and then get those on file. Okay. And let’s make sure that you guys don’t have to wait until the end of this. If you want to connect with Francesca for that IP audit, find her on Instagram at the trademark attorney. And she actually has a link in her bio on Instagram. You can just schedule a call with her.
So we’re making it really easy for you. It’s the trademark attorney on Instagram. And plus she has amazing videos and things on there that you guys will love. And you can schedule a call to set up that IP on it. Okay. So for those people that are listening and they’re new in business, and they’re just trying to, they’re thinking, wow,
I really want to name my company. This, what are their first steps? You know, let’s actually talk about how to search the U S PTO. What is that process and is, Yeah. So the first thing is to come up with a name, if you’re just getting started, I would say, come up with names that try to not be so descriptive because as business owners and content creators,
we want to express to our viewers what exactly it is that we’re offering. But unfortunately that falls on the lower end of protection. On the trademark scale, the really strong trademarks are the ones that are either made up terms like Google or terms that have nothing to do with the product that you’re selling, like Apple computers. Then there’s this sweet spot that a lot of marketing people like,
like April, you do this really well. You will find names that kind of hint at what you’re doing, but don’t literally describe like your leading offer. So those are the sweet spot they’re called suggestive marks. But anything like weaker than that is, is a little bit more descriptive in there. You can still get them as trademarks. They’re just a lot harder to protect and enforce,
meaning other people may be able to use them. And then when you go to create a brand that you’re about to invest a lot of money in, you know, you need to think about these things. So the more made up the less related to the actual things that you offer the stronger and the better. Okay. So for those people that are like,
okay, this is what I want to do. How do they go search and see if somebody already has that trademark registered? Yeah. So let’s say you came up with an awesome name. The first thing to do is go check on the U S T o.com. That is the government website. The government has a database of registered and pending trademarks. You can plug in the Mark,
but unfortunately it’s not very user-friendly. For example, if you put in the Mark, it really may only give you either the exact spelling, maybe with a space, but it really is very limited. It’s going to look for the exact Mark. So if you did work with the trademark where like, for example, I have special software where I plug in the Mark,
I plug in the goods and services and then with its AI software, it’ll pull up marks that are medically similar. Maybe they have a translation and a foreign language, and all of those can be potential issues that you’re not going to find yourself. However, for your due diligence. The first thing to do is for you to check on usp.gov, because maybe there is a dead hit,
and you’ll find that there, the next thing to do, though, it’s not enough just to look on you as PTO, because there could be people who are using the Mark that may not have a registration. As I mentioned before, trademark rights are based on use. So it’s really important to see who’s using and who can raise a potential objection. You check Google,
check, Instagram, check all those platforms, and then if it looks good, that’s when you go and you work with a trademark attorney. Okay. Okay, great. So you do your due diligence, you know, go, you know, was us pto.gov, not.com. It’s not geo OB do that check and then Google the heck out of it as well.
And I, I think that that is so important. I know that, you know, some people go, Oh, they’ll just search it and they’ll be like, Oh great, it’s available because it’s not popping up. And that is absolutely nowhere near enough. And then I can speak for experience. You guys, who are listening that I have had Francesca put our trademark names in her AI system and crazy things that there’s no way I ever could have found pop up.
So it is definitely an important investment to make. If, if you were in the process of growing your company and you have IP that you want to protect. And so I think that’s really an important thing. So any other last words today, when we’re talking about trademarking moving forward or any other things that our listeners need to know that are often missed,
maybe common questions, basically, what am I not asking that I should be asking you? Yeah. Number one, we’re in the middle of a, of a pandemic and a financial downturn. So you’re going to have a lot of people who may not want, or may not have the deans to file trademarks. So I will tell you there’s things you can do to try and protect your name,
even without a registration start using those TM symbols. And you may not know what that is. So a TM symbol, now that I’ve mentioned that you’re going to see them everywhere. It means that people are claiming rights to a name or design as a trademark. They’re saying I’ve created this. And when people look at it, it points to me means that’s my website,
it’s my services, whatever it is. So you came up with a slogan, or if you have your brand name that isn’t yet registered, put the little TM in the upper right hand corner. And what that does is that puts third parties on notice. So if you have another person to get the Google search went on and found your website, they’re going to see immediately,
Oh, this person is claiming trademark rights. I better back off. So that’s an extra element that you can do. It’s not as strong as a registration clearly because your rights are only limited to where you’re using until you get it on file. But at least it’s something. And I would say, think about budgeting for that registration, for some of your four names.
It may sound expensive. And I think it’s worth quoting. You know, you’re going to get people who are gonna do this cheaper, and you’re going to find people who are gonna do it more expensive, but my firm has a fixed fee package with a trademark search and the government and the filing. And it’s 1250, you know, that’s a deal,
it’s a deal. And I’m just thinking like the cost to respond, who would demand letter or to send a demand letter is that amount. So to get that on file, to kind of not have to worry, think about maybe budgeting that as part of your business process. Yeah. And I will say about, Oh gosh, it’s been about 12 years.
We filed a registration for a program that we were licensing to healthcare. And this was 12 years ago. And I think I paid, you know, well over 2,500 for somebody to just file that registration for me. So this is 12 years later, grand Jessica’s team. This is a deal. You guys it’s like the deal of a lifetime and it protects you.
And it really covers you. So we love that. So all of you who are listening, if you’re in this place, whether you’re new and you are just coming up with names of really, frankly, especially for those of you guys who have content, you have IP, you have things that you haven’t protected yet. You haven’t done your due diligence.
I don’t want you to lose those Francesca. Doesn’t want you to lose those. And so if you have questions about this, I highly recommend that you hit Francesca up for an IP audit. Again, she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and she will, of course be back here on this sweet life entrepreneur podcast, again as well. And we’re going to be diving into copywriting next time,
which I know so many of our listeners have questions about protecting, like what actually is that? And so I’m excited to talk about that the next time that you are on the show. Thank you so much for being here and for all of your wisdom and pouring into our listeners. Thank you April. Thanks everyone.<inaudible> Wow. What an amazing episode.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Again, join us live on clubhouse. You can follow me at April beach, turn on the little bell for notifications and you’ll get exclusive access to this room where Francesca will be here this week on Wednesday, April the seventh at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Taking your questions based on what we talked about on today’s show.
And don’t forget to connect with Francesca directly for her IP audit, which is a very important thing. It’s totally free. I don’t know anybody who shouldn’t take this opportunity up. She is absolutely a gifted expert at what she does. You can visit Francesca at the trademark attorney and she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and on clubhouse. And on Instagram,
you can just very simply click the link and schedule a direct free complimentary consultation to get your intellectual property audit started. All right, again, this is episode one of a two part episode. Next week, episode number 222. We’re coming back with Francesca again, talking all about how to protect your creative works through copyright protection. All right, you guys have an awesome day.
It’s so great to chat with you and thanks again for tuning into this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast.
Small businesses who either currently use or want to utilize email marketing.
Summary:
Email marketing is an important way to connect with your warm audience, hold an ongoing conversation and increase sales. However, most businesses flop when it comes to writing emails that truly compel their audience. In this show, Copywriting expert, Kate Doster breaks down the process of writing great emails in an ethical way by wooing the hearts of your ideal clients open.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what makes a good email and a great one
How to use“calls to actions” correctly in your email
The process of writing amazing emails that convert
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. So two 20 here on the suite live entrepreneur and business podcast. I’m April beach, your host, and I’m super glad to be chatting with you. And yet another week here on the show,
this is episode number 220, and I can’t wait to dive into today’s topic. This is one of those ones where behind the scenes here, I was taking so many notes based on what our guest expert was teaching today. So there’s just gold inside this episode, as we hope to deliver to you within every single episode. First of all, before we get started,
if you’re new to listening to the show, thank you so much for tuning in here. We also go live and talk about the podcast and take your questions every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time on clubhouse. So if you are not yet following me on clubhouse, please do so. I would love to connect with you. We can really dive in and roll up our sleeves regarding your business questions.
Every single Wednesday, faithfully at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And my handle is at April beach on clubhouse. So I would love to see you there also, if you’re new to listening, or maybe it’s been a while since you’ve tapped into this important powerful resource, we have our lifestyle entrepreneur roadmap quiz, and this is based on my start to scale up system.
It’s a totally free tool. If you’re a listener to this show, you can go and take a very short quiz, just six simple questions. And it’s going to tell you what phase of business you’re in and based on the phase of business you’re in, we give you an exact checklist of what you should be focusing on and what you should be working on to scale your business,
or just really get your business to that next level. And you can take that quiz any time you can go back and take it again and again, by visiting sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, or you can simply text the word quiz to the number (805) 254-0880. And we’ll send you a link to that. So those are our free tools. In addition to all the gold,
you’re going to hear her on the show that I wanted to make sure that you have upfront so that we can keep your business implementing as we move forward through the entrepreneur podcast here. So I appreciate you listening to this show. This is what we’re talking about today. So let’s set the stage. This show is great for those of you guys who are in the first three stages of my start to scale up system.
So that’s based on the quiz. So if you’re in phase one, two or three, this is a great episode for you to listen to. If you’re in phase four or five of my start Taylor scale system, you’ve nailed this strategy. And so I recommend going to find a different podcast to listen to that applies to your stage of business. I want to make sure that I value your time so much.
And the strategies we’re talking about on today’s show are for those people in the first one, two or three stages of the start to scale up system. So what we’re talking about here is how to literally write emails that are so good. They lick the screen. You’re going to be mind blown about what you hear on today’s show. This is for small businesses who you either currently use email marketing.
You’re not sure if you’re doing it right, or you’ve never used email marketing before, and you want to learn how to leverage email marketing in your business. Email marketing is an important way for you to connect with your warm audience. It’s also important for you to hold an ongoing conversation and to increase your sales. However, most businesses flop when it comes to writing emails,
it’s truly because it’s, it’s actually a skill it’s not as easy as you would think that it would be in your emails really need to compel your audience. So in the show we have Kate Doster, who’s a copywriting expert. She’s going to break down the process of writing great emails in an ethical way, by wooing the hearts of your ideal clients and their wallets open.
At the end of this episode, this is what you can expect. You’re going to know what is the difference between a good email and a great email. You’re going to know how to use calls to action correctly in your emails. And you’re going to know the process of writing emails that convert. So let me tell you who is here today. She is absolutely amazing.
Kate Doster is the host of the inbox besties podcast. Creator of love your list. 2.0 email marketing mega course, it is dangerously obsessed with helping ethical entrepreneurs carve out their slice of the interwebs by winning the hearts and wallets open of their small, but mighty audiences. Thanks to funny bell marketing and easy yes, many offers. So that’s important as we went through our bio,
her bio here, that what Kate’s bio says is she helps you. Even if you have a teeny tiny small list, increase the engagement in the sales based on your list. That was one of the key things. When I was reading her bio and why I asked her to come on this show because listen, you guys, you only need a hundred true fans to build a great business.
That’s what it starts with these huge audiences. I mean, this can be an illusion. So those of you that don’t have huge lists with 10, 20,000 people on it. This podcast is great. And it’s also for those people that do have huge email lists. And perhaps you are failing at connecting well with your list. Kate believes you don’t need to bleed the alphabet or be a dirty rotten spam face to write emails,
adult subscribers, and to taking action gobbling up your paid offers like candy or kale, if that’s what you prefer. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast. All of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com simply click on the podcast button. And this is episode number 220<inaudible> All right, you guys, I am joined by Kate Doster and she is going to give you the complete strategy that you probably didn’t even know.
You’re actually missing to write amazing emails because what she teaches, what she talks about, isn’t just the fundamentals. It isn’t just like how to section out the content in your email. She literally teaches you how to write emails for so good people lick the screen. And that is her quote. I stole that from her to name this podcast. So giving credit where credit is due,
Kate, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here tell everybody about your superpower in your company. Sure. So I’m Kate Doster of Kate doster.com and hosted the inbox besties podcast. And my super power is really being able to help people. Not only feel like they can do anything, but actually give them the tools to get them there.
I think that there’s a lot of people that kind of hype you up and make you feel amazing. But then when they’re like, but how do I do X there’s like, go figure it out. But like, no, like we do the whole approach because our mission is to put money in the hands of good people so they can do good with it.
So our business is primarily a digital course business. I am extremely selective about the one-on-one clients that I take on, but primarily it’s courses digital products. We just we’ve got to help the good people out there. Right? And you teach people how to like create these insane bodies of copy that totally bring to life what it is that they do, their super power.
And there’s such a disconnect. I’m so excited to have you on this show. I need to give Angie true blood, our favorite person credit for connecting you with us. And when Angie was like, okay, this is an amazing guest for you. First of all, anybody Angie sends to me, I know it was just an amazing guest, but then I saw your,
your topics. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, yes. Emails that not only like convert, but emails that give an experience. So let’s dive right in and talk about one of the things you said behind the scenes, as I was getting ready here and taking my notes for what we’re going to talk about today is you have kind of like this four things that you go through.
And the first one you talk about is something that really other copywriting teachers don’t, and that is all about mindset. Talk to me about mindset and how that plays a role in copywriting. Sure. So like I said, good people do good. Most good people have very bad associations with things like selling. They don’t want to be annoying. They don’t want to be lumped in with a spammer faces.
Are there really bro Hames as we call him the world, he’s our arch rivals. He has a whole voice as he does. So because of that, they tend to really freeze that when it comes to emails, you know, Oh, I don’t want to be annoying or I don’t want to be spammy. Oh, you know, like I haven’t emailed them in three months.
So now they are literally psyching themselves out because either they feel bad, they feel guilty. Everyone’s been telling them everywhere. Like you need to have an MLS. Why don’t you have an email list, email, your email list, you dummy. So they get all up in their heads and they do no thing because everyone’s been on the receiving end of really bad emails.
But here’s the thing. The sheer fact that you are having this thought of, I don’t want to annoy people. I don’t want to be a spammer means that it is physically impossible for you to be there. And it is physically impossible for you to write one because the really broad themes as a world who are those farmers, they do not care. The fact that you care proves that you are going to send them high quality stuff.
So who guys think you already did it? And when I talk to people like 100%, it is always, Oh, I feel like, or I think it’s like, so it’s not truly the mechanics. It’s I need to get your finger to, to hit the sand on the good old convert kit, Right? Oh my gosh. Okay. Like we can just end the podcast right there.
Like, okay, you need to fix your mindset. You’re amazing. You’re not like a douche bag. You’re going to send grace. So I think that’s so cool. Okay. And then the next thing that you talked about is, you know, being on your list is a privilege. Let’s talk about that mindset all together. What do you mean by that?
Okay. It is a two side of the coin. One. When you realize that people are honestly lucky to get your enthusiasm, your encouragement, your knowledge, your expertise, they are lucky to be there. So all of a sudden that scarcity mindset of, you know, if I send a newsletter, a hundred people are going to unsubscribe. So no,
like I don’t have this mystical thousand number. Like who cares the people on the other end of the screen, do not know if they are one of, 100, one of five or one of 10 million. They have no idea when it is our mission to help you need to help regardless of that number. So when you’re like, Oh, bring it on my list as a privilege.
And somebody sends you a nasty email back, you laugh at them and then you kick them out. You’re like, no, like literally I send a lot of emails. I send a lot of what’s called sales emails. I got two last year. One was because I said home slice. And the other one I think had, but face in the subject line,
I literally went to go see what these people had signed up for. I’m like, how did you get here? I was mad at my landing pages, my gatekeepers, my content like allowed you in here. So when you go out with that mindset of being on my list is a privilege. Not only are you not going to care about the heaters because you’re like,
whatever, Sally, there’s a way more people for me to help. I hope you go find your own teacher is that, then you’re going to have a plan for it. So it’s a two side of the coin, like on next again, you’re allowed to have that human experience. If somebody sends you a me an email back, but then you get to laugh at them and be like,
man, I wish I had so much time that I could sit there and complain and whine and have my day ruined by somebody else. But like I’m too busy out there making a difference. So I can’t, Well, you just like blew my mind. That is so profound because I mean, what are the things we’ve talked about in the, the last four years is having somebody on your list as a privilege and,
and treat them with care and all these things. But what you’re saying is just so true to every single thing that I know, I feel as an entrepreneur bit like basically, like, I feel like you have just given people permission to be like, you are valuable. What you say is worthy. Your content is amazing. If somebody doesn’t resonate with it,
see you later celly, like you said. And then the next thing I said was really important, which we can even get into in this episode. Was that the gatekeepers is that making sure that your opt-ins, we’re totally not going to go there. Cause we could do a whole show on this, but making sure your opt-ins disqualify people at the same time as they qualify people,
the right people, that connection that you meant, I’d love that you mentioned that too. Okay. So when we’re writing email, the next tip kind of mindset strategy that you have is, is really treat people like people. I know I’m literally doing the shocked face. You guys can hear it. So again, because good people doing good things, right?
No one wants to be a spammer face. You tend to forget the, like there’s another person on the other side of this screen. So like how many times have you gone to like check your email, but then like the dog knocks over the plants and I need to clean it up. And then by the time you get back to your email, it’s like the next day or two days later.
So like, if you have this amazing product, you have this amazing coaching program and you only email people about a once you’re being the jerk. Ironically, it is the other way around because what if they just didn’t check their email that day? Now they are never going to know same thing with, and I know that this goes beyond the scope of this particular lesson,
but same thing with launching, like when you’re actually doing a launch. Yeah. If all of your emails are, you’ve got one day left, you got five minutes left and all of those are awful. Awful. You do need to send things about time limits because people do need to know. So I have nothing against timers, but you need to understand what actually goes through a person’s brain.
People are not logical. And when my students kind of grasp that around their heads, they’re like, Oh, Piedmont logical. If there were, you would have all exercised today, there would be no smoking industry. There’d be no drinking industry. There would be no drugs because people, if they were logical, why would you start smoking? When you know,
it’s only going to hurt you. Cause they’re not logical. So realize that they’re not logical trying to be like what? There’s eight modules. And my competitor only has four. You dummy is never going to work because they’re not logical. You have to actually compel them. You’ve got to cut through the crap. You need to know how a human brain works.
And that’s why my students get like astronomical results. And they’re like, Oh my trip wire, it’s converting at like 5%. Can I go higher? I’m like you to realize that normies only get it at one to two. Right? And they’re like, Oh, so then we’re just like, you know, going against ourselves. But when you understand how a human brain works,
treating people like people it’ll all work, which is why, if you haven’t emailed your list in a while and your first emails is big sob story about why you haven’t emailed them in forever. Everyone is going to be like, I don’t like you. Cause like they don’t care. But if you go in with some type of value and then you’re like,
Oh yeah. And if you’re wondering, how would I get your email address? Again, treat people like people because you signed up for this. Oh, all right. Help me out with something. You tell me what I’m thinking. We’re good to go. I’m not going to hit spam. I might just unsubscribe quietly. So treat people like people realize how their brains work.
So many good things that you said there. I love that. Okay. So let’s actually talk about, and I was actually laughing. I had to put myself on mute cause I started coughing. You’re totally. You totally have me. Correct. You know, leverage really love it. So talking about like I know, right? Like talk about, let’s go into actually the mechanics of writing an amazing email.
So walk us through the mechanics of actually doing it after everybody deals with all the mindset stuff, which I’m so grateful that that’s how you open up this training. I mean, you just have to, again, just like set up. So you can’t do one in seventh grade and have a six pack forever. I mean, I wish present witness tasks could have just been like take that postpartum weight.
Right? So again, it can be a daily thing, you know, it can be a daily thing. So don’t just think like, Oh, but I thought I worked on this. It’s always going to have a thing. So when it comes to writing emails so good, they can like the screen one getting out of your own head is important too.
Like we had just talked about treating people like people is important. Why do you check your email? Cause you don’t want to have to write that sales page you’re supposed to, because you don’t want to have that awkward conversation with your VA because you’ll know that you’re supposed to be pitching podcasts, but you don’t want to get around to it. So they’re like,
Oh, let me just check my email real quick. Right? So you’re doing it as a distraction. You’re doing it as an escape, which is why when people are like, Oh, but I send these big, long, huge emails. Yes. I know being in spam is probably a bad thing. Promotions it’s all right. People check that tab.
The thing you do not want to be in is the all read this leader email. Okay. So you cannot info slap people in your emails because people are not going in with the mindset of an email of I’m going to do hardcore learning. That’s what a blog post is for this sort of podcast is for that’s what a YouTube video is for. That’s what a course lesson is for an email is that short hit of escape.
Okay. So you need to realize that. So when you’re doing your email, yeah, you can have on that super long, as long as it’s entertaining. No one’s going to care. And as long as you’re not trying to tell them a hundred different ways to get clients, they’ll be fine. So when it comes down to actually writing an email like that makes them want to like this screen one,
you need to realize what your actual goal is. So your goal might be for them to reply back. Your goal might be for them to read an email, your goal might just be to build comradery. Then you’re going to want to make sure you have an action. I say, every email needs a call to action. It doesn’t have to go someplace else,
but it can be a reply back. I think that reply back is one of the strongest calls to action. Because next time it is more likely that your email is going to be in the folder that you want to be in. Or again, it can be a follow me on Instagram. It can be on this, but you’ve got to give people a reason to go over there.
You just can’t send an email being like, Hey, are we connected over on clubhouse? No, you need to entice them. What is in it for them? Treat people like people. So in order to make your emails more entertaining, I get constantly, but Kate, I don’t have a big personality like you, but I’ve averaged, but I’m boring.
I guarantee you, there are something about you that you can start putting into your emails, whether it is the name of your cat, your favorite song. You can, one of my favorite things. If I can’t figure out, what I want to email about is I’ll go to a website called holiday insights. You can just Google any of them and I’ll see like what day is it?
Like a national nacho day? Okay. So like say if I was a food blogger, then I could just send Nasha recipes because it’s natural nacho day. If I’m somebody else I could talk about like know like it’s natural natural day. And you know, since that’s pretty cheesy, I want to tell you about the three things that are going to make your website cheesy.
Like you can just rip off of these things. And now all of a sudden, not only are you just using just stats to like 200% of blondes, make more money, I’m making that up. But again, look for stats about your industry stats, about what day it’s going on and then just make some correlations. And the more that you get used to doing that,
the better that it’s going to be. Again, there was a reason why you created a blog post or why you’re going Facebook live, which got me thinking about, which is why in the slide. I don’t just necessarily give them the link, give them the link, but then put a little bullet points because you got to remember, people are reading on their phones.
So when it comes to structuring things, you want to make sure, honestly, if it’s longer than two sentences, I say, give it a paragraph. It used to be three. But I feel like if it’s a wordy three, the probably should be a paragraph. So you’ll see that a lot. Cause people will skim, you know, make sure you use things like bold texts,
but have, you know, little bullet points underneath to talk about like, what’s so great on there. Like, Oh, okay, it’s going to tell you the one thing never to send in your email. She’s going to tell you, if you haven’t emailed your list in forever, these are the two words you used to not having your email, like think of what can I do to make these a little bit more interesting.
And then it’s like, Oh, because every email guys spoiler before, really every email is a sales email because you are selling the fact that you get them, that you understand them, that you’re going to be there for them, that you’re consistent, that you want to interact with them and that you are not ability to borrow him. So whether you’re asking for cash or not,
every email is a sales email. So now you don’t have to get over sending any cause they all are. Oh, I love that. I love that. Oh my gosh. It’s so good. You’re just gold. Okay. I mean, that’s just, you just nailed it. That is so good. And I have learned so much here. Okay.
So I’m going to throw out a couple of common questions that we receive as a company. And since you’re the email queen, let’s see how you answer these. So, and you already answered the first one was does every email need a call to action? And so you’ve already answered that. So we’ll just skip through that. And I love how you answered that in some form.
Oh, you know, let me ask this question in case anybody’s thinking, could the call to action, be giving them steps, like now go outside and look up at the sun and take two deep breaths. Like could the call to action be something that doesn’t have to do with replying or interacting back to you at all? Or is it just having some sort of a call to action?
So definitely give them action steps. Like quick wins are huge, which is why I love how you said go outside and take two deep breaths. And you didn’t like tell them like this whole giant routine to do, but there’s nothing to say at the end of it that you can’t be like, and when you go outside snap a pic and tag me on your Instagram stories.
So that way it’s really organic. And so that way you can share them on for doing something. So if you’re going to give them a little task, give them a place where they can brag about themselves, treat people like people, they like feeling good About themselves, post About it. And some people will, some people post in the Facebook group tag me on your eyes,
your story post on my business page. So I can say how awesome you are. Let’s go outside together. You know what I mean? So that way you can incorporate them more in the world and then treat people like people they’re going to associate that good feeling with you and that’s what you want. Cause then So cool. Okay. And so along those lines,
we’ll just say, if you’re listening to this podcast and you absolutely love everything that Kate’s saying, make sure that you take a screenshot, I’ve listened. He does put it on your IgG story and tag Kate and tag, thus we live company, or you can just tag April beach life and okay. So cool. Now next question. Newsletters versus emails,
you know, the newsletter was kinda dead honestly like seven years ago, but now we actually have clients that like their newsletter is so amazing and they only send it out like once a month and it’s like long and juicy and almost like a calendar. What is your take on the strategy and the difference between newsletters in regular emails? How have you seen those playing out?
If you will only send a newsletter and by newsletter, I want to make sure that we have the same definition. Are you saying something where it’s like multiple calls to action, multiple sections? Is that what you’re defining as a newsletter? Yeah. These are huge newsletters that some of our clients, which are larger companies already, that you know, are in the process of scaling that they send out these newsletters,
people like go crazy at one of them could be sign up here for this. And one of them could be, did you remember to join this? There are multiple calls to action. In these things. We call that more of a magazine style email. If that is the only one that you will do, so you will actually send it, then send it.
So I had an interior designer who was a student and when she tried to do of that one call to action type of a thing, she really mindset got into her head a lot. And so what we did is we went ahead and we turned it into like her Wednesday newsletter. We gave it an actual name and I told her just like magazines have repeating sections.
You need to have some repeating sections, but realize that if you are trying to sell, say an ebook and you’re still having all three of those sections, then the likelihood of them buying is going to be a lot lower to people. Like people, you give them a lot of stuff to do. They will do everything else or they’ll do nothing. Like there’s actually a scientific study.
The jam study. If you get 12 choices versus 24 at 24, you’ll just walk by because you’re just like, that’s too much for my brain. Right? So when I told her, that’s not to say she can’t have flash sales or launches because I feel like, Oh my goodness, she’s emailing on Monday. It’s gotta be important. So then she can just do the one that has the one call to action.
So make sure that you are strategic realize with those newsletters, that the likelihood of them going to spam or promotions is going to be higher. The more outward links to different places that you have, the more likely it is to trigger something. So you can link to your Instagram five times if that’s your call to action, because it’s going to the same spot,
your Instagram. But if you’ve got an Instagram one, that’s going to a deal that you have one that’s going to a blog post one, that’s this one that’s that it can go in there. But again, if you are more likely to send us a magazine style newsletter than send nothing and send it, just realize that your sales aren’t going to be as high because you can’t focus them on one particular action.
So like I would never send a new style in the middle of a launch that would make no sense because people would get derailed. So that’s just the difference if what you want to go with. So if you’ll never do anything, just one of those, but again, try to keep it consistent because then people that are interested in certain parts, they’ll always go right down to that section.
Okay, cool. And now I have a couple other questions that are coming up that I know people are probably thinking. So I’m trying to be in the mind of our listeners right now, a question about the frequency of sending. Is it better to send more frequently, you know, less frequently? Does it depend on the relationship between the business and the audience?
Is there like a regular consistent, like rhythm that you recommend with email sending? Okay. For most people, if you only send once a month, this is nothing. That’s your client. And again, if they’re a larger corporation, they could probably get away with it once a month. Especially if you’re a smaller, more personal brand is not going to necessarily be enough because people are going to forget about you.
You’re not top of mind, they’re their goal. Fishes. Everybody has a goldfish treat. People like people. You’re going to hear that a lot. What I would say for people, especially if you are a personal brand, especially service owner, you’re selling your own courses, aim for once a week. That’s four emails a month. Y’all handle writing four emails a month and what’s gonna end up happening is you’re going to get so good.
You can batch them, meaning, sit down and write them all. Sometimes w a lot of my students really love to do is they will come up with a topic for all four and then they’ll write like two at a time. Right? So again, it’s done, they’ll load them into the convert kit. They’re active campaigns. Doesn’t matter whatever tool you’re using.
And then they know that they’re settled and then people get so hyped about this. Or they do some casual selling, which we teach in the course. And then I’m like, okay, I’m going to add another day. But I would never say like, email this. Now, if you’re doing a launch or you are doing a flash sale, you’re going to want to send more than one email.
Because again, people might not check. They might forget treat people like people they procrastinate so that you’re going to have a little bit more. But as long as honestly, what you have to say is interesting and it’s tackling different doubts or your habits that people have, you can keep sending Austin repeat yourself. Okay. And then the one last question I had is when somebody does have a launch,
you know, it’s normal that people unsubscribed from the list and people get so afraid of that. They’re like, Oh, like the whole mindset thing, which we already knocked out of the ballpark, that’s gone. Now, we already dealt with that. What the question here is, is there like an average expectation for a percentage of unsubscribes that you have seen during launches or is it totally vary based on different brands and businesses?
How frequently they launch? How big obviously, how great the relationship already is with building the relationship? Is there like a average percentage that people can quote unquote expect in unsubscribes around a launch period or no, I don’t know if it’s necessarily during a launch period. The only stock that I could find was in general and it’s actually does hold true. If you guys go look at your analytics is usually when you send any type of email,
you can expect about a 1% unsubscribe rate, which is pretty interesting. So again, if your number is a hundred, then your percentages are going to be like very skewed. So keep that in mind. We need to have some logical, even though I don’t do logic, but like, so keep that in mind, right? When it comes to a launch,
the biggest reason that people are unsubscribing is because you started talking to them about something they didn’t care about, or you never gave them an out. So like the launches that I do, even though, like, I teach email marketing. If you didn’t sign up for a launch, trigger a webinar, a challenge, all of that. I’m not going to send you all my launch emails because you’re not going to want them.
I will send you two. And one of them is just a recent it’s like, Hey, I know you didn’t sign up for this webinar, but I know that you were struggling with ABC and D this is open until Wednesday. If you want to come, come, if not, that’s cool. And then in my launch emails that I have, and I always tell my students to do this too.
I always have that link bottom of the email, sometimes top of the email, Hey, if you know that love your list is not for you. This round, then click here and we’ll chat after the launch is over. Or Hey know that you have a great relationship with your list and you’re making more than $10,000 a month with it. Click here.
I won’t tell you any more about my course, because you don’t need us right now. Just give people an out, treat people like people. But again, if you are setting that one hour to go 30 minutes to go five minutes to go, and you’re making everything about you, then I guess if you could take anything away from this, especially when it comes to launching,
you need to be more excited for them than yourself, because nobody, I mean, we do care that like you have expertise. So I’m not saying any of those fake it till you make. And I hate that line. What I’m saying is I am so disproportionately passionate about seeing Sally earn money from our food blog. When everyone else in our whole fricken family thought that she was nuts.
Like, I am like hardcore rather than like, love your list. And I make all of this money. And like, yes, obviously in each of them, a copywriter, not some rando that hit like big with a pin, obviously that’s important, but it’s not like, Hey guys, my course is open. Never it is. If you are struggling with this and I get very,
very specific, we call them moments. We don’t have time to talk about them. Now y’all are going to have to tell me to find out that’s right. Then I got this and it is going to help. And here’s how it’s going to help because I am so excited. Literally you can see my face to see my people succeed. You have no idea.
And when you come at anything that you create that way, and I don’t care if it’s a meal planning guide, I don’t care if you help cleaning products, I do not care. We are more excited for what they’re going to be able to avoid and achieve. It’s like, I know, yeah, I’ve got this thing they’re going to buy. This is why my students and I get a logical Results and people like that’s bananas.
Like no that’s treating people like people. You are so good. I’ve appreciated you sharing and totally pouring out your crazy good expertise into our audience. This is amazing. Okay. So you have, of course an amazing free thing that people can have. Like if they want to connect with you further, or if they just want like these amazing results, you have two years worth of emails that you are giving to our listeners.
Tell them what that is. That’s amazing. Sure. So what it is is two years worth of email idea prompts. So if you’re ever sitting there looking at your screen, you’re like, I’ve got no idea what to email about. Or even if you’re like, I don’t know how to make this next thing sort of interesting. We do have it dated.
Now, keep in mind if you’re listening to this and it’s like July, it’s like, Oh, well, half the month is wrong. Spoiler alert. January is going to come back. So as April, so it’s may, so you can just restart it over. Like there’s no problem. And some people will actually they’ll follow it verbatim. Like,
Oh, may it sets in this, this, this, and this. And we’ll do it. Some people mix them up. Some people go and just peer in other months. And that is 100% there because now, you know what it is. If anything is time-based because a couple of months we’ll have something like, it’s not Neil national hug your cat day,
but if there’s something that’s going to be time-based to be, well, we make sure that at least once a month, you’re really highlighting some type of paid offer, whether it is an affiliate deal, whether it is her own stuff, any of that sort of stuff is in there as well. So you can hand it on over to Kate Doster dot for slash Sweet life,
either with a hyphen or without I got you both. And then you guys will be able to get that. And you can always listen to my podcast, wherever you’re listening to this. It is in a box of besties and my Instagram, which I’m working on. Let’s say it that way. I spent so much time cultivating my email list, social media.
I kind of forgot about, so it is Kate underscore Doster. So y’all can see the name and I’m sure we’ll have it in the show notes. Yeah, we will. And yeah. Yeah. Instagram followers does not equal amazing experts. Definitely. There’s not an equivalent therapist. I want people to be able to connect with you more. And also you are newly on clubhouse.
So I’m like talking to you behind the scenes. You guys, if you’re in our Sweetlife club on clubhouse, I’m talking to Kate about getting on the calendar. And so we can do a clubhouse room for you guys where you can connect with her directly and ask her your questions, which is so cool. So we’ll put all of that information in the show notes as well.
Kate, thank you so much. It was so awesome to get to know you and to hear everything that you deliver today. We really appreciate your time. I think you’ll ever remember guys being on your list is privilege. So treat it like one<inaudible> Thanks so much for hanging out with us at the end, you are the a game players, right?
You were the winners, the ones that stay and apply all the strategies. As a matter of fact, I was speaking in a clubhouse room recently that if people actually just listened to this podcast for the last four years, they probably would save up to a hundred thousand dollars in startup and scale business coaching that they might have spent on other coaches. We really are here to dedicate true and proven business strategies that you can take to the bank.
So thank you so much for listening to this show do join us in our clubhouse room. We would love to meet with you and clubhouse. We’ll be speaking live at 12 o’clock Eastern with Kate Doster herself. If you’re listening to this live, that will be Wednesday, April 2nd, at 12 o’clock Eastern. And you can find that room by visiting sweet life business.club.
I’ll say that again. Sweet life business.club. And all you have to do. If you are a clubhouse member is you can quickly simply click the button and join our club and you’ll get a notification of this room. All right, you guys have an awesome day. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye-bye
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Who This Episode is Great For:
Entrepreneurs in the first stages of business growth, who feel like you’re struggling to make a decision on your personal brand and how to represent yourself to the world.
Summary:
As an entrepreneur, expert or professional leader, one of your strongest assets is your personal brand. Your brand is the outward representation of who you are and what you bring to the world. But oftentimes, leaders struggle with imposter syndrome, or get confused about how they want to show up. You might be afraid that you can’t take things back once you show them to the world or you’re fearful of judgment or regret.
In this, our guest Nicole Herring, NLP Practitioner, breaks down her process to help you make strategic. personal brand decisions.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand personal vs company branding
Have a set of questions you can ask yourself to make personal brand decisions
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate, Hey there, and welcome to episode number 219 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast. And today we are diving in and Having a conversation all about how to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime with our guest in the house today,
Nicole Herring, this is a great show and we’re going to go ahead and dive right in. But before we do, I want to make sure you have utilized the tools we have for you here to grow and design and scale your business here at this sweet life company. And through this week, I have entrepreneur podcast, all of which can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com
on there very specifically, I want to point to our start to scale up system. If you haven’t yet taken the self-assessment to find out what stage of business you are in, it is absolute gold. There are some short questions for you to answer. And then based on the stage of business, you’re in, we give you a whole entire list in a checklist,
actually with support in steps to get your business to the next level. So no more confusion overwhelm or shiny object syndrome. There’s a very short assessment will get you there. And you can take that assessment simply by visiting Sweetlife code.com forward slash quiz. Okay, let’s go and head and dive into today’s episode with our guests. This is what we’re talking about.
This show is great for any of you who are in the first stages of your business, launch and development, and even scaling your company. So based on where you are in that, self-assessment, this is great for those of you in stages one through three, and you feel like you might be struggling to make a decision on your personal brand and how to represent yourself to the world.
Because as an entrepreneur expert or professional leader, one of the strongest assets that you have is your personal brand, right? And your brand is an outward representation of who you are and what you bring to the world. But oftentimes commonly leaders struggle with imposter syndrome. They get confused about what they want to show up, who they want to show up as who they want to show up for.
In actually I talk with a lot of entrepreneurs who are kind of afraid just to even put their personal brand out there to the world, because they know once they do that, you know, you can’t really take it back. And so they feel like they are just stuck in this place where they can’t move forward. You’re worried maybe somebody is going to judge you and you don’t want to have any regrets,
but as a leader, as an expert, even if you have a company brand, it’s important that your personal brand shows up to the world, because people are going to connect with you as a person so much more than they’re going to connect with a brand or any sort of accompany brand first. That’s why everybody loves seeing behind the scenes on your Instagram or talking to you directly in a clubhouse room,
who you are and who you show up as are incredibly important things. And so that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. Today’s expert is Nicole Herring. She’s an NLP practitioner that breaks down her process to help you make strategic, personal brand decisions. And here’s a little bit of Nicole story and she shares it more when we dive into this, because I think it’s important for you to connect with it.
Basically she’s done everything. She’s been a designer and an entrepreneur, and she struggled with the fact of really stepping into who she is called to be as far as being also a mom. And she has gone through the process to create an amazing structure that she’s going to guide you through today that helped herself go through how to make personal brand decisions for her business.
Another little backstory here is Nicole is also, I first met her. She traveled with us to Florida in fall of 2020 for our Sweetlife company planning retreat. I had never met this woman before. She was absolutely a gem, even though she lives like 12 miles from me, isn’t that crazy. We had to fly to Florida from Colorado to meet each other for the first time.
But one of the things that really stood out to me, she photographed our entire week there and it was amazing, but how she did that was she really worked with my team. She photographed my team as well to really extract who they were as people so that it represented in the outward view of the photos that they would use professionally. It was absolute genius.
And that’s why I have invited her on today’s show. You’re going to absolutely love this woman, just like I do. So at the end of this episode, you’re going to understand personal versus company branding. And we’re really diving into the personal branding side. And Nicole has given you a set of questions that you can go through and ask yourself to make the smartest,
most confident, personal brand decisions for yourself. All of the show notes and everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number two 19. All right, let’s go ahead and dive in.<inaudible> All right. You guys, I am joined by my very, very good friend, Nicole Herring. And let me give you a little bit of a background story.
Before we dive into today’s business trainings. Nicole lives 15 minutes from me, but we had never met. We were introduced by Cathy Hawn. Who’s an amazing woman and she connected us because I was looking for a photographer. Now here’s a little bit of the background story too. I have never been into like personal photo shoots because I didn’t believe anybody could actually capture me and who I authentically am.
I was, my experience was I was always like forced to be somebody that I’m not anyway, long story short. We were planning our business retreat at a beautiful beach in Tampa, Florida on the beach in Tampa, Florida. And I really wanted to bring a photographer and I met Nicole and I realized he was the first person that I had ever found that could truly capture the authentic behind the scenes of what we were doing as a company and to get amazing photography of really what it’s like to be part of the Sweetlife company and who I am as a person.
So I had the pleasure of spending a week with Nicole on the beach in Tampa and walked away with the most incredible photos, just capturing everything we did as a company. But then also, I mean, this woman took the time to know me. She even had me like laying down in that sand And I was like, yes, you want me to lay down with my hair and the seashells in the ocean.
I would love that. You know, so she, I really took the time to know who I was as a person. And I am just so blessed to have her in my life. Now, the thing that we’re talking about today is one of Nicole’s incredible giftings, and that is helping entrepreneurs actually create this personal brand that lives a legacy that is true to who they are as people.
And so there’s a big process of doing that. It’s not just showing up to take pictures. There’s so much more than Nicole identified in that. And that’s why I’m so pleased to introduce you guys to her today. Because after you hear about her process, it’s going to really put you in the right direction of creating your personal brand in a way that’s true to you.
So Nicole, welcome to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. So glad that you’re here. Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here. I just want to say thank you. And yeah, I love, I love how we had to travel to another state, literally on the other side of the country to finally meet each other, we have had a couple of calls and COVID kind of came up and our original plans derailed,
but we came together anyway. So I love how worldwide our brands are. And yet, like we still had to meet, we still had to get on a plane to actually connect. And it just, it’s just the way I love to do business. Like, I’ll meet you by the beach. I think I wrote that at the bottom of the email.
I’m like, just tell me when, and I’ll meet you by the ocean. Right. And we did too. Like she met me by the beach. It was awesome. Tell everybody, yeah. Tell everybody about, you know, kind of your evolution To your now area of incredible expertise. Thank you. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. Cause it’s like at one point when I decided I wanted to leave the version of motherhood,
that was the stay at home, the homemaker version of motherhood. What else is out there for me? I really did not know what that looked like. And I just thought, how can I get paid to be creative? I didn’t know what that meant. There was a whole entrepreneurial part of the journey that I was just like, so outside my realm of possibility at that point,
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And so I did, I went on a journey for a couple of years of just allowing myself to say, Hey, I would love to get paid as a personal stylist. As an interior designer, I rebuilt and refinished furniture. I paint on canvases, like all kinds of things and then fell into finding that I had a knack for writing.
And then writing led me to copywriting and copywriting led me to branding and branding led me to photography. And then it was like this whole full circle cycle where it was kind of like, Oh, branding, photography, personal style, interior design, all of that is all so well encompassed and all the facets in one nice and neat package. And I was like,
Oh, so like, I didn’t even know branding was a thing. So I really pursued that path. And I really loved it. I worked with some great women, helping them build their brand, writing content, helping them create launch strategy. And then they would do nothing, right? Like they would pay me thousands of dollars to develop these concepts.
And then they would get stuck in their own brain. And in their own minds of feeling like they were an imposter or they couldn’t figure out how to then become visible in their business, even though they thought they were hiring me to solve the problem of, Oh, as soon as I have the copy, I’m good to go. As soon as I have the images,
I’ll be good to go. As soon as I have a launch strategy and I have the bird’s eye view, I know how to take steps. I just need somebody else to show me, help me see the way. And so I thought, Oh great. I’ll be happy to be, get paid to be creative and do all of this. But then I found that they were just not taking action in the business.
And I thought to myself, okay, what is it that is keeping some people from taking action and some people did not. And then it kind of, I stumbled down the path of NLP, which is neuro-linguistic programming. It’s a modality for coaching through the mental and emotional blocks that keep you from creating success in your life. And I found some of my own blocks and healed and transformed theirs.
And then I was like, sign me up. How do I become a practitioner? So I put a pause in offering creative services so that I could bring this to my clients so I could support them mentally and emotionally while they are creating a brand so that they’re not living in this tension of who they are portraying themselves on social media versus thinking there’s somebody different in real life.
And so as a really a matter of eliminating that tension and helping them see that they are the best and the worst of both of that and owning the good, the bad and the ugly so that they could actually move forward with their business. So there’s the long and the shit of it. Yeah. I mean, that’s so it’s so important. I think there are so many people listening that have spent so much money on valuable deliverables like you were creating,
right. And they thought that that’s what they’re missing and they still don’t take action on it. And so I love that you were so intentional and you’re like, wait a minute, you’ve paid me thousands of dollars and you’re still not using this stuff. What’s the problem here. So I love your journey. It’s very much who you are now that I know you kind of being like,
okay, now where let’s take another step back, where are we getting stuck? Where’s the bottleneck. So today on the show, we’re talking about how to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime. And we’re really talking about a really how to encompass that. And there’s so many different things that we’re going to dive here. And, you know, if you’re listening and you have bought many things before and maybe felt like you were stuck and you haven’t taken action,
this was a really important episode for you to keep tuning into cause Nicole’s can actually take you through her framework in order to actually that outlines a thought process for you. So you can make intentional decisions, which is so cool. But before we get into that, let’s kind of set a baseline for somebody who’s listening that might not know. So first of all,
let’s define the difference between a company brand and a personal brand and kind of dive into that just real quick. If anybody, I wouldn’t say, if anybody I know who so many people ask me these questions, like, should I brand myself or should I brand my business? And what’s really the difference. So can you just basically explain that for anybody who might be wondering?
Sure. So when you’re branding a business, you’re branding a solution that appeals to a particular ideal client. And so everything that you’re doing within a brand of a business is okay, who’s our ideal client. Who’s willing to pay for the solution that we’re offering. What is their price point? Is it for a business to business solution? Is it a business to consumer solution,
right? It’s all about the consumer and the problem that they’re attempting to solve when you’re in a personal brand, you’re still very focused on the client, but the client also wants to feel like they’re resonating with the person who’s delivering the solution, who’s delivering the transformation. And so the personal brand aspect is just, it’s a bit about who you are as a human and you’re injecting those qualities into a brand.
And the very simplest way is to take like, like you and I were talking about previously is just taking, you know, a few basic adjectives about who you are as a person and injecting that into the visuals of your brand. And so that when people meet you in person, they feel like they already know and connect with who you are, because your feed or your,
you know, the way that you speak, the energy that you have comes through. And so there’s, there’s no disconnect there in the personal brand, from the visuals we’re seeing online and the person that they meet in person, right. Because you don’t, your brand is speaking for you long before you’ve actually connected. One-on-one Right. And something you said to me before we started recording,
that was just super important is that you said the personal brand also tells the idea of clients. It tells them a story of what’s possible. So they are actually able to see what they personally, it’s very hard to find, see yourself personally, in a company brand, right. But when you’re looking at a person and you’re seeing their life and what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing that,
where they go and what they’re wearing and who they’re hanging out with and all those things, all of that is representative of what is possible for them when they work with your services. And I thought that was so important for people to understand. And that really speaks a lot to, if anybody has that question, should I brand myself, or should I brand my company?
There are very important. We could have a whole podcast on that, but just, just to take away, there are some very important to note that doing both is very important. Moving forward to a certain extent, obviously, based on, on your company and based on honestly, based on your company, exit strategy, if you want to have your company acquired and things like that in the future.
Okay. So let’s go ahead and dive into why it’s important now. So some of the reasons why it’s important to create an authentic personal brand that is really, really true to who you are in a couple of things I want you to define for us, if you could, please are number one, what is imposter syndrome? Because that word is used quite often and people might necessarily not necessarily know the actual definition.
And then what’s in between that in self-doubt. Yeah. Thanks for asking. And I did bring up the definition just because I want to make sure that I am saying it correctly, because the way that I, well, I’ll just go with it. So imposter syndrome, according on a quick Google search, it says that it’s loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud.
And it’s disproportionately affects high-achieving people who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. And so basically when I say, what, how self-doubt and imposter syndrome differ is it, imposter syndrome says that you even look at the evidence and then you diminish it. You actually say, Oh, I’ve created 40 grands in my business, you know, in X amount of time.
But that was just a fluke. Like I got really lucky. These three things happen, X, Y, and Z. I didn’t really make that happen. It was a fluke. It was by accident, all that. So you diminish what you’ve accomplished and also hold it against yourself. And so the self doubt is what keeps you from taking action in the future.
So then you’re now diminishing. What’s possible for you, even though you have evidence that supports that you can create Results because you’ve done it. You’ve now diminished it and created self doubt that then prohibits you and even self sabotages. You moving forward with the expertise, the zone of genius that you have, the skillset that you’ve nurtured, or your natural talents that you have,
right? Like all of that, you then now discount and say, it’s not, I mean, I can’t really charge. I don’t really know what I’m doing. Like I just, you know, whatever. So now you’re discounting what you can do in the future. And the imposter syndrome kind of is how you reflect on what you’ve accomplished and say,
I’m just surprised if, if only people I, the fluke made 40 grand or whatever it is. Right. Right. Okay. So just a random question for somebody who’s listening. I mean, most of our listeners are in this growth and scale phase of their business, but for those that are listening, that are brand new business and they haven’t done anything yet,
like they’re starting from scratch and they’re looking around and being like, like, how do I do this? There’s all these other people that are better than me that have been doing this longer than me, that LA LA LA like all these things that they’re saying to themselves in their mind, we’re going to go through this framework here, which I’m so excited for you to share your framework.
But is there something that you would say to them specifically? Oh, for sure. So all the time, and I mean, this is, I’m not making this statement up. People say it all the time, but it’s like, you cannot compare your beginning to somebody else’s chapter 47 or whatever it is. And so you have to allow yourself to,
to be bad, to be a starter, to be fresh, to be new. And also, if you really want to look at what you’ve accomplished in your life, you can lean back and evaluate self-evaluate every job you ever had, even as a babysitter when you were 14, right. Like take it way back and go old school and look at every job you ever had and look at the skills and qualities and things that you have honed and created from each individual job.
I mean, I know I worked at a bagel shop when I was a child. Like not<inaudible>. Yeah. You definitely got through that. I mean, 15, we were children. Right. We thought, we thought we were so big, but yeah. So, you know, 15, I worked at a bagel shop and then I worked at a law firm when I was 16 years old,
just, you know, working in the back. And so every single job that I’ve had, I’ve been able to look and see like, okay, well, if I could do that job at age 16, then what did I get from that, that qualifies me for what I’m doing now. And you can actually go back and just prove to yourself and self-evaluate and say,
actually, I had no luck, I’ve done a lot, acquired a lot of skills. And so it’s the human condition to look at where we’re lacking, as opposed to where we’re actually having the skillset and honoring what, what we do know. And so you have to literally train your brain to not look towards the negative and seek out the positive. Okay.
So, and then one of the, one of the ways that this works, even with one of my clients recently is that she was like, I was like, okay, tell me a time in which you felt really successful. And she was like, Oh, I don’t know. I’d have to really think about it. And I’m like, don’t think about it.
Just tell me a time in which you felt successful. She’s like, well, I don’t know if the is like successful enough. And I was like, see right there, right there as a, as a feeling of not being good enough. And the reason why is because if I said, tell me something that sad that happened, you could immediately go to a sad memory,
but you wouldn’t second guess, was that sad enough? Was that the status memory I’ve ever had? Probably not. Right. And so it’s a human condition to really look at the least important parts of the detail and make them the most significant things you have to retrain your brain. And so that’s a process that I actually teach my clients. That’s the reframing process that I’m going to teach you right now.
It’s a bit of, a lot of different things that I’ve learned. There are so many teachers out there who teach different parts of this. And for me, pulling it all together was not a feat in the sense where it was a hard accomplishment, but when I really saw the full picture, it just kind of blew my mind. And so until that process,
yeah. Do you want me to Right into it? Yeah. So let’s tell him, let’s kind of set everybody up for what’s about to come. So there are seven steps to it and you actually break out the word reframe into an acronym. So sh so you’re going to guide people through this process. And so at the end of this process, like when they’re done with this,
they’re going to have a clear thought process to make decisions on building their personal brand. That will last a lifetime. So that’s the outcome of what you’re about to teach here. Yes. Okay. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Yes. Tell us your reframe process. Okay. So when you are reframing something, the first thing we want to do is really look at,
okay, what is the real and undeniable facts? What is the reality? That’s what they’ll let our RFC on spore. And so what we want to really do is break it down into three words or less of the problem that you’re trying to solve and take away all of the unnecessary words and all of the emotion and just simplify what you’re trying to create.
And so if what you’re trying to do is sit down and create, copy, offer a website. Or if you’re trying to write sales content in an email, or if you’re trying to start a nurture sequence in, in social media, you know, you just don’t make it into a big problem. You just like writing content. You know, what’s the most simple way for you to say this is the problem that we’re solving with the reality of the situation.
And so then the next letter is E which is experience. And so you really want to talk about like, what is the experience, the reference in which we want the person plays through the event of the thing. So in reference to writing social media content, when it’s the experience that I want my clients to have, when they’re reading through this, what is the experience I want to have when reading this same thing with writing content,
for an email sequence or in sales page, what is the experience we want people to have? And what’s the experience I want to have, right. Do I want to feel confident? Do I want to feel right? So that’s actually F I dumped right into the next step. It’s, it’s such a natural process that I can lead right into it.
And so the next letter of reframe is F. And so then you think about, okay, well, what are the feelings I want to accomplish in the writing this piece of content? I want to convert our readers into clients. How do I want to feel the number, one thing that people neglect to feel as confident, or like they know the answer to their client’s problem.
And so they sit down and they start to go into this worry, like, I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what my clients need to hear. Oh, what am I doing? Who am I anyway? Right. So they go into this emotional mind drama instead of sitting with confidence that they’re the expert and they know how to solve this problem.
If you can tap into that energy and get into that feeling and dictate the experience you want your clients to have. And so when will you, right? So like, let me Over to like building their personal brand. So once somebody listening would be, you know, you’re thinking when you’re writing the copywriting for your social media or in your website, you know,
really going through, you know, what is reality? What isn’t, you know, what is the experience you want people to have when they experience your personal brand? How do you want them to feel when they experience your personal brand? Yeah. This process is so good. Okay. So, and then R yeah, so the R is for the reaction.
And so a lot of times there’s an unintentional way that we react to our own thoughts and feelings. And so just how I was saying, when you’re sitting down and you’re thinking, okay, what is it, how do I want to be feeling when I’m writing the sales page or developing my brand and deciding who I am in the world and how I’m offering my services,
who am I, what are the feelings I want to have? This is the reaction of going in and thinking immediately the human design of just saying, I don’t know what I’m talking about and having that knee-jerk reaction of, of discrediting or diminishing all of the things that, you know, to be true and accurate about yourself and the a and the next one is just assuming radical responsibility and choosing an action instead.
And so instead of having the negative reaction and making decisions about your brand, what if you were just really intentional and you chose to like, trust yourself and believe in what you were saying and believe in who, who you were being and not live in that tension of that, your online personality or your online identity, and that brand is any different than who you are at home.
Sometimes there is some tension there, and that’s the mental and emotional awareness pieces that you have to kind of get the coaching on because the strategy is nothing. If you don’t have the mental and emotional pieces that support who you’re becoming and who you’re growing into in the online world. And so the M and reframe is for mindset awareness. And this is a different way of looking at it than most people usually do,
because a lot of times people think that mindset is, you know, like you’re either in growth mindset, you’re either moving towards something or you’re in limited mindset, or you’re in a lack mentality. And sometimes there’s something in the middle called neutral that nobody really gets to. And so I like to really attribute the mindset awareness to even like a storyline. So if you have a story,
there’s like a hero that’s out there, like saving the world. And they’re the ones that are in the growth zone and they’re making all the magic happen. Right. Then you have the other side, which is the victim mentality, the fixed mindset. And then sometimes there’s these innocent bystanders that are just part of the story, but it’s not really their drama,
but they’re just there, they’re a neutral person. And so sometimes I think that when it comes to in a mindset, when we’re looking, especially if you’re trying to build your brand, you coach people on this all the time, like find your competitive people, look at what they’ve got, what they don’t have assess their brand what’s missing. And then from there,
fill in the gaps with what’s natural and true to you, and really honor what you’re better at, but then get out of there and do not stay in the place where you are now living in comparison land and looking at their, at their content. And now going into the victim mentality that your brand is not as good as theirs, you know, all that kind of stuff.
You just need to get back to neutral by just removing that negative feedback from your own brain, by just knowing who they are, knowing what the competition is, and then not living in their world is the only way you’re going to create success. And so you have to just decide, am I going to grow into this? Can I go into neutral?
Or am I going to tumble down into victim world and, and be in a limited mindset? And now second, guess everything that I’ve made a decision on. And then the very last word is E which is the three E’s. Cause I could not pick one. There’s too many great words here, but listen, you have to experiment. Okay. So you just have to shift things and just be willing to experiment live in the curiosity whenever you’re testing your brand and you’re validating your offers,
you just have to say, what’s working and what’s not working and really take the failure of things landing or not landing away from who you are as a person, a failure. Is it about an event? A failure is not an adjective of me as a human, right? But it might be a rat. The failure of a specific idea that I had,
the idea was a failure. That doesn’t mean I’m a failure as a person. So you have to be able to experiment with curiosity, obviously, execution of all things, right? You give strategy to people all the time, how many people are taking strategy in and implementing, right? Like this is the disruption that you want to create in the market.
And, and in your industry of saying, okay, like, listen, information is not enough. If you’re not executing and implementing, you’re missing the Mark. And you, I know as a, as a brand and as a company are wanting to really change that. And then self-evaluation, I mean, here’s the thing, the reason why we fire people in business is never the reason why we hire them.
So if you can’t go back and look at why you’ve fired employees and you’re not learning anything from that experience, right? So the same for ourselves, like if we don’t self evaluate and look at where we, what worked, what didn’t work and allow ourselves to grow through all the circumstances, building a brand, launching an offer, all those things. If you’re not able to self-evaluate without being hypercritical of yourself,
right. It’s like critiquing and experience without being hypercritical of the self, that’s a learned skill set. So, and that’s one of the things that I found is that people were just, their inner critic was so harsh mine too. Right? Like I was like, everything that I did was not good enough. And I did not become an expert in overcoming imposter syndrome because I just learned from a book.
This is the crab. I don’t know if I can say cuss words on here, but I’m like, this is the S H I T that I went through to overcome my own self doubt and my own imposter syndrome and be like, actually do know a lot and had to go through this process. So this came from a year’s worth of wanting to get out of my own damn way to be honest.
Right. Right. And I love your framework. And I just want to highlight something you said, just kind of in recapping here, it was under the mindset piece. I love the neutral piece. And I think that you’re so right. I don’t hear that spoken to very often too, though, the gross or the fixed mindset, but what you said is you have to just decide to grow through this.
And I think that is so important because I mean, there’s nothing sexy or glittery about that. You just choose to go through the process of taking the action, which is your next step, you know, really in believing in what you do. And you just choose, take action to continue on, to force that wall down. And I think that that is so important that you said that.
So let’s go ahead and just kind of recap this reframe. So this is your reframe process. And what our listeners can expect is when you go through this and you take these concepts and you apply them to developing your personal brand, it gives you the thought process. So these are things that you think through as you are developing your visual in your written brand and the way your brand is represented to the world.
And so first you said the Aras reality, what is real and what isn’t the E is experience. And you elaborate on that. So beautiful. The F is diving into your feelings. The R is the reaction that a is assuming radical responsibility, love that the M is really the mindset piece. And then the ESA experiment execute. And self-evaluation, was it evaluate?
Yeah. Yeah, it was evaluate. It’s also good. It’s also good. And so this really is a thought process. I love that you have created a process of thinking to make sure that people are making strategic decisions about their personal brand personal branding. And I think that that’s why so many people get stuck, but when we’re branding a company, you know,
it’s totally different and we can pivot brand strategies and all those things. When you are personally branding yourself, especially putting it out on that forevermore timestamp on social media and what that looks like online, things that, you know, we cannot take back. Like once we put them out there, they are there. I think that’s also why people like there’s some confusion or fear or worry of doing it incorrectly,
but you’ve just done a beautiful job laying out this framework to have people really consider, you know, this is what I want to create. This is why I want to create it in a very intentional way. That is in fact, going to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime. So thank you so much for taking the time for people. And how cool is it?
Like it’s always through our own journey that we build the most incredible solutions for other people. So the one thing I do want to say, I just want to say one thing is that a lot of times too, people put, they put this feeling of this as like, Oh, it’s, it’s forever, right? And it’s, it is building a lifetime brand doesn’t mean that you have to choose this one thing,
and then you’re going to stick to it for the rest of your life forever and ever. Amen. It just means that, you know, like you’re going to be true to yourself no matter what. So your brand is going to be aligned with you for the lifetime of your brand. It doesn’t mean that what you’re choosing today is the thing you have to stick to for the next 72 years.
It’s just how to be aligned for the lifetime of your brand. No matter how your alignment, the ebbs and flows of your own journey can always re attribute and rebranding is a thing. People do it all the time. You don’t have to say this needs to be set in stone. So don’t worry about that part. Just know that your brand will always be a reflection of you.
If you are really in tune with your and who you are as a human and confidence in that is what creates the most beautiful brand identities. Right? So well said, thank you so much for being on the show, Nicole, and we’ll put it all in the show notes here, how people can find you, but in the meantime, for those just listening,
tell everybody about your business and how they can find you on social media and online. Thank you. Yeah, I do personal concept coaching and I do brand identity coaching. And really it is the beautiful part that I love is to support the woman, to feel like she is the best of who she is in real life. And then making sure that that transfers into her brand.
And so that it feels this like it’s business, it’s personal and it’s, it’s a one beautifully reflective relationship. Instead of living in the tension of that, my website is really simple. Nicole herring.com and I C O L E H E R I N d.com. I have brand retreats coming up. Let’s all fingers crossed. The travel opens up internationally for right now,
we’re doing some, you know, a mainland of retreats. And of course I do coach my clients on a one-on-one basis. And I do have a group program that the sweet life company is helping me to get out into the world. So that’ll be exciting. And yeah, on social media, you can find me on Instagram as Nicole Herring, brilliant or no mine mastery coach.
Sorry. I recently changed the name of that. And then of course, I’m on clubhouse under Nicole Herring, just my name. So come find me, I’ll be getting on there and helping women to break through their self belief and limitations within themselves so that they can just get out there and make a difference. Yeah. And I will say, I actually get a lot of questions on who does our photography.
So this is the woman you guys, if you’re following me on Instagram, you want to know who’s taken all of our pictures. Nicole is the one and people have been asking me actually like, who is she? I want her to come to me and on my retreat. So those are, those are all good things. And what she’s teaching here in her coaching process sets you up to make sure the outcome,
the visual outcome is in line with who you are. So yes, the photography, the retreats are amazing, but I would highly recommend if you aren’t sure, and set and confident in who you are and who you were supposed to be to the world to really make sure that you’re honing in with Nicole and getting that set first. So everything you build and create is manifesting in the way that it is supposed to,
and it’s in line with you. So thank you so much for being on the show. I absolutely adore you. Thank you for who you are to us and the things you do for us as a company as well. All right. You’re welcome.
If you’re a sleepless entrepreneur, this show is for you.
Summary:
Sleep is affecting our businesses. Whether good, or bad, your sleep is connected to your company’s performance in some capacity. And, beyond that… our health and livelihood as humans. But we all know that, right?
If you’re like me – You have no desire to listen to a podcast that discusses everything you already know! But this episode is different. Sleep expert, Mollie McGlocklin dives into tracking your sleep with tech, understanding Heart Rate Variability HRV, and simple small-steps you can do each day to work with your Circadian Rhythm.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know how your Circadian Rhythm affects peak performance
Know how to read the date from your wearable sleep technology
And have basic things you can do tomorrow morning towards more productive and healthy sleep
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to episode number 218. And I’m April beach, your host founder of the suite Life company. And I am so glad to be talking to you again, usually on this show,
we’re talking about scale strategies, online, offer creation, how to create your courses or your mastermind and funnels and marketing. But we are all about building a business to give you the life that you want. And so that requires a holistic view on strategies for both business and life. And so I love doing shows like the ones that we were doing today.
And let me be completely clear with you about why this show really hits home for me. About two weeks ago, I landed in Philadelphia from Denver for a weekend to visit my oldest son who plays lacrosse for the university of Delaware. And I was on my laptop. The whole entire time got out of the airport, got in the rental car, turned on clubhouse,
and I was really tired. You guys, I had just gotten to this point where I had been going, going, going, by the way, I thrive on going, going, going, but I turn on clubhouse and I was browsing through the rooms of what I should listen to. And there was a room that popped up regarding sleep and it really hit home for me because I knew that this is something that I do not do well in this area.
Now a little bit more behind the scenes. I don’t like sleeping. I love being awake. I do really well from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM. You know, the world falls away, everything’s silent. And that’s when I really thrive as a creator, frankly. And so I would much rather be awake living life than be sleeping. And that’s the way I’ve been my whole entire life,
but it’s really taken a toll on me and let’s even go a little bit deeper in transparency behind the scenes. What I used to think when people talked about, Oh, you know, I hit quote unquote, that wall. These are the things that I thought, Oh, you’re going to love me. Or you are totally going to hate me and never listened to this podcast.
Again, here’s the honest truth. When I heard anybody say or tell their stories about how they got like super tired and hit a wall. These were the things that went through my head, keeping it real. I thought I am stronger than those people. I thought that will never happen to me. And I thought I am born to thrive in like this balls to the wall type of a life.
It’s always how I have been. I love living like this. These people just aren’t built like me. Okay. Talk about really, really judgmental. And that’s when things like hit us on the face because it is in the face because that’s exactly what happened to me in over the last couple of months, I have gotten completely exhausted. The second part of this and why this episode is so important to me personally right now is that I lost my father to dementia.
And I realized that the way my brain is functioning is not the same way. It was 10 to 12 years ago. And for whatever obvious reasons that is, you know, age, maybe being one of them, I’m not taking care of my brain. And it is one of my greatest assets. And so when I heard our guests today speak on this clubhouse room about sleep.
I knew that I personally needed for her to come in here and deliver some insane wisdom to me as a CEO, as a business owner. And I believe that there are some of you guys out there that need to hear this message and what she’s talking about as well. Now here’s the deal. If you’re like me, you haven’t seriously, no desire to listen to a podcast that discusses everything you already know that you aren’t doing right?
But this episode is different. Our guest today is going to dive into tracking your sleep and understanding technology behind sleep trackers. And she’s talking about simple steps, okay? Simple things that you can do. You know, we’re not going to come in here in this show saying you got to get sleep, but that’s not at all with this show is about,
which is why I personally appreciate this episode so much. So let me introduce you to who our guest expert is today. Molly McLaughlin is a creator of sleep as a skill, a company that optimizes people’s sleep through a unique blend of technology, accountability, and behavioral change. She created this company from her own experience when she literally has had not slept well her entire life,
she had massive, poor sleep habits. And all of a sudden she found herself in for months. She dealt with insomnia in her background is in behavioral change. And so she went down this rabbit hole to figure out like, what is going on with these disturbances in my sleep. And she really went in a way that did not include sleep AIDS. And because of her experience,
now this company was born and she is an absolute expert at helping you know, how to really get the sleep that you need and understand sleep. And that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. So at the end of this episode, you will know how your circadian rhythm affects your peak performance. You will know how to read the data from your wearable technology,
which was super cool because I wear sleep technology, but frankly, I really didn’t understand how to read the data. And so that is very cool. We’re talking about this on today’s show as well. And you’re going to walk away with some basic things you can do. First thing tomorrow morning to move towards more productive sleep in more healthy sleep. So here are the background notes,
everything we’re talking about, including a link to join the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club in clubhouse, where Molly and I are going to be going live. And she’s going to be chatting with you about your Entrepreneur sleep and peak performance questions can be found by visiting the show notes for this episode. There’s a lot of things in here and even more tools that Molly’s given you.
So if you want to know more about, we’re talking about Connect with Molly further, be part of this conversation and frankly learn right alongside me, visit Sweetlife co.com click on the podcast. And this is episode number 218. So let’s go ahead and dive in with Molly.<inaudible> All right. Hi, you guys. Welcome to another episode of the Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast.
I am so excited to be joined by my guest today. I’m actually found her on clubhouse. Many of you know, who’ve been listening that I am bingeing clubhouse and can’t get enough of it. And this is exactly why, because I get to dive into spaces that I never would have been able to before in find people like Molly. How do you say your last name off?
Yes. Perfect McLaughlin. Absolutely. Yes, I know. Is it phonetic? Is it not? Yes. And find people like Molly McLaughlin. I am so excited to welcome you here on this show. Can you introduce everybody to your area of expertise in super power? And just give us a little bit of background before we dive into what we’re talking about today.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here. This has already been a pleasure. I can’t wait to get into more with you. I am the creator of a company called sleep is a skill that helps people optimize their sleep through a blend of technology, accountability, and behavioral change, and a little bit background on me and why I’m so obsessed with the topic of sleep and why it’s totally changed.
My life is that for so many years, I did everything not to do for your sleep. You know, every article you read what to do. I was doing the opposite in a lot of ways, but it really didn’t think it was much of a problem. I didn’t think much of it at all. Living in Manhattan as an entrepreneur, burning the candle at both ends stressed to the max.
And I just thought of my sleep as a lot of labels. I thought of it as I’m a night owl, I’m a short sleeper. I’m not the greatest sleeper. Oh, it must be in my jeans. That’s just how it is for me. And, and you know, a number of different things, but didn’t think of it as something that I would have much of a say of how to transform.
And I didn’t correlate when I was starting to get more and more sick at different things, you know, just getting run down anxious. I had guessed straight as I had shingles. I had a number of things that were just indicators, right. That you are stressed and things are not working. So, so yeah, and then it was not until I went through my own period of insomnia while traveling internationally.
So in different countries, you know, not speaking the same language and I cannot sleep. And it was really a lot of the entrepreneurship part of it that, you know, our businesses weren’t ready to be taken on the road yet. My fiance and I, and how it manifested was suddenly I can’t sleep. And the amount of anxiety that was happening during that period,
I went to the doctors in Croatia, got, you know, with Google translate and leave with their version of Ambien. And in that moment, kind of like, what is the game plan here am. I’m supposed to just take something like this for the rest of my life, that doesn’t align with my identity of who I think of myself and yet I’m desperate to sleep.
So what do I do? So what ended up happening was really just getting up under this area, going really down the rabbit hole of what it would take from a, what I learned to chronobiology and circadian rhythm perspective to transform my sleep. And then from that place, it really just snowballed into like podcasts, newsletters, courses, all of the things.
Okay. So you said so many things and we’re just going to kind of come together and pack it. But right now, I mean, your super power is helping high performers and entrepreneurs and small business owners have a healthy life and sleep. Yeah. That we all identify just like you said, I mean, I am you back in the past, right?
I definitely, I do not sleep as much. It goes in flows. I have an inconsistent sleep. You know, I have kids which brings a whole nother dynamic into that and I travel about five months a year. So with that being said, I think I have like a recipe for disaster relief disaster. And so I’m so excited to learn from you today.
And I know our listeners too, are going to be like, Oh yeah, that’s probably me. I’m like, so let’s start by just really unpacking this. So you said circadian rhythm. What is that for anybody that is not really aware of that term and what part of our bodies function in that capacity? How does that work? Yes. Perfect.
And I also want to say for what you’re sharing too, despite that being one of the lowest points at the time of my life was what it felt like, you know, just nothing is working. This is the worst thing is horrible. And yet I do now look back on it as being one of the best things that could have happened to me.
So if you are at any given spot in your journey around sleep, I think there really is so much to learn from it. It really, no pun intended woke me up and had me transform my life in ways that I don’t think I would have, unless it was at such a rock bottom place. So having said that, Well, just along the lines to thank you for saying that.
Cause I do feel like, I mean, I’m really transparent here with our listeners on the podcast. I mean, I do feel like, like I had hit a wall, I just turned 45 this week and I’ve always been able to push and push and push on a high performer, had tons of energy, always been able to do it. And it was just finally a couple of months ago as a first time in my whole entire life where I was so tired and I couldn’t push through,
I’ve still always been able to do that. I like, literally couldn’t think I literally couldn’t speak, like the words were coming out of my mouth incorrectly, but it was the first time ever where I feel like I hit that wall and I couldn’t keep pushing it forward. And so I knew at that point in time, and this was prior to Christmas that like,
I’m not healthy. I’m like, it doesn’t matter. I go to the gym every single day. All those things don’t matter. Like I knew that I was literally aging my brain and frankly, as with my father had dementia and these are all things that I’m starting to think about. And I’m saying, listen, I have really hit this wall and I need to sleep.
This is no longer something that, and I don’t want any of our listeners too. And this is the whole point of the show. Like, don’t get to the point that Molly did. Don’t you get to the point where I am, where I’m like stalking this woman on clubhouse. You guys help me. I have hit a wall. So we don’t want you to have to be to the point where I frankly am literally at this recording and where Molly was,
because how much more are you capable of being before you ever, ever get here and so on and so forth. So thank you for saying that. And that’s why I stopped you. Yeah, absolutely. It’s really important because I won, you know, I was reading nonstop, all these different things around how to improve my sleep and speaking with all these different experts and one thought leader in this area had made the point that when your sleep is not working,
there’s something that your body is really trying to tell you. And I’m not trying to say that in a loose, like esoteric way or anything, but I think that’s really important because how I was running my, this didn’t come out of a vacuum. This was from, you know, years of kind of a mismanagement of my time, my days my,
you know, keep pushing it to the next level. And, and so it occurred from a snowballing of that. And so what it really took was that to actually, for me to listen. So I don’t know the plus side while I at the time didn’t want to go through it. It actually was a blessing. And so I hope that there can be that message and that there is,
there are so many success stories on the other side of people being able to shift this area. So one, I acknowledge you for the sharing and the, the vulnerability there, because it’s so important. And to, you know, so then the, how, so what you said about the circadian rhythm, why this is important in this conversation is one just to kind of bring it back to the basics.
So no matter where you’re at and where your sleep journey is that we can always start to come back to one that this is a skill that, okay, so this is learnable. So let’s just let’s learn. So from the strategic rhythm perspective, one that exists on a spectrum was something that I didn’t understand. So the circadian rhythm is this 24 hour rhythm as human beings that we function within.
But that rhythm, the queuing system for that rhythm can either be on the spectrum of, from a strong side or weak side. And you might be falling somewhere in between that spectrum. Then I would make the argument that many of us are on the weaker side of that just as a modern society, how we’re, how we’re functioning and as diurnal creatures.
Yeah. This is all kind of coming from this concept around chronobiology the science of really time and how that impacts our biology as diurnal creatures. We are meant to be active during the day and at rest at night. And of course, in my example, I was doing the opposite, like, you know, upside down living. So we’re looking to,
how can we bring things back and align with those cue givers that will help our rhythms be strong? So we, you know, those people, those friends of ours that might go out, everyone goes out and out super late, but they still wake up at the exact same time, you know, early morning. And you’re like, how are they doing that?
That’s crazy. That’s actually what we’re looking to train for is that kind of specificity around just the automaticity of waking up routinely going to sleep routinely around the same times, but there’s tons of things we can do to get to there. Okay. Fascinating. And I know those people I’m married to one of those people that it doesn’t matter what time he goes to sleep.
It is like, this is what time he gets up every single day. Yeah. Okay. So talk to us about, you know, really why is this important for fully understanding for those higher achievers busy entrepreneurs? How does this fit into our, you know, whole life business strategy? Because to me, as a business strategist, the way I need to form it within my own brain is say,
this is part of my strategic business in life design. This is just as important is marketing and selling and other things. So it’s a very holistic approach to business and life. And so how for entrepreneurs and small business owners are really just high achievers who are listening to this, why is this so important? How does this really affect their everyday? And honestly their profit and their performance.
I mean, that’s what we’re really getting down to get to if that’s the driver great, that’s the driver, are you not making as much money as you could be because frankly you aren’t sleeping. Right. I’m sure that there’s some data and some correlation there. Absolutely. Well, so there’s so many places we can go with that, but I can just even say anecdotally that my fiance owns companies that help train poker players at the table that are high stakes,
lots of stress, and how to make those decisions, that their decisions in their thinking from a cognitive athlete perspective will impact, you know, possibly thousands and millions of dollars as a result. Right? So one of the first places that they begin is the sleep optimization perspective. And I work with tons of poker players in the management of that. And so I share that just because that’s a very tangible experience of at the table,
you can either walk away with lots of money or not. And so it’s kind of entrepreneurial in nature, but you apply that in the high stakes of your days of your, you know, business interactions with people and just that cognitive ability to show up consistently and reliably, like, you know, so in the example of myself for years, I, there wouldn’t be accountable illness around how I would be when I’d wake up in the morning.
It wouldn’t be like, Oh, okay. So for that next, really important client call or what have you, I will be bringing my a game. It wasn’t like that. It was like, I hope I get a good night’s sleep and you know that I can have that functionality. Right. Like, That’s me, I’m raising my hand. If you guys are watching the video,
it’s like, this is me. Yeah, for sure. Yes, exactly. Cause that, you know, and there’s tons of studies that will point to this. So whether it just error rates, if you’re sleep deprived and the amount of errors that you might make, if you’re taking scent, you know, test, or this is important for pilots,
you know, these would become life or death elements, but certainly from a productivity perspective, like you’re gonna have all your faculties available to you in those really times. So just to scale it back, I think of it as a couple of things. One, I think of it as super, super important for that productivity perspective. And also because I had so much of that mental health component in there with anxiety and stress and moodiness and crankiness and freak out,
then, then with that just, it provides for me just a really important space to be at a equilibrium with how I’m approaching the world around me and stress levels and anxiety levels. And we can get into some of the wearable indicators for that. So it’s not so esoteric. It really has some kind of quantified data behind it. Right. Okay. So yeah,
let’s go ahead and do that actually. Can you, I definitely want to talk about the wearables at the time of this recording. Probably if you’re listening to this six months or eight months from now, the wearable part will probably not be accurate enough today because the technology is evolving. And that’s what we’re kind of talking about behind the scenes, but let’s go ahead.
Can you start just by sharing a couple of steps for those of our listeners who listened, they’re like, okay, this is, I am April right now. I mean, just tell me like, what should I be doing to get on top of this, the process of bringing this into order. Yes. Great. Okay. So step number one.
What I actually say is despite the fact that a lot of what I’ll be talking about from the circadian rhythm kind of lifestyle perspective is that a lot of it’s kind of how to harken back to almost Hunter gatherer days and like, you know, aligning with sunrise and sunset. I’m not saying everyone needs to rise with the sun. I’m not making that at all,
but I’m saying that there’s a lot of things we can do to bring about that workability with those rhythms of nature, because that’s going to really result in higher sleep efficiency and quality of our sleep. And at the very same time, despite the fact that I’m saying that I’m also gonna promote the marriage of technologies. And so much of this technology is at the source of our kind of being off-kilter with the,
that relationship, ironically, then bringing in tech, I’ve found to really make a difference to game-ify this. So again, you know, down the road, you’re listening. What I would say is the first place to begin is a logging system of where your sleep is at right now is really, really eyeopening to people because often people say, I know I’m not sleeping well,
but then we try to get up under will. How much, how many hours are we sleeping? What times are we sleeping? How many wake ups, what’s your sleep onset look like? All of these sorts of things. And a lot of it is like, well, I don’t know some gray areas, a lot of question marks because it is it’s,
it’s such a hard area to track. So getting a proper or getting a sleep tracker of whatever at the time of listening to this is known to be one of the most effective on the market at the moment. Right. And follow them On Instagram or club ads. Cause I’m sure she’ll be up to date with this. So yes it is. She will.
I’m sure be talking about what is the most up-to-date thing when you are listening to this episode? Yes. I’m often fondly known as gadget girl by the end of the clubhouse. So we were talking about that was my name and not from a perspective that these are infallible, there’s still things you don’t want to just blindly listen to whatever stats are coming back.
You want to be aware of what they’re good at, what they’re not so good at, but either way, what they tend to be pretty solid at is are you asleep or are you awake? What time does that look like? But then also some health metrics that indicate the, your recovery that you attained throughout the course of the night. So all of those things will give us,
you know, kind of a window or insight into your sleep. So I say, start with that first place because, and years back, what it was, one of the first recommendation was keep a sleep diary, you know, write it out manually. And now you could do that, but also, you know, to begin to start tracking, it will be automated for you and often provide a way more insight that you might be surprised by some blind spots.
And along those lines, I have a question for you about one of those metrics with one of my slit trackers that I, that I had used in the past. And you mentioned it when, before we started recording this, which was heart rate variability, can you explain? I mean, I saw it on my sleep tracker. I, when I’m like Googling it online,
it was actually really hard for me to understand why that was so important. Can yes, it was a one Oh one on that. I’m so glad you said that. So this metric, this one metric you could devote into multiple podcasts, there’s actually entire podcasts that just talk about how to kind of understand this one metric and influence it. You’re not alone in the confusion of it better.
I’m like, why don’t I get it? So it, but it’s the reason why it’s I foresee one, it’s already ballooned in popularity around understanding this. And I foresee it being even more and more influential in our health. So the one, what is it? It’s heart rate variability HRV is basically the time interval in between your heartbeat and indicator of your recovery.
So if you can think of heart rate as kind of your load, that’s put on to you, you know, moment to moment, then HRV is reflective of how quickly can you recover from moment to moment? So it’s recovery of both mental elements of recovery, but also physical elements of recovery. And that physical can be about like the foods you’re eating the workouts,
you’re doing the air quality in your space, preexisting conditions that you might have going on. But then the mental component is really eye-opening to just how you’re relating to the world around you as entrepreneurs to, Oh my goodness. Like that can be really eyeopening. You get a lot of stuff on your plate and suddenly that that number will show that impact. And that can be a really cool way for those of us that might want to do that.
Push through, push through mindset. And I’m so one of those to start to respect the importance for recovery time and almost relating to our body, like an athlete would to build in that really next level of recovery so that you can take on all the things you gotta take off. Okay. Yeah. And I can see that I do understand a certain aspect and the correlation of that because when I used to train for fitness competitions and we used to do the heart rate training,
and when you know, between the things I was doing, like how fast would my heart recover between sets? And so is that kind of the same thing that we’re talking about here that’s happening in sleep that we’re measuring? Yes, exactly. So that’s why a lot of people are excited about particularly longitudinal nocturnal HRV. So there’s, you can measure, of course your HRV 24 seven and the nighttime HRV can be really eye-opening because that’s giving us an indication while there’s not presumably as much noise that’s happening because there’s a lot of noise on your measurement of your HRV during the day.
Cause you’re, you’re eating, you’re, you’re talking, you’re working out all these things. Whereas when you’re sleeping, presumably that’s largely recovery time and that is what HRV is all about. But so if you wake up and traditionally, this is very simplified because there’s way more nuances to this metric, but often the higher it is from your baseline, the more recovered you are and the more you see it kind of dipped down,
then that can often indicate that you are being more taxed, you’re stressed or you’re getting sick. So it’s actually really popular right now. That’s why it’s trending to with COVID that a lot of people are looking to this as indicators and days in advance of when you might even feel that you’re getting rundown, that that number is shifting. Then that can be a signal to really prioritize that recovery.
So those are just some of the ways that you can relate to it. But in the practical application, what I see with my clients is so all the clients are wearing wearables. They’ll see, Oh my God, my HRV is really dipping like significantly. So then they’ll prioritize recovery from whatever that looks like. So if they’re big time athletes, then they will adjust their training to really lower that.
And to take that off time, if they’re just entrepreneurs and they might kind of scale back some of their calls or what have you to really make a difference with that number and then get recovered in a way that can make a difference. The following day, That’s amazing. This is so much great information. Okay. So number one, log, make sure that we’re paying attention to what we’re doing.
Get a wearable let’s, you know, we’re not going to do with the archaic way of tracking when we go to sleep. I mean, there is just absolutely so much data out there that I’m hearing you say that it’s important for us to track know and be able to understand so that we can adjust things. So what else would you recommend for those people who are listening after they go through these first steps?
Like what type of common adjustments are typically? I know every single person is different, but are typically beneficial that you have seen with high performers and entrepreneurs. Yeah. So one asterisk that I would put for the wearables is just ensuring that you’re, we’re not getting like a no CBO effect by saying, Oh my God, I have so many friends that literally would come because I’m only getting 20 minutes of deep sleep,
30 minutes of REM or whatever. And so one just know that as of, at least this time, the recording, most of the hand and wrist wearables, they are said so much great information. I love what is available there. And the sleep stage classification in particular. So knowing is this deep is this Ram is this light, it’s not the best.
So to not get yourself all riled up around that part, instead focus on those basics that we talked about, what time did you go to sleep? What time did you wake up? And then some of those recovery metrics, so to stay in that zone. So that’s just my aspect around that. But then what I would say for, for all humans and particularly entrepreneurs is this concept of circadian rhythm.
Entrainment is really, really valuable to have a framework by which you set up your days so that you can strengthen that circadian rhythm. So you can be like your husband, right. And just kind of the goal is to be like your husband and to basically wake up around the same time off to go to bed at the same time, all of that comes from that.
So this is actually a term you can find in any kind of chronobiology textbook of understanding that you are in training your circadian rhythm, but that is from a number of what they call time givers that are external to you, that you are playing a role in from a behavioral perspective of getting so a couple of those that’ll just rattle off real quick. The top down most important one is light,
particularly sunlight. And the timing of that. So if you get nothing out of what I’m saying, then I would definitely say that first thing in the morning, how to train yourself to get even just a few minutes. I mean, ideal would be more, but a few minutes of sunlight outside. And unfortunately behind a window, doesn’t really count. It counts,
but takes much, much longer estimates with Jamie’s ICER out of Stanford, puts it at anywhere from 50 to a hundred times a longer to reset your master clock each morning, if you’re getting sunlight behind a window versus outside. So you want to just get yourself outside, but also expose particularly your eyes to that morning, sunlight, you know, you want it to be wherever you might be on the globe.
We’re aiming for that to be in the morning hours usually before like 10:00 AM of getting that morning light. And the reason for that is that behind your eyes is the super charismatic nucleus, which is your master clock that influences all your peripheral clocks as to what time it is. And why that’s important is then a whole cascade of kind of hormones and functionality happened based on what time the body perceives it to be.
And so we want it to be as consistent, those triggering systems as possible. So that’s that light in the morning and then dosing it throughout the day. But then you want as bright days as possible and as dim nights as possible. And when I say dim, it’s like post sunset, you want to be getting, I mean, really the, the actual recommendation is like candles,
but I know that’s not always so practical. So even like, I got like red lights over here. So, you know, you can, that can be another thing that you can bring in if you’re not willing to do the candles. But so we’re looking for very, very dim lighting that allow us to have our cake and eat it too. So versus like how things used to be sun would set.
We kind of go to sleep not long after for thousands of years now, we want to be able to still like, you know, do things, but we don’t want to impact our melatonin production. So that kind of red light candles or worst case scenario, incandescent lights that have more red in them, those can make a difference. So that getting that light right,
and then the next step would be temperature. So being mindful of really having this arc of your body temperature throughout the course of the day. So high temperature throughout the day movement activity, eating, you know, having engaging in lots of dynamic, cognitively demanding tasks, all those things during the day. But then in the evening, shifting over to fasting,
you know, relaxation, resting, connecting kind of calming everything down. So for entrepreneurs, what we do is create really like say layout of your day, where you have a set wake up time, he was set bedtime. And then from that place that had a Creek kind of two parts of your day, like a day mode and a night mode.
And then even just these little things like understanding like, Oh my God, when I have my food will influence the timing of when I fall asleep. And when I wake up and, or the amounts of wake-ups that I have throughout the night, things of this nature can be super, super empowering for people I learned so much. I never knew that about the sun in the morning.
Thank you so much. I’m like, literally I’m here taking notes. It’s just incredibly fascinating. And so the sun and the light, obviously all makes sense now that you explained that, but that would never be anything that would be, you know, just obviously common knowledge to those of us who aren’t experts like you. And so thank you so much for sharing that.
Okay. You have given us a ton of information. I have one last question that I’m curious about how you’re going to answer. Obviously I don’t know it, and that’s why I’m asking it. Is there a minimum amounts of sleep that general and I’m sure everybody’s different, but generally speaking that you believe people need to function in a healthy capacity. Oh yeah.
That’s the million dollar question. Everyone wants to know that one for sure. And you know, so some of the, the known recommendations are having us as it, a healthy adult, as it changes throughout the years, basically what age you are. But as a healthy adult than getting anywhere from seven to nine is the recommended amount that we’ll have thrown out.
There are other people that will speak to that you can, for some people might make sense to be in the, you know, six is range and what have you, based on their, the quality of that sleep. So I will say that it’s kind of split on that, that topic, but certainly what you can do is through the tracking element of things,
start to get up under that. The more we have some of these kind of top down, most important things addressed, then what often begins to emerge because, you know, sometimes you got to get past all of this sleep deprivation and built up time of variability, of sleeping all kinds of hours, and then not enough and ups and downs. So once we start having those structures often,
what emerges is more of your kind of set point for your sleep at the age that you’re at and at the health level and energy expenditure that you’re at each day. So you can have a clear understanding of that once everything else just kind of falls into order as well, is what I’m hearing you say. Okay, I lied. I have one, one more question.
Can you catch up on sleep? Mm, yeah. Good question. I know. Cause then it’s like that sleep debt topic was very popular for a number of years. So that is another one that is a bit of a point of contention, but there’s different schools of thought so well, if we go back to the conversation around dementia that you mentioned,
that’s a really big topic that’s come out of. This looks like a really strong correlation between sleep deprivation and neurodegenerative disorders. So whether it’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s dementia, different things of that nature really linked because of the lack of proper cleaning. So glymphatic drainage was the coin, the term that was coined around this. So glymphatic drainage meaning versus lymphatic it’s glymphatic and glymphatic is the cleansing process of the brain each night during sleep,
during deep sleep in particular. And what it’s doing is it’s basically rinsing out with a janitorial process of your brain, of the buildup of waste products in the brain each night. And that’s what amyloid beta plaques are. Basically what’s left over. It’s a kind of calcification in the brain if we’re not having that proper amount. So the concern, so the reason I mentioned that is that we don’t see a lot of great ways to counteract that.
So say if you’ve been doing that for years and years, and there’s this buildup of this kind of a dirty brain, if you will, that buildup, and it’s very similar to brains that we see for late stage Alzheimer’s dementia or what have you. It looks a hand in hand and we don’t have a really strong way to then reverse that. So what I would say,
even from that perspective alone, is that we don’t want to rely on this kind of messy relationship to sleep where I’ll make up for it on the weekends, or what have you, because also if we just get back to the basics of what we know for great sleep, that the more we have that variability and the up and downs, one of the term for it is actually social jet lag.
And so social jet lag being this concept that, you know, Oh, around five days of the week, I’m really great with my sleep. I do pretty consistent, but then on the weekends, you know, I want to let loose and then you stay up late and it’s like three hours difference and, or more or whatever. And so with that,
then it’s, you’re having the experience that’s similar to, from a biological perspective, similar to jet lag. When you try to get yourself back on your normal schedule on Sunday night or Monday or whatever, but you didn’t go anywhere, but you’re still having that negative impact on your body. So the long and the short of it is it doesn’t seem to be a reliable method to build that sleep debt and kind of knock it out by having these long stretches of sleep.
Because then that also impacts cause quality sleep is a measurement of how your sleep was the night before the night before that. And they, before that. So it kind of all plays a role in there. So if you didn’t sleep so well, one night, often people will benefit from what’s known as kind of rebound sleep because you now, the body is really craving to get itself back on track and it will,
you know, kind of greedily get the sleep staging that it needs, but you can’t rely on that as a sustainable element because then that throws off your circadian rhythm. And now you’re getting tired at the same time. And it’s so frustrating. Right? All of that makes sense. Oh, thank you so much. I learned so much today. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show and we’re going to make sure everybody knows how to find you in the show notes,
but can you tell everybody who’s listening to this? Like, Oh my gosh, I need more of Molly. I need her help. I need her in my life. You know, what does that look like? How can people work with you more? Yeah. Well, number one, just thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for your also just transparency and vulnerability about how you’re relating to your sleep.
And, you know, just gives us all hope in these different periods when we are struggling to hear, okay, I’m not alone. Cause you know, that’s really what I was dealing with with my sleep. So, and it’s takes courage to share that cause you could be like, Oh yeah, I’ve got my whole life together. And dah, dah,
dah. So, you know, I really, really admire that. So great work with that. And then yes, if you are struggling with your sleep, this is a real mission-based thing for me. so1@sleepasaskill.com, there’s lots of things that are available for free. We have a weekly newsletter, so I call it Molly’s Monday obsessions, cause I’m pretty obsessive about this topic.
And so all of these, you know, things that I’m obsessing about in the world of sleep and also kind of asleep experiments, lots of graphs and fun charts and whatever. And so that’s every Monday when you sign up for that, you also get a free downloadable PDF. That’s optimized bedroom, how to optimize your sleep environment comes right along. And then we also have a sleep assessment that you can take.
So whatever you’re dealing with with your sleep, then that will get you some kind of tailored advice around those areas. We have weekly podcasts with different sleep experts and you know, sleep tech and what have you. So all of that is available for free. And we put out a lot on social media and we’re really amping that up as well. And then if you are really struggling,
you need more than that. Then we do have courses and one-on-ones and different ways of working together as well. Wow. All right. Thank you so much, Molly. I’m definitely going there and I appreciate your time and your expertise and pouring into me and our whole entrepreneur community. And I am sure that this is going to be an important topic. It has been,
but really, as you said, moving forward. So we just really appreciate your expertise and, and being here with us today and it was such a pleasure to get to meet you same here. Thank you so much. You are welcome. Thank you.<inaudible> What a great show. Thank you so much for learning alongside me and hanging out. Most likely you knew a lot about this information.
Probably a lot more than I did, but it’s just such a pleasure to, to learn. And I took a million notes if you’d like to join Molly and me in a clubhouse room where we are talking all about sleep, wearable technology and all these things so that you can function at your peak performance as an entrepreneur, whatever that looks like for you go to sweet life,
community dot and There you can join by link our clubhouse club. You still need to join separately on clubhouse if you’re not a member, but you’re going to get an email with reminders and, and an invitation to this room with a direct link to this room. So again, you can go to sweet life, community.com to join our Sweetlife entrepreneurs club on clubhouse to talk to Molly live about this.
And of course, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com click on the podcast. And this is episode number 218. Have a great day. And I’ll talk to you guys soon.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Entrepreneurs in all stages of my business growth roadmap. To find out where you are, please visit www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz.
Who This Episode is Great For:
Small business owners and entrepreneurs looking to grow your list of leads using intelligent online marketing and business design.
Summary:
If you’re a small business owner or entrepreneur looking to grow your list of leads using intelligent online marketing, then this is the show for you. In this episode, we’re diving into how to use a quiz or self-assessment to grow your list of ideal clients and discard those who aren’t a perfect fit for your company.
We’re also diving into the steps to create the content, outcomes and questions of your quiz and wrapping it all up with the software we love and use for assessment creation.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have the strategy of quiz list growth well understood
Know if you should be using this strategy in your business
Learn the exact process to design your quiz content
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator April Beach. Hi, everybody. Welcome to episode number 217 here on this feet, life entrepreneur and business podcast. My name is April Beach and I am your host here on the show. Half of these shows are just you and I rolling up our sleeves together,
working on online business strategies and the other half of our shows. We have amazing guests. So thank you so much for tuning in here. And today we are talking about how to create a quiz to generate leads for your business. It’s going to be a power packed episode, and it’s going to be pretty quick and short. And here is why I have a huge,
really cool extra bonus with this podcast episode for you, I am including totally free a one hour video training and a worksheet that goes along with this episode that tells you exactly step-by-step in depth, how to create a quiz or an assessment to generate leads for your company. And you can totally get that. No strings attached completely free. I’ll tell you this right away.
Here are two different ways. You can get it. You can go to sweet life co.com forward slash how to create a quiz, or you can text the word quiz help. That’s all one word quiz help to the number (805) 254-0880. And that’s going to be a link where you can access this training right away. Why am I super passionate about this and giving you a bunch of stuff or it’s really highly valued because I know it works.
We’ve had quizzes in our business for years, and they’re a powerful way for you to generate leads in your company. They’re also a really great opportunity for your clients, your potential clients. And so it’s a win-win situation for everybody. So here’s what we’re talking about today. This episode is great for those of you who are ready to generate leads for your small business.
That means you are in either phase two or three of my start to scale up system. It’s my business growth roadmap. And of course I have a quiz that you can take that tells you exactly where you are in the process of growing your business. Again, I’m a huge advocate for this type of list growth, and you can take my quiz, our quiz,
if you haven’t yet, by visiting Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. Now this episode is for those of you guys who are looking to grow your list, but you want to know how to do so in a mindful way, we’re going to, into the steps to create the content of your quiz, the outcomes of your quiz and the questions within your quiz.
And we’re wrapping it all up today, talking about software recommendations for where you can build your quiz. So the end of this episode, you’re going to have a strategy of whether or not quiz list growth is right for you. You’re going to know how you want to use this strategy in your business. Your wheels are totally going to be spinning here and about the next five minutes in a really good way.
And you’re going to learn the exact process to design a quiz and the content within your quiz. So if you’re ready, let’s go ahead and dive in<inaudible> Today. We’re talking about the power of quizzes. So when you engineer a quiz or a self-assessment correctly, it’s a very powerful tool for both you and your audience. Quizzes, give you an amazing amount of insight into where your clients are right now and what they need right now,
and also to where your marketing is landing. So we’ll talk about that here in just a sec, but with the knowledge that you get based on where people land and the results of your quiz, you can segment your list. You can decide to add more services. So how people are falling in the outcomes of your quiz is going to give you insight to whether or not you want to add more services or solutions or products for these people.
And you can hyper focus on those that truly, truly need your services and your solutions. And what’s also amazing about this is with this type of lead generation. You can move people to other places. You can create a journey for people through your products and through your offers, and you can move them to other places in your business through the knowledge that you’re receiving from the outcomes of their quiz.
Or of course you can completely remove clients all together. So based on your quiz results, you can disqualify those people that aren’t the perfect people for your business, and that is equally as powerful for you. And for them, we don’t want to waste their time if they’re not the right fit clients. And we certainly don’t want to waste your is either.
So quiz a quiz really, really does this. So let me take you behind the scenes. I know if you’re a listener you’ve been listening to the show for a long time, you have heard of my sweet life entrepreneur roadmap. I created this roadmap about eight years ago, and we have two names for it. I’ll be really honest who I call it.
In-house it’s a sweet life entrepreneur, a roadmap. The technical term is called the start to scale up system. Okay. So you might’ve heard it being called different names, you know, whichever one you like, it’s the same thing. Let me explain to you the quiz process of how we use this. So first of all, what it is is it is five phases of business growth starting from phase one.
When somebody’s just thinking about launching a company all the way to phase five, which is a social entrepreneur. So it’s a company that has hit the financial benchmarks they want to hit, and they’re doing so well. They’re making a huge impact. Basically, they’re making a ton of money to give a ton of money away or to free up the founder’s time to go start a new company.
So we have five phases in this literally roadmap to building a life first business. And within each one of these phases, there are different things that a company needs to focus on. So phase one is just figuring out starting phase two is launch phase three is scale. Phase four is also scale, but it’s a nix level scaling. There’s a difference between the first time you scale.
And when you continue to scale as a business and then phase five is impact. And so we have this quiz that I share with you at the beginning of every single episode, because we actually tag our episodes here on the podcast, based on what we’re talking about in what part, what phase of outcome this episode is appropriate, because also that’s a benefit.
I don’t want you hanging out here with me. If I’m talking about something that really only pertains to those entrepreneurs in phase five, and you’re in phase two, that’s how we get really overwhelmed in business and that whole shiny object syndrome. So that is our quiz. You can take it, you can find out exactly what phase of business development you’re in.
So I’ve just shared with you how we use that even on the podcast. But now let’s go a little bit further behind the scenes based on the outcomes of where someone lands in our quiz, we have certain business programs. So we are able to strategically design business coaching and strategy programs and services and courses and offers and communities and masterminds based on the phase of business that somebody is in.
So it’s helpful to me on the business side, because I know where the majority of our marketing is landing. For example, if we have marketing strategy and I put the quiz out there and the majority of people are, are in phase one, they’re just starting up. Whether they’re not our ideal clients, our ideal clients are businesses that are really ready to scale,
or they’re going through from offline to online to scale. They’re launching their first online business, or they have been in online business are really ready to develop their leading offers and have scaled strategy in. So it’s really important that I know whether or not our marketing is hitting the right people are perfect clients. So that’s, what’s really cool for us on the back end.
Now let’s also talk about, what’s really cool for the users of our quiz when they take our quiz. And again, if you’ve taken our quiz, you know, this, they get an entire list of exactly what they should be working on right now in their business. They get a summary that explains the phase of business that they’re in the highs and lows that pitfalls in the victories.
And they get a very thorough checklist of exactly what they should be focusing on. Right, right now. So even if they aren’t one of our ideal clients to join our mastermind or to join our next level leading offer program, they’re still getting amazing value based on where they are in business. So it’s a win-win for us as a company. Again, we have insight into who is coming into our marketing funnels and who’s coming into our,
our marketing efforts. We know exactly where entrepreneurs are. And so therefore we’re only going to offer entrepreneurs. The resources based on the phase of business are in, I’m not going to send an email to every single person about joining a program. That’s really only appropriate for those people and maybe phases four or five. So see how cool that is for us.
We have amazing insights. We have amazing intelligence into what people need from us, and we’re giving it to them exactly based on where they are in business. And they are getting exactly what they need based on where they are in business. So now let’s turn this, you, what is it that you do? What is it that need to know about your clients or what type of clients,
or maybe even phase of clients in their journey, do you serve quizzes, going to give you great insight into where your clients are and what they need? And with this knowledge, just like we do, you can segment your list. You can decide to add more offers or services, and you can hyper focus on those people that are coming your way.
It is an amazing opportunity for you. And it’s really, really a win-win, there’s a lot of lead magnets that we can create out there. Obviously we always want them to be a win-win, but I honestly don’t think any are as powerful as a self-assessment or a quiz. And I’m just speaking from our experience. And so the users get the amazing results.
You get the amazing results and it’s a win-win for everybody. So now let’s kind of dive in here for a minute and let’s talk about actually, how to create the content for you, your quiz. This is where people get stuck. They’re like, Oh yeah, I want to create a quiz. And then it’s like, they totally stop because yeah,
think it’s easy, but it’s actually easier said than done. So just like everything else. Yes we do in your business. We want to give them a transformation, even in your quiz, in your lead magnet strategy and a call with you, everything okay. In. So I want to make sure we’re taking them from one place before they’ve taken their quiz to knowledge or a different place in the end.
So the first thing that you want to ask yourself when you’re figuring out this kind of strategy of, okay, what’s my quiz on, like, what do I want to do here? What’s going to be awesome for everybody is what you know, really, what is the main topic of your quiz? How does your quiz relate to, or confirm your area of expertise?
So how can you create a quiz that relates to what you have sick skills at, what your company is amazing at, in really think about that instead of just throwing a quiz out there. And literally the next question I really want you to ask yourself is what is going to be helpful to you? What insight is going to be helpful to you as the business owner to understand about your audience.
For me, I need to know what phase of business somebody is in. When I know that I can deliver them pinpointed, perfect business coaching programs, to keep growing and scaling their company for you. What do you need to know about the people that are coming into your business to truly line them up in a perfect way for your services or your programs?
And then the next question is what is the quiz going to tell your users about themselves? What can you share with them that they don’t already know? Or what can you confirm to them that they might’ve had a feeling about? They might’ve had a suspicion about already, but nobody ever made it that clear. Here’s the deal when somebody takes your quiz and the outcome that they receive is so right on,
it blows their mind. They’re like, Oh my gosh, this person was in my head. I love them. They know more about me than I know about myself. I love this business. Like we’re creating super fans here when your quiz does this. So what do you need to know about the outcome of the quiz for your business and what do the users need to know about themselves or their situation.
That is what creates a powerful quiz. It’s so good. You’re going to love it. You’re going to get, you’re going to have people. I have people emailing me being like, Oh my gosh, April, this is right on. And thank you so much. And that’s what I want for you as well. So now we’re going to dive into just a little bit about actually how to create the quiz itself.
You know, me, I’m a program builder, I’m a service and it in a content course builder. So I have to teach you this side because this is where everybody gets stuck. I’m going to share with you the first three steps here. And then this is what the hour long training that is totally free with this podcast episode gets. And so it’s super duper important that if this is an area that you want to use in your business,
go take that training. Like there’s no strings attached. It’s not even a whole hour. I think it’s like 53 minutes. And I dive in, in depth and help you strategize the answers to these things we’re talking about, but this is how to create your quiz content. So, number one, you start with the end in mind. If you’ve tried to create a quiz and you’re starting with the questions,
you’ve probably struggled greatly. Instead, we want to start with the outcomes. Okay? So first you wanted to create the clear outcomes and give them unique names, give them names that people understand, but they’re unique names. You know, so our outcome is like phase one, planning phase two, launch phase three scale phase four, purpose phase five impact.
So they’re clear words, you know, we want to get fancy, but not too fancy. Just make sure there are very clear outcomes that people understand. So the first thing you’re going to do is really define the end results and define your outcomes. Step number two is then write each outcome of your quiz in paragraph form. And this is really important.
This is what’s going to go to them by email or what they’re going to find on a Results page on your website. You want to write it out. You want to say, Hey, listen, this is where you are. I hear you. I’ve got you. Like, that’s what this paragraph says. And you want to take your time to write out the response or the result for that outcome.
And you want to include any sort of details that are necessary and you sort of specific outcome knowledge or whether it is psychological or whether it’s physical or whether it’s, you know, strategic, any of those things you want to include in this outcome, including tips and steps and actions and recommendations. And then the third part is going in and then creating the statements or the questions that lead to each one of those outcomes.
And so that is a step-by-step process. Those are three of the six steps that we use to create an amazing quiz that converts and converts to the right people and just wows them. Even if they aren’t your right clients, we’re still going to wow them, right? Because you know what, they’re your right clients. Now. They might be a right clients next year.
And that’s a really important thing to remember. And so those are the three steps to actually go through and create the content within your quiz. And again, that’s really high level. You guys here on the podcast to be very efficient and making sure I’m giving you great information in a short period of time. But if you want to access that free video training,
all you have to do is go to Sweetlife co.com forward slash how to create a quiz, you know, all squished together to make it URL friendly. And then I’m also going to make sure that we put the links for how to access this free training. And it comes with a worksheet as well into the show notes of this podcast episode. If you’ve never visited our podcast website,
it’s like a whole entire business resource center. You can actually search anything by keyword and it’ll bring up exactly where we’ve taught that for the last four years on the show. This is podcast number 217. So that means the quick link to get to the show notes for this episode, all you have to do is go to sweet life podcast.com forward slash two 17.
So if that’s easier for you, then whatever’s easier. I want to make sure we’re getting the resources in your hand. Okay. So we talked about the importance of a quiz, the power of a quiz, showing you behind the scenes, on how we use our quiz and how we have for years and why we love it. And hopefully if you’ve taken our quiz before,
that’s going to really make it even clearer for you. I love showing you guys behind the scenes on things you’ve already used, because I think those are the best examples that we can have as we’re learning and as we’re growing. So now let’s kind of talk a little bit about tech. Okay? So we use a software called interact. I love these guys.
I love the software. I love the flow. I will go ahead and make sure that there’s a link or interact quiz boulders in the show notes of this episode. So if you’re wondering what we use, those are the guys we like we’ve been with them for years, but there are other places where you can create quizzes as well. Google forms is X for as an example,
creates quizzes type form creates great assessments. And even Kajabi has an assessment tool. I would say we haven’t recommended that highly quite yet, even though is, you know, we’re big Kajabi fans. I just find that there’s some other software out there that’s giving a better user experience with quizzes. So I’ll go ahead and drop some of those tech links down here for you in the show notes as well of this episode,
basically, here’s the deal I love self-assessments. I love quizzes are great for your business or a great lead generator. They’re highly valuable to those people that are either new to your list or already on your list. I mean, we have people coming back all the time in retaking our quiz to see where they are in this whole entire, you know, sweet life business roadmap in.
So that’s what I want for you. I want you to be able to create a lead generating list, growth quiz. That’s going to be highly valuable for your new people, for your established people and for you as a business owner. So that’s a wrap today. We talked again all about quizzes showed you behind the scenes in ours. We dove into the first three of six steps in order to create a powerful quiz.
And I gave you the tools and resources to access the free one hour training or a 52 minute training. It’s so good. You guys, it’s really helpful. If you’re serious about creating a quiz, it’s totally free. It’s on me. It’s my gift to you. I want you to be awesome at this. So go grab it again. You can grab it by visiting the show notes for this episode,
which are@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two 17. That’s where we’ll have all the tech links and everything as well. And if you just want to go directly to the place where you can get the training right away, you can go to sweet life co.com forward slash how to create a quiz. All right, you guys, I love chatting with you. Thank you for being a listener of this show.
Again, I’m April beach. If we haven’t spoken before, come cruise over and hang out with me on clubhouse. I know it’s hard. Not everybody can get there quite yet, but it’s the place where we hang out every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time, we dive in deeper to entrepreneur business strategies. It’s a room that I host and I would love to meet you there.
If you’re on clubhouse, follow me at April beach, come into that room on Wednesday and just say, Hey, April, I listened to your podcast and you are also welcome to ask me any questions about any of the business trainings that we drop here on the podcast, in that clubhouse room. So if you’re going through these business trainings and you’re using our podcasts,
like a course, which is what it’s designed to be used for, and you have any questions cruise over, hanging out with me on clubhouse. That’s where I am every single week. And I would love to meet you all right. Have an incredible day. And I will talk to you guys next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Who This Episode is Great For:
Established businesses who are not yet using online marketing, or new entrepreneurs who are just now launching your first online marketing strategies.
Summary:
If you’re an established business and not utilizing online marketing, this is where you’ll want to begin! Or, if you’re a new entrepreneur and you want to be sure you’re strategically creating content, you’re in the right place. In this week’s show we’re talking about what is Lead Magnet Strategy and the one thing about lead magnets that no body tells you! Plus how to use it in your business in such a way that builds trust and increase sales into your paid programs. We’re also talking about tech steps to get started.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know What is a Lead Magnet?
Understand Why Is this Important In Today’s Marketing?
Know What Kinds Of Lead Magnets Are The Best?
Learn The Most Important Lead Magnet Strategy That No One Tells you
Resources Mentioned:
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey, you guys welcome to episode Number 215 here on this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast. And I’m so excited to dive into this fundamental online marketing topic that we’re talking about in today’s show.
This should be a rather short episode for you, but it’s going to be jam packed with important information that if you aren’t using lead magnet marketing strategy in your business, you’ll want to make sure that you stay with me here today. We’re talking about lead magnet marketing for every business stage and who is this for when I say every business stage? So just like all of our podcast episodes,
each one is tagged to a stage or a phase of business that you’re currently in. There are five phases to my business design launch growth and scale roadmap. And you can find out what phase you’re in by visiting sweet life co.com forward slash quit. And when I say lead magnet strategy for every business stage, I really truly mean that it’s every stage of where you are in my business roadmap in my start to scale up system.
But we are specifically talking to a couple of you guys. So let’s hone in a little bit tighter here. This episode is great for established businesses who are not yet using using online marketing or new entrepreneurs. We’re just now launching your very first online marketing strategies. So let’s kind of break that up. This has been really a hot topic again, even though this is what we would consider an online marketing foundation,
like a newer concept, it’s been a really hot topic, especially for the last 12 months is so many offline businesses or service-based businesses are now pivoting to offer online services. So some of these online marketing strategies that might be widely known to quote unquote, marketers might be new to you. And I appreciate that. So this is actually we’ve recorded episodes on this about three,
four years ago, but I really understand the need to kind of go back to these online marketing and foundations for those of you established businesses, because it’s important that we give you the tools. So you can start implementing these right away in your business as well. Again, this is for established businesses and you’re trying to leverage and use online marketing strategies. You’ve been in business.
You do a great job at what you do. You could be like the best in town at what you do, but you don’t yet understand online marketing fundamentals. And so this is an important episode for you. And of course, if you’re a new business, if you’re a new service based entrepreneur, you’re just launching from scratch, then you’re in the right place for this show as well.
So in summary, if you are not utilizing online marketing, that this is where you’re going to want to begin. So in this week’s show, we’re talking about what is a lead magnet? What is the strategy behind it in the one thing about lead magnets that nobody tells you it’s really important. We’re going to dive into some lead magnet strategy in reference to overall program development or service development.
And I’m going to make sure that, you know, some of the strategy that very very few coaches will tell you, and this is the one that’s going to make or break it for you and creating the right lead magnet for your business. At the end of this episode, you are going to obviously know, what is it, lead magnet. You’re going to understand why it’s important and today’s marketing.
And you’re going to know what kind of lead magnets are the best for you. And of course, you’re going to learn the most important lead magnet strategy that no one tells you. So if you’re ready, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show all of the show notes and the resources which we have a ton on our podcast website, a free grab and go resources can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com
and simply click on the podcast. All right, let’s go.<inaudible> Okay. So to kick us off, let’s start with the basics. What is a lead magnet? Other words that people use for lead magnet could be like a freemium or a freebie. Those sound really fluffy to me. I don’t really like those words. I’m a strategist. So I’m like,
okay, what is a lead magnet? It is literally a magnet that magnetizes and draws cold traffic to you for the purpose of generating the lead. It’s a piece of information of high value. We’re going to come back to that of high value, a piece of information or an information piece of high value that you give away for free in exchange for the name and email address and contact information of a cold lead that we’re going to turn into a hot prospect,
but they’re pretty cold at first with this strategy because they usually have not ever heard of you before, or is their very first time they’re visiting your social media or your website. So why is this important in today’s marketing? So a lead magnet allows you to start a relationship with tomorrow’s clients. It’s a very, very, very special thing, and it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
It’s incredibly strategic. And we’re going to talk about some of the strategies here on how to choose what lead magnet content that you’re going to deliver. But it’s a privilege for us in today’s over information overload world, to have an opportunity to connect with somebody who resonates with what we do, who just might be able to, you know, use your services,
they might need you desperately, or maybe they’re just kind of fishing a little bit and wondering what it is that you do. So, first of all, lead magnets are important because it gives you the privilege of starting a relationship with somebody that could become a client. It is a privilege that should not be taken lightly. People are incredibly busy and they have very little attention to give unless they are dealing with a major problem right then and there at that moment,
or here’s the other side of it. People love to collect great resources and save them for later. So there are two different ways that somebody is going to accept or want your content in your lead magnet. Number one, if you are literally talking about a problem that they are currently facing something that they’re saying to themselves in their mind, something that is top of mine,
something that they are currently looking actively looking for a solution for, or it’s actively a deep desire of theirs, and they’re wondering how to fulfill it. So those are the first people that are going to grab your lead magnet piece of information. The other people are the hoarders of information. I mean, how many times have you grabbed something for free or saved a bookmark?
Because you’re like, Oh, this is so cool. I want to come back to it later. Well, people do that. And that strategy and utilizing that, building that relationship from that strategy definitely has to be taken into considerations because people love to collect great resources and save them for later as well. Both of those are great reasons, terrific. Whether they want your thing right now,
or they think they might need it later. That is a pre-qualified person that we want to have an opportunity for you to build a relationship with. So both of them are great opportunities and develop great rapport for you and your potential clients. Now, with that being said, what happens with a lead magnet? So when you give them this piece of information,
you have a chance to connect and build trust with this new audience. And that depends like how well you do this, frankly. It depends on how great of content in how great of a micro transformation you are going to give them with your lead magnet content. So let’s go ahead and answer the question that I know you’re asking is, you know, really what,
what kind of lead magnets are best. So, first of all, let me give you some high level examples of lead magnets that I know that you’ve seen quizzes, PDF downloads, free recipe planners, workouts of the week, 10 steps to XYZ or five ways to pack your family more efficiently for vacation. Those are all examples of lead magnets, but in order to actually figure out what is the best we’re going to go back a little bit in history,
not too far back because you know, online businesses technically only been around for a couple of decades. So let’s talk about the history of lead magnets. This is really important for you to know. I want you to bring like level up your entrepreneur history IQ here, because this is going to affect what you choose to create. And I also want you to understand the psychology of buyers and what they’re doing,
how they’re behaving right now. So going as far back as we can go in the lead magnet history from about 2010, probably a little bit earlier than that, 2008 tell about 2000 and I would say 17, we would give away these amazing, huge pieces of content. His lead magnet is a matter of fact, the bigger the lead magnet you gave away,
the better and the faster your list grew. So you would see lead magnets that were given away, you know, a big, long hour long, two hour long training videos, or, you know, huge white papers that were like 50 pages long. And people loved them because it was the first time in history that information was seen as a commodity until the more information you were giving them,
they were like, Oh my gosh, this person is so great. I love this business. They just gave me a hundred pages or they just gave me a five-hour video to watch. And so with like this competition, if you will, amongst entrepreneurs to give the biggest, most bad-ass best lead magnet ever. Okay, well now, like let’s slow down a little from 2018 on,
we started seeing this onset of massive information overload in busy-ness all of us did you did. I did our people, did our kids, did everybody did like your grandma even did, right? And so this massive information overload has made it. So people are like, wow, you know what now is most valuable thing to me, my time time is much more valuable than money and much more valuable than all the information you’re about to dump on me.
And so people have started to strategically not want to grab your lead magnet as free and wonderful as it may be. If it’s going to require them two, three, four hours to go through it because their time is more valuable than the information you’re going to give them. So starting now about three, four years ago, we are diving into a different era of lead magnets,
if you will, where they deliver high value in shorter time. And there’s a third part of it that if you listen to me for years, you know, I geek out on this. It is also the lead magnets that create a transformation in the people that received them. And I’ll kind of save that a little bit and we’re going to come back to that word transformation,
but let’s kind of go back to the actual content itself. The lead magnets that generally seem to be doing the best at the recording of this episode in 2021 are the ones that deliver high value in a short period of time. So here are some very specific samples in honestly, it can be anything just think high value, short time, high value, short time,
okay. Here’s some specific examples of different lead magnets that are currently doing a great job at this quizzes and self-assessments are winning. And they do a great job because they also provide curated, customized information. So the people that are taking them know that they aren’t just getting the same information as everybody else, but it’s curated based on how they respond. And we all want something that’s customized to where we are.
So quizzes and self-assessments or any type of assessment, super great consider the length of it, right. You know, we have some assessments out there that will take us 50 questions to get through. That’s not a great lead magnet assessment. And in most cases, it certainly depends on how it correlates with the program that you’re selling next, but quizzes and assessments overall are great.
The second thing are quick items that really are able to be implemented by your people that grab it, your we’ll call them your future clients without really much thought. So examples of this are templates that they can just grab swipe files, swipe files, and swipe copy are literally like pre-written marketing copy or pre-written things or pre done graphics. It can literally swipe like,
think like Dora the Explorer, like swiper, no swiping, but we’re like, yes, wipers swipe it. And they can literally swipe it and put it into their business with little or no modification. I just probably aged myself because my oldest son was watching Dora the Explorer have these people listen to airplay, like what the heck is Dora the Explorer. Okay.
So these swipe files are really, really great. Other ones are grabbing NGOs. So anything they can literally grab and apply into their program or their client process or any other thing that they can grab from you and go, and it relieves a pain that they have had good. These are wins like these are LinkedIn ending with winners. Okay. Another example of a great lead magnet right now are forms.
So again, templates. So if you can give somebody some sort of a template to start with that they can either fill out on their own, helping them come to a decision about something or that they can share, even within their company, just don’t put any intellectual property or any of your logos in there. Then those could be great solutions for you as well.
So generally speaking quick things that they can implement right away without much thought. So any sort of done for them solution of really any kind is amazing. And those are doing really well as lead magnets that are getting people results and converting very well. You know, calendars other types of things. But I will say this, I don’t know your business. I wish that we were live on clubhouse right now.
So we could have this conversation back and forth, which wink, wink that will be happening very soon here on this. We live entrepreneurial podcast. So if you’re a listener that is coming guys, I’m very excited about that. But right now, unfortunately it’s a one-sided conversation. So what I’m going to say next, take it with a grain of salt because I don’t have my eyes on your business.
So I’m not exactly looking at your content, but I want to tell you that like general PDFs that are just kind of like the, or anything else like that, doesn’t tend to have a ton of value as much as it used to, but they could be very valuable. And this is on a case by case basis. But a lot of people are told that,
just create a PDF of like 10 steps to do this or whatever. That’s just creating content just to share more content, nobody needs more content. We need to give people and I’m going to come back to this word I said earlier, but our job as teachers, as coaches, as mentors, as leaders, as service providers, to give people a transformation when they come across our programs and our content,
the transformation could be huge transformation, or it could be what I call micro transformation. We have to do that within your programs, the way we extract your information and your expertise and all of your assets and build it into your programs or your main services has to be transformational program design. Even in the lead magnet, we need to give a micro transformation.
It is our responsibility to not just throw information at them, but to give them a transformation. So nobody needs more information. They need transformation. And that is what we are talking about with your lead magnet strategy. So if you want to do a PDF, download great, but ask yourself what transformation is somebody going to experience from the beginning of this?
Either reading it or filling out the PDF or whatever it is to the end of it, what can they expect? What’s the end result from spending their time, downloading my PDF, getting all my lists and did I wow. Them, did I show them that I’m trustworthy to take them to the next level? You know, so really think about that in your lead magnet strategy.
So I’m going to dive in here at the end and just actually break down the tech side of it. If you’re worried about that, if you’re thinking this and you’re like, Oh my gosh, I don’t really understand the tech. Don’t worry. I’ve got you. We’re going to talk about that last year, right before I wrap up. But the next thing I want to get into is an extension of what we just talked about the transformation.
So this is a really important thing and lead magnet strategy that nobody probably tells you again, we don’t want to just pick the lead magnet. We want to create one that is a winning lead magnet and it does a job. Okay. So here is a way to choose a lead magnet that does the job that we want it to do. Number one,
what are you selling next? Oftentimes lead magnets are just created without thought is to their connection or their step within the greater process that you self serve or deliver. Right? So what are you selling next? Here is just some, a little more help on that. If you’re new, then go through the process of laying out your program or your offer or service of outlining that if you’re an established business,
you want to ask yourself, what is the primary offer or service program that we want to drive people to with this lead magnet, you want to make sure that the lead magnet is a direct connection to what you’re selling next. Here’s another way that I like to teach it in. This might resonate and help you understand it even more. If you might be struggling with this,
think about your lead magnet as a prerequisite. So do you remember when it was time to register for your college classes or even your high school classes? If, if you went rogue and did something fabulous and, and didn’t go directly to college or college at all, we had to go through this process of saying, okay, I’m not allowed in this class unless I’ve met the prerequisite,
which could have been another class or, you know, an understanding of something to be allowed into that content. Your lead magnet is the prerequisite to your program. So you want to ask yourself, what do they need to know, understand, agree with, learn, decide upon, or what’s the one thing they need to get overall clarity on for one reason,
for them to decide if they want or need to work with you more. So let me say that again, your lead magnet has a very big job. That’s why like just these little checklists, aren’t really cutting it when I’m talking about business strategy, because I’m a business strategist. Like I want you to do even better than that. I know you can.
And this is how we do that. We want to look at what you’re selling next. And then we look at that lead magnet, a prerequisite to either pre-qualify, we’re disqualify people from working with you in your next step program. We want to disqualify the people that are not the perfect fit, just as much as we want to qualify those people that absolutely need what you have next.
Your lead magnet has a really big, like heavy lifting job. Think of it as like mighty mouse. Okay. It might be like little teeny mini, but it has a big job and it’s super strong. And it’s going to lift people up to the next level for them to know if they want to join your leading offer or your program or your membership,
or your course or whatever you’re selling next. So that’s a lead magnet strategy that very few people I speak to are aware of. And I want to make sure that you guys here, you know, all of our suite lead podcast listeners, it’s been about three years since I’ve talked about this on the show. I feel like I talk about it all the time,
especially over the last 12 months with so many businesses scaling online. So we’re kind of going, this is honestly online business basics. And I just want to make sure that you’re nailing it. So whether you’re a new business or you’re an established business and you haven’t leveraged online marketing in this capacity yet, I hope this episode helps you in springboards you to get started in a very strategic way.
Now, I promised you I’m going to kind of break down the structure of what happens, the flow of what happens on the tech side of it on the back end of it. So if you feel like a little stumped here, I’m going to try to simplify the best I can for you. We’ve talked about the content, you know, that we’re delivering within the asset of that piece of information.
That’s all the things we’ve been talking about so far. Now let’s actually talk about the delivery of this and how it works on the techie side. Here is the order of pages or the order of flow that people are going to go through on the tech side. The very first thing is we’re going to direct them to either a landing page or your homepage of your website.
We have to have that part built a landing page, and I have done specific episodes just on landing pages. You guys. So if you’re totally wanting more information on that, make sure that when you’re in our sweet life podcast website, you can actually search that and it’ll bring up the episodes that we’ve talked about. So a landing page is a specific page designed with only one job in mind,
and that is for somebody to fill out a form to get your lead magnet. That’s it it’s really basic. It doesn’t even scroll down that far if at all. And there’s some very specific things there’s really only one call to action on that landing page is not, is fill out the form, get your lead magnet. A whole page has obviously other things going on as well,
but we also can create a way for, to download your ma your lead magnet from your homepage. That could be a banner across the top or something that is located very clearly. And what a website technical term is called above the fold. That means that on a desktop, they don’t have to scroll down to find it. And so you can put the form or your lead magnet either on a separate landing page or on the homepage,
or frankly, any other page of your site. So stop number one, like in this little lead magnet tech journey is the page has to have a form on it. And then what happens is somebody fills out that form. Then we use the magic of what is called email automation, and it is going to automatically send to the person that filled out the form,
your lead magnet, whatever your lead magnet is. It is all done on complete automation. And that is the way we scale your business. Everything needs to be done automation in. I actually just spoke to the client today, honestly, just a little tangent. And she has an amazing business she’s been doing for almost 20 years and she has 150 people going through a program that she has every single month.
And she has had this you guys for, I think about three or four years, every single person that joins she has not had the opportunity to learn these strategies. And she sends them a personal email with the link. That’s 150 people. She’s personally sending an email to every single time they joined and it’s running her life. So with a few little technical software pieces in place,
we can take your company from the way that it’s working, but into a way that works, that is going to increase your sales scale. Your business increase the value and the quality of your life and help your business grow to the next level. So if that’s you and you don’t have any email automation in place, I’ll put the resources in the podcast,
show notes for you, but we are a big advocates. We love Kajabi. And there are a lot of other online software platforms as well that we do recommend. And frankly, we even have a separate side of our business that builds websites and landing page funnels for clients. So if you need that, you can always check us out@sweetlifeco.com. With that being said,
let’s go ahead and do a quick recap of what we talked about today. Today, we talked about what is a lead magnet. We talked about understanding why it’s important for your business in today’s marketing, in the really specific and powerful, like mighty mouse job that it has. We talked about knowing what kinds of lead magnets are best. And I just want you to remember one key word and that word is transformation.
We want to give people a transformation within experiencing your lead magnet, and that’s going to set them up to be like, wow, look what they just did for me. I wonder how amazing their paid programs are. If this is what I’ve experienced in a free capacity. And we had talked about learning the strategy of your lead magnet content, being a prerequisite to what you’re selling into next.
So I helped that. That was incredibly helpful for you. This is again, this is lead magnet marketing for every single stage of business, and it applies across the board, whether you’re established or new I’m April beach host of this podcast and thunder of the Sweetlife company. It’s certainly a pleasure to get to speak to you again on another show. This is episode number 215,
and you can find all the show notes and everything we chatted about by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And please follow me on clubhouse. I’m at April beach and we host a weekly strategy room at 12 o’clock Eastern time, every single Wednesday. It’s totally free. If you have a question about this strategy, as we’re dropping this show, please jump in there with me and ask,
all right, you guys have an awesome week and I will look forward. See you again soon. Bye bye for now
Entrepreneurs looking to get in front of your ideal audience and establish yourself as an expert in your space but you’re not exactly sure how to go about it through the process of speaking.
Summary:
If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re looking to get in front of your ideal audience, establish yourself as a trusted source and solution, and sell more of your leading programs, services or offers, speaking is a great way to do that. However there are strategic steps that should be followed in order to achieve your ideal outcome, and what we learn in speaking to this week’s guest is that you can actually send clients away by saying the wrong things.
And this week’s show, Heather Seger, strategic speaking advisor, guides you through her four-step Speak for Authority method to fill your programs using speaking. Heather also dives into statistics speakers need to know, how to tell the right story, and expert insights to make sure you are speaking up in the right way, to the right audience, about the right topics.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand the four steps to the“speak for authority method”
Know how to nail your message
And understand quick strategies to choose your leading talk topic
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Welcome back to the show. This is episode number 211, And then I’m April beach. Super great to be connected with you today. We are diving in and we’re talking about how to fill your programs using guest speaking.
And we have Heather Sager, the one and only in the house. So what you can expect from today’s show is if you are a coach or a consultant, and you’re really good at what you do, even the leading expert in your space, but you’re having trouble getting noticed will speaking could be a really powerful way to establish yourself as a leader and get in front of the perfect audience.
And so today we’re talking all about the steps to do that and giving you the methodology from the expert herself, Heather Sager, but real quick, before we jump into that, if you’re new to hearing the show welcome, this is the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast, and we give you step-by-step business trainings that are so good. There’s no way they should be free.
You can find all the resources we have by visiting sweet life co.com. And if you’re interested in scaling your business, developing your leading program, leading method, leading offers in truly scaling your business to live life on your terms for massive profit. Then we would love to help you get to that place. Visit Sweetlife co.com and that is our Ninja skill. And that’s what we do.
All right, diving into today’s episode. This is for entrepreneurs in all stages of my start to scale up system. So we like to tag these episodes in advance. So, you know, whether or not this is really a good, good opportunity for you to learn and grow based on the phase of business you’re in. So if you weren’t sure what phase of business you’re in and therefore what you should be focusing on right now,
you can go and take a very short quiz just by visiting sweet life co.com forward slash quiz. And we’ll give you a full download of exactly where you are in your business, growth and development in exactly what you should be focusing on right now, so that you can grow your company faster. So that’s one resource I wanted to share with you. And along those lines of this particular episode is for those of you who are in phases two,
three or four of that start to scale up system. So hopefully that will equip you to know whether or not you should hang out with us any longer. And I’ll tell you if you’re in this phase, you are not going to want to miss this episode. And one other quick housekeeping announcement. I know that we have probably been talking about clubhouse way too much,
but I wanted to let you know that you can connect with us and connect with our suite life podcast, guests experts. By following me on clubhouse, I am at April beach on clubhouse, and we now host a weekly room at 12 o’clock, every single Wednesday. And that is Eastern standard time. So if you want to be on the hot seat,
if you want my eyes and your business to help you strategize your next steps, find us on clubhouse and subscribe to our clubhouse updates. If you are not on clubhouse yet, or if you just want the updates you can visit Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse. And we’ll keep you in the loop of what’s happening on clubhouse while you might be waiting to get on the app and we will send you reminders and invitations to our upcoming rooms.
So I know that was a lot of information and you can find all the information I just shared with you and the resources for these show notes, which is going to be@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two 11. Okay, let me introduce you to our fabulous guest on today’s show. You get to hear from Heather Sager. Heather helps entrepreneurs structure their ideas, clarify their message and hone their speaking skills so they can deliver a magnetic live presentations,
videos, and workshops to grow their authority, whether on a physical or a virtual stage, she’s spoken on stages around the world. Teaching six to seven figure business owners, how to grow their company using effective communication. She also works one-on-one with business owners to prep them for the stage and help you manage and prepare your message for the most impact. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode.
Again, all of those amazing resources that I shared and everything we’re talking about with Heather can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash two 11.<inaudible>. All right, you guys welcome back to another awesome episode here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur business podcast. And I am visited today by none other than Heather Sager in what we’re talking about is something that’s so important.
I know many of you guys have questions about, so we are immediately diving into how to fill your programs using guests speaking. So Heather, thank you so much for being on the show today. Give yourself an awesome intro, an intro that you deserve because you are a very powerful at getting people amazing results and tell everybody about what you do. Thank you so much.
I’m thrilled to be here. Thanks for the chance to serve your audience today and talk about pressure on an intro. I mean, I mean, honest, I will say behind the scenes, so I have followed Heather on Instagram and it’s one of those things where you’ve been connected and a little bit connected, but not completely connected. And I knew that you guys needed to hear from Heather.
So very excited to have you here. Thank you. Thank you for that. So, as April said, I’m Heather Sager. So I’m a coach for online Entrepreneurs and essentially what that means. I always joke that I teach people how to do the thing that most people fear more than death, which is public speaking and in the online space. It’s kind of funny because we think about public speaking back.
If y’all worked in corporate ever, how you think about getting up in front of a group and giving a presentation or teaching a workshop, or we think about speakers as the people who live their life on the road at conferences on big stages. And none of those things seem to really fit in the online space of coaches and course creators and online entrepreneurs. And what I like to remind people is the fact that as business owners,
we speak to people every single day. So we are already speakers. It’s not like a label that we just, all of a sudden adopt. We’re already speakers. And so I, what I do is I teach people how to do it with intention and purpose. So what they speak about actually connects back to not only what they’re passionate about, but also what they do in their business.
I think your voice has the potential to be a magnet for other people, for them to go, Ooh, I’m not only do I like her. I want to learn more from her. And the more that you get out and use your voice on different platforms, the more you pull people back with you that they’ll want to join your programs and hang out with you more and buy from you.
So that’s what I do. My background is my many entrepreneurs is incorporat where for years I spoke on stages around the world as a corporate trainer, where I taught actually entrepreneurs in the medical space. So doctors and their teams, I taught them customer service and sales to very taboo topics in the medical space tell you, as a 27 year old kid, it felt like teaching doctors how to sell,
how to talk about what they did, how to talk to their teams, how to talk to their patients. That was an intimidating task at hand. So I had to learn how to speak in a very different way. I had to learn how to be influential and persuasive with an audience who was highly skeptical of my experience, my age, everything about me.
And so that’s where I got my like big girl chops around speaking. That’s where I had to fight through all my own insecurities about being a, I was talking about being like a baby nugget on a stage being an unexperienced or inexperienced professional. Like I had to work through all of those mental issues. We go through. I had to do that in a very highly publicized,
highly criticized space, but I did damn good job. And I realized that while I love my job as a trainer, what I really loved was teaching people how to use their voice for good. And I got really good at storytelling. I got really good at the body language and the hand gestures and all those things that come with speaking that are more than just the message.
And I started getting people asking me, could you teach me how to do that on a stage? Or could you teach me how to lead a workshop? And I found all of my free time in corporate was teaching my peers and other businesses how to do what I was doing. And at some point I was like, I don’t want to do this for anybody else anymore.
Why don’t I just do this full time? So I made the leap like many do, which is, let me start my own business and help other people do the thing that I love. But here’s the kicker. It wasn’t just about speaking. It was about speaking with purpose because I think speaking is like gasoline on a fire. I think speaking is one of the best marketing strategies that we can use in our business.
And I think people treat it as a skill, but speaking, it’s actually a strategy. So many things that I want to say, right, right now about all those things. First of all, now you guys know I wanted Heather on the show buyer that was like, okay, we can just end it, just go work with other, and she’s going to help you be just this insane speaker,
but you don’t really, you said so many things though. So as business developers and obviously that’s what we do at the Sweetlife company, we help people develop their programs and we help them develop life-changing programs and offers and these amazing services. Right. And one of the things that they are always asking about is, but how do I separate myself from other businesses that are delivering the same type of results besides doing it within the framework of my program?
Like how do I stand out? And it always comes back to taking the authority on what, you know, in stepping out and speaking about it. So that’s the first thing. And I can’t wait to dive into the strategies we’re going to talk about here today on the show, but something else that you said that it’s so true is that you’re speaking to people all the time.
It doesn’t always have to be a webinar or an actual live event. But when, as an online entrepreneur, when you have the opportunity to actually speak to somebody and take them on a journey that you have pre crafted, it is a skill. And that’s how you get people to follow you that are the right people. And I, I want to just kind of pause for a second saying,
even if you’re listening to the show and you’re like, wow, I, you know, speaking doesn’t fit into my business model, listen to what Heather’s saying, because you’re already speaking. So let’s make it so you don’t suck at it, right? Let’s make every single moment that you are having the, honestly, the privilege, just like I just felt very blessed and privileged that people listened to the podcast.
Right? All of us, when somebody is listening to what we have to say, it is a very unique opportunity and a privilege to be able to speak to these people. So what we say and how we say it is incredibly, incredibly important. So just love everything that you said there. And I appreciate how direct you are about the importance of this.
So you help establish business owners really take the lead in doing so by speaking an increase. What I love of course is the sale of their programs. Talk about how you do that. You have a very special method and I’m going to tout Heather’s method here for a second. By way. If you all don’t have a method we need, we want you to have a method to make you known into gain the trust of the people.
You’re leading. Talk to us about your method in what is that called? And can you guide us through your method today? Yes. 100%. I love methods. We were sharing our love of frameworks and methods, and just easier ways to help people understand what it is you do, right? We all think things make sense in our own heads, but really our own heads are a very special place that only we understand.
So we have to be able to articulate them. So my leading method that I teach inside my program speak up to level up. It’s where I teach online course creators and coaches, how to leverage speaking in a way that’s going to grow their business. We walk through something. I call the speak for authority method. And the reason why we call it the speak for authority method is every business owner has different goals related to speaking.
Some people might be like, Hey, I want to get paid to speak $10,000 for a keynote or $40,000 for a keynote. That’s one strategy. But when it comes to speaking, there are several strategies that you can apply. One can be growing your revenue in your program. So selling from stages, another could be driving leads to your social media accounts or leads to your list or leads to your offers.
Another one could be just not peeing your pants. When you go live on a platform, it could just be growing your confidence. But I think throughout all of it, speaking is like a business card for your business and all of these, their authority boosting activities that when you grow your authority, you have the ability to charge more, get on better stages network with the people that you want to network with,
collaborate with the business partnerships you want to have when you have authority, which is clout, where people see you as the go-to in your field, it seems like doors open naturally. So if you aren’t known, if people don’t know who you are, you could be the best at what you do, but until other people point at you and say, she knows what she’s doing,
or he’s an expert in this, by the way you don’t say you’re an expert. You let other people do that for you until that moment comes. It doesn’t really matter how good your program is. You have to articulate it, make it sound like a big deal and get other people talking about it. And that’s where growing your authority becomes a really important thing.
Wow. Okay. Yeah. So talk to us about this, speak for authority method. And I love how you preface it by saying that the reason why it’s so important is because all these goals are absolutely important and they do apply probably to every single person listening to the show. So what is the first part of this method? Where does somebody start when they want to take action on that?
Yeah. You’re going to love this one because this goes right up your alley of what you teach, which is number one is nail your messaging. What I mean by that is you have to nail, who are you talking to? What do you have to offer? And how do you talk about those core offerings, your messaging? So, what’s interesting is the first time I taught my program,
when I started working with groups of entrepreneurs versus one-on-one, I started by going, let’s create your talk and I would start extracting ideas out of their head and formulating a leading talk with them. And what I realized pretty quickly was, Oh my gosh, this was the first time they were vocalizing their ideas. And some of them didn’t even have their programs fully formatted or organized in a way that really got people Results.
So I found out, you know what, when people start moving from just writing down their ideas or drawing out their ideas, when they start articulating their ideas, that’s when they realized, Oh, this either makes sense or it doesn’t. So step number one, nailing your messaging means that you are not just thinking off, like speaking off the cuff or winging it all the time.
Here’s this big myth that happens a lot of times when we see experts where we see influencers on a podcast or on a video or on clubhouse, we think, Oh, they’re just so naturally gifted. But here’s the thing. These people have been talking about these things over and over and over and over again, they know what they’re talking about. It’s not by chance.
It’s on purpose now, sometimes it’s by chance because they’ve just done it enough where they know no, but they have discovered what their core talking parts are. You have to understand what should you, and what should you not be talking about to lead people into your business, not lead them to other people’s businesses. Like there is a difference. You can talk about a lot of things,
but if you don’t have your messaging nailed, you could be providing a lot of education, but then serving them up open doors to have other people help them because they don’t realize how it connects back to you. Wow. Okay. And to totally put you on the spot here, at least as because everybody’s saying like, Oh my gosh, shoot, am I doing this?
Am I, cause everybody wants to be out there and sharing information, a great value. Can you give us an example of how sharing some information as in a particular way, may lead somebody to go work with somebody else? Yeah. I’ll give you me. It’s an example. Okay. I talk about speaking, right? And I want you to imagine speaking.
This is like this giant ocean of information. It’s in the, the marketing ocean. There’s so many different things we can speak about. And one or two times I did podcast episodes or interviews where people are like, Oh, speaking on camera, Heather, will you come talk about getting over your fear of the camera? And I’m like, sure, I love this.
This is within my wheelhouse. But what I realized is when I would start doing all these interviews that were specific to getting over your fear of the camera or going live on Facebook or all these things, which I, I do teach, what I realized was my messaging was really specific to social media speaking. And my offer is how do you speak on all kinds of stages?
Get your messaging down, use guest stages. Yes. Use your stages. But the speaking on lives and Instagram stories was such a minute point. I don’t want people to know me as the person to help you get over your fear of the camera. Like that’s not what my program is about. Even though I have episodes around it, like the messaging while it was a good,
relevant topic, it wasn’t core messaging. That’s going to drive back to my program, speak up to level up. I mean, it’s a lesson in my program, but it’s not the core concept. So I think a lot of times this thing that happens is we’re like, Oh, it’s within the wheelhouse. Well, you have to think about, is it like a neighbor down the block in your content?
Or is it like on the block, like on your street, in the house that you’re trying to attract people to. Wow. That’s so important. Okay. I’m just going to take a little, left-hand turn tangent here as we are all diving into, or as many people as we possibly can, we’re driving into clubhouse. For example, I just did the recording of this hosted a,
a welcome event room for a bunch of women entrepreneurs last night. And they were all asking, what should I be talking about in these rooms? And I felt grateful now. I didn’t totally lead them astray, but it was always coming back to cause I’m obviously not the speaking coach, but it was always like, what do you want to be known for?
And I think that this is so exactly important what you said, because there are so many things that we can talk about. I can, you know, talk about a million components of, of our program as well in, in the ways and other things that are like supporting evidence, supporting document, but not that may nugget. So what I’m hearing you say in what I want,
all of you guys to hear is what Heather saying is that go for go after what you want to be known for. This is also important why we have your leading program created so we know what we’re selling people into. So it aligns with your program so important. And I think that there are so many people that are just looking for any opportunity to get in front of an audience that they are willing to speak on.
Oh, I can speak on that. Oh sure. I can speak on that. And what you’re saying is that is not strategy. Let’s be very strategic and make sure that in the little amount of time that somebody is willing to give you attention, to hear what you have to say, that you are making a good use of that in establishing an understanding of who you are,
who your brand is and the, in the end Results you provide bingo so power. And let me give you a visual for that, because I want to make sure hearing me say, don’t ever talk about those things. Right? Okay. I want you to imagine, do you remember back in, I don’t know if some kind of math class, when we were in school,
that something called a scam. I think it’s called a scattergram. It’s like the graph that you would draw with the dots. And it’s like, when you would have a point, it’d be like all these dots that you’d look for the trends of the dots. Maybe this is a terrible example, but go with me here for a second. I’m sticking.
Yeah. You guys should see behind the scenes in the recording. I’m like, ah, So if you think about like the dots, like mapping different coordinates, but I want you thinking about is you want to map like the bulk of your coordinates. I E the bulk of your speaking to your leading offer. But if you have a little dab, like,
Ooh, I’m going to talk about this because it’s sexy or I’m going to talk like, I’ll do a room talking about how do you do your voice on clubhouse, not what I teach, but it’s a sexy topic that people want. Like if my little scattergram, gosh, I hope that’s what it’s called. If I have like a couple of beeps and boops of topics that are outside of my core,
that is not going to dilute. I’m known for, it’s just going to expand it. But if I spend too much time outside of my core topic, then I will be unforgettable because there’s no repetition on my core topic of people seeing over and over again. Oh, I want to speak on guest stages. Heather, Sagers a speaking coach for online entrepreneurs.
Oh, you want to know how you speak into this strategy? Heather, Sagers the coach to help you with that. Like you have to make sure your repetition in your wheelhouse is happening in order to earn the right to have those scattered topics. Absolutely. Awesome. Visual. Thank you so much. I have no idea what you’re talking about because frankly,
I think I was skipping school in stoned, every high school math class, but just keeping it real with that being said, I can totally get the visual and that completely makes sense. My teenage boys are going to listen to this podcast and yeah. It’s cool. Your mom’s super cool. Oh, they they’ve heard all the stories. Okay. I am redeemed.
Whew. Anyway. Yes. Totally makes sense. Okay. So you’re going to be unforgettable the closer you stay to what I’m hearing you say, the core, the center of that. Scattergram like the primary message. So powerful. Super awesome. All right. So step number one is like, we’re still at step. Number one, you guys, this is our goal.
The information that Heather has given you here. So nailing that message in deciding what we’re talking about. So the second step in that is obviously an extension of that. The second step you say is creating the actual leading talk itself. Sure. A little bit about how to go about doing that. Yeah. So for those of you who like cooking, I love cooking.
Imagine step one is like your amazing applause where you get all your ingredients out and you know what you’re going to make. Step two was actually following the recipe to build your delicious food, whatever you’re making your meal. So your leading talk, you’re not coming up with random things on the fly. It’s strategic because you’ve already done that homework. So your leading talk needs to guide your audience from where they are to where you want them to go,
which doesn’t have to be like a hub, but a tricky to buy my program. You need to guide them in their thinking and equip them with the tools to be successful on whatever the transformation they want. Your program just helps them do it faster. So your leading talk, it has to include stories. You have to be speaking to people’s beliefs. You have to be hitting that really good balance around insights and awareness and speaking to where they are.
But gone are the days where you can just talk about the why fluffy stuff for your whole talk. People hate that they know when they’re being sold or when somebody is bringing fluff. So people in today’s market, what tangible tips and strategies. So you have to balance your talk with both. How do you provide insights and teach people how to think differently about your topic?
You can’t skip over that because if you do, when they go back in their business and try to apply it and something’s off, you, haven’t equipped them with the right context for them to be successful, to be able to maneuver it in the context of their business, you have to teach them how to think. And then you have to give them some tips and strategies.
How I recommend people do that is you teach the why, and then you teach the what, and it’s gonna get a little technical, but I feel like your audience might love it. My format that I follow with people is you go, why, what, how easy model for a presentation? And you sandwich it with an opening story and a closing story.
Like not rocket science. It’s what I work with. Every client on opening story, closing story in the middle of the sandwich is the what, why and how, and if you’ve worked with April and you’ve been around her world, the what section is essentially your method. So you’re almost there. You just need to work on, okay, how do I get this messaging in?
And what’s the right place to talk about it in the how to make people hungry for more. But your leading talk should be like an accordion where you can deliver your leading talk in five minutes because you know your talking points, but you also can expand it and make it, I mean, a full day workshop, maybe even a full course, right?
So you should be able to know what your talking points are within your leading talk. And that becomes your business card on those guest stages. And it perfectly segues into purchasing your leading program. And I mean, this is just absolutely the journey that you take people on it and how you nail and get it and get people really understanding what you do and your zone of genius.
Couple of questions for you about the stories do you find? And maybe there isn’t a right or wrong answer, but I’m just asking the questions. I think that possibly your audience is hearing. We should totally do a clubhouse room on this, like in conjunction with the week we dropped this, we should, we should do a clubhouse room and take Q and a I’m here for it.
And that would be so much fun. So talking about really quickly about the stories, are they usually a story about another client, personal stories about how the expert themselves or the leader has overcome? Like what type of stories? I mean, are we making people cry? Does it depend on the context when we’re talking about stories in general, is there a quicker,
seriously? You guys follow us on clubhouse because Heather and I are going to do this. I’m just putting her on the spot right now. We’re going to house the clubhouse room on this. So just join our clubhouse room and you can ask your story. Questions, go to our Instagram. Bio is go to Heather’s Instagram bio. I’ll give you a little to give you a little teaser.
The secret to good storytelling is knowing what emotion you want people to feel. That’s the key thing. You have to be intentional with the emotions you want to evoke. So for example, when I was working with Tyler McCall last month, we wanted people to feel heart, but we also wanted to laugh. So we talked, we did a story about the time he went to forestry camp and was too embarrassed to tell his father that he had to take a dump.
So he had to go home. So like outside of the content, very weird left story about like 11 year old Tyler, that was one. But like, you have to catch people off guard, but you have to know what emotions are you going for? And obviously your stories have to have a point. There was a business lesson in that story.
I promise you. Yes. I’m sure there was, yes, we’re too. Like on the nose with our stories where like, I hate this people’sleading story where they’re like, let me tell you about my perfectly curated journey, which pumped me out of this perfect place to be your expert. No, I think it’s bullshit. Your audience is not in the exact same space that you were.
You can’t say I was in your shoes because I think it’s obnoxious and rude because you don’t know what their shoes are. I think we have to tell our journey stories differently in a more authentic way. If we want to attract the kind of clients we want. That’s if you want to have, I think, authentic, ethical, meaningful relationships that make impact,
you have to tell stories differently than what we’ve been told with the bro marketing online. Ah, here’s here’s my class name. There you go. Nice. Yes. Yes. Okay. Awesome. All right. Step. And we are going to do a clubhouse to room on this. So let me just say you go to sweet life podcast.com forward slash two 11,
which is this episode number. And we will make sure there is a link to how you can get into this club has room and has asked Heather your questions. Also follow us both on Instagram because we’ll post our events on our Instagram accounts to Heather. What’s your IgE handle at the Heather Sager at B Heather Sager. Awesome. Okay. So step number three,
we’ve nailed theleading talk. We are on a roll. What happens next? What’s the next most important thing? Okay. So I think as entrepreneurs, we get by a lot by writing things out and typing things in our Google docs to post on our blogs or whatever else. But if you want to speak, you actually have to speak. Which means the first time that you speak your leading talk out loud should not be on a stage.
It should be in the privacy of your home office, where you can sound like a blubbering idiot because you will. So, so step number three is becoming magnetic with our delivery skills. So you have to learn how to speak in a way that’s captivating and entertaining that serves your audience gone are the days where you can just show up and shoot a video on something good on a,
how to people’s attention spans are short. Even our live events are like on clubhouse. People can jump in and out of rooms quickly. So you have to understand that your delivery skills, it’s not just the words you say, how you say it matters more. So you have to think about, am I speaking in just audio right now? Or am I also,
do I have video when it comes to communication? There’s three parts. The words that you say, how you say those words and your non-verbals. And I think people put a disproportionate weight on those. What it works out to studies that came from Southern California universities in the seventies, show that in marketing, when we’re talking about things that have an emotional message,
which most of our marketing messaging does, 55% of what we communicate is our non-verbals. So our facial expressions, our gestures now posture over half of what we communicate, which is why video is so powerful in allowing us to see, Oh, she’s authentic. Or she’s not like video is powerful because you see those. But 38% of what we communicate is the,
how we say it. The, the pace, the volume, the emphasis, those kinds of things. It’s 38% leaving. Only 70% of our communication to our words. Now, as online entrepreneurs, we’re used to writing, we’re used to emails. We’re used to captions. We’re used to putting all the weight there. So it’s scary to think, Oh crap,
I have to focus on these others, but I see it as a gift. You don’t have to be so precious with your words when you’re speaking. In fact, I screw up all the time. If you rewind this back, I have misspoken. I have I’ve strung words together to didn’t actually make a sentence. I speak like war all the time,
wrong words, whatever. You just keep moving because your energy, how you deliver it in your body, language carries you and your message. So if you don’t get intentional with how do you want to be received? What kind of energy do you want to create for other people? What do you want them to feel when they hear you? See you listened to you.
If you don’t practice that, you’re leaving it to chance. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t, I don’t want to leave to chance what people say about me. Like, I want to be intentional and be like, damn, I want to work with Heather or, Oh, you can get speaking coach. That’s going to help you bring your energy up,
work with that. Like, I want to be more intentional. I don’t want to like be caught up and obsessed with what people say about me, but I know I can influence it. So I say, why not? Yeah. That’s amazing. Those stats are very interesting. I had not personally heard those before, so super, super surprising. And then step number four.
Okay. So how do we, how do we go about wrapping all this up together in this is your speak for authority method. This is your unique IP, your methodology. You have gotten people Results going through this process going through these steps time and time again. So wrapping this up, what’s that last really important thing that people need to do? Yeah.
So building your authority means you need to make sure that your speaking strategy fits your strategy. That you’ve outlined. So if you determined that speaking is going to grow your authority, you have to say, okay, what podcast stages do I need to be on? Which live events do I need to be on? Who would I need to partner? How do you identify the right player in your industry to help position you in that way?
If your strategy was to grow your leads, all right, in this stage, we’re going to make sure the freebie that you offer on stages correlates with your leading talk. So it’s not just a, one-off like, Oh, go take my random free training about something. That’s not what I’m talking about. You’re not going to drive that. So that’s what we’re going to talk about.
How do we get results from our speaking determined by the strategy that you identified as your number one, so making money, but that’s negotiating a higher fee. Great. If that’s selling your program, great. If that’s driving leads great, like it’s kind of a pick your own pathway there. You haven’t figured out what strategy you want for you. And then we have the template to say,
okay, how do I make that happen from a stage? Fantastic. How powerful is this? You guys? All right, let me make sure that I can summarize your four steps as clearly as possible, because there was so much gold throughout this process. So your speak for authority method that you just laid out like a red carpet here. I mean,
this is gold. You guys, you would have had to pay Heather a lot of money to get this information. And so make sure that connecting with her more, both on clubhouse, and we’re going to give you some ways to work with Heather after this. So the first part of your method is really nailing your message. The second part is really creating that leading talk.
The third is delivering it with confidence in the fourth. Part of your method is elevating your authority. Did I summarize that correctly? You did great. You did great high fives and applause for your articulation. Okay. Students, good students. You guys should see my, see my notes behind the scenes. I’ll just share personally, you know, public speaking has just always been something that I love to do.
And once I get up there and once I get on a roll, I’m great, but it is such a head trip for me to get up there in the beginning of it. And my biggest fear, I tried to figure out what I was afraid of. Cause clearly I talk all the time. I’m not afraid to speak, right? And I really don’t care what people think about what I look like.
I’m one of the few speakers that usually takes a stage in some sort of flip-flops. But what I realized I was afraid of is that people were going to leave that room. And this was when we were having, you know, regular events that people are going to leave that room unchanged. And I realized that, wow, what if somebody says that was a biggest waste of an hour?
I ever spent it scared the shit out of me seriously, forever, because I was like, gosh, I just want people to leave here and have some sort of a transformation. And I was taking that. I’m really an advocate for that. As you know, like that’s how we develop programs, your programs should deliver a transformational measurable result. And I wasn’t really sure that my leading talk was doing that.
And so if you guys are listening and you have whatever issues, like Heather said it at the beginning, people would rather wet, like die than speak on stage. What is that saying in the beginning? Yeah, it’s a good Jerry Seinfeld joke around more people would rather give eulogy or a B in the coffin than give their own eulogy. Right? That is awful.
We were all given a voice for a reason. We’re all called to do great things for a reason. And using what Heather told you guys today in this show and her method is going to help you get clarity on all of this. And I’m super excited and appreciate your expertise and your time here today on the Sweetlife podcast. So we’re going to do a couple things to wrap up this episode.
First of all, Heather has a way to get you started. Obviously we want to give you tools to take action right now. So Heather, where do people go to learn more about working with you directly? Yeah. So the speak for authority method we talked about today, I outlined this in a little bit more detail and at a little slower pace,
if you want to head over my free training is up right now. If you head over to Heather singer.com forward slash free, you can download that free training. You can watch it right away and go through it. And I teach you how to actually use this method to start driving leads into your program. So you can grab that. Now it’s really designed for coaches course creators and small business owners who do not have a large following,
but want to start establishing their self as authority. So that’s perfect for you, but also if today’s conversation was of interest and you’re trying to out what kind of stages would even work for me? Like how does this even play out? I think maybe we should go on a second date. So maybe let’s jump into a training. Let’s go on a second date.
So I have a podcast it’s also on that page. Heather sager.com post free. You’ll have two options. The podcast is the Heather Sager show and you get like a little Besta playlist that you can hear a little bit more around how I speak. You can get used to my style a bit, steal it, use it for your own and start getting more comfortable with this concept of what does it look like to speak on other people’s stages,
but also use daily opportunities to exercise your voice, build your confidence. And most importantly, be more intentional with your message that you want to share so you can make a bigger impact. I love it. Okay. So I’m looking at my phone here. If you guys are watching the video behind the scenes, looking at the schedule, this show is live on January 25th.
It is episode number 211. So that means sometime this week, you and I are going to host a clubhouse room and we are going to implement and talk to our audience and answer questions for people that are listening to this show. So I’m so excited to, we’ve been talking about like, you know, doing rooms together. So here is how you find out when this room is happening.
First of all, you can go to sweet life co.com forward slash clubhouse, and you’ll get a list of events and the direct link to the event so that you guys won’t miss it. Cause clubhouse is a lot of fun things happening. If you are not on clubhouse, then listen to my podcast that I recorded episode number 209, about how to get started on clubhouse.
And I just want you guys just to take a second here like me. I do have many notes. If you feel like you are struggling to be seen as a leader in your space, that you really want to connect with people on a more personal relational level relationships sell. That’s what sells and you want to get in front of your ideal audience and give them an experience,
transform them through your speaking so that they can work with you more. I highly recommend speaking in general, but specifically hitting up Heather to see how you can do that more confidently. So Heather, thank you so much for being on this show so much gold. Again, this is Sweetlife podcast.com/two one one. So episode number 211, we’ll have all the links that Heather mentioned cause we dropped a lot of gems in this.
So all the links, so you can find Heather and work with her more. And of course, a link to our clubhouse room when we get that scheduled<inaudible> Hey guys, thanks for tuning into the show to get updates and join Heather live in our clubhouse room, please visit Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse. And follow me on clubhouse at April beach. If you would like to have Heather’s buys on your business and ask Heather your questions and also to our weekly clubhouse rooms,
every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Thanks so much for tuning into us and I will talk to you next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Start to Scale Up System™ Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Summary:
Pinterest could be the sleeper tool you’ve been looking for to generate leads and grow your business. Pinterest is not a social media platform but a powerful tool that can increase website visits and bring you great new clients. But, few companies know how to use Pinterest. This episode covers the 101 of how to use Pinterest stories, videos, hashtags and more.
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey everybody. Welcome back to episode number 210 on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Happy January, 2021. We obviously just finished commitment week 2021 for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
And we had our fourth podcast anniversary birthday last week. So first of all, great way to kick off 2021. Thank you so much for being a listener of this show for the last four years and keeping us a top of the charts for business development online for entrepreneurs. We love you guys. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please cruise over and leave us a review on Apple podcasts,
or just simply share this podcast from your Spotify up to your Instagram stories, or share this on LinkedIn. We appreciate you spreading the word about this show and just honestly how awesome you guys are as listeners. I get direct messages from many of you on Instagram and on LinkedIn, and just appreciate them so much. So we’re kicking off our fourth year with more proven business trainings that you can take to the bank.
We are known for giving you business steps and strategies that coaches charge thousands of dollars for. And it’s all totally proven. I’ve been coaching entrepreneurs for 24 years and the guests that also come on the show are proven experts in their space. So I’m so glad to turn you over to another guest expert on today’s show. We’re talking about how to generate leads with Pinterest stories,
videos, and hashtags. And let me give you a quick little backstory. I don’t do Pinterest. I’m not the Pinterest kind of girl whatsoever from a business strategy standpoint though. I definitely want to be where our clients are in where it’s a great place for our company to be, which is called the sweet life company for people to access our resources in the content that we distribute here on the podcast.
And so last year we got on Pinterest. We recorded a show about Pinterest with a guest expert, and my team quickly got to work implementing all those steps in our Pinterest engagement grew by something crazy. It was like 813%, which could be two things. Number one, it could show you how terrible we were at Pinterest before. So, you know,
there’s only way only one way to go is up or the strategies once are implemented with Pinterest. You can see almost instant results when you’re using Pinterest correctly. But with that being said full transparency, I still am not great at Pinterest. I’m grateful to have a team that does Pinterest. I’m not really on Pinterest. And so as an entrepreneur, I had a lot of questions for our expert today on,
you know, really who should be on Pinterest? What can you do on there? And especially all the new Pinterest stories feature. So on today’s show, we are talking to you guys about the fact that Pinterest could be that sleeper tool that you’ve been looking for to generate leads and grow your business. It’s not a social media platform. We’ll talk about that in today’s show,
but it’s really a great way to get eyes on your business and have people land on your website and increase your website, traffic and therefore generating leads. But honestly not a lot of companies are still leveraging Pinterest really well. So inter today’s expert, Laura rag is in the house today and she’s at Pinterest powerhouse who helps high performing business owners, content, creators,
and influencers grow profitability the right way with sustainable systems using Pinterest. She’s helped clients and students bring in over $50,000 in monthly revenue with her strategies. I mean, she’s really rad. You guys are gonna love her. And she’s been featured as a guest on podcasts like tailwind, ultimate marketer, twin cities, collective, and small business revival. And Laura lives in Minnesota with her family.
And she can be found@laurareich.com and we’ll of course, make sure all the links and everything we’re talking about in today’s show are going to be available for you guys in the show notes. If you’re new here then just so you know, you can find all the show notes and all the bonuses that we deliver with this podcast, by going to Sweetlife co.com, simply click on podcast,
and then you can click on the podcast number, or you can just type in the number of the podcast in our search bar. This is episode number 210. So welcome here to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. And just a little bit of housekeeping before we dive into today’s show, if you haven’t yet held your seat or joined the early registration waitlist for my,
offer engineer masterclass, that is coming in February. So now is the time to get on that wait list. It’s a two half day intensive, so not two and a half days, but it’s two half day intensive that I’m going to be teaching in the middle of February. And this is going to teach you how to extract your own intellectual property.
Take a look at all the assets and all the great things you’ve created, and we are going to together build your leading program. Course mastermind, membership, whatever the business model of that is, we’re going to help you extract it all and create it into a leading offer. That’s perfect. Should give you the results that you want. Make sure that you’re joining that early registration list by cruising over to theofferengineer.com.
Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast training.<inaudible> I’m super excited to be here with Laura Reich. And I will say that we did reschedule this episode because we’re both moms and that is what happens in our life. And Laura, you guys have to see this behind the scenes, this video, make sure you go to our YouTube channel and to our Pinterest,
there’ll be videos on there because she is glowing because she is beautifully eight months pregnant. And we had to make sure we recorded this show before baby, right. Number three, arrived. So we’re, we’re getting this out of here for you, Laura, welcome to the show. Thanks so much to everybody. A little bit about yourself. Yeah, for sure.
I thank you so much for having me. I am a mom of two boys with a girl on the way. So we are so super excited over here in this neck of the woods. And I am a VA gone rogue is what I call myself. So I used to try to do all the things and with a family that doesn’t work. So I picked one thing I love,
which happens to be Pinterest and design. And I have been going hard at that ever since and just love it. That’s awesome. Okay. And what is your URL? So people can find you, even though we’ll put all this in the show notes for you. Yeah, of course. It’s just Laura wrike.com. So it’s L a U R a R I K e.com.
Awesome. Okay. So today on the show I have a million Pinterest questions. So we had Melanie fountain on the show a while ago, almost a year ago, really diving into Pinterest Pinterest marketing. It was a great episode. I will say, as a case study, we took those like Pinterest one Oh one steps, and we tried them. And as a company,
we had crazy results. It was like we went from being nowhere on Pinterest, having random pins to, you know, having thousands and thousands of impressions. And it was like an 813% increase with applying some basic steps. And so I am a believer in Pinterest now, but I will also say I am completely still Pinterest illiterate because my, my team does it.
And I get questions all the time from business owners about, you know, still, should I be using this? What is this look like? What can Pinterest really do? And so today’s show is all about kind of dissecting some of those high-level business questions. So our listeners can, first of all, determine whether or not they should be in Pinterest.
So number one is this worth your time, number two, how to get started and you have a toolkit for people to get started, which I wish that we had had in the beginning, I will say for sure, you know, really what is this toolkit? How do we get started with this? But there’s so many things kind of spinning around with Pinterest.
So let’s kind of start, I would say, spinning around in my head with Pinterest. So let’s go ahead and just start with question number one. How does Pinterest rack up and compare to other social media outlets such as Instagram or LinkedIn? Yeah, for sure. Really the biggest difference is it’s not a social media platform like Instagram or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is been known for the more professional type connections and Instagram.
You have conversations and the comments and things like that. Pinterest really does not focus there. They really focus on you putting in the conversation into the copy and making sure that you have the keywords there so that people can find you when they find you. Then they read that conversation and they click through to the destination, which is where you can take it from there.
So it’s more search based and it’s more top of funnel based because you can utilize Pinterest to send it where those conversations are happening right now and bring in a wider audience over there. Okay, fascinating. So it’s SEO, it’s search engine. It’s a way to take a conversation and become the top of that question for you. Is Pinterest owned by Google or is it a Google product or something of that sort?
It is not, no, it’s separate. It actually plays off of Google’s domain authority and their own domain authority. So when you have your website and then you have a Pinterest profile or business account, right, you’re going to get more domain authority with your profile on Pinterest than you are your own website. Unless, I mean, you’re some super big wig,
but it has been around forever. Right? But like my website is not going to have as much domain authority as Pinterest. And so I really use that and play off of their authority to be able to bring people to my website. Very cool. Okay. So what businesses should be there. And so let me rephrase that question. You know, obviously who should be on Pinterest,
but as a business strategist, my brain works the other way, what buyers are on Pinterest, like who is actually looking for content to increase maybe their performance, their profit, their business ability or whatever it is. You know, we have a lot of marketing coaches, brand new coaches, video coaches, health coaches, a lot of physicians, a lot of attorneys and even a lot of CPAs that listened to our podcast are their buyers.
Absolutely. So there’s kind of two different ways that I tackle that for people. One, I am a Pinterest junkie, right. It’s my jam. So I’m always going to tell you, yes, there are buyers there to give you kind of an unbiased opinion. I tell everybody to go to the platform type in something that your buyers would be searching for,
right? Like what is the problem or the pain point that they are having and how would they find you? Other places on Google, on Facebook? Like what are they looking for? And if what pulls up underneath that search is offering or information or education that you can provide to them because you know how to do that as well. Then 1000000%, that’s where you should be listed because you’re missing that opportunity.
The other thing that I like to talk to people about is really when you’re thinking about buyers, like where are they? Right. Cause everybody has a different stage. And so we talked about this for a second too. Like, it might not be that they’re a startup or they’re established or whatever, but where do they aspire to be? So if they are someone who is earning three figures right now,
they’re not going to be looking for how to earn three figures on Pinterest. They’re going to be looking at things like how to grow your email list to earn five figure months. And that’s because they aspire to be in that position. So that’s also something that you need to kind of reverse engineer and think, okay, is my buyer talking to where they’re at right now?
Are they aspiring to be a five figure person? Are they aspiring to maybe lead a life where it’s freedom, right? And so they have more time in their day or their moms or whatever. And that’s really how you want to address it too, when you’re going about it that way too. So smart. Yes. And you know, there are always,
people want to hang out just you and I do too. We want to hang out with people that are just slightly ahead of where we are. Right? Those are, those are the best people that are going to hold our hand and grab us to the next level. And that totally makes sense that that’s the same thing people will be looking for on Pinterest as well.
How often should people post let’s actually talk about the content that should be posted on Pinterest? What is like the baseline, if you’re going to get started, this is how often you post. This is what it really looks like. Yeah. So it used to be an everything that I’m going to tell you guys here is how I handle it, right?
So I am not saying this is the end all be all. I’m not saying this is a hard and fast rule. You have to do it this way. This is what I’ve implemented for myself and my clients and my course members and things like that, where they see the results. So one of the things that I really tell people is it used to be pin 20 to 30 to 40 different times a day,
and you would pin your stuff and other people’s stuff. And really that’s not necessarily required anymore. What I teach is that you need to be consistent on the platform. So if you’re someone that’s just starting out and maybe you don’t have a ton of content out there, which I can try to prove you wrong, because there are multiple places that I can find content you have already posted online that can work for this.
But if you’re thinking content in terms of like landing page or sales page or blog posts, and you’re feeling like you don’t have a ton, then start at one or two pins a day, right? Even if it’s a time constraint, like how do I create all these pin designs? Start at one to two pins a day, then start to work your way up.
If you’re someone that’s been blogging or you have tons of an audience, and you’re looking to really expand on that and you know that you have tons of content, then start hire. We did a case study actually on my website. It showed, even though they had a smaller audience and the other account had a larger audience, one pinned, I think it was like seven times a day.
And the other one pin 21 times a day, they still saw the same incremental increases on their own accounts because they were being consistent. And it was the quality over how often they were posting that gave them that feedback to know that that was beneficial. Wow. That’s so awesome. That’s super encouraging. I know because our listeners are like thinking like, Oh shit,
20 times a day. Like, how am I going to ever do that? Like that is not ever going to happen. And so that that’s super cool to look at the case study and the stats and, and really just the incremental growth that’s happening with. What’s being posted now, little tangent, what software do you recommend that people use to manage their Pinterest?
So I go back and forth on this. I personally use tailwind. I love them dearly because they have tailwind tribes. And that’s really like a community-based where you’re sharing ideas together. And then, I mean, sharing other people’s ideas and really having that community type feel like you would on social media. The problem with me only telling you to pick one platform that I see though,
is it’s not a good fit for everybody all the time. So if you’re out there and you’re like, I’ve tried tailwind, it doesn’t work for me. I apologize that it didn’t work for you. I love them. They are amazing. But what I urge you to do is go to Pinterest and make sure that the scheduler you’re using, whether it’s ladder,
whether it’s meet Edgar or whatever is a Pinterest approved platform. Because if it’s not, you set yourself up for possibly getting marked as spam or even shut down because they might not be following Pinterest best practices. Wow. Okay. I know that is such a fear. I’m so glad you said that because people would never know, know to even look, they’ll just think,
Oh, well, because this platform offers it does works. Great. I’ll just take this one, but it is so important with not just Pinterest, all the different social media platforms that whatever schedule are you using does it does abide by their regulations. So thank you for that. And we’ll go ahead and make sure we leave some resources so that you guys can find Laura.
And then also to some of the software tools in the show notes of this show. So we’re not going to totally leave you all hanging out there with that. So this week I was on Pinterest and I have a confession to make. I am never on Pinterest. I’m not a Pinterest girl. I’m just not okay. And so this week I thought,
okay, I’m going to go ahead and post a video. I think I had posted something to a LinkedIn story downloaded, like the little five second video. And then I, you know, distributed it or long all of our, you know, Instagram and LinkedIn story channels. And then I’m like, well just sitting there on this little five second video,
why don’t I just try to put it on Pinterest? And so I went on there, not knowing even that Pinterest had stories, I was just going to post it like as a little video on there and, you know, boom, I’m sure everybody who’s listening to. This is like, yeah, duh, April Pinterest is had stories for a while.
You know, but to me that was, I was like, what, it’s another thing with this story. So what are Pinterest stories? What should be posted there? What is the purpose of a Pinterest story and how can they be leveraged in the business? Yeah, for sure. So it’s actually not something that’s entirely like completely past you, right?
So it is new. So don’t worry about that. Some people have had it around for a little while, but it has now opened up to more people. And so a lot of people are seeing the get early access symbol when they’re locking in, there are two sides of it, which is awesome. One side is the, I really feel like Pinterest is stepping up their game in terms of providing an opportunity for content creators,
to be able to tell a story better, to be able to educate more. Because when you think about it, you only have one graphic and you can only have so much on that one image to try to tell that story and capture their attention. So the purpose of stories right now is to be able to have multiple images so that they can kind of tap through.
And it’s kind of like a slideshow. I teach people to do more of like step-by-step, or this is what I’m working through or behind the scenes, or like more of that conversation visually in those stories. The only downfall to stories that I see currently, which I’m hoping they open up in the future is it’s not clickable to an actual landing page. So you wouldn’t use it like you do a static image because you can’t get them to use that referral traffic in our research that we’ve done in the past few months,
though, it really does help increase the brand awareness and authority on your account. So you will see that if you are using it, to teach people things and to educate them and to provide more information for them at the end, Pinterest puts on a follow button so they can start following you on Pinterest. And it’s really bringing in that authority from that platform.
And then we’ve also seen the link clicks and the traffic and the leads increase on the other things that we’ve been consistently putting out there because of the help with the stories. Okay. Totally makes sense. And leads me to, first of all, say, that means I really failed on my first story. Cause I just uploaded that one video and I was like,
wow, they want me to share more. I don’t have any more right now. All right. What the hell? I’m just going to upload this one video. So first of all, how people find your stories if they’re not already following you, does Pinterest use hashtags? Yeah. So Pinterest uses hashtags. This is one of those controversial type things though.
Pinterest, a while ago said no hashtags. Then they said, yes, hashtags. Now they’re saying don’t use them a ton. So my philosophy has always been when they’re, when they opened up hashtags, don’t use them to keyword stuff. Use them within a sentence that you have put into the description, like use up your entire 500 character limit. And then if you have room and you can’t put on a whole,
a full another sentence in there, but there’s a hashtag or a phrase that still is relevant to what you’re sharing, then use it as a hashtag. Right. And just kind of take it that way. I’ve never done more than like three on a pin at most. So I don’t really see it being a problem. As long as you use it,
that way, those that have gone gung ho or followed the ups and downs of the hashtag or no hashtag I think are starting to not see the best results. The hashtags are still searchable, so you can still find them in search. So it really just depends on, on what placement you have for them in the description. So if your pin is about how to create a content marketing strategy,
and it’s like a download of a calendar or graphic, you’re not going to use a hashtag girl boss. I hate that hashtag by the way, every girl listening to the show is going to hate me for saying that I can’t stand that term. Yeah, no, it’s too general. Yeah. Right, right. You know what I mean? You’re going to put like content marketing or content calendar or a social media calendar or something.
Yeah. So two that don’t do the girl boss. I’m not a huge fan of that either. I like the terms that actually are like leading me somewhere. Right. Like that seems anyway. So I would say if you’re talking about content marketing though, in the description, don’t waste your hashtag on hashtag content marketing, maybe do calendar download or calendar template or something like that.
So it’s still relevant, but it’s playing off of a different type of search that someone would do. Maybe they don’t know about the content marketing calendar, but they’re looking for calendar templates or some sort of business template or something like that. That way. Then you have the conversation, it still flows. You’ve got the keywords in the description. And then you just add in a couple of those hashtags that are still keywords,
people would search for, but you couldn’t put it into the sentence flow that you were creating. All right. I got you girl. That totally makes sense. So with our stories, can you add hashtags? I kind of went back to that question. How did, how do people find my stories if they aren’t following me? Stories are still there like a collaboration of pins.
So you get to put three or five or however many you want in there and you still get a description on each one. So it’s still going to be searchable. You still can put a couple of hashtags in there if they’re not already following you and they search for something, it’s going to show up in the feed, just like any of the other static pins or video pins.
So in terms of your video, you could have uploaded it just as a pin instead of a story. And it works the same way as a static pin. You do get a little bit more tagging capability in terms of topic, tagging for videos. Then you do a static pen. So you can also use the tags for keywords that you want to be found for.
And that increases the searchability as well. Okay. So let me make sure I understood this correctly. The stories are basically a collection of pins related to the same things, is that right? Yep. So if I have a static pain, can I like Instagram? When you have something in your feed, that’s a post, can I push that to story?
Like, can I push a static pin to story or is it a separate, complete way to post that It’s a separate, complete way to post that you can repost it? The only problem that I see by doing that though is Pinterest is very heavily encouraging people to do fresh content. So they will see that same static pin posted. And then again on your stories and they’ll consider that as like a spam duper kit.
Got it. Okay. I lied that. Wasn’t the last question before. Thank you listeners for bearing with me. I hope I’m not asking like questions that you all know the answers to. I really include this in this area. And so it was, I’m so glad to have you here, Laura. And so how long the stories stay in a story?
How long are they shown for So completely different than social media? They stay on there just like a Pinterest pin, unless you go and delete them, they will be on your profile. Awesome. Okay. That makes me really happy. Nothing bothers me more than posting a really great Instagram story that people only get to see for 24 hours. So that’s super awesome.
Thank you. I’m super excited about stories. Like I said, Kelly and JC on my team really create our Pinterest content and post that. So thank you. By the way, to those of you guys who have been following us on Pinterest it’s, it’s cool to see that and those interactions and things, but I’m totally personally Pinterest illiterate. So I’ve just have so many questions that I am not able to answer for our clients.
So I’m very excited about all this. Okay. So let’s chat a little bit about video pins. Now, what is the parameter around video pins? Are they all vertical? How long can they be? And are they clickable? Yeah, so they Do not all have to be vertical. I still suggest it because then you’re taking up more real estate on the feed.
I personally don’t want to go more than a minute to a minute and a half. I believe you can go longer. I think it’s like two or three minutes that you can go up to. I’m not a hundred percent positive because I stick on the lower end. And then what was your other question? That was my other question. Oh, it’s are they clickable?
Oh yeah. So they are not clickable unless they’re used for ads. They have been clickable in the past. Again, I’m not sure if that’s something that’s changing or updating because there have been a lot of changes in the past, like four to six months on the platform, but they really do help with that growth of the account as well. When we’ve seen a lot of people come to us and say,
you know, I had a huge spike in October and now it’s December and everything’s dropping and I don’t know what to do. They post a couple video pins, they do a story pin and they’re back up again. Right. And they’re doing that consistently. I’m not going out there and telling everybody to post one and you’re going to be like woo through the roof and like,
awesome. But like, if you keep doing that, you’re going to keep seeing the results go up and back in the direction that you want them to go. Love that. Love that. Thank you so much. I have my million of Pinterest notes here and, and Laura, the couple of things. So for our listeners who want to get started with Pinterest,
I will say in full transparency, even though I’m not the one that does it, I’m really grateful for an amazing team that manages our Pinterest there. We really have seen amazing results and growth from using Pinterest as a platform with our audience. So I will say that from what I I’ll just say, if you guys are considering using Pinterest, definitely have a strategy behind it.
And really what I would like is to direct people towards some steps to get started. Nobody wants to recreate the wheel and you have a Pinterest like toolbox a toolkit it’s really cheap. It’s like 37 bucks or something that people can get started with what is inside that toolkit and what can people expect with that? Yeah, for sure. So the toolkit is really put together for anybody that needs that simple strategy,
right? That’s actually gonna help them convert on the platform. And so it’s easy. We provide different templates for them, whether they’re static, pen templates, video template, story templates. I have an awesome keyword swipe file in there too. So I’ve gone through over 700 different type of niche, specific keywords and hashtags in this swipe file. And the cool thing is,
is we constantly update that. So the swipe file for fun stats has actually brought in over $33,000 for clients and toolkit. So That’s been super fun. Yeah, That’d be good work. That’s so good. Talk about an ROI. Yeah. Tons of other stuff too. Like we have a call to action, swipe file a branding blueprint to help them really understand how to brand their pin images.
And then there’s some bonuses of course, like a custom dashboard for Google analytics and how to track and make sure you’re getting the ROI and stuff like that too. So Yeah, I mean, when we, when we got started and we started implementing what I was saying is so true, like if we had had a toolkit like this, we would have grabbed it in the second.
And so based on our listeners in our show, if you guys are thinking you want to get started with Pinterest, we’ll go ahead and make sure we leave a link to grab this toolkit in the show notes for this episode. So make sure you guys go over and grab this. I would recommend those of you guys that are listening to get started here.
It’s a low investment and it saves probably months and months of time and years of learning because you’re getting Laura’s wisdom for only $37. That’s crazy for those of you guys that are scaling your business. So for those of our listeners, you’re scaling your business. You have a team like me that you really just, you want to delegate this, you know,
you, you probably want to be on the platform. Maybe your team doesn’t know Pinterest. They aren’t experts. Then I am going to point them towards you, Laura, we’ll go ahead and make sure that we put these show notes and I would really consider like hiring Laura’s team out to manage your Pinterest for you or something like that. At least chatting with Laura on the phone.
I know she has a bunch of other stuff for you guys. So based on our listeners, I always try to give recommendations. So if you guys have ever gone through and taken our quiz to figure out what phase of business you’re in, I’m going to tell you exactly who needs to buy kind of what here, if you want to do this, if you’re in phase one or two,
then I would go with the toolkit. If you’re in phase three, four or five, then I would go with one of Laura’s other done for you services. If you don’t know what phase of business you’re in, go to sweet life code.com forward slash quiz. And you’re going to get a whole rundown based on where you are of your phase of business development,
and then we’ll direct you there. But for those of our listeners, most of our faithful listeners already know what phase of, of our start to scale up system they’re in. And so they know, so phase one or two, you guys are the toolkit people three, four or five, then really done for you services near you’re ready to scale. Thank you so much.
Yay. Love everything that you shared. My, my Pinterest entrepreneur IQ, just like totally leveled up three levels. I feel like awesome. And I can’t wait to, you know, for our team to like start implementing some of the stuff that we talked about on the show as well. So super appreciate your time. Congratulations on your new baby. When this airs he’ll be here and I’m so excited for you and we’ll make sure we leave all the show notes for everybody to get their hands on these things.
I will say you guys, honestly, Pinterest has been a real nice pleasant surprise. We’re not on Tech-Talk or anything. We’re not on Twitter. And Pinterest has been really awesome and powerful for us to grow our audience. So thanks for being on this show. Yeah. I love hearing that. And I mean, honestly, it is such a great platform.
I’m so glad that your team can help you with that. That’s absolutely amazing. And thank you so much for having me. Of course. Yes, of course. Thanks for being here. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks. Awesome. Some show. Thank you so much for tuning in and sticking with me here with Laura at the time that we recorded this,
Laura was expecting, and now she is probably listening to this episode, holding her beautiful baby girl in her arms. And so we just really appreciate Laura’s time and making sure we were able to record this episode for you guys before she gave birth and went on her maternity leave in such great information, follow us. If you aren’t yet on Pinterest, you can find us at Sweetlife podcast and you can see some of the things that our team has been doing over the last year.
You can even see how our, even our branding and our usage of Pinterest tablets has evolved how we’re using Pinterest stories and how we’re using video. We’d love to connect with you there and follow you back. All right, you guys have an awesome day. Again, all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. This is episode number two.
Entrepreneurs looking to create deeper relationships with clients, peers and mentors.
Summary:
Clubhouse is a new social media networking opportunity for entrepreneurs. It truly takes the box it’s placed around you from other platforms and allows you to create deep relationships, establish yourself as an expert, learn, gift, and grow. But you may just be hearing about Clubhouse or be on the app and not exactly sure how to use it. Though we are not clubhouse experts This short episode gives you the 101 on how to get started on clubhouse what to expect and great opportunities for entrepreneurs using this app.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the first three things to do when you get on Clubhouse
Understand why Clubhouse is so special
Start to strategize your clubhouse funnel and company growth
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. You guys Welcome to the Sweetlife life entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach, and I am super excited about this episode for a couple of different reasons. First and foremost, it is our fourth podcast birthday.
So thank you so much. You’ve been tuning in for the last four years. We have dropped an episode faithfully every week. And those of you guys who’ve been longtime listeners. I mean, those are you guys around the podcast launch team. I appreciate you so much for being part of this show, making this show what it is today and sharing it with your friends.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. If you’re new to listening, it’s so great to meet you. This is a show where we are known for dropping some serious gems. Sometimes those that other companies and coaches charge thousands for a lot of our episodes come with bonuses that are so good. Like you can’t even believe they’re free. So cruise over to Sweetlife co.com,
click on the podcast to get all the goods. If you have never ever been there before today is a special episode. Not only because it’s our birthday. As a matter of fact, a little behind the scenes, I was going to do a real special birthday episode and you know, we’re going to do this whole shindig and it was going to be great,
but there’s something way more exciting than our fourth podcast birthday that I absolutely had to scrap the schedule. And that’s what we’re talking about today. Today, we are diving into all things, clubhouse the new clubhouse app, especially for entrepreneurs. And I’m going to share seven steps to get started on clubhouse. Before I do this, I need to have a little disclaimer here.
I am not a clubhouse expert. As a matter of fact, there’s probably somebody, many people who can speak to this way better than I’m going to do. But I have taken the time to lay out seven steps based on my experience or the last couple of weeks inside the clubhouse app, things that I have learned by following other people and just really things that I’ve gathered about being on this app.
So I’m sharing with you my experience and what I’ve learned, and guess what you know, what’s so cool about the new clubhouse app. Honestly, there aren’t any experts yet everybody is new, and that’s why I’m so excited to share today’s Sweetlife entrepreneurial podcast episode so that you can get on clubhouse. You can be a drop of a big bucket that this app I believe is going to make.
So let’s go ahead and start with the fundamentals here. So, you know, whether or not you’re in the right place and you should continue hanging out and listening to this episode with me, number one, who is, is episode four, this is for, and all phases of my start to scale up system. So if you don’t know what business phase you’re in,
you can very quickly go to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz. And you’re going to receive a segmentation based on your business phase and very specific, customized recommendations to grow and scale your business to the next level. This particular episode is for entrepreneurs in all phases of my system. Just if you’re a new listener, the reason why I did note that is because some of our episodes are just based on a specific phase in business.
And I note that phase in the beginning of every single podcast episode. So frankly, you don’t waste your time. If you’re hanging out here with me, I want to make sure that this is a valuable use of your time. And so I tag every episode based on the phase of business that that episode applies to this one, however, is for all phases.
So let’s go ahead and move to the next thing, who is this episode? Great for this episode is great for entrepreneurs looking to create deeper relationships with clients, peers, and mentors. If that is you keep listening. Now let’s go ahead and dive in a little bit here. Clubhouse is a new social media networking app and opportunity for entrepreneurs. It really truly takes the box out from around you that other social media platforms have created the limitations.
The restrictions in clubhouse enables you to create deep relationships, establish yourself as an expert. It also allows you to learn, gift other people with your knowledge and grow, but you may just be hearing about clubhouse and you’re not really sure if it’s exactly, you know, what you should be on or how to use it. And so in this short episode,
I’m going to give you the one-on-one on clubhouse, based on my experience, those experience of my colleagues and the people that I am following. So my mentors, so that you can get started on clubhouse fast and in the right way. And we’re going to also talk about actually how to get into the app as well. At the end of this episode,
you’ll know the first three things to do when you get on the app, but I’m actually giving you seven steps to actually onboard yourself onto the app. You’ll understand why clubhouse is so, so special. And you’re going to be able to start strategizing your clubhouse processes, what you’re doing on clubhouse personally. And of course professionally, because I’m a business coach and that’s what I talk about.
All right. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive into the seven steps to get started on clubhouse for entrepreneurs.<inaudible> Okay. So welcome to call the house. We help. That basically means that I know that not everybody’s on there yet. You may be listening to this show being like, what the heck, April? This is so not fair.
I am not on this app. So here are a couple, just one. Oh, about getting on the app. First of all, currently at the recording of this, something can change literally the next hour with this app. You guys, but at the recording of this, which is only a week before the show drops, I did, this is close to the time of the show dropping as I could.
It’s only available to iOS users. Those you guys that are on Android, you’re going to have to wait a little bit longer. I have zero details on that, but I just wanted to let you know that it’s only available to iOS users. If you are an iOS user, you can go and we have it in the show notes here, you can go download the clubhouse app and let’s go ahead and dive into step number one.
The very first thing that you do even before you’re on the app is you should create and save your username. Now, here are some tips that I have seen. And from what I’m learning about your clubhouse username, unlike on some other platforms where you would take it, the name of your brand or your business clubhouse is like a real deal, real relationship app.
So it’s best to make your username, your real name, or as close as you can get to it. So that’s step number one. When you reserve your username, you’re going to be put on a waiting list to get in the app. Some people are waiting weeks, maybe even months to get into this app. And I understand that it’s frustrate.
Keep listening, hang in there with me, listen to the rest of the show. Cause I’m going to tell you exactly what, what to do. Once you get on the app, you can cut to the front of the line and we do this by getting a sponsor. That is also, what’s so cool about the clubhouse app, but you kind of have to know somebody that knows somebody to get in there.
They have to have your phone number literally saved in their phone. So you don’t just kind of know them. You actually have to really know him. So I was waived to the front of the line. My experience was I went downloaded the clubhouse app, reserved my name. I am at April beach on clubhouse. They Kevin’s my name. I was really excited about that.
And I was immediately waved in by my sponsor. Brian Fanzo you guys might know him as I social fans on Instagram brands also been a guest here on the podcast and he’s one of my mentors that helps me to increase my speaking career. And so Brian immediately got an alert that I was trying to get in the app and he waved me to the front of the line.
He endorsed me in. So what happens now on my profile, his endorsement of me is always on the bottom of my profile in my bio, which is really, really cool. And that can lead to a whole nother conversation about who you should endorse, maybe who you should not endorse on clubhouse, but that’s just my story of how I got it.
Otherwise you can be invited in and skip the wait list. When somebody, you know, on the app is a member of a group, which we’ll talk about groups and clubs are clubs on the app and they can nominate you. So those are a couple of ways that you can actually cut to the front of the line and get on the app. Otherwise just keep waiting.
You’ll get on there soon enough and believe me, it is worth the wait. So step number one is creating your username. Make it your real name. Again. This is like a real deal app. Step number two is creating your bio. There are clubhouse rooms on how to create great clubhouse bios. You are welcome. If you’re already on clubhouse,
cruise over, check out my bio at April beach, say it’s perfect. I’m not a clubhouse bio expert, but it’s been working for me to connect with the people that I really want to connect with. So you’re welcome to steal what I’ve done there. Now, overall in your bio. I want you to know that clubhouse is very, very generous.
It gives you a great deal of space in writing room to really bullet point, what you do and be very intentional about who you can help and who you want to connect with. So in your bio, you should make it really clear what you do to the problem you solve in really your intent tensions. Why are you on clubhouse? What’s your intention for being there?
You might also want to share something unique and funny, maybe a little something like behind the scenes. Like you love to ride horses or like Brian Fanzo my sponsor has that. He’s like a pager wearing millennial. I mean, that’s funny like who even wears a Pedro at all anymore. Right? And so you might want to include some of those things.
It’s in the bio. One of the things that I understand is that your bio is also searchable. And so within the app, the first few lines in your bio carry a lot of weight. So currently if you search online business strategist, I will come up as the top of that search in clubhouse. That’s because in my bio, the very first three words,
bio our online business strategist. So that’s step number two, creating your bio step. Number three of getting started on clubhouse is connecting really, really. So the first version you should connect with is your sponsor. You should follow your sponsor back, okay. This is really keeping it raw. I cut somebody right to the front of the line, who I’ve known in business for a really long time.
And this person is not following me back. It’s just a courtesy, right? So follow your sponsor back now, with that being said, you can learn a lot from your sponsor. So follow your sponsor. And there’s a little bell next year sponsors name you’re going to want to turn on. That means you get a notification whenever your sponsor is talking,
go in and listen to those rooms that your sponsor is in. Go and listen and learn and be a sponge. The first part of connecting on club house is just sitting back kind of watching the flow of how it goes. It’s a really amazing way too. Honestly, you’re dive in head first into this. It’s not even like a Cannonball. If there was like an upside down Cannonball and that’s what happens.
You just are in here. And all of a sudden you’re in these places and people are talking, it’s like a whirlwind. So just chill, just sit there and just absorb and take as long as you need to, to do that. Bet, we’re going to talk about not taking too long and jumping in right away. The next thing you want to do is when you’re listening to somebody speak,
and I’m going to share with you exactly the breakdown of how you find those places, where people are speaking here in a sec. But when you’re listening to somebody who, somebody who is speaking, when you’re in a room is what it’s called. Look to the people, to your right, and look to the people to your left. What you going to see is people literally hanging out,
standing next to you in a room, listening to somebody, speak on stage. Now this is all on an app. It’s all on a screen. So the speakers are going to be at the top of your screen. The people that the speakers follow are going to be the next section down, and then the rest of the audience is going to be underneath that clubhouse.
We’ll probably change that up in some capacity in some way, I’ve heard some thoughts of other people on that, but currently the recording of this that’s the way it is. So look at the people standing next to you on your right and your left tap on their bio. Maybe give them a follow. If it’s something that really aligns with, you know,
what you want to connect with. And then the next step is connecting off the app. Clubhouse does not have any hyperlinks, your bio, your neighbor’s bio, nobody gets hyperlinks except for there’s two places that clubhouse currently links to you. And that is Twitter and Instagram. And this is a really powerful thing I will say in my 10 days, maybe 14 days now being on clubhouse,
my Instagram following has tripled because my clubhouse account is connected to my Instagram account. And so how people connect with you is through DMS is through relationships on Twitter and Instagram, because there really isn’t a way to connect except for within talking within the rooms in the clubhouse app itself. So just so you know, that’s how you connect with people off the app.
There’s a lot of strategy behind that. As far as building funnels, can’t get into in this episode, this is just your seven steps to get started, but I’m sure your wheels are spinning. Okay. So that’s step number three. Step number four is search and find. So in clubhouse just a few days ago, they just released the ability to search by topic.
They’ve done a really good job with this. And so you can actually search and get notifications on rooms. So discussion rooms that fall under those topics here is the only downfall that I see of that. So far, the only rooms or discussions that you’ll get notified of are currently those that are hosted by clubs. We’re going to talk about clubs here in a minute.
So if you search entrepreneurship where you search parenting or you search gardening or whatever, you’re only going to get notification of the discussions under those topics that are hosted by a club, not all the rooms. So if I were to launch a room on gardening, because I don’t yet have a clubhouse club, you would never get notification of that. So just part of being part of an app,
that’s in the beta process, but you can still search by topics that you want to learn from. Also, I would recommend that you search by topics that you want to lend to. So this is getting into a little bit of business strategy. If you are an expert, if you are an expert funnel builder, or you’re a Facebook ad strategist, or you’re a graphic designer search for the rooms,
obviously in your area of expertise, so that you may be able to lend some information to the host of that room, the moderators of that room and the listeners of that room, or frankly, just so you can up your skills and be even better at what you do. And then the next tip I have for you under search and find is search for totally random rooms too.
One of the cool things about clubhouse is there are starting to be rooms on everything. I came across an amazing room. It was an 80 HD room and it’s just for people like me that have trouble focusing. And the room is hosted where they work in sprints and everybody’s sitting there in the room together and the host puts on music and then everybody goes to work for a period of time.
And then everybody together like takes a break and has their distraction moment. It’s a great way to increase productivity. So those are some cool rooms happening inside clubhouse that are totally not business-related at all. In addition to that, I will tell you if you are a faith person, if you’re a believer, there are some amazing rooms. This morning, I was in a room hosted by Myron golden business building like kingdom business building.
There’s amazing prayer rooms, Bible study rooms, really for all religions. Those are just the ones that I’m in. And so very cool things that you can search that are totally not business-related at all. Like if you need prayer and you don’t want to go to your neighbor or your sister, you can go on clubhouse and you can raise your hand and say,
will you please pray for me? I mean, how amazing, Oh my gosh. Like the power of this is just so unbelievable. Okay. Sorry. I’ll get back on track. Step number five, navigating. This is kind of just a one about how to navigate the app. The very first resource I have for you, that is a place that you should be tapping into is clubhouse guide.com.
We have put a resource to that in the link of the show notes here, please make sure you go to clubhouse guide. It’s how to get started on clubhouse clubhouse. One Oh one clubhouse best practices, a lot of the black and white and the meat and potatoes of what I’m explaining here on the show. Although I’m just sharing it with you from my personal experience so far,
that’s where I want to direct you to. That’s always going to be updated on, you know, the really the one-on-one and navigating the platform. It’s clubhouse guide.com. So let’s talk about nag navigating the platform and some of the terminology. The first thing you need to know is that there is what’s called a hallway. You have your own unique curated hallway and the hallway is showing you rooms,
discussion rooms based on the topics of interest that the app determines you may want. Now, again, what determines what you want are the topics that you follow, but also the people that you follow. So when you get on the app, you’re going to see a hallway. It’s like a list of conversations happening right now. All you have to do is tap on any of those rooms.
You’re immediately put into the audience and you can listen and see if you want to stay. When you enter a room, you’re put on mute. So you don’t have to worry about it. You can just tap on there, do the dishes, you know, drive your kids in the car or be at the gym, whatever. So the first thing you need to know is a hallway.
The second navigation point is the events tab. The events tab is in the top of the app. It looks like a little calendar, and you’re going to see a couple of different options for you. First of all, they’re suggested events for you, all events. And then the third tab is your events. And we’re going to talk about those in a minute.
So clubhouse will suggest events and scheduled rooms. Events are rooms that are, prescheduled both rooms that are prescheduled by clubs and individuals that you may want to attend. You’re also going to receive notification. So anybody you follow when they start a room, or when they’re speaking on stage in a room, if you have notifications turned on for that person, clubhouse will notify you.
And they’ll say like, Hey, so if I’m speaking in a room and you follow me, clubhouse would be like, Hey, April’s talking over here on this room on blah, blah, blah. And you can immediately tap that notification and enter the room and start chatting with me. How cool is that? Step number three is following clubs. So clubhouse enables people to create clubs.
Now we’re going to be doing many podcasts on this. I’m sure this is a very, very new app. Again, it’s in beta testing. I am not a club owner, so I can’t speak to that yet. But what I can share with you is that you can apply to have your own club. It’s going to be like the new Facebook group.
Many of you listened to this podcast, you know, how much I load Facebook groups. So I’m really looking forward to an opportunity to create community on a different platform. So just clubhouse, you can apply to start your own club. The application process currently is very backed up, but when you get approval for your club, then you can invite club members.
And when you have club members, they’re going to get notified every time your club hosts a room or an event. And so many other things, they can nominate other members to your club. I mean, it’s really an amazing way to grow your community. So one of the tips for you is if you want to start a club from what it is right now,
the way I understand is you need to host and schedule some individual rooms so that the app sees it. You’re not just like a flash in the pan that you’re really here. You’re really committed to build a longterm club with this app. You need to prove it to them. And how cool is that? It’s not like anybody can just start a group,
right? You have to be in it to give and to serve and to win it. And so you have to apply for a club and you have to prove to the app that you are worthy of being there and hosting that club on their app. Now you can follow clubs as well at the bottom of each person’s bio. If you go to the bottom of my bio,
I follow a ton of clubs. And I’m, I’m a member of really a great deal of clubs, maybe too many. Cause I got club happy and in applied, cause I was so excited just to talk to all these people. But if you go to the bottom of my app, you can see the clubs that I am a member of or that I follow.
Honestly, I’m not really sure that delineation between that. I think they’re the ones, I’m the member of in the bottom again, see, I’m learning here and you can click on that club and you can follow the club. Once you followed the club, the club hosts can have an opportunity to invite you to join the club. So you can follow a club and you can join a club.
So two different ways to connect with clubs. And then again, we talked about creating your own club, go to clubhouse guide.com for more information on creating your own club, but you’ve got to prove it, that you’re worthy of that. And you’re, you’re ready to be a leader on this app in order to get approved. For that, I promise this is going to be a quick episode and dang,
I have more to say than I thought I’m just clearly. So like a kid in a candy store, excited about this app. Number six be you. Okay. So when you join a room, if you have a question, raise your hand and ask the question, the host or the moderator will bring you to the stage. When you get on the stage currently in the app,
you are un-muted. So please, please mute yourself because you’re basically going to be disrupting the whole conversation when you get on stage and maybe they’re not ready to have you speak just yet. So be patient when you get on stage, mute yourself, listen, wait for the moderator to say, Hey so-and-so did you have a question or something that you’d like to say?
And here is a second thing. It’s okay to be nervous. It is crazy. Some of the really big influencers and leaders that I’ve seen get onto the stage for the first time and their voice is a little shaky or frankly, they’re just like, I’m nervous. And why somebody said it really well. I forget who said this, otherwise I would so credit them.
Literally. It’s very true. Somebody said, it’s not that you’re nervous to speak, but I think that we all understand the gravity of what this app could do for our relationships and our business. I think that’s where the nerves come from. It’s having an opportunity to speak to people that you would probably otherwise not have a chance to connect with. As an example,
I have been honored to be on the stage and to invite influencers to my stage, such as Myron golden and so many others. And I would never be able to connect with these leaders. Otherwise I send them an email. Obviously I can’t get a cell phone number, you know, and these are people that I highly value and I want to learn from in clubhouse.
It’s okay to be nervous when you go on the stage, just ask your question. And one of the other tips I want to leave with you is don’t ask to speak unless you have something really valuable to say, you know, those people who like raise their hand because they just want to speak because they like to hear themselves talk. Don’t be that person on clubhouse.
Seriously. If you want, if you have something genuine that you want to contribute, if the host says, Hey, does anybody want to contribute or ask a question, do it, don’t hesitate, jump up there and do it, but definitely make sure that you’re being respectful of both the hosts and the moderators and everybody in the audience time based on what you’re going to say and just don’t be that weird fan person just be respectful.
So if you are invited on a stage or if you’re in a room, you’re going to look around, you’re going to see some really big name people in this space. They’re just people too. They’re just, they’re listening and talking and sharing in the conversation. And it is absolutely a beautiful place just to be authentic, build relationships, learn, give,
grow, and create amazing networking with other companies. And then the last tip I’ll leave you with step number seven is starting your own room. Dive in, create a room. I have literally been buried in Instagram DMS about people asking me questions about clubhouse or companies who want to work with me based on the rooms that I’ve hosted. And now what they know my area of specialty is from clubhouse.
Literally my calendar is totally full. Okay. That is because I dove in and I started a room. I didn’t know what I was doing. And I was like, Hey, you know what? This is my first room I started. It was about the podcast episode of the week. I was like, okay, Hey, cool. I already know that I’m talking about this on the podcast this week.
How cool would it be to start a room? That’s a conversation about the podcast. And so I started a room and it was just talking about five areas of focus for the upcoming year in your business. And that room grew and grew and grew and grew. And I invited people to the stage and I made people moderators with me. And there’s other strategies behind that and why I did that.
We can talk about it another episode. But the reality is, is that just start a room. You know, I was speaking to somebody of course, again and Instagram DMS, and she is starting a business in an area where, you know, she just needs to do a lot more market research. And so I suggested to her, start a room,
asking a question, asking, are there any XYZ experts out there or are there any people with this experience out there, come join my room and let’s talk about it. So she didn’t even have to be the expert of that room just because you hosted doesn’t mean you’re the expert, a great colleague of mine, Heather and Haven would we host a lot of rooms together.
Now started a room a week ago, week and a half ago on how to monetize virtual events. Very simply because she wanted to know how and that room grew to the largest room. We have coasted on clubhouse so far with amazing virtual event and speaking influencers coming to our stage. The whole experience frankly, is blowing my mind. As you can probably hear in my recording of this show.
So you don’t even have to be an expert. Just ask a question. You might say, Hey, does somebody want to co-work with me right now? Hey, is anybody else having trouble potty training their kid? I mean, it can be about anything. Dive in, start a room, get started on this app, building authentic relationships. Okay.
So I don’t think I was succinct as I wanted to be. I apologize for that. Let me recap. The seven steps to get started on clubhouse for entrepreneurs. Number one, go get your username. Hopefully you won’t have to wait too long to get in. Number two, create your bio number three. Connect that’s following your sponsors and intentionally connecting with people and making other networking connections on the app.
Number four, search and find the right topics, the right rooms, and totally random rooms. Just to see how they’re doing things. Number five, navigate the hallway. So make sure that you know how to tap into rooms, how to leave rooms quietly in how to follow clubs, be part of clubs and get more of the topics that you’re interested in listening to in your hallway.
Number six, be you. It’s cool. Just be you. You can show up in your pajamas. Nobody cares be you and number seven, dive on in. Okay. So in the show notes of this episode, which you can find by visiting sweet life podcast.com forward slash two zero nine, I have a ton of links for you. You are going to find obviously the link to download the clubhouse app.
You’re going to find the link to clubhouse guide.com and you are also going to get an opportunity to get notifications from me. Now, clubhouse gives a lot of notifications, so we kind of to create a work around for this. So if you want to know, when I’m chatting in a room, join me in a room to chat. And then all of the other amazing entrepreneurs that I moderate and cohost rooms with,
you can very simply go to sweet life co.com forward slash flub house. Let me say that again. Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse. If you are not on clubhouse, go there. And I send a periodic notes about the rooms that we are in highlights from rooms, in other things that we have seen and experienced just being in this app in the early phases.
So if you want updates, room notes, highlights, amazing quotes. I have about 20 pages of just blow your mind quotes. And then you can get those things by going to Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse, or you can text them word clubhouse to the number (805) 254-0880. All of those things are in the show notes. Also in the show notes, I have provided direct links to join my upcoming rooms.
So if you’re already on clubhouse, you can go to the show notes for this episode and you can click on the direct link to join my show. I hosted a show, not a show room. And so used to saying show with podcasts. I host weekly room every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And they are business strategy sessions for entrepreneurs.
Very similar to the things we talk about here on the podcast, but you and I get to talk about about it and I get to help you and help you strategize and answer your immediate questions about the topics January 13th. If you’re listening to this show live, I am. Co-hosting a room on license in your content. So how to scale your business by licensing your content.
I’m co-hosting that room with a few different, amazing attorneys that are copyright attorneys, IP attorneys definitely join that room. If you’re thinking about scaling your business by licensing your content courses and other strategies, or frankly, you’re just wondering about it, January 20th, I’m hosting how to grow your six figure coaching business with podcast and PR and January 27th. I am hosting a room on how to create your methodology,
your process, and turn it into your leading offer. Those are all on Wednesdays at 12 o’clock Eastern time. I would love to chat with you in any of my rooms and literally there’s so many other awesome rooms. I can’t wait for you to jump in and join this app when you do make sure you follow me at April beach. And if you aren’t yet,
you can DM me on Instagram. I am at April beach life on Instagram, and I will send you a link, a direct link from IgG on how to get all hard clubhouse, insider notes, and links to join me in all these rooms. Ooh, as longer than I thought it was going to be so much for hanging out with me guys,
I got to get back to clubhouse. Yep. That’s pretty much what it’s like. I’m hosting a room tonight, a female entrepreneurs round table, and so excited to jump in and learn from some of these amazing men and women leaders. And I can’t wait to talk to you in there too. Again, the direct show notes for this episode can be found@sweetlife.com
Forward slash two zero nine. All right. Talk to you guys soon.
Entrepreneurs and leaders in all phases of business who feel like you just can’t catch up, and you know there’s a better way to live.Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Summary:
To kick off the new year, I’ve brought Peak Performance Coach, Eric Partaker, on the show to help you get started on the right foot and make 2021 the year you become the most productive version of yourself in multiple areas of your life and business. Eric has worked with and led high-performing teams at McKinsey & Company, Skype, and Chilango. He is one of 300 people worldwide certified as a High Performance Coach, by the High Performance Institute. Over the last 20 years he has studied and modeled the traits and habits of the world’s most successful people, in order to help his teams and clients break through their barriers and reach their highest potential, in both their work and life.
At the end of this episode you will:
No longer waste time
Have a strategy to root your identity in who you want to be(even before you get there)
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to 2021. The first show, and we are starting out with a major bang that is going to be a game-changer for you. I’m so excited to dive in and help you understand how to be a peak performer in your health,
wealth, and relationships this year and beyond with our guest expert, Eric partaker. So let’s chat about what we’re doing here and why this show is so special. You know, as entrepreneurs, as leaders, as human beings, we all want to operate at our highest level. We all want to be that person that we envisioned we would be right. But what happens is we get burned out.
We get stretched thin, and there are some things that just don’t balance out to equal the vision that you might’ve had for what you wanted your life and your company to look like. And so we’re going to dive into that and we’re going to start out with a powerful plan and strategies to really be a peak performer in your health, your wealth and your relationships in 2021.
And let me just tell you, this is not another piece of content or some other podcasts on how to become productive or how to set goals. No, no, no. Our guests today shared strategies that I have never ever heard before. These aren’t the same old, same old things. These things are game changers. You guys, if you watch our video episode of this,
it is totally me behind the scenes taking massive notes. The things that he was saying was just gold. And so this is an episode that is definitely not to miss for those of you that really want to operate at your highest level in 2021. And, and frankly take back control of your health, wealth, and relationships, which are all things that we have left behind struggling with this last year.
We all hope and pray. So let’s talk about, you know, really what you can expect out of this episode. In this episode, we’re talking with Eric and I’m going to give you a bio on him. This guy is super duper awesome. So we’re talking with Eric, who’s a peak performance coach and author of the bestselling book, the three alarms,
a simple system to transform your health, wealth, and relationships forever. And the information on this show, like I said, it’s not going to be the same old, same old. You’re going to discover powerful new ways to increase your productivity, deep root your identity in who you’re supposed to be. And you’re also going to understand how to become even stronger with each challenge that comes your way.
It’s really, really good stuff. You guys. So at the end of this episode, if you apply the strategies in here and the bonus, that’s going to be given to you here with this show, you’ll no longer waste time. You’ll have a, to root your identity and who you want to be, even if you’re not that person yet. And you’ll stop being an amateur and become a pro.
Now let’s introduce you to Eric partaker. Eric’s a CEO coach and mentor, author, and peak performance expert. He was named the CEO of the year in 2019 business excellence awards. One of the top 30 entrepreneurs in UK 35 and under by startups magazine and among Britain’s most disruptive entrepreneurs by the Telegraph, he’s advised fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey helped build Skype’s multi-billion dollar success story and has founded several businesses of his own.
He’s a certified peak performance coach and has also completed a coaching certification and apprenticeship with professor BJ Fogg who leads Stanford university’s behavior design lab told you this guys it’s just super rockstar. He continues research evidence-based studies in psychology, neuroscience, habit, change leadership and peak performance. And he is giving you a totally free digital copy of his book. You can cruise over to Sweetlife co.com.
This is episode number 208, and a link to download his book will be found in the show notes. So if you are really ready to make a change that is going to stick and your business and your work and your relationships so good. You guys let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> Alrighty. You guys, I’m so happy to be joined by Eric partaker here today,
and we’re talking to all about peak performance, peak performance, usually in the past, have you been listening to the show for a long time? We talk about peak performance with extreme and adventure sports. And as that relates to the company you’re building basically. So you can have more time to take off and play with your extreme inexpensive venture sports. But today we’re really talking about peak performance that comes before that something that is not discussed often enough in the entrepreneur space.
And that’s about really performing at your highest level all the way across the board, so that you have an opportunity to reap all those benefits and rewards. And Eric is in the house today, talking all about his new book and how you guys can get to this state of becoming a peak performer and doing this in your business. You can do it in your life.
Eric. Welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us here on the Sweetlife podcast. Super glad to have you tell everybody a little bit about yourself. Yeah, thanks April. And thanks everyone for taking the time to listen. Yeah, I’ve, I’ve been obsessed with peak performance for over two decades, but well, first, definitely in the wrong way.
And then in a, in a much better way. So about 10 years ago, it was all, you know, work. It was hustle mentality, and that’s how I was for the whole first half of my career. You know, so a hundred plus hour work weeks at McKinsey and company and helping build up Skype before we sold it to eBay,
few of my own businesses. And you know, I’m on a plane. Start to feel unwell, Dr. On-board rushes over, takes my vital signs and says, we need to land the plane immediately. I think he’s having a heart attack 10 years ago, playing emergency lens, where to a small town in France, the runway shut down. They take me off into a waiting ambulance where they administer nitrates to open up the arteries and increase the blood flow to the heart.
And as the ambulance sped off to the local hospital, I looked up to the eyes of the French paramedic looking down at me and I said, please don’t let me die. I have a five-year-old son. I didn’t say, please don’t let me die. I need to clear my inbox. And you know, my point there is that as entrepreneurs we’re so into the hustle,
we’re so into, you know, what, what do we got to do next? And, and it can all go at any moment at any time. And what I said in that moment, it really truly changed my life because the next morning I woke up and I thought, you know, all of my success to date at that point had come at the price of my health and relationships.
I almost lost my life. And then the very first words out of my mouth had nothing to do even with my own life. But, you know, with my boy at the time, right, my two boys now, but at the time, my, my only son and then that just struck me as, okay, that’s the three legged stool.
That’s what peak performance means. You know, we need to perform at a peak level across our health, our wealth, our work as a wealth driver and our relationships. And when I say peak performance, I’m not meaning turning. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t mean like in a turn a person into a Ferrari, you know, I mean, close the gap between your current and best self across all the areas of life that matter most,
you know, on the health, you know, work and home front. That’s the mission that I’m on now that I’ve been on for the last 10 years. And my book, the three alarms is, is about that mission. And it’s about how I’ve, codafide it as if you want to reach your best on the health, wealth and relationship fronts,
you need to do it through IPA, like the beer, but better for you and the IPA standing for identity productivity and antifragility. Yeah. And thank you so much for sharing your story. You guys watch the videos of these, you know, any sort of story like that. I’m here, like tearing up behind the scenes, but I understand that there are so many people that are on their way to hit that point without what you’re talking about in this book and,
you know, praise God, you were able to come back and figure it out and, you know, share it with the rest of us and really be able to leverage this to the next level and come in here and step in and help entrepreneurs. And so this is a perfect episode before we were recording. I was thinking, I wonder, are we going to air this?
And this is a perfect one to kick off 2021, because some of the things that you’re talking about, you know, we all want 20, 21 to be different than 2020. And it wouldn’t be nice if we just woke up and the whole entire world that was glittering on January 1st and everything was perfect again. And, and, and it’s okay to want those things.
But what we know is that we need to have a plan regardless of what comes about. And that’s what you talk about here in your book. And I love that now you have worked with really high level executives and entrepreneurs and your work in the past and getting people results in this. And it has really been extraordinary. And so I’m super excited to dig into what we’re talking about on today’s show.
So you say how to become a peak performer with IPA identity productivity, and antifragility, let’s go ahead. Can you dive in a little bit, and let’s kind of dissect each one of these things. So our listeners have an idea of some immediate actions and some areas in their life that they can, you know, rebalance or correct, or take a look at and,
and make some adjustments. Can we dive into IPA and the identity first? Yeah, let’s do it all. Talk about each and a practical tool. And the book of, I give loads of practical tools, but we just give like one quick win takeaway for each, each section. And let’s go ahead and say this too. If I can just interrupt.
You also said, all of our listeners are going to get a free digital copy of your book and we will make sure that is a huge gift you guys, and we’ll make sure that the link to that is in the show notes for this show@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two zero eight. So yeah. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Yeah. Cool. And,
and I just want to step back just super quickly once again, and say, you know, 20, 20, it was a challenging year. And part of what I’m trying to do with getting the message out around this book is to have it perfectly timed with making 20, 21, a rebound year making 20, 21 the year where you stepped back up to the plate,
right? Where you take things back up a level and you kind of dust things off and you say, all right, let’s go again. And IPA is the path forward. And, and one other thing to remember, my definition of peak performance is not turning you into a Ferrari. None of this is about achieving perfection. This is just about you showing up as your best self in the areas of life that matter most.
This is about you kind of gaining entry to what Abraham Maslow estimated was the 2% of people in the world who realize their full potential. So IPA for me is about gaining entry to that 2% club. So identity, identity, why don’t we start with identity? So the why here is because we cannot become a better version of ourselves now and going forward,
if we continue to be the person that we’ve always been, that doesn’t line up. So what got you here? Won’t get you there. You need to make a change. And entrepreneurs leaders, CEOs are very intentional when it comes to work, they get it. They know that I need to have envisioned. I need to model myself after that vision,
but they don’t bring that same intentionality often to their health and home, or you know, their, their health and relationships. So what I talk about in the book, the three alarms is how I decided, okay, what is the best version of me look like on each of those fronts? And that’s what I’d like everyone listening to do right now.
Just ha have a thing. If you were to give the best version of you, you at your best, a name on the health front, what would it be if you were to give the best version of you, a name or a phrase or a persona on the work front, what would it be? And if you were to do the same on the relationship or the home front,
what would it be? So I gave an example of what I’ve done with myself. So on the health front, it’s not me who goes to the gym in the morning, I’m a world fitness champion. That’s who goes to the gym in the morning. That’s the person who walks through the door. And when I’m in on, in a particular exercise and I get to the eighth rep,
and I’m not sure if I’m going to get to the 10th, a little voice goes off in my head and says, of course you will, because you’re a world fitness champion. And that’s all being driven by identity because behavior follows identity. When I take a Spider-Man costume and I put it on my seven-year-old Leo, I do not need to teach Leo what to do next.
He doesn’t need to go through Spider-Man training camp. I put the Spider-Man costume on and he starts shooting webs from his wrist, jumping around, making funny noises. Right? So what it really, all I’m trying to do here is to get everyone listening to, you know, remember that you’ve already done this. You did it as a kid. You picked an identity,
maybe when you were playing, you changed into that and it changed your behavior. Same concept. You’re just remembering back to something you used to do. Every time I go to the gym now I’m wonder woman, perfect world fitness champion. Now I have that on my phone as an alarm at 6:30 AM, I’ve changed the name of the alarm. And it says world fitness champion to prompt that intentionality.
Okay, because I’ve segmented my day into three parts and I’ve chosen basically a best self identity that will power each of the segments. And so 6:30 AM world fitness champion goes off. The next alarm on my phone goes off at 9:00 AM and it says, world’s best coach, am I the world’s best at all of these things? Of course not. But that’s the version of me.
That’s going to start the Workday. How does that version of me show up and behave in the world? You know, how decisive inspiring and reliable will I be for my clients? If I’m coming from the vantage point of the world’s best coach versus just Eric and at 6:30 PM, the game-changing alarm for me, we’re all different for me. This is a game changer.
It goes off and it says world’s best husband and father to prompt the, how would the world’s best husband and father walked through that door right now? That’s the power of intentionality, right? So I’ve chosen, what does best look like on the three areas of life that matter? Most, I queue it at a particular time of day, that would most benefit from being powered by that best self identity.
And I get three massive benefits. It brings intentionality into the day. It brings wise counsel, you know, into a moment, you know, okay, what should I say in response to this person? What should I do next? Well, what would the world’s best husband and father do? And number three, it prompts, reflection, because if I do lose my cool with my seven year old,
for example, I’m not perfect then because I had something so high to measure against, I feel like a real jerk afterwards. Right. And that’s good because that’s making the gap painfully obvious and it means that I get better and better at closing it. So that’s the identity piece I’m taking course millions of notes here. I’ve already named all of my different sections of my day and who I am.
So I just I’m appreciating this and eating it up. I’m a sponge here, loving this information. I love that identity too. And it’s so true. Like when along the lines did we forget who we believe that we are rather than, you know, what the world tells us. And so, and I, and I love that. And you’re so right about the fact that as entrepreneurs,
we are so apt to believe that before in our business, but maybe not so much in our health and our personal lives, those things for sure are not the same. Maybe it’s because money doesn’t drive it. And it’s not because they aren’t as important to us. Well, maybe the health at first, you know, so I think this is super awesome.
Loving this so far. So let’s talk about productivity, the identities, EEI, and in IPA, what do you do and what do you recommend as far as productivity and how does that, why did you choose productivity as part of your methodology for obtaining people? Yeah. Great question. So, okay. So context then, you know, setting. So first we start with,
well, who is it that we want to be? That’s the identity piece. So now we’re operating from the vantage point of our best self and the three areas of life that matter most. So what do we do now to make progress? Because we’re just awesome, but we’re standing still, right? And we need to progress. We need to climb the mountain now.
Right? And so we do that through action. So that’s why we talk about productivity because knowledge isn’t power anymore. These days I can Google anything and be knowledgeable about it. Within seconds. Knowledge is not where the game is played. It’s about taking consistent persistent deliberate action. That’s where the game is played. And that’s why we need to optimize ourselves for productivity,
because we don’t want to just be taking any action. We want to take the right action and most efficiently, so smart. So there’s loads I go into in the book and productivity. I actually, it’s a big thing that, although the IPA acronym is it’s only three letters I had to do productivity planning and productivity execution, because it’s about, you know,
plan, execute, plan execute. Right. Right. And I think before you go into it, you’re an expert in this. Did you realize that I know a lot of entrepreneurs that have the best laid plans, but then zero ability to execute. Is that why in your experience of dealing this, you know, entrepreneurs, we can think of these,
Oh, this is going to be the plan. We can even set the plan, lay the plan out the steps of the plan, reverse engineer, the plan, Gantt chart, the plan, whatever it is, but then actually doing it tends to be a lot harder. So is that because we all struggle in this? Yeah. Yeah. Well,
I was a chronic over planner. I would just plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. The other thing though, too, that I noticed with myself was that I was also a world-class procrastinator and may have something to do with the entrepreneurial mindset because of our tendency to dream and to, you know, think about, you know, big opportunities and the next big thing,
it’s almost like this, you know, proneness for distraction, right. Or at least it was for me. And so I had to transform myself from a chronic procrastinator to a super producer. And, you know, we won’t have time to go into all the productivity tools, but I want to drive home. One in particular that I think is mind blowing.
So the average person loses and this, this data, I first picked up, by the way from the book, the one thing, the average person under observation loses 28% of their Workday to multitasking and effectiveness. So the person thinks that they’re multitasking in an efficient way, but what they’re really doing is they’re doing what’s called task switching, going from one thing to the next,
very, very rapidly. And that leads to a 28% loss in the day, because rather than sticking with one thing, they’re jumping around. So when they get back to the thing that they originally intended to work on, they’ve lost their place. They have to retrace their steps at the regain, their momentum, all of this leads to lost time, 28% loss of a day.
Now the book just leaves the stat right there. And I thought, hang on a second. This is like not doing that stat justice. So I took that number and I said, well, let’s generously take off six weeks for vacation in a year. So let’s do 28% loss against 46 work weeks. That means that the average person is losing 13 weeks a year,
which is an entire calendar quarter. So of course you don’t feel productive. Of course you don’t feel like there’s not enough time for everything you’ve lost a whole quarter every year Because you aren’t productive. And because you would have lost all that time. I mean, you’re playing a game of basketball and you’re going against the competition. You get to the end of the third quarter and then news to you.
Somebody says, Oh, by the way, we’ve got to tell you, but you and the rest of your team had to sit out the fourth quarter. You’re like, huh. And you’re like, well, how do we even have a chance of winning then? And they’re like, Oh we don’t. Yeah. It’s. So if we extrapolate that across a 40 year career,
that means that the average person loses an entire decade. What could you do with an extra decade? That’s like two more careers potentially. Wow. So what’s the problem here? The problem is people just jumping around too much throughout the day that in their phone disturbed their, their focus and the concentration, having too many browser tabs, open notifications coming in left,
right and center all of these lures to kind of guide us off our path for peak performance, our path for realizing our full potential that’s the issue. And so what we have to combat all of that with is developing the power of single tasking, which is a bit of a lost art, especially nowadays with smartphones angle tasking is nothing more than making sure you stick with what you’re working on for a good chunk of time.
At least 30 minutes provided there’s 30 minutes of work to do. I like to shoot for, you know, 30 minute chunks throughout my day. And then I take a break after 30 minutes. And the way you can develop the habit of single tasking is by becoming a lawyer for a few weeks. And what I mean, what I read is that lawyers timesheet their days because otherwise they don’t know where to assign the client time.
And when I thought about that, I thought, well, if a lawyer can do this every single day as part of their career, then I could certainly should be able to manage it for like, you know, few weeks. So all I did was I had four columns activity start time, end time, total minutes. And I literally recorded every single task I did from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed kind of before and after work,
I was more like grouping stuff together. You know, it’s like getting ready for example. But once I started the Workday, it was everything. So working on presentation nine to nine, 13, nine, 13 to nine 17, LinkedIn nine and 17 to nine 20, you know, Google search nine 20 to nine 23, reheated coffee and check Twitter.
And the alarming thing that it revealed was just how much task switching was going on. On the first day that I did this, I had 77 entries in my Workday. Wow. As I was bouncing around unknowingly from one thing to the next. So when you do this, it does two things. One, it raises an unprecedented level of awareness in you in terms of where is my time actually going and how often,
you know, am I switching and bouncing around? And then two, it starts to become kind of painful when you have two for the third time, for example, on a day, right. Facebook 20. Right, Right, right. It’s really eye-opening. And I could see how that would be incredibly. Eye-opening really, really fast. And gosh,
I mean, I just think that there is so much last time, by the way, the one thing is one of my favorite books of all time. And we’ll make sure that the notes to that book as well are in the show notes for this show. And I think that one of the things that you’re saying here was really, really interesting, the art of single tasking.
So when we single task and chunk our time and block calendar, a block and tackle and do those things, how fast and how much more of an increased you see in productivity in your clients that you have do that. I mean, is that like instant results that they’re seeing when they actually change these are, what are your case studies working with clients who have,
who’ve really tried to apply this. Yeah, that’s a great question. So we’re not machines, we’re not robots. And so what that means is that we can’t actually reclaim the entire 28% and then that may lead you to believe that, okay. So then I can’t actually get the full quarter back. That’s actually not true because when you start to develop your ability to focus,
it also speeds up your output for the 72%. That wasn’t an issue anyway. Right. So what I see is, well, beyond then the 28% capture, it’s almost like people are becoming twice as productive as they previously were and that’s life changing, right? Because you’re producing more with the time you have. And that suddenly gives you the time that you are yearning for when it comes to your health and your relationships.
And yeah, it’s been life-changing for me to personally, because I just work, you know, with an extreme sense of focus I’m intensely on and then intensely off. And there’s no real anxiety during my Workday. There’s so much to be said to this. Like you were saying, I mean, it’s, you guys are just going to be super excited when you get a chance to experience Eric’s book with that being said again,
there’s so many things we could talk about, but moving on to the anti-fragility, let’s talk about that and why that is so important. We were talking about it a little bit behind the scenes before we started recording. What exactly is that to our listeners who are just wondering, I don’t even know how to define that necessarily in my life. Yeah. Okay.
So let’s play a game. Let’s say that you are a shipping container, you know, and my question would be, well, what does the container or the crate, you know, say on the side, if you’re that crate, what’s your label, is it fragile? And then that means you get hit a couple of times you break. And then my question to you would be,
well, what’s the opposite of being fragile. And then you’ll say probably something like robust, you know, or strong, robust, and strong synonyms, you know? So that just means that, okay, I can kick you a few more times and eventually you break and then you might say, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. I’m resilient. Okay. Well, by definition, that means that we can keep hitting you and you’ll absorb the shock and you’ll stay the same. It’s like, Oh, okay, well that’s pretty good. Enter antifragile. The more we kick you, the stronger the crate becomes, wow. That’s where we want to be.
Now people, when they first hear this say, okay, wishful thinking, that’s like, you know something in a Marvel movie, that’s, that’s not reality, but then you’re dead wrong because every single person, your body is a perfect temple for anti-fragility. You stress a muscle and it causes it to grow. You expose the body to germs and bacteria.
It builds the immune system. You expose tissues to, you know, small doses of, you know, ultra by light. And it actually generates vitamin D you’re already, anti-fragile physiologically your body’s already doing it without you even realizing it. So it’s hard coded in your DNA. You just need to get what’s happening in your body, up into your head.
And so anti-fragility is about realizing that the gym, where you go and you train doesn’t need to just be there in the gym. You can turn life into one massive training camp. So every moment of adversity, challenge, frustration, disappointment thing, that doesn’t go your way. It’s nothing more than a personal trainer in the gym of life, walking up to you and saying,
Hey, here’s a Dumbo. Do you want to curl it? And you can either grab the dumbbell, curl it, complete the repetition and grow stronger as a result. Or you can wimp out and walk out of the gym. So it’s up to you. And the antifragile mentality says, yeah, I’ll take that dumbbell. Yeah. And if you’re in an argument with somebody,
for example, and now they escalate the argument, all that’s happening there is that they’re saying here here’s a heavier Dumbo and you could walk away or you could stay there and you can curl it with your best self. So loads of different ways of building this mentally, you know, anti-fragility, you know, that I cover in the book, but probably the most powerful,
I mean, there’s so I have so many favorites, so hard to choose. Okay, I’ll go with this one. If you can embrace this, just this, if you forget everything else I’ve just said, and if you just embrace this one thing, even if you forget to pick up the free digital copy of the book, that’s fine, but just don’t miss this point.
And that’s in 2021. Do you want to remain amateur in life or do you want to turn pro let’s start with an amateur. So the first half of my career, I let an amateur existence by that I made feeling for me, preceded action. I needed feel like doing things in order to do them. So feeling generated action. That’s how an amateur lives their life.
And the amateur will get amateur. Results a pro knows that it’s action that generates feeling the equation is literally flipped, which means they don’t need to feel like doing something in order to take action. They take action, whether they feel like it or not. And in fact, when you really upgrade this kind of way of being or mentality, the less you feel like doing something,
the more discomfort it presents you, the more you step into it, the more you say it’s there for in that direction. I must step, you know, it’s sorta like elite warriors are trained to run towards the sound of gunfire, not a way. Right? And so turning pro versus remaining an amateur, what do you want 20, 21 to be?
And where have you been an amateur in life? And where can you develop a professional mentality and know that action generates feelings, not the other way around. Wow. Eric, I’ve never heard it explained as well as you just explained that there, thank you so much. I mean, that was just, I mean, the anti-fragility part in one of the things you said,
let me look back at my notes here. So I have it, is that the resilience you bounce off and stay the same. And so many you hear that talked about so often like, Oh my gosh, well, you need to be resilient and just bounce around and just pop off this. But what we’re talking about is, yeah, resilience keeps you exactly where you were before you don’t go forward.
You don’t go backwards. You just bounce off and you remain the same in the way that you’ve just explained that with actually changing with actually becoming stronger from each one of the blows, the pushes, the drops, whatever it is super amazing. And I love everything that you said, and I know our listeners are just really going to get a ton out of this.
Not only that that’s so generous of you to give away a digital copy of your book and for your time here on the show, this is the perfect show. So Jeff Goins introduced us. Thank you, Jeff, for bringing Eric here on the show. Jeff was a guest on the show. Oh my gosh. Like almost four years ago now in the very beginning,
when we first launched and he was right on about you being perfect for our audience and your message that you wanted to share. And I’m so glad that you’re here and this is exactly what we were looking for for honestly, for me personally, to kick off 2021, you know, we have guests on the show. I learned so much from you and really wanting to find somebody that was saying exactly what I selfishly personally needed to hear right now is an entrepreneur and a mother and a leader.
And what I would consider was a peak performer up until 2020. And now I just feel like I have been resilient and I have not necessarily gotten stronger through this. And so I will look at myself very, very closely after today’s episode. And I’m super excited to dive in more to the work that you’re doing and really appreciate your time on this show.
And so tell everybody how they find you. I’m really into reading print copies. I love holding a book in my hands, how they can experience your work, where you hang out when you are being incredibly focused and hanging out online, not all the time and how they can work with you when they’re ready to really take their business and their life to the next level.
Yeah. I just have to say April that, you know, when you say, wow, I really needed this personally. Hey, me too. You know, the reason that I’ve done all of this is not because I wasn’t born thinking this way. I had to become an expert about all this stuff because I really needed it. I needed to become anti-fragile.
I needed to become more productive. I needed to start living more intentionally. So we’re all on the same boat on that. So I just wanted to say that. So, okay. The book, if you like print copies of the book, please head over to Amazon, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk. I’m based here in the, in London, in the United Kingdom,
but either Amazon will have the book. If you head over to my website at Erik, Erik with a C Eric partaker, just like it sounds partaker.com got a free digital copy of the book waiting for you there. And I have some free three-part video training with worksheets as well, waiting for you there that will help you further embed some of the concepts in the book I’m coming out with an entire video course that I’m filming actually this week,
like over 40 different modules, all about IPA, which will be available on the website by the time this airs. And then if you’re listening and you’re like, look, I think I benefit from even just a chat, a single kind of peak performance insight session, which, which I run, you know, on a free basis with people, or if you’re like,
I need a coach or any of that, then just get in touch via the website. And, you know, we can have a chat, basically. I’m looking after, at the moment, 24 CEOs, entrepreneurs, other coaches, and they’re running everything from billion dollar businesses down to pre-revenue, you know, they’re just getting their funds raised to start their business,
but they all share the same quest. They want to close the gap between their current and best self. They want to reach their full potential and they want to do it. Multidimensionally and then, you know, my email, Eric, Eric partaker.com. So there you go, Thank you so much and we’ll make sure all those links are in the show notes.
And thank you so much for your time. I am super stoked to kick off 2021 with you, Eric and great to be connected with you. Thank you.<inaudible> Right. And that is a wrap for episode number 208 here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. You can find all of the show notes and the digital copy of the book that Eric’s promised you here on today’s show by visiting Sweetlife co.com
simply click on podcast. And this is episode number 208. And for those of you guys that are really ready to kick off this year with a bang, make sure to join us for commitment week 2021. It is coming up on January the 11th, totally free to join, and we are going to be covering five different aspects to reset and refocus your business for 2021.
It’ll take less than seven minutes a day. You guys it’s insane. We’ll go ahead and leave the link to join commitment week 2021, as well as the link to download Eric’s book in the show notes, or you can also just simply join commitment week by visiting Sweetlife coat.com forward slash commitment dash week dash 2021. Right? You guys be awesome. Can’t wait to talk to you next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Start to Scale Up System™ Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Small business owners who are looking to gain control of time and manage family and company growth.
Summary:
Growing a company while raising a family is a lot of work. Oftentimes entrepreneurs feel maxed out, and“Cat’s in the Cradle” by Harry Chapin breaks your heart. You started your company for freedom, and you know you can obtain it, but you don’t want to wait to sell or years more of hard work before reaping family life’s rewards.
In this episode we break down 3 practical systems you can implement this week, that require minimal work and will gain you maximum time freedom.
At the End of This Episode You Will
See how you can tweak your business model right now to create more time
Know the power of messy days, how to schedule them and why you’ll love them
Know more creative ways you can connect with your #1 team(family)
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi, you guys. And welcome to episode number 206 of the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, and Merry Christmas to those of you who are listening to this live and happy holidays to everybody, regardless of what you celebrate here,
we are celebrating family, and I just hope that this show reaches you and that you’re blessed by what we talk about today. Thank you so much for tuning in with us over the holidays. We’ve never missed an episode so far. And this year with all that’s happened in 2020 is no exception. And so today we are talking about three simple ways to put family first as an entrepreneur and create more time.
So whether you’re listening to this live and it is Christmas week here in 2020, or you’re listening to this down the road, everything we’re talking about is a proven business strategy that you’re going to be able to take to the bank and create more time in your life, whatever you want your life to look like. I know that many of you who’ve listened to this show for years.
You know, that half of the time my teenage boys are walking in and out of the door. On the other side of, of my office recording here, you know, with their friends or to the skate park, you know, wherever it is that you are doing life, we need to create a business model, a lifestyle around enabling that. And so this show fits really well into what we’re talking about right now with the holidays,
with, you know, really cherishing life. I think the one thing that for us, it was just such a hidden blessing that came out of 2020 is just really loving being together at home and cherishing time. The one thing that money can’t buy is a second of time. And so a lot of things we’re talking about here on the show we’ve been talking about for years,
but in this episode is all strategies to control time into a create as much time so that you are enabling family first in your business. This episode is for those of you guys who are in any phase of my start to scale up system. And so that’s phase one through five, whether you’re just thinking about starting a business, or you are a seasoned entrepreneur,
that’s making a huge impact this show. And what we’re talking about here applies to all of you guys who are looking to gain control of time and manage family and company growth. Because the reality is, is a growing a company and raising a family is a lot of work. And oftentimes we as entrepreneurs feel super maxed out right in that song, cats in the cradle,
I’d sing it to you, but I’ve a really terrible voice that song comes on and it’s like heartbreaking. And, and I was actually just listening to it last week with my boys. And one of my kids asked guys, you know, I love song, but what does it actually mean? And I was like, ah, you know, it’s about this dad that worked so hard that he never had time for his kid and he regretted it.
And it was like, Oh, that through the gut, I know we feel that as entrepreneurs. So that’s how we were talking about some strategies here on the show. At the end of this episode, this is what you’re going to know. So you are going to see how you can tweak your current business model right now to create more time like instantly right now,
as you’re listening to the show, we are going to talk about the power of messy days, how you can schedule them and why you will love messy days. And I’m going to share with you some behind the scenes about how I schedule these types of things. And you are going to know more creative ways that you can connect with your number one team,
which is your family. And if you don’t have kids in your listening to this show, this family, your family is your support system, your network, whatever that looks like to you, all of our lives are beautifully different. And so whatever that looks like to you, you’re going to be able to take the strategies that we talk about here on this episode and apply them right away to your business and for all the show notes and the resources we mentioned here in the show,
cruise over to Sweetlife co.com. Again, that Sweetlife co.com click on podcast. And this is episode number two, zero six. Okay. Let’s dive into today’s strategies. It’s going to be a real quick show cause it’s a holiday week, but really powerful. So stick with me.<inaudible> Step number one, in order to create more time in your business for family and lifestyle freedom,
we need to look at your business model. So your business model can either bury you or save you. So the first thing I want you to look at is really how you’re serving clients. How much of that time does that of your time, does that take within a week and understand the demands of delivering certain projects or services places on your time, energy and your ability to focus.
First of all, what do you do? Take a look at what you do. Just kind of picture your, your week and how you’re working with clients. Do you work with people? One-on-one do you work with people, one on group? How does that really look in your life? And right now I want you to assess that. And I want you to understand the time that’s required,
that you are spending currently working with your clients and take a look at this current business model that you have. What does that look like? How do you work with people? Is it one-on-one? Is it one on group? How frequently in the first thing you want to do is you want to ask yourself, you know, Hey, is this working for me or is the actual amount of time that I’m spending with my clients taking away time from family?
Now one might say, well, wow, isn’t that great? You know, you’re, you’re so busy. Your business is so busy. You have so many clients. Yes, that is true, but busy doesn’t equal. Good. So we’re going to give you some tips here to take a look at turning busy-ness into profit and time. And so the first thing I want you to do is I want you to ask yourself,
what can I change right now? So that would be, are you seeing clients five days a week? You and these are just some suggestions for you. Can you block and tackle your client days as an example, I only work with clients privately on Thursdays and Fridays. And I’ve shared this with you guys on the show before, and I’ll share with you again,
because I just get great feedback from this time. Number one, I think, I think best when I consolidate my work. So if I know that Thursdays and Fridays are, or my business coaching days, when I work with entrepreneurs and small businesses, then I get in that mindset and I know what I’m doing. I also then can look at my business model and I can say,
okay, all of these businesses are in this same type of need, this same type of area. And so now I’m going to create groups and I actually scale my business model and I always do this again, reassess it. So I have, if I have five clients that are in the same place and need the same things, I actually will offer a group strategy call for those clients.
It’s great for me, it’s great for them to network with other people and everybody gets the same results. So I want you to look at your business right now and ask yourself, can I number one block and tackle my days. And then within those days, what sort of smart scaling can I do for my business model? So can you create group offers?
Can you create some on-demand content that your clients or your customers might want to absorb, instead of saying the same thing to different people? One-on-one can you create maybe an online resource center for your clients to tap into some of your more, more frequently asked questions to help save some of that time or even create a course or an actual program for them to go through online.
Other strategies for you are creating maybe a membership committee, unity, or an online forum this year can be done with Slack or something easily with boxer, where you create a group of people that you want to connect with and you want to help them Connect with each other, but you don’t want to launch a full-blown membership site because that might not really work with your actual business model.
So those are some suggestions of things that you can look at right now in your business, so that you can say, Hey, listen, what can I actually change immediately? What can I actually group together to save my time? And what are the dates phase where I would like to serve my clients? Another reason I haven’t mentioned it here, but why I serve clients on Thursdays and Fridays is because of the entire beginning of my week is on business building content creation and actual strategy.
And so I take care of the business building inside in the beginning of my week, when my mind is fresh. For example, I’m recording this podcast episode on a Monday, usually record on Mondays or Tuesdays. When I know that I can put really powerful, highly impacting content. And then I take care of serving my clients because once I go in and I start immersing myself in my client’s businesses,
it fully takes over all my thought processes. So that’s one of the reasons why I serve clients towards the end of the week. And then I have that weekend break in between. So action item. Number one is take a look at your current business model. Can you group together the days that you serve your customers, serve your clients, and can you make some changes to how you’re serving your clients?
Creating group offers a membership community, or even just an online forum and really take a look at controlling instead of spreading yourself out throughout the week, consolidating your work into different types of work that you were doing at a time. That’s really strategy. Number one, within that same strategy. We talked about this a few episodes ago on the show within that same strategy,
you should be planning your year in advance. So planning what you’re selling when you’re selling it. So, you know, we have a big macro plan and then we have a micro plan week by week. So you really should be taking a look at what’s happening for the year to come. Regardless of when you’re listening to this episode, you can do this at any point in time and really know what you’re selling when you’re selling it and what demands that’s going to put on your life and your family,
okay. Strategy, or I should say, tip number two is my favorite. And I call it for the love of messy days. This is what a messy day is. A messy day is a day that I have scheduled in the middle of my week. My messy day is always Wednesday. And that day is a break between my strategy and my content creation at the beginning of the week.
And my client service at the end of the week, messy days are totally to be spontaneous. And this is an amazing thing. It’s especially amazing if you have teenagers like I do. So on my messy days, I really don’t schedule any client meetings, but this is the day I schedule like the kids’ teeth cleaning, or if I need to stop by the grocery store or any appointments like I would have for myself,
like going to get my eyelashes glued on or a haircut, all of those things are always scheduled on a Wednesday. This is also the day where I am completely able to be spontaneous with my kids. Do I have to get work done? Yes. I still work on messy days. So Wednesday is my favorite day to be this day. But it’s also the day that,
you know, if my kids just want to sit down and, and have a cup of coffee and hang out where I always don’t have somewhere to be, I always can make sure that that is in that day. And they literally throw the plan out the window again. Do you have a list of things you have to get done on messages? Yes.
Are they so regimented and scheduled? Not at all is one of the things I love doing with my kids on messy days is we have this taco wagon down the street and it’s just this amazing Mexican food that’s here in Lafayette, Colorado love taco wagon, and the kids will just be hungry. I’ll say, Hey, let’s, let’s go to taco wagon and grab some tacos and it’s super spontaneous and they love it.
We listen to music. We play music messy days are the days where I can just stop and walk out of my office and share songs with the kids and listening to what they’re listening to, or watch YouTube videos or sit down and play call of duty, which by the way I suck at on Xbox. But I try, you know, those are the things we do on messy days.
And so messy days are a day sometime in your week, if you can’t fit it in every single week, maybe plan and schedule a messy day every two weeks. And again, this is the time for you to know this is when you can fit in your haircuts teeth, cleaning, having to run an errand, maybe go to the post office. But it’s also the day where you can totally stop and have a cup of coffee with a friend who just might really need you call your aunt on the phone,
who you haven’t talked to in forever. And all those things that get scheduled out because the schedule is too regimented. Messy days is totally to not be regimented, but you will love it because you’ll actually get more work done in the other days. When you know, you have your messy day, wherever that may land in your week. And then the third tip I have for you is to really over communicate with your family over communicate with your team.
Again, whoever that is, it can be, you know, young, old, it can be your dog. You know, I used to communicate with my toddlers, my boys, when I was working from home and say, okay, you know, mommy really has a lot of work to do for the next two hours. But after that, we’ll sit down and we’ll watch Mickey mouse together or whatever.
And so as long as you’re over communicating, what’s about to happen with your team. Then everybody is going into that with open eyes and they understand how they can support you in that process. Again, it doesn’t matter if they’re three or if they’re 35, they all understand that. So some suggestions on how to over communicate with everybody, but in a way,
that’s not going to take you too much time because that’s would be against the point of this whole entire episode is number one. Every single Sunday night, just have a quick weekly powwow. We do this all the time. We go through the week, we look at our calendars, see what’s coming up and everybody’s just on the same page. It literally takes five minutes and that’s for a family of five to do,
but it helps to just communicate and what’s to come. It also helps us all mentally prepare for the week ahead and how we want to show up in that week. We also have a nightly pregame. And so a nightly pregame again, literally takes like one minute saying, okay, this is what the morning is going to look like. This is what I have today.
This is what you know, you have going on this next day. This is what this looks like for our family. Let’s again, have everybody be on the same page. It’s also the place where I can take a minute. If my kids need to talk about school or things they’re struggling with and help them strategize a plan to, you know, maybe make up some schoolwork,
which frankly has been a lot since everybody’s doing online school and it’s a freaking mess. I won’t go down that rabbit hole, but it’s a time for me to really connect with my boys and hear like, yeah, I just have this, I have this math test tomorrow. I have no clue what I’m doing and really be able to focus in on them.
And I know that they really appreciate this nightly pre-game as well. Couple of things we also do and we’ve done for years and years and years is we calendar share. We’ve also taught our boys how to add things to our family calendar. So we have one Gmail address where we manage all of our kid and family things. And so anytime one of our kids has something they want to do.
They want to ride to the skate park or they want to go sleep over with a friend or whatever it may be. My boys can add that event and share it to our family calendar. So without even talking, we all know what everybody wants and needs over a period of time. And so everybody’s on the same page without taking any time whatsoever. And you might be asking like,
okay, how do I do this? My kids are five. Well, of course this is age appropriate, but I will say that we started teaching our boys to add things to our family, shared Gmail calendar when they were as young as nine years old. So these kids can do anything with tech, right? So you would be very surprised at the wishes we receive on our family calendar.
And it’s really cool. That’s how our kids get to do things because it’s planned in a way that works for everybody. And then the last suggestion that I would have for you is a family chat or a family WhatsApp channel or family Voxer. If you’ve never tried any of that, those are all awesome places to create a group chat where everybody’s on the same page.
And you as the business owner can even just shoot, instead of calling this person and telling this person to pick up that person, you can just get on your boxer and just say, okay, you know, I’m running 10 minutes late from this meeting. We’re having chicken for dinner. I’ll see you soon, whatever it is that you need to say,
you can, you can put in a box or chat to your family. And it’s a really efficient way to actually create more time. Again, if your family is, is a roommate, if your family is, you know, your other business team, or if it’s friends, whoever your people are, these are three simple ways to put those people,
to put your family first as an entrepreneur and create more time in your business. And so here’s what we talked about today. We talked about how does your current business model and know how to group your days together and what you can tweak and scale and your business model right now, in order to create more time each week, we also talked about messy days,
why you need messy days, why you’ll love them, why your family will love your messy days and really why it just frankly, it’s going to make you think, wow, I’m so glad I’m an entrepreneur instead of wow, crap. This is way harder than I thought it would be. Is there ever going to be a light at the end of this,
you know, constant tunnel of demands, messy days, fix that, like in an instant. So if any of these things I can say, I love my messy days the most. And then the third thing is think of more creative ways to connect with your family, whether it’s calendar share or Voxer and different ways to communicate, whether it’s a weekly powwow or a nightly powwow.
We talked about that as well. I hope you found some of these suggestions helpful to you and your team, your people, all the people that love you. And you know what it’s really special to have people in your life that love you so much. They just want more of you and they need more of you. That’s a gift. And you know,
I know we’re also grateful for that. So it’s really important as small business owners that we take strategies like this business model, calendar share and more practical lifestyle strategies in order to create this time and in life freedom, I’m here to help. I’m here to support you. It’s what I do here on the show. I’m a business strategist, but I’ve built multiple companies with kids.
I think I launched my first business when my youngest was six weeks old. So I totally get it. Whatever phase you’re in of parenting. Thank you so much for listening to this show. Again, happy holidays. Happy new year, let’s kick 2020, like to the curb behind us. And I’m so excited to start 2021 with you. We have a lot of amazing things coming up on the show,
including commitment week 20, 21, five days. I’m only 10 minutes a day to completely lay out your entire 20, 21 business plan coming up here next week. And so I dive into commitment week 2021 with us next week’s episode number 207. All right, you guys, I will talk to you soon. Have an awesome day.
Entrepreneurs and small businesses who want to scale by hiring Virtual Assistants but you don’t have the time to look for staff, the expertise to find the best help internationally or the systems in place to onboard your team to scale faster.
This show is ideal for entrepreneurs in Phases 2-4 of my“Start To Scale Up System” – Take the quiz to learn your current business status
Summary:
It’s time to grow your business and you need help. But how do you find the right team members when you don’t have time(or knowledge) to onboard them? In this show, we’ve covering how to hire international help, how to onboard them correctly, and how to do this by using an outside agency. Ruvi Abuvala, founder of scalingwithsystem.com is on the show dishing the powerful secrets his company uses to help other businesses grow and scale with team, systems and“The Ramping Bible”, and how to leverage these in your business right away.
We’re answering these questions about Hiring/Working With Virtual Assistants
When is the right time to hire your first virtual assistant?
Should everyone hire one? When would you not want to?
Where do you hire your virtual assistants from? What are the pros and cons of those areas?
How do you know what to take off your plate(delegate) first?
How do you make sure there is strong communication and reliability?
Should you hire one virtual assistant for everything or multiple virtual assistants for each task?
At the End of This Episode You Will
Understand the exponential scaleability of teams
Be aware of the need for(or update of) onboarding systems
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to another episode of the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach, your host, and I’m super glad That you’re here today is a heavy heading show. And you’re going to get a lot of powerful,
valuable information. I can’t wait to introduce you to our guest, but if you’re a new listener here to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, I just wanted to say, hello. I’m April beach, the host of this show and founder of the Sweetlife company. And we help experts, entrepreneurs and small businesses scale online, develop your leading offers and become the undisputed leader in your space by providing business consulting and services to service-based entrepreneurs and companies looking to grow and scale with online services,
programs, and digital products in everything that we do here on the show. This is our outreach. This is where we deliver proven business trainings from decades of business coaching that you would pay thousands of dollars to get this business strategy. We deliver to you here on the show, totally free. So thank you so much for tuning in, and I can’t wait to dive into today’s show today.
We’re talking about how to scale with systems and grow your team. This is episode number 205, which means all of the show notes can be found by visiting sweet life co.com click on podcast and episode two Oh five on today’s show. We’re specifically talking to those of you guys who want to scale your business by hiring virtual assistants, but you don’t have the time to look for the staff yourself.
You might not have the expertise in the areas you’re looking to hire. And so it’s hard for you to sort actually who’s the right candidate because you yourself may not know or be a master in a certain area, and you need systems in place to scale your business faster. This show is ideal for those of you guys who are in phases, two, three or four of my start to scale up system.
If you aren’t sure your current business status, cruise over to sweet life code.com forward slash quiz, you can just pause this episode for a second and you can just answer six questions. You’ll get your exact business status and a checklist of things you should be focusing on to grow and scale your company faster. So it’s time to grow your business and you need help,
but you need to find the right team members. Today’s cast is absolutely insane. You’re going to love this guy in the very best way. He is the founder of scaling with systems. And on this show, we are dishing out powerful secrets that he uses in his company to scale his business faster. And these are the questions that you are going to know the answers to at the end of this episode,
when is the right time to hire your first virtual assistant? Should everybody hire a VA when you not want to hire a VA, where do you hire your virtual assistants from what are the pros and cons of those areas? So US-based versus internationally. How do you know what to take off your plate and delegate first? So at the end of this show,
you are going to have a list of the most common roles first fulfilled by virtual assistants, by companies looking to scale, how do you make sure there is a strong communication and reliability when you hire out internationally and should you hire one virtual assistant for everything or multiple virtual assistants for each task? Today’s guest expert is rubby of Evolla. And he’s the founder of scale with systems and business accelerator that works to bootstrap and scale their client’s businesses leveraging paid advertising sales funnels,
and fully trained overseas VAs, which is the area we’re focusing on today. And the past 14 months, not 14 years in the past 14 months, he has scaled to seven figure businesses with less than a thousand dollars of his own capital in four commission-based employees. Today, he’s worked with over 500 firms around the world and place 300, excuse me, 630 virtual assistants.
And he’s spoken on some of the largest stages into the industry, including being featured by Fox news, Forbes and entrepreneur. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast episode. Again, all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number two, zero five<inaudible> Are you guys well, I am joined by Ravi ABA Vala here on the show because it’s time for us to talk about how to scale your business with teams.
And this is not something that comes naturally to most entrepreneurial leaders. You know, we’re really good at our area of genius. You know, our zone of genius, what we do the ways in which we give people Results, but when it comes to scaling, there’s a couple of bottlenecks. One is usually business model and the second one is growing teams.
And this is something that I have really struggled with as a leader of both of my own companies as well. And it’s not something that comes naturally to me. And so I was super stoked that Ravi wanted to be on this show. And today we’re diving into really how to scale your business, not only by initially growing teams, but growing teams and then sub teams,
and really how to scale the actual teams themselves. Some things that I don’t think we talk about enough as entrepreneurs and experts as leaders. So Robbie, thank you so much and welcome to the show April. Thanks so much for having me here. I am super excited, listen to the podcast for a little bit as well. And I know that majority of it is just pure value.
So that is exactly what I aim to give everybody that’s listening to this today. So thank you guys for your time and you as well, April. So thanks for having me here. Yeah, I’m super stoked. Okay. So today we’re Going to dive into a couple of different areas. First of all, remote teams, internationally based remote teams. We’re going to talk about,
we’re also going to talk about your expert process of growing remote teams, how you onboard people, and then we’re going to dive into how to scale your teams within your teams. So I think one of the first questions that we need to tackle for our listeners here is just breezing by this, because they’ll have all your resources and where to find this more,
but just as a foundation, you know, how do people really find expert remote, highly qualified individuals, really outside of the U S to work for them? Yeah, that’s an awesome question. And it’s one that we obviously hear all the time, and I think with anything in life, you have two kind of ways of doing it. It’s like,
you’re going to roll up your sleeves. You’re going to figure it out. You’re going to do it yourself, which is awesome. Especially if you’re just starting and you have like the training and everything to go along with it. And you want to take them from just like an anybody to the expert of their fields. That’s one way to do it. And the other way to do it as essentially,
you know, working with some kind of third-party company or working with a recruiter, to finding somebody who already has a lot of the skills and qualifications of the tasks that you’re looking to get completed, and then pretty much transplanting them into your team at that point. And then you’re pretty much only selling them on your culture and your vision. So you have two different avenues.
You can kind of go down. I see people going through both. We do both, depending on what we’re going, if it’s like a hyper specialized expert in a certain field that like, I don’t even know how to deliver that result. Like, as you grow in scale, if you’re listening to this, everyone’s like go only delegate to people. What,
you know how to do it. Well, then you’re locked in this like sphere of like knowledge. And instead you’re gonna get to the point where it’s like, I don’t know how to do this, but I want to do this. And so, you know, I need to hire someone that already knows it. So there’s that aspect of him, which is a little scary,
but it was almost like, we’ll talk about later, you communicate KPIs. I think it’s okay. And then like on the other side is like, Hey, I already know how to do this. So maybe I don’t have to go find somebody else that knows how to do this. I can just teach this person to myself, but then you kind of create those systems and that ramping Bible that I’m sure we’ll talk about here in a little bit,
that helps them kind of grow along that process. Okay. So this is a really good opportunity. I want people to know, how did you get into this? Like you didn’t, you didn’t start this, did you say I’m going to be a scale expert and help people build teams? So share a little bit of your background in, in why this is now your Ninja skill.
Yeah, so I keep it really short because I want to stay on the value. But very long story short was going to go to law school, graduated college. My dad was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I had to go take care of him. Instead of law school, I finally got into law school, decided it wasn’t for me. I dropped out sort of my first company prospect social was an advertising agency and knew nothing about systems.
You don’t think about process. Like I was just like, I’m going to come at this just with pure hard work, like pure grinding hustle mode. And for the first eight months I gained about 50 pounds. I was like losing hair. I was getting gray hairs and I made $3,000. The first six, eight months of business, $3,000 as a screenshot on my website.
You can see it. And I almost thought that I made the wrong decision. Then I hired my first coach or consultants. I went to a mastermind. I hired my first coaching consultant. He showed me really the powers of virtual assistants, the powers of systems, the power of sales funnels. I know a lot of the stuff that you guys cover as well.
I implemented that stuff. Next month, we did $30,000. Within six months, we had done a hundred thousand dollars in one month and now that’s a multi seven figure business. And just from that moment that I hit the map by having that first month to a, you know, a few months later when people started seeing me living abroad and traveling the world,
I just had a bunch of people reaching out to me. How did you do this? You know, we were in the same Facebook group and at the same level and all of a sudden you’re shot up here. And so I just pretty much was like, yeah, that’s pretty much just like the sales funnels and these virtual assistants. And here’s how you do it.
And long story short, you know, I think a lot of great businesses if you know, like Slack or a few others, like it’s never really, the intention for that main business was ever to start it, but you just have people like banging on your door. Like, you know, you’re trying to sell one thing and they’re like, I want this other thing.
And so that was kind of the Genesis of scaling with systems. Yeah. I love it. I love it. And we’ll make sure there’s a link to your company and how to work with you as well to do this. So we have these first hires and it is, it’s such a big problem for business owners. You know, we have these first hires,
but they’re on board, but let’s talk about actually how to interview them. You have a really special onboarding process this too. I know from talking to so many companies and I personally know within my own business that developing the onboarding process is a ton of work to do it right in. Sometimes, you know, you really fail in a way that you’re not going to get the end result for that new person.
So talk to us about your it’s. You call it the ramping Bible and really how to do this, how to bring people, team members on board. Yeah. It’s super interesting. It’s like, you know, anytime you just sit down and I know you work with a lot of like people that are creating their intellectual property on coursework or whatever it is.
And so, you know, I don’t know about anybody else, but when I’m doing it, it’s like, I’m not getting paid for that necessarily yet. And so it’s really hard to like, take that time, carve it out and do it. It’s it’s just like, there’s like leverage data and you’re like, I’m going to get paid later for this.
But right now this is really difficult. And the onboarding process is something super similar. And so a lot of people, they don’t have any kind of onboarding process. They don’t have any kind of training. And so instead what they’ll do is just hire someone and they’re like, okay, go do this thing. Or then they’re trying to spend all this time training them and that’ll work with their first hire and maybe for the hire after that.
But if you’re smart enough, you know how to, which I wasn’t smart enough with just so everyone here knows I had to learn the hard way, but now we help our clients avoid it. You can create this kind of onboarding training process. We call the ramping Bible inside of scaling, which systems is 35 pages long. It’s a Google document. And it literally starts out like we have one for our commission-based sales position literally starts out with just like,
Hey, this is why we’re hiring you. And this is the importance of this position. These are the KPIs. And then these are also the<inaudible>. These are the goals. If you do this, you’re going to make this money. If you do this, you’re going to make this. So there’s no like end of the year bonus, there’s no like,
you know, you’re going to get promoted at Rockefeller. And it’s just like, here’s how you will make more money and graduate in our company. And we lay it out from everything into Z. And then after that, I’m telling them because a lot of people mistake this and they don’t even have this systemized, but why should you work for scaling systems?
Why should you work for this company? Like, what’s the vision here? What’s the dream here? What are our past clients? Like you have to sell your employees on working with you. And if you don’t and they’re going to leave the first opportunity that they get. And so then we have a few pages on like who we are, what my bad,
that story. I just told you a second ago, like about my dad, the lung cancer, the drop out of school. And then we get into kind of the hard skill stuff, which is like, Hey, here’s how you send cold emails. Usually you scrape leads. Here’s how you send LinkedIn messages. Here’s how you do demo calls. There’s do qualifying calls.
I mean, it took me probably two months to get the whole thing together. But now, you know, between the 1800 virtual assistants that we’ve hired in the past two years, and then, you know, I personally have onboarded 35 different team members inside of our company. All I literally do is, and I’ll tell you guys a little hack, which we don’t have to get into,
but our salespeople pay us $1,500 to come work for our company and make us money because we give them a pretty much a done for you course almost. That’s like, here’s how you make money online. These are you doing. And we just have our service as a thing that they deliver for. And so we’re teaching them to be like top 1% salespeople,
you know, top 1% lead generators. And so some of my sales guys, I have a guy in Canada he’s 17 years old and making like close to $10,000 a month at 17 years old selling our stuff. And so if you can have something that comprehensive from a to Z, then you can get a 17 year old in Canada to sell for you.
You can get someone in the Philippines to do ads for you or client fulfillment or whatever, the backend stuff for us, but it kind of all lays on and falls on that foundational ramping Bible or whatever you want to call it. That someone gets whenever they join your company. Okay, that’s genius. I’m sold. I want your ramping Bible. And I want my own ramping Bible for the Sweetlife company.
Absolutely. You know, I thought our brand introduction onboarding process was cool. Well, definitely no where doesn’t even hold a candle to this. So if you guys are listening, clearly this is the gold standard. This is what needs to be done that alone. We could end this podcast episode on, well, you could just do that. You’re going to scale exponentially just by doing that,
this ramping Bible, you have it for your own company and your own systems, but then do you also help other companies develop their own ramping Bible based on what you have established there? Let’s talk about that a little bit. Yeah. A hundred percent. So like if I was to just get people, the Randy Bible straight as we haven’t and probably overwhelmed a lot of people,
right? Unless they like have multiple team members already and they have people to work on and consume the content. It’s like people would lose their minds. So instead we’re kind of build pieces of the ramping Bible together. So they get to see ours, they get understand what is involved in ours. We help them build it. But instead of being like,
Hey, do this for every position in your company, usually cause we place these virtual assistants for our, we start there and we’re like, okay, this is what they need to be trained on. And we actually train them for our clients. So we do, they do a 60 day bootcamp and we do all the work for them. So they’re kind of getting the done for you,
virtual assistant, but then it’s like, Hey, you know, what do you need to, we teach them how to great, obviously SOP standard operating procedures. So, you know, what do you need to reference back to what happens if you make another hire, right? What happens this virtual assistant leaves, whatever it is. And so we help them build this ramping Bible with them.
And we usually start in the lead generation side because that is an, our experience where a lot of people are lacking in their business is just like, you don’t have enough appointments or people in their calendar. And then once we get past that, then we can start talking about ramping Bibles for sales or ramping Bibles for our account management or ramping Bibles for chief operating officers or any one of those other positions.
Yeah. So we kind of help our clients create that after they joined scaling with systems and then we’ll give them the virtual assistant, who’s going to go through it already, fully trained. Right. Oh my gosh. What an amazing outline, what amazing program you guys have. Okay. So this brings us to the next area that I really want to talk about.
So the majority of the listeners to this show are established small businesses, but if you really, they call us micro businesses. You know, if you look at a small business, it’s still, you know, a hundred people. So we’re talking, you know, businesses that have anywhere from eight to 20 team members or businesses that are listening to this show that might only have three team members right now,
but they need to get to 12 in order to fulfill all the roles within their company. This brings in so many other growing pains as far as from a management and scaling standpoint. So talk to us about your expertise, what you can pour into our listeners when it’s time to actually scale the team itself. What are the primary roles? We talked about a little bit behind the scenes before recording,
but what are the primary jobs that most companies seem to fill first when they’re starting to delegate and grow their team? And how do you recommend companies go about managing that scaling process within the team itself? Yeah. So there’s a great concept called a scorecard. I didn’t create it myself. It was from the gentleman who created HubSpot. They wrote a great book called inbound marketing,
and they’re talking about the scorecard inside of there. And the idea of it is like, you know, every day as a CEO, other team members should be reporting on their scorecard to you the 10, 12, 15 most important statistics in that company. So, you know, number of leads generated number of appointments, you know, number of cash collected yesterday.
You compare that to last week, whatever it is. So the first thing you have to do before you even talked about scaling a team and making the hires is like, are you systemized? And then once, you know, you’re systemized, if someone was going to take this role, what is the expected KPIs? Where’s this expected goals I would want them to do.
And a lot of people’s like, I don’t know, but let’s just say, have you focused solely on email? And you knew that you could send out 300 emails a day and you could probably get five people. That’d be interested in what you’re doing. Then, you know, that’s while you’re still trying to juggle 15 other things at the same time.
So if you hire one person to do this, full-time they could probably get eight to 10 leads day. That’s a, probably an average or a conservative number to use. And so then you hire the person who said, Hey, I’m expecting eight to 10 positive responses, leads, booked appointments in my calendar. If you do this every single day, they say,
yes, you go great. Then what you’ll do is you’ll try a bunch of things out, LinkedIn, email, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever kind of department that you’re in. Obviously whatever’s relevant to that. And then you’ll see what’s working and you’ll see what’s not working. And a lot of times it’s like one thing is blaring obvious that it’s working.
And a lot of other things aren’t. And the biggest mistake, I see people doing whatever their scaling teams is. They keep everyone focused on this like kind of general level where like, everyone’s just doing everything instead of being like, okay, majority of our booked appointments are coming from email, but I keep on trying to do Facebook messages or LinkedIn messages or whatever it is instead of okay,
email works. I’m gonna put you full time on email and they’re going to hire another person to do full-time on email as well, but that’s doubling our efforts. So the first thing that I’ll usually say is like, you figure out what’s working through your KPIs and your scorecard. And then you can double down on that as long as it’s something that you want to double down on such as sales or lead generation,
right? The typical flow that I see people doing in a business, especially higher ticket service based businesses, which is kind of what our wheelhouse is, is virtual assistants for lead generation is mostly the number one thing that you do then what’ll happen is pretty soon you’ll get so many leads that you literally can’t do. The sales calls. You’re like, you know,
dizzy from doing eight to 10 sales calls every single day. So the second hire that we used see is sales. And at this point you have kind of the front end of your business taken care of. You’re waking up, you’re out, you’re having the BA generate leads, a sales person closed deals. And now you have the back end you’ve got to work on.
And I know you work with a lot of hyper scalable or you help people become hyper scalable through like courses or kind of intellectual property. Exactly. So then we start working on that. How do we kind of make your offer a little more hyper scalable? So before we even hire somebody, you know, you don’t want to hire someone in to do something that’s inefficient because then you’re just spending money to do something that’s inefficient.
So how can we streamline your backend process a little bit more, your offering your coursework, whatever it is, working with one niche. And then you’ll usually hire a virtual assistant of a bill for you or some other specialized person. Then it’s an account manager to handle everything that’s going on. And at this point you’re pretty much just operations, right? You got someone generating leads,
you’ve got someone closing leads, you’ve got someone onboarding clients, you got someone delivering for you. And that’s honestly all really low cost because you’re using virtual assistants and commission only salespeople. And then you kind of have room to do the next hire, which is a little more higher level, but just like chief operating officer, essentially, this is the person that is now managing all these people.
And they’re the ones that look at the KPIs and everything else. And now you’re pretty much free to do what, like I’m doing. A lot of my other clients are doing which like podcasts and play with ads and do content and grow a YouTube channel and work on your products onto the backend stuff, which is a dream state for me personally, I had to make sure that the whole company is growing and scaling month over month.
Right. And, and you’re the only one that can do those things. Nobody else can do those, but you, you know, it’s your genius. And I, and I absolutely love that. And so what we’ve done is a company is, you know, we grow really, we have grown from the top down and I say this the time on this podcast.
So my listeners know that I really suck at management. I don’t mean to be, I’m really nice, but I’m just not a great person to work for because I’m super entrepreneur creator, not, you know, not a great systems person, but then Kevin’s, I have those systems people to do that. But you know, we’ve really grown it from that CEO position that,
you know, CMO position and then down. But I love this idea. Granted, we started growing 16 years ago, but I love this idea about really filling this in. So are companies that come to us and the people that listen to the show, I mean, everybody knows the power of scaling. They just don’t know how to go about it.
And there’s budget different ways. We’ve talked about scaling, you know, scaling your offers, you know, to figuring out your systems, how your, your business model, which is all the stuff that I geek out on this scaling through teams is absolutely seems the first foremost, everything you should be thinking about those you guys who are listening, whether you’re just getting started or you’re just at that tipping point where it’s time to scale.
For sure. I want you to process what re what Ravi is saying here, because it’s incredibly important and I totally see this. Okay. So let me ask you some questions here. As I’m getting through to kind of thinking about some questions that our listeners would be asking. So we talked about finding the right people and whether you outsource or, you know,
you’re, you’re kind of going through the process of finding them on your own finding the right people is, is a big, heavy lifting job. And so that is something that your company takes care of. And we’ll make sure that our listeners know how to find you this ramping Bible, again, huge project, huge project. And so based on where our listeners are in this love the value of taking your expertise in your template and creating their own from that.
And one of the things you said that was really important that I just want to hit on is having our team members find themselves in our mission is a big thing. I know for me personally, we just got back from our 20, 21 planning retreat in Florida. We were in Florida last week. And one of the biggest things for each one of my team members has been like,
okay, what is your vision? And how can you find your vision within my company? You know, how is this great for you in addition to being really awesome for me too. And so I love it. That’s something that you guys hit on and there, do you feel like we can do that as well with international teams as we can growing US-based teams?
And how do you create that culture within your team? I did not tee you up for this. You did not know I was going to ask this, but how do we create that sort of team culture when your team is spread out all over? So I’m super happy you asked it. And, and it’s funny, cause like culture is kind of like one of those little buzz words that people just say,
you know, on an Instagram video or whatever it is. But if you have a team, you understand that like culture is the difference. If like when COVID happens and you’re a business campaign payroll that they’re still working, right? Like that’s a difference in culture. And obviously, luckily we didn’t have that problem because we’re online. But like my brother had that issue cause he had restaurants.
And so culture is a difference in like, you know, you not being able to make salary next month, culture difference. And like you having to ask someone to work later when it’s, you know, it’s supposed to be their night out with their girlfriend, whatever it is. And they are like, no problem, I totally get it. And like finding those people,
it’s a great book, good to great. By Jim Collins, he talks about, you know, getting them on the bus and it’s like finding those people is super, super important. And to do that, you have to develop the right culture and that really starts with, and I’ll be really honest. I will listen. I was really great at this in the beginning.
Then we went from six employees to 36 in a matter of three months. And like, I really lost myself and I lost that kind of culture. Like the address was delegating. Like you didn’t do the culture, you do the culture, whatever it is. And what I’ll tell everyone here is why I brought it back from me and what it was in the beginning was like every 90 days we have performance reviews with our employees and I delegated those out for a little bit time.
Cause I was just so busy, but we care about personal financial and professional goals. So we would say, Hey, you know, what’s been going great the past 90 days, what do we need to work on? You know, this is both of us, everyone get the feedback. They can knock the CEO. They want to, I think it says,
awesome. Let’s talk about goals here. So in the next 90 days, and then even further and beyond what are your professional personal and financial goals. And so some of our team members it’s, I want to lose weight. So when I go back home from Thanksgiving or I go home for Christmas, you know, I look better or maybe it’s like,
I want to be able to buy a house, but my credit is for whatever it is and what you’ll realize. A lot of times it doesn’t have to do with money. Like these are not money goals here just like access to certain things or knowledge or information. And so what you can do as a company is help them reach those goals. If they help you reach your goals.
So Hey, if you hit these numbers that we send this many outbound messages. If we get this many books appointments, then I will pay for a credit repair service. So you can start getting your application for your home, whatever it is. And I was doing that really well in the beginning. But then, like I said, I lost touch.
And recently, literally about a week ago, right in the middle of the move from California to Florida, I’m doing 36 performance reviews in three days. And I’m just like 12 a day, pretty much. I’m like, Oh my God, I’m going crazy. But in that timeframe, I actually was able to like finally go back down and touch every single person and just like hear how much our company has impacted them.
And then like what their future goals are and what, and at the end of every single call, they’re like Ravi, I can’t believe you took the time out of your day to do this call with. And I’m thinking in my head, like, I’m grateful for you. Like, please don’t leave me. Like you’re in the big part of this.
I’m not, this is nothing like you’ve done everything up to this point. And so I guess that’s the point of building that culture has to really do with like asking your employees what they want, including overseas virtual assistants. The ones that were the most honest with me were the ones in the Philippines. And they were telling me like, they want to have kids,
but it’s a little difficult for them to have kids because of like biological reasons. And so we’re talking about adoption and like all these other things that like the other people, you never would hear anybody in the us or someone else talk about what their employer for multiple reasons. But yeah, it sounds cheesy, but figuring it out, writing down what they want,
holding them accountable, I’ve been helping them reach it. If they help you reach your goals on your business, I think is a great way to keep a high performance culture inside of a company, but also have that kind of caring. Like I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about it. Kind of thing. I love that. Oh my gosh,
love that. Appreciate all of that. And all of you sharing and the transparency and just really all about that. And I think that’s as important as everything else we talked about today. All right. So businesses are ready to scale and they need help. How can they find you? Yeah, of course, the easiest way. And then I had told you the beginning of this and I’m sure you can confirm it.
I talk very fast and I like breeze over topics that people are like, Ravi. I want to learn more about that. And so what I did is I put together a free course. It’s about five and a half hours of totally free content and overs, like where to find the virtual assistants, what kind of lead generation scripts you should be using,
you know, how to kind of build that ramping Bible yourself. And if you want to get access to it, you just go to scaling which isn’t dot com slash sweet dash life. And I know April set, you’ll link it down below, but she actually attaches to the podcast. So that way you guys can make it easier for you to remember,
but yeah, scaling with systems.com/sweet-life. And you guys get instant free access to that course. Yeah. Highly, highly recommend in your company, scaling with systems. We’ll make sure that we have links to where people can find you in addition to not only the course, but across social media as well. You thank you so much for your time. Thanks for talking fast.
Totally love it. We covered so much information and I know that our listeners got a ton of value out of this, especially those that are really at that place where it’s time to scale. They’re serious about it and they want to do it right. So really appreciate your time on this. Yeah, of course. April was an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for having me on here.
Keep up the great work with all the incredible content and for everyone that’s at home or driving, whatever you’re doing, working out and listening, I do appreciate your guys’ time and I hope you got some value out of it, For sure they did. For sure. All right. Thanks Robbie.<inaudible> What a great show. I appreciate rubby so much for being on here.
And I like you when we have these guests in here, I’m taking notes like a crazy woman. If you’ve seen us behind the scenes or if you haven’t yet checked out our YouTube channel and you can actually see the full interview on video with me and Ruby and see me taking notes here through this process. Again, you can find the course, which is an amazing bonus.
We have, you know, no, no profit stake in this whatsoever. And Ravi doesn’t either. This is a completely free training that he’s given you simply by visiting scale with systems.com forward slash sweet dash life. And you can get access to this complete training that he has for you learn more about that onboarding Bible, the ramping up Bible, and how to create your own.
We are here to make sure you have systems in place to grow and scale your business online faster. And we appreciate you listening to the show. If you haven’t yet, please take a second and leave us a review on Apple or you listen to podcasts and connect with us and follow us at Sweetlife company on LinkedIn. Thanks so much. You guys I’ll talk to you next week.
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Summary:
You know what got you here is not going to get you to the next level. But, hiring a business coach may feel risky. How do you know if you’ll get the results you need? How do you know if you can trust this person? Will their style meet your needs? Are they legit? In this episode you’ll get massive clarity on how how to hire the right business coach for you, what questions to ask a potential coach and how to weed out the rookies coaches for the best.
At the End of This Episode You Will
Know if you’re ready to hire a business coach
Be equipped to ask the right questions when interviewing business coaches
Have a ton of clarity on how to find your perfect fit coach
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there. And welcome back to the show. I’m April beach, your host and founder of the sweet life company. And we are here to help all of you experts, entrepreneurs, and small business owners scale online,
develop your leading offer and become the undisputed leader. How we do this here on the show and in the suite life company is by providing an experienced, proven business consulting firm over a decade of working with entrepreneurs, just like you and helping you grow and scale your business with online services, programs, digital products and programs on today’s show. We’re talking about how to hire the perfect business coach.
This is episode number 204, and this is what you can expect. First of all, should you tune in, should it hang out here for me, with me for another 20 minutes? So this show is for those of you guys that are considering hiring a private business consultants, but you need to make sure your money is well spent and you want to make sure that you’re going to the next level.
Here’s the deal. You know, that what got you here to this point is not going to be the same strategy, or maybe even the same self-teaching that can get you to the next level in your business. But hiring a business coach can feel really risky, especially now that everybody under the sun is calling themselves a business coach. Most of them who haven’t even built and scaled their own companies.
And so there are some things that you really need to be careful for. You know, if you’re thinking, how am I going to get results? How do I know if I can trust this person? How’s this person’s style going to meet my needs? Is this person really legit in this episode, we’re diving in to give you massive clarity on how you can hire the right person for you and you know,
the right questions to ask, to make sure that potential coach is going to be the one that delivers you, the results that you’re looking for at the end of the show, you’re going to know, first of all, whether or not you actually need or are ready for a private business coach. And you’re going to be equipped with the right questions to ask when interviewing a business coach.
And of course give you a ton of clarity to find that perfect fit coach for you. Along with this show, we have a download for you. They are 26 business coach interview questions, and you can go grab that, download it totally free. Just visit the show notes@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two zero four. And you can totally grab that it’s a free download and really important questions.
I want to make sure we’re not only giving you the strategies and talking about the important things here on the show, but I’m actually giving you two pages of questions. You can sit down during your interview with the coach and just ask them in, go ahead and make sure that you are getting the results that you’re looking for even in the pre-interview time. So if you’re ready for that,
let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show<inaudible>. So we’re going to break this show up into two parts, cause I want to make sure I’m giving you exactly what you’re looking for in the answers you need. First of all, again, we’re talking about how to hire the perfect business coach for you and the perfect coach for you is different than the perfect coach for me,
everybody is different. And so it’s really important that you have your own strategies to figure out who that perfect fit is going to be for you. The first one we need to do is talk about whether or not you actually need to be investing in a private business coach. And if your company is actually ready for that. And then in the second half of the show,
I’m going to help, you know, the questions to ask, to find the perfect fit coach for you. So let’s go ahead and dive in again. You can grab the download for the 26 interview questions to ask a business coach by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash two, a four, or you can download it instantly with no opt-in when you join our free community,
you can join our community over@sweetlifecommunity.com and all of our podcasts downloads have no opt in there to really give you speed and efficiency. Okay? So here we go. First of all, are you ready for a private business coach? Just because we all want to individual attention doesn’t necessarily mean that your business is at the point where you’re really ready for that level of coaching.
So let’s go ahead and talk about that together and make sure it’s a good investment for you. First things. First, number one, if you feel like you’ve been trying everything on your own, trying a bunch of different things and failing that them, or if you’ve been self-taught with little games, it may be time for a business coach for you. Although here’s the deal.
I am a huge advocate for failing. Failing is part of what makes you smarter and increases your entrepreneur IQ and helps you find confidence in yourself as a business leader. So when it comes to business growth, failing is part of the process, but we also need to help you make money faster and smarter. We don’t want you to failing forever all the way through.
If you’ve tried something on your own, you can’t get through, you can’t push past a barrier or you don’t understand something, or you like me value not recreating the wheel from scratch. Then private business coach is probably what you’re ready for. Number two, instead of being confident and proactive in your business, you’re starting to follow and copy other people’s success.
So maybe you’re confident in the beginning, but now you’re, you’re starting to kind of copy cat what other people are doing. And that’s never a good thing because even though it might look good on the outside for you, somebody else’s business model might seem like it’s perfect, but it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right pathway. And it’s going to get you the same results.
So if you find yourself starting to copycat what other people are doing and you’re lost, then certainly a private business strategist is something that’s going to be wise for you to get wisdom. So if you’ve been trying to do this on your own for a long time, you see other influencers and you see other businesses, and you’re trying to duplicate what they’re doing without any strategic wisdom of your own.
And that’s not working. Then it’s time for a private business coach. So really consider hiring a consultant and somebody who will roll up their sleeves with you, dive into your business with you and really hear what your struggles are. Your areas of expertise, how much money you bring to the table. What you’ve already tried. It’s really important that you don’t hire somebody.
That’s just going to teach you things you’ve already done. And this person should help you come up with a customized plan. That’s going to work for you. And here’s some things that I want you to consider. If you’re building a six to seven figure business and it’s not a side hobby, then it’s probably time. If you’ve met the previous criteria, we’ve just talked about to invest in a business coach,
business coaches are worth their weight in gold. They can absolutely change and transform your business. Literally, almost overnight. Now, no, there are no overnight fixes, but your understanding of your plan and your strategy can go from completely murky to very, very clear, almost instantly with the right coach. There’s nothing that feels better than that. Now you still have to go and implement it,
but that Mindshift alone can truly lift a million pounds off your shoulders and give you the clarity and focus you need. Now let’s talk about what you should invest or expect to invest with a business coach. And the first question starts with you. What can you afford? There are a lot of business coaches out there. I’m a said there are a lot of bitches out there.
There are a lot of bitches out there too, but there’s business coaches out there. I’m laughing. Cause I know my producer is going to leave this in here and you can have an hourly rate with a consultant anywhere from $50 an hour, $500 an hour, up to $5,000 an hour and really beyond. I don’t even know who those coaches are, but I know that they exist.
And I’m hoping this podcast episode can help you sort, the great coaches from those that are truly a sham. This is also why I’ve included the 26 questions to ask a business coach, download with this podcast to help you guide your conversations in interviewing a new coach to help make sure you aren’t getting taken to the cleaners. Okay? And so the deal is,
make sure your investment aligns with the money you have projected to make in your business and make sure it aligns with the value of your offers, your courses, your services, your programs, and what you can expect to recuperate what your ROI is. So the reality is is if you’re selling something for $200, it’s hard to recuperate an ROI. If you invest in a business consultant,
that’s going to cost you 30,000. How long is that going to take you? The amount of investment in my opinion should be relative to your ability to recuperate with an ROI. And that really starts with your offer. How valuable is your offer? You might be hiring a business coach to help you develop your offer, but you generally know the value of what you’re going for the target audience that you want to reach.
And so make sure that the value of what you’re selling is going to help you recuperate in a reasonable amount of time, your investment with a business coach. Now, just aside plug, if you need help developing your leading offer or program, or course consider joining my next upcoming masterclass called your leading offer, and you can add your name to the interest list for that by visiting theofferengineer.com
will really help you build something that’s highly valuable. And I say this because honestly I’ve heard a lot of people who have invested a lot of money to work with coaches and they put everything on the line and they lose their ass. Some of them have quit their jobs. They can’t pay their mortgage. I don’t want to see that anymore. I don’t want to see that heartbreak.
I don’t want to have any more phone calls with entrepreneurs saying I have nothing left. I spent $20,000 on this coach on this mastermind and I have nothing to show for it. I don’t want that to be you. And so be smart about what you’re investing and make sure that you’re working with the coach. That’s going to deliver the results that you’re looking for.
So if you have money to invest in mentorship, I highly recommend that you do it. The ROI is there. As long as you find the right coach, that can get you the results. And so one of the things to look at is how many trainings are you currently sitting on? If you’ve collected a ton of business courses, if you’re sitting on business downloads and listening to tons of podcasts,
you’ve been in a bunch of different masterminds, but you still don’t have any Results then certainly it’s probably time for a private business mentor for you. Although, as I’m saying this out loud and I’m as I’m recording this, I do know that very few coaches offer private one-on-one. So I would start there if you’re feeling already like, gosh, I really want to work with somebody and I want to get close to them.
Definitely start looking for coaches that even have that as an option. Everybody’s so into scale, scale scale, there are very few coaches that will give you their one-on-one time anymore. And frankly, that’s just a shame. And in that process, you want to ask yourself, how close do I want to be to this coach? If it’s important to you to have a personal relationship with the professional relationship,
with a business coach that knows your story, they know your profit plan. You know, you want them to know what’s on the line for you. You want them to know then, you know, you have the names of your kids and where your dream house is going to be located your vision and the purpose for what you’re doing. Then the best place you are going to find that is in a perfect private relationship.
Okay. So here’s your breaking point if you’ve listened to this so far and you’re like, yeah, no, I’m not ready for a private business consultant. I, I still want to DIY that’s great. You can go ahead and stop listening to this podcast now and tune into maybe another sweet life entrepreneurial podcasts that you’ve missed. If you’ve determined that yes,
it’s time for me to invest in a business coach to grow my company more strategically and faster. Now let’s talk more about how to find the right coach for you. So Denise Duffield-Thomas was on the show a few years ago, actually she’s a money mindset, coach and author of the book, chill preneur. She was a guest here back in 2018 and she wrote a great article a few years back.
And I just want to reference this article because I think it’s really important as we dive into this. I also want to make sure I’m operating and recording this podcast with integrity and ethics because I am a business coach. So I want to make sure I’m bringing you outside expertise and resources. In addition to what I’m delivering you here on the show to help you find a business coach.
And that it’s just not all coming from me. So it’s not me saying, Hey, you know, here’s the questions you should ask a business coach, but there are so many different, great coaches out there and that’s really the truth. And so I want to make sure that I’m giving you enough resources. You can ask wise questions during your interview process.
So I’m referencing Denise’s article here and I’m going to talk about some of the things that she brought up in this article, as well as the strategies that I’m giving you here on this show. So a few points that she brought up and they are very, very valid. The first question to ask yourself is where are you at right now in your business?
Take a really good look at the current plain field. What does it look like right now in your marketplace? What does money look like for you? What is your money look like right now? How clear are you and what you want to build? How clear are you and where you want to go? What do your services look like? Or what do you want them to look like in what’s happening right now and have just a real serious come to Jesus with yourself and just say,
this is where I am right now in my business. I’m not clear on this, or I’m not sure about this, right? I don’t know what decision I want to make about something. Just get really clear and understand where you are right now. This is before you ever get on the phone with a potential coach, this is what you should be doing throughout the process as you’re looking for a coach.
So the first question is really to take a personal inventory after you’ve identified where you are and say, okay, where do I want to go next? What does that look like to me financially? What does it look like? As far as what impact I want to have on a market or on a niche? What does it look like in my business model?
Generally? What type of business model am I looking to build and what sort of marketing and PR do I want to bring in and tap into my business first, take that personal inventory of figuring out where you are and then get really specific on the results that you’re looking for from a business coach, the results you’re looking to achieve in your business and hiring a coach to help you do that.
And then the third part of that is to ask yourself questions like what skills do I need to get from where I am now to where I want to go? So identify the skills you’re missing, or you need to do better at no more. What resources do you need? What systems do you need and where actually am I going? And do I even have a roadmap to get there?
This is pretty standard goal setting strategy, identifying where you are identifying, where you want to go and understanding what’s missing to get you there. But this is absolutely imperative for you to go through this process first to the best of your ability. I understand if you’re hiring a coach, you need a coach to help you figure a lot of this out, but you need to have an understanding of your own individual desires and your current place.
Where are you anchored right now? And where are you going to set sail to? And then you want to go look for a coach that you’re considering hiring. And so here are some questions. Here are some really important things that you should look at in addition to the black and white. Okay. Number one, what sort of life does that business coach have?
Because a lot of coaches have a business model that doesn’t necessarily align with the business model that you want to have for your life. So if you’re looking for somebody to teach you what they know, the tricks of the trade, their area of expertise and their strategies and the plan in which they use to get there, if you don’t want what they have,
they are not the right business coach for you. And I’ve seen that again. And again, I’ve seen midlife women hire younger business coaches, which there’s nothing wrong with that, but totally wanting a different outcome, totally wanting and currently having a different life and wondering why they didn’t get the results that they were looking for. And I just think it’s incredibly important because just seeing somebody there and they might have millions of Instagram followers or a group with thousands of followers and a membership community,
it doesn’t mean that they’re the right business coach for you, just because of a lot of other people follow them. Or a lot of other people work with them. Doesn’t mean they’re the right fit for you. So really take a look and ask that business coach, number one, you should ask them, what is their business model? If you can’t identify this through your own research research.
So what is their business model? How many hours a week do they work? And really what was the process? It took them to get there and do they have kids? That is an important question. You guys, I, this isn’t a mom prenuer podcast or a dad preneur podcast. But if you have kids, you guys that are listening, I’ve said this a trillion times here on the podcast of building a business with kids is totally different than building a business without kids,
your business systems, your model, your scale plan, your launches, your marketing are all driven by business and life strategies. When you have a family, it matter if they’re one or if they’re 18 years old, it’s still, there are different strategies you implement in different things that you put value on when you are building a business for lifestyle Results around family.
So if you’re spending thousands of dollars investing in a coach, who’s unaware of how to build a business in a true travel lifestyle family. It’s probably going to backfire on you. Don’t be surprised if that happens. So that’s just a little side note there. So another great question to ask is what is their coaching style teach versus tell? So this was a question that was going on in a group that I was involved in.
And the question posed was how much do you teach your clients versus how much do you tell them what to do? And I’m reading the comments in this group. And half of the coaches were saying this, no, no, no. You never tell your clients what to do. You only teach them how to find the answer for themselves. And the others were saying,
Nope, I totally tell them what to do. I totally give them the direction that they’re looking for. And here’s what I say. I absolutely tell my clients my expert opinion on what I believe they should do. It’s my personal coaching style to actually do both. Sometimes people hire me and they just want to know the dang answer. They have been searching for years and they just want somebody to tell them the answer.
I’m not going to sit them down. Like my mother did when I asked her how to spell a word and she wouldn’t give me the answer. She’d say, now, honey, now spell it out. I don’t want to spell out the damn word. Right? I literally paid you to give me the answer. And sometimes that’s just what people need and that might be what you need.
But then sometimes my clients need these strategic answers and it’s really, really important. And I’m a firm advocate, making sure my job is to teach my clients every single thing I know as it pertains to their business. So they don’t need me anymore. So basically my job is teaching my way out of a job. And I want my clients to fully say,
you know, Hey April. Yeah, I worked with her. She taught me everything I needed to know, and I don’t need to work with her anymore. And so that’s really the goal. And I share that with you. Obviously it’s a little bit of my own coaching style, but I share that with you because the reality is, as some business,
coaches are not going to give you quick answers. Some business coaches want you to go through the discovery process. Some are almost giving you so much information. It’s like an MBA and funnel building. When you, you know, when you might be a nutritionist, it’s totally irrelevant to the end result that you’re looking for. And I know many of you that listen to this podcast are really strapped for time and you want results.
So do yourself a favor, decide, do I want a business coach that’s going to teach me and tell me when I need an answer or do I just want somebody to teach me how to do things in the style is going to vary across the board. We could get into a whole different conversation between a coach versus a versus mentor. I’m not going there.
The reality is it’s just no, the best way that you learn and know the results that you’re really looking for. And really the happy medium is being able to have the wisdom to make your own decisions based on the coach, guiding you to the response that’s best for you. So just kind of think about that a little bit. And now here are a couple of other tips.
I highly recommend that you’re able to speak personally, one-on-one with the person who’s going to be coaching you before you hire them. You have this opportunity, whether it’s for five minutes or 50 minutes to sit down on the phone or do a video call and make sure that the energy is right to make sure that the relationship giants and it’s really somebody that you can believe that you can learn from you can lean on and you can trust.
And I think that that is super, super important. Particularly with business coaches that require a higher investment to work with them sometimes are these funnels that are built, where you pay a lot of money to hire a coach without ever really having an opportunity to speak to them upfront. And I would personally say that you have a right to speak with anybody who you’re about to invest in to guide your business relative to the amount of investment they’re asking.
If you are joining. For example, one of my business mentorship programs is $10,000. I won’t even take you on as a client until I make sure it’s a good fit for both of us as well. And you would have that same opportunity to interview me back. And I think that that’s very, very important for any business coaching program that requires a higher investment.
So just to share that now, let’s go ahead and dive a little bit in, I gave you the download four 26 interview questions to ask a business coach. I’m going to share a couple of them here as we wrap up this podcast episode, but I really want to make sure you get all of them. They’re asked in a strategic way so that as you go through the interview,
you really get the answers you’re looking for. And so here we go. Question number one is how long have you been coaching number two? How many clients have you coached? Number three, what transformation can I expect after working with you really important one right there. If they cannot explain the end results, you should stop the conversation right there. Number four,
how long will it take to see these results? Number five, how many hours outside of your coaching time do you recommend? I work on the action items that you give me six. Can I speak with others? Who’ve worked with you seven. Do you provide a guarantee of any kind eight? What are your areas of expertise? And this is you asking the coach nine,
how will I contact you 10? How often will we meet 11? This one’s really important. What if I have an emergency question, make sure that you know, their availability to you during emergencies, especially if you’re hiring a coach with a particular launch or a strategy that you really, really need an immediate answer for that might come up. Are you available in person?
And the 13th question is what is your business model? And there are 13 more important questions, maybe not more important, but there are 13 additionally important questions that I recommend that you go through and a business coach interview. And I want to make sure that you have those resources so you can download all 26 business coach interview questions by visiting and sweet life podcast.com
episode two Oh four. So that’s Ford slash two Oh four. And of course you can get all of our downloads with no opt-in by joining our community@sweetlifecommunity.com. And of course, if you’d like to know about working with me privately, I would love to interview with you. You can cruise over to Sweetlife co.com and schedule with me anytime let’s have a chat.
Thanks so much for tuning into this show. I really appreciate your listenership. I know as we wrap up 2020, all of us are eager to get this year over, but I also know that there are a lot of investments that you’re currently making in your business. As you look into 2021. And my job is to make sure that they’re wise investments and I’m equipping you with the tools you need to make wise decisions for yourself and your business and your future.
All right, thanks so much for tuning in here. I’ll talk to you guys next week.
This show is for entrepreneurs in all stages of my Start To Scale Up System™ – take the quiz here to find out and receive a personalized business growth plan.
Summary:
Whether you’re heading to a family reunion are planning to hike the John Muir Trail, Lifestyle freedom is the reason why you became an entrepreneur. Let’s make sure you’re planning your year in advance to actually make it happen. For the past three years I’ve recorded an episode every December to teach how I lay out my year for family and travel first, while assuring I’ve reached the profit benchmarks I need to to make it all happen. In this episode I lay out those steps to make sure my year it’s exactly the way I want it to be.(Regardless of what craziness comes in the year to come, creating a plan is essential to ever getting what you want.)
At the End of This Episode You Will
Know how to layout the whole year for lifestyle freedom
Be able to assess what changes may need to happen in your offers and services to reach your lifestyle goals
Have the most important math equation that business coaches don’t tell you – and if you don’t know these numbers – you’re sunk
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. You guys. It’s so great to talk to you again. This is Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. So number 203, and I’m April beach, your host here at the show and at the recording of this,
we are turning over into the month of December. I’m so excited. I know you’re with me. Let’s have jazz hands here. We’re ready to put this year behind us. And in the process of doing that, it’s time to plan for 2021. So this episode is a really cool episode. It’s actually a great show. I have recorded this show and released it in December for the last three years in a row.
And today we’re talking all about the steps to plan this next upcoming year for profit and lifestyle freedom. And so this is a great show for those of you guys that are wondering how to plan out your business plan for the upcoming year. But also you share the same values as me, where as you want to make sure you’re setting aside time to be with your family,
to travel to your kid’s soccer, things that they’re going to do to go visit your family reunion at the Lake, whatever it is that you want to do, that you have a vision that you want to do, that you can do for the upcoming year. And the truth of the matter is, is if we don’t plan your business for this in advance,
it’s never going to happen, never, ever, ever going to happen. And regardless of any global pandemic or anything else that comes around or where we are as a world, as the new year rolls around, you have to have a plan or it’s never going to happen. So that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. And you know, people ask me all the time,
how I’m able to run two companies, have a busy podcast and still be able to travel with my kids. So in 2019, I was away from the house for almost six months for the whole year, traveling and living in different places. And this is how I did it. So even though this year, didn’t roll out the way all of us wanted.
I’m still going to teach you how to plan for it for the years to come. And in this show, this is what you can expect. At the end of this episode, you’re going to know how to lay out your whole entire year for lifestyle freedom. And I’m going to give you the steps, almost the order of operations in which I go through this every single year.
You’re also going to be able to assess what changes you need to make to your current offers. That’s actually going to make that happen. This shows can help you open up your eyes in a very sobering way. I’ll be honest regarding what you’re selling and whether or not what you have in your menu of offers and services and programs is honestly ever going to get you to the lifestyle that you want.
And we’re going to do that by making sure you have the most important math equation. I hate math too. I’ll be honest, but there are some pretty important math equations that most business coaches don’t tell you that I need to make sure that you’re aware of. Because if you don’t know these numbers, if you don’t hit these numbers, you’re never going to have lifestyle freedom.
And so we’re going to dive into all of those things on today’s show. Again, this is Sweetlife podcast episode number 203. So you can cruise over to Sweetlife code.com or find us on all of the podcasts listening apps in all of the show notes will be@sweetlifecode.com. Number two Oh three. And we do have a couple of bonuses for those of you guys that are really interested in making sure you’re nailing your 2021 business and profit plan.
The first thing is join us over in our Sweetlife community. We have just launched our premier members community. It’s $7 a month. Yes, I’m charging $7 a month for it. We really only want to make sure serious business builders are in there. And so we need to charge people something. Otherwise we just have dead weight. I don’t like dead weight in my communities.
So cruise over to Sweetlife community.com and in December, I am going to be teaching a class, a workshop taking you step-by-step through the process of laying everything out that I’m talking about high level on the podcast. So join me on December. The, let me look up the date for you 17th, as long as you joined Sweetlife community.com, cruise over there and pay your little puny $7,
I will be teaching you a live masterclass and taking your questions on top of that as you’re going through this training. And as we’re talking about what you need to do, step-by-step to lay out your year, if you’re struggling whatsoever with your offers, if you can’t hit your offer numbers that you need to hit, then go to theofferengineer.com. There’s nothing I can give you right now,
but you can join our wait list for our new leading offer masterclass. It’s opening up again in February of 2021. So those are some resources. They’re all there in our show notes. And let’s go ahead and dive into today’s business training.<inaudible> The steps to plan your business year for profit and lifestyle freedom. So starting with the most important thing you have to have is a primary offer that you know,
will generate the revenue that you want. So how do you know that you have to take time to craft an outline, a high value, high impact program service, leading offer, or package. So if you haven’t done that yet, that’s your very, very first step. Again, if you need help with that cruise over to theofferengineer.com and we’ll connect in my in February.
But the very, very first thing is making sure that you have a primary offer that is high value, high impact that people meet, where they want so much, that they are seeking you out. It’s something that is incredibly needed in your space. And they’re going to pay you to solve this for them because they either don’t want to, or they can’t do it on their own.
They can’t do it without you. So you need to make sure that you have this primary offer and that it’s nailed down. Emitted is awesome. So we can’t plan your year. We can’t plan profit unless we know you have something incredible that you’re selling. And I’m talking about the primary offer that you were selling. So after you know what your primary income source will be,
then I want you to look at the year. I want you to look at a calendar and this is how I do this. This is how I teach it. And I’m telling you what you guys have been doing this now for about seven years, every single year, it’s exponentially better. So step number one is to look at your whole entire calendar.
If you’ve ever seen behind the scenes, I literally have a 12 foot calendar going across my wall. I’m a calendar dork. It’s a dry erase calendar I got from Amazon. And I can look on my wall and whatever calendar you like to use. I want you to block off all the times in this upcoming year that you plan to travel or take off work in the whole entire year.
So if you don’t have a specific plans yet, but you know, you want to travel, make sure you block off those times now. So for example, I have no idea where exactly I am going to travel next summer, but I can tell you what I know I’m going to be on the East coast, at least a dozen times at lacrosse tournaments over the months of June and July.
And I know I’m going to be on the West coast with my other son dancing in the spring. So I’m still blocking off those times in my calendar, even if they’re just general times. And I don’t know exactly when I’m going yet, but generally I know that I’m not going to be in the same work capacity. So after you’ve gone through your calendar and you’ve thought about the times that you want to travel,
even if you don’t have specific plans yet, even if we don’t know what the world is going to look like, I want you to block them off now or you know what you’re never ever going for sure. And step number two is to block off any professional development time after you block off your personal time. So this could be time for working on any projects that you’ve set aside,
like writing that book, or maybe doing a big project, like rebuilding your website that you really can’t dive into because you haven’t blocked off all the busy-ness of work in life. So I want you to go and I want you to think, when do I want to be working on these projects? When does this make sense to me to reach this specific goal?
And I want you to note it on your calendar and if needed, you might need to take off or reduce your client or business service time to develop your new professional skills or write that book or whatever it is. So step one is blocking off travel time, family time, when you just really don’t want to be in the office setting. Number two is setting aside your professional development time and what this does,
is this a side note here? It’s super cool because as you see these conferences coming up, whether they’re online or in person or a mastermind that you want to join being offered in 2021, you know that you will have already made those things important. And so now you can look for those things that actually fit into your calendar. Look for the opportunities,
the mentors you want to work with and the trips that you want to go on professionally or the work that you want to do. So that is why blocking off your professional time. Come second, because again, those are things that they come last, usually for us as business owners and they shouldn’t. And then after you’ve blocked off and secured your personal growth time and your lifestyle time,
now let’s get into how you’re going to pay for it. Right? So looking at your primary offer, I want you to ask yourself, can you still deliver this primary offer during any of your blocked off times as the answer is yes, then there’s really nothing much you need to do. But if the answer is no, then you’ve keenly become aware that you need to sell more of your offer in less time.
So you better be strategic to pull it off, right? So therefore I want you to block off your primary selling period and product or service delivery times for this primary product or offer. I’ll give you a personal example. I always like to try to show you guys behind the scenes. So I know that I’m traveling a lot in June or July. So when I open up my,
your leading offer masterclass, for example, it is never going to be in June or July because I will never ever do it. I’m not going to be here to do that, right? So I know that the times I’ve blocked off on my calendar to invite people, to join me in my leading offer masterclass, I need to make sure that I am hitting our financial end goal benchmarks during those times.
And you need to do the very same thing. So go on block off your primary selling periods. And when you are offering that particular primary offer in order that it’s going to work with the rest of your calendar side note to those of you guys that are in somewhat of a seasonal business, there are certain seasons that align with when people buy. So,
you know, if you’re a realtor, there’s a house buying. If you will kind of season, you know, you’re not going to not plan to sell during when your primary season, it would be like a bathing suit shop closing in the summer. So although we are designing your life because we’re creating a profit plan that gives you lifestyle freedom. We always have to be obviously realistic.
When do people want to buy what you’re offering? And so take that into consideration when you’re going through and planning this. So first we’ve laid out your personal time off second, we lay out your professional time off third. We note on your calendar, your primary selling periods. Again, in order to pull off the lifestyle side of it, we need to sell more in less time.
So now we need to look at those numbers. And this is when the sobering part of the podcast training comes next. You need to crunch the numbers. This is seriously not rocket science. I am terrible at math. How many of your offer do you need to sell in order to hit your financial benchmarks for that particular product in those groups of times,
for the year. And in order to answer that you need to know some basic things about your primary offer. First, first of all, what is it cost? And secondly, what is your capacity? Your capacity is how many people you can serve at once. So what is the cost of your offer and how many people can you actually have based on your business capacity,
serving during those times of the year that you need to sell your primary offer. And then once you’ve gone through it for your primary offer, then you’re going to rinse and repeat the same step for any other offers. You have secondary offers, digital products, quick grab things that might not require so much of your time. So first I want you to do it for your primary sales objective,
your primary leading program service, whatever it is, you do know how much it costs and ask yourself how many people can I serve at a time. And these numbers become really sobering for some businesses. You may realize that with your offer, the way that it is, you can never reach your financial benchmarks. And I’ll talk to you about what to do here in a second.
Give that to you then. And again, I want you to rinse and repeat this for any other offers that you have. And so you’re going to end up with some basic but powerful math and these answers to these math questions or really sobering. So you will learn that you possibly need to alter and change some of your products, business model to serve more people,
to reach your financial benchmarks. And this is what we call scaling. This is what my company does. This is our Ninja skill. We help companies take your assets and scale them with other online business models and offers, and is a side note. If you’re ready to scale, then you know where to come. But if you’re looking at your offers and saying,
wow, I have this really amazing. Let’s say, for example, you are a career coach have this really amazing career coaching, but it’s one-on-one. So we need to, to create other opportunities for you to bring in more streams of income, using your expertise, your intellectual property, your content, and your assets, so that you can still keep your one-on-one clients.
But then we’re adding more revenue through scaling by other offers. So this math is really going to let you, you know, Hey, does my current business model actually support the lifestyle I really, really want? And then here is the next part. This is the part that most business coaches, well not tell you. So we have this number, right?
We have this dollar amount that you need to hit in order to be able to take the other time off, to head to that mastermind, to pay for that mastermind for him and sakes. So the other sobering reality, every single entrepreneur should know and opens up the world of sales. Statistics is the average sales conversion rate is 3%. Now, every industry is totally different.
This is just generally speaking, but this is the baseline number to start with. I’ve done a ton of podcast, by the way, you guys, on how to increase your conversion rates. And as an example, most of our clients close it over 80% with their sales calls. But the reality is is if you’re selling like a digital product or a low touch sales funnel,
let’s just call it 3%. I would rather underestimate and have you underestimate than overestimate. So if we have our dollar amount, right, that you have to hit, right for your primary offers and your secondary offers taking the percentage that 3% are going to convert. This is your next question. You need to ask yourself how many people do you need to reach in order to convert the numbers of products you need to sell to reach your financial benchmarks at 3%.
So if you need to sell $300,000 to sustain the life that you want, that your company, and this is all growth, but $300,000, and let’s say your product or your service is worth 10,000, then you need to sell 30 of them, right? Basic math. But now here’s the reality check. Now ask yourself, 30 sales is 3% of what number in.
This is a number of people you need to reach in your marketing in order to hit that financial benchmark. And the answer to that is a thousand. So if you you’re wrapping up your really plan and you want to mindfully create your marketing strategy around the number of people you need to reach, not the number of people you want to sell. I need to know that you know that number.
So if you need to sell 30 of your primary offer or your combination of offers in order to hit the sales conversion yeah. And that you want, how many people do you need to reach? And as you’re going back to your map, your map, I call it map. Everything’s a map in my head. As you’re going back to your calendar could a map,
right? As you’re going back to your calendar, make sure that you are blocking off your marketing time out on your calendar, that you are enabling for ample warm up time with your audience, ample relationship, building time, grassroots marketing on top of the regular digital marketing strategies so that we can increase your conversion rates to exceed your baseline sales needs and expectations.
So this is all about planning and calendar planning, but it’s important that you know, the difference between how many you want to sell and based on basic sales conversions, how many people you need to reach, because we have to plan your marketing and your strategy, the time in your calendar to make sure that you are nailing it. Well, I hope that makes sense.
Again, if you want me to roll up my sleeves with you in there and talk about these numbers we can do. So, and the workshop that I am teaching in Sweetlife community.com in December, you can join me over there and I’ll give you some extra help with this and really work through, take your personal questions. I’d love to see you in there.
So in summary, wrapping it all up here for you to plan your year for freedom. First, you start with blocking out what you personally professionally need. That’s a very first thing to block out in your calendar. If you don’t do it, you guys it’s never, ever going to happen. Then you reverse engineer the numbers, hand in hand with your calendar to make sure that you have planned the marketing programs and the service delivery systems in conjunction with the sales to reach those numbers.
In most cases, you’ll realize it’s time to scale that you’re going to have to change some of your offers, maybe add some additional revenue streams of income so that you can work less utilizing the assets you already have in order to hit the numbers and reach the lifestyle for you and that you want. So whether you’re heading on a family reunion or are going with your girlfriends to hike the John Muir trail lifestyle freedoms,
the reason why you became an entrepreneur, right? So let’s make sure that you’re planning your year in advance and you’re crunching the numbers. You’re creating the programs and the offers that are actually going to get you there. So I hope you found this episode helpful. I hope this wasn’t the first time that you were aware of the percentage of, of sales conversions and how to plan that into your marketing time and strategy.
But if it is, I’m so glad that you were here, it’s a really sobering non-sexy number that really opens up how important marketing your business is. And so today we talked about knowing how to lay out your whole entire year for lifestyle freedom, making sure you’re laying out your things you need first. Otherwise it never happened. We talked about being able to assess what changes you might need to scale your current offers or change a business model in order to reach your lifestyle goals and to do so.
We need to reach your financial benchmarks. And we talked about knowing this basic math and making sure that you’re looking at your numbers and they’re going to tell you, do I need to change my offer? Do I need to make it more of a higher value? What do I need to do to my offer my program, my service in order to be able to charge that or do I need to scale other things that I already have?
So I hope you guys found this helpful. I love chatting with you. Welcome to December. I’m so glad we’re here. I hope that your holiday season is kicking off and that you’re just having a great time, that you’re super healthy, where you are and spending time with those people. You love again, cruise over to Sweetlife community.com. If you want to join me in there and connect with us further,
and thank you for tuning into this show, please share it with your friends. All the show notes can be found at Sweetlife co Right? I’ll talk to you soon.
This show is for entrepreneurs in all stages of my business growth system who are introverts. You love who you are, but know that being a little“type A” could grow your business a lot.
Summary:
This episode is for entrepreneurs who are introverted but know you need to become more of an extrovert to share your business with others. It can feel like a challenge and our guest today, Stephanie Thoma, author of The Confident Introvert, is here to help. In this short episode, you’ll learn simple strategies to become more comfortable outside of your comfort zone. Plus, we also do a little practice session in this episode to help you relax. This is a great show for those who really prefer your own company but know your business needs to be shared.
At the End of This Episode You Will:
Feel most settled about being an introvert in an extroverted world
Have meditation/prayer practice to calm your nerves
Understand how to manage external communications while remaining the introverted person you love to be.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome back again to this sweet life entrepreneur podcast today, Or talking specifically with those of you who feel like you are an introvert and you’re an entrepreneur you want to lead in your space,
but there are some different social barriers that you have trouble approaching and crossing as an introvert and the work that you do in your business. You want it to feel authentic, how you show up on social media. You want it to be authentic to who you are, and you really love your comfort zone. And so today on the show, we’re talking to Stephanie Toma and Stephanie is truly an expert at helping those of you who are introverts to really step out and lead in your space.
She is a networking strategy coach event, host and founder of the confident introvert. She’s also an author of a new book that came out this past June called the confident introvert. She is an introvert herself and she’s facilitated over a thousand events and established a fulfilling career. Helping people generate meaningful connections at online and in-person events. And her mission is to help you feel confident and establish really amazing business relationships that catapult you forward in your career.
Stephanie has been featured by Forbes business, insider entrepreneur thrive global, and so many other places, including being invited to speak at Harvard, Northwestern, and Boston universities, as well as internationally to date, Stephanie has helped thousands of people just like you. You’re an entrepreneur, or you want to step into leadership. She’s helped thousands of people like you to make sure that you can celebrate your strengths as who you are and be authentic with confidence and make meaningful connections.
It’s not sounding so great. I’ll be honest with you. I learned so much. I’m not an introvert. I’m definitely an extrovert. And so many of the strategies we talked about on today’s show, including like a quick short guided meditation that we went through was so powerful. So this show is for you introvert entrepreneurs, but it also is for those of you guys that might actually be going so fast at a trillion gazillion miles an hour,
that you need some resetting techniques too. So I was so excited to invite Stephanie onto the show. At the end of this show, you are going to have solutions to how to approach anxiety and different hacks to get through times when you’re anxious, you are going to know how to approach social media as an introvert and how to show up across social media.
And you’re going to get tips on how to network, even though we’re talking about online networking, how to network confidently and different web apps, strategies, and different ways that you can connect with people that isn’t just doing it cold really ways to enter you into relationships with people in a way that feels confident to you. So if all that sounds great, stick around because we’re going to dive in all the show notes from today’s show can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com,
including all of the business programs available to you to develop your programs, your leading offers, and your 2021 business strategy cruise over to Sweetlife co.com. We’re here to help. Let’s go ahead and dive in.<inaudible> All right. Hey, you guys, April here and I am joined by Stephanie Toma. And today we are talking, especially to all of you introverts out there.
You are experts your leaders, your entrepreneurs, your creatives, you know, you are where exactly where you’re supposed to be, but maybe there are some struggles that you have that other entrepreneurs may not have as far as how to be confident and own who you are as a person and the business side of it. And that is why Stephanie Toma is here on the show today.
Stephanie, thank you so much for joining us. Tell us a little bit about you and your area of expertise when it comes to confident introvert entrepreneurship. Yes. Hey April, thank you for having me. So my company is competent introvert and there are a few different tiers there. I do individual coaching focused on leadership development and also a variety of webinars focused on networking,
remotely, networking in person, and also cultivating authentic competence. That’s rooted from within. I’m certainly not about faking it until you make it. It’s about actually from a root level, understanding what are the roadblocks and navigating those to have an authentic sense of confidence that is unshakable, even as an introvert, there’s such a common misconception that if you get your energy from solitude,
which is the definition of introversion, that, Oh, you’re meant to be a wallflower and that’s not true as introverts. We can authentically connect with more than just one person it’s quite possible, but there are just little tweaks that can help us navigate social spaces. I love what you said. If you get your energy from solitude, I never realized that was the definition.
I’ve actually think there’s probably a lot of people that can relate to that and be like, Oh gosh, maybe, maybe I do have some, some aspects or characteristics of introvert than I, then I didn’t even realize that, you know, people just really, really get their energy from that space. So thank you so much for being on the show and you are the author of a new book.
We want to make sure that you mentioned that just came out for those of you introverts. Tell us really quick about your book. Yes. Yeah. So competent introvert, a practical Guide to connecting with others at networking events and beyond it came out this past June. And it’s all about how to go from point a to point B point a being I would like to connect with people.
I would like to get out there and grow in my career, whatever that looks like. I like to become clear on my goals and achieve them become successful, but how do I get there? So this book really fills in those gaps and leverages the most fun way to get ahead in your career, which is through making authentic friendships, which is your network and coming from a place of,
okay, how can I help people? And then, Oh, I have a bunch of friends and maybe I can ask for help when I need it. And it becomes this really synergistic sort of experience, but it’s all about taking the first step and beginning to network. So basically I have hosted over 1000 networking events and before I hosted network events, I was attending them.
So that’s what prompted writing the book. I realized that there’s magic and there’s learning in numbers and having been to a high volume and hosted them. I was really excited to put pen to paper and just let this flow out of me last year. I love that what an amazing resource for people. And so you have attended thousands of events, you’ve hosted over a thousand events and you are stereotypically.
What somebody would say is, yeah, I’m an introvert. And so this like really leads us into the very first step that you’re going to share with us today. Let’s talk about just some general anxieties for introverts and some of the things that introverts experience that other entrepreneurs might not experience as far as from the social emotional standpoint at these events. Can you share a little bit about what that feels like for an introvert versus somebody who’s just super out there and in everybody’s business and face like me?
Yeah. And Hey, it’s great. We need both ways that everyone shows up, but I would say that one of our core needs is to feel understood and to be understood. So there are a couple of different areas of dissonance that introverts specifically can come up against in a networking capacity. One scenario is everyone thinks I’m so quiet. If I speak up,
then it contradicts what people expected me and what I expect of myself and not as uncomfortable. So that’s one way. And then the other way, this is what I more recently have sort of encountered, which is people assuming that I am an extrovert because I have developed social skills and I use them actively. So there can be this dissonance of, Oh,
I’m quiet. Everyone thinks I’m quiet. I don’t want to be different than that. Or Whoa. Everyone thinks that I get my energy from others because I can talk with people, but it’s like the secret that I’m an introvert. Interesting. I mean, I can’t exactly understand, but I can see how that, that would be stressful. And so from an anxiety standpoint,
how do you manage the anxiety of attending these types of events or frankly, how do you manage the anxiety of operating as a founder, as a CEO and as an introvert? What are some of those anxieties? Yes. So in a virtual world, one of the ways that we can alleviate anxiety is by taking steps to avoid burnout. I mean, I’m sure you’ve probably experienced zoom fatigue.
It’s just a guess. It’s super common just when you bond, like from one event, the other to the other and you realize, Oh, I should be energized. I’m just sitting in my chair for eight hours straight and not doing anything. It should be fine. However, we find ourselves depleted and the antidote to that is a concept from my book,
competent introvert, it’s called a solitude sandwich. Essentially, we can do this with our socialize. We can do this during the Workday. We can translate this in person or online. And basically what that means is the contents of the sandwich. The meat of it. If you’re vegetarian, let’s go with some PB and J that’s your activity. That is what you’re actively engaging in.
Maybe it is a phone call with someone, maybe it’s going out to dinner, whatever it is, making sure that on either end of the activity before and after you have a little bit of a buffer to let’s say, go on a walk, take a stretch break. Or one of my favorites is meditation. And that kind of leads me to the next tip,
which is to engage in a meditation practice. If you don’t already, do you meditate? Is that a part of yours? Yeah. So I meditate and pray, and that is, I actually start every Monday morning. That way I don’t feel like I need to as much throughout the day, but when I’m coaching sometimes a big stretch day. So like an intensive day with the client,
I absolutely have to back away with zero stimulation, at least halfway through it to recharge it. Yes. And you know, I’d say for introvert specifically, what can cause us a lot of anxiety and strife is overthinking and you know, I have joked with people. Well, I think other people just under think, you know, like maybe I’m thinking enough and it’s fine,
but you know, sometimes I’m like, wait, there can be thoughts that are ruminating and you feel like your wheels are spinning and there isn’t a lot of traction and it’s not benefiting you in any way. So what meditation does is it acts as a way to clear the mental fog. And if there’s any confusion about what are the next steps in my life that I should take,
or do I want to go to this event? What do I want in my life? What do I want out of this event? You know, I really view it as being such a powerful tool to be in. And So many people use this tool, but are doing so wonderfully in their careers. It’s pretty much a best kept secret and it’s not exclusive to monks or to people and,
you know, praying contacts it’s really accessible to all of us. And a great way to introduce yourself to meditation is with a mindfulness meditation technique. So I call it the breath of four, four, four. It’s pretty easy to remember. And if you’re feeling stressed or feeling anxious, this could be a foreign event. Or before you go to sleep,
when you wake up, whatever that anxiety pops up, just taking a comfortable seat, rolling your shoulders back and just breathing in through the nose for four counts. And you can do this with me. I do this, I love doing this stuff. We’ll do it here. If you got listening with us, you Guys can do it right here on the podcast with us.
Okay. So if you’re driving eyes open, if you’re so breathing in through the nose for one, two, okay. See, this is why I’m addicted to yoga, Lots of yoga. So these techniques, these anxiety techniques, what’s so great about this particular show. I mean, they really aren’t just for introverts. These apply to all of us with a really high level high stimulus world.
And so those are certainly important, but I definitely can see why they’re so much more important to an introvert leader to be able to strategically think and thrive. And there’s so many different parts of being a leader in this space that require you to be articulate and, you know, be proactive and be that leader in that, in that area. But I certainly see how that could be a struggle as well.
When we are talking about leadership for introverts. One of the questions that I get all the time is from clients and podcast listeners in general and just across social media, is it as an introvert. I hear a lot from people that they feel like they need to be present on social media. They need to be doing Instagram lives or Facebook lives, or they need to be out there really in a raw live capacity.
But that is not within who they are as a person. And it may or may not actually align with the brand they’re building for their company. How do you recommend, or what tips do you have for introverts that really feel like they may or may not. I mean, this is a whole business strategy question, but just generally for them, let’s say they really do need to be active on social media.
They do need to be doing live streams. They do need to be guesting on podcasting, do need to be present. How did you help introverts approach those types of things that are completely out of their comfort zone and frankly, they don’t even want to do. Yeah. Okay. You bring up such a great point because I get this all the time with my clients as well.
I don’t want to be visible. I don’t want to be the center of attention, or I don’t want to take up more space than other people because why should I should let other people speak? And from a certain standpoint, it’s like, okay, we can rationalize and say, you know what? I don’t need to do that. So I won’t,
but that’s how you stay small. And when you become about something greater than yourself, which is the reason why you have a business, because it’s not just about you, this isn’t a big ego trip. You know, if it is then maybe rethink your entrepreneurship, ideally you’re driven by a mission that extends beyond yourself and a part of getting that mission out there and helping people is being visible.
So even though it’s uncomfortable, I will say repetition for effect. So I’ve hosted so many events. And before that I attended so many events. And what do you think it was like when I very first started? Was it seamless? Was it perfect? Was it credible? No, it was not. But I mean, and that’s kind of an extreme example.
You don’t need to attend a thousand events before you’re comfortable, you know, it’ll happen sooner, but then the more you do something, there will be so much dissonance. If you dislike it and you keep doing it. So you learn, Oh, I kind of like that part of it. And then over time there are studies that suggest that the more you see someone,
the more likely you are to like them. So these, there are studies that suggest this, like at the word hand, for, within your home environment, you know, ideally. Yeah. So it would make sense if the more you do something and you don’t do it with the intention about why have to, even the referrals I get to, I am in such a privileged place that I get to attend this event and learn about this topic and meet others who are also interested in learning.
Yeah. So I’m hearing you say, it’s basically the response to a question that we ask our clients, what will happen to your people. If you do not show up for them, what’s going to happen to them? Like what is going to happen to them? If you do not, if they don’t hear about your services, if they don’t hear about your offer,
if they don’t experience the transformation that you deliver within your book or your program or your mastermind or whatever it is, what’s going to happen to them. So I love that. And that certainly does put it in perspective because it has nothing to do with the leader themselves. It’s all about who they’re called to serve and change. And then the other thing I heard you say was that repetition is going to make it easier.
Each time you do it, you got to show up. It’s not about you. It has nothing do with you actually whatsoever. And it’s really going to get easier each time you do it. So I love those encouraging words and it is, it’s so important because every single entrepreneur is different. Everybody brings something different to the table and there’s nobody like you and nobody will be out there.
If you aren’t out there, you won’t be out there. And that’s a big thing. So kind of trying to transition this a little bit here. So we have these online events, right? Or we have the social media we’re out there and being present. But what we also know is it, regardless of all the social media in the world, posting that you’re doing,
what really builds business is relationships. Relationships are what increase sales, bring other people into your business, word of mouth, nothing builds a company like relationships. And so with these introverts, what tips do you have for introverts for actually networking and building relationships online? The yes. I mean, we can talk about, we could do a whole show on in-person networking events,
but you know, right now, what do you recommend as far as how to go in network remotely, how to reach out and make those first connections. How to go about doing that as an introvert. So many introverts myself included, tend to really thrive when it comes to communicating. One-on-one maybe it’s not our first choice to be on a stage, but you can get there if you want to be there.
Right? So I would say that, especially if you are wanting to ramp up your networking and you do feel, let’s say a bit of social anxiety or just don’t get your energy from that, then one way to start is by doing one-on-one networking experiences. So there are a few apps, including lunch club, Bumble, biz, and shaper. And those apps,
what they’ll do is they will match you with a new professional every week. And so you could meet up to five people and one week, if you choose to, and you know, you can meet with them from anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, and you just never know where these conversations will go, but what’s great about them is that you don’t necessarily need to go out there and find someone,
you know, this person wants to connect. So there’s a little bit less of that factor of I’m going up to this person. Are they interested in connecting? I mean, chances are, if they’re out of virtual event, they probably are, but it’s more foolproof this way. And then let’s say, if you are interested in connecting with someone and you’ve attended a virtual event,
be that person who in the chat feature drops their LinkedIn link and says, Hey, I’d love to connect and invites people. So what I have found in my experience as an introvert and event hosts is it’s so gratifying to have people come to you. You know, when you’re the host or when you are extending an invitation, then it really does open doors for you that you wouldn’t necessarily know to open yourself.
And also attending events that have a specified networking portion. There are a lot of really great tools right now. You know, I’ve used icebreaker a lot. There’s also teleport and other different online one-on-one connection games where they could be an entire virtual event or they can be a component. But if you are looking to connect with people and don’t necessarily want to do it completely from scratch,
have a warm lead, so to speak, then that’s certainly one way to go about it. That is so smart. As we were driving into this section, I was thinking that you were going to share with us just how to send a cold message to somebody on LinkedIn, asking them to have virtual coffee. And I identify that. I was like,
gosh, that would be a really big thing. I imagine for an introvert, these tips are so good. And the fact that we’ll make sure all of these resources are shared in the show notes for you guys who are listening. So all these things from the shaper of the lunch club, but Bumble, biz, icebreaker, teleport, and obviously every place else where you can find Stephanie,
we’re going to make sure they’re on the show notes for you guys. Stephanie, thank you so much for your time today. This is a great show and it isn’t a topic we’ve really hit on very much. I think we had a show about introvert entrepreneurship about three years ago. And I still remember that realizing that there are so many different aspects of leadership that truly need to be approached in a different manner for different types of leaders.
And, and I love that this is your area of expertise, so thank you so much. And then also for our listeners that are like, Oh my gosh, this is me. You know, she’s speaking my language. They Kevin’s talk a little bit about, you have a help sheet that we’re going to include in the show notes here about the working remotely resources sheet.
Is that, is that include some of the resources you’ve mentioned or what are our listeners going to get out of that bonus to this episode? Yes. Okay. I’m so glad that you’re asking about that. So that is just an easy one page cheat sheet of different tactics from my networking remotely webinar, but also we did touch on a few of them in this call as well.
So yeah, I would certainly say if you’re interested in just a refresher from this conversation and to perhaps learn about new concepts as well, that can help you in your online networking journey, then you’ll want to go to Stephanie toma.com/freebie and that Stephanie T H O M a.com. Perfect. Perfect. And then for Stephanie’s coaching programs, we’ll make sure a link to her coaching program is in that is in the show notes for this episode as well.
Stephanie, thank you so very much, any last words you’d like to leave for our introvert founders and CEOs listening to this episode? Yes. So I would like to leave everyone with just the sentiment that if you are listening to this podcast and thinking, you know, it seems a little bit of a reach. I’m not sure if I a leader, I Know that I’m an introvert,
but I don’t, you know, the thing’s kind of stretchy for me, just knowing that having the desire to lead and having a mission greater than yourself is the first step. And I truly believe that everyone can lead once you have that clarity of what you want to stand for and lead with that’s so, so good. Thank you so much, Stephanie.
We really appreciate you. Yes. Thank you for having me April<inaudible>. Thank you so much for tuning into today’s show. Again, this was Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, episode number 202, and Stephanie Toma was our expert guests today on the show to find all of the resources that we talked about, including how to find Stephanie’s networking, remotely strategy sheet, all of the apps that she mentioned on today’s show ways that you can work with Stephanie and she can help you walk into your authentic leadership and how to get your hands on Stephanie’s new book,
please cruise to Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number 202. I’ll see you soon. Have a great week. You guys
If you’re in the process of launching a new online program, course, or other virtual group service, and you want to be sure its the right fit for your audience, this show will teach you how to use a beta-launch strategy, the steps to a successful beta launch and how to make sure your new program is a success.
Summary:
You’re working hard to create an online course or program, and you want to conduct a“beta-launch” but you aren’t sure how to do it successfully and whether or not it’s even needed for your program. In this show, we dive deep with Kendra Perry, host of the 360 Health Biz Podcast, to talk all about beta launches. You’ll the timeline to launch your beta program, how to test your business model, how to charge for your beta launch, and why it all ties into a higher profit full-launch in the future. If you’ve ever thought about a beta-launch but we’re sure how to manage one, this episode gives you all the answers.
Highlights:
How/if you charge a fee for your beta launch
What you’re looking to achieve in a successful beta launch
The exact steps to conduct your beta launch
How many people you want in a successful beta launch
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey everybody. Welcome to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, episode number two, 201 I’m April beach business strategist for experts, leaders, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. And you are here listening to our show that delivers you proven,
trusted trainings that other coaches charge thousands of dollars for. We’re rolling up on doing this for you for about four years now. And I love that you’re here tuned into this show, all of the resources and the show notes and the programs available to help you grow and scale your business online can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. We have some amazing things coming up for you,
experts and leaders, to make sure we elevate you in your space, especially rolling into 2021. So make sure you cruise over to Sweetlife co.com for all of our intensive mastermind and group consulting programs. Now diving into today’s show. I am super thrilled to be joined by our guest expert. And today we’re talking to all about beta testing, your online program launch.
And so this episode particularly is for those of you guys you’re launching an online course or an online membership community or a group program. You know, you have a general outline of what you want to do for your people, for your students, for your clients. But some of the problems we have are going through all the heavy lifting all the work to actually create that ahead of time,
and then having a program that frankly doesn’t sell. And so this episode is going to save you time, money. It’s going to reduce the stress around a full, complete launch, because we’re diving into the importance of beta testing your program. In this show, we’re going to talk about different steps to go through in order to beta test your program, what you have to do in order to get that kicked off the ground and what you really should be looking for in a beta test.
Why are you beta testing? And our guest expert today has done the same thing as I’ve done. She has built a whole entire program and never sold any of it before. And so we want to save you time and energy and money. So that, that doesn’t happen to you. Today’s expert is Kendra Perry. She’s a former functional health coach turned online business strategists for health and wellness coaches.
She’s on a mission to end the online coaching poverty by helping a hundred thousand health and wellness coaches build a thriving six figure businesses. And currently to date, she’s helped 200 health coaches grow their practice. Now, Kendra is awesome. You guys know me. You’ve been listening to the show for awhile. I’m an action sports. As far as the ocean girl,
Kendra is a fired up action sports adventure, and you can find her hanging out in the remote mountains of beautiful British Columbia treads in there in the snow, in the middle of nowhere when she is not totally delved into her business and marketing, and also her podcast. You’re going to learn about Kendra’s podcast today on the show. So she’s a creator of the wealthy coach accelerator,
and she helps coaches really create profitable group coaching systems and really make sure that if you’re a health and wellness coach, the things that you are building are in fact not just needed but wanted. And so that’s what we’re diving into into today’s show. At the end of today’s episode, you are going to understand what a beta launch is. You are going to generally have a really good understanding of how to go about a beta launch and what are the benefits of doing a beta launch first?
And we’re talking about whether or not you should offer your beta launch for free, or you should charge for it. All of this is in this week, sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, and all the show notes, everything we talk about, how to find Kendra, how to get the resources we have available here within Sweetlife company for you to grow your business purposefully,
profitably, and intentionally can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. All right, let’s dive in.<inaudible> All right. You guys welcome back to the podcast. I’m here with Kendra Perry. And today we are talking about something that is truly going to save you money, save you time and make sure you don’t have a mental breakdown is Kendra. And I talked about and chatted about behind the scenes.
So we started recording. You know, we know many of you are launching online programs. You’re, you’re scaling your business. You experts, you leaders out there, you small businesses shoot you big businesses out there are looking at creating amazing online programs to scale your business faster. But all things we create don’t actually win the way that we want them to.
In sometimes we as business owners, I’m raising my hand here. If you’re watching the video version of this have launched things in the past, Kendra’s raising her hand to where we think it’s awesome. We launched the whole thing, and then it’s totally bunk because we didn’t beta test it. So today on the show, Kendra is here to talk to you all about how to beta test your online program so that you don’t fall on your face and lose your ass.
Kendra, thank you so much for being on the show. Give everybody an introduction to you, who you are and, and why you’re so passionate about this topic. Well, thank you so much. I’m so excited to be here. I’ve been listening to your podcast for a little while, so it feels kind of like a band girl in a little bit on this side.
So thank so. Yeah, I’m Kendra Perry and I help health coaches start their business. Health coaches tend to be very clueless about the business side of things. They just want to help people. And then they’re like, Oh crap, I got to run a business and I don’t even know what I’m doing. So that’s sort of where I come in now,
why I’m so passionate about beta programs is because, well, I did that whole thing that April just described, you know, I spent six to eight months creating this program that I thought was amazing. I put a lot of time into it. I put a lot of money into it. I worked on the weekends. I sacrificed my relationship with my partner.
Like he probably wanted to dump me during that time. And then I put it out there and I pumped all this money into the launch and ads and like this webinar and like, I didn’t get one sale. It never even occurred to me. Like, as I’m running this webinar, I’m sitting around, post-its like probably 30. Post-its that say $15,000 on them because I was like,
I’m going to make $15,000. This is what’s happening. If I surround myself with these, post-its it’ll happen because I’m manifesting it and it didn’t happen at all. And I was like, it never even occurred to me that that would happen. And I was like so perplexed and it really like traumatized me. And then I relaunched this thing three more times over the next couple of months at night,
I think I ended up making a couple of sales. So I lost a ton of money, like thousands of dollars and my sanity complete mental breakdown. Right. And it’s because what I knew my people needed and what they wanted were not aligned. It was not the same thing had I beta tested. I actually would have learned that like a year earlier.
So that’s why I’m so passionate about this. Okay. Let’s just stop there. And let’s just repeat what you just said, what your people needed versus what they wanted were not exactly the same thing. We could just end the podcast right there with that. I think that that is a huge disconnect for business leaders, especially, you know, you guys are listening to this show,
you’re experts in your space, you know what they actually need because you’re the expert. Right. You know what they really, really need, but it doesn’t mean that that’s actually what they want for a whole bunch of different reasons, which we’re going to talk about. I’m sure on today’s show. So what exactly is like, how do you define a beta test Kendra?
Sure. So you can kind of think of a beta test is like a trial run of your program. And you can do this for a private coaching program. You can do it for a group coaching program. You can do it for a membership program, basically any new program. It’s the first time you run it and you run it strategically so that you can get feedback from the real life people.
So you can figure out where the gaps are and where people are confused. And then you can get the information ahead of time. Is this actually going to sell it space as a way to pre validate and prove yourself, Oh, this is going to sell or it has sold. Therefore I should make it instead of making the whole thing and then it out there and realizing That nobody wants it.
Right. I have a question that I want to ask, but I’m going to actually hold this question for a little bit. Cause I think that you might get to it. How often do you find, because you coach health coaches, how often do you find that coaches actually do this? Never. Okay. So if you’re listening and you haven’t done this,
you’re not alone. I think a lot of people necessarily know about it, I think. And I think it logically, it makes sense while I create the thing and then I sell it. But when you’re beta testing, you’re bringing in this whole concept of pre-selling. So you’re selling something before it’s made. And that seems really counterintuitive and also incredibly intimidating because you’re like,
well, if I sell it, I don’t have it. So right. How does that even make sense? Right. But it actually does make sense, but it just doesn’t logically kind of connect in their head. Right. And so really what I’m hearing you say is the benefits of beta testing is really making sure that it is desirable. People do want it.
And you know, I think I first heard this concept you’re right. It scared the shit out of me. When I first heard this, I was, Oh gosh, this is like, feeling like it’s dating me. I was on Lewis Howes book launch for school of greatness, like 2013 or something. And a really small group of people that was like only 40 or 50 minutes in this beta launch and listening to some of these online course creators.
And, and these guys were selling their programs in that were, were on this beta team before they’d ever built them. And I remember thinking to myself, because I’m such a strategist, like freaking out about that thinking, there’s no way I could sell something that I haven’t built yet. And just absolutely panicking about that flash forward though. Like I was sharing in the beginning,
I have launched stuff since then, that has been totally bunk because I never tested it that way. So you’re right. I mean that initially when you guys hear this, it’s going to be like, Oh my gosh, this is so scary. But what happens is like, exactly, like you said, you’re totally validating what it is that you have and that it is needed in the market.
So what steps do you need to take before you run your beta test? Talk to us about that. Okay. So the first thing that you need in place, and I’m sure you’ve talked about this with your audience, and I’m a, like a broken record about this. I like am like constantly punching this into people’s head, but you need to know the who the problem and the solution.
Right. Which is essentially the niche you need to know your niche. You can’t just sell like a general basic program. Like it needs to be specifically for someone and it needs to solve a specific problem and give a specific outcome. So who is the program for, what does it solve for them and what outcome does it help them achieve? And that needs to be incredibly clear.
And if you don’t know what that is, then that’s where you need to start. Like don’t even consider launching a program. I see a lot in the health coaching World, they launched, Oh, this is my detox program. And it’ll help you solve fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, leaky gut. You’re going to lose weight too. And like,
yeah. Okay. We know in health and wellness that these basic strategies can help with a lot of things, but people don’t know this. They’re just like, well, I’m fucking tired, but you’re promising too many things. So now it seems inauthentic. Yeah. And I think, let me ask you this too. You know, we, we talked to a lot of business owners that are launching membership sites,
right? So the business strategy, the business model of a membership site is to keep people in your membership site. And so you’re always, so in your mind, as a membership program, creator, you are always thinking I need to come up with more content, more content to keep them in there, keeping them engaged. Yes. All that is true,
but there still has to be an injury result. It could get in result of each month. It could be an injury is all to be tweaked. And this is like my broken record. Like you have to have predictable transformational results within any single program, whether it’s in a day and an hour and a week. And these like benchmarks that people can measure to go through.
And I totally see that too. You’re so right about how, like, people don’t know how to explain, like when you do this well, or when you’re done with this or at the end of this, you’re going to have these, you know, things. Yeah. Okay. So obviously step number one is knowing the end result you provide, even if it’s an ongoing end result for those of you guys that are launching membership sites,
you are not exempt from this. You have to know that. Yeah. Because there’s that maintenance piece too. And if I’m speaking to health and wellness, if we use fatigue, it’s like the membership helps them get more energy, but they stay in the membership to keep their energy. Right. Right. There are still measurable results. Okay. So that was my,
I just was dealing with that with some clients this week who have a really successful membership site. That’s falling off. They’ve had literally thousands of people in it it’s falling off because of that fact that they haven’t really measured the end Results in that totally aside from this, but just for you, guys’ membership people. So step number one is obviously knowing the,
who the problem you’re solving and the solutions you deliver. Okay. Totally great. Yeah. And then next, what you want to do once that’s done, you kind of can create the program structure, but you’re literally just creating like an outline for the program. Like what’s the timeline? Is this going to be a four week 90 day, a six month?
Like, what is the timeline of the program? How are you going to set up the calls? You know, in the case of a private coaching program, how often are you going to meet? What types of sessions are you going to have? If it’s a group program, when are the training calls? When are the Q and a calls membership as an example,
like what are they getting monthly in terms of call in terms of content, whatever that is, you can set up the structure and you can make a basic outline for what you’re going to cover in each sort of training call or education session. But that’s, as far as you go, because you really like, I teach people to launch with an idea or an outline.
So like, this is the program, this is generally what it’s going to look like, but I’m not going to spend the next three to six months, like video recording all of the content because you’re going to actually run the program live again, whether that’s private membership or a group program with a fixed date, it’s live right. You’re running it live.
And that’s how you can launch with an outline because you’re not prerecording anything. Right? Yeah, absolutely. Anything else we should have done before somebody runs his beta? Honestly, That’s it, because I think with a beta in order to test something five to 10, people will do it right for a first round and you don’t need a fancy launch strategy to get five to 10 people.
A lot of my clients are literally just doing direct outreach. They’re like writing a list of people who they think would be interested in the program and they’re reaching out or saying, Hey, I’m thinking of doing this. Would you be interested? And I think that’s totally fine. Sure. If you have launch skills and you know how to launch, you can launch a beta with a fancy launch style.
That’s what I just said. I literally just launched a beta that finished enrollment on Friday and it had the whole fancy webinars sales sequence thing. But as someone who’s newer, like you don’t need any of that. Like you were literally just need a payment link and then some direct outreach to get someone. So kind of depends on where you are in your business.
But if you don’t have anything you don’t need much. Yeah. And I love that. You just said that because that’s so true. And I think I’m in the whole launch strategy and process really holds people up, especially when they’re in newly developing their program. And they’re newly learning how to the whole launch strategy. It’s just a lot at once. Okay.
So now I’m going to go back and ask this question that I was thinking about asking you earlier, do you recommend, so business model, so you were talking about, you know, we have to know you call it a structure of your program. I call it the business model of the program in a beta. Do you recommend that your people run it on a condensed business model or a condensed structure,
or actually, do you feel like it needs to be the exact structure they’re proposing? If the structure actually aligns with the results they get, what do you think about that? So I think it could go either way now with my people. I recommend that they do it on the timeline, just because health is really hard to speed up, you know,
for people to get Results like they need time to implement, but it could, you could run it on like a quicker or condensed timeline, I think would be to be something where you’re teaching like business strategies or something like that. I think you could definitely do that, I think either way, but it probably depends on your industry. Yeah. Great tips.
Okay. So how do we actually run a beta program for free? How do we go through that process? What is the value in that? And really the question I can ask you, because we see this all the time is how to keep people engaged when you’re giving them something away for free. You know, there’s always some sort of skin in the game thing,
especially, well, I actually don’t, I don’t think I would ever recommend doing a beta for free or like offering it for free. I think people have much of a stake and things they get for free. Right? So a lot of the language around running a beta is to offer it for free, but I just don’t think you get committed people.
And the point of the beta is to test and get people to go through it. And I honestly think, and I don’t know who said this, that the transformation is in the transaction. I don’t know who to give credit to, but I’ve heard that before. And I truly believe it. People have to give away something that hurts just a little bit in order to be engaged and committed.
And most people, I know who’ve run free betas. Like a lot of people drop off. So I think people should charge for it. But I think they should probably charge maybe around half of what they ultimately want to charge for the non-banks. Yeah. I’m glad you said that. Yeah. We just did a beta of our masterclass, your leading offer and it was half the cost,
which is still hundreds and hundreds of dollars. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. Okay. So I was going through kind of our notes and I was like, I wonder what she’s going to say about this predated thing. So I’m glad you said that. All right. And so in what are the three steps you have to running a transformation in your beta program,
a transformative beta program. So yeah, I think there’s three components in any sort of transformative program that really what they make up is the experience of the program. And I really do believe the experience is what generally sells in a program rather than just some like DIY info product that there’s a zero experience. So the first one is education, right? You have to be teaching people,
something new, something they didn’t know before I find it. A lot of programs though, people stop at the education piece and they’re just spewing out content and information and content and information. Doesn’t equal transformation because we actually have an abundance of content. Like content is not our problem in this world. It is literally everywhere and there’s too much of it, but you do need that education piece.
So the next piece is the support, like how are you actually going to support people? And that might be through live coaching calls, live Q and a calls might be through email support, tech support, if you’re doing more of a private coaching program or some sort of one-on-one program, but you do need to support people. And that’s really why people in best cause like the education is great,
especially when you deliver it in a step-by-step format, but like they can find all that stuff if they want to. Right. So that support piece is really important for that experience. And then the third is accountability. I think accountability often again is missed, but how are you actually going to hold people accountable? Because people actually need that. Especially if you’re talking about health and wellness or even business,
right. Especially new business owners. Right, right. Like how are you actually gonna like call them out on their shit and be like, Hey, did you actually do this? And that can be through email check-ins or homework assignments where people actually have to hand it in right. In my programs. Cause I like to run more intimate group programs. If people go Mia,
actually follow up with them and I’m like, Hey, I noticed that you haven’t been engaging. I just want to know like, is there some way you’re not being supported? Like how can we help you? And obviously in the end that it’s their responsibility and if they go Mia, that’s, that’s their thing. But I think that accountability piece and being able to keep tabs on people in some way is really important in a program.
Yeah. I love the subtle that, so education, support and accountability for sure. Yeah. Three ways to build this transformative program. Love all of that. I agree with that a hundred percent and love that you run smaller groups. I love smaller group programs. I think that we’re really starting to see a shift. Thank heavens from the cattle drive courses and programs that have been certainly popular from about 2017 to 2019.
And it’s all about relationships. So if you guys are listening, you you’re about to launch a math course. Great. That’s awesome. Or super happy for you, but there is massive value in the accountability piece and the relationship piece between smaller elite programs. Love that. And then how do you recommend people actually use this beta testing process to lead in their space,
to lead their industry in their program? What are the, this is kind of the wrap up question here, but what are the springboard steps after this beta that you recommend people take in order to take the lead in their space, especially for you, like you deal with health coaches, they’re all health coaches, you know, but everybody’s different. Everybody brings something different to the table in their program design.
So what are really kind of the springboard steps to lead in whatever area they want to lead in. So it’s being very intentional with the feedback that you receive in the beta, right? That’s, what’s going to allow you to make the program better and optimize and make it the best in your space in your industry. And so you want a really robust way to collect feedback within the program,
right? Yeah. You can like kind of gauge what people are thinking, you know, in the Facebook group, if that’s what you’re doing or however you’re doing it, but actually creating surveys that you give away after every phase of the program. And I typically, I love bribing people. So I usually say, Hey, if you fill out all the six surveys,
I’m going to enter you into the contest. And I make the prize like really juicy, like just like, Oh my God, because people need a little bit of incentive. So I like to call it ethical bribery, but there are actually four questions that I want to share with you that you can ask your people after each module or phase or step,
whatever you want to call it. And that is what was your favorite part about this training or module? What was confusing about this training or module? What do you wish I had expanded on? And finally, what resource would help you better succeed? And that’s what helps you. So when you run the beta, like you want to run it super basic,
you know, like it’s the most basic way you can run it while still providing the value. So don’t go and create a million handouts and like a million resources and all this stuff like actually ask them like, what would help you? It’s almost like a co-creation process. Like you’re creating this program, not just with you, but with the people who are literally engaging in it.
And that’s how you make it the best. Because at some point after you do this a few times, people are like, wow, I feel like you made that program exactly for me. And you did right? Because you can get with Them. Right. Right. What an awesome idea. I love those feedback questions. And just being able to measure where people are in each benchmark of the program too.
And how cool is this? Like, you can’t do this. If you’ve already taken the time recorded, the videos done all the PDFs and they’re all pretty and they have your logo and they’re all branded on there. And then you go like you don’t get an opportunity to do that because you’ve already created the outcome for that. So this is, this is a very cool concept to actually take it from that direction and have the beta students go through and tell you,
Hey, this is what I need right now in order to take action on what I learned today or this week. So super awesome. Kendra, thank you so much for being on the podcast. This was super informative. How can people find you and connect with you? You have your own podcast. Let’s talk about that for a minute. Yeah. I have a podcast called the wealthy coach podcast.
So for anyone who’s doing online coaching, I speak primarily to health coaches, but anyone who’s in the kind of online, personal development, health and fitness space, I give a lot of great information on that podcast. But if you want to connect with me or ask me any questions about the show, the best place to connect with me is Instagram. My handle is at Kendra Perry,
inc. I answer all my DMS and I love chatting with people. So don’t be shy. I love it. I love it. And we, we really appreciate you being on the show and following this. So for our listeners to take action, we were talking about a way for them to go through and take action based on what you talk about.
We’ll have a resource to be able to share with our listeners that they can take action in the show notes of this show, where they can do that to drop on my pen here and we’ll make sure that they find that. So all of the show notes you guys can be found@sweetlifeco.com, click on our podcast and where to connect with Kendra, how to find her podcast and everything we talked about today will be in those show notes for you.
Thank you so much, Kendra. We appreciate your time. And I love the concept of the beta launch, both you and I have learned some hard lessons and hopefully those people who haven’t done this process yet, we’ll save them some time many, and I’m certainly increasing their peace of mind. Thank you April.<inaudible> Thanks for sticking with us in today’s show you guys.
I can’t wait to talk to you next week, where we have another awesome guest coming on the show it’s guests season. Wow. I love our guests. I learn. And I just benefit so much from our guests as you guys do. Thank you for your reviews. You leave on this podcast. You know, our mission is to give you proven strategies,
business strategies that you can take to the bank strategies, that if you were to hire a coach, they charge you thousands of dollars to tell you the stuff that we deliver. You hear on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m a nonprofit founder as a nonprofit founder. This podcast is one of the Sweetlife company’s missions. It’s one of our mission, one of our outreach to make sure that entrepreneurs across the globe are not only growing their business,
but you’re growing it strategically in a way that you can trust is going to give you that future. You want. That’s what we do here on the podcast. That’s what we do in this sweet life company. So thanks so much for staying tuned with us. Of course, find everything that we talked about on the show notes, including programs on how you can work with us,
how you can work with me privately and personally, to grow your business by visiting Sweetlife co.com
Entrepreneurs, coaches, course creators, leaders, teachers and others looking to sell your service or program online.
Summary:
You’ve worked hard to create a great offer, and it’s time to sell it, but no one is buying. Chances are your copy is bad. Writing sales copy is a craft and not everyone can do it well. But, in order to sell your program, your copy has to be as great as your service.
In this episode, Amisha Shrimanker, founder of The Copy Crew, breaks down 5 steps to write a high converting sales page to increase those well-deserved sales. If you’ve struggled to sell your services online, this show/mini business training is a must-listen.
As a bonus, Amisha is also teaching two live How-To Copy Writing Classes for our SweetLife Entrepreneur Podcast listeners. To join the live(or replay copy) writing class, join our online community at www.sweetlifecommunity.com
Highlights:
Have a 5 step plan to write great copy
Know where on the page to start writing
Understand how people buy
Know what to say to separate and elevate your offer
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And Welcome to episode number 200. The Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast. My name is April beach founder of this Sweetlife company. And your host here on the show. This is episode number 200.
Thank you so much for being a podcast listener of this wheat life for the last almost four years. We’re coming up on our birthday here soon in January, and we just appreciate your listenership and the reviews. You leave us so much. We are here to give you trusted, proven business strategy that other coaches and programs charge thousands of dollars for. And that’s exactly what we’re doing today.
Yet again on the show. Again, this is episode number 200. So all of the show notes and everything, you can find that we talk about the summary of what we talk about and the gold I’m going to tell you. It’s gold that our guests gives you today can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com clicking on podcast. And this is episode number 200 today.
We’re talking about how to write high converting sales page. Copy copywriting is a tough thing. You guys, copywriting is in fact, one of the hardest things that could stand in the way of success and failure. You could have an amazing program. You could have an amazing service or a course, but if your copywriting doesn’t really speak to the buyer, nobody’s going to buy it.
And so it is a huge wall. It’s a huge barrier and a huge gateway for a lot of companies. That’s why today’s guest is so important to be on the show. Ameesha Sri Moncur is a conversion copywriter and founder of the copy crew, and she specializes in writing and sales copies for online product and online program launches. When she’s not whipping up persuasive sales copy in her to 10 X or clients launches,
she’s busy, plane, mom, staying fit and catching up on her reading. You can connect with alicia@thecopycrew.com and at the copy crew on Instagram as well, just under a DM. She’s always happy to answer your questions here and on today’s show. We’re talking about the reasons why people struggle with copywriting, but honestly, we really dive into Results today’s show is going to give you five different steps on how to write,
copy that converts for your sales page. But I’m telling you in step number one, you guys she’s diving into seven other sub steps. You need to know. So this is going to be one of these episodes. I know you guys have these episodes. I hear this all the time. These saved at Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, business training episodes, right?
This is going to be of those. You’re going to come back to again and again, if you’re driving your car or you’re working out or you’re cooking dinner or whatever, no worries. You can come back and listen to it again. Also, I will say that Alicia is so amazing. She is going to be teaching a master class in our community.
So if you aren’t yet in our online business community, cruise over to Sweetlife community.com. So if you want more help with sales and copywriting cruise over to Sweetlife community.com, you can join our private online community app. It is not a Facebook group guys. We left Facebook a long time ago. It’s actually a separate app where we connect as a community. You can network with other businesses.
We’d love to have you there. And Ameesha is going to be teaching, not just one, but two different masterclasses in November and in January for our exclusive community members. Just so you know. So let’s go ahead and dive into the episode. Again, we’re talking about five steps to write high converting sales copy. You’re going to get the goods here on today’s show and all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com.
This is episode number 200 and connect with us. Join Ameesha in the masterclasses by visiting Sweetlife community.com. Okay, let’s go.<inaudible> Super excited. You guys to be joined by a Nisha Sri mocker. When I saw her application for the show, I knew we needed her on here because she is a copywriting genius, and she helps those of you that are in the digital space.
Really get it. What is in your head out into your sales page, which there’s this huge hang up usually between what you want to say and actually how businesses are able to say it, how well they’re able to execute it is a big problem in a copywriter is a must, I would say, on every single strategic online business team, you need to have somebody with excellent copywriting skills.
And frankly, personally, I am not one of those people. So I have people that do that because I already know that that I’m one of probably the 90% of the people that are not great at this, but I think we can learn, right. And that’s why we’re kind of here on the show today and Ameesha is going to dive in. And today we’re talking about how to write a high converting sales page in five steps.
But before we dive into that, welcome to the suite life entrepreneur podcast, and Meesha, I’m so excited that you’re here. Tell everybody who you are and why, why you love doing what you do. Sure. Well, thank you April so much for having me. It’s great to connect with someone who loves digital marketing and entrepreneurship, as much as I do.
And it’s evident in the content you produce because I’ve been listening to some of your podcast episodes. So a little bit about me. I may conversion copywriter and I write launch copy for online entrepreneurs. So whether you’re Launching a digital course, a membership site or a coaching program, I’m your gal. If you things that set me apart from other copywriters, because there are a lot of launch copywriters,
I bring my strategy skills to the table. I know how the overall funnel works. So with me, you get copy and my launch experience to launch your thing. I don’t just write pretty words on your landing pages and sales pages. I really dig deep into research. So I find out everything about your industry, you as a person, as the creator,
your clients, I talk to them. I stop people in Facebook groups, find out everything before I write a single word of copy. And that’s why the copy converts. And lastly, the other thing is I have an eye for detail. So lot of copywriters, what they do is they write, copy, hand the Google doc a word, but I go deeper than that.
I like to see the finished result on sales page. So tiny details like, Hey, what are your bullets? Symbols look like? So if I was writing for a makeup course, creator I have in the past, there are symbols. The bullets symbols could be something like lipstick, right? It’s a tiny details, but it makes so much of a difference when you’re kind of like trying to stand out there because copy your funnel is a package as a sales and a marketing package.
So it’s got to stand out, not just with the words, but even with those little details. So those are three things. That’s a new part. Wow. So you are the copyrighting unicorn that everybody has been looking for. Just so you all now know you guys can, you can pause the podcast right now, go follow Ameesha at the copy on Instagram.
And we’ll of course, make sure that all the links to connect with her are available to you guys in the show notes. So in this process that you have to help business owners to help experts and leaders really launch and sell their programs, launch and sell their methodology. There’s zone of genius and it’s in their head. They already have a struggle. People struggle with even creating the actual program itself.
So there’s always kind of like this bigger picture we’re looking at, they’re creating their actual intellectual property into their program. That’s one step, but then we need to take it down a step further and actually talk about it in a way that an audience that might be a totally cold audience that has never experienced this company before understands. So how do we do that?
Guide us through these five steps to write a high converting sales page, especially now that we know how much more you bring into it, then just a regular straightforward copywriter. I’m super excited for you to share these with us today. Sure. So I have five steps and the first step, really the step that proceeds before and in these five steps is obviously do your research.
So if you’re writing for yourself, this should come a lot easier kind of because you know who your avatar is, who, you know, who’s your audience. So when you’ve got that nailed, let’s start with step one. Step one is you need to know the seven most things before you write a single word of copy. And this kind of digs into that research.
The first thing is you need to know what’s your one offer. Like we’re not selling a bunch of things on that one sales page. So this is kind of like, you know, straightforward. What is your one offer? Is it a course? Is it a coaching program? Is it a membership site? So get clarity there. The other thing you want to know is what is your one promise,
right? So like, what is a specific promise that if your avatar or your buyer does everything you tell them to do, what is the outcome that you can actually guarantee? And that’s important because you’re going to write about that on your sales page, every sales page offers a guarantee and the guarantee kind of ties into the promise, the big promise that you’re making.
I see a lot of my clients who come to me and they’ve got an idea for this huge, amazing offer, like, Oh, okay, we’re going to do, it’s a 30 day program. I’m going to tell them how to set up an online business. That’s great. But what is the outcome? What does that one promise that after the end of 30 days,
when they’re done with the program, what are they going to get? Are they going to get a website that they can show off? Is it going to be a landing page that they can show off? What is it to get clear on that third thing is, this is obvious. Who’s your one reader, one human being that you’re writing copy to like really know this person,
you know, what are they like? What are their 3:00 AM sweats? You know, what gets them anxious, hopes, fears, dreams, all the good stuff you want to know. What is your one big idea? Now this may be a little tricky to wrap your mind around because I had a client whom I wrote a sales page for, because he was selling his Facebook ad course.
And he wanted to kind of make this big promise. If you take this ad course, and it’ll help you scale your ad programs or your ad campaigns, and we’ll help you to X your ROAS and you know, all that good stuff. And I’m like, no, you’ve got to lead with one big idea. Like one promise. One thing that a person who reads it gets it.
And here’s the other thing it’s a pro tip. The more ans you have in your big idea, the more confusing it is for your buyer to kind of connect with you. So let me give you another example, Nike, their tagline says, just do it. They don’t say just do it and also have fun and also take care of your health.
Right? You’ll lose someone there who your one big idea is just this one sideline thing. One thing that someone can like instantly get it. And they’re like, yeah, I get it. Now I’m intrigued. I want to know more. So I’ll stop there. I love that. Thank you. Then comes your stage of awareness. Like how do you market to someone who’s unaware or even problem aware is very different to how you market write copy for someone who’s most aware,
right? If someone who is unaware, you’re not going to write a sales page, selling them something. You’re going to give them top of the funnel stuff like a blog or a podcast episode and all that good stuff. But someone who is solution aware has a problem, knows it is looking for different solutions, has tried different things. They’re an easier sell.
So kind of your copy, you know, follows that suit. The other thing is traffic temperature, are you running traffic or are you running your sales copy to a cold warm or hot audience? Know who you’re running into? If you’re just emailing your list about your offers, it’s an easier sell because your list, hopefully you’ve been emailing them consistently. They know you like you and trust you,
right? So it’s easier. But if you’re running sales page to a Facebook ad campaign and it’s all to cold leads, they don’t know who you are. So you kind of have to like build that rapport. At the beginning of the page, the seventh one is your unique value proposition. What sets you apart from others in your industry who are offering the same thing or similar thing to a similar audience,
you kind of want to set yourself apart. Know that what that one thing is, and kind of like go double down on that in your sales copy. So that’s step one. Okay. So just to recap, so for those of you guys who are listening this alone, we could do like two podcast episodes on this, this alone, a huge training you guys.
And so if you get nothing out else, not that you won’t, you’re going to get a ton of value because that’s what we do here. But if you take away, if you can remember anything out of this episode, I want you to remember step one, come back to the show notes. I will make sure these are in the actual show notes of the episode for you.
This is gold. You guys I’ve been a business strategist for 24 years. I’ve been coaching entrepreneurs and experts for 24 years. I’ve never once heard anybody explain it like this on a sales page. So I’m telling you like, pass’ replay this, these seven things, the seven most important things of going through and outlining your sales page. Literally take this to the bank.
This is step number one. These seven things are within step number one, again, sweet life co.com for the show notes for this. And we’ll make sure all the Meesha stuff is linked in there for you too. But, but just pause for a minute and saying the seven most important things are your offer. Your promise, knowing who your reader is,
you know, being able to articulate clearly and simply your big idea, the stage of awareness, where people really, when they come to your page, what sort of solutions are they looking for? Whether or not they even know they’re even looking for a solution, your traffic I’m going to these new people are these people that know you, at least in some capacity who is actually landing on this page.
And then of course your unique value proposition, which is always a fun part of figuring out, you know, how your business fits within the landscape of the rest of your market and your niche. So I just wanted to just pause for a second and say, that is incredible and incredibly powerful. So although it’s only step one, I don’t want people to,
I don’t want people to overlook that. Yeah. Okay. Now let’s continue on is step number two, to writing a high converting sales page. So Step two is where you use the golden ratio of sales page copywriting. And I use this because it’s slashes writing time. It reduces blank page syndrome, and you can just overcome perfectionism, even as copywriters,
we get this, you know, we do wake up with this like, Oh crap, I have this Google doc in front of me. It’s blank. I don’t even know where to start. So here’s a trick. So what this means is, you know, you should start writing your sales page from the introducing section. You know, that part where you’re like introducing,
and then you announce your offer and the name. And then you kind of like dig into like, you know, number of modules or these are the benefits. And these are the features I would say, start your sales page, right from that point, which is, you know, midway down the page and this section and everything else that follows below is mostly logic based.
And in fact, I don’t know what studies this is, but it was discovered that a lot of people who are familiar with a particular product or the creator will jump straight into this introducing section to find out, you know, what’s included in the course of the program. So it’s kind of like its own mini sales page, for sure. Yeah. I’m that person I’m like,
just tell me what’s in here, girl. I just want to say, I could care less about anything else. Just give me the meat and potatoes. Okay. All right. Yeah. So it’s super fascinating. And then chance to actually start with that, first of all, understanding what you’re selling, having an incredible leading program service or offer and being able to articulate it.
But how else do you recommend people kind of execute this stuff? Number two. So from the perspective of someone who’s creating the course, you know, your course very well, right. You know, the outline, you know, what is step one, step two. So you kind of like go into that. You write that because this is more logical base.
It’s, it’s funny, it’s easier to write something that comes logically natural to us, sort of like, you know, Hey, this is what my course is and we know what our product is, so we can go on and on talking about it all day, it’s easier to do that than to switch tracks and kind of like, you know, talk about your reader and their problems and the agitation and all that stuff,
which really happens at the top of the page. So when you’re at this part of the sales page, you talk about the benefits and the features you talk about the most frequently asked questions like, Hey, is this course for me? And you kind of know that if it’s you or not, you anticipate that you can write that out easier than, you know,
anything else, which you’re talking from the perspective of emotions. Does that make sense? Totally. A hundred percent. So how do you define what the golden ratio is? That’s a very good question. So the golden ratio, I like to look at a sales page is the 80, 20, 20% Israeli, everything from the introducing section, everything down below.
So that includes introducing, calling out your offer, talking about what it contains, the FAQ, who is right for this program or offer that you’re creating and who isn’t the guarantee. Is there a guarantee and the closing section, these are more logical base elements of your sales page, easier to write. So this is the 20%, the 80 Israeli, where you’re starting at the hero of the very top,
which is your headline. You’re talking about the problems. You know, your avatar has the things that they’ve tried. You’re kind of crushing their objections. So it’s more emotional blocks, you know, crushing objections, getting into the mind space of the avatar. So that’s where 80% of your efforts should be dedicated. And that takes a little bit of time.
And, you know, also comes with a little bit of practice too, the more, you know, your industry and your avatar. It gets easier with time, but this is more like an exploration into what really goes on into your avatar site and you know, what’s going on in their head and those emotions. So that’s the 80% Fascinating. And I love this approach because I think it’s so much easier than you were saying,
just looking at a blank page and just saying, okay, I have to come up with this copy here, but really starting with the deliverables within the program and the facts and the things that are not so much emotionally based, it’s just black and white. Like I said, like, here’s the meat and potatoes. This is the deliverables. This is what it is.
This is what it, who it’s for. So what a great way to overcome that initial, not even writer’s block, but just such overwhelm that I know a lot of incidents owners face and really figuring out how to start creating this content. So that is step number two. So what is step number three, Step number three is where you go back and write everything else.
And you’re writing your page. You don’t edit yourself here after your 20% is done. You’re going back and you’re going to write your headline, your hero section, your body copy. You’re going to follow a framework. There’s a sales copywriting framework. And there are a lot of frameworks, but the one I particularly like, and I talk a little bit more about it in my program,
it’s called PAs problem agitation solution. And you know, you write everything that you know about your avatar. This is where your research comes in handy. But what I find often is like a lot of people want to edit everything they write like, Hmm. You know, they’ll write something and they’ll want to edit it because, Hey, this doesn’t sound grammatically,
right. Or how can I make this more sexier or, you know, more live with personality that doesn’t really work like that. Just write, don’t worry about editing because the editing will come, right? What you want to say first, then clean it up on how you want to say it. And the how is really your personality. And it’s really kind of like cleaning up the grammar and all that stuff.
So that’s, those are later steps. So write, write, write, and then come back and clean it up. I even think about it. Just dump it all on the paper, put what you want down there. Don’t judge yourself. Don’t try to make it sound better than it is. I, it was really funny. I was, I came across an article or some,
it was a graphic on LinkedIn about how a new entrepreneurs try to use really big words and their sales copy and really confusing. And like you were saying sexy wording and how it was actually a really funny graphic, but it actually showed that like the percentage of their success actually giving people Results is like 90% less than just the person that’s just putting out the basic sales of age there.
I was like the educational level people that try to use big, crazy words that, you know, to prove they’re, they’re further along than they are. So you guys don’t need to do that. You know, we’re going to talk about how to get your personality in here in just a minute and the other steps, but just write the dang copy,
write what you know about your program, right. Well, you know, by your people and just write it all out. So love step number three. There’s no judgment. There’s no grade on how well you did this paper. If you will, it’s just writing it all out. Okay. And then step number four is really then getting back in there and talking about editing that sales page,
you’re talking to boost conversions. What does that really look like for our writers? So next comes the editing process, like you said, I use Grammarly to edit my work. I also have an awesome copy editor who understands my client’s voice. So when we get to work with clients, I have this other Ninja trick, which when I tell clients it blows their mind like,
Hey, you know what? I can write exactly in your voice because I have it down to a science. I have tools to kind of like really understand what you sound like, and you know, how you write. And if you use long sentences, short sentences, are you writing a grade three level four level? You don’t have to be that Ninja,
but you can analyze your own writing voice when you’re using these tools. So I give that kind of brief overview to my editor. Like, Hey, we’ve got a client. She writes great. Three-level she writes long sentences. That doesn’t mean that you don’t edit it because you want to make it punchier. So she writes at this level, she kind of has this optimistic overview of,
in everything that she does. So like, if you sound, if you’re like Marie Forleo, you know, who’s like her tagline is everything is figureoutable. For example, she’s optimistic, she’s cheery. She’s happy. I do work with some clients who talk like that and have that personality when they write their emails or their newsletters. So we kind of take that and I give that briefing to my editor saying like,
Hey, this is how she writes. So you want to kind of like have that zing factor onto the sales page. So use Grammarly. It’s a great app to edit all your work for paid version. If you can get a copy editor. Excellent. There are lots of amazing copy editors out there who will edit your copy, cut out the jargon.
You don’t want to write jargon into your sales copy unless it’s some of the words that your avatar, your audience already understands, but you don’t wanna be too heavy with that. You know, obviously grammatical errors you want to correct that you don’t want any of that stuff. I’m known personally to write a lot of personality based copy in the work that I do to help my clients,
you know, kind of reflect their quirks, bring it out into the copy. So my copy is alive with that. It’s not as dry, but I kind of like, you know, try to get that from the client’s like, Hey, how much humor is, okay. Can we use gifts in your copy? Do you swear in your copy?
All that stuff. And last but not the least, you want to also do what? My copy mentor Joanna Wiebe from copy hackers does she uses what I, what is called the seven sweeps of clarity. And I’m just going to quickly go through what these are. Number one is clarity above and beyond. You want to make sure your messages are clear,
so they’re not confusing and long winded. Number two, you want to check for voice and tone. Does your copy have appropriate tone? Is it angry? Is it happy? Is it helpful? And this goes in with your messaging and your personality. The third thing is you want to ask yourself every time you read a line of copy. So what our reader never re has to read a line and wonders.
So what, so what if she’s telling me to do this? Or so what if she tells me this is how I feel? So for every, so what do you want to kind of like have that so that you can, because I’m kind of like have that explainer copy. The fourth sweep is approve it. And you know where every point is supported in some sort of proof.
If you’re making a claim that using this Facebook ad Ninja strategy, you’re going to get to X row. As you want to back it up at some proofs, very important, because you will lose someone’s trust. If you can’t back that up on your sales page. The other thing is how specific is your copy? Anything that’s vague messaging. If you’re reading your copy needs to be replaced with something specific like numbers,
think in terms of quantities, sizes, emotions, can you paint a picture, make it interesting, make it more specific, right? Like the whole thing, just, you know, show don’t just help. And then one look at your copy and check. If it has feelings, if it has emotions, do you think reading something will kind of compel the reader emotionally.
We want to do that because copy, it feels like it’s an art, but there’s also logic. And there’s also emotion. Do you want the reader to feel a certain way to take that action? And then the last thing you want to do is have the zero risk would that means us. Have I given my reader everything they can today to take me up on my offer and that there there’s no risk involved,
meaning you have to have a guarantee. So you want to look at these seven things. And I know this seems like impactful. So I’ll just recap Grammarly or an editing app. Copy editor. If you get one and the seven sweeps also call the Greek sweep or the seven sweeps check for clarity, your voice answered the so what with every line of copy,
you read, prove it, whatever you’re writing on the page, you need to prove it. And back it up specific, be specific. Don’t be vague. You want to make sure your copy has emotion and last but not least, can you back up with a strong guarantee? So there’s no risk for a reader and they trust you. I know that was a lot.
That’s. I mean, again, there’s just so much, there’s so much gold in this episode, you guys, this is going to be one of these podcasts that people come back and, you know, we have a handful of those they come back to and they listen to it again and again and again, because they’re really going through the process of training and learning how to do this.
There’s so much information. So I just appreciate you being so generous. You know, a lot of podcasts you go on, people are like, well, I’m going to tell you three things. And then, you know, again, we’ll leave you hanging in and unless you work with me, I mean, you’re really just pouring so much into our listeners and we just,
we love that. And that’s what we do here on the show. And I just appreciate you so much for this. It’s definitely not too much. W we’re all sponges here. So bring it on. We listened a bunch of times and that kind of ties into your final stab. That’s really well said. And the final step is bringing in your personality into your writing.
And that is kind of that fifth step of creating high converting copy on sales page. That’s really going to increase sales and increase profit. And what’s so cool. And listening to this is a lot of times, you know, we work with companies that sell and they sell really well, but they don’t take the opportunity to really make sure that who they’re selling to is actually the people that they really want to be working with.
So they might find out that they’re even incredibly lucrative or they have hundreds of people in their course or their membership, but it really, really isn’t that person that the founder, the leader, the teacher really wants to be connecting with. And so I love also the, what you’re saying is that it isn’t necessarily just going to increase the ROI of the sales page,
but it’s really going to, you know, what we always want to do is disqualify at the same time as pre-qualifying people into, into our program. And, and I, and I love everything you said, because I can see how that is just naturally part of the process interwoven into how you copy. So you recommend people write copy on their sales page.
So I, I appreciate that is from a business strategist standpoint, you know, making sure that our listeners are not only selling, but they’re selling to the people that they really want to be selling to. So is there anything else that, you know, our listeners really need to know as far as generally speaking, the psychology of writing? Great copy.
I think it’s really scary because a lot of people aren’t great writers and then they really aren’t great sales copywriters. So w what else can you share with our listeners? Just an encouragement to kind of wrap this up, put a bow on it here at the end. It’s just encouraging them in the direction. Maybe it’s not, maybe it’s not encouraging them.
We shouldn’t always do everything ourselves as leaders. You know, there are some things that I hire out because I know I suck at it. And as a leader, we might just need to identify, Hey, you know what? This is not your area of expertise. Hire it out, have somebody else do it for you. You know, what can you leave our listeners with and,
and really deciding how to move forward from here? Sure. So I would ask you this copywriters come in all kinds of budgets and all kinds of price tags. Of course, if this is your first launch, if you’ve never launched before, and you’re on an unlimited budget, you could learn how to write your own copy. It is not next to impossible.
In fact, I do have a little program that teaches people how to write, copy your own copy. It’s really takes you step-by-step right from the headline all the way down to the closing argument. And we talk about everything and how you can use the personality section of how you can pump up the copy with your personality, your quirks, because people want to not just know and trust you.
They need to like you, the copy has to be engaging like you rightfully said, and you can do that. You don’t have to sound dry and corporate-y and sleazy. So yeah, I would recommend that you could do this on your own. It’s not next impossible. The other thing is, if this is not your first launch and it’s a live launch,
or it’s an evergreen webinar launch, for example, there are a lot of moving parts in the funnels. There are 10 to 20 emails, there’s a landing page, there’s a webinar registration. There’s so much of stuff and I can keep going on and on if that is a whelming. And if you have a team to support you with the tech and the marketing,
right. And if you can afford a copywriter to come on board and kind of like, you know, take over and say, Hey, you know what? I can write all this for you, hats off to you do that, because that will a good copywriter. Won’t just write the copy, but they will even interview your customers to find out what they feel about you and what they have to say.
And, you know, sometimes I’ve given that to my clients and, you know, the recorded conversations and survey data, and they’re like, wow, I just got an idea for a new product. I never even thought of until, unless you would have interviewed my clients. And that’s like, it’s a huge deal. Like ask yourself. When was the last time you did a market research survey or even talked to 10 of your clients or buyers,
if you haven’t done that, a good copywriter will do that packaged as a deliverable and give it to you like, Hey, this is what your clients want from you. And this is what they’re saying, and this is what they desperately need. They just don’t know it yet. And in this box of product ideas, here you go. And you know what?
You just 10 extra return on invest. Right? So true, love that. And how can people find you? So I know that you have something you’re going to give our listeners here. That’s really going to springboard them to get started in the right direction. But also I want to make sure that we’re going to put in our show notes to a link to this,
write your own copy program as well. So wherever our listeners are, they can connect with you. We’ll put it on the show notes too, but where people find you and what is this tool that you are giving to our listeners as a bonus for this episode? Sure. So I have a website, the copy crew.com. You can find me there.
I’m also on Instagram with that same handle, the free gift that I have for your listeners today, it’s called the ROI sales page outline. It gives you a sales page outline. What do you need to do first and what you need to do last 15 to 16 sections of a sales page that you’ve got to have if you’re writing for a digital course and the paid offer that I have,
it’s a $37 course. It’s how to write your own sales page. It’s kind of serious sales page. You only charge seven 30, $7 to that. Oh, you guys, everybody should go grab that right now. Okay. Okay. Yeah. It’s pretty cool. That’s amazing. Okay. We’ll make sure there’s a link to that in the show notes for this as well.
So finding you@thecopycrew.com, we’ll make sure a link to this ROI sales page worksheets are all there for you, as well as a link to this, write your own copy. $37 course. You guys, even if it’s not for you, maybe somebody on your team that would be an investment that I would certainly recommend as a CEO. Ameesha thank you so much for all of your time today.
I have loved having you on the show. I have so many notes here. If you guys are watching this video on YouTube, behind the scenes, you see all my chicken scratch notes here on this piece of paper. I’m real old school like that. We really appreciate your time and your expertise. You know, really not holding anything back in orange is incredible wisdom and training and high level business and copywriting strategy and to our listeners.
So we just appreciate you so much being on the show. Thank you. Thank you. This was a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. You are welcome. Sure. We’ll be connecting again soon.<inaudible> Thank you so much for tuning into this show. What an awesome episode again, if you would like to join a Meesha in our private suite life,
business owners, community, then cruise over to sweet life, community.com and join us. She’s going to be teaching a masterclass to you, diving in deeper and taking your questions about the steps we talked about on the show. And she’s going to be coming back in January and working through actually your copy tearing down your copy and providing some extra level, higher level services to those businesses within our community.
So cruise over to Sweetlife community.com to join us there. And again, for all the show notes and everything, we talked about cruise over to sweet life, co.com. Thanks for tuning in you guys. We’ll see you soon.
Established entrepreneurs(in all Phases of my“Start To Scale Up Business System”) who want to stop being scared of the money and start taking control.
Summary:
You either love or hate to talk about money in your business. In fact, most entrepreneurs run and hide when it comes to financial ledgers. But on today’s show, we’re gonna make you love the money and control it. Getting your money right in your business is the best feeling ever, and the first step to getting a company that’s going to scale, grow, and give you what you really want in business and life.
This week we’re diving in with guest expert, accountant and CFO Consultant, Megan Dahle, and talking about where you are now, understanding where you want to be, and making sure you’re on the right path to get there. We do this by teaching you the simple three numbers you need to know that will give you the power, confidence, and control you seek.
Highlights:
Understand why you need to name your money
Get clarity on the dangers of reinvesting every dime into your business
Know the most important number that you really need to pay attention to
Get a simple routine to look at your numbers without being scared
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome back. This is sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, episode number 199. And yes, spoiler alert next week is our 200th podcast episode. And there’s some really cool stuff.
So make sure you’re subscribed. So you don’t miss out on that today. We are talking about how to love your business financials. So, first of all, if you clicked on this episode, then you’re pretty brave because the reality is that you either love to talk about money or you hate to talk about money in your business. And in fact, most entrepreneurs run and hide when we’re talking about financial ledgers,
but on today’s show, we’re going to dive in to make you love your money and take control of it. Getting your money right in your business is seriously. One of the best feelings ever really start to pay yourself. You’re paying valuable team members. Nothing feels better than that, but then we need to take it a step further. Is your business actually going to give you the life that you want.
First, we have the business foundations and financials that need in place, but today we’re talking about your life. How do we have the company generate enough money? And what do we need to do to get your life, to look the way that you want it to? And today’s guest expert, Megan Dali is here to talk about all of that. So the reality is let’s face it.
You either don’t understand the money in your business, or you have zero control of your cashflow, or you’ve done a really great job getting your financial systems in place. And now you’re ready for the next level either way. This is a great episode for you to tune into entrepreneurs. Don’t inherently come wired as accountants, as a matter of fact, most entrepreneurs are creatives.
And so when it comes to these types of systems, you might run the other direction. So that’s why today’s a really important show. And these are the things we’re covering on today’s episode. At the end of this episode, you’re going to know why you need to name your money and what exactly that means. You are going to get clarity on why it might be dangerous to always reinvest your profit back into your business.
So raise your hand. If every time you make goes back into your company, raise your hand. If every time you make those back into your company, but you also pay yourself a little bit. We’re going to talk about why both of those are not good, even though everybody does it and how to start changing that pattern. So you can reach your long-term business goals and we’re diving into important things like the number one number that you should pay attention to.
And why Megan says you don’t have to know all the numbers. We’re not getting into financial accounting lingo here. You’re just going to walk away understanding the most important number that you should know and a simple routine to look at your numbers on a regular basis, to make sure that you are on the right track. And let me introduce you to Megan here,
she’s our guest expert today, and she’s a doll you’re going to love her 15 years in a Megan Dolly’s corporate accounting career. A business owner reached out to her Megan privately because she was worried that one of the partners was taking more of their fair share. After looking at the books, Megan discovered that the partner had in fact taken $400,000 out of the account without the other partner,
knowing it was this sensitive project that was a launching pad for Megan. She is now a consulting CFO who creates light bulb moments inside her client’s businesses. And she makes the numbers easy for you to understand more importantly, easy for you to use so that you can learn how to grow your business stronger and make sure you’re generating cash and that it’s producing long-term wealth benefits for you.
So let’s go ahead and tune into today’s episode. Again, all of the show notes and the resources make it has here for us can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. This is podcast number 199. And if you haven’t yet, please take a second to leave us a review on Apple podcasts and share this episode with your friends, other business owners who really need to take control of their financial numbers as well.
Okay, let’s go.<inaudible> All right. You guys are welcome to the show. I am here with Megan Dolly, and today we’re talking about money. We always talk about goals and so many other podcasts talk about goal setting, but what are really comes down to is actually looking at the numbers, then the path that you’re on to make it happen.
And so that’s why I’m so excited to have Megan on the show today, because this is her area of expertise. And before she introduces herself, I wanted to read something to you that she sent to me, which is why I knew she absolutely had to be here on the show, talking to you guys today. She said light bulb moments are my favorite thing.
When my clients finally see what the numbers mean, it’s like watching. One of those videos were colored by blind people, put on those special glasses and can see color for the first time. It’s magical. Those magical moments have appeared in many parts of my life. And that’s how I know I’m on the path God has designed for me. Things that start by devastate is devastating.
Disaster is turned into something beautiful. And these transformations, these transformations that make me believe that all things are possible. And so Megan is absolutely an expert. She has crazy credentials, which I’ve already read for you, but what’s so important when we bring experts on the show is understanding the why behind what you do, not only what your Ninja zone of geniuses,
but the why behind. And so I wanted to share that with you guys before we, we dove into talking to Megan today. So Megan, take a minute and introduce yourself to our audience and tell people a little bit about you and how you got to be what you’re doing Today. Sure. Well, thanks so much April for letting me come on your show.
It’s amazing. I love how many shows you’ve done your consistency. The content is like, Oh my gosh, this is stuff I actually use. Like I’ve actually implemented stuff from your podcast. And so it was no brainer that I wanted to be on this show. So I’m a small town girl. I’m from Midwest, South Dakota. I like gardening. I have my kids.
I work with the marching band at the high school. I like to volunteer there. Yeah. And the numbers are my game. Numbers are my jam. I’ve just always seen them differently. Math always came easily. And my math teachers are like, your brain just works different. I love that. Yeah. You have to have a special gift to see numbers differently.
I do not have that gift nor to any of my children. So there you either have it or you don’t. I think. And, and so we’re grateful for people like you. So how do you work with clients? Primarily you have this amazing framework that you’ve created to help entrepreneurs and business owners make sure that they’re on the right path and that they’re going to achieve their goals.
I mean, this is a tangible framework and we’re going to dive into it today, which I’m so excited to on this show. Yeah. So the whole thing is that people are scared of their numbers or they don’t know what it means. They’re timid around them conversations with their bookkeeper and their accountant. Don’t go so well because they’re using that chart in the depreciation,
but you’ve been a, the, you know, those revenues Rose, it’s almost like they don’t want you to be asking questions, right? I’m going to use some jargon. So you just stop asking me questions. What I want to get to is what’s useful for you. I mean, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of your financial statements.
What’s actually useful. That’s going to help you make good decisions that you can have confidence in and know why you made those decisions and see the progress down the road. So it’s breaking it down into what would be a need. Right? Right. And your framework that you share, and you have a book about this, we’re going to, we’re going to let everybody know how to find you is number one,
where are you in identifying that number two is where do you want to go? Where do you want to be? And that’s the one we’re really diving in here today, which I’m super excited about. And then the third one is, Hey, you know, are you really on the right path to get there? So guide us into that second part of how,
how do you protect your goals? How do you identify, you know, really what is it going to take for me to get that beach house or send my kids to college or, you know, sell my company or whatever that is. How do you work with clients to understand that? Yeah. So it’s like the second half of goal making that is completely missing.
People don’t want to talk about the math part of the goals because it’s scary math or they forget about it or, or they’re more about it’ll come set the goal, set your vision board and it’ll come. I’m more about, well, let’s go get it. Let’s not wait for anything. Let’s not sit around and wait for it, but let’s actually quantify it and then go get it.
So it’s like, yes, I want that beach house or yes, I want to sell my business for X amount so I can retire with that cash. That’s great. Now let’s put a number on it. Let’s put a date on it. And where are we at compared to that? So we can go and get that progress. What happens when you don’t do this is that you make progress towards your goals,
but you might not recognize it. And so you take that progress and you reinvest it in your business, or you use that progress towards, Oh, some other expenses that might come up or the next shiny object. And then it’s like, your three-year goal is still your three-year goals, six years down the road. Wow. That is so true. That is exactly what business owners do.
So we think that that progress that we made financially, you know, instead of putting it to maybe what you’re saying is this in goal, they just automatically invested back in the company, which could be great. Or maybe it’s not what they should be doing with that. Yeah. That’s really fascinating. Oh yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So curiosity,
I love it. When business owners get curious and they start experimenting with things, but it’s also important to like have a, if you want to be curious and experiment, that’s great. Let’s have money that’s designated specifically for that, but let’s not be taking all of our progress and throwing it at this next shiny object. Yeah. Okay. So being proportionate about what you invest,
where each time you get each time you make progress, whatever that is. So if you have 20, $30,000, instead of reinvesting all that say, okay, we’re going to put 10 to this and then, you know, 20 or 30 to that. Interesting. Okay. So super interesting. So step number one is really quantifying how much it’s going to cost for you to get to that goal and really drilling down on those requirements.
And I think that alone, like we could just end the show here. How many of you guys listening to the show have actually sat down? And I know you all have thought about what you want because you’re entrepreneurs and we’re creative. And that’s what we do. How many of you have actually sat down and crunched the numbers to figure out what it’s actually going to cost for you to get there?
Connect with us, like send us a DM on Instagram Sweetlife podcast and let us know if you’ve actually crunched the numbers. And we’ll do like a little poll on our Instagram story on this with the week. This show airs, because I guarantee you, I mean, tell me Megan, how many people actually that come to your, like, this is going to cost me a million dollars.
I’ve had one client in my five years. I’ve had one, one that’s like had everything set up and she’s like, I know exactly how much I want for my daughter’s wedding. I know how much I want for my retirement. I will know how much I want for Beneta da. Great, awesome. That was so cool to come across. It’s like,
all right, let’s work on the next step. You’ve got this covered, right? That’s right. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, it’s a 90% of people will not have that 99.9% of people will not have that. Okay. So after somebody identifies really how much, what that’s going to cost the next step you say is really assessing their progress towards that.
Is there a certain frequency in which a business owner should stop and take a look that you recommend financially about how they’re doing? Is that quarterly? Is it monthly? Is it yearly? Is there a routine that you recommend entrepreneurs are in assessing, not their monthly? I mean, this is not a show about monthly operational costs. This is a show about where I am,
as opposed to where I want to be in my future. Right. So if it’s set up correctly, you’ll just be able to look and see, okay. Part of it is just taking that money out and hiding it from yourself in a special place. That’s either getting interest or invest in somehow to protect that progress and maybe do some work for you on the side while you’re not watching.
So I’ve lost my train of thought a second. When you triggered something, when you said it’s it’s mom mode, it’s our mom brain. No, what I was saying was I feel like as business owners, if somebody is like 30th of every single month, you should do this every single quarter. Should you do this? So I think that entrepreneurs,
you know, we’re super creative people, but when somebody gives us a system, we love systems. We geek out on systems too. So do you have a consistent system where you say to your clients, Hey, we’re going to have a, check-in call every quarter and make sure that your money’s moving, where it needs to be, and you’re still on track or we need to assess what’s happened so far or just regular,
like a routine that you recommend businesses really pay attention and reassess. Yeah. I actually have only a few numbers that I want my people to pay really close attention to. Because if I tell them to, you know, start pull your financial statements every month, it’s one of those things that, eh, I got it, they pull up, open an income statement,
they look at the bottom line. They’re like, yep, that’s about right. And they move on, right? It has no meaning to them. So I actually pick a few numbers, like one that you might need to watch weekly and other that you’ll want to look at monthly and another, that you’ll want to look at quarterly just to make sure that things are going along the way that they need to be.
And we’ll do that deep dive, more quarterly. But one of the most important, one of the most telling numbers is your 60 day cash in 60 days, how much cash am I going to have in the bank to run my business? And then we make sure that what we’re taking out and protecting isn’t going back in and what we’re taking out and protecting isn’t hurting the business.
Cause that’s, you know, you don’t want to be taking out too much cash. And when you can see what your cash balance is going to be in 60 days or other types of business, if you’re like retail and you have busy seasons, we actually take that out much farther. They want to know where the cash is going to be. Cause that’s the blood.
We don’t want to be donating blood if we can’t afford it. Right. Right. Right. So smart. And so the next thing you say is to name the cash before it comes in, let’s talk a little bit about that. What do you mean by that? So once we have that cash projection created, we know what we think our cash is going to be coming in for the next couple months.
And now that we think we know what that cash is, we’re going to have a purpose for it because if we don’t have a purpose for it, what’s really easy to do is to spend it. If we don’t know at that way, coming in as man, those coaching programs, the advertising, the marketing, all it’s, it’s sexy and it’s fun and it’s,
it’s new and it’s novel. So we actually name it like, okay, we know that next week we should have about 2000 coming in. And two weeks after that we have 4,000 coming in and then we know where it’s going out in terms of expenses. We know where it’s going out in terms of the progress towards our goals. And we know what’s being set aside for a little sandbox fund cash and owe taxes.
Don’t forget about taxes. I do taxes and taxes yet. So you actually say Before it comes in, so you know where it’s going versus where somebody like myself, I have a tendency to not just name the money to actually spend the money before it comes in. So in my mind, I’ve already and I don’t actually spend the money, but I think maybe I do that.
So in my mind, it’s already saying this money is coming here for this. This money is going to this and it’s not like robbing Peter from pain, Paul, but I definitely know where my money is going well before it gets here. And so I feel like I’m doing good, according to what you say in that area. Although I’m sure that the categories in which I named my money could use some work.
And like you were saying, so you’re saying taxes, of course, business operations. And you’re saying that we really need to pay attention to the 60 day cashflow. And that is the key numbers are our listeners should be paying attention to, is that correct? Yes, that’s right. And on that cashflow, you’ll see the different categories. You’ll see,
like the marketing that one can get out of hand really quick. You’ll see the tax and all of those buckets, because truth is to get a little bit accounting, jargon ish on you, not everything that is cash out actually appears on your income statement. So your income statement might show that you’re showing have a profit, but cash is like, did you know that you paid yourself?
And did you know that you had these debt service payments? And there it goes, what you thought was your free cash flow. Right. Okay. And I’m sure this happens all the time. It’s just why people need somebody like you to make sure that you’re helping them protect their assets. So the third step you say is protecting this actual progress. So as businesses,
they have their structure in place or they’re getting their structure in place. What does it take to actually do that and put that structure in place so that the money is accumulated in the appropriate buckets so that they can reach their goals. How do you put this structure in place for your clients? So I have a really easy Excel tool in all my clients have to do is put in their bank balance.
At the top of that tool, like open up the bank balance today, it says $7,500. And it will tell them exactly what to do with that $7,500. If something’s going to stay in the business, if something is going to be moved to pay themselves and put it in their pocket, or if something is for their goals specifically for that, and going to move directly to,
I work with a lot of like personal finance people, like go put that in that account over there and your personal finance, personal take care of it. If they don’t have a personal finance person, I’m like, go put this in your savings account, your money market, account, your investment account, and just let it be happy over there. All by itself will take care of itself,
right? Who are The primary clients that you work with? I work with creative females primarily, and between being told that you’re creative and between being told that you were a woman you’re generally taught from a very young age, that numbers aren’t for you. And so when it comes to those conversations and showing people visually how this works so they can get that shift of,
Oh, this isn’t hard. I totally get this. I’m smart enough. I’m good enough. And now I feel like I am a true business person. I feel like I’m in control of my business. It’s really cool. Yeah. Super. It feels super powerful. It’s such a rush when yeah. I think as, as women, as men,
they just are expected to, but as women, when we finally take control of the numbers, it’s such a, such a feeling of, I don’t like to use the word empowered because it’s so overused, but this is a perfect instance in which she used that. And so I love, absolutely love what you do. So now I’m going to put you on the spot and I didn’t prepare you to ask these questions,
but I really want to know what are your favorite books for women founders when it comes to being smart about money? Do you have, besides your own? So let’s talk about your book, you know, getting your money. Right. I know that I hear a lot of people whose agenda and Cheryl’s book, you’re a, bad-ass at making money, which is more mindset around money.
It’s not money strategy. I personally actually loved that book. Are there any other books or resources that you recommend that our listeners who might not have a healthy relationship with money in the first place can use to kind of dive into reset their perspective? Yeah. So profit first was transformative for me. Mike McCullough is a great guy. And when it comes to bank balance accounting,
he’s the King and that’s what we’re doing and using what he has built and expanding on it. He’s really good. He’s really funny. If you listen to his books, listen to it on two X and he’s hysterical the other, I’m actually going to stand up and get the author’s name cause I can hear it. Oh, I love it. Thank you.
And then we’ll make sure you guys that we are sharing, we’re sharing these resources in the show notes too. Along with Megan spoke to one of the things that I know that businesses struggle with is just understanding the fundamentals of money. And it’s really interesting. I have a lot of clients that are CPAs and that are accountants and you know, that are finance coaches.
And it’s interesting to see as we’re helping our finance coaching clients build their business, how they approach scaling their business online and developing their coaching service versus our other businesses because they already know. So a part of the strategy is also part of the structure and the foundation of the money. It is that profit first approach. And it’s a beautiful thing as a business development coach,
you know, to go through and watch. And they’re saying, okay, well, this is the way this is going to be. And they’re very, they’re very strategic about that as far as being entrepreneurs themselves. So I, I love to ask these kind of behind the scene questions like about your own business and how do you do this and what are some of the resources that you love for your own business?
Just because I think that teaches a lot as well. So what was this other book? Cunningham has a couple of really great books. His blueprint to a successful business is like, this is why you need to understand the numbers in your business and how they make you incredibly profitable when you understand them. And he’s also not about all of the nitty gritty bits and pieces of the numbers.
It’s just the overall picture of how it flows together and how it works. Yes. Awesome. Cool. Thank you so much for sharing those. Okay. So in closing today, we have talked about how to not only protect your goals, but how to actually make your goals come to fruition because you are quantifying them to figure out the importance of how much your goals and what that looks like is going to cost you.
We talked about the importance of actually assessing your progress on a regular basis and naming the cash before it comes in and making sure that you are hiding and you’re protecting your money and you are not giving 100% of your profit back into your business that you’re pulling out these small chunks of this. And that’s a really big deal, I think for a lot of our listeners as well,
because especially in the first five years of business, like every dime they make, they put back in, and that does, you’re saying that’s a risk factor of, you’re just putting off that amount of time to even start working on their personal goals. Is that correct? That’s right. Yep. They need to start getting rewarded for the work that they do,
change your relationship with your business. Yeah. And then in your book, this ebook, you have getting your money, right. What does that look like? What are some of the things that our readers can expect to really learn from you in that book? So there are three types of numbers that you need to know in your business. There is the number that tells you,
where am I at? Like, where am I even at relative? How did I get here? What direction am I facing? When, where am I? And the second one is, well, hang on a second. Where do I want to be? And that’s the quantifying, this is what I want my from my business. This is how I want it to serve me.
And then the numbers that tell you, are you on the right path? Are you doing the right activities or does something need to shift? Do we need to take a detour in what those different numbers look like and how you can find them? Great. And so you’re going to, you’re going to dive in and guide our listeners through that process. Megan,
thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate your expertise and your wisdom and your sense of humor and just really making this so much more fun than I think that entrepreneurs experience a lot of times when we talk about money and being so real about the fact that you don’t have to know all the nitty gritty terminology, but these are the basic three numbers you need to know.
And our listeners can find out more about that by downloading your free book, which we will make sure there is a link to that in the show notes of this episode and where else can our listeners find you Come on over to Meghan dolly.com or connect with me on Facebook. I love conversations to begin to sit back and have 15 minutes of coffee together, sometime if you want,
Love that. Okay, perfect. We’ll make sure that those links are in the show notes. Thank you so much for being a guest. Oh, thank you so much, April. This was fun. Yes. Appreciate you.<inaudible> Thanks so much for tuning into this show. Here is a reminder that you can get all of the notes that we talked about today,
including all of the bonuses and strategies by visiting Sweetlife co.com episode one 99. And if you are in a place where you’re ready to develop your leading offer or your program now is a time to get in through pre-registration by joining our wait list for our, your leading offer and program masterclass coming in 2021, I would love to work with you and extract your expertise to create your intellectual property,
to make you be this beautiful leader and your space to learn more about our, offer engineer masterclass, simply visit theofferengineer.com. I’ll talk to you next week. We have episode number 200 coming right at you and almost four years of Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. Rolling out so excited and you appreciate so much have a great week.
Established entrepreneurs in Phases 3 of my“Start To Scale Up Business System”. You’re ready to grow your team. If you’re ready to hire, grow and transition from doer to leader in your company, but you struggle to know where or how to start, this show is for you.
Summary:
If it’s time to grow your team and stop being the one that does all the tasks, but you struggle with how to delegate, how to create culture, and how to move from founder to CEO, this episode is for you. Together we dive into why entrepreneurs struggle to transition from founder to the CEO role, And the importance of aligning your goals with your strategies and objectives, and how to go about doing this, before you hire critical team members. We talk about the hard things like mindset shifts from doer to leader, And why some entrepreneurs should never be the CEO of their own company.
Kate Carney is our guest expert and guides you through the process and practical shifts to move and grow your business. This episode also includes an amazing bonus worksheet that details 5 Strategies For Scaling your company right now. If you’re ready to hire, grow and transition from doer to leader in your company, this show is for you.
Highlights:
Understand what the transition from Founder to CEO really looks like
Identify the importance of outlining your goals and objectives before hiring key team members
Have practical ideas of how to create the culture you want for your team members and contractors
We even talk about how to pay people and bring them aboard with equity in your company before you can afford a full-time salary, and what to watch out for if you do this!
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate Back to the show. I’m April beach, the host here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur business podcast and my company this week life company, and this podcast is all about helping offline companies scale online and helping entrepreneurs,
experts, and small businesses create your leading offers and launch your business. We are super excited to chat with you again today, and we have an amazing guest in the house. I’ll introduce you to her in just a second, but let’s go ahead and dive into what we’re talking about today and why it might be important for your business today. We’re talking about how to grow your team and transition to that CEO role.
You know, oftentimes new businesses struggle to move from that place of doing all the things to building the team that you really need to grow your company. So entrepreneurs and creatives, it’s a constant struggle for almost every single one in the beginning of your business, that you just automatically might not come wired with strategies and systems in mind. And you love your business so much.
Your hands are in every aspect of your business. It can be really hard to delegate and bring other people aboard. The problem we face is it’s going to cause issues with scaling your business. And when it’s time to really grow, we need you to be able to build your team and to bring the right people board so that you can take on the CEO role.
But here is the kicker. You maybe shouldn’t be the CEO of your company. And in today’s episode, our guest and I dive into that as well. She even shares an example of how one founder knew that she didn’t want to be the CEO of the company strategically in the beginning and built her team around that. And why you actually have permission to operate in your growth of your business.
However you want. There are no rules here, but let’s face it. Not all entrepreneurs are the best leaders in their company, but if you have a growth mindset, that’s a critical part to help you learn and develop the new skills that you need and want to become the leader. You can be an amazing CEO of your business. So in today’s show,
we’re talking about three steps to transition from this founder role into the CEO role. We’re talking about understanding what this transition looks like and what it means to you to go from a doer to a leader. We talk about aligning your objectives with the strategies that you want before you ever hire your first team member. And we’re talking about creating a culture within your business.
Even if you have independent subcontractors, here is the other little special question that I asked our guests today. I asked her what if a company is ready to grow, but you really afford to hire a full-time team member. And you’re considering giving equity in your business in exchange for having an advisor or somebody come aboard. And our guest today answers that question.
You get some really great wisdom as well. So today’s guest expert is Kate Carney and she’s an experienced business consultant, lawyer and strategic advisor. And she helps female founders scale businesses and reach profitability. She works with businesses in a founder centric approach to performance, focusing on leadership, talent strategies, and organizational design. And she believes that alignment in these critical areas,
results in a culture that supports sustainable growth for your business. I’m super excited to introduce you to Kate Carney, and let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show all of the show notes and the resources we talk about can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number one 98.<inaudible> Hi everyone. And welcome back to my conversation today with Kate Carney.
I’m super excited to be here and have her as a guest because we’re talking about something that I know a lot of our listeners struggle with, and that is this transition, not only mentally, but within the systems and the structures of your business, when it’s time to change from that role of being the founder of your company and doing maybe even like the Jack of all trades,
doing a lot of things into the CEO role and delegating. And that can certainly be a struggle. So we have Kate Carney here on the show today, she’s our expert, and she’s going to be diving in with you and giving you the strategies to go through this transition a little bit more seamlessly than maybe you have been doing so before Kate, welcome to the show.
Thanks so much for being here. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here. I am super excited that you’re here. Tell us a little bit about you and help our listeners get to know you a little bit. Sure. So I am a lawyer by practice. I know lawyers, but I am. I worked with corporate and mostly hedge funds for 12 years.
And in 2016, I quit with no plan in place, a new mortgage over my head. I just needed something different. I wanted to be challenged by something I really wanted to learn, and I had no idea what that was. And so I spent most of 17 figuring out what that could look like. And you look back on your career and you find one common thread.
And for me, that common thread was always serving as the right hand to whoever is in power, whether that the CEO or the senior partner at a law firm, that’s where I always slotted in. And it was for my judgment really, and my ability to give opinions that are reasoned with information when asked. And so, you know, what does that translate to?
I wasn’t really sure. I ended up going to a co-working space to do because I wanted to get out of my house. And I started going to events and I met a bunch of entrepreneurs and I loved hearing their stories and what they were doing. And I thought it really great to be part of this future economy and around really passionate people that I vibe with.
And so I made the transition into doing legal work for startups. I had been introduced to a gentleman who had started a boutique firm that focused just on startups and high-growth companies. And so it was the beginning of 18. I moved over to work with them and I got to work with startups mostly on any corporate legal matters from formation through, you know,
sales transactions and everything in between. And that was great. And I got to see, you know, when companies were doing well and growing and, you know, clients that didn’t get anywhere. And I served as an outsource general counsel for one client. And I went in their office twice a week and all the fed and they were falling apart. And you see all the reasons why this founder kind of fall apart or not be able to make the transition.
And I did a lot of research and I talked to a lot of founders and I, you know, I looked at all the stats around female founders and I just thought this was an area where I could add a lot of value because it poles not only my beagle rational, analytical mind, but it also pulls in some of the executive work I’ve done on senior teams and a lot of the strategic work I’ve done and it kind of pulls them all together.
So I moved on to coaching founders and I love it. I love that story. And so you were in a really unique position, so you have seen, and you, like you said, you’ve been at like the right hand of some of these really powerful and prominent leaders. And you’ve seen that and they’ve trusted you for your advice. And then you totally scaled down if you will,
to this beginning route in this beginning of seed of this entrepreneurship, and then you see the struggles there. So you have a really unique advantage point of seeing what it looks like in the end, and then coming back and seeing where people fail in the beginning. I love your story. And so in this process, going through and realizing that when a founder is in this place where they’re ready to grow,
what are some of the problems that you’ve seen that people run into mental problems and strategic problems? Why is this transition from founder to CEO and your experience so hard? I think a little bit, if we can talk about that, need to control, you know, it’s your baby and people struggle to go from it’s your baby to it’s a business, right at the beginning.
It’s an extension of you who you hire the teams, how things get done. It tends to be about personal achievement at the beginning, like the winds of the company or your wins. And you need to move into this place where the business stands on its own. And that means hiring people, putting together teams, removing yourself from the middle, and that’s scary,
right? You think nobody can do it as well as I can do it. I know my market best. I did the research. I know my product or service better than anyone, but if you want to scale, you’ve got to remove yourself from that center. And I think founders just struggled to get there. And I think part of it is,
you know, a challenge of taking on the new role and understanding what the new role is. And some of it’s just this, I can’t let go mentality. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with that. And, and we’re so emotionally charged and the things that we’ve created, it is hard to let go. And it’s hard to have trust in that.
And so what are some of the things that founders should be doing to think about their role differently when they get to this transition point? I think it’s important to fundamentally understand the different, you know, as a founder, you tend to be the execution person, the ideas person, there’s this notion if your head’s down and you’re hustling and you’re the middle of it all.
And to be a CEO, I think it’s about culture, right? Setting the right culture and developing your culture. It’s about hiring and developing your managers. It’s about promoting collaboration, putting some systems in place and then serving as the key connection to all your stakeholders. So whether that’s internally with employees or vendors, or most importantly your customers, and so that’s a big role,
no doubt about it. And honestly, most people aren’t suited for that role if they haven’t done it before. And so there’s this panic, they’re this, they’re a failure. Am I smart enough? Can I do it by let people down? Particularly if you’ve taken on venture capital dollars, will you let people down? And I think the starting point is having this growth mindset.
So always start with the mindset and then sort of the tactical. But I think the growth mindset is critical, right? If this belief that with hard work and learning, you can develop new skills. And if you want to learn something, you can read about it, or you can learn from people who have the necessary experiences. And this is where I think you can hire coaches,
find mentors, go to leadership programs, find peer to peer networks to build your leadership skills and to learn about all these other areas that are really important to being a CEO and have the conversations with others that have either done it successfully, or can guide you through the process. And some of the things you struggle with. But I also think it’s if honesty and self-awareness that you have to stop and say,
okay, what am I really good at? What are my strengths? And what do I like to do? And then what are my weaknesses and what don’t I want to do? And you might be great at something, but you also may not want to be CEO. And that’s okay to admit. And I think some founders struggle. I had a client who has a COVID her business was taking off.
She hadn’t had a patent, it was taking off. And she said out of the gate, I do not want to run this company. I want to hire somebody first step. I want to be in the MOC in there in the weeds executing. And so that’s really important to know. I have another founder that just held on to the very end and destroyed what was a company and ego kept him there.
And I think that he plays a problem. And so he’s got to know what your strengths are. You don’t have to be good at everything. Right. Nobody expects you to be good at everything. You don’t have to do it all. Yeah. Right. And I think, I think that we, we do. I mean, yeah, we,
we certainly expect ourselves to at least know how to do everything at first. And, and I think that’s an important part of being able to delegate, but I love those two examples and I love how that founder, she knew right away, Hey, listen, this is, I love what I do. It actually reminds me of Michael Gerber’s book, the E-Myth,
you know, where he goes through and just really defines the entrepreneur, the technician and the manager different roles. And we do as business owners and as entrepreneurs fit into those really differently. And if you guys haven’t read the E-Myth, it’s a great, you know, beginning business, you know, creating systems book, we’ll put a link to that in the show notes for you.
And I love that awareness that she had. And I think that most business owners do kind of feel like, well, this is my company. I got to run it. And I love the freedom and how beautiful that wasn’t her thinking, Hey, you know what, no, I want to be in here. I want to be creating, this is what I do.
And this is what I love to do. So when you’re going through that transition period, you got to make those first hires and you have to build that team and you have to start somewhere and it can be really scary to hire your first person. And so how do you recommend our listeners? You know, some of our listeners have teams, smaller teams,
mid-size teams, how do you recommend people that haven’t ever started? They haven’t made their first hire yet, or they’re ready to make their first big hire, whether it’s to, you know, a C, M O or somebody that’s really going to take on a bigger role. And there’s going to be a lot of trust required. How do you recommend people go about doing that?
It starts with being very clear on your strategy. You need that in place first. And then you can break that down into specific objectives on how you’re going to get and work forward. And then break that further down into specific skills and experiences you need to execute. And you’re going to be creating those functions. If it’s, let’s say to grow revenue from a hundred K to a million or something,
find who’s done that, or has experienced growing sales teams, perhaps. But if you’re really clear about the role and the objectives, and you put that out, you’re more likely to attract the right person, know what you expect them to do the first 30, 60, 90 days one year, particularly right now, you know, it used to be that talent was hard to find,
but now the market is flooded. And so it is going to take some weeding. So be very clear about what your expectations and what the job actually is. And there are certainly challenges whether that is to hire too soon before you really have the job in place. And so you’ve got this nice list of roles and responsibilities, but they don’t kind of exist when you bring the person on.
That’s frustrating, but more often, I see it’s waiting too long to hire somebody. And you certainly don’t want to be in the position where you’re scaling quickly and you just need somebody to come on and you make this really quick hire. And it’s probably for many people to end up that way. And you may have to fire that person and you just don’t want to get in that position.
So thinking very clearly early, Hey, here’s my strategy over the next six to 12 months, this is the objective. This is what I’m going to need to accomplish it. These are the skills. Okay. When do I want to start this process? And it takes a while. So you do want to give yourself time to lead through interview. And I think the biggest thing is going to be,
you want the culture fit and that’s not easy to read very quickly. So you’ve gotta be really clear about what kind of culture you want to develop. One bad Apple obviously can be extremely costly, both for time, energy and a negative impact on the team morale, particularly with small teams, right? If you’re a team of five or six and you have one just negative Nancy,
or, you know, not a team player, whatever it’s going to impact everybody. And they’re not going to want to come to work because it’s just a hostile or not fun work environment. I had a founder say that when he thinks about hiring, he says for every one I hire, I’m going to end up with 10 more, just like it really tells me,
like, is that how you want to grow? Do you like these people in us, listen to your gut. If your gut is telling, you know, ask others that you’ve interviewed with your colleagues and say, did you get the same reaction, right? Or is this just me? You know, maybe it’s something else going on in your own bias in your head,
but ask, but really listen to your gut and trust your intuition more often than not, instead of just forcing somebody into a spot because you mean, Hmm. Okay. I have some questions, but first of all, what I heard you say was you have to take the time to figure out what you want. And I think that a lot of founders,
a lot of startups don’t actually know sometimes what that role that they want to fill. It looks like because they haven’t even actually worked in that before, which is why they’re hiring somebody else to do it. They aren’t an expert at it either. So really taking the time to figure that out, doing the research, getting guidance, wisdom from other people and just taking the time to figure that out.
And my biggest fail. So I own two business consulting firms. And I still remember when I built my first team, it was 2009 or 2010. Finally, I had one woman come to me. We’re great friends today. And she said, April, you are for sure the worst delegator I have ever worked for. And it’s because she would say,
Hey, I want to own this. And I’d say, great, go own it. And then she’d come back and present something to meet. And then, and only then would I take the time to look and see what she did and realize I didn’t want it. It was ultimate entrepreneur leader, you know, creative mind failure. And I knew that,
and I’m so grateful that that’s something that she pointed out. And I have had to actually work to hone in my skills as a leader in a delegator because I was awful at it. And I think there are a lot of business owners like that. Like, they’re not really sure what they want yet. And so they’re waiting for somebody to come in and take it.
But I love that. You said you got to figure it out. You got to figure out the strategy because she was a great person. And she is an amazing asset still to my companies, but she could have just walked away and she didn’t. And so I was really grateful for that. So I just wanted to kind of share that relational story.
If anybody’s saying, how do I do this? If I don’t know what it looks like yet, it’s do take the time to research and get guidance on that and figure out and brainstorm what that means. Okay. So here is my question for you. We have clients that we work with, that aren’t in a position yet where they can hire a full-time employee.
So I have two questions, totally different going in different directions, and I’ll just pose them both. And you can go whatever direction you want to go or answer both of them. The first question for startups or for mid-sized businesses that don’t have the funding yet. It’s more of a statement and I’d love your feedback. I know that there are companies that give advisors a percentage of ownership of that company in lieu of a full time salary to start out.
I would love your take on that. The second question is how do you create culture now that our teams are so spread out and working virtually? Is that a problem that you are seeing new growing companies have actually creating a culture within their teams when nobody’s actually physically together. So I know those are two totally opposite questions, but I would love your expertise.
I’ll talk about culture with this work from home, but on the equity piece, you know, it’s an effective way to reward them on pace them and incentivize them to work with you when you don’t have money at Warren and be careful at the very beginning, you bring on all these consultants are basically people that are working so free essentially. And they start asking for equity and everybody wants to be an advisor.
If you can push it off six months to a year, when it comes to like the high level advisors and see what they actually contribute. Because so many people say I’m going to be an advisor and take a half a percent, and then they do nothing. They don’t make any connections all year that you kind of want to have that, that people are worth whatever equity you’re giving up and it’s okay to give them,
but I would be cautious and moved slowly and assess and evaluate that person before you hand out equity, because yes, it’s very cheap, right? I mean, it’s worth zero when you’re growing a business, but it’s valuable down the road. And there don’t just hand it out like Great advice. And we’ve seen both instances with clients of ours, where they gave it out in the beginning and the people you’re right.
Did nothing. It was absolutely a waste. And then the other companies who have waited for these really top level advisers and they’re worth their weight in gold and they love advising them and they’re super involved and making all these connections. So great advice. Thank you for that. Okay. On the culture side of it, like we were talking about how do you,
how do you create culture within your new company and lead teams in a way that’s effective and really fires people up and helps them to love what they do when everybody’s so separated And new, interesting challenge. And we’re going to say a lot of new leadership styles come out of that and different ideas. And I think that’s very exciting. I mean, again,
it’s going to come down to leadership at the end of the day. I truly believe that your culture comes down to leadership and that, that is how you delegate and how you empower people. That is how you communicate with them. You know, that is how you have those teams working and sort of the processes and systems that you have in place. You know,
those are important too, but for leadership, it’s going to start with communication, right? I think over communicate is what everybody’s saying. There’s probably some happy middle ground, but it is about communication. And it’s not just the town hall that you have with the whole group or the all hands meeting on Monday morning. But it is about specific groups working on projects.
It is about specific one-on-ones that need to happen. It is very much about matching the type of communication with the type of task that needs to get done. And so not everything is meant to be on Slack. That could be for a project that is moving very quickly and it’s a small team, and maybe you do messages if it’s urgent and, you know,
still use email and have expectations. I think communication with the right tool setting expectations and that’s part of leadership. And there is concern that there’s a lot of lines being blurred between personal and professional. It’s easy to set this tone when you’re home, that you should be available 24 seven. And I think it’s the responsibility of leadership to acknowledge that there are breaking points and that it’s okay.
And just be honest about when you’re going to be available and when people should be available. And the little thing like be empathetic. I think we can’t talk about that enough for leadership be empathetic. There is so much going on for your employees that goes beyond just doing their task and their job. There are a whole nother set of pressures that never were before.
And so really listened to them and, you know, ask, how are you doing? You know, how’s work from home, working for you, what isn’t working for you, anything I can do to make the team, you know, working from home any easier for you, ask questions and particularly to your direct report drive. If you’re the CEO,
you don’t have to ask every single person, if you’ve got a big team, your functional heads can ask their team, but start asking questions and remind your team of your mission, right? You still are responsible for setting that vision and communicating it and inspiring your team. And so even if you’re pivoting in some ways, right, most likely the vision hasn’t changed,
how you’re getting there might be changing because of COVID. But most likely, unless like, I don’t know, it was completely wiped out. The problem you’re solving entirely, but most likely, you’re just, you’re changing how you’re getting there. So just remind your team constantly what they’re working on and that vision. And so they feel connected to something that is unifying.
And then of course, you know, you could do the happy hours or the lunch and learns or the game nights and, you know, have a social channel on Slack that the bag wine, or Yeah. I’m like, why? Cause that’s mine, I don’t sell the new irrelevant, But that’s great. It’s something relevant, but that creates a conversation between teams.
I love that. Thank you so much for all your tips today. So today we talked about, you know, what really does that transition look like from founder to CEO and why so many people struggle with it? And thank you so much for your wisdom and what you shared with our listeners on and really how to get through and process that and how to think differently.
The founder is that ideas person, but the CEO is the developing of other people. And it’s totally okay if you don’t want to be the CEO of your growing company, as you shared, which I particularly love that. I think that information and that insight is just gold because I don’t think business leaders actually realize that and give themselves permission to not fill that role.
And then we also talked about, you know, making sure that you have your objectives and your strategies and what you want and what you need to find before you start building your team and growing your team so that you’re setting clear expectations of what you want, what you want the culture of your company to be like, and the person that you want to fulfill that role.
And then you also shared with us your wisdom on really creating that culture through distance. And, and I think that distance is going to stay. And I totally agree with you that there are some boundaries that need to be set. I’ve always worked from home. And so I feel it’s interesting from this vantage point, just to kind of see more traditional businesses that are working from home and you’re right.
I mean, it’s bleeding everywhere. They’re working all the time and then you have kids behind and homeschooling and there’s so many other struggles. And so that’s certainly something that I’m so glad companies are taking into consideration and really processing through. And then for our listeners, I want to share this software with you guys. We love it. We’ve used it for a while.
So if you have a team and you want to create culture and you want it, you don’t want to use Slack. Although we love Slack for a lot of reasons, we also love Voxer. So I’ll make sure we put a link to the show notes and boxer boxers, just a walkie talkie app, basically, where you can send to your team and you can send it out to everybody at once and just say,
Hey everybody, it’s Monday morning, you know, what’s your objective this week. I’m thinking about you. And it was really much more of a personal connection than a typewritten connection. And, and we love that software as well. So we’ll go ahead and share a link to that in our show notes and tape, where can people find you? You know,
somebody saying, Oh, you know, this is really great. I really need help, but I need her strategy and I need her wisdom and her eyes and my company. Where can they find you? You can find me. If you go to my website, you can also download five strategies for scaling. The website is K the number eight Carney,
C a R N E y.com. Or you can just DM me on Instagram at K eight dot Carney. Great. And we’ll make sure that we share all those links for our listeners. So these, you guys can find those in the show notes as well. Kate’s five strategies for scaling, really aligned with what we talked about today. And these are all things that you guys have to do and you have to nail before you can scale your business.
So I would definitely recommend grabbing that from her as well. Kate, thank you so much for your time and being with us today. I loved chatting with you on the show. We really appreciate you being our guest expert this week. Thank you so much for having me. You’re welcome.
Established offline businesses who want to launch online services but aren’t sure where to start. And experts, entrepreneurs or companies in my “Start To Scale Business System”, phases 1-3.
Summary:
You know the potential to reach more people and expand your reach by offering online services. But when it comes to getting started in the online space you don’t have the time to get your masters in online business everything but you deserve to know where to start so you can make wise choices for your company and your future. This episode gives you three simple steps to take your off-line company online and gives you the wisdom and confidence and clarity in your first steps moving in this direction.
Highlights:
Have confidence in what to do first
Stop being overwhelmed by the fragmented and often times ill-advised coaching
Create a game plan to take your business online now
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life. You love FASTA with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 193 here at the sweet life entrepreneur in business podcast. And I’m April beach, founder of the Sweetlife company and host of this show.
Thanks for tuning in with me another week, we are giving you another business training that many coaches charge thousands of dollars for, and I’m so glad to have an opportunity to pour into you as you’re continuing, or maybe you’re just starting out growing your business online. If we don’t know each other yet, I would love to get to know you more. You can always shoot me a DM over on LinkedIn or Instagram at Sweetlife podcast.
And if this is your first time listening to the show, go back and cruise back and listen to our trailer. Now it was almost 200 episodes ago that would release that trailer, but it will give you an idea if you are in the right place for business strategy and training today, we’re talking to those of you guys who have an established business offline,
and it’s time to bring your offline company and your offline services online. And in this show, I’m giving you three steps to start this process. And let’s talk about why this is important, just to make sure you’re in the right place, listening to the right show. That’s going to give you the right results you’re looking for. So you’ve identified, right?
You know, that there’s so much more potential to reach people and expand your offerings by offering online services. We’re going to talk about some different options of those online services today, because knowing that you want to do that, and actually then taking the step to understanding the choices that are available to you in the most efficient way are two totally separate things. And I get that.
That’s why I’m here recording this show for you today. So when it comes to getting into that online space, there is so much information and it can be incredibly overwhelming. And what we don’t want is we don’t want you launching certain online programs or offers or services or even courses just because everybody else is doing it. We want to make sure it’s a right fit for your company.
And all of that wisdom is what we’re pouring into you here on this show. At the end of this episode, you are going to have confidence in knowing what to do first, second, and third, to take your offline services online. You, if you have been overwhelmed will stop being overwhelmed by all the fragmented information, or you’re either getting information in two different ways.
It’s either super fragmented and you’re not really sure what information you can trust, or there’s so much information coming at you from software companies to business coaches about how to bring your business, that it can be totally overwhelming. And this episode is going to help you sort out fact from fiction. And it’s going to help you understand really what you should just be paying attention to here in the beginning.
And you’re going to have a game plan of what to do in what order to bring your services online. And this show just like almost all of our episodes. We have super amazing episode bonuses. So with this particular episode, to give you even more wisdom and information, I want you to download our totally free ultimate guide to online business models. So we’re talking about obviously online services here on the show,
but this is over 14 pages and it just totally lays out all the different online business model options from online courses to group coaching programs, to masterminds, even to podcasting, to help you have even more wisdom. In what direction you want to go taking your services online. So you can get that ultimate guide totally free by going to April beach.com forward slash ultimate guide.
We’ll make sure we get that into your hands right away. Okay. So if you’re ready for these results and you want this information, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> Okay. Three steps to get started taking your offline business online. So, first of all, let’s talk about what your offline business looks like. You either have a brick and mortar store,
or you’re used to providing services to people in person face to face, whether it’s hands on. And we work with a lot of healthcare providers, a lot of consultants and experts, and they want to go. And that could be you. You want to go from seeing people face to face and really expanding your reach to serve more people at a time.
And by doing so you create a business model that gives you ultimately more time and location freedom, as long as it’s done strategically. So if you have a current business that provides face-to-face services, one-on-one services on location, then this is the perfect episode for you to be listening to step number one, as you move in the direction of thinking, Hey, you know,
I really want to expand my business with online services. Step number one is to choose your online business model. And if you have been listening to this podcast now for almost four years, you know, we talk about online business modeling all the time. So if you want even more resources, cruise back to our podcast website@sweetlifecode.com and you can actually search all of our episodes for all of the online business modeling shows,
wanting to make sure, you know, that’s a tool available to you, but right now I want you to just hone in and focus in on what do you imagine that that looks like when you’re working with your clients? Not face to face, it could be in zoom could be by the phone, or it could be creating great content and videos for your clients and distributing it to them.
What does that look like to you? And what do your clients really need from you? If you listen to last week’s episode, we talked about what clients are really looking for, what buyers are buying right now. And people love on demand. People love having resources and answers and quick results at their fingertips. And so, as you’re thinking about creating your online offers,
certainly consider what is it that my clients really want in addition to maybe seeing me face to face. And some of your clients probably have been telling you this already. And if you ask your clients, they will tell you they’ll say yes, I want to meet with you virtually or yes, I would love to be part of a mastermind. So if you ask your clients,
they will tell you, they are always your best place to do. Research is going to your perfect clients are ready. But right now I want to dive into the three most common types of services that offline companies are launching as online offers. And they are online courses, online coaching programs and online memberships. You might have actually thought about one of these types of options before.
And the reason why offline companies are going to these is because they’re really great ways to already package the expertise that you have within your company. There are great ways to utilize your assets. And we’re going to dive into that here in just a second. But step number one is choosing your online business model. Let me give you a quick definition of what each one of these three most popular types are type.
Number one is by launching an online course. So an online course is a great way to take your established content, your things that you’ve already done. You know, in most cases with offline businesses and the established companies we work with, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. We want to take your expertise and your assets and things you’ve already created within your business and just reframe them,
repackage them, reprogram them. If you will, to offer as an online course. And online courses are most commonly offered two different ways. The first one is called evergreen. Evergreen is where you would take your information. You would turn it into videos in that your clients could purchase it and buy it and absorb the information any time. So they’re prerecorded videos that people can go through any time.
And then the second type of online course is literally it live taught online course where you’re still taking the content. You’re still taking the information and you may teach this in a combination of zoom, live coaching and some PowerPoint presentations, maybe some videos as well. So the two most common types of online courses that offline businesses are launching as online services are evergreen again,
which is pre creating videos that people can watch on demand whenever they want. We already know people are buying those types of things. And number two, launching live coaching as an online course, I will say that for established business owners, I would caution you against launching really cumbersome, huge live online courses. If you’re still running your local business, unless you have a team to help you do that.
So just a little caution there. It can be really time consuming. The second type of online business model that many offline companies are adopting is live coaching. And this is where you take a group of people. Maybe you’ve served them one-on-one before and you start coaching them live online through zoom. You can provide phone consulting, you can provide FaceTime consulting, the medium and how you deliver.
It really doesn’t matter. It’s what you’re delivering. So this is actually providing live coaching without being face to face. And you can provide this one-on-one or you can create a group and provide live consulting to a group, either on a onetime basis for a specialty topic or on an ongoing basis. And the third type of business model that offline company are most commonly launching as online offers our memberships memberships are really amazing.
It’s where you take your expert content and you deliver it on a monthly and a quarterly basis to people in a community that you have created. Memberships are a great way. And we’ve especially in 2020, been working with established businesses who have community already around your business. Maybe it’s a brick and mortar store in creating a membership amongst all your customers. It is an amazing way to connect with them,
and it’s an amazing way to connect them with each other. And memberships is a great thing to consider. If you have content, if you have coaching, maybe there’s some sweet deal or discount that you want to deliver to your customers. And it’s also a great way to create a program for those customers of yours that want to access you on an ongoing basis for a longer period of time.
So they can achieve better results with the services that you deliver. A membership community is a great way to do that. So your first job and choosing, gosh, you know, how am I going to bring my offline business online is to consider what business model do you want to launch? And we just talked about the three most popular ones, courses,
coaching or memberships, but don’t forget to download the ultimate guide to online business models. So you can see all of that. And again, you can grab that by going to April beach.com forward slash ultimate guide. Okay. Step number two is to develop your actual offer program or service. So you’ve already chosen the business model of how you want to deliver it.
Now we need to organize your assets and we need to take your ideas, and we need to take your expertise out of your head out of other places in your business and bring it in to creating your new online offer. So here’s some tips to do that. Number one is to sit down and extract your expertise. What are you known for? What are you great at?
What things have you already created in your business? We don’t want to recreate the wheel here with your first online offer in order to keep your current customers coming back to you. We want to give them more results in a different way within your established area of expertise. And it’s also going to save you literally months, if not years, to create something brand new from scratch,
right? So let’s take what you already do, and let’s scale it online with an online offer for you. So extract your expertise and start with what you already have. Go through your archives, go through things that you’ve created. Content you’ve already created in your business in the past and give yourself an opportunity to take an assessment and an inventory of all the great things you’ve already created.
I guarantee you, if you’re an established business owner, you’ve created some amazing things and some excellent content in your business, and that’s why people love you, right? So go back and see what you’ve already done to help you realize your potential. So for what you can deliver to people through an online program and service, and then also consider what people love the most from you.
If you are a brick and mortar retailer, and you have every single Monday, it’s a new shirt that you may feature on social media and it’s a new item drop, right? Well, people probably go crazy about that. So how can you take that and bring it into a new membership community? Or how can you create content around that to deliver into a coaching program?
Perhaps maybe you can launch an online course, helping people stylize themselves. For whatever reason, there are so many different opportunities that you can take your established expertise and just tweak it a little bit and create your online offer instead of starting from scratch. And then the last tip is what are the most common questions people ask you the easiest way to create an online course or coaching program or membership community is by going through in writing down,
if you haven’t, before you should be in documenting the questions that people most commonly ask you in your business and then taking those questions and the answers to those and turning it into your first online offer. Whether again, you choose a business model and how you deliver that, whether it’s coaching or a course or a membership community, maybe even a podcast, but go through and figure out what are the most common questions that people me all the time.
And that is a great place for you to scale what you’ve already done, extract your expertise and explode it into more sales and an exponential reach. So step number two is to actually go through and develop the content that’s going into your offer program or online service. And then step number three is to develop your first marketing funnel. So first you have to pick the business model.
Second, you have to organize your assets and your material and actually create your program. And third is to go through the process of creating your first marketing funnel. So your marketing funnel is where you’re going to attract more people than just your local faithful and your it’s, where you’re going to convert your local faithful to start connecting with you online. So your first marketing funnel is usually developed in a very simple way where you would create something free to give away that solves a problem,
but not just any problem, your something free you’re giving away online should solve a problem that you discuss and also solve within your new online offer. So create something free. It could be a short video and tips could be a checklist. It could be a strategy sheet, a tip sheet. If you’re a nutrition coach, it could be creating a sample menu for the week,
whatever it is, create something of value that solves a problem for your customers that relates to the service that you’re going to be launching online. And then step number two is to create one page on your website. That includes a form where people can receive that free item. And then step number three is to create a marketing plan, to share your content and to share your message across social media.
You could do podcast guesting. You could go to networking events, both offline, and now we’re starting Kevin’s to see more local networking events happen again. And of course you can run ads. There are numerous ways where you can get eyes on your marketing funnel and grow your list through that. The reality is is this first marketing funnel is important because it shifts people who might be used to only connecting with you online.
Maybe the only way you have sold people into your services before is having them sign a contract face to face, or actually seeing them face to face. So your next step is to determine how are you going to funnel people in to your new online offers could be creating this new first marketing funnel for new people, or you might consider creating a new online experience with a welcome page for your established customers saying,
Hey, guess what? We love working with you in person. Now we’re excited to also work with you online. And so it can be handholding your established local one-on-one client and helping them to onboard and get comfortable with your new online offers. We want your established clients to be the first ones to interact with your new online offers because they’re the ones that love you.
They’re the ones that trust you. And they’re the ones that are going to really help your new online offers grow. They are your biggest cheerleaders. So three steps to take your offline business online. Number one, choose online business model. How are you going to deliver your online services? Number two, develop your offer service program, course membership, whatever it is,
develop the content and the curriculum in there. If you struggle to turn your ideas and your expertise into world-class programs, that’s where my company, the Sweetlife company comes in to help. You can always cruise over to Sweetlife co.com and we will teach you how to extract your expertise and turn it into a worldclass leading offers and programs. And then number three is build your first marketing funnel,
whether it’s a marketing funnel to move your established clients online, or it’s a new marketing funnel to generate new cold leads to your online services. I just can’t emphasize that enough, the importance of valuing the current clients you have and providing different ways for your current clients to absorb your established expertise before you go, and you create a brand new offer, that’s a cold offer to people who’ve never worked with you before.
We want you considering what business model your established clients want and need so that you can continue to pour into them and build those relationships. And we can create repeat customers to spend money again and again and again with you, once you nail your online business model with your current customers, then we talk about expanding to a cold audience and really expanding your reach and exploding your sales even more.
So just start with what you have, start with what you know, and start with the people you already know better than anybody else. Nobody knows your established clients better than you do. And again, start asking them questions. How did they want to work with you online? How can you better meet their needs through digital delivery of products, information, services,
and support. And those are your three steps to take your offline business online, choose your business model, develop your offer, build your first marketing funnel. All right. I hope you found this incredibly helpful. We really want to simplify things here for you. I know it can seem very overwhelming, especially when you’re new to the online space. If you’re in that place where you feel overwhelmed,
hit us up anytime, and we’re happy to jump on a business triaged call with you and get you started in the right direction. You can find us@sweetlifeco.com and all the show notes we talked about here on this episode, the ultimate guide to business models and how to learn, how to turn your ideas and expertise into your leading offer can all be found in the show notes for this episode by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com
forward slash one 93. All right, you guys have a fantastic week, so great to pour into you and talk to you soon.
Does your company have a right-now offer that is selling? If not, this is the perfect episode for you. This show will help you choose the best service to sell right now and make sure that your offer fits into your longer term growth model. Offers are any service or program you deliver to your clients and can include coaching, hands-on services, virtual consulting, online courses, digital products, membership communities, programs, events and other services that help your company expand and scale. Get 7 questions to ask that will lead to clarity on what you should focus on selling right now?
Highlights:
Decide if you can alter a current offer or if you should create a new one
Know how your offer fits into your future scale plan
Deliver a service that solves your customers’ problems right now
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’ll listen To the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Welcome to episode number 192 Here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I’m April beach. I love chatting with you. Thanks so much for tuning in with me for another episode, only eight episodes away from show number 200.
So thanks for being a faithful listener. And if you’re new here, it’s great to connect with you on today’s show. We’re talking about how to make sure that what you’re offering is selling right now. So how to offer services that sell right now is the official name of today’s show. And this is who this episode is for. This is for those of you guys who are established businesses,
and maybe you’re struggling a little bit with what you’re offering, maybe it isn’t selling, or this is also for you who are established businesses, and you’re ready to take the leap. You’re ready to strategically scale your company by considering different online services in ways that you can streamline what you’ve already done and scale it into a way that is more efficient and more profitable for you.
And this episode is also for those that are new entrepreneurs. And we have a lot of new businesses to listen to this show as well. And this episode is going to help you determine what first services you might want to create in your business. So in the end of this episode, this is what you are going to have accomplished. I want to make sure that you always know what’s coming.
So, you know, whether or not this is a great show for you to continue to tune into. I know your time is incredibly valuable and I respect that. So the end of this episode, you will be able to decide if you can alter a current service, or if you should create a new one, you will know how your offer fits into your future scale plan.
And you’ll be able to deliver a service that solves your customer’s problems right now, or you will at least be able to identify what problem your customers need help solving right now. So this is a perfect episode for you, and it’s going to help you choose the best services to sell right now and to make sure your offer fits into your longterm business growth models,
offers, or any service or program that you deliver to your clients. And that can include coaching hands-on services, virtual consulting, online courses, digital products, membership, communities, programs, events, and other services that could be an extension of your primary business, or they could be the primary business itself. So in this show, I’m going to give you seven questions to ask yourself,
that’s going to lead to the clarity that you need to know what you should be selling right now. So if that’s in line with what you’re looking for, stick around and let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show<inaudible> All right, let’s go ahead and talk about how to offer services that are selling right now. First of all, I want to make sure that you have a very important and powerful tool at your fingertips.
This is for those of you that are looking to launch a portion of your business and taught online services, and you aren’t really sure how to choose them. You can go and download my ultimate guide to online business models. Right now it’s a 14 page guide. It’s very extensive and it talks about all the different types of online services and programs that companies offer and exactly how that affects your business and your lifestyle by offering each one of the services,
you can go grab that totally free ultimate guide by visiting April beach.com forward slash ultimate guide. And I’ll make sure that that link is in the show notes for you as well. So let’s go ahead and start really diving in here. So does your company have an offer that is selling right now? If you don’t, this is a perfect episode for you to be listening to.
So your suite of offers that you create in your business, you might have three different packages or two or a really high end package and an entry package. Every business is strategically designed differently. So you could have all these different things that you offer, but what’s equally important, especially right now in today’s business economy is making sure that you have a service or a program or an offer that people desperately need.
And that means they desperately need it right now. And here is why, this is what we know about are right now buyers. So people that are buying services, professional development, personal services, business services, marketing services, you know, design services, whatever it is that you do, healthcare services. This is what we know about are right now.
Buyers are right now, buyers are spending money. They’re definitely spending money. There are some people that are doing really well financially right now, despite the fact that sadly, there are a lot of people that aren’t, but the right now buyers are spending money, but they’re spending it much more wisely. So they aren’t not spending, but they’re choosing what they’re spending their money on much more carefully than they did 12 months ago.
We know that we also know that our right now buyers want to see a transformation. They want to make sure that they can see or feel or experience a transformation. And that transformation is much more important to them and their decision making to buy from you. Then it also was 1224, 36 months ago. So what do I mean by a transformation? That means that what you’re offering,
they need to be able to see a start to finish. They need to be able to identify. This is where I was before I worked with this company or purchase this service. And they need to be able to remember and identify how that felt, maybe some of the pain or frustration or even hope. And they need to be able to see, wow,
this is what it looks like in the end. This is what I paid for. This is what I got, and this is my injury result. So it’s incredibly important that what you’re offering is giving your customers the ability to see a transformation. There are a lot of great services that businesses offer out there. And I’m not saying that your company has to provide a huge transformation.
It could be really, really small, fast, quick result, or it could be something more comprehensive. But our buyers today, we know that they need, and they want to see a transformation with your services. And they need to understand what that transformation is before they buy from you. So if you are not clearly articulating what the end result will be from working with you,
they will probably not buy from you right now. You know? And a great example of this is my wonderful cleaning lady that come help me clean my house, frankly, because I’m a terrible housekeeper. I know what’s going to happen. I know what my house is going to look like. It is usually honestly a total disaster before they get here in three hours later,
when they leave, it is the best place ever to be in for me. Right. It feels good. And it smells good. And it’s organized. It’s not just clean. I mean, they pick up stuff and fold laundry. So I know what that end. Result’s going to look like. And I look forward to it and believe me, it’s worth every penny.
I pay for them to do that. So whatever your service is that you deliver, that’s the kind of feeling you want to give your people. And that’s what we know about are right now, buyers are right now. Buyers also want to make sure that every single service is all about them. It’s all around them. It’s around their time, their schedule it’s like TV on demand.
Okay? So you, as a business owner might be struggling to figure out how to do that within managing your own company and your own teams and your own families. I get that. And that is a struggle because so many customers want things right on demand. That’s also one of the benefits of launching online business models, because it helps to solve those problems.
So we know that our right now buyers want it all around them, their schedule, weekends nights, early mornings, whatever it is. And they honestly expect that from you. It doesn’t mean I’m telling you that your company has to meet those on demand needs. I’m just, that’s what they want. And that’s what they’re buying. And then the other thing we know is it right now,
buyers are digging online a year ago. They might not have been as comfortable receiving consulting or therapy or taking a yoga class online. But now this is a way of the world. In those of you who have already tapped into online business are in this gold mine. If you haven’t yet, make sure that you download my ultimate guide to choose the online business model.
That’s right for you. Again, I’ll put that in the show notes of this episode for you, because that’s going to really speed up the process to help you decide how to tap into the online business scaling market. It doesn’t matter if you’re a consultant or a professional, we need to be making sure that you are tapping into the way we know that buyers are buying now.
And the way we know that they will in the future. So in this episode, we’re talking about really how to create these services that are going to meet the needs of our right and our buyers. And so we want you to look at your current offers and determine which one is the perfect one right now for you to sell. Or maybe we need to add a new offer,
alter some offers, and here are seven questions that I’m guiding you through here. That’ll help you get clarity on what’s going on in your business and how to find the solution for your right now buyers. Okay. All right, here we go. And if you’re driving your car, you can always replay this. You can save this, you can stop this and listen to it later.
And of course you can visit the show notes for this episode, which are found@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash one 92. It’s number of this episode. So here we go. Question number one. And you can just answer out loud. If you’re at the gym or driving your car, question, number one, what is your primary offer service program course or product right now?
What is the main thing you sell? What is like your number one, go to package or, you know, delivery or service. So answer that question right now. Number two, is that primary offer selling? Did it sell in the past and maybe it’s dropped off a bit or is it currently selling? If you have answered your primary offer in it’s still currently selling and you are experiencing business growth,
the way that we would normally expect for you to receive experienced business growth, then you can literally turn off this podcast right now. You don’t have to listen to anymore. You have a lot of things to do in your life, tune in with me next week and we’ll keep pouring into you. Okay? So if you have an offer in it’s selling right now,
stop listening to this podcast, turned me off, make me shut up if you don’t, if you have your offer, but maybe it’s been declining or maybe you haven’t really identified primary offer that you’re selling or your primary offer, isn’t selling. Let’s keep going. All right. Question number three. Does your primary offer solve an immediate problem for your clients?
Again? What do we know about right now, buyers? We know that they want to solve a problem and they want to see a transformation and a difference right now. So does your offer solve an immediate problem for your clients? Now media can be relative. I don’t mean you’re going to fix their world in an hour. Maybe you can. It could be a couple of months,
could be six weeks, but we want to make sure that you are delivering an offer that is giving a transformation that in your client’s mind, based on what it is that you do as an expert, that they can see that there will be an end result and that end result feels fast and good. And sure. So does this offer solve an immediate problem for your clients?
If you answer that you don’t even have a primary offer right now during this question, I want you to be thinking of what offer could you deliver to your customers that solves an immediate problem for them right now. Now here’s where we pivot a little bit, and this is equally as important as everything else we’ve talked about is your offer something that you want yourself or your company to become known for a lot of times,
businesses will create services just because that might be the type of service that you offer based on your industry, but they don’t necessarily want to be famous for that. Maybe you as a business owner have a bigger dream for your company or a bigger goal or a different impact that you would like to give your customers. So ask yourself the question. Does your offer create a reputation for yourself in your business that you want to be known for?
Now, if you’re putting out a big fire and we’re creating a new offer right now because nothing’s selling it’s okay. If the answer to that is no there’s more years ahead. Okay. If your offer is selling or you need to just ramp it up a little bit or make some edits to it, or maybe alter your offer a little bit, then ask yourself,
the question is all this hard work that I’m going into in my team or my company is going into creating these services. Are they leading to what we as a company really want to be known for? And so I want you doing good work, smart work that has exponential results for your business in the future. Not just work, we don’t ever want to just do work and create things and do services just to sell them.
We want them to be a greater part of your strategic business plan. With that being said, does this service allow you or your company to operate in your zone of genius, where you are just flowing, where things are just thriving and coming together, you love doing what you do. You love being within this element of creating this result for people. Does it operate in your zone of genius?
Again, that’s more of a ideal if your company is struggling, but if your company really isn’t struggling and you’re looking to scale, that’s a very important question for you to answer. And then of course, question number seven is, does your offer make you enough money is what you’re settling, equaling the profit that you planned to make right now. Now this is a very right now question.
There’s a lot of different things that have happened for businesses and companies right now. And so if you are creating a new offer, because that’s what we’re talking about in this show to sell right now, we want to make sure that the value of that offer is going to equal the dollar amount that you need your business to generate right now. So you might want to make some tweaks to your offer.
And then along those lines are making sure you’re asking yourself, does this service, does this offer deliver an immediate result? Does it solve an immediate problem for my people, for my clients? So these are the seven questions. And when you ask yourself these questions, it’s going to give you clarity on whether or not you need to edit an existing alter,
uh, offer or alter an existing offer or create a new one. You are going to know how that offer fits into your longterm business model in stop yourself. If it doesn’t stop yourself, if you really want to make sure that what you’re creating is going to fit into what you want your company to be known for. And let’s make sure that the offer you’re creating to sell right now.
So it was an immediate pain problem for people because that’s what we know about are right now buyers. So going back through this, I’ll just repeat these seven questions really quick for you, and we can move on. I’m going to give you some tips here to keep going. So the question number one is what is your primary offer service program? Coarser product question.
Number two, is, is it selling question number three, is, does this offer solve an immediate problem for your clients? Number four, what changes need to be made to alter or improve or update your offer to solve an immediate problem? Number five, is your offer something that you want yourself or your company to become known for? Number six, are you operating in your zone of genius and number seven,
does your offer make you enough money? When you answer those seven questions, you are going to know exactly how to offer services that are selling right now. And you’re going to be able to take an inventory of what you’ve already done. I don’t want you recreating the wheel. I want you taking your expertise, your experience, your current services, taking a peek at them and making some tweaks.
Unless you’re a new business, we’re going to start from scratch and answering those questions is going to give you incredible clarity on what you can and should be selling right now in your new market. And here’s some tips. If you feel like you’re a little stuck here, this is more advanced business tips. For those of you guys that are established businesses. The first thing is is you should highly consider creating a leading offer that you want to be known for.
If you haven’t done that yet, consider what that leading offer could be and how you want to be known in your space. Tip number two, if you’re not sure what to do here, you guys ask your clients, get on the phone with people, pick up the phone, call clients, call past clients, call friends who might know people that could use your services.
Literally get on the phone with people and ask them, what are you struggling with? What problem do you have right now? And how can I solve that for you? And listen, be a really good listener if you’re stuck and you aren’t sure where to start listening is the best market research you can ever, ever do. So listen, ask questions and create solutions and tip.
Number three is if you haven’t yet now certainly is the time to scale your business by offering online services, programs, coaching, digital products, communities, so on and so forth. The list is endless. As far as the business model, you can choose online. The question is is what are you doing? What end result are you giving? The answer is not I’m offering a course.
The answer is not I’m offering coaching or I’m having an event. The answer is I’m helping people solve this. So ask yourself, what problem are you solving? And then ask yourself what sort of method or business model is best for my business that I can move forward and deliver these results through an online business model scaling. And so again, I have that resource for you to give you the understanding of the different business models.
And you can go grab that by going to April beach.com forward slash ultimate guide, and you’ll receive the ultimate guide for choosing the business, my online business model. That’s right for you. All right, today, we talked about how to offer services that are selling right now. I give you seven strategic questions to ask yourself, to get clarity on how to choose a service or an offer.
That’s going to give your people results and they’re going to pay for it. And I gave you the link to download the ultimate guide, to choose the online business model. That is right for you. All of the information we chatted about can be found in our podcast. Show notes by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 92. Thank you so much for being a listener to this show.
I love that you’re here for only seven. Now episodes away from episode 200, and I really appreciate you sharing this show and trusting us to help you build your business. How do you guys next week.
Established entrepreneurs(in Phases 2-4 of my“Start To Scale Up Business System”) who feel fragmented and need a clear and strong plan to move forward for the rest of 2020.
Summary:
If you feel like your business needs a reset, you’re not alone. Fall is a natural time to reset and refocus, but this year these tasks are not idealistic, they’re imperative! In this episode, we’re continuing our talk on the 6 Core Areas of your business that may require your attention to reset and refocus, in order for your business to keep moving forward and be ready for 2021.
In this show(part 2) we dive into core areas 4, 5, and 6; your mind, your network and your home or life. April guides you through strategic questions to determine if you need to reset, and gives you tips on how to reset each area if needed. This is another practical business strategy training that will give you immediate business results.
Highlights:
Know how to choose a mastermind
Know if you need a mindset shift
Get tips to separate your work and life if you have a home office
Have resources to connect with powerful affiliates to grow your business
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi guys. And welcome back to part two of the reset and refocus your business. The fall challenge. This isn’t really a challenge, although we are running the live challenge this week. And so you are invited to join us.
If you are a subscriber to this podcast and listening to it real time, I’m hosting the fifth annual entrepreneur reset and refocus challenge. That really helps you make sure your business is on track for the last three and a half months of the year. I would love for you to join me in there. You can just cruise over to Sweetlife co.com forward slash reset to join me in this challenge.
And so what we’re talking about today is the second part of six really important areas that once we reset them, it’s going to help your business focus and move forward this fall. And we always host this challenge. This is something we all as business owners need to do. That’s why we have done this so many years in a row, but this particular year is a mess.
And so what we’re doing is even more than what we usually do. Not more work, more focused, more important. I think then what we usually want to do of feeling good to reset in the fall. It’s no longer feeling good to reset in the fall this year. It is. We have to make sure your business is reset and refocused this fall without a doubt,
it’s time to do it. So welcome to the show. I’m April beach, I’m your host. And of course you are tuned into this wait life entrepreneur and business podcast. I am so glad that you were here. All the show notes and everything that we’re talking about on this episode and last week’s episode can be found by visiting and sweet lives. podcast.com
forward slash one 91. As I said, this is a continuation. So this is part two. So if you missed last week’s episode, episode, number one 90, I highly recommend you pause this where you are and go back and listen to last week’s episode. First in these two shows, we are talking about your services and your offer and your marketing and your systems.
And then today’s show we’re really honing into your mindset, your network, and your home and your life, and how to reset these important areas so that your business is going to thrive this fall. And I invite you again to join me in the reset and refocus challenge, totally free, and to download the eight page cheat sheet workbook I have for you to create immediate action and results in your business by visiting Sweetlife co.com
forward slash reset. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s focus area.<inaudible> Last week on the show I gave you tips and strategies to know whether or not you need to reset your offer, your marketing and your lead generation systems and your internal business systems today on the show, we’re really diving into your mind, your mindset, where are you mentally as a business owner,
we’re going to dive into your network, who are you connecting with? Are they valuable to you? And are you valuable to them? And we’re going to dive into your home office and your life. All of these things are equally important to your business, who you are, what’s happening in your life. All these things affect your business. And so that’s why they’re important for us to talk about on this show.
So let’s go ahead and start with talking about resetting your mind. Tony Robbins says that business success is 83% mindset, 17% strategy. You hear that again and again, we know it to be true. You can have all the tools in the world. You can have all the blueprints, the perfect business plan, but if your mind isn’t set on being successful and working hard and being amazing at what you do,
you’re never going to do it. And so it’s really important that together, we talk about making sure our mind is where we want to be, and that we are mentally advancing as leaders and as entrepreneurs. So area number four of resetting. Again, we talked about one through three and last week show area. Number four, every setting is your mind.
And here are some questions that I want you to ask yourself. What do you want to learn? Are you growing? Are you currently challenging yourself in growing as a leader, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, as a human being, when we stopped learning and we stopped growing that’s when everything else kind of comes to a screeching halt. I’ve learned that about myself.
When I stopped listening to audible books, when I stopped challenging myself to go to the gym, when I stopped doing things in my life or for my mind, then everything else slowly kind of comes to this screeching halt. And so it’s important as we reset this fall that we’re talking about what’s going on in your head because this year has been really hard,
mentally, more than ever on a lot of us and most of us and our kids, I can tell you that I get what it feels like to be exhausted simply from having your mind overworking. And so we’re going to reset that so that your mind is thriving and that you are firing on all cylinders. So ask yourself, what’s something new that you want to learn.
What do you want to know more about, or what areas do you want to advance in your business, maybe in your personal life. And here are some tips to refocus these areas, this fall, first of all, you can identify what you’re missing in what you want to become known for. So, first of all, ask yourself, what do I want to be known for?
Have you ever answered that question? What do I want to be known for? When people talk about me now, when people talk about me 10 years from now, 50 years from now, what do you want to have been known for in your business? And so what can you, or should you be doing right now to learn more, to grow in that area?
That’s one question to ask yourself as you’re resetting mentally right now, here’s another one what’s holding you back from getting to the next level. Is it you, I’m not talking about things like finances or my team isn’t big enough. Those are all the business strategy, things that we talk about on the show all the time that you know, we implement for clients.
We’re talking about in your own head, what’s holding you back from getting to that next level. Do you maybe just need some inspiration or some guidance in that? Should you hire a coach? Is it time to join a mastermind? Is it time to invest in your own development? It can be free by bingeing books and podcasts. You can start journaling and paying attention to what you’re saying.
And you can invest in yourself by getting a high level coach or joining a mastermind of people that are slightly ahead of where you are in your business. When you join a mastermind, I recommend that you join a mastermind with likeminded people, that people that are a little bit further ahead than where you are. So you can learn from them and you can grow with that group of people.
So the first area to reset, which is reset. Number four, if you’re listening to both parts of this podcast is your mind, what do you want to learn? How do you want to grow in what areas do you want to advance? What do you want to be known for? And how are you going to invest in yourself to bring yourself to the next level?
You’re a coach or a mastermind through a program? What is it going to be? And if you can’t do it today, when are you going to commit to make those changes? Area number two, which is reset area number five in the big picture is your network. Who do you know that benefits your business? What businesses can you or your business benefit and who do you want to know?
So who currently knows your business that maybe you haven’t asked them to share your company, that their services, their operations, their brand could benefit your business, help you generate new revenue or establish your brand further in your marketplace. Are you utilizing those relationships? Or you can ask yourself, who can I help? It’s just as important to give as we hope to receive as business owners.
So ask yourself what businesses are out there that my business can make that business look even better by what we do, because that’s the way to build winning partnerships is by reaching out and saying, Hey, I want to help you be better. That’s the right way to start. And who do you want to know? What influencers or leaders in your space do you not know yet that you want to get closer to that you want to become friends with.
You want to get in that insider circle. And here’s some tips to go about doing these things. First of all, make a list of three people that you want to have coffee with and schedule at least one of those coffee dates in the next two days. That’s your challenge. Number one, number two, join a mastermind of likeminded entrepreneurs that are a little bit ahead of you find a mastermind of business,
people that are serious and that align with your values. Of course, little plug here. You can always go to sweet life mastermind and apply to join our mastermind. 2020 mastermind is going to be insane by the way. And that might be exactly where you’re supposed to be. The next tip for you when it comes to your network is to join an affiliate launch.
Some of the best friends that I’ve made in business are being part of an affiliate launch, where I was launching a program for another company. And these are my business BFS. They’re amazing companies that we all came together to support a third company launch. So have you ever been part of an affiliate launch? Do you want to be part of an affiliate launch being part of an affiliate launches?
One of the best ways that I can recommend making new business friends that are high quality friends to network with, if you want to know more about affiliate launches, check out Laura sprinkle. She’s one of our favorite people she’s been here on the podcast. If you want to join our affiliate launch program, you can simply email Kelly, K E L L i@sweetlifeco.com.
I’ll make sure all this is in the show notes for you, but either way I don’t care if it’s our affiliate program or somebody else’s being part of an affiliate program is an amazing way for you to network with other people, make good friends that are going to continue to develop your company and just to cut right to the chase. Stop expecting, to make real business friends and Facebook groups.
It’s not the place where relationships are being built anymore. You might create a lead there or a connection, but pick up the phone and call people, pick up the phone, ask people to have coffee with you and listen to what’s on their plate. And whether business is about that’s, how you’re going to develop a network that is unbreakable. And then the third area in this show that we want to focus in on to reset and refocus your business.
This fall is reset area number six, and this is your home office and your life. So this is the last area. And you know, I talk about this a lot here on the show. You guys know that I have run multiple companies out of my home for 17 years. It’s incredibly difficult. And just because, you know, we have home companies doesn’t mean we aren’t incredibly profitable,
serious businesses. And now in 2020, most companies are realizing the power and the convenience of actually running profitable businesses with large teams from home. But it does pose a challenge to you as a leader. And it certainly poses a challenge to you as a creative entrepreneur. When your work life is immeshed with your personal life, especially if you are not used to this.
So ask yourself these questions, how’s it working for you. You might totally love it. And that’s awesome if you do, but if other people are home while you’re trying to work, it definitely can cause distractions and problems. And so some things that you should be focusing on as we reset and make sure your business is in line with where you want to go is how can you separate your work and your life physically,
it could be making sure your office is in a separate room, but if you’re in a smaller apartment, I have a lot of clients that have really small apartments in Manhattan, then using some sort of a partition in your living area. So you’re not always staring at your work is a really important way to separate your mind and to keep clarity of thinking separate from your business and your life.
And here are some tips to really clean up the home work life situation. Number one, clearly communicate when you’re working and when you are not supposed to be interrupted. I don’t care if your kid is three. If your kid is 13, if your kid is still at home and they’re 23, if it’s your partner seriously, I don’t care. I have done communications at all those ages.
You have to communicate men you’re working say, please do not interrupt me. Here is a Lego. Here is a TV show. Here is a coloring book or great go for a bike ride, whatever that is clearly communicate when you’re working and when you should not be interrupted and set those expectations. And those times in advance. So everybody knows. Number two,
create a block calendar of certain specific areas in your business that you’re focusing on each day. This will help you to keep your mind focused when you’re kind of in like the mush pot of life and business, all in one, definitely I’m a big advocate for also remodeling or moving furniture and even a curtain or a partition as business owners, our minds never stop.
You’re always thinking we’re dreaming about our business. We’re creating things in our mind when we’re sleeping, who we are as entrepreneurs. And so it’s really important that you have a way if you’re working from home to separate. So you weren’t looking at it all the time, because your mind is going to need to rest. We need to give your mind a break so that you can create amazing things when we want to turn it back on,
because the reality is is never totally turns off. So we want to do our best to protect and give your mind rest. And then the last tip I have for you is to run Pomodoros. I did a little video on IGT on what a Pomodoro is, but in a nutshell, it’s running a sprint. It’s basically where you’ll work for 20 minutes and take five minutes off or you’ll work for 45 minutes and you’ll take 15 minutes off and you actually run these sprints almost with an egg timer,
or you can put a timer on your phone where you focus clearly on one area for a short period of time. And then you walk away completely and take a break. That’s what a Pomodoro is. Pomodoros are one of the number one ways that I have been able to be successful in produce as a mother with three children at home that rents two companies and has a podcast.
And so whatever your situation looks like, I can guarantee you that running Pomodoros will work for you and you can cruise over and see my IETV demonstration on that over at, at April beach life, which is my new Instagram handle, by the way, after I was totally hacked. Love for you to check that out over there. And I’ll go ahead and put a link to that in the show notes as well.
Okay. So today we talked about reset areas. Number four, five, and six for your business. Number four is your mind. Number five is resetting and refocusing your network and your affiliates. And number six is resetting your home and your office life, especially for those of you guys that have to deal with kids that are homeschooling right now. Now last week on the show areas again,
when one was your offer, two was your marketing and funnels and three where your internal business systems. And then today, again, we talked about your mind, your network and your home office and life. Now this is a lot of information. I know I’m throwing a lot of information at you hear on the show. If you can walk away with one question and one area you are resetting for yourself,
whether it is your mind or your home life or your network, one area you want to focus in on and really clarify it, simplify it so you can grow in it. Then that is a win. If you’re an overachiever and you really love to nail things and do them 150%, make sure you are joining me in this year’s reset and refocus entrepreneur challenge.
It’s totally free in all these questions and self challenges that we’ve talked about here on the show. Plus resources are given to you in a completely free workbook and you can join me there by cruising over to Sweetlife co.com forward slash reset. And all the show notes can be bound by visiting our podcast website episode number 191. All right, my friend, it is so great to talk to you again on episode number 191.
I can’t believe we’re coming up on 200 episodes here on the sweet life entrepreneur business podcast. Thank you so much for being a listener to this show. If you haven’t actually officially click subscribe, please make sure you do so. So you get these shows in real time because a lot of our episodes come with bonuses, templates, blueprints, cheat, sheets,
even challenges in coaching like we’re doing now with the reset and refocus challenge that most business consulting firms charge thousands of dollars for. And I don’t want you to miss it. So just simply click subscribe. So you’re always in the know, and of course you can get more information on how we can continue to support your business growth by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And I will see you tomorrow morning if you’re listening to this in real time at the live reset,
Established entrepreneurs(in Phases 2-4 of my“Start To Scale Up Business System”) who feel fragmented and need a clear and strong plan to move forward for the rest of 2020.
Summary:
If you feel like your business needs a reset, you’re not alone. Fall is a natural time to reset and refocus, but this year these tasks are not idealistic, they’re imperative! In this episode, we’re talking about the Core Areas of your business that may need a reset and refocus, in order for your business to keep moving forward and be ready for 2021.
In this show(part 1 of 2) we dive into the first 3 areas; your offers, your marketing, and your business operations systems. April guides you through strategic questions to determine if you need to reset, and she gives you tips on how to reset each area if needed. This is another practical podcast business training that will give you immediate business results.
Highlights:
Know if you need to refine your offer
Be ready to fix your marketing funnels
Know the most important business systems SOPs you need to fix or create
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. This is episode number 190 here on the sweet life entrepreneur business podcast. And I made real beach super glad that you’re here joining me. And this is part one of a two part series that we’re doing about how to reset and refocus your business this fall.
This is a super important episode, as well as next week’s. Now, let me give you a little bit of background. If you’re new to the Sweetlife company or the Sweetlife podcast every single year for the last five years, I host the reset in the refocus entrepreneur challenge. This is a challenge that’s usually just a couple of days long. That helps you refocus the most core components of your business so that you can thrive every fall.
And this is usually something we do because in the summertime I do a lot of traveling. You do a lot of traveling things, just get a little sloppy in the summertime. When it comes to business here in 2020 this year, it’s just been completely different. So this reset and those three focus challenge might be even more important than any other year. We’ve hosted it because we’re not rebounding from a glorious summer adventuring or traveling abroad.
We’re rebounding from some seriously rough months as business owners and parents and entrepreneurs and professionals. And it’s really time to refocus your business. As a matter of fact, as this show drops, I am currently dropping my oldest and first child off to college. So there are so many changes and big things are happening that are really outside of the norm this year.
So as you will likely be going through the reset and the refocus challenge with us, I hope that you do. I’m going to be going through it as well, right there with you. And so is my team. We always roll up our sleeves and participate because these are things that we need to reset and refocus on in our company as well. So before I dive into today’s show again,
which is part one of a two part show, I want to invite you to join me totally free. And the fifth annual entrepreneur reset and refocus challenge, all you have to do is go to sweet life, co.com forward slash reset. And you’re going to get a schedule of live events that you can drop into, or you can catch the live replay.
And you’re going to get an eight page quick action, fast implementation workbook with a couple of sheets to help you know exactly how to reset your focus, your business, and the most important areas that are going to move the marker for profit team building growth and scaling this fall. So before we dive into today’s episode, I want to make sure you had the invitation to join.
Simply go to Sweetlife code.com forward slash reset, and we’re kicking off the reset and the refocus challenge on Tuesday, September the eighth. So make sure you join by then. Otherwise you’re not going to get in. Okay, let’s go ahead and talk about who this actual episode is for in next week’s as well. These episodes are for established entrepreneurs. So you’re in phases two to four of my start to scale up business system.
This means you already have a business and, you know, things might just be a little fuzzy or blurry or overwhelming, not as organized as you want them to be right now. And you need to refocus your business for the rest of 2020. So you’re offering your services, your marketing, your systems, your mindset, where’s your mindset right now. I think that’s a really big,
important part of business development, growth and profit is your mindset. We’re going to talk about that on these shows as well, your network, and really what’s happening with your home life. If you’ve been listening to the show for a while, you know that I don’t believe or agree with the terminology work life balance. I believe in building businesses that are cohesive and that work in harmony with your life and with,
you know, being a busy and maybe even workaholic entrepreneur, like I am that it all flows. And those are the things we’re talking about here. So if you’re like me, you’re going to love this. Fall’s normally a time where we reset, right? It’s normally a time where the kids go back to school and we’re, we’re kind of looking at,
okay, Hey, quarter three is here. Where are we have we had our financial benchmarks. And so what we’re doing this year is of course, we’re looking at all those things, but we have to look at it through a little bit different glasses, just because of how weird 2020 has been. And a lot of us have different challenges than we have had in the past.
They are the typical, you know, regular resetting. There’s a lot of mindset and home office work strategy that we’re going to be talking about on these two shows as well. So as an entrepreneur, you’re fully responsible for the growth and success of your business. And so it’s critical that you make sure that the goals that you have are in line with your offer and your marketing and your systems.
And so those are the areas we are primarily focusing on in this show. So at the end of this show, you are going to have a clear understanding of whether or not you need to reset and refocus your offers, how your marketing and lead generation funnels are performing and what you might need to do to change those and any internal systems that you need to reset and refocus in a next week show,
we’re diving into resetting and focusing your mindset and your mental health as an entrepreneur, your network are you affiliating with the right businesses to help your company grow and also your home life and your home office spacing. If you’re in one of those situations where you’re working from home. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. Again, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com
forward slash one nine zero<inaudible>. Okay. The first three key areas we’re focusing on helping you to identify how to reset and refocus these particular areas for your business are your offer, your marketing and your lead generation funnel and your internal business systems. So let’s go ahead and dive in, in just kind of take apart your offers. It’s incredibly important that what you’re offering,
what you’re selling, your services, your programs, your courses, your products, that they are in line with what your market is buying right now so much has changed. We’re looking outside the box of usual sales, growth and strategies. And we’re looking at your buyers, your clients with new goggles, right? Sometimes like beer goggles, like you can’t see clearly tell me,
you know what I’m talking about this, and you just really can’t see clearly. And so we want to clarify that on today’s show. So here are some questions that you should be asking yourself as we analyze whether or not you need to reset or maybe rebuild or refocus your offers to hit the benchmarks that you need to hit for your business at the end of this year.
So here’s some of these questions. And just as a reminder, all of these questions are actually written out for you with tips and resources in the workbook. That’s totally free. That comes along with our reset and refocus challenge. Again, you can join that challenge by visiting Sweetlife co.com forward slash reset. So as I go through these questions, if you’re processing them in your mind,
awesome, the best place to process them is on paper or written down. And that’s what that supplemental workbook is for. So the first question to ask yourself is what is your primary offer service program course, or product? So what is the number one thing that you are selling right now? What’s the most popular thing that people come to you for? And the second question is,
is, is it selling now when we answer the question, is it selling? That’s a little relative, okay. Everybody’s business is different. Everybody’s geographic territory is different, but what I want to know is is your primary offer selling, as you would expect it to be based on your business, your market, and where you are geographically in the world,
everybody is different. So is it something the way that you expect it to be right now? The next question I want you to ask yourself, especially if it’s not selling the way that you want it to be right now, is does your primary offer solve an immediate problem for your clients? Right now in 2020, people generally are buying things that are fixing their right now problems.
Didn’t always used to be this way. This is what’s selling right now. So I want you to look at your current offering your current services. And I want you to ask yourself, do my current services that I’m offering my primary service or program or product. Does it solve a right now problem? And if your sales have been falling off a bit,
maybe it’s because you’ve had this amazing offer, but for 2020, it doesn’t solve a right now problem. So it’s certainly an important question to ask yourself the next question I want to, I want you to ask yourself, especially if your offer is selling, is, is that something that you want yourself or your company to be known for? All right.
So whatever you’re selling, is that what you want your reputation to be known for? Do you want people to say, Oh yeah, I know Joe, because he does this. So whatever you’re selling right now, especially honestly, if you’re new in a marketplace, ask yourself, is this something that I would like to be known for and is your offer operating in your genius zone?
So is the offer that you have aligning with what you’re great at? What you’re an expert at what you have experienced at what seems to flow naturally from you as a human being, all those things are very important. I don’t care if you have a hundred employees or it’s just yourself, all those things and making sure what you’re selling is an extension of who you are.
As a business owner is a really important thing because when you’re selling something that aligns with your zone of genius, it sells easier. People are attracted to you and you get greater results. So does the service you provide align with yours zone of genius. And then the last question to help you identify, if you need to make some changes to your offer,
this fall is, does your offer make you enough money? We always want to come back and making sure we’re building a profitable business for you. So does your offer make you enough money? Is it one that is a lower priced offer? So you have to sell more of it or is it a higher priced offer? And so you actually work with fewer clients and give a more thorough delivery,
and that’s all relative as well. How much money do you want and need to make? What are your financial benchmarks? So the first area we’re helping you kind of wrap your head around here and I’d love for you just to stop for a second, wherever you are, if you’re cooking or driving or working out and ask yourself is what I’m selling, giving me the results that I expect right now.
And if you need to reset, if you need help on figuring out how to reset again, don’t forget to join me in the reset and refocus challenge. Cause we’re going to be chatting about these things live, and I’m going to be taking your questions. But here are some tips that you can use right now to process or whether or not you need to reset.
First of all, if it’s not selling, you have a problem. We have to take a look at what you’re selling. That doesn’t take rocket science, right beyond that, ask your clients what they really need right now. If you aren’t delivering something that’s, that is a current problem for your clients. Consider scaling back, maybe a larger offer. You have to give them immediate results in an area they’re struggling with right now.
The next problem for a lot of businesses is bringing you from offline to online. We have a lot of resources. I’ll drop links for you. In the show notes of this episode, there are a ton of different online business models where you can take the work you’ve already done. Take your assets, take your content and turn them into online business models.
And I’ll make sure and leave a link in the resources for the show notes for you to download our ultimate guide to the online business model. That’s right for you. And we will certainly be talking about that in our reset and refocus challenge to give you more wisdom in that area, if that is you. So the first area of identifying what needs to be reset for fall of 2020 is your offer area.
Number two is your marketing and lead generation funnel. Okay? So let’s go ahead and zoom in a little bit closer here on what’s happening with your lead generation. The first question is, is are you generating new leads right now? If not, if maybe you’ve stopped your advertising or you weren’t posting as much on social media, well fix those things. Those are easy fixes.
We’re not going to talk about on a business strategy. You know what you have to do. So just schedule it and begin to reset those areas from a business strategy standpoint. Here’s some questions. If you are doing those things and you just aren’t generating any new leads, here’s some things I want you to think about. First of all, where are the leads you’re getting coming from?
What’s working right now with the leads that you have, have they fallen off? Are they coming in, in a trickle in, what does that look like? And what process, what Avenue, what experience are leads coming to you? And is this pathway where you’re receiving leads? Are you getting the results you need from these leads? Are they high quality leads or are they just leads?
I would rather, you have a list of a hundred great leads than a list of 10,000 people that really don’t give a shit about what you’re selling, or they’re never going to buy from you. That is a waste of your marketing dollar and your time. And it really helps. It makes it harder for you to judge whether or not you’re servicing the right people because the people you’re servicing might not ever be qualified leads in the first place.
So the questions I want you to ask yourself are with the leads you’re getting. Are they the ones you want? Are they high quality leads? Are they giving you the results you want and are your leads coming in, in a trickle or are they coming in, in a flood gate? The next question is, if they’re coming in in a flood gate,
are your online business funnels handling that? Well? So one of the problems that we work with companies on when it’s time to scale is not that it’s trouble gaining a floodgate of leads, is it sometimes they’re online, digital funnels are not ready for those leads. It’s just gonna all collapse on top of each other. So you want to make sure that your business and the tech side of your business is set up properly so that you are ready to handle the volume of leads that come in when you’re doing a great job with your marketing.
So the first thing I want you to do is go back and look at your internal systems. What does that look like? Are your funnels built properly? Are your landing pages and your forms in your email followup sequences and all these basic digital marketing funnels that every single company, whether you operate only online or in person or a hybrid combination of both, you have to have your online funnels functioning properly.
And so that’s step number one. So when we’re looking at your marketing, your lead generation resetting for this fall, step number one is to look at the technical side of your business and let’s make sure that they’re all running and flowing properly. Once we know that your systems and your funnels are built correctly, then we can ask our associates questions. Is it time to increase the number of leads into your business?
Should you start running ads? Should you start connecting with other businesses and building affiliate relationships? Should you increase your social media presence, maybe be doing more live streams. And we can talk about the marketing side of it, but many businesses just jump into the marketing side, but the structure, the blueprint of how people get into their business is going to fail when they increase those leads.
So for our reset and refocus this fall, I want you to ask yourself, is your company actually ready for a flow of consistent leads coming in, in when those right perfect leads do come in, is your company going to give those leads and experience that completely wows them and makes them want to be returned customers or by whatever it is you have to sell?
Because the online experience you’ve delivered is so awesome. They love being a part of what you’re doing. That is area number two, to reset and refocus this fall. And we’re going to be diving into all that as well, and the reset and refocus challenge. So if you’re totally new to digital marketing, this is a great place for you to start to get tips and strategies and software recipes to make this work great for you and a fix for you is to hire a VA or hire help to fix broken systems.
If that’s what you need to do, put that on your, to do list and go ahead and delegate that out so that you’re fixing your funnels right now. And the third area we’re focusing on for our reset and refocus challenge this year are your internal systems. So your internal systems have to be in place and flowing very similarly to how the technical funnels work in your business.
In order for you to increase your profit, sustain your clients that you already have, and really be able to grow in scale your business. So here’s some questions to ask yourself, do you have standard operating procedures created for your primary business functions? Now, I’ll be honest after launch. When we start working with companies who are ready to scale online, many companies don’t have these basic SOP in place to run a smoothly functioning online business so that you can scale.
And that’s totally fine. So if you’ve been in business for years and you don’t have any of these, you’re not alone. Let me just tell you this, but here are some areas. I want you to focus this fall because once we can get these in place for you, once these are in an order and you can delegate clearly, then you’re going to be able to grow.
So ask yourself these questions. Do you have SOP is created for your content creation in your content and marketing distribution. Do you have standard operating procedures in place for hiring people and onboarding staff for duties that you would delegate on a regular basis to your team members? Do you have SOP is in place for client onboarding or client management or client offboarding? What happens when you’re done working with the client?
Do you have amazing systems in place to wish that client farewell, as they’re done working with you, that is a way that’s going to make them feel so great about it. They’re going to continue to refer other people your way. And do you have standard operating procedures and systems in place for your finances, your bill pay, and are you paying yourself?
These are all basic SOP is that every single business needs to have in place in order for us to get you to that point where we can scale your business to the next level. So as we go through and we really look at maybe some areas of focus to help you hone in on what you should be working on for your company, this fall looking at all,
those might be super overwhelming. So just pick one area that you would like to start by developing your systems. And it could be content marketing could be marketing, distribution, team, building, client support services, or internal services like finances and bill pay, whatever it is, just pick one. And that’s what we’re going to do in the challenge. We’re going to get you started with one.
And once you get started with one, then the next one is easier. And the next one’s easier. And here are some tips to reset in order to write out procedures. The thought of that seems really overwhelming. So, Oh, I recommend that you do is take one day when you were performing these tasks and simply document, it can be as simple as bullet points,
the steps that you’re going through to perform these tasks, and then share that documentation with your team or have somebody else clean it up for you. You can also hire a VA that specializes in systems to get your systems in place. And you can work with a company like ours, the Sweetlife company, where we help you get your systems in place. And we give you templates to copy so that the systems are in place.
Whatever’s going to work for you. Pick one system that you would like to create that you know, needs to be created that maybe not having the system created has caused problems. Maybe you’ve lost money. Maybe you haven’t been able to grow your business the way that you know that it should be growing because you’re recreating the wheel every single time you do this system,
we’ve got to stop that. And so, as we look at part one of this two part series on how to reset and refocus your business this fall, the first three areas that we’re focusing on this week are also the three areas that we’re going to deep dive together in our three day live reset and refocus challenge. These are the areas I find where you might have questions.
You might need more help. So these are the three areas we’re going to work through together live. And the challenge verse one is your offer. The second one is your marketing and lead generation funnel. And the third one is your internal systems and SOP. And so that’s a recap of what we talked about today. Next week, we’re diving into continuing our reset and refocus challenge.
We’re diving into your mind and your mindset, your network, and your affiliates and your home and office life also really important areas, but we won’t be focusing on those areas in the live challenge. So if you’d like to join us for the live challenge, again, it’s totally free. You can cruise over to Sweetlife co.com forward slash reset, and you’ll receive the complete reset and refocus challenge workbook.
Plus the schedule of live streams, where I can support you personally. That was a lot to talk about. Oh my gosh, I know it just seems so overwhelming. Sometimes we dive into these things that we need to reset, but we are simplifying this. We’re not going to reset everything. We’re going to reset. Just a couple of things that are going to hugely move the needle on your business.
I don’t even know if that makes sense, hugely move the needle. You know what I mean? We’re focusing on your offer. What are you selling? We’re focusing on your marketing. Are you generating new leads? We’re focusing on your systems. Is your business a well oiled machine. It needs to be in order for you to profit. So join me next week on Sweetlife podcast.
Number one 91 to dive in more and join me for free right now, the reset and refocus challenge kicks off on September the eighth, 2020 by visiting Sweetlife co.com Forward slash reset. I’ll see you guys there.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Episode Bonuses:
Ultimate Guide to the online business model that’s right for you
Who This Episode is Great For:
This show is for established companies looking to scale with online business models and new entrepreneurs launching online and feeling lost in the terminology and acronyms.
Summary:
Online entrepreneurs speak a different language and for companies who are looking to scale with online business models, the terms can be confusing and time consuming to learn. To help you be in the know and talk like an online pro faster, this show is a glossary of online terms made easy.
Highlights:
Know what the most common online business terms mean
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate<inaudible>. Hi everyone. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 189 and everything we’re talking about today, including the bonuses and the resources that we’re providing with this show can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com
forward slash one 89. So if you’re on the go and you can’t take notes or you can’t pause and go to another website on your phone. No worries. Just remember Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 89. We’ll give you everything that you are looking for when you have an opportunity to go grab it. Welcome to the show. My name is April leach.
I’m the host here on the show and we’re coming up almost on four years of this podcast. Thank you so much to all of you. Who’ve been crazy faithful, awesome listeners for so long. And if you’re new to this show, I’m super glad to be connected with you. I teach small businesses and entrepreneurs how to grow their company by scaling online and everything we talk about here on this show are proven and trusted business trainings to help you do that.
In fact, a lot of our shows are so valuable that a lot of coaching and consulting firms charge thousands of dollars for the tools and the strategies and the action items that we bring to you here on this show. So I’m really, really glad that you are here. If you haven’t clicked subscribe yet, or if you haven’t clicked subscribe in a while,
please do. So. We are on all of your favorite podcasts. We’ll see devices including obviously where you’re listening to us right now. So just go in and make sure that you’ve clicked subscribe, and we do really appreciate all of the reviews. You guys leave us on Apple podcasts. So at the time of this recording, it’s the end of August.
And if your life is like mine, which I’m assuming it is we connect. And that’s why you listen here to this show. That’s means that things are about to get even crazier than they were before, regarding whatever is happening with school and your kids and running and managing and owning the company that you do. And so many things are up on the air and it’s just a hard time.
And actually when this show drops, I am on my way to drop my oldest son off to college. So I’m right there with you. And I want you to know that you’re not alone and we’re still here consistent behind you, giving you the tools you need to grow your business throughout all of the unpredictable world of 2020. So I just want to take a pause for a sec and just say kudos to you for being here for listening to this show,
whether you’re listening to it live as soon as it drops or you’re coming back to this, you know, years later, this going to be one of those shows. I think people refer back to a lot because it just really covers a lot of online business basics that don’t change. I just want to say you’re doing awesome job. So let’s go ahead and dive into what you can expect with today’s episode.
We are talking about online business terms, acronyms made easy. And so this particular show is for those of you who have established businesses, and it’s time to scale your company by utilizing online business models and strategies and funnels, or those of you who are new to launching a business, and you’re launching your company online. Here’s the deal online entrepreneurs speak a different language.
There are some words that we use in the online business space that, you know, I really actually have to catch myself sometimes when I’m talking to people because all of a sudden this blank look will come over their face. And I will have said a term or an acronym that just doesn’t make sense to anybody else, unless you’re already in the online business space.
And so if you’ve ever been talking to somebody or reading a blog or listening here on the show, and I’ve said something that just kind of went, Whoa, I have no idea what that is is April. Well, this particular episode is designed to fix that for you, because the reality is is that, that we don’t want you to be confused.
These things are not hard as long as you know what they are. So I want you to be confident. I want you to know what other people are talking about. I want you to know what you’re talking about. I want you to know what you’re looking for in certain functions of software and in website things that we’re going to be discussing today. And it all comes back to understanding the terminology and the acronyms that are used to describe functionality of software in different results and benchmarks.
Frankly, you need to hit in your business in order for it to grow. So the end of this episode, you’re going to know what the most common online business terms mean. You’re going to stop feeling confused if you’ve felt confused before with all this online business lingo, and you’re going to have the confidence to move forward, continue in conversations, ask intelligent and educated questions.
Now that you’re kind of past this entry level threshold of online business terms. And I do have a resource for you today. So if you’re just getting into online business scaling, if you’re taking your established business and you’re wondering what to do, should I launch a course? Should I launch a video series? Should I launch a membership or a digital, or even an in person type of retreat?
Some of you guys are even wondering, should I launch a podcast? I have a completely free 14 page resource for you. It’s called the ultimate guide to the online business model. That’s right for you. You can go grab that in our website for the show notes again, which can be found@lifepodcast.com forward slash one 89. So to give you more clarity on actually what you’re building and how you’re scaling your company,
today’s show, make sure that you go grab that ultimate guide to online business models in our podcast, show notes totally free, and that will save you years of time and really thousands of dollars of building the wrong kind of online business. Okay. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> Okay. Today we’re talking about online business terms made easy and I’m going to go through,
I’m good. Literally going to name the term and give you the definition of it. So it’s just like English one Oh one, except for, for online business and making sure that, you know what things mean. I’ll give you some examples of things so that you can listen to this show and get out of here and understand all the weird language of online business owners.
So the very first thing I want to cover is the term business model. So a business model is the type of business you’re building. Your business model is how you serve clients and how you make money. So what services you offer, how you deliver those services and what actually does that exchange of delivery look like some different examples of business models are in-person services delivered,
virtual services delivered. And again, I gave you that whole entire go grab the ultimate guide to online business models. We have masterminds, we have courses, we have membership sites. We have webinars, whether they’re recorded or on demand, the sky is the limit. And you really need to understand what your business model is, or you need to understand what the injuries result that a business model is going to give your company in order to scale smart.
We don’t want you to just going out there and launching a course cause everybody else is doing it because it’s not necessarily actually in a lot of cases, even the right thing to do to scale and grow your company. So understanding term number one is your business model. Again, that is how you make money, how you serve clients and what that delivery of service looks like.
Next term is lifestyle business. Now this gets a little confused and it’s not a really common online term, but I wanted to throw it in here because if you are a listener to the show, you know that I’m a lifestyle business development expert, and that might seem a little confusing. So I just wanted to clarify that to you and lifestyle business is creating a business model that works with your life.
It’s the way you plan to live your life and then reverse engineering that to build a company that’s going to get you there. It doesn’t mean that the business itself is necessarily a lifestyle business. So you can have a lifestyle business. It gives you the owner, the freedom to be with your family and hang out with your kids more and travel, whatever that looks like for you.
But the business itself, you know, you don’t have to sell surfboards the business itself, whether you’re in marketing or consulting or, you know, video editing, whatever it is that you do, the business itself doesn’t have to be lifestyle focused, but you are building a business that is designed around your lifestyle. And hopefully that kind of clarifies that a little bit.
As a matter of fact, 90% of the companies that I work with to help them grow and scale are not actual lifestyle businesses, but the owners of those companies want a business. That’s going to give them that lifestyle that they want to, hopefully that clarifies that a little bit for you. The next term is I see a, I see a stands for ideal client avatar.
This is used a lot, and you’re going to hear it a lot, especially when you’re new to the online business space, your ideal client avatar, or your ICA, but really the perfect clients that you are called to serve that need, want your offers. So they’re very specific people. This is a very specific set of grouping of people that are ideal to buy your product or buy your services.
That is your ICA. So if you ever hear that term thrown around, if somebody is saying, Hey, well, you know, what are you marketing to? And what are you selling? And who’s your ICA. It means what is the specific subset of people that need and want what you have the next term is IP, which stands for intellectual property.
So this is turning your ideas and your services and your methods. It could also be your secret sauce, your formula, your steps of delivery into your intellectual property. So intellectual property protections allow for creators and owners like you to actually go ahead and make sure they patent and trademark your process. So you don’t necessarily have to do that, but intellectual property,
it’s connected to the ownership of things that are created from your mind. So an example of intellectual property is my start to scale business system, or in the past, it’s been called the sweet life entrepreneur roadmap. They’re my five steps that I share here on the show. A lot that take people from the beginning of your business, all the way through the end of that life cycle of a successful company,
growth over a period of years, that’s my intellectual property. It’s my system. It’s my methodology. I own that. So if you have a method or a system or something, that’s your secret sauce. That is your intellectual property. So the term IP is thrown around a lot, both online and offline when it comes to the ownership of things that are created by your mind,
your methodology, your systems, the next term, which is really important for those of you guys, for starting out, you’re brand new in business. This is something you have to know this term. And this term is M VP, not most valuable player. It actually stands for a minimum viable product. And your minimum viable product is when you develop your ideas into your new product,
your first offer and everything is being sold sufficiently to satisfied customers. So this product is designed and developed. Usually after some feedback from your first customers, your minimum viable product is your minimum service. That has to be proven in order for you to realize that your company is and will be a success. So it’s a very first offer or your first program,
your first package of services or your first product that you’ve created. We have to prove that it is at least minimum leave viable within your market space. So are people buying it? That’s your MVP. You have to hit your MVP. It is the one of the first challenges to overcome as a new business owner. The next term is lead magnet, and this is getting more into marketing.
So your lead magnet is something of high value that you give away for free, that people are willing to give you their name and their email contact information for sometimes their address. And some other information lead magnet is also referred to by some online coaches, as freemium or freebie. The reason why I don’t love that term, and we don’t use that term here on this business show is because your lead magnet is,
I said in the initial definition needs to be of high value. So I’ve done tons of different podcasts on lead magnets and how to create them of high value. So I’m not going to go on squirrel tangent right now, but you might have heard the term freemium or freebie. And those are people that give away kind of crappy stuff, free expecting to grow their lists.
That’s not going to grow your list by the way, it has to be something of high value to get high quality leads. So your lead magnet is something that you create to give away could be a video series. It could be a download. It could be a, a white paper, something of high value to prospects to gather their information. The next term is called conversion tool.
It’s also called the conversion product. This refers to how you turn the leads on your list, the names and the email address on your list and your database into paying clients. So the lead magnet brings them in and gives you the lead, but then we have to still convert them into paying clients. And a conversion tool is usually a little bit different,
a little bit more contact, more relationship based than a lead magnet. Examples of a conversion tool are live webinars, phone calls, or discovery calls, triage calls, personal assessments. It can also be just a sales page. You can have a great sales page that converts your leads into buyers. It could be a shop page. Those things are applicable as well,
but the conversion product is where you take the lead and turn them into buyers sometimes based on what it is your company does, we don’t even really need the lead magnet so much. We might be able to just take cold subscribers and turn them into buyers just with a conversion product. And if you don’t know, a cold subscribers are coming up, okay,
the next term is called a funnel. Now this is thrown around all the time. There are a bunch of different types of funnels. You guys, there are marketing funnels and sales funnels and product funnels. I’m going to give you the term here, understanding in expecting that many of you are just entering the phase in your business where you’re ready to grow it online.
So we’re going to talk about it, actual marketing lead generation funnel here. And I’m going to give you the definition for this. This refers to the building of landing pages on your website, where people can opt in and fill out a form and give you their information. And it refers to the connecting of the rest of your software technology to give them what you have promised.
So a funnel is all of your marketing. Literally imagine like a tornado. And on the top is all of your marketing. It’s all of your social media posting. They might see something that interests them. Example, your lead magnet might interest them. They say, Oh, that’s a really high value thing. I think I want that. And they’re going to go to a landing page that ideally should be built on your website,
where they give their name and email address to get that high value lead magnet. And then what happens next is you send them an automatic email. It says, here you go. Here is the thing that I promised you I’d give you after you gave me your name and email address. So the next part of that funnel is actually that welcome email and the delivery of whatever you promised.
And then it’s also sending them to a thank you page saying, Hey, thank you so much for giving me your contact information. We talked about it two weeks ago here on the show that receiving somebody’s lead is a privilege and you need to care for it. Very importantly, that’s not even a word. You need to really care about people to give you their name and email address.
That’s what I’m saying. The funnel is creating the pages and connecting together the technology, the landing page, the email marketing, and the thank you page to make sure that the delivery of what you promised is done well, that is the tech side of building a funnel. So when we’re talking about funnels, yes, there’s marketing strategy. Yes. There’s what you say and what you’re giving in this definition.
I’m giving you this, the specifics of the tech side of actually building a funnel. It includes your landing page. It includes a thank you page and includes an automatic email that goes out to give somebody what you promised. Okay. Now let’s go into warm and cold audiences. So audience are people who have never heard of your business before. And a warm audience are people who are already familiar with your brand.
So if you hear those two different terms thrown around, or if you’re planning doing an ad campaign, somebody who’s helping you with that might say, are we running these ads to a cold audience or a warm body? And that is the difference. Okay. Three more terms, are you with me? And by the way, all of these terms are going to be written out for you.
For those of you guys who are in our online business community and our app over at mighty house, you can join for free. I’ll put a link in the show notes, or you can just go to sweet life, community.com. If you’re like, Oh my gosh, I want to, you know, write all these down. I’m going to go ahead and upload all these terms just right into our community app.
So for those of you guys who are joined there with us@sweetlifecommunity.com, you don’t even have to opt into it. I’m just going to put all these terms there for you so you can always reference, okay. The next term is S E O S E Oh, stands for a search engine and optimization. It basically means how visible is your website or organically to search engines like Google.
So are people going to your website, are people Googling things or searching for things? And is your website coming up S E O like the terminology for it? Search engine optimization is the practice of increasing the quantity and the quality of the traffic to your website, through organic search results. So this doesn’t mean pain to have your site show up on Google AdWords.
These are things that you do within the copy of your site tags within your site. There are tons of different ways that you can optimize your organic search results for your website and you need to, and that is what we call SP Oh, the next terminology is copy. So the next term is, copy. We hear this all the time and we’ll work with new clients.
And you know, I have to be careful again, I’ll say, okay, give us the copy for your website in the division of my company, where we build Kajabi websites, I’ll say, give us, you know, don’t forget, you need to have a copy of your website. And sometimes new businesses will be like, Oh my gosh, what are you talking about?
What is that? So copy is just your text. Copy. It can refer to the text and your website. It can refer to the text and your social media posts. It can refer to the text in your email, body or other places. It’s literally just the writing of your text there. The words you write. And I will say that every company should have a good copywriter as an essential part of your team.
There are people that have a gift for copywriting, and there are people who don’t. So if you really want to grow your company online, it is going to be important that you learn how to become a good copywriter, or that would be one of the top priority roles I would recommend for you. If I was working with you to scale your business is bringing a really great online sales and marketing copywriter aboard your team.
So copy, just reverse to your text. And then the last term I want to cover is swipe files or swipe copy. So this refers to texts and images created by other companies that you’re allowed to swipe like swiper, no swiping, except for this is like swiper. Yes. Swiping those of you that have older kids like me. You know what I’m talking about?
So this basically means when you are promoting something in conjunction with somebody else, that company may send you what’s called swipe copy or swipe files. They’re literally pre done social media posts that you can just swipe and put out on your own social media to make your life easier. So swipe, copy and swipe files literally means that you can take it and steal it and copy it.
And that’s what it’s designed for. So today we covered a lot of online business terms and acronyms that we usually find that companies new to the online space aren’t really familiar with. We defined business model. We define lifestyle business. I see a, I P am VP. So again, ICA ideal client avatar, IP, intellectual property, MVP, your minimum viable product or service lead magnet,
conversion tool funnel, warm and cold audience. S E O copy and swipe files. Wow. Okay. That was your online business. One Oh one glossary class. I hope you guys, this is very, very helpful. You know, we’re here to help you. We’re here to level up your entrepreneurial IQ because you are amazing at what you do and no successful business owner has time to sit there and wonder what a stupid acronym is.
So we’re just going to tell you, because I know you don’t have time to figure it out and we are here to make you a success. Thank you so much for tuning into this show. Let me go ahead and recap a real quick, where you can find the resources that we’ve talked about. First of all, you are invited to join our online business owners and entrepreneur app.
It’s not a Facebook group anymore. We dumped Facebook months ago. Thank heavens. We now have a custom community app where you can create your own business profile and network with other businesses and get tools here from the show. And you can join that for free by visiting Sweetlife community.com. I’m going to drop in all of these terms into that app, for those of you guys who are in there.
So if you’re listening on the go and you want to come back and reference it, make sure that you join us in our app also for you. Go ahead and grab our online business model guide. So I have 14 pages of the ultimate guide to choosing the online business model. That’s right for you. You can get that in the show notes of this episode by visiting sweet life podcast.com
forward slash one 89. Okay. I hope you guys have an amazing turnover of the month at the end of this show. We’re rolling over from August to September, and this means you have three months left to close out this year, strong and prepare for 2021 here on the show. We’re going to be working on a lot of 2021 prep and helping you like we do at the end of every year,
prepare your business for the next year, prepare your leading offers, level up your marketing, and really scale your business online. So make sure that you’re subscribed because we are about to dive in and roll up our sleeves with you even more over the next 12 weeks to make sure that 2021 is the best year yet. And sure as shit, all of us need that.
Oh my gosh. All right. Well, you guys have an awesome week. Thank you again for tuning into the show. I’m April beach.
Small business owners who want to write a book but need to know the steps, how to approach the process, and the ins and outs of self-publishing. If you’re considering self-publishing a book but you don’t know where to start, you’ll leave this episode with clarity and simple steps to take action.
Summary:
Learn the difference between self and traditional publishing, what your options are to sell a self-published book, the benefits of self-publishing, well-known influencers who’ve chosen to self publish, as well and the 4 steps to start self-publishing your book! If you have a book in you but you aren’t sure where to start when it comes to self-publishing, this is the podcast episode to binge with guest expert Alexa Bigwarf, founder of Write|Publish|Sell and Women In Publishing Summit.
Highlights:
Know the 4 steps to self-publishing your book
Understand the differences between self and traditional publishing
Get insider secrets about creating your own self-publishing imprint
Understand the connection between brand consistency in your book and business design
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there, and welcome to the sweet life. When you were in business podcast, this is episode number 188 in everything we’re talking about on today’s show can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88,
because we’re giving you a ton of resources. Like we usually love to do here on this podcast. If you, and I don’t know each other yet, my name’s April beach. I help entrepreneurs grow and scale their business online and develop their internationally leading suite of leading offers. One of the things that you get here on the show, our business strategies you can take to the bank.
So every one of our experts is vetted and I myself have been coaching entrepreneurs to grow and scale their business for over 24 years, we are so glad that you are here. And today on the show, I’m really passionate about this topic and our guests. I’ve become a really good friend with already in a quick period of time, virtually. And I’m super excited to introduce you to her.
Now, let me give you a little bit of background story. You might not know this, but one of the ways that I grew one of my first companies was by self publishing a book, and it was really powerful. You guys, as a matter of fact, this book sold copies everywhere and still to this day, that company, the secondary business consulting firm that I own it’s called baby planner,
inc leads the industry in business consulting for companies that market to new unexpecting families. And the reason why I still have that reach and notoriety in that space is because they started out by self publishing a book on my expertise in that niche, niche, whatever you want to call it, right? But here is the deal. Here’s the truth. I made a ton of mistakes and some of the mistakes that I made ended up costing me a lot of money and ended up costing me a lot of time.
And if I knew more about what I was doing, instead of just doing it and winging it, then I think that my results could have been a lot better or at least a lot less painful. And so today on the show, Alexa, big Wharf is here and she’s going to walk you through the power of self publishing a book you’re going to be blown away when you hear some of the most well known influencers that we all like love and follow and really admire in that they have chosen to go.
The self publishing route. Alexa is a USA today, bestselling author speaker, and publishing partner. She coaches others and offers publishing solutions to those who want to grow their business and share their story through writing a book. She’s the founder of write, publish, sell Kat biggie, press purple butterfly, press Chrysalis, press, and the women in publishing summit,
which I’m so excited to be able to speak at her summit coming up here in spring of 2021. And so let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. You are going to know the quick start steps to publish your book. The difference between self publishing versus going through a traditional publisher and actually getting a literary agent. So we’re hashing out all of this for you today on the show.
And you’re also going to know how and why you can use a book to increase your known well known expertise in your space. So a lot of great things coming your way. This is a great show for those of you guys who are new in business, and you’re just trying to start your platform. And it’s especially an incredibly good episode for you to listen to.
If you have been in business, you have a platform, but you’re what we call like the best known secret. We need to get your voice and your expertise established even more in your space. So let’s go ahead and dive in all of the show notes again, can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88. And if you haven’t yet be sure to join our new online community business networking app.
It’s totally private. If you haven’t heard we’ve ditched Facebook groups, we’re super excited about it. You can join us by visiting Sweetlife community.com, where you’re going to get all your podcast insights and bonuses in there. All right, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> All right. You guys welcome back to another sweet life entrepreneur business and podcast episode.
And I’m here with my new friend, Alexa, big war, and we met on Instagram. I was really happy. You know, I’ll be really honest. I don’t meet a lot of people on Instagram, but I totally just want to hang out with and have coffee all the time. But Alexa was one of them. And since then we’ve had a chance to connect deeper and I’ve learned more about what she does and frankly,
you guys really need to know what she does. So Alexa, just introduce yourself here. Welcome to the sweet life podcast. I’m so glad that you have given us a chance to hear all about your expertise. Well, thank you so much for having me and I feel the same way. I mean, I found you, we started connecting whatever, and then of course I do what I always do.
I obsessively like Googled everything, started listening to your podcast and was like, Oh my gosh, she’s saying all the things I need to hear right now. So that’s fantastic. I’m a writer, an author, an author coach, a publisher and a mom, which is a very important part of my story because I didn’t set down this path. I never thought about running my own business or ever even being an entrepreneur.
And sometimes, literally life gives you lemon and you can choose to make lemonade or you can choose to fall to pieces. And without going into all the background, in a nutshell, we lost an infant daughter. She was one of a set of identical Twins and she passed away at two days old. And that took me to blogging. I mean, as you can imagine,
going through anything like that, like I just started, I had, I’m a passive aggressive person and I didn’t necessarily want to share all my feelings face to face with people, but I had a lot of feelings that I wanted to be sharing. So I started blogging and writing about grief and loss and writing about twin to twin transfusion syndrome, which is what they had writing about life in the NICU,
because her twin was a one pound 10 ounce, one who spent a long time in the NICU. So lots of content for blogging and eventually decided I wanted to write a book for grieving mothers. So that’s how my publishing journey started. I figured it all out on myself. I did the things I needed to do fell in love with the process, started writing about parenting.
And I go authored a book called lose the Cape realities for busy, modern moms and strategies to survive. We should’ve gone with a shorter subtitle, but it was at that point really about the second book where people were like, what are you doing? How are you doing this? I want to write a book, tell me what to do. And so a business again,
I love that story. I’m sorry that it started out with so much pain and heartbreak. And I mean, you’re right though. I mean, those are some of the things that we just are so compelled to do. I think some of the best, most powerful companies are started with a deep rooted emotional story like that. And I agree now, writing is such a healing tool.
It can really be an excellent tool for helping people come through trauma, come through grief, come through just anything they’re going through. So that’s actually another Avenue that we really do is work with people on writing to heal because it was such a massive part of my process. Yeah. So give everybody kind of an overview on your company. So write, publish,
sell, and you have the women in publishing summit. So let’s go ahead and lay the foundation and then we’ll dive into what you’re going to train us on today. Great. So I started write, publish, sell as an opportunity to charge people for all the questions they were asking. Right. I started doing the things that were really hard for people to figure out,
like lay out an ebook conversion and how to find all the things that you need to write a book and all of that stuff. And through the process, I created a publishing imprint and created a publishing house. And then another one, and then another one, that’s a whole different story. But you know, I wanted to be a bigger part of the process than just helping someone lay out their book and help them load it to Amazon.
But actually what I found was that where I really enjoy working is not in the, I mean the publishing side. I’m glad I have that experience, but I liken the whole process of helping people figure out what the book is that they should write and why. And then kind of project managing it is really the best thing to get it through from there to publish.
And we work with authors who are self published, who are traditionally published and who are hybrid published as well, which is kind of a cross between the two. I love this process of helping people find the resources and figure out what to do and how to do it. And that’s how the women and publishing some, it was born because I really much like pod-casters,
I think we love showcasing resources and tools and people and putting them in front of the audience of people who need them. So we took that route to create this big basically like week of encouragement and support and educational resources and really a shout out to the women who are writing books, selling books, editing books, creating covers and layouts for books, the whole gamut,
because we just don’t get enough credit out there. It’s so exciting. That’s so exciting. That’s what, so we can just lay it out there, even though it’s going to be months after this particular show airs, but that’s going to be spring 2021, right. Is so women in publishing summit. Okay, great. We’ll make sure that you guys get information about that that’s coming up.
So this is actually a really good place to start. So let’s kind of start out with some basics here. What is the difference between self publishing and going to traditional route of having a publisher? And I understand that obviously it’s not, everybody can just go get a publisher there’s you have to have a certain audience and a platform. And so that’s really difficult,
but many people are self publishing. So talk to us About the difference. So it’s interesting because in the past, And in this time that I’ve been involved, Like we’ve seen self publishing explode. It started at about 2000. Well, it started a long time before that, but it didn’t really begin to be mainstream until about 2009, 10, 11,
12, with the addition of e-readers and Kindles. I mean, it’s hard to imagine what life was like, but it’s own. They’ve only been in our world for about 10 years and it made such a big difference. There are definite reasons why certain people would want to choose their traditional route other than the self publishing route. But for entrepreneurs, the self publishing route offers a really,
really great way forward because you have full control, you do it on your timeline, you make the decisions. So just to back up quickly, when you seek a traditional publishing arrangement, basically there are people who require that you go through an agent or through solicited manuscripts. And then there are a lot of smaller and midsized publisher that allow you to just go ahead and submit your idea for nonfiction,
which is where I would assume most entrepreneurs be. You have to draft a really detailed proposal. They want to know what other books are out there like it, how yours is different, what you can do with it. And I’ll, and it’s a great process for learning and understanding your book. But it’s a very, very timely process. Even if you’re not working through an agent,
even if you’re going directly to a publisher. And then when the book gets to the, or you don’t have to write the full book before you go traditional publishing, actually you just have to create that summary to send to them. And they decide yes or no. The advantages obviously of publishing is that you don’t have to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle.
You, somebody else is going to do it all for you, depending on the size of the publishing house, you may or may not get an advance. It surprises people to know that there are still people getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in advances, but those are usually like the Oprahs of the world and that Renee Brown’s a, you know, a hundreds of thousands to millions for somebody and in our sphere,
if you have a good book that the niche that they’re really wanting to fill and the ability to sell the book is a big, big factor. You may, you make it between a 10 and $50,000 advance. So for some people that’s a huge incentive, but for most entrepreneurs, self publishing professionally in a way that doesn’t look like you’ve just thrown it up on Kindle by yourself,
where you have a great cover design, you have great perfectly formatted interior design. You have a perfect cover. You’re following the industry standards. That’s a fantastic route because you can do it on your own time. You can choose what your cover looks like and work with the professionals to make it just right. You know, you generally have the audience already in place that you know is going to be interested in the book.
So definite pros and cons to both sides, but for a lot of entrepreneurs, I bet most of you are familiar with Pat Flynn. He’s self published his books. Um, there are a lot of entrepreneurs. If you were to start looking through Russell Brunson, the key is they’ve worked with professionals so that nobody can tell that their book is self published.
They created a publishing imprint, so that it doesn’t say published by Pat Flynn. It says published by whatever the name of the company is that he or the imprint that he created. So I assume the next question is How did you know? Yes. What is a publishing imprint? Yes. So this is awesome. So they publishers do it too. If you pay close attention to books,
sometimes you’ll see, I’ll make up a random name. Like I think Tarcher is an imprint of penguin, which is an imprint of random house, which is it’s like smaller delineations for the self publishing world. What the imprint means is that you’re creating a name associated to the books that are published. So when you go to Amazon or you go to books,
a million, or you go to wherever, it says published by Kat biggie press or purple butterfly press or Chrysalis press it. Doesn’t say published by Alexa, big Wharf. And you can create an LLC behind that. If you want to you, or it can be a DBA under your own business, some people will make it their company name. So you could have the Sweetlife publishing house or the Sweetlife press Sweetlife books.
People can copyright and trademark things obviously, but generally you can make it to be whatever you want it to be and associate it with your books. Just it’s another step to make you look just a little bit more professional, have a little logo, you know, all those kinds of things. Formation. I think when you dropped names like Pat Flynn and Russell Bronson,
and the fact that they self publish, I, a lot of people are like, wow, I really want to write a book, but I want to be taken seriously. And so when you drop names like you did, you know, some people didn’t know they self published because of that exact reason. And we do actually have our own, we have Sweetlife press.
So, so I have, I have written two books and self published, two books, and it was Sweetlife press in which we did that. And that’s exactly what we did. And so I do understand that process. One of the things that was really interesting as you were talking, I was remembering colleagues and friends and guests that I’ve had on the show.
And I still remember interviewing Denise Duffield Thomas and she was on the show, got a couple years ago and she had just released, I think it was chill preneur. And I remember one of the things we were talking about on that show was that they came back with her and they’re like, this is the cover of your book. And she’s like, why mrs.
Not what bit, you know? And she didn’t have a say, I mean, that’s the cover that the publisher chose for her book. And I still remember being in that interview and thinking, gosh, you know, I didn’t realize it would be that strict and they chose her cover and that was it. And she’s like, whatever I’m going with it.
I know it’s a great book, you know, but this is a cover. They chosen it. Isn’t what I had chosen. And so that’s a great example. And then also I still remember back. So I had a literary agent back in 2009 that approached me to write a book. I had little babies. I think my youngest was like two and a half years old.
And my oldest was only six. And he was so, so excited. It was such a great opportunity. And this agent was like, great, but the deadlines, I couldn’t meet the deadlines. There’s that too. And it was it. And it was exactly what you were saying. I was like, this could be a great opportunity, but I am in this business owner,
mom, life survival mode right now with these children. And there’s no way in hell. I’m getting you all of this by Friday. I mean, this is completely impossible for me. So I didn’t continue with that contract. I defaulted out of that contract. Um, and so as you’re, as you’re talking, I’m remembering kind of some of these things and saying,
okay, I get it. I get it. And just for our listeners, you know, it’s so interesting to again here, because you know, we’re always worried about our personal brand and what the perception is. And we’re going to dive here in a minute to the benefits of writing your own book, which is establishing you as an expert. So you don’t want to look like a cheapo because you’re publishing your own book,
right? You don’t want like, well, I couldn’t get a publisher, so I’m just going to put this out there and hope that people buy it. That’s not what we’re doing. That’s not what we’re talking about. So I love everything that you said. So my next question for you is when you self publish, where are your options to sell your book?
Okay. So you book anywhere these days. So it’s funny, the stigma behind, you know, the self publishing, like I remember years ago when I first was like, I’m going to self publish my book. Like the impression that a lot of my friends had was the first thing that came out of my girlfriend’s mouth was, Oh my gosh, please tell me it’s not going to be one of those horribly written books as 99 cents on Amazon.
But it’s growing beyond that. Like the industry around in the published books has grown so immensely that that’s really just the stigmatism that we carry, but that the rest of the world is moving beyond right now. So now I forgot what you asked me, but Oh, basically like where can you sell it so you can sell it on Amazon. But if I want my local bookstore to carry my book,
I can just Approach them just like a regular, why would any other retailer to sell my product and be like, here, here you go. You absolutely can. And in fact, that’s how most people, indie self published books are now showing up in Barnes and noble and target and all these places. It comes down to just like anything else, your ability to market yourself,
to know your target audience and how you approach them. So bookstores and libraries want to make money. If you know that your book is a good fit for the traffic, they get to their store. And even better, if you can bring something to the table, like I worked with one nonfiction author who approached the bookstore and she said, you know,
this is my book. I’d love to sell it here. But even better than that, it’s a natural book for a, she teaches a course from her book, right? So she was like, I’d also like to bring in my book club, my organization and these people in my workshop, basically, we’ll meet here once a month. And now it’s like,
wow, you’re bringing clients as well with a great love. That totally makes sense. But you have to have it positioned so that they can buy it. And that’s the thing that you can’t put it on Amazon and then go to a bookstore and say, will you please stop by book in your store? It doesn’t work that way. So those are the fine things that you have to learn about.
And those where the expert inside trading secrets When we work with you, I’d never would have even thought About that. Of course. Okay. So let’s talk about the benefits of writing a book. So what we’re talking about here, this isn’t a free book. This isn’t a freebie that you give away as a lead magnet. This is a book with your intellectual property,
your area of expertise, your methodology, your systems, your ideas, your direction, or, you know, precision about how to accomplish something. And it’s not this freebie that we’re talking about. So let’s dive into really, like you said, one of your areas of specialty and expertise is helping people figure out what the heck to write about how do you really guide people through making that decision in order so that it’s going to align with their business area of expertise,
or do you kind of have people that just start out as writers and the might not have a business yet? All of the above. It’s funny. It’s a wild world right now, as entrepreneurs, as writers as all of us, like the doors are wide open for us to create our own path, basically. So I have worked with authors who have come to me,
who have said, I’ll use my friend, Shelley, as an example, she was child has a food allergy. They also have a large family. And she has written a book about how to eat healthy on a budget. So dinner for a dollar is her thing. She wrote her book first and then she wanted to launch a business. So we had to,
you know, create the right path for that to happen. She came to me with her book already written. I helped her do the publishing and then launching and all of that kind of stuff. But then I’ve had other people who have come to me, you may be familiar with sparkle, hustle, grow Julie Ball, the founder of that subscription box for female entrepreneurs.
Like, I mean, No, I’m kidding. It’s created a wonderful product that people love, but now she’s growing her business beyond that. What can she do beyond subscription boxes? So she started a course, a boot camp for people who wanted to create subscription boxes and then a mastermind. So with her, when we were thinking about the right book for her,
it was how do I get something for that group of people who maybe aren’t ready for the course yet are still in that idea of, should I even create a subscription box and definitely aren’t ready for her mastermind yet so that she doesn’t have people joining her program, who aren’t ready for it, wind up asking a lot of questions because they’re very, very new and don’t know these things.
So her book, when we talk about the entryway to your big business funnel, it’s the perfect funnel because it’s a book about how to start a subscription box, what things you need to know, what her process was, what she went through. She uses a lot of examples from other box owners. And then at the end of it naturally, you’re like,
okay, if you’re ready to rock and roll, here’s your next step? Right? So she’s selling a book and she’s potentially growing her next level audience, hugely Perfect ideal audience. And it certainly can separate you and make you an expert in your space. I love that. That’s a perfect analogy as well, especially with the product funnel in that example.
So for people who are listening right now, they’re like, okay, I want to get started. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. And I know you guys are listening out there and you’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, because like 90% of the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk about have said, Oh, I really want to write a book.
I’ve been thinking about writing a book. So what are the steps to actually get started in this process for somebody who’s like, this is it, you know, 2020 is my year that I’m no longer going to drag my feet in this, but where on earth do I start? Okay. So to me, the starting places, always first and foremost,
identifying your goal of why you’re writing the book, what you’re trying to get to. And if you can identify that right away, like is it book sales because if selling books and getting on a best sellers list and getting interviewed on Oprah is your goal, then it’s a totally different path. If it’s to grow your funnel entryway into your business, if it’s to give a low cost.
So maybe you have a high end coaching program that lots of people can’t join, but they still want to know your knowledge then is it a solution for that level? Or is it, are you a newer business owner? And you’re really trying to establish your credibility to be known as the person on the street to come to talk to about these topics, to gain speaking engagements,
to be a step ahead of other people, applying for different opportunities, et cetera. So it can be a combination, but those are the general, like three different areas until you get to superstar status. And then it’s because people are telling you, you need to write a book, but for those of us who are not superstars yet, it’s generally one of those three areas.
So really having a clear understanding of that. Yeah. Let me just recap those so that people are really clear. So understanding obviously your why, so is it PR and you really want to be seen on Oprah, whatever that is. And so really making sure that media attention, I know that, and I do talk to a lot of business owners that are interested in that,
and that is obviously a really difficult path. And there are a lot of things that, that need to happen in order for that to happen, especially from an audience building standpoint, then as you certainly number one, number two, a product funnel. So as a product funneling into your other programs is a natural lead in and number three is just establishing your voice and growing your list as far as initially,
did I recap those correctly? Yes. And there are lots of in-betweens and you know, it’s funny because sometimes people will start thinking that they want to do one of those three things. And in the process they realize they have a personal story that they really want to share, and they can’t move beyond that until they write their personal story. It’s interesting.
Like once they get the idea started of, okay, I’m going to write a book, then they veer off in a different direction. You know, I’ve worked with authors who started have almost completely finished one book, and then they were like, I can’t move forward with that until I’ve addressed this issue. And then they wrote a book about how they overcame breast cancer and how other people can do that too.
And then came back to their business, this book. So, so cool. And not a surprise, not a surprise, you know, entrepreneurs we always want to create in creating is so healing. And I think for a lot of business owners, okay. So first figuring out step number one, figuring out what the purpose of what you’re doing is what’s next.
So for me, the next step is sitting down and figuring out the purpose of the book itself. Like, what is the reader going to get from it? Are you teaching them something? Are you sharing knowledge? You know, what are you doing? Are you doing it? How to book, are you doing a self help book? Are you doing a memoir figuring out that and creating an outline.
And this outline is a, sometimes a scary word for people, but it’s really just a, okay, I know I want to get the reader from a to Z and these are the things that have to happen between them and you jot them down in a list and that will help keep you on track and motivated to keep writing that book. So that’s step two.
Then step three is taking some time to either figure out all the steps in the process of publishing or determining. I just want to hire somebody to do all the steps of the publishing for me. And then you figure out who you want to work with basically, or you start researching how to do it yourself. Right? Name simultaneously. You’re writing your book.
Yeah. Okay. So let’s kind of talk about that for a minute. So for business owners that, you know, have a ton of things on their plate, how do you recommend people get the greatest productivity or focus? I know everybody’s different as far as writing, do you say, Hey, take a whole week and go on a retreat and rent a cabin in the woods and write your book,
or do you say, Hey, spend one day a week or three hours, or how do you usually actually recommend for people that are trying to balance all the things that, that they’re trying to balance and get their book? Really? I think the first thing to do is take an audit of what you’ve already created. And we do this through what I call my Quickstart program,
my QuickBook program, I’m actually working on the name of the system itself, but it’s, um, how to get what you already have available to you and start from there because the reality is most of us who are growing businesses have some level of team with us, right? So if you take that initial outline and you’re like, these are the things that I want to cover a next natural step is to pass it off to your VA and say,
go find everything that I’ve already created on this topic. Podcasts I’ve been on webinars, I’ve run all of that stuff and create that vault of information first. And then you can pick and pull things from that. It’ll also make it, if you work with a collaborative writer or someone who’s helping you get the book written that that’s an easy thing to hand off to somebody else.
But, you know, I think to be very honest, like this is where the overwhelmed just gets to them. Cause they’re like, Oh my gosh. Now I have to actually write a book and panic and breathing, you know, all of that, like, you’d be surprised how many people stop right there. They decide they’re going to write a book.
They know what the book is and then the brakes come on because it’s that next step that’s so overwhelming. But there are lots of ways to make it less overwhelming by starting with what you already have. You know, it’s so interesting as you’re going through this, this is our step by step process. Very similarly that we work with businesses to develop their leading programs and offers the outline,
assessing your assets. It’s the same exact process. And it’s true. You know, once they figure out what assets they already have that are going to accomplish a certain stage of that outline in this book, people just realize when they’re like, Oh my gosh, I have to actually go to work and do this. And you know, we have a lot of guys that listen to this show,
but working from home, which many people are and having the distractions, I think there is something super overwhelming about the ability to have an find uninterrupted time. And if, if like, if you’re like me, I have to get on a roll first. So for me to write, I actually have to be in the mood to write, I mean,
whether it’s music or working out first or lighting the dang candle or whatever it is, I have to be inspired to write. And I’ve ran into those problems before. And it’s actually even this way sometimes with recording this podcast where it’s like, if I’m not in the mood to create it, I’m just not creating it. So maybe if, you know,
if our listeners, if you guys are listening and you’ve been in this spot where you’re like, Oh my gosh, I have all this done. I want to keep writing my book. Maybe you’re like me and you’re super emotionally charged and you have to find the right environment or the right pre-activity to get your brain flowing. Because if somebody is like, okay,
well you have to sit down and write from 11 to one. You know what I’m not doing from 11 One writing and this just the way I personally am. Yeah. I completely agree with that. And that’s, that’s why I liked the idea of just sitting down and saying, well, one, you can always hire an accountability partner or a coach to like force you into one hour,
which is all it takes me is one hour to get somebody book out of them and sit down for one hour, go through all the steps that we just talked about and the preparation for it and have this skeleton, because it’s amazing the psychological difference that it makes. Once you have a list of topics just to start with, and then beyond that, you just start feeling.
It’s like, Oh yeah. I remember when I was interviewed on April beaches show, we talked about this, fill that in, in chapter six for that’s what I want to talk about, or you know, that type of thing, or you pick up your phone and you blocked somebody or however you communicate with your team. And you’re just like, here’s the brainstorm I have.
I know I want to include this information, this information, this information, go write it down on a list, go start, you know, filling in the gaps. It takes that overwhelm of sitting down and thinking, Oh my gosh, I have to spend these three hours just, you know, creating the best thing that ever happened. I’m sure.
You know what it’s like when you hire someone to write copy for you, whether it’s your newsletter or your sales page or anything like that, when you start from something that’s already existing, it’s so much easier to craft it and to recreate it, make it sound like you pull out the pieces you want than it is to start from scratch. Well, and that’s the power of working with somebody like you to do it.
So yes, if I had somebody like you to sit down with the deer, like, okay, April for the next hour, I’m going to pull, extract everything out of your brain. Then I would be there with bells on. And that’s exactly. I mean, that’s, that’s a difference. So those of our listeners that are really serious about doing this,
if you’ve been dragging your feet, It’s probably time to get somebody to guide you through this process. Like Alexa, When does the design come in? Is that usually something that takes really a while? Or do you write all the content first and then drop it into a design? How has that process fit into this? So our process and there’s, there’s lots of freelancers.
There’s lots of companies that help with this part of it. But what we do is we get the final edited version from the author when there’s no more changes. Obviously we do a proofread after that. So there may be small changes, but when the content is written, it’s been edited, it is done. Then we have a team of designers and we pick the right designer for the right project and we send it to them.
They do their designing skills because here’s the thing. I’m just going to be brutally honest here, because I can’t say this out loud to people, to their faces, but it breaks my heart when I go to a conference or an event and somebody’s speaking and I’m like, I have to get their book. And I go to the book table and I pick up their book and it’s not formatted properly.
And it looks a mess. And as a publisher, like I’m very in tune with what the industry standards are. So it annoys me probably more than the average person. I’ll, I’ll admit to that, but I can’t buy their book cause I can’t read it because that will drive me. So we have people who know, book, industry standards who know formatting,
who know how to do these different things. We send it to them. They do a couple of mockup chapters. We get back to the author, we say, does this look like what you were envisioning? Kind of like the same idea of designing a cover or graphics or anything like that. We come to an agreement and then we flow the entire book and then they get this beautiful lead designed and laid out book that then we can upload anywhere.
They want to publish their book. Fantastic. And it looks like the brand that they need to represent. And I think that that’s the concern that a lot of people have about self publishing is just really not knowing how to approach this and not knowing how to do this correctly in a way that is going to position them as a brand leader or as an expert or whatever their goal is for that book.
And I it’s the same thing. I mean, it’s like you, you love somebody and then you reach out and you go to their website and it’s not working or things are clicking, right. Or their logo sucks or, you know, whatever it is, it’s all part of the package. Right. And yet I think that another piece that people think is that it’s going to cost like thousands and thousands of dollars because you do see these programs that are like a $25,000 investment.
And I’m here to tell you that you can find people who will do it very professionally and very well, and you don’t have to mortgage your house to pay for the services. And it still looks really, really branded like you would want it to be. And that’s one of the things that we consider, like, are there fonts that you love? Is there a certain layout or things that you use in your things as business owners?
The branding is a huge part of what the cover and the interior looks like a hundred percent having an all uniform with that style guide across, well, this has been so helpful. I appreciate all of your information because you have given our listeners so many steps and so many different things to consider and there’s actions they can take at this point in time, or at least that they know that they can come back and tap into this episode again,
in the future when they are in fact, ready to go down this road, how can people get started? You have a quick start guide for our listeners. I want to make sure that everybody is getting their hands on also so that they can be in connection with you regarding your women in publishing summit and all of your services. Yeah, sure. So if you head over to write,
publish, sell.com, and if you go forward slash Quickstart, That’ll be kind of the freebie download on a recap on some of the things that we covered today, plus some additional resources on, on where to dig deeper, to find out more on those types of things. And then we also have write, publish, sell.com for jumpstart, which is our one hour workshop to help you outline your book.
So if you’re ready to go at that point in time, it’s a very small investment for that one hour to get that done. Wow. That sounds so awesome. That sounds incredible. I think everybody should join the workshop. I mean, one hour and, and see what you have after that and really getting inspired. I think that’s, that’s super great.
Thank you so much for being on the show. I can’t wait to continue to connect with you offline, personally. I know that our companies are going to be connecting again in a lot of ways in 2021. And so I’m excited about that and where can everybody find you on Instagram or LinkedIn and really what’s the best social platform for people to connect with you?
We’re pretty active on, on Instagram with write, publish, sell, and with the women in publishing summit. And I also have my personal account there. Alexa, big Wharf. I’m Alexa, big work on Instagram and then pretty much write, publish, sell anywhere you want to go. You’ll find us awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate you. This has been amazing. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thanks.<inaudible> All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to this week’s podcast. Again, this is the sweet entrepreneurial podcast and all the show notes and resources we talk about as well as our business development programs and how you can find Alexa and get started with publishing can be found by visiting us online@sweetlifeco.com
and get the insider scoop on everything podcast and all of the amazing business bonuses that we give you by joining us in our business community. You can do so right now, by cruising over to sweet life, community.com and create your business profile to network with other companies actually get traction. You might even find some awesome clients in there and get direct business support from me.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I’ll talk to you next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Who This Episode is Great For:
New and established small businesses who have a general understanding of marketing but want to tap into the power that building a digital marketing funnel can do for your business. Those in Phases 2-3 of my“Start to Scale System” formerly called Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap.
Summary:
You’ve heard that digital marketing is the way to grow your business but you aren’t sure where to start. Building your first digital marketing funnel is not hard as long as you understand the components of a funnel and how they work.
In this episode, April Beach dives into the 3 components of all winning funnels, how you use your marketing funnel and what you can expect if you’ve built it right.
You’d be surprised by the number of large companies that do not currently know how to build and utilize a funnel and grass-roots relationship marketing. This episode will catapult you beyond big giants!
Hiring a marketing firm may not yet be in your budget, or if you do plan to hire out you at least need to have an understanding of what a marketing funnel is, your company’s goals and expectations, and an overview of how your funnel should function and work. This podcast episode gives you clarity to move forward.
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate Under the show. This is episode number 187, and you are listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. And my name is April beach. Thanks for being here with me for yet. Again,
another episode today on the show, we’re talking about how to create your first digital marketing funnel, why it’s important and why as a business owner, whether you’re a brand new or you’ve been a business for a really long time, you have to start utilizing the power of building a digital marketing funnel and strategy. And it doesn’t matter if you are a teeny tiny business,
a mom and pop, even a large corporation, you need to be using these grassroots relationship building free. If you will type of marketing strategies to attract your perfect customers and your, your ideal audience. And as a matter of fact, the large companies are actually less utilizing these digital marketing funnels than small and midsize businesses. And they’re going to catch up sooner or later,
they’re going to have marketers come in there and say, Hey, let’s, you know, stop crushing everybody with these big ad campaigns and start building relationships with the audience. But you are going to be ahead of the game because you listen to this show and you will have already established awesome relationships with your audience and growing your list because you, especially at the end of this episode will know exactly how to build your first digital marketing funnel.
So this particular episode is, especially for you guys, you could be new, you could be established and you want to understand digital marketing. Now, again, it doesn’t matter what stage of business you’re in. Just in the last three weeks. I’ve had two different companies that have been in business for over 20 years. Join my business development mentorship program who have never had a digital marketing funnel ever before,
but they’re established companies. They do great. They’re making a lot of money. They’re ready to scale and grow. And it’s time to start kind of picking up the pace here at tapping into digital marketing. And they want to tap into that. So again, it doesn’t matter whether you’re new or you are like the best established expert in your space, whether you are a small business,
a midsize business, or even a large company, this episode is for you. And at the end of this episode, you’re going to know what a marketing funnel is. You’re going to know the components of a marketing funnel, and you’re going to understand how to set yours up. So I don’t care if you hire this out or you keep this in house.
I’m a big advocate that even the things you hire out, you have to understand the end result and how they generally should be done yourself before you can hire that position or that task out to somebody else. So you’re going to understand this here on the show. And here’s some statistics why a healthy and thriving marketing funnels are essential for your business. This comes from small business genius.net.
So first of all, 82% of customers feel more positive about a brand after reading your customized content. So they like you better when they read customized content that comes from you in 53% of businesses rely on creating customized content as part of their brand strategy. So it leaves us with two questions. Number one, how do you get the chance to get in front of your ideal audience and even share customized content and number two,
how do you get people to pay attention so that they can absorb your customized content and buy from you? And the answer to both of those questions is we build you a really awesome, but simple doesn’t have to be elaborate digital marketing funnel that generates the leads of your ideal audience that will become your ideal customers. And so that’s what we are diving into in today’s show.
All of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one eight, seven. There’s going to be a lot of links in here and different bonuses. We always love to give you guys bonuses with our podcast episodes to make sure you’re cruising over to Sweetlife podcasts.com to get those. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into building that component of your marketing funnel.<inaudible> Okay.
So let’s start out with the basics here. A marketing funnels, a series of online pages and actions that bring new users into your site so that you can capture their information and build a relationship with them for future sales. Should I say that again? I’ll say it one more time to be safe. If you’re like me, you’re probably driving your car and half listening because we’re also busy.
So let me just say it again for you. A marketing funnel is a series of online pages and actions, and I’ll explain what that means that bring new users into your site so that you can capture their information and have a chance to build a relationship with them so you can sell to them. So a sales funnel is this same type of structure, but when you’re sending somebody just to buy directly today,
we’re talking about building your first marketing funnel to generate leads as opposed to direct sales. And here are the steps to do that. Step. Number one, to build your first digital marketing funnel is to decide what you’ll give away for free to attract people, to give you their information. This is also called freemium business model, as a matter of fact,
that the recording of this tomorrow morning, and I’m speaking on a Kansas city business leaders summit and teaching how to use this business model. I mean, this is how companies aren’t even tapping into this very much yet. You guys it’s so important in my talk tomorrow, they’ve asked me to speak on the quote unquote freemium business model. So this is what we’re talking about here.
If that’s the terminology you’re familiar with, I call it a lead magnet because it magnetizes people to give you their information so you can generate the lead either way. Step one is to decide what your company is going to give away for free in exchange for a lead’s name and email address. And here’s some things I want you to know about this are very important because this has changed over the last couple of years,
your free thing you give away your freebie, a lead magnet should be of high value and low time. So we used to give away these things that, you know, could be 20 page white papers, or, you know, numerous different things that would give so much information. People don’t have time anymore. So we want to give somebody something of high value and low time.
This freebie should solve a problem for your ideal audience. And the freebie you’d give away should be a natural lead to help people decide if they need and want to buy your products or work with you, or be more involved with your services. So once you decide what this thing is, you need to give away for free, go ahead and create it.
Just start working on this first. This takes businesses a lot longer than they expect. I’ll be honest with you. So decide and determine what is that high value, low time free thing you’re going to give away. And again, you’re invited to join my free online business owners community. And in there is a course. It’s a video where I give you a ton of different ideas on what these free things can be from videos to quizzes,
to assessments, to, you know, we talk about even the basics of PDFs. So cruise over to sweet life, community.com and you’re welcome to join in there and access that training for free. So step number one is deciding what you’re going to give away in order to have it be of high value to generate the lead seven. Number two is actually building the landing page where you’re going to place the form for people to fill out,
to get your free thing. So you need, or the person on your team that does your pages needs to build a separate standalone landing page. The page needs to have a form in it, and it needs to be really basic. It doesn’t have to be elaborate. This isn’t a long sales page where you’re inviting somebody to join your $20,000 a year mastermind.
This is one page with a form on it for them to fill out, to get your really cool free thing. So keep it basic. And the purpose of this page is to only do one thing and that’s for people to fill out the form. So because of this, the page doesn’t have navigation on it. The page usually doesn’t have social media icons on it.
It is super simple. It’s literally a standalone page that doesn’t have anything else that any action can be taken on that page, except for filling out your form to get the free thing you promised. And then of course, make sure that you have great copywriting on there. That’s direct to the point about what they’re going to get, what are the benefits of sharing their information and what will they receive?
What’s your promise to them that they’re going to receive after they share their contact information with you? And so here’s just a pro tip when it comes to building landing pages, build this page on your own website, if at all possible. I know there are a lot of great services out there like lead pages and splash pages and all these other things whose purpose is to just be the house of these funnels,
just the lead page and the process of this funnel we’re talking about. But gold standard is to build this as a page within your own website. So your website generates the traffic. We want to keep them on your website. That is our best practice. Okay. It doesn’t mean those services. Aren’t good. They just, aren’t what I would call best practice in.
Step. Number three is to then build a thank you page. So after somebody is on the landing page and they fill out the form to get your cool free thing, the very next place they’re going to go to as a thank you page, the thank you page is the most missed opportunity in all marketing funnels. You know, you’ve filled out something before and you’ve gotten some for free and it’s just like this one white page pops up says,
thank you. Your information has been submitted. You know, click here to go back. That is a waste of somebody’s attention. They’ve just trusted you. They’ve given you their information. You need to build a thank you page. And on that, thank you page. You can have an intro video to who you are or who your company is. You can share the most important things you want.
These new leads to understand about your company. You can even have an immediate call to action there for people to buy from you or sign up for your service for schedule a complimentary consultation. There are so many things you can do and you need to do with the thank you page that companies are missing the boat on. So first we have the landing page with a form.
The next page you’re going to build as a thank you page and the people, once they fill out their form, they’re going to be redirected to this. Thank you page. It’s an awesome place for you to build a relationship and confirm to them. Hey, you did a really good job by giving us your name and email. And we don’t take that for granted because you and I both know the number of companies that take our names and email addresses for granted.
And immediately we unsubscribed from them. As soon as we get that first email, that’s where like, Oh, I was weak. I gave them my email, you know, something, something triggered me, but I wish I didn’t. You don’t want people doing that to you. So utilize a thank you page to actually say, Hey, thank you so much,
made a great decision. We’re not going to let you down. Thanks for being here in the meantime. You’re probably wondering, well, where the heck is a free thing, right? In the meantime in cyberspace, your free lead magnet asset that you created is being delivered to them in their email box. And here are a couple of reasons why we want it to send.
We want to send it to their email address. Number one, your email will probably show up in what’s called the promo or the social media folder in somebody’s Gmail inbox. We want your email to end up in a primary folder. We want to do what’s called white list, your email address. And so we need somebody to click on it so that your email service provider realizes that you do in fact,
want that email. And it will make sure that it’s showing that person emails that come from your business. Otherwise, if we give them the free thing immediately. So if we were to go from the landing page to immediately be directed to the digital delivery, whether it’s an ebook or a video series or whatever free thing you’ve given them, they never have to go check their inbox.
And what happens is the next time you send them an email, they could totally miss it cause they aren’t looking for it. So best practice is to have them go check their email to then either click on or download or access the free thing that you have given them. Okay. Now let’s kind of talk about this a little bit in a recap and high level.
So the recap overview of your very first marketing funnel, your funnel contains number one, a landing page where people fill out a form to get your freebie. Number two, a thank you page where they can buy a map by now see more of who you are, understand you become more familiar with your brand and it includes your lead magnet being sent to them by email,
of course it includes the asset itself. So the free thing, whether again, that’s a PDF or a video series or quiz or whatever it is that you’re giving away for free. So you have to build the asset first. That was the first thing we talked about. It’s important to build the free thing you’re giving away. So you know, the correct copywriting for it.
And you know how to set that up on the landing page and communicate the end result they’re going to receive from the asset you’re delivering. And then you build your landing page, your thank you page and you connect your email marketing manager to deliver the asset automatically to their inbox within the first three minutes. So here’s some tech protests. So many people have tech questions.
My company has a division where we build parts of websites and funnels because this is like the number one thing that holds businesses up. So let me kind of pour into you a little bit here regarding some tech pro tips. Number one, like we talked about, try to build your landing page and your own website to generate S E O if you don’t know what SEO is,
it’s search engine optimization. That basically means that the more people are clicking on your website, the more Google is going to show your website to other people because they realize people like it really important. Number two, be sure to have your Facebook pixel installed in your website. Now we have Sarah tomes who is our Facebook and Instagram marketing expert. She’s on the show all the time.
So you can cruise back to our website@sweetlifepodcast.com and just simply search the word Facebook. And we have hosted shows in the past that teach you how to install your Facebook pixel on your website and all the things that are important about a Facebook pixel. But I wanted to make sure I’m mentioning it here and not leaving you hanging. We do have other episodes to speak directly towards Facebook pixel.
Please go back to the website, search the episodes because all the business trainings that other companies charge thousands for are literally sitting there like a gold mine in our past episodes. So I want to make sure you guys are using them. And then the last tech pro tip is that we really love Kajabi. I talk about Kajabi all the time on the show.
We interviewed the Kajabi founders three years ago on the show. We use Kajabi within our own marketing and funnel building systems. And we build Kajabi websites for clients. And the reason why we’ve done this, and I’ve been in business for 24 years and moving from all these other types of website platforms is because nothing builds a marketing pipeline with funnel blueprints that we have seen faster than Kajabi.
So we are partners, we’re affiliate partners with them and we share their information all the time on the show, not just because we know they’re going to help their business, but because we do use them for everything, all of our online courses, and even for websites and clients that don’t even have online courses, they have amazing front of the house website development.
So you can cruise over any time and start a free Kajabi trial by going to April beach.com forward slash Kajabi. That’s K a J a B I. So if you’re wondering, how do I do all these pages? And I don’t have the money to hire it out, I have to do it all myself. Do yourself a favor, just go practice and get a Kajabi trial.
I guarantee you, it will save you up to a year in time of online business development, sewing together, all these different other social media platforms. So that’s our show for today. Today, we talked about how to build your first digital marketing funnel. You heard what a digital marketing funnel is, how it’s used. Again, we’re not talking about a sales funnel because we’re not taking anybody’s money.
Instead in a digital marketing and funnel, you’re taking their name and email address for the opportunity, frankly, for the privilege of being able to email them, send them information and continue to connect with them, to build a relationship with them, to increase your company’s sales. It is a privilege as a business owner to have somebody share their contact information with you.
And we do that by creating a strategic digital marketing funnel that you can utilize in your business right now. I don’t care if you’re a large corporation. I don’t care if you’re a micro business, like my company with seven people in it, or if you’re a small business, you have up to a hundred employees, many companies are not utilizing this. This is the way to build authentic relationships with an audience so that you can continue to sell services.
And so in today’s show, you understand, and you talked about what a marketing funnel is, the components of a marketing funnel and how to set yours up. I hope you found this show incredibly informative. We have so many different resources for you, and I want to make sure that I’m sharing them with you again, that Kajabi free trial. You can tap into that any time as well as our community.
If you’d like to join the expert classes totally free, that teach you how to create your first asset to give away for free and the steps of setting up your first list, building marketing funnel, and you can find all of those links simply by going to Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 87. You’ll have to get the recap of the show, Angela, get the links to join us in the community and to set up the free Kajabi trial.
All right, you guys, next week, I am so excited because we have Alexa big war on here, and we are diving into how to publish your book to make sure that you are established as a leader in your space. It’s an awesome show. There’s so much information. So if you haven’t yet subscribed to the show, please click subscribe on your favorite podcast.
Listening software. We’re on Pandora now, of course on Spotify. And of course, for grateful to be a leading business podcast on Apple podcasts as well for over three and a half years. Thank you so much for tuning in and sharing this episode with your friends. And I will talk to you.
Every business who operates on Facebook and Instagram.
Summary:
“It will never happen to me”
Famous last words until you wake up and your Facebook and Instagram business accounts are gone.
As a business owner, you likely spend a lot of time and resources on Facebook or Instagram. You post, go live, comment with others, research hashtags, produce IGTV videos and spend too many hours filtering your photos. But these necessary evils are a great way to attract your ideal audience and increase your exposure. Right up to the moment they’re wiped out – with no communication or consent from Facebook, no opportunity to submit a support ticket, no one to talk to for help.
This is what happened to April Beach and The SweetLife Company, and in this show, you’ll learn all of the things no one tells you to do to save your company, keep your followers and survive being wiped from the Facebook and Instagram planet.
This is not an episode about internet security. This is an episode about business survival.
Highlights:
Know how to protect and preserve your content
How to control the out of control
How your company can bounce back after the hack
Resources Mentioned:
To regain control of your Facebook page you can start by claiming it was been hacked through this link
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome back to the show. Thanks for tuning in here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. And today’s episode, I’m downloading those of you who have been asking and asking about what actually happened to our business,
Facebook and Instagram accounts. Many of you follow me or followed me on social media. And you knew that we literally got wiped off the face of the earth. Like we’ve never existed after, well, over a decade of being on Facebook and years and years being on Instagram. And so in this episode, I’m going to share exactly what happened and how to survive a Facebook or Instagram hack on your business.
Now, first things first, this is not an internet security episode. I’m not an internet security expert. I’m actually going to share the things that you can’t Google, that nobody tells you and share the insider things that we learned. Honestly, the hard lessons, some of them we did well, some of them we failed on so that if this ever happens to you,
that you know how to survive it. And also you are going to walk away with four things that I recommend you do immediately right now, because the statement that it will never happen to me is totally not true. I’m so sorry. Especially as we move towards an election, there’s always an increase in internet hackers. And I don’t know about you, but there’s just been so many instances with other businesses that I have heard about in the last six months with COVID and way too many bad people with way too much time on their hands hacking business accounts.
So I know it isn’t just me and I don’t want it to be you. So this episode is for every business who operates on Facebook and on Instagram, because those famous last words, it will never happen to me are only said up until the point that you wake up, like I did, and your accounts are totally gone. Not only that you’re going to hear what happened to my hardware.
I’m just going to honestly download the whole story for you. It is a nightmare, but it’s an eyes wide open thing. And I think that other businesses should know what can happen. I wish somebody had really laid it out there for me, like I’m going to do for you. So, you know, I understand that as a business owner, you spend a lot of time on these resources on Facebook and Instagram.
You post things, you go live, you hunt for the best imagery and source, the best pictures. You comment with others, you research hashtags, you produce IgE TV videos, and you probably have spent way many hours figuring out what filter is the right one to go with your brand or you’ve paid somebody else to do that. So you’ve invested time and you’ve invested money in growing your Facebook and Instagram presence as you should.
I mean, these are necessary evils, and they’re a great way to attract your ideal audience and increase your exposure and establish your expertise as a business right up until the moment when they’re wiped out. And this usually happens with zero communication from Facebook, no opportunity to submit a support ticket or reclaim your account. And frankly, nobody is going to talk to you.
It Facebook, we all know that that nobody cares about you or me enough to get on the phone. They really could give a shit about your brand and your business. And it doesn’t even matter how much money you have spent like us over the years in Facebook ads, because they have enough money. They’ll be just fine without yours. You mean nothing to them.
And if somebody takes offense to that listening, great, maybe Facebook will call me now, anyway, in this episode, I’m going to share with you exactly what happened to our company, the steps that we had to go through to regain access. And frankly, what happens when you have to start your whole entire brand and your Facebook account from scratch it.
The recording of this episode, I think that I have a whole 56 followers on my brand new Instagram account, because that’s the way the ball bounces, by the way you can cruise over and follow me at, at April beach life. I would love it if you’d follow me, but that’s the way it is right now. So let’s go ahead and dive into this show at the end of the show,
you’re going to know how to protect and preserve your content, how to control what is absolutely out of control through settings in your Facebook business page manager and how your company can bounce back after you are hacked in many of the resources will all be found that I’m sharing on today’s show by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 86. Okay. Let’s dive in.<inaudible> Okay.
So let me give you a rundown, just kind of a timeline leading up to this episode. Last November, we had some Facebook hacking instances where it says somebody’s unauthorized logged into our account, and of course we’ve done everything religiously that Facebook has said, the two factor authentication, the separate authentication app. I even have lists of reclaim codes written down by hand in my desk drawer,
everything you can possibly do, according to what Facebook tells you to do, to keep your account secure. We have done them to the hilt. And even with that, we had a hacking instance that lasted eight weeks between November and December last year, where we were unable to comment on our own posts. So if somebody commented to us, we couldn’t comment back.
And we had 11 different times where we were locked out of making any comments to our followers, or really connecting with our followers over a period of 24 hours. So these 11, 24 hour periods lasted over over a term of two months. That was the worst thing in the world to me. And I felt terrible because people that are used to connecting with us and just chatting back and forth,
they couldn’t hear anything from us and they didn’t know why. And so I thought that was like the end of the world. Well little did I know with the rest of the joy that 2020 has brought us, it has only gotten worse in may of 2020. Our Facebook ads account was hacked. And within a period of a couple of hours, somebody had actually started running ads for,
I believe it was a solar panel company and they look totally legit on our ads manager account. And I don’t even know who is getting the money for this. Cause I was paying Facebook. I was getting charged like $1,700 over a period of a couple of hours for running what looked like solar panel ads. Again, the logic behind that the money was going to Facebook.
So nobody was actually making money. It just sounds like a cruel and unusual punishment thing to do to a business owner with somebody that had way too much time on their hands. And so that happened in may and we had open tickets, unfortunately because of that, our entire ads manager count was shut down. Facebook deemed that even after all of the years of all of the ad spend basically all the money that we had paid them to run ads for years and years,
being a faithful business customer that they didn’t want to deal with having to clean out our account from hackers. And so they totally shut down our Facebook business ads account. And if you’re in digital marketing, you know, that means that we also lost all of our pixel traction. So that means all of our pixels, all of the data, all of the tracking that we had done in all of our website pages for all of the people who’ve responded to our ads,
our ability to rerun and retarget ads to our warm audience, everything was lost and wiped out. And that was in may of 2020. I also thought that was by far the worst thing on earth that could happen. And we created new pixels starting from scratch. Then on June 12th at 3:42 AM an email came to my phone that our account had been breached with an authorized access.
And I woke up that morning to no personal Facebook page and no personal Instagram account and no business Facebook page for my other company. So all of the accounts that were connected to one email address worked totally wiped off the pace of the planet. It wasn’t like there were shut down and had to reset the password. They were gone completely wiped off the face of the earth.
And so I, like I had learned to do unfortunately so many times before reached out to Facebook and because I technically in their eyes had to zero Facebook account, like I had never existed. Couldn’t even open a Facebook support ticket. So being the crafty person that I was trying to be and desperately figure out how to regain control of my business and personal Facebook accounts,
I was emailing back to Facebook through my other email address, to the open support ticket that was still open regarding the shutdown of my ads account. Previously. I had somebody I’m so excited. I had somebody I could email. Well, I very soon learned that this person also did not give a shit about me. And because what I was emailing about had nothing to do with actually the first ticket number with shutting down the ads account that this person was not willing to help me and that I needed to open a new support ticket.
Well, unfortunately, Facebook. So you think it’s bad already. Facebook blocked all of our devices. Okay. So in their desire to protect themself, I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. They blocked somehow some way my cell phone, my brand new iPhone 11, not a cheap phone and even online, I could not access the accounts. I tried to get the text number to be sent to me.
It was gone. You guys, not even like let’s reclaim and refresh this account totally gone. And just like taking a minute here and sharing this story with you. At this point, I was not thinking about my business. I was thinking about the comments that my dad had made to me on my personal Facebook page and commenting on his grandkids stuff. And my dad died four years ago and loving going back and reading his comments on my Facebook page.
I was thinking about the morning things that I get to wake up to of your memories from eight years ago, when my kids were babies and playing with bubbles in the backyard, or sitting in the couch, watching Mickey mouse with an umbrella over their head, those are the things that I lost. And so just separating this a minute here, we’re going to talk about the business loss,
but the magnitude of the devastation of memories that were totally wiped off the face of the earth and Facebook could care less has been absolutely just a tragedy for me personally, as a daughter, as a mother. And so picked up my big girl, britches got back to work, and I will tell you that was June 11th. We did not that regain access to Instagram because they also shut down the Instagram account.
Not only the Instagram account, I couldn’t even log into our other Instagram accounts from my mobile phone. We did not regain access to that until last night. And the recording of this, that was July 22nd, it’s 7:16 PM. So if you’re following along with this terrible nightmare, what I’m sharing is that somehow some way Facebook blocked my cell phone and I couldn’t even log into my other Instagram accounts.
I tried a VPN. I spent four hours on the phone with Apple. I spent two hours in the Apple store, which was a miracle because with Kobe, they’re only supposed to give me 15 minutes. I have, I spent massive time trying to at least control our other Instagram accounts. For example, this podcast account at Sweetlife podcast, couldn’t even log into this count online.
And somehow some way it was told to me that Facebook had blew the serial number on the motherboard of my iPhone somehow some way. And I had to bite the bullet and buy a new iPhone. So it has clearly been a nightmare and all of our communities we’re on Facebook, everything. So I’m recording this episode for you to give you four different ways that you can not only safeguard your account,
but four different ways that you can bounce back. Like we are after it happens, because no matter what, it will be a total nightmare for you. However, there are some strategic things you need to be doing in your business in order to protect yourself, both on the personal side and on the business side. So I’m going to share these four safeguards for you.
And then I have resources for you in the show notes. So safeguard number one, we have talked about this on the show before you need to make sure that your email list, your list of leads and clients and content does not solely live on Facebook or Instagram or any other social media platform for that matter. So that means you need to grow your email list.
Don’t allow Facebook and Instagram to completely control your ability to communicate with your followers. So you need to be getting the names and email addresses of your followers. At this point in time, you don’t even have to think of anything crafty. You can put a post out there and saying, Hey, I heard Facebook and Instagram accounts are getting hacked all the time.
And I don’t want to lose contact with you guys. If you want to be put on our emergency email list, sign up here. I wish I had done that. I should have done that. Knowing how many times we had been getting hacked, although I never dreamed that that would happen and we’d clearly lose everything. So safeguard number one is to build your email list in a separate email marketing manager that you own so that you never lose connection.
So if you have to start from scratch with your accounts, like we have to do, you can email your list and say, Hey, follow us at our new account. Safeguard. Number two, on your Facebook business page, you should have multiple administrators. I did have multiple administrators on my Facebook ads account. Those people that ran our Facebook ads for us,
but we only had one primary administrator on my Facebook business page. Therefore, if you go to Facebook right now in search April beach, you will see my page and I have no control over it. There’s my face. There’s our logo. Nothing. It’s just going to live there forever. And when you see me not posting again, it isn’t because I suck at creating content.
It’s because we have no control over that. So on your Facebook business page, make sure that you have multiple administrators. So if you have an assistant, you have somebody that works with you. I don’t care if you have a friend, make them an administrator on your Facebook business page and make sure this person doesn’t share the same IP addresses you. So they’re not within your own home.
So if your wifi gets hacked, both of you guys, aren’t totally locked out, safe guard. Number three, this is kind of a crafty one. We have this, and I’m really grateful. This is a great reason to have a custom hashtag for your business. So we have a custom hashtag two of them. Actually, one of them is sweet life podcast.
So anytime somebody is looking for one of our episodes, whether it’s on Instagram or on LinkedIn, they follow our hashtag, which is sweet life podcast. And all of our stuff pops up. So because we have a custom hashtag, even with our new Instagram account, I can keep reposting to that same hashtag in our followers that know like, and trust that we’re going to keep giving content can keep getting content from us and they can see the connections to our new account.
So this is a great reason why you should have a custom hashtag that is only your company’s hashtag, then nobody else can take from you. And it doesn’t matter what account you’re posting from. It’s your hashtag. And you can even go back in paying and reconnect with those followers that are following your hashtag, as they’ve commented on it in the past. Now,
if you lose your account, like we did, all of your posts are actually going to be gone. But as you go back and you post more content with that, hashtag people that follow that hashtag are going to see it and then safe card, number four, this is going to take you a little bit of time. Everything else you can do.
Yeah. This is gonna take you a bit of time. Should have this done. Anyway, you need to have this to grow and scale your company to multiple six to seven figures. This is one of those standard operating procedures that you should have rolling anyway. Okay. This is cute. Seeing your content clearly and cleanly organized somewhere else. So everything you post on your social media platforms should also live in a Google drive or in a Dropbox.
We keep everything in Dropbox. So all of the content that we post for every single podcast episode and all the content, right, that I have posted in the past on my Instagram account, that is no longer alive. We have any different account other than that platform. So rather than recreating all the content from scratch, we get to simply go and copy and paste.
A lot of that content, obviously there’ll need to be some editing and updating to what’s pertinent and to make sure it’s relevant right now, but we have that content did live somewhere else. And so if you don’t have a system yet for organizing and archiving your content, you need to have one. It’s also a great way to realize what you’ve created as a business owner and stop always creating new things.
You can start repurposing some of the content that you might’ve posted two years ago, especially if it is still relevant and pertinent, you don’t always have to start from scratch. As a matter of fact, that is not a good idea to always start from scratch. And so those are your safeguard tips and you know, some of these things we did really well.
Again, we have a separate email list. That’s something that we teach you guys about all the time here on this show. I did not have multiple admins on my business page that I lost that was shut down. And I did not have multiple admins on my April beach business page. I went wrong there. I had multiple admins on my business ads account,
but not on the business account. Safeguard number three is having a custom hashtag and you guys can follow us at our custom hashtag at Sweetlife podcasts. We would love it if you did. Now, we’re literally starting from scratch and you’ll go over and you’ll follow us on our podcast account on Instagram. And it’s like, there’s 200 followers and I would love it.
If you’d follow us over there. The hashtag for that is sweet life podcast. You need to have your own custom hashtag, so you can always reclaim and connect and talk directly to your audience. And then safeguard number four is to keep your content cleanly organized and archived someplace else. So you are not totally relying on social media platforms to how is your content?
Another thing that you can use is you can use a social media scheduler like we do. We really love buffer. I know their strep, sprout, social and different social media schedulers. You can go back and see what’s already been posted and copy and pasted out of there, but that’s again, relying on another social platform in a sense. So the safest place for it is going to be in a Dropbox business account or something like that.
So thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope you guys found this informative. The purpose of this show is to set you up for success in the event of failure. And I don’t want anybody to have to go what we went through since this happened. We now have a new business community. If you haven’t joined us yet, we have created a new custom business networking app,
and we’ve built that completely on a brand new app platform that is exclusive to us called mighty hosts. We love them. We’re very happy and you can join our new business community. So Facebook community is gone. New business community app is here by visiting Sweetlife community.com. We’d love to have you joined us over there and I’m always delivering face to face. As far as virtually goes,
business development strategies, and you get tons of business training and coaching, and you can network with other companies and grow your own business there too. So join us over@sweetlifecommunity.com and all the show notes. And the resources we talked about here will be found in the show notes by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 86. This was how to survive Facebook or Instagram hack on your business and start from scratch without totally starting from scratch.
Again. I really hope it doesn’t happen to you, but if it does, I hope this episode has caught you first and you don’t have to live through the nightmare that I did, right? You guys, I hope you have a great week next week. We’re diving into all about how to build your first funnel and dive into using digital marketing to grow.
Businesses who want to grow your list and increase leads using digital marketing.
Summary:
In this show we’re diving into digital marketing with landing pages including the difference between a landing page and other pages on your website, what should be on a landing page to increase conversions, and why every company should have a landing page they know works!
A landing page is a standalone web page, created specifically for a digital marketing campaign. It’s where a visitor“lands” after they click on a link in an email, or ads from Google, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, or where you market online.
Highlights:
The difference between a home page and a landing page
How to use landing pages in your marketing
The anatomy of what to include in your landing page
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to episode number 185 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. We’re diving in more to digital marketing, and we talk about digital marketing a lot here on the show.
It’s one of our primary topics because it’s one of the most important strategies that small businesses and solo entrepreneurs need to know to leverage and use to grow your company. And so obviously it’s a hot topic and there’s so much, that’s always changing in digital marketing that many times on this show, we dive into a lot of advanced digital marketing strategies, but one of the most important things is coming back to the basics.
In some of these basics are the most common questions that we get when clients come to us, when they want to work with our company in order to grow their list, it’s really back to the nuts and bolts of what is a landing page and why do you need one? And so I thought it was time to do another podcast episode back to some digital marketing,
digital strategies and basics that every single company needs. And so all the show notes and everything I’m going to talk about detail here in this episode can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 85. This is episode number 185 here on the show. And we thank you guys so much for being faithful listeners and sharing this show with your friends. Now,
this is who this particular episode is for. This is for you. If you want to grow your list of leads, you’re either a new business or an established business. And here’s what you can expect in this show. We’re diving into the digital marketing and landing page basics, including the difference between a landing page and other pages on your website. What should be on your landing page to increase conversions.
I’m actually going to break down the anatomy of a landing page for you and why every company should have a landing page that, you know, works. This is again, if you are a new startup one man show, or if you have 25, 30, 50 hundreds of employees, you need to have a landing page that, you know, works.
Now a landing page is a standalone webpage, but we’re talking about the differences and the power of landing pages in today’s episode. And at the end of this show, you’re going to know the difference between a homepage and a landing page, how to use a landing page in your marketing and the anatomy of exactly what to include on your landing page to increase your sales conversions.
And so excited to share this show with you today. And as a bonus, if you haven’t yet cruise over, join us in our new sweet life entrepreneur in business, online community app. This is a last chance for you to join that app and have a free for life membership. It’s actually our brand new customized community we’ve built. We ditched Facebook groups and I could not be happier to be honest.
And so cruise over and join us totally for free and dive in. We do a lot of personal coaching in that app, and it’s a great place for you to network and grow your business. You can join us for free over there by visiting sweet life, community.com and register. Join us for free for life. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s business training podcast.<inaudible> Okay.
On today’s show, we’re talking about what is a landing page and why do you need one? So a landing page, again, is a standalone webpage created specifically for a digital marketing campaign. It’s where your visitor lands. After they click on an email you’ve sent out or an ad that you may have run maybe from Facebook ads, Instagram, LinkedIn, or just Google ad words.
And it’s a landing page that has only one job. The job of this page is to increase the rate of conversions from a prospect to an actual lead on your website so that you can market to them after that. So the whole entire purpose of a landing page is to collect someone’s contact information. And so I’m going to dive into today exactly how to do this and build this page to magically,
make this happen. So inside this show, we’re going to dive into all these digital marketing tactics that a lot of digital marketers know, but you don’t have to be a marketing expert to know this. As a matter of fact, as a business owner, it’s your job to know digital marketing basics like this, and then you can delegate it to somebody that totally loves to do this stuff,
which frankly I don’t. And I know you probably don’t either, but many businesses, when you start up, you got to do this on your own. And so I’m going to make sure you have the tools here in this show so that you can build successful landing pages that convert. So we’re going to dive in and break this up into three parts today.
We’re going to talk in part one, I’m going to break down the difference between a homepage and a landing page. In part two, I’m going to share how to use a landing page in your marketing. And in part three, I’m going to share with you the anatomy of what should be on your landing page. And then I’m also going to share some insider secrets about some really cool things about landing pages too,
that are going to be really helpful for you to know, and is an added bonus to this show. We love Kajabi. We use Kajabi for landing pages, so you can actually create a 28 day free Kajabi trial just by cruising over to April beach.com forward slash Kajabi at any time when you’re listening to this and sign up for a free 28 day trial with them so that you can build really super easy landing pages,
but let’s go ahead and dive in here to the actual strategy of doing it. All right. Cool. Okay. So part one, the difference between a homepage and a landing page. So typical web pages on your site, they have a lot of goals. There’s a lot of things to do. When somebody lands on your actual website and your website is going to tell them a story,
it’s going to introduce them to your company. It could give a list of your services. When somebody lands on a regular webpage, they’re going to see a bunch of other things going on your navigation, your foot or menu. So all the way across the top, the pages on your website, which are typically your homepage about your company, you might have a blog or articles.
You might have a services page and a contact page. People are going to see all these different things to do on your actual website page. And they expect that. And the reason why a landing page is different is because a landing page is designed with one goal in mind. And that goal is to convert prospects into leads. So when somebody lands on a regular webpage,
it can be slightly overwhelming, which we’ve recorded many podcast episodes here on the show. You can search it in our website about actually how to build high converting website pages, but there’s still many options with a landing page. It only has one goal. And that one job of that landing page is to convert prospects into leads. And so we do this on a landing page by giving them only one thing they can do a landing page,
doesn’t have a menu, it doesn’t have the footer menu. It doesn’t have all these cool different places. They could click a landing page only has one call to action. Only one thing they can do. Only one place. They can click only one thing for them to focus on. And it only has one message. It’s only about the execution of the one thing that you promised to them.
They’d get by going to that page, which we’re going to talk about that in a second and how to use it in your marketing, but the difference between a regular webpage and a landing pages, there is no navigation on the landing page. There are not a million different distractions that somebody can do. There is one very simple form for them to fill out and they’re either want to stay there and give you their contact information and receive what you are promising them or they don’t.
That is it. Okay. So that’s the difference between a regular website page and a landing page, some landing pages, you can scroll down a bit and we’re going to talk about the anatomy and what can be built on this page and a lot of great landing pages. It doesn’t even scroll what we call below the fold. Basically. There’s no place to scroll down to.
The only thing somebody sees is above what that is, is the fold on their computer, but landing pages can also convert really well when they are somewhat longer, not super long. You’re not trying to sell them a huge online program or trip to Disney world just a little bit longer. And again, we’ll dive into that here in part three. So to summarize the difference between a home page and a landing page is a landing page has zero navigation and only one call to action.
Okay. Heart to how to use a landing page in your marketing. So we use landing pages to give away something for free in exchange for a lead’s name, their email address, and maybe a little bit of other contact information, these assets, that thing you give away for free, they’re called lead magnets and rightfully so they magnetize leads to your business.
So it’s gotta be something awesome and great. You’re giving them away. You’re giving away for free in order to attract this lead to this landing page. And examples of lead magnets are PDFs, newsletter, signups documents, videos, tips, blueprints, and we have literally dozens of podcast episodes recorded on how to create good lead magnets and amazing assets. I’m not going to dive into that on today’s show.
So again, if you want to learn how to create great free assets bruise over to Sweetlife podcast.com and you can search all of our episodes for those free and amazing business trainings, but for the point of what we’re talking about here, we’re talking about how to use a landing page. We use the landing page in order to gather the lead in exchange for the asset,
the lead magnet you are giving away for free, and there are multiple different ways to actually use this landing page in your marketing. You can run ads to this landing page. You can hyperlink the link to this landing page from different assets. So you could have a QR code where somebody is going to scan. You could hand out a flyer and have a pretty link,
which we’ll talk about that in a minute or a clear link to your landing page that you want somebody to go to. So you can hyperlink to this page from another asset or a document you can link to your landing page in your social media header. So, great example of this is putting the link directly to your landing page in your Instagram business bio,
rather than sending somebody to your huge whole website, where they can, might get a little overwhelmed and lost. We know a lot of companies, and we’ve worked with a lot of companies with a strategy of putting the link to only your landing page and your Instagram business bio header for the one purpose of generating that lead, especially if you were using it in social media posts.
So if you’re putting out videos and you’re doing social media posts, particularly for Instagram, and you’re saying, go click on the link in our biography. Then you want to make sure that link in your biography is in fact, leading back to where you promise them to where they can get this really cool asset. So again, it’s great to use this link to this landing page in your Instagram or your other social media headers.
You can also use the link to this landing page and share it in email marketing. So if you’re sending out a blast email, maybe to people that are already on your email list, but you want to give them something else, or you want to gauge an interest for a new product or a new service you have, or maybe create a wait list for something you’re about to sell in the future.
You can create an email and send a link to a new landing page to those people on your list. A landing page is also really important to make sure you have, if you’re doing any events. So if you’re doing trade shows, if you’re at sporting events, if you are out and about, you want to make sure that you have a signup that’s available at your table or your booth,
that links directly to your landing page, not your whole entire webpage, because people are super busy using it just to directly link people to a landing page where they can very quickly follow their name and email address is a really important marketing strategy for you to grow your list from your hard work of being at that event. And then lastly, you also can use your landing pages in your marketing when you are speaking on stages or on podcasts or on interviews.
So if you were getting interviewed on this show, and I’m sure you’ve heard many guests here on this show before, and I’ll ask them so and so, where can people find you and where can people get what you’ve promised? You’re going to give them for free. They’re going to say the link to a landing page, not their whole entire website, because they want to capture your information to build a relationship with you.
So again, how to use landing pages in your marketing can be running ads to your landing page hyperlinking from established documents you have using your landing page link in the URL of your social media header in email marketing in social media posts, lead generation out events and speaking on stages podcasts or on interviews. Okay. Are you still with me? All right. Again,
all of the show notes and everything we’re talking about for this episode and the whole transcription of this episode is found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 85. So if you want to take notes and you’re on the go and you can’t just remember episode number 185, and you can get all of this over at our podcast website, okay. Now part three,
the anatomy of a landing page. This is actually what you should have on your landing page so that it converts really well. So the very first thing is you need to have a headline. This is a unique selling hook, and it’s the takeaway of what you’ve promised them. This is usually a catchy statement, but it also has to align with whatever marketing you use to get them there.
So if you told somebody, Hey, come over here and you can sign up to get a free bottle of water, but then they landed on this page and in you’re selling them sunscreen, it doesn’t connect, right? So make sure that the headline aligns with whatever marketing you’re doing to get them there. So it should be a super awesome hook. Yes,
I want to be on this page and they should actually be able to read your headline and just know right then that they want to give you their information. But beyond your headline, you should also have also include supporting copy. So this is usually a short paragraph or bullets to give extra information, including the benefits of what they’re about to get takeaways, maybe a small list of deliverables,
and basically what they can expect from giving you their information, because their information is very private. People are not apt just to throw around their email address anymore. Like they used to be. So you better be clear about why on earth. They should give you this. And you do that in the headline and in supporting copy. The third thing that should be on your landing page is telling a visual story.
So this can be done by sharing an image or a few different images or a video. So a short video is usually best, but here’s the deal you really need to get to the point. Now a year from now, I could be recording this same episode in the strategies might be different, but right now at the recording of this it’s summertime 2020.
If you’re going to put a video on your landing page, it’s gotta be short and to the point, and it has to back up what your headline says and what your supporting copy says. People do not have time, and they’re not going to sit there and watch a whole long video to decide whether or not they want to give you their name and email address.
But if you don’t want to do a video images work really, really well too. So make sure that the image tells a story about why they’re there or what they can expect from receiving the free thing that you’re giving them that lead magnet. You’re giving them an exchange for their name and email address. So that is number three, make sure your landing page tells a visual story.
Number four, and probably one of the most important things on this page. Now we’re talking about that one form. Your landing page has one call to action. This is one form. One thing for them to do one little place for them to fill out. There are no distractions. There are no menus. There is no navigation anywhere on this page.
You can have a copyright at the bottom of the page and based on what your industry says, have a terms and privacy policy on the footer of your page, but we’re not directing somebody to your blog or even your social media handles. We want to keep them here on this page. So the important thing with this form is you don’t want to ask for too much.
So a lot of businesses I work with, they get really excited about this form. The owner will say, well, we can ask them this and in their troubles here and where are they located? And Hey, let’s get their phone number too. That does not usually work 90% of the time. That is not going to work. Obviously, every industry is a little bit different,
but in the case that we’re talking about using this landing page and social media and digital marketing strategies, that’s usually not going to work. Okay. You want to not get totally overzealous and you don’t want to. I asked too many questions. You get to do that later. You get to build a relationship and find out more about your audience later. Right now,
the number one goal is to get their name and their email address. So you even have a chance to build a relationship with them and ask them more questions. If you asked too much upfront, it usually turns people away. And they’re like, there is no way I’m giving this strange company, all of this personal data on me, in some cases with some landing pages.
Now, a lot of companies are even avoiding asking their first name. They’re just asking for an email address. I still really think it’s important to ask somebody’s name because we need their name for you to have a relationship with them. That is a much more personal relationship in the future. But I will say that less is better on this particular landing page.
And then a fifth option of what you can add to this page is social proof. So this would be, these are comments from other clients that you’ve worked with before. People who have used your products, maybe photographs of other people who have used your product or you working face to face or in any other way with other customers that are happy. Social proof goes a really,
really long way. You know, every company is out there saying, Hey, we’re rad. We’re so great. We’re maybe even the best, buy my thing or get my free app set that I want to give you, but nothing confirms you’re good at what you do. Like having somebody else show and tell a new audience. And so having social proof on this landing page is a very important thing.
If you’re new in business and you don’t have that yet. No worries. It will come. So in summary, part three, the anatomy of your landing page, you need to have your headline is number one, your supporting copy is number two. Number three is your visual story. So what story are you telling through video and or photography? Number four is your one call to action form.
That’s it? One thing that you want them to do? The one action you want them to take when they visit this page, make it clear and simple, easy, and number five is social proof. And so this is the summary of what a landing page is and how to use it in your business. How to use it for digital marketing on today’s show.
We talked about the difference between a homepage or general website pages and a landing page. We talked about how to use a landing page in your marketing. And now, you know, if you didn’t before the anatomy of what is on a high converting landing page, and here’s a few here are, if you tool other things, I just wanted to share with you guys too.
So number one, if you have your Facebook pixel installed on your website correctly, and if you’re a listener to this show, then you should have that done. If you do not have that done, then again, go back to our podcast website and Google Facebook trainings and teach you how to do it here on the show. But if you have your Facebook pixel correctly installed on your website or the place where you’re building your landing page,
if it’s not included in your website and a visitor does not complete your form, say they land on your landing page, but they’re like, yeah, no, I don’t really think, I feel like giving April my email today. No worries. Because that Facebook pixel is installed. You can really target that viewer through future Facebook and Instagram ads or LinkedIn ads,
whatever type of ads you are running, as long as you have that pixel installed on this page. So that’s cool thing. Number one. All right. So don’t totally panic. If you aren’t converting, getting somebody to land on your page is also great and gives you huge leverage from a marketing digital marketing standpoint. Number two, one landing page done well can and should be used for future campaigns and generating ongoing leads.
So when you, as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, create one lead magnet that works really well, that you know is always going to generate you new leads. That’s our goal. You want to have one awesome rocking lead magnet. You might want to have 50 of them. That’s fine, but you can’t even have two, three, four or five until we do have one that we know is awesome.
And it’s doing the job by generating leads for you. So we start with one really good one. That’s the cornerstone of lead generation for you. When you do that, you only have to build this landing page once and you can run ongoing ads to it. So although it might seem like a bit of work to get this set up, and frankly it is,
even if you’re doing it on your own or subcontract in and out, it’s a bit of heavy lifting on a tech side to learn all this. But once you do this once, and once you have it in place, once you really shouldn’t have to do it again anytime soon. So that’s cool thing to note number two, and then cool thing to note.
Number three is when you get this link to your landing page, it’s probably going to be long and ugly. And based on where you build your website, you might, or you might not be able to actually edit that link. If you cannot edit that link, then I highly recommend you create what’s called a pretty link or a tiny URL or something that you can share.
So when you tell somebody verbally the name of your link, it’s memorable. So let me give you an example of this. We have a landing page, which I shared with you as a bonus in the beginning of this episode for you to go try out our very cool partner website host called Kajabi and get a 28 day free trial. We love Kajabi by the way.
And it’s our number one, go to that. We refer businesses to, to build amazing websites and landing pages, which is why we recommend them. And we use them ourselves. But if I were to say this link of where to go get it, it’s terrible, right? I can’t even regurgitate it now or even remember what the heck it is,
right? So we created what’s called a short, customized, or pretty link. And then we forwarded the short, customized, or pretty link to the ugly ass landing page link. And we did this through our own website. So the link I’m going to tell you to go to is April beach.com forward slash Kajabi. It’s K a J a B I super simple.
You’ll remember April beach.com forward slash Kajabi to go try out this great landing and webpage resource. That’s what I mean by creating a pretty link. For example, if I was up on a stage and talking about how to set up landing pages, I would go on that stage and I would say, Hey, and by the way, you can go to April beach.com
forward slash Kajabi to sign up for this free trial. It’s an easy thing to say verbally that people remember. So cool thing. Number three is make sure that you create a shortened easy to say, easy to remember link and have it redirect to your ugly ass landing page link, because that’s really going to help you be able to increase conversions from anywhere.
And it’s going to help people remember what your link is. If they didn’t have a chance to go to it, or they didn’t have a chance to write it down. So I just wanted to give you kind of those other insider tips when it comes to landing pages and here’s the deal. The summary of this whole show is digital marketing can be done on a huge scale.
It can be done on a small scale, but the first step in digital marketing is building this landing page and doing it well, I don’t care if you are a one man show, or if you have hundreds of employees, the best way to generate leads for your business so that you can build a relationship with them so that you can sell your services or products down the road is by building a great converting landing page.
That’s super simple and only has one call to action. And the best place to build this page is in your own website. So that each time you run a marketing campaign to it, and all of your hard work from social media posting and all of your marketing outreach is converting people back to your website, even though you don’t necessarily have the navigation on the page,
your still able to track the visitors to your site. There are a lot of different softwares out there that work really well, that just build landing pages. Our recommendation as a company is best practice is to have your landing pages built on your own website. And the easiest way to do that is building it through a website platform like to Jabi. And that’s why we recommend them and use them ourselves.
All right, you guys, I hope you found this incredibly beneficial. If you haven’t yet, we would really love for you to leave a review. It helps other listeners find this business training show that frankly, a lot of business strategists and companies charge thousands of dollars for the cumulative business trainings that I deliver and the experts that we are just so privileged to have on the show deliver for you as well.
So we really appreciate you listening again. All of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 85. You can try to build your landing page on your own through the 28 day trial@kajabibyvisitingaprilbeach.com forward slash Kajabi, and you are invited to join our exclusive online community app by visiting Sweetlife community.com. See there, I just gave you three very clear examples of pretty links that go to landing pages.
All right, you guys hope you’re having an awesome day and I will speak to you again next week. Thanks for being the listener here. Bye. For now
Entrepreneurs who want to create partnerships with other businesses, but aren’t sure how to approach them correctly. Getting eyes on your new business or product can be hard. This episode is for those who need an instant boost of fans and followers with a little help from(business) friends.
Summary:
One of the fastest ways to grow your business is by borrowing someone else’s’ audience. In this episode, April Beach delivers 3 proven strategies you can use to create winning partnerships with other businesses for mutual benefits. The more valuable you are as a partner, the more other companies will want to promote and work with you so how you pitch your company matters!
Highlights:
Have 4 strategies to choose from to pitch businesses for partnership
Know how to pitch, when and what to say
Discover the secrets we’ve used to have companies in over 13 countries promote us for free
Resources Mentioned:
Join the Live Stream with April Beach: “How To Create Winning Partnerships” July 16, 9am Pacific Time Click Here to Register
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey, and welcome back to the show. I’m April beach, love chatting with you. And today is really Kind of a part two episode of what we talked about last week. You are tuned into the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast,
and I know, especially now there are a trillion different podcasts that you could listen to. And I really love that you’re here hanging out with me. Thank you so much for that. I love helping you build your business. That is what the Sweetlife company, my company and my team. That is what we do. We’re dedicated to helping you launch and scale your business through digital marketing and online business strategies.
And this show continually now for 184 episodes gives you the steps to do that, that most business consulting firms charge thousands for. So I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in if this is your first time here. Thank you so much. Here is what you can expect from today’s show today. I’m going to download four different ways to land your dream business affiliates.
But before we dive into this today, I want to make sure that you’ve tuned into last week’s show. So episode number 183, I covered, you know, exactly how to pitch partners, the psychology behind pitching partners, really how to determine whether or not a business or an affiliate is actually good for you to partner with. And I gave you the pitch steps.
So if you didn’t actually tune in last week, just pause this episode and go back to episode number 183. And listen to that because what we’re talking about today is a followup to what we talked about last week. And these are a lot of important strategies to discuss. As a matter of fact, this is some of the work that I do with my private business clients that I helped develop their pitches and their relationships sometimes with really high profile brands that other companies can’t even begin to penetrate.
And so this is really important information, and I want to make sure that you are getting it and absorbing it, and you’re taking the steps so that you can go ahead and put it into action in your business. So again, if you didn’t listen to last, week’s please tune into last week’s. And this is what you can expect from today’s show.
So this particular episode is for those of you guys who want to create partnerships with other businesses, you aren’t exactly sure how to approach them correctly. So we covered a lot of the foundation last week, but today I’m giving you four different specific pitch strategies. So we’re really going to be driving into strategy today. So if you want to get eyes on your new business,
or if it’s time to scale your business, or if you’re launching new service or a new product, or if you want to reach a new audience, then these are great episodes for you to pay attention, to and to take these strategies. And here’s what you can expect from this show. So, first of all, here’s what we know. One of the fastest ways to grow your business is by borrowing someone else’s audience and love that statement.
I love that quote, my friend, Cathy Hawn, who’s an online world-class online marketer. She’s been here on the show. She says that she says the best way to grow your businesses, to borrow someone else’s audience. And she’s totally right. So in this show, I’m going to give you the strategies that you can use to create winning partnerships with other businesses,
for mutual benefits. And here’s what you need to know. The more value you are as a partner, the more other companies are going to want to promote you and work with you. And so how you pitch these companies is super important. You only get one shot at making an impression to show your value. And we want them to think, Oh shit,
like I have to work with this company. This company is going to make me look better. This company is going to make me make more money. Our audience is going to love us more because I’m partnering with whatever your company name is. And so that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. So the end of this episode, you’re going to have four strategies to choose from,
to pitch businesses that you want to partner with. You’re going to know how to pitch and exactly in what order, and you can figure out what your strength is in this area to move forward and pitch them strategically incorrectly the first time. And of course, I love giving you guys bonuses with these episodes, frankly, only you action takers and those of you that are really serious about growing your business in certain areas are the ones that actually take us up on these bonuses.
They are insane. So the bonuses that go with last week and this week’s episode is that I am teaching a live stream this Thursday, July 16th, totally free. And I’m taking your questions about partnerships. So I’m going to work with you and hear your questions and give you recommendations on strategies on how to reach out to your gold star partners. So companies that you want to partner with and the people that you want to promote your business and business affiliates.
So in order to get on that live stream totally free, you just need to join our new Sweetlife business community app. We have our own private community networking app. Super awesome. We just built it and you can join there for free by going to Sweetlife community.com. And once you join, you just click on events and you can register to join me in this Thursday’s live stream.
So we’d love to have you in there and very happy to help you build your business. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show strategies, all of the show notes from this episode and all the links that I mentioned in here can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one eight, four<inaudible>. Okay. So we’ve already established that you have to listen to last week’s episode.
If you haven’t, you aren’t even cheating. It’s just that what we’re talking about here, isn’t going to work as well, unless you’ve tuned into episode number 183, but the rule of thumb that you need to follow when pitching any company is you have to give first. So anytime you’re reaching out, we actually talk about this a lot on the show,
even outside of this specific context, but anytime you’re reaching out and you want to work with somebody, or you want to be part of what they’re doing, you always reach out by giving and you want to ask questions like, how can I help you? How can I help you serve your audience better? How can we support your goals as a business?
And again, we talked about that a lot in last week’s episode. So here in today’s episode, I’m not going to dive into that, but it’s important that you know, that those are the most important foundations for you to reach out first with. So you’re going to get four different pitch strategies here, and you can pick and choose which one you want.
And I promise you, we have not only used these strategies and both of my own companies. If you guys don’t know, I own two international business consulting firms and I have for 17 years, but this is what our clients use to land their dream business partners and affiliates. So you can definitely take what I’m telling you to the bank. All right.
So pitch option number one is to share great content for that desired partner to post. So here’s what we know. Content is King and great businesses are always looking for great content to deliver. So if you write excellent articles or if you make engaging videos, or if you create other types of content that can make that potential affiliate that you want to work with,
look awesome to their clients, do it totally do it. Content is one of the most powerful ways to create partnerships and connect with an audience. And so here’s some quick steps to do that. Number one, reach out with an Epic, original sample of your content that you want to share. So reach out, make sure it is really good, what you’re sharing with them.
And I want you to provide around three samples of your content. You can provide writing samples, you can provide video samples or audio samples. And when you’re reaching out, share with them, say, Hey, we have this great content. I would love for you to post it. This is original content, and here’s the most important thing here. It has to be original.
So this is something that you’ve never put on your own website. You’ve never shared across social media. You, especially with these gold star partners that you really want to work with, you want to provide them something original that can be found nowhere else, because that gives them a marketing advantage over their competitors. And it’s important for search engine optimization. So pitch number one is to share great content with your particular partners that you want to work with,
reach out to them and say, Hey, here you go. You’re invited to share this it’s original content. And obviously your company is going to get credit for the content. It’s actually a great way for you to be in front of your partner’s audience and they can see your face or hear your voice or read your writing. So that’s pitch option. Number one,
pitch option. Number two is to offer, to host an event for that particular affiliate companies are always looking to be the experts. So we, we all want to be seen as the leader in our space. So in this one, this type of pitch, you’re basically going to stroke their ego. And that gets really far in a lot of ways,
okay, this is business, it’s the truth. All right. So you can invite that potential partner to speak to your audience on a social media live stream in a video interview that you can host later and you can share with your audience, their content. So I know this isn’t going directly in front of their audience instead, you’re inviting them to come into your audience,
but it really does make them see you in the beginning of this relationship is a valuable resource and somebody that they want to work with. So you would invite that potential partner to speak to your audience and tell them that you’re going to be sharing this content with your audience and making sure that you’re tagging them when you’re sharing the content and you’re including them in it.
And here is like a gold star bonus. Nobody does this. You guys have to do this. I promise you it will be the advantage. It’s also one of the most important ways that one of our seals, our logo seals, and one of my first companies became internationally recognized. So here is the secret. Are you ready? Okay. Create a graphic logo.
It’s not your business logo necessarily, but create a version of a logo that your partner can use and share across social media. This logo could be an as seen on or as featured by your business name or proud partner of, and then your business name, whatever it is, create graphics for them to pimp out on their social media. Sorry, I just said pimp out hope that doesn’t offend somebody about on their social media put on their website.
And so they could beep up like as seen on kind of as if you were in our podcast. If you were on my podcast, you’d get a whole entire zipped up file of a ton of promo logos that you can use saying as seen or heard or featured on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. Same thing. I want you to do this for your desired business partners.
And the second secret bonus is to create done for them, social media graphics. So take their headshots, put that little logo on there and send back images to them so they can put it out on their Instagram stories and their LinkedIn content and wherever else they’re established on social media. So you’re literally doing all the work for them. You’re inviting them to come teach to your audience and not only is that great for them.
And they’re seeing you as a great potential partner to work with more in the future, but frankly it makes your business look really, really good, especially those of you guys who are new in business in the first couple of years, bringing in experts, bringing in partners, makes your business look like the GoTo. And it’s an important thing to do. So that is pitch.
Number two is to invite the partner to come in, to teach or to speak. And I gave you the gold star marketing strategies. After that pitch, number three is to teach for them. So this is identifying their needs, identifying maybe some of the things they aren’t delivering as far as content to their audience and reach out and offer to speak for them,
reach out and offer to teach. And you do this by sending them speaker one pager or immediate press or pitch pack. We’ve talked about this on numerous shows before. If you haven’t tuned into our shows on how to land any speaking gig that you want, then make sure after you’re done listening to this episode, all you have to do is cruise back to Sweetlife podcast.com
and you can search all of our shows for that particular content and find all the strategies that teach you how to do that as well. So here in pitch, number three, we’re going to establish you as the expert. So you want to reach out with a list of topics that you can teach to their audience. Again, you want to do the research.
You want to identify what you feel like their needs are maybe some weaknesses within their market. And you want to provide the solution to that. You want to fill that hole for them and offer to teach for them at no charge. This could be a live stream on their social media. This could be in an event. This could be just frankly, creating a video and letting them post it on their YouTube channel,
whatever it is, reach out and offer to deliver expert content for them. And then pitch number four is to collaborate, to create something new. This is when you reach out really authentically and just say, Hey, I’d love to discuss the opportunities to create something new together. It can be a new product. It can be a new service or an event.
It could be a live stream collaboration or an online summit. It could be even a local event. The sky’s the limit when it comes to collaborations. So let me give you a good example of a case study of this in real time. My other company, I own baby planner inc, is the international leader in business consulting and development strategy for companies that market to new and expecting moms.
And there is a company that we partner with that also offers business coaching for that niche. They train sleep coaches, and they really want to provide the business strategy of developing a company, but that isn’t their expertise. So we are working together to create a collaboration where we bring in our business development trainings for that niche market and their expert sleep certifications. And it’s a complete business package if you will,
for these types of professionals, again, super niche, super specific. And so when you’re thinking about what this could look like for you think along those lines, like what can you create with other businesses that reach the same audience, but they may be missing something that’s different for every single industry. I just wanted to give you a case study and an example of some of the ways that we do this and that we are currently doing this right now so that your wheels can be turning.
So again, we’re developing the business development coaching, and they’re developing the skill set coaching. If you have some sort of a collaboration like that, that you can do within your niche, do it find it that is pitch number four, a collaboration to create something new that has never existed, or that it’s never been as awesome as you and your new ability a business affiliate can make it together.
All right. So here’s a recap of four very specific ways that you can pitch to land your dream business affiliates. Number one is sharing great content for that affiliate to post. Number two is hosting an event and inviting that affiliate to come and teach for your audience with all of the seals and logos and marketing. Number three is teaching for them to their audience.
And number four is collaborating to create something new. Now, let me speak to those of you guys that are brand new in business so that we’re just talking about the elephant in the room. I know that you might not have a huge list yet. That’s okay. You want to find the partners that may also be new and create partnerships with newer companies or companies that are looking to expand,
or maybe at the same stage of business development as you are. If you are a brand new business and you’re reaching out and you want to partner with Proctor and gamble, that might be a little stretch at first. Is it doable? Yes. We’d done it with clients before. Yes. Using these same four strategies. So go big, go for it.
But I also want to say, if you’re not really sure about what sort of collaborations you want for your company, maybe starting out with a business it’s in the same development phase or a little bit ahead of where your company is, is a great place to start. Okay. So that’s today’s episode. I hope you found this incredibly informative and taking action on it right now.
So to take action, choose which collaboration method you think is going to work best for your company to start and identify three top business affiliates that you want to reach out to right now to develop this relationship again, choose your pitch and choose three different affiliates that you can reach out to. And you can develop this collaboration. And the goal is to borrow their audience to grow yours.
It’s absolutely synergistic. It’s perfect for both businesses in giving and building mutually beneficial business partnerships and brand collaborations is really the way businesses are going to grow in the future. And this is a way to get started in that. Thank you so much for tuning into this show. I love chatting with you guys. If you haven’t yet, I would really appreciate it.
If you cruise over to Apple podcasts and left us a review, we read them all the time and along those lines, I just wanted to give a special thanks to a podcast reviewer, Terry Schmidt. Thank you so much. She said it’s practical, relevant, no nonsense podcast. April is extremely generous with the amount of detailed time-tested business advice that she gives on each podcast.
She’s very clear on who can benefit from each training and delivers the content in a way that makes it easy to take action right away. If you’re an entrepreneur working to launch scale and grow your business online and appreciate down to earth and relevant advice, I highly recommend this podcast. Thank you so much, Terry, for that review. And we really do appreciate all the reviews and sharing this podcast with your friends.
You can just click up arrow as you’re listening to this show and share it on your Instagram stories. And especially if you’re listening to it on Spotify, we are on every single podcast platform, even Pandora now, which apparently you really don’t listen to Pandora unless you’re over 40 like me, but I love Pandora. So it was really, it was really exciting for me when we got on Pandora a few years ago.
So I appreciate your time. I hope you guys have an awesome week. It’s always great to pour into your business. It’s such a privilege to do so, and we’ll catch you next week. Again. Join me for the live stream this Thursday, July 16th. If you want personalized business strategy and help to create your partner pitch to get in there, you just go to Sweetlife community.com.
Join our online community app and you will find the invitation to join us. Live this Thursday. All right, you guys have an awesome week. Talk to you soon.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
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Episode Bonuses:
Join the SweetLife Entrepreneur & Business Community App(free for life when you join in July 2020)Live Stream July 16 – How to Create Winning Partnerships – Join our new online community app for free to attend.
Who This Episode is Great For:
New businesses – Stage 2 – Launch – Looking for affiliate and companies to network and partner with.
Establishes Companies – Stages 3, 4, 5 – Who need fresh eyes and buzz on a new product or offer to who are looking to expand into a new market.
Summary:
When was the last time you pitched a partner and landed it? Fact is… most companies don’t have the time to pay attention to your attempts to work with them, offer your support, or to simply connect professionally. But you need healthy partnerships to grow your business, brand, and sales and you only want to work with the best. So what should you do?
To land the best business affiliates you need to say the right things, approach them on the right way and present your business as an asset they can’t live without. In this show, I’m breaking down 3 tips to plan, pitch, and land any partner you want. These are the same proven strategies I’ve been teaching since 2008 which landed me partnerships with brands like WholeFoods Market, TheBump.com, Patagonia, Britax, Women’s Entertainment Network, and more.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life. You love FASTA with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome back to the show this week, we’re diving into how to create amazing partnerships for your business and amazing affiliate relationships. And the reason why I was so excited to do this episode is because I get questions all the time from businesses in my community.
How do I pitch people? How do I work with this gold star partner? Or how do I get this company to promote my material or my content, or how do I partner with this business leader? And there are very specific ways in which you should be reaching out to certain partners to get what you want. So in this show specifically, this is for those of you guys who are new in business.
So this means you’re in stage two of my lifestyle business system. That’s where you’re still just launching your business, but you’re looking for affiliate partners and companies to network with that are really going to help you get your company off the ground. Or this is also for those of you guys who are in stages three, four or five of my lifestyle business growth system.
This means you probably have a new product that you want fresh eyes on, or you want new buzz around new services that you’re launching, or maybe even you just want to start pivoting into a new market. And so you are looking for brands and partners to reach out to that you can work with. There are mutually beneficial partnerships. So in today’s episode,
we are diving into all of those things. And you’re going to know all the tricks in how I was able to land amazing partnerships in my first company I ever launched. As a matter of fact, the strategies that I’m teaching to you here today are the same proven strategies that I’ve been teaching since 2008. And they have landed me partnerships with brands like whole foods market,
the bump.com, Patagonia, bright techs, women’s entertainment network and more. So this show is totally packed with amazing information that you can bank on. And at the end of this episode, you’re going to know who will make the best business partners for your company, just because they might look good when you first reach out to them, doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to be the best partner for you.
So I’m going to talk you through how to figure out who’s going to be the best partner for your business. You’re also going to know how to make a plan to work with them because it’s important that you’re organized. And you’re going to know exactly what to say to them, to close your affiliate or business partnership deal. So if you’re ready for that,
we’re going to dive in to all of that. Right now, you can find all the show notes, everything that I’m chatting about on today’s Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast, by cruising over to sweet life podcast.com forward slash one 83. And if you and I have never spoken before, it’s nice to meet you. My name’s April beach, I’m an online business development expert,
and I am so glad that you were here. Let’s do it.<inaudible>. So when was the last time you actually reached out to a partner in landed it, or have you never done this before? Because you have no idea how to even approach a company that you want your business to work with. So the fact of the matter is, is most companies,
they really don’t have time to pay any attention to you. You know, companies aren’t out there begging for different companies to partner with, especially those that are leading the way in their industry. And so sometimes your attempts to have them pay attention to you, just because you want to offer them support, or you want to simply connect with them. Professionally are falling to the wayside,
frankly, they’re too freaking busy, right? And you get that. I get that time is more valuable than money, but you need these healthy partnerships to grow your business. Some of you guys listening have to have these partnerships because you can’t, in fact, even sell your products or services without them, or you’re going to end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in marketing,
which you don’t need to do as long as you can lay into the right partners. So how do you do this? Let’s go ahead and break it down. And I’m actually going to give you the four steps. Now, there are a lot of notes in here, and I know that you’re probably driving your car to work, or you’re at the gym or you’re cooking dinner or whatever it is that you’re doing when you’re listening to this show.
And you probably don’t have a piece of paper and a pen in front of you. This is one of those shows that it would be really beneficial if you could jot down some notes so that you remember, because I’m actually giving you step-by-step, that’s going to save you years of time. So if you’re too busy and if you have yet to join us yet in our new sweet life entrepreneur and small business owner,
online forum, we’re super excited about it. We just launched a brand new custom app for you guys to connect with other businesses and you can join us free right now during the month of July, by visiting sweet life, community.com. And I’m going to actually drop in the show notes from this episode into that community. So if you’re too busy and you’re just like,
your life is like mine, and we’re always running around like crazy, then cruise over and join Sweetlife community.com. As long as you join in July, it’s free for life. And I’m going to drop these show notes in there for you. On top of that, with this episode, before I dive into any more detail, I’m also teaching a free livestream business strategy session on how to create winning partnerships on July 16th in that community.
So join that community. You’ll get to join the live stream. Plus you’ll get all the show notes from this episode, but let me go ahead and break the four steps for you to get started right now. So I can give you immediate result right away. So one is to do your research now, just because you think a partner may be a good partner,
doesn’t mean that they actually, well, here are the things that you want to look for when you are looking for really great affiliates or partnerships. The first question you want to ask yourself as do they reach your ideal audience. So a lot of times you might look at a partner and think that they do, but here is how to know your audience has a lifespan.
They have a journey that they’re going through in your business, just like other businesses usually serve a clientele within a certain part of their journey. Now you want to look for partners that serve your clientele, your customers, before they need your service or your product or your offer. The perfect partner is the one that is reaching your clients right before your clients are going to need what you sell.
There are a lot of great partnerships that you think just because they serve the same market or the same niche audience, that they might be cool people for you to work with. But the fact of the matter is, is, you know, I only want to identify who they serve. You want to identify when they serve your ideal audience. So do your research first,
dive in, find out when they connect with your audience, because you want to be the very next step to what that audience needs and the best partners are the ones that get to your ideal client and promote your services right before your clients. I need to find you. So that’s step number one, step number two is what is this company or what is this partner missing?
So what are the things that their clients want that they don’t currently provide? What do they not provide as far as content? Or what sort of service are they not currently providing? Or what sort of service or content or material, or perhaps products are currently providing, but frankly they’re doing it just cause they have to, it, isn’t something that’s part of their ideal business operations.
They’ve identified that they’re missing it. So they’re doing it, but maybe they aren’t really great at it. Maybe it’s not their, you know, Ninja skill. Maybe it’s not their specific zone of genius. So what is this partner missing? What does it not do for their clients currently that could make this partnership even better by you stepping in and providing it,
or what are they currently providing to the clients that maybe they don’t want to be. Maybe it’s costing them more money to provide this type of a service. And this is a great opportunity for you to either Jennifer these items in step in and save the day. What do you have that could make them look better, be better at what they do perform their services better and actually be an overall perfect provider to their clientele.
So here’s some examples of this. If you’re a dietitian, you could be an amazing partner for a supplement company. If you’re a copywriter, you could be an amazing partner for a marketing firm. If you’re a doula, you could be an amazing partner for a baby carrier company. If you’re a staffing company, you could be an amazing partner for a service based business and the list goes on and on.
So after you’ve done your research, take a look at the partners before you pitch them and identify what are they missing or what are they doing that maybe they don’t want to be doing? Maybe they don’t do as well as you could do. And how can you make them look like the best by bringing your services or your content or your materials to their business platform or their physical local business location.
Step number three is making a plan like we talked about in the beginning. Everybody’s incredibly busy if you show up and you’re all frazzled and you don’t have a plan, they are never, ever, ever going to take two seconds to listen to you because immediately they’ll identify that working with you is going to cost them time and money. So you need to have an organized plan and you need to be easy to work with.
And here’s how you do that. First of all, get your systems in place, whatever it is that you’re delivering or providing have systems in place already, that you are able to bring that to this new company. You don’t want to start out by trying new systems in a new partnership. That’s going to fail and it’s not going to be great for your brand.
And we don’t want you to present yourself and have that sort of business brand partnership, rep representation or reputation. So, first of all, we want to make sure you’re super easy to work with and your systems are in place. And then you want to present a plan for how you’re going to contribute or work with this partner. So how will you contribute your content or your services?
When will you do that? And what will this look like? You need to come to the table with a simple plan. That is not only easy for the person you’re speaking to to understand, but it’s easy for that person to present your plan to the decision maker. In most cases, the first person that you talk to in a business to partner with them,
isn’t the decision maker who gets to actually choose whether or not they’re going to partner with your company. So you have to present a simple, organized plan so that the first connection you have can easily explain the benefits of working with you and how it’s going to make them more money and how it’s going to make them look better to the decision maker. But in that you need to offer to amend your plan and you need to be willing to,
to all their needs. So you can suggest specifics on how you can work together. That’s simple to understand and easy to implement based on what they need. So although you’re coming to the table with a plan, that’s going to make you look like a rock star. Believe me, trust me. You’re coming to the table with the plan. You’re saying,
here’s what we can do. This is what it could look like. And this is how we want to help you. But the very next thing you’re going to say is, however, I want to hear what you need. What does your company need and how can we meet those needs for you? And you need to be a really good listener. And at that point in time,
you might want to go back, modify your plan and re, present your plan to them again, after you’ve listened and have to, after you’ve been able to perfectly hear their words and their struggles and their pains and figure out how your company can solve that. So that’s step number three. You have to have a plan. You have to be super organized and you have to be a good listener and be willing to change your plan based on what they need.
And then the very last step is more like a rule, but it’s incredibly important. Anytime you reach out to any partner, you have to understand that it’s not about you. It has absolutely nothing to do with you and your company. You need to reach out with a servant’s heart. You need to reach out giving first. You need to reach out in a way that you have zero expectations for how it’s going to turn around and promote your company immediately.
Especially if you are a new business. Now, I’m not saying you give everything away for free and you’ll be a martyr to this company, but it really has little to do with you. It is a mutually beneficial brand or affiliate partnership that works for both of you. And you need to start first by reaching out and presenting how you can give, let me give you a really quick scenario of this.
People reach out to me all the time and they want to be on this podcast all the time. I mean, I have so many applications for guests on this show. You guys, I can’t even get through them all. And the reality is is that the people that reach out, they send us emails or they go through the application process. And it’s clearly about promoting their business,
their brand, their services, their offers, and their sales. I mean, shit. I don’t even sell my own coaching programs on here hardly ever. This is a show where we are pouring into entrepreneurs and small business owners. It’s not about a show where you pimp out your services. And so those people that reach out and they want to be guests on this show that pitch us like,
Hey, I want to promote this. And I want to share what a great coach I am or whatever. They immediately go in the trash because it’s clear to us that they aren’t about serving you guys it’s clear to us. So they aren’t about providing proven business strategies and trainings that you guys can take to the bank. And that’s our mission. That’s what we do here on this show.
We’re a serving first company and that comes through in every single one of our podcast episodes. And so the same thing goes to reaching out to any business partner, even though yes, from a business strategy standpoint, we want you to create amazing partnerships. You can increase your profit and sales and you can be the leader in your space. Of course, we’re going to want you to make more money.
That is the point of making partnerships. However, when you lead with a giving first attitude with a servant’s heart, with these type of ways and saying, Hey, how can I help you? How can I make your company look better? How can we fill holes that are bottlenecks within your business? That’s how you’re going to land any partnership that you want that is looking for partners.
So to summarize, here’s what we talked about on today’s show. First of all, I mentioned to you join our live stream on July 16th, where we’re going to be talking about all this, and I’m going to be taking your questions on how to pitch your dream business partners. You can join us. Step. Number one is join our online forum and our community totally free.
You can just visit Sweetlife community.com, join our forum for free and then click on events and you can join me there in the live stream. I would love to talk to you and help you. And I will put all the show notes. So we talked about in the show notes for this episode on our podcast website, which can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash one 83.
And I’m also going to put detailed show notes of what we talked about in the forums. You have to be in the community to get all the detailed show notes, again, visit Sweetlife community.com. And on today’s show, we talked about these four steps. Number one, do your research, not every partner that looks great on paper is a great partner for you.
Number two, find out what they’re missing. How can you make what they do better, faster, easier. How can you make them more money? When you make them more money, you’re gonna make more money. Step number three, make a plan, be organized, present yourself in an organized fashion, but also be willing to listen and amend your plan to meet their needs.
And step number four is to be selfless. I don’t care how big your company is, whether you’re a solo entrepreneur and you’re just one person, or you have a team of 15 or 20 every single time you lead with helping others. First, your company is going to grow faster. I promise. All right, you guys, well, it’s always so great to talk to you again,
cruise over and join us in our new online community app and forum. I am so glad to be out of Facebook. And so I’d love to have you join us in our new app. It’s super fun to play with, and it’s been great to see so many new podcast fans and faces join us over@sweetlifecommunity.com. And then next week we’re actually going to be continuing this same topic where I’m going to give you three specific pitches,
three specific things that you can do to reach out to pitch and land partners. So we’re going to be talking about this for a couple of weeks. If you aren’t a subscriber to this show, please click, subscribe and share this show with your friends. We totally appreciate your help and support. All right, you guys have an awesome week and I’ll see you soon.
Established businesses who want to know if you should create an online community.
Summary:
Groups are all the rage. Facebook groups, LinkedIn Groups, Slack Channels and more. And you might be wondering if you should create a“group” for your followers, fans and clients. In this episode, we’re talking about the three most common types of groups, what companies these groups are ideal for as well as steps to get started with launching a community group for your company.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know if your company should launch an online community
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate, everybody. And welcome back to episode number 182 of the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. Today, we’re talking about whether or not your company should be launching an online community or an online group of some kind.
And so we’re going to dig into this here just in a minute, but I wanted to say, thanks so much for being here and tuning into this show. All of our episodes here are about helping you build a profitable business so that you can live life on your terms for some of you guys and might just be spending more time with your kids or working remotely or traveling everybody’s dream is different,
but the business strategies that we deliver here on this show give you step by step actions every single week for the last three and a half years to make that happen. And so I love that you’re here. My name’s April beach. If we have not met each other before now, all the show notes from today’s episode in everything that we’re going to talk about can be found by going to a quick link over at our podcast website.
That is Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one eight two. This is episode number 182. And again, we are talking about, should your company launch an online community or group? And this particular show is for those of you guys who are in phases three, four or five of my lifestyle, business roadmap. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, I’m the creator of the lifestyle business roadmap.
There are actually five phases to design, launch, and scale a business to deliver that life that you want. And so you can cruise over to Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz, and just answer a couple of really quick questions and you’re going to get the whole entire roadmap. It’s actually a map that you’ll receive plus exactly what you should be working on right now in your business and a checklist to get your business to the next growth stage.
Again, you can find that quiz over@sweetlifecode.com forward slash quiz. And this show is geared towards those of you guys who are in stages three, four or five. Okay? So on this show, again, we’re diving into those of you who want to know if you should be creating an online community. And here’s the deal we’re talking about this because communities and groups are all the rage,
Facebook groups, LinkedIn groups, Slack channels, and more, and you might be wondering, you know, should we be creating a group for our people, for our followers? Do our fans need a group? Do our clients need a place to connect? Why on earth would we do that? So in this episode, we’re talking about the three most common types of groups,
what companies these groups are ideal for as well as I’m giving you the steps to launch a group community so that you can get going right away. If after listening, you realize this is a good move for you. The reality is a lot of companies launch groups, just because everybody else is doing it. And that’s stupid, right? That’s a waste of time and money.
If it doesn’t strategically fit into what you were doing as a company. So at the end of this episode, you’re going to know the three most common types of groups. These are free groups that businesses launch what types of business each group is good for. And you’re going to have the five steps to get started launching your group community. Okay. All the show notes can be found@sweetlifecode.com
forward slash one 82. Let’s go<inaudible>. Okay. So digging in here immediately, let’s talk about the common types of free groups that are being launched and really what we’re seeing with digital marketing and online relationship building right now. So the first type of group that you may want to consider launching as a free group for your fans or your followers, this is really good for those of you who have a podcast or you’re another media outlet,
or you yourself are a personal brand or a public figure. So it could be a fan group. It could be a place for people to connect and talk about some of the content that you are releasing. And it’s a free group for people just to connect basically because they really like you. And that’s maybe a good opportunity for you as a company, if you haven’t started a group yet.
So that first group is that fan group or that follower group. And that could potentially be a great fit for you. The second most common type of group is a free group for your clients. So this is actually for paying clients, clients that are paying you, but it would be creating a group for people who are paying you to connect. It’s an added value or an added bonus,
along with your services or your product that you sell to them. So it could be creating a free group for somebody to talk about your nutrition product, or somebody to talk about your vacation resort or whatever it may be. It’s a free group for those people who are already consuming your product or your services. And it gives them a great way to connect with one another share stories and maybe even help each other navigate through some of the resources that your company provides.
And then the third type of free group is a group to generate new leads. Now, this is an ideal group, but only for certain businesses. Okay? So what this group is it, the purpose of it is to create a group, to bring new people in that might not be using your service. They might not be using your product. They might have actually even heard of you before.
So this type of group it’s free for them, but it’s certainly going to cost you money in order to grow this type of a community, you’re going to want to run ads to it. And you’re going to want to put money behind it. Maybe even bring in some sort of affiliate partners and have other people filter new leads into your group. The purpose of this is to then have an opportunity to talk with them,
connect with them one on one in turn them from what we call a cold audience that has no idea who you are, but they may be interested in what you do into a warm audience who is then interested in what you do and they know who you are, and they’re starting to trust you. So that’s the third type of a group. And really the recommendation behind it is you need to have some money to put behind it because we are trying to convert a cold audience into a warm group of people that know like,
and trust you. And that does take money to do it in an expedited fashion. So the three types of groups we talked about are number one, this free group, for those of you guys who are again, a, uh, social media, public figure podcast, or any of media outlets, that’s going to be a fan group that could be a great fit for you.
Second type of group is for those of you guys, you could be a private business or a private, even service company of some sort. And you’re connecting people who are already your clients with each other in order so that they can build relationships and get really excited about what you do and what you sell. And then that third type of group is a cold lead generation group that you need to have money behind it in order to generate new leads into your business.
So hopefully that gives you kind of a clear understanding of that. The different types of groups that are available in the reality is, is that there are tons of paid groups. We’re not talking about this on this podcast. We’re talking about free community groups and really helping you get clarity as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, perhaps you’re even leading a division within your corporation.
And you’re listening here and you’re wondering, wow, you know, should we have a group? Hopefully this gives you a little bit more clarity on that. Now let’s talk about the five different steps to get started. If you’ve decided, Hey, yeah, maybe we should dive into this. Here you go. I’m going to make it really simple for you.
This is super high level, but these are rarely important things to make sure that your time and your assets are used wisely. So step number one is you have to start with why we all love Simon Sinek. We all know that the start with why theory almost all entrepreneurs do, and it is so important. And so I’m not just saying this because everybody else says it.
I want you to dive into these four specifics. Number one, you need to have a clear purpose and objective for your group. Okay? So what is the purpose behind what you’re doing? Why on earth are you actually launching this community or this group? Number two? What can people expect from your group? When somebody joins your group? What’s the experience that you’re going to give them or the content that you are going to give them when they jump in there and they take their precious time,
which in my opinion is more valuable than money, then what’s going to happen. What can they expect from being part of your group or your community? The third thing you need to be able to answer is why should people join your community? What is in it for them? Why is your community different than other communities? Why should they go ahead and click the button to spend some time with you or to connect with your other customers or leads or fans over being somewhere else.
And then the last question, these are four questions underneath bullet point. Number one, which is start with why this last question is, what does success look like for your company? You know, when you’re hosting a group, what do you want out of this? Are you looking for sales conversions? If so, how many people in your free group do you expect to convert into paying clients?
What is that conversion that you expect for spending your time and your resources on creating and managing this community? Or are you looking to actually hit certain sales benchmarks? So from this community, are you expecting to increase your sales by $10,000 every couple of weeks or months because of the people that are in this community, or are you very simply just looking to grow your list of leads?
Having a live interactive leads list is a very powerful asset for a company. Even if you aren’t going to sell to them right now, even if maybe you aren’t even ready to convert them into paying clients, having an interactive leads list with the names and the email addresses and contact information is a huge asset to a business, especially those of you who want to build companies to sell.
So number one is, start with why what’s the purpose behind this community? What can people expect? Why on earth should they be joining your community over other communities? And what does success look like to your company for hosting this group? That is number one, please answer those four questions. And as you go through, you’re going to have even more questions for yourself,
which is a great part of business development. Okay. Step number two is what content are you delivering? What are you sharing with them? What is the value they are getting? Or what doors perhaps are you opening for them within your community or within your online group? What discounts, what sneak peaks or new releases or bonuses, what does that look like?
What do you want to give people in your group so that they know that they’re special and that they know that they’re appreciated for being part of that community? Number three is how frequently are you going to share this content or these assets with your group? How frequently are you going to be in there? Or is somebody going to be in there actually talking with them or delivering live videos or recorded videos?
How frequently are you dropping content into your community? Number four is who’s going to manage your community. If you’re a solo entrepreneur, you’re doing all the things right now, but you have to be able to build systems. You can delegate, you can grow your company. If you are a small business. And, you know, you have anywhere from five to 15 employees,
who’s in charge of building the relationships and nurturing the relationships within your community. Do you need to hire somebody for that? Should you hire a virtual assistant or do you have somebody on your team that you can delegate this to, or do you have to be present yourself as the CEO or as the COO or whatever your title is? Is that a necessary part?
And if so, how often do you want a need to be present within your community? And then the fifth question you’re going to want to answer your for yourself is what platform are you going to use? Again, I could record a podcast on each one of these platforms and we’ll dive in a little bit with some more details here after I summarize what we’ve just talked about on the show,
but really high level, the most common platforms that you can choose from are mighty networks, which all go on a little mighty network tangent here in just a sec. So mighty networks, LinkedIn groups, disciple media, or a Facebook group. Those are the most common group platforms I also could add into their Slack channel. Slack channels are getting really popular.
So let’s go ahead and throw Slack channels in there as well. I know many of you use them just to communicate with colleagues and I mean, there’s so many other platforms, but these are really that the highest level, most common platforms that are currently being used to host online communities and groups. So let’s go ahead and let me do a summary and recap for you.
If based on the types of free groups we talked about in the beginning of this show, you’re like, yes, I want to do this. Here are your five steps. Number one, start with why, why are you creating this community? Number two, what content are you going to deliver? Number three, how frequently are you going to deliver that content?
Number four, who’s going to manage your group. And number five, what platform are you going to create and launch your group in? Okay. I hope you guys found that incredibly helpful. I want to save you time and figuring this stuff out on your own and the purpose of this. And actually all of our podcast episodes is to save you time so that you can intentionally and strategically grow your business and make more money faster.
If you want to dive in more, all of the show notes that I talked about again, can be found in the show notes section of our business, which is found@sweetlifepodcast.com. And the episode that we’re on is number 182. So it’s Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one eight two. Okay. Now let me give you this little post discussion about platforms, those of you guys who listened to last week show,
no that I’ve hosted Facebook communities for years. I can’t even count how many years. It’s at least six years. I think it’s seven. It’s been a long time. And because of Facebook security issues, our account was hacked. Anyway, we lost all access to our communities. And this has just happened so many times. And as a company, I was just becoming concerned about continuing to have my groups in a platform that has been difficult to say the least.
And I want you to know this. However, it doesn’t mean, I don’t think that you should. I just have this gift of killing Facebook. Somehow you guys just keep are really real with you. Facebook and April beach do not get along. And we’ve had multiple issues over the years. So I’m not saying it’s not a great platform for anybody else.
I’m just saying it didn’t work for us. So we did tons of research. I also hosted LinkedIn groups in the past, and I am so excited to announce that we have created our own custom community app and group in a network called mighty hosts. It’s absolutely amazing. And we have hundreds of businesses just in the last 24 hours who have joined us over there.
It’s super cool. You guys, I’m going to geek out and I’ll be really honest with you, you know, mighty networks and mighty house. They aren’t, I’m not an affiliate of theirs. They aren’t paying me to tell you about this platform. It’s just been really amazing. Is it perfect? No, but it is definitely something I want to share with you as a business owner,
that we’re very happy transitioning to this platform. And I know that so many people in our new community have asked me to talk about this within the last 24 hours of joining. And so this little blurb here is for those of you guys in my business community, because I promised you I would talk about mighty networks. And so if you would like to over and join us in mighty networks,
this is a place where you can network with other business owners. So you get to create your own profile, your own business links, your own social media links, and even write a blurb about your company. It’s a very cool platform to grow your relationships with other businesses and potential leads. Number one, number two, we are releasing high level business masterclasses to our community.
We love this platform and we’re doing it here and it’s all totally free for a limited time. It’s going to be free forever, but you have to join us during this opening time as we transition over to mighty networks. So as long as you join in the month of July, you are going to get into our business community totally free and be able to play around with it and download the app.
And so this is my official invitation to you. If you would like to join the Sweetlife entrepreneur and small business hub in our custom app, you can totally do it, no strings attached and connect with us for free, just cruise over to sweet life, community.com. And you’ll be sent the link to register and to create your business profile and to get in there and just devour all of this crazy good free business information that is worth thousands.
And so I would love to meet with you and connect with you over there. The other cool thing we’re doing about this, and this is my last little tangent is all of the bonuses that come with our podcast episode. We are putting there in the podcast topic of our app. So no more opting in, no more having to fill out a stupid opt in form,
you know, especially when you’re already on our email list in order to download workshops and tools and templates and blueprints and worksheets, I’m just giving them to you so you can download directly to your computer and our community network. Isn’t that cool. Basically, I create what I want for myself. And so that’s what we’ve created for you. So again, you can join us by visiting Sweetlife community.com
right now. Thank you guys so much for listening to the show. I always appreciate your time. I know how valuable it is and all of the show notes. One last time, including a link to join us in our new app can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com slash one 82 Awesome week. Bye for now.
Those who are experts in your space, excel in your chosen area of specialty, and you need more eyes on your business, service, or product.
Summary:
You’re really good at what you do, but oftentimes you feel like the best-kept secret. A handful of people know your worth, but not enough to get the credibility you need to reach the profit and business growth you want.
In this show, you’ll learn 4 simple steps to start the process of establishing your expertise that every entrepreneur should have completed regardless of business phase or growth level.
Highlights:
Know how to create your media PR plan
Know what you need to have on your website to look like an expert
Know the 4 simple steps you can complete this week to bring your message to the masses
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Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Are you guys, and welcome to episode number 181 of the sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, really H and I’m super glad that you’re here, especially if you were in the place in your business where you’re really good at what you do,
but very few people know it, and we need to get you more exposure in front of the right audiences to make sure everybody knows how great you are, so that you can increase clients, increase profit and establish yourself as a leader. So that’s what we’re going to dive into in today’s show. If you’ve never listened to this podcast, before we deliver a business trainings and strategies that are proven and tested from my over 24 years of business development coaching and the expertise of our guests that come here on the show.
So everything that we give you is trusted and you can take it to the bank. And I’m so glad that you are here. All of the show notes that we have. So I’ll give you a bunch of different resources to help you implement today’s business trainings. All of the show notes can be found by visiting and Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 81. And if you stick to the end of this show,
I’m going to actually share a story with you about a technology nightmare that happened so that I can help you avoid that. I was actually thinking about doing a whole separate show regarding kind of a tech nightmare, but instead, I’m just going to do it as a little bonus. At the end of this episode, this tech nightmare actually occurred with Facebook. And it’s just a little bit of a warning that if you do business on Facebook,
even though it’s not necessarily related to the topic we’re talking about, I want to, I want to make sure I’m sharing some mornings with you from business owner to business owner regarding that platform that has been coming up recently. So that’ll be the end of this episode after the training, but let’s go ahead and dive into what we’re talking about here today. So today’s show is for those of you guys who are experts in your space,
or you super Excel at whatever your chosen area is, whatever your skill is, whether you’re a consultant or a coach or a service provider, you Excel at what you do, but you need more eyes on your business. And very few people or not enough people know how great you are because you know, if they did, then your sales would be increasing.
So I’m going to give you four steps to actually establish yourself as an expert on today’s show. So this is for those of you guys. So you’re really good at what you do, but oftentimes you feel like you’re that best kept secret. And you want to know what you can do this week. So action steps you can take right now this week to get your voice established as a leader in your space so that more people can about your company.
That’s what I’m going to go ahead and teach you on today’s show. I’m so glad that you’re here. Let’s go ahead and dive in together.<inaudible> Okay. You guys. So there are a couple of different ways we can establish you as an expert. Certainly there’s like a pay to play way. We aren’t diving into that. Everything I’m teaching you on today’s show is a business strategy that is totally free.
All right, I’m not going to say, Hey, do this and then go spend a thousand dollars. No everything I’m delivering are strategies. You can do yourself. You can delegate to a team member. You can hire a VA to do. And they’re really important things. And regardless of your business development phase. So regardless of you’re in the launch phase,
or if you’re in the growth or scale phase, all of you guys should have these things in place. So let’s go ahead and get started. And I can tell you what to do. First of all, step number one, I want you to create what is called a media kit. Now a media kit is something that really shows off how amazing you are.
A media kit is usually a PDF that’s designed with multiple pages that introduces media outlets, writers, journalists, and other people to who you are and why you’re amazing in one of the most important things you need to remember when you are creating this media kit, is that nobody is looking for you. I mean, I’m just going to keep it really real.
No media outlet is out there going, Oh my gosh, I need to find April beach. You know, no they’re looking for anybody who can create or share or speak to content that their listeners or their viewers or their readers want. So as you’re creating your media kit, this is a mistake that a lot of businesses make a lot of businesses, make it all about them.
Like I am this and I’m that. And I do all these things. And although your media kit does establish you as an expert, the most important thing to talk about in the beginning of your media kit is what does your expertise or your area of wisdom or skill do for the media outlets, users, or viewers, or listeners or readers. So what do you have that they want to share with their audience?
What are they lacking? What could they use more of? What does our audience want? So on the very first page of your media kit, you might want to include some imagery and some photography, especially if you’re like an interior designer or you’re an organizing expert, or you’re a coach of some kind, maybe some pictures that really tell a story about what you do.
And then the introductory paragraph on that first page of your media kit should be, Hey, this is what I speak to. And this is the end result that people will have when hearing my area of expertise. So I just want to really clarify that here, when I’m talking about how to go ahead through this process so that, you know, and I am going to give you some samples of some of the assets I’m telling you to create here on the show.
I’ll go ahead and make sure I’m putting those in the show notes for you. So you can see samples. So this media kit, the first page should be an introduction about who you are, what you believe a little bit of why you do what you do, cause why you do what you do sells way more than what you actually do. And of course,
speak to the end result that somebody would receive from experiencing you. And then your second page on your media kit can be something a little bit more specific, maybe a personal message about you. It might tell your story a little bit about your background and really what qualifies you to be an expert in your space. But as you’re sharing this second part of your media kit,
I also want you to make sure that you’re relatable. We want to make sure you’re extraordinary and ordinary. If you’re only extraordinary, sometimes it puts you on such a pedestal where you’re untouchable and you can’t relate to somebody’s audience. So you want to be extraordinary as you’re telling your specific story and who you are, what makes you tick maybe a little bit behind the scenes of your business and what you do.
You might want to share some pictures of getting married or your kids, or your ranch, or maybe riding horses, whatever it may be. So you are relatable and not just yeah, amazing expert in your space. And then as you go on and you create more pages in your media kit, your, some of the things that you can include, I’m going to kind of give you the gold standard here.
But I understand if you’re a new business that you might not have all of this data yet. So on the next page of your media kit, you might want to share your audience and who you currently reach. So if you have a big social media following, if you have a big Instagram following, maybe if you have great active conversations on Twitter, or if you lead a LinkedIn group,
these are all things that you want to share. So media outlets are also looking to reach a greater audience themselves. And so when you have an audience that you can share, so you have, you know, a thousand Facebook fans and two or three or 20,000 Instagram followers, make sure you include that in the numbers and the stats on an audience and reach page.
So they know the size of your audience. If you have an audience or an email list that is under 1000, I don’t recommend that you include it, but don’t be shy about sharing the fact that you host maybe smaller community groups. That’s absolutely fine. And the other thing you should include on this page three of your media kit is really who do you serve?
Who do you speak to? What percentage of men and women do you speak to? What is the age range of your ideal audience? So that media outlet understands who you serve. And then moving on down in your media kit, any other press that you’ve received, I’d like you to create a press page. So any other press that you’ve received on this page four should be logos of different outlets.
Maybe you’ve written an article that’s been published in a local magazine or a national magazine. Maybe you’ve been featured in Newsweek. Maybe you’ve been in the wall street journal include these press links here on this page, and maybe some photography or some examples of other press you’ve received. If you have them, if you don’t have them, don’t stress out about it.
That’s why you’re listening to this podcast because I’m teaching you what to do to get this kind of press. So stay tuned with me here. I know I’m giving a lot of details. The beauty of this is you can replay this as many times as you need. So page number five, you also want to dive into sharing any partnerships. You have any affiliate partnerships with any brands you’ve worked with in the past,
in any other ways that you work with different companies. So you could use this media kit. For example, if you are a maternity coach, you could use this media kit to send it to your favorite stroller brand because you want to represent them, or you want to do reviews on their products to help your audience. This is a great place in your media kit to talk about partnerships and how you partner with brands,
whether it’s, you know, Instagram, takeovers or giveaways or brand ambassador ships, you know, some of our clients also do affiliate advertising. They host events with brands and they do other great fun things. If any of that is in your business model, then you’d want to include that in the media kit because it gets that outlet or that brand’s wheels turning.
And they see you as a greater asset. Therefore they want to work with you more. And then any sort of contributions that you’ve done, expert contributions, really high level like the today show, or if you’ve, you know, partnered with, you know, Nordstrom, any of those things. We want to go ahead and enlist. These is accolades in places where people can say,
Hey, you know what? You are really a great expert at what you do. If you don’t have these, no worries. Just leave them out. Also some extra bonus pages you can include in your media kit is speaking. If you do any sort of public speaking, if you’ve spoken on any podcasts before, if you do any expert writing or any insertions or contributions to any online outlets,
then you’d want to include those in your media kit as well. And the next thing we’re going to talk about here is I’m actually going to give you a step to create. What’s called a speaker one pager, and I’m going to give you a sample of that, but here, I just want to show you that you can also include all of that in your main media kit.
And then of course your media kit needs to have your contact information, your website information, and do include a phone number. Whereas you might not include your phone number on your website. You need to make sure that media has an opportunity to email you directly or somebody who’s managing your PR and call you directly. We don’t want them hunting for information on how to communicate with you,
because if it’s takes any work for them to connect with you, they’re frankly not going to do it. Cause there are a lot of experts out there. So what we’ve just spoken about and I’ve given you numerous steps is how to actually create a media kit. Again, to summarize. This should be a PDF with a few pages, anywhere from three to eight pages that establishes your expertise,
who you serve, the audience that you serve and the things in the areas that you speak to as well as establishing why you’d be a great partner for that media outlet or that brand. Every single one of you guys. It doesn’t matter what place in business you are should have a media kit in. They’re very easy to create. You can either do it on your own in Canva,
or you can use a different sort of online template, but people are creating beautiful media kits all the time in Canva. And so that’s where we direct you to. And I’ll go ahead and make sure that there is a link to create this in Canva for you here within the show notes. And like I said, I’m going to include a template for you as well.
So that’s actually step number one. I’m giving you a lot of information on today’s show, create your whole media pack. Step number two is creating an actual what we call a speaker one pager. And I’m going to share with you my speaker one pager so that you can look at this as a template. Take it. Obviously you can’t copy it word for word,
because it’s about me and not about you, but I want you to see how they’re laid out. So the second thing you’re going to do is you’re going to create your speaker one, pager. This should be a short summarized bio, and it should include the core topics that you speak to and establish your expertise. Now, your speaker one pager is the perfect thing to send to podcast hosts like me.
When you’re pitching yourself for a show, it’s a perfect thing to include. When you’re applying to be a guest speaker, you don’t have to include your whole entire media kit. You can just have a speaker, one pager sometimes for very specific calls for speakers. They don’t want your entire media kit. They just want to know the core topics you speak to.
And that’s why I also recommend that you just have this speaker one pager it’s super simple and I will put a resource and a link. So you can see mine in the show notes for this episode. So you can cruise over to sweet life podcast.com forward slash one 81. And you are welcome to download my speaker one pager, to get a sample of that.
So it can save you time. The next thing that you are going to do after you’ve created this beautiful digital media kit and this simple but powerful speaker, one pager, the next thing you’re going to is you are going to build a speaking page on your website. This can be called speaking. It can be called media. It can be called media resources.
It can be called PR and media. I don’t care what you call it, but on this page is a place where people who host events or who have a platform where they’re looking for experts. Like you can go and find all of your resources, your speaking page, or your media page should include summaries of where you’ve been seen a summary of your bio and who you speak to,
and it should include your core speaking topics. So any media outlet can immediately go and say, Hey, cool. Look at April speaks to online business development. Great. We want that on our show, or we need her to write an article on whatever this is, we’re in our podcast. So you have to be very clear. You want to outline your core speaking topics.
The short bio establishing you as an expert share any work that you’ve already done. So any social proof that you’ve spoken on stages before you can share a short video clips or photography, you can share links to podcast episodes that you might’ve been on before. And, or you can share links to articles you’ve written for media outlets or any other media exposure that you might have had.
If you haven’t done any of those things yet, don’t worry. You still need to build this speaker page so that we can start growing your list of all of these outlets and amazing places that you have been seen. So we have to start somewhere, right? We don’t want to make perfect the enemy. We have to start with what we have and go from there.
So don’t stress. If you don’t have any of that, still want you to build this page. Also on your speaking page, you are going to include your speaker one pager and make it available so people can download it right there. When they download your speaker one pager, we don’t want to have an opt in. You’re not trying to grow your list with media outlets,
make it easy for them. Give them the ability to swipe it right off your site and send it to their producer or send it to their content manager so that they can connect with you faster. And there isn’t so much red tape. And then the last thing you should have on your speaker page are headshots. Headshots of people can just download them and take them and go.
You may also include a logo to your company or any other imagery that you have a license to give that can help. That outlet actually establish you as an expert, whether they want to put your picture as an expert contributor or, you know, put your face on TV, whatever it is, you need to establish all of those in a really easy grab and go spot for them on this speaking and media page on your website.
Wow. I like me to take a deep breath cause I’ve given you guys so much information and I understand sometimes we deliver stuff. So many good things on this podcast. It’s like other podcasts would take 20 podcasts to tell you all this, but I’m giving it to you all at once. You can replay this, do replay, this, take the steps I’m giving you.
I promise you, this is how we’ve built multiple companies. And this is the exact process that I went through over 14 years ago to be featured in international media and grow my company internationally. This stuff works. It’s free, it’s sweat equity, and I want you to take it and run with it. All right. So we have talked about creating your media kit.
We’ve talked about creating a speaker one pager, and we’ve talked about building a speaking and press page on your website. The very last step I’m going to give you. I’m not going to go into super depth about it because we actually talk about it all the time. If you are an avid Sweetlife podcast listener, but this blast step is making sure that you have signed up to become a resource through help a reporter out,
help a reporter out as an online forum, where you can create a free membership where you can become a source for reporters. So anytime a reporter is looking for an expert to speak to a story they might be doing, or an article that they’re writing. They can tap into this resource and you receive an email journal every single day of all of the experts that these reporters are looking for.
You can respond, you can submit your comments. You can submit your wisdom and be seen across national and sometimes international media. So I will go ahead and include a couple of links for you in the show notes for today’s show so that you are good to go. You have everything you need, and then I’m going to actually give you even more support.
So to summarize today, we talked about how to establish yourself as an expert in your niche. And this is through PR and media, and really becoming a leader in your space. So for those of you guys had have an established business and you’re ready to scale, this is a must do on your list. If you have a new business and you’re trying to get your foot in the door,
just add this to the list of other things you need to do. This is not a must do for brand new businesses. This is a must do for those you guys who are established and you’re ready to grow and scale today, we talked about creating a full media kit and I give you samples of pages that should be included in your media kit. Today.
We talked about creating a speaker one pager, which is literally one page download PDF of who you are, why you’re awesome, and the topics you speak to. And today we also talked about creating a press and media page on your website. Now, one of the things I’m just going to answer some questions I’m guessing some of you might be having, um,
number one, if you have a company and you personally are not the brand, do you need to do this? So the answer is yes. So the leader or the CEO, or one of the business leaders of your should be visible in media should be contributing expert content. That’s only going to drive traffic back to your company and establish your company as a leader.
So if your business isn’t April beach.com, it is the corner store.com. You still need to be doing this. You still should have a press and an immediate link on your website. You still should have a media kit and you still should have a speaker. One pager. If you have multiple leaders in your company, you should have a separate media kit for each of you.
And you should have a separate speaker, one pager, as well as separate speaking topics for each one of the leaders of your company, any person that you want representing your company, every person is going to speak to a different area of expertise. And when you actually are building a speaking team, I know this is kind of next level, but we want you to actually build a speaking team,
many people that can speak to different areas of expertise within your company umbrella. So just kind of dreaming big there. If you weren’t there yet. No worries. We’re going to start here and all of the resources and show notes, the download that I’m going to give you, I’m going to give you my speaker one pagers. You can take a look at that as well as other templates can be found by visiting the show notes for today’s show@sweetlifepodcast.com
forward slash one 81. And if you love this show, please share it with your friends. We work really hard to deliver you guys, expert business trainings that other companies and coaches charge thousands for. So we appreciate, and we rely on you sharing this podcast across Facebook or Instagram. You can share it on Spotify. There’s so many different places you can share it.
And we just really appreciate you guys helping us get this show in the hands of other business owners, just like you, who appreciate trusted business trainings. So that’s the conclusion of that. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast today. I know we talked about a lot of things and I’ll make sure the resources and links for help reporter and in Canva and everything that I mentioned is in the show notes for you today.
Okay. Now I promised those of you guys that stuck around to the end that I’m going to share a little bit of a nightmare story with you about building communities and Facebook and what has happened to us just to give you a little bit of a warning. Again, I didn’t want to do a total downer podcast on this though. I probably will in the future to help other companies avoid the problems that have happened with us when we have more clarity on the situation.
But we’ve talked about this on the show before in the past, this podcast has been around for three years. We’ve talked a lot about creating community, Facebook communities, mighty host communities, LinkedIn communities. And we have always hosted Facebook communities, even though it wasn’t our favorite place. And in the last six months, my account and our, even our Facebook ads account has gotten hacked multiple times,
following all the instructions, doing everything Facebook said to do our account totally ended up getting crashed and hacked. And it was on June the 12th, that it was the most recent and Facebook completely deactivated all of our access. What this means is that they won’t speak to us. They won’t communicate with us. They’ve actually shut off the ability for us to chat with them.
They are just done with the fact that hackers have hacked in different capacities, this particular account and these particular business communities. And so I share all this with you. First of all, because since this has happened in the last couple of weeks, I’ve received a lot of messages from other business owners that have had similar problems with Facebook security. I’m not sharing this with you to say you should not have your communities and Facebook.
I am going to tell you, but again, we’ve talked about on the show before, you need to make sure please that you have a database of all of your groups, members in all of your clients backed up someplace. That is not in Facebook. You do not want Facebook to own those relationships because at any point in time, for whatever reason,
like what happened to us, they can simply shut it down without giving you any explanation. That is exactly what happened to us. Now, of course, we have all those databases. We have CRMs and email lists, and we know who’s in our community. We’ve always built relationships with our community members outside of the platform as well. But I know,
and I’ve spoken to a lot of businesses that haven’t. So I just wanted to give you a little bit of a warning that even, you know, going into election season, Facebook security is going to be ramping up, but then they’re also going to be more strict about just shutting down accounts that might have certain issues because they don’t have the capacity to deal with you.
And I want to give you a little bit of a warning that you need to make sure that you have the contact information. You have relationships someplace else on another platform, in an email marketing manager or in another capacity that is not owned by Facebook, because I don’t want you to lose the relationships in the community that you’ve worked so hard to build. So that is our nightmare story.
It’s not a new nightmare, it’s an ongoing nightmare, but it is a new development as far as complete in accessibility, not even account reviving whatsoever. It will tell you the exciting news is sometimes when we run into issues like this as business owners, it forces us to grow in other areas. And we are so excited as a company, we have invested in the building of a custom mighty host network,
which we have launched, and it’s actually launched the week before show airs. I’m super excited about it. It is an amazing community with an app that just gives you everything you need from a business standpoint, where we can deliver all of our business trainings, all of our free trains, all of our live coaching. And it’s a great place to network with other businesses,
aside from all the distractions that you would get in Facebook business and Facebook personal groups. So we’re super excited to announce that our new online community is launched and we would love for you to join it. You can cruise to sweet life, community.com. You can join it for free. All of the first members in there are foundational members and founding members, and I’m so excited to invite you guys in there free for a limited period of time to access all of our business trainings.
And you’ll be able to create a whole profile for your company in their network and actually grow your business through this community as well. So if you’re interested in checking out what we’ve done over on mighty networks and being part of our online business and entrepreneur forum, to grow your company, then cruise to sweet life, community.com and for whatever it’s worth. I just want to remind you that if you have built companies in Facebook groups and communities in those platforms,
please make sure you’re protecting your relationships. So you own them aside from those platforms. Okay. That was our nightmare story. And I hope you can learn from it. So you don’t have to go through what we have gone through the last couple weeks and months. Anyway, it’s so great to talk to you again on the show. I love that you’re here.
Thanks for sticking around to the end. I’m April beach, and I’m pleased to help you grow your business online. All of the resources for this show can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash one 81 and business development coaching in my high level, masterminds can be found by visiting sweet life. coach.com. Bye for now.
Do you know your key financial metrics? This episode is for those of you who own your own company but feel like you need a clearer understanding of your business financials and how to grow. Whether your business is established or starting from scratch, this episode will give you knowledge which equals control.
Summary:
Nobody is coming to save you. You’re the beginning and the end of making your business a success. Therefore, if you haven’t been controlling your company financials the way you should, now is the time to start. Danielle Hayden is our guest expert and financial planner for small business owners.
In this show, you’ll learn how and what to pay yourself, what key numbers you need to pay attention to, how to set up your monthly financial calendar, and other key metrics you need to control as the leader of your company – even/especially if someone else is managing the money for you!
If your sales aren’t quite where they should be, you need to have a plan to take control and rebound. Or… if your business is booming and flowing with cash, but you’re so busy you don’t know where the money is going, you need to take control. Regardless, knowledge and control are the keys to grow, scale, and profit and this episode will kick start that process.
Highlights:
Learn how and what to pay yourself
Know what key numbers you need to pay attention to
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Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate and welcome if we don’t know each other yet my name’s April beach. I’m an online business development expert And I help companies large and small and independent entrepreneurs launch and scale your business online. So glad to talk to you again for another week here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur business podcast really appreciate you listening to the show.
I know there are tons of podcasts out there, and the fact that you keep tuning in here to get your business strategy and support really means a lot to us. And if you haven’t recently, if you are a listener on an Apple device, we would love it. If you’d cruise over to iTunes and leave us a review would definitely help other listeners find our show today on the show,
we’re talking about key business metrics that every single entrepreneur needs to know about your company. But the fact of the matter is this most business owners don’t most people go into business because they’re really good at something, or they love what they do. There are very few people that are great when it comes to the manager side of the business, the financials, and they’re graded actually performing the services.
And so as business owners, it’s common to actually struggle when we’re talking about financials and actually the numbers controlling the numbers behind your business so that your company can grow successfully. And so this particular episode is for those of you guys who feel like you need a clear understanding of your business financials and how to grow your company. So whether your business does established or you’re totally starting from scratch.
This episode is going to give you the knowledge that you need to control your numbers. So here is the reality and our guests today on the show shares this, and this is kind of a come to Jesus moment for some of you, maybe you’re new and maybe you have been in business for a long time, but nobody is coming to save you. You’re the beginning and the end of making your business a success.
And the fact of the matter really is, is that it doesn’t matter how many great people work for a company. When we have problems with leadership at the top, then the company is going to fail. And of course, I don’t know your business, and I’m not saying that you’re a terrible leader. Oh my gosh, you’re totally probably turning off my podcast right now.
What I’m saying is we all have to know our numbers and as entrepreneurs, the fact of the matter is, is it just, doesn’t usually come naturally to want to sit down and crunch all the numbers as a service provider or as a passionate entrepreneur who loves what you’re doing. And so this particular episode is going to help you have a better understanding of,
of what’s going on with the money in your company. At the end of this show, you are going to know how to pay yourself and exactly what you should be paying yourself. It’s always a question that up. And so I made sure to ask our guests that today on the show, you’re also going to know what key metrics you should be paying attention to.
And you’re going to know how to set up a monthly calendar for all of it. And here’s an extra special bonus. If you are listening to the show, it’s the third, fourth week of the month as it is when this show drops in your numbers, aren’t where they should be. Forget the whole rotavirus thing. Just generally speaking your numbers. Aren’t rebounding.
Daniel’s going to tell you what actions you can take to actually help control and rebound your numbers on the flip side of that. If your business is doing really, really well right now, you have cash flowing in that. The downfall is sometimes we get so busy and we’re making so much money. We’re not paying attention to where the money is going. So this episode is going to help both of those scenarios.
And I’m so glad to bring you this information. Again, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one eight zero. All right, let’s dive in.<inaudible> Alright. You guys well, welcome back to another episode of the sweet life business podcast. I am joined today by Danielle Hayden, and I’m super excited to talk to her specifically because we’re talking about money directly about profit,
how to increase your profit and how to make sure all the works that you’re doing in your business is actually leading to the end result that you want and in that’s profit. And I do think that there are quite a few entrepreneurs, which I can’t say this is necessarily a bad thing, but they love what they do so much that the profit actually doesn’t come first.
And so years can pass by. And all of a sudden they can realize that they haven’t really controlled their financial future. So that’s why we have Danielle on the show today. Danielle is a reformed corporate CFO. Who’s on a mission to help rule breaking entrepreneurs, understand their numbers so they can gain the confidence needed to create sustainable profits. After spending over 10 years in a boardroom,
as a corporate finance officer, Danielle is now in her sweet spot as a co owner of kickstart accounting, inc, where she helps business owners with bookkeeping and financial analysis and education. And as the author of the profit planner book series, which super exciting when Danielle isn’t knee deep in the numbers, you can find her hanging out with her. Two kids are competing in the nearest Spartan race.
Danielle, I love that you’re here. Give yourself an intro. Tell everybody, tell everybody a little bit more than, than that. Yeah. I, you know, you gave it such a, an amazing intro because I think you explained all of us entrepreneurs, right? We are so passionate about what we’re doing, that we have to all remember that we’re in business And Our passion,
our mission at kickstart is to help entrepreneurs keep that front and center. We need to be turning a profit and we need to be making money so that we can use our business to support our dreams and our personal goals. Right? What do we want to be doing when we are getting up from our desk to day and how can we support that life as well?
Yeah. And you know, I know before we started recording you and I chatted a little bit and I love the, you asked me, you know, who are your listeners April? Where are they with money? And one of the things that we’ve identified as a company is, you know, we have listeners that are obviously just starting business, but a lot of our listeners have established businesses and they’re ready to grow and they’re ready to scale.
And that’s all of a sudden that time when they’re like, Oh shit, you know, I’m not really in control of the money. I haven’t really looked at the financials of what it takes in order for me to get whether it’s from, you know, a half a million dollar business to a multimillion dollar business, or, you know, for some companies it’s just crossing over like 150,000,
whatever that is, there is like this line in the sand that’s drawn. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today, which I’m super excited about really how to get to that next level in your business, how to grow and scale your business. And so I thank you for being here. I can’t wait to hear everything that you’re going to say.
So when we’re talking about how to create this sort of freedom, you call it a financial dashboard. First of all, what is a financial dashboard? You know, you don’t hear it that term all the time in the industry. And that’s why I think that this is so important for entrepreneurs. We hear all the time, your taxes, your profit and loss statement,
your balance sheet, look at your financial statements. But how about let’s use something that as a business owner can help us really get in tune with our financials on a forward looking basis, our profit and loss and our balance sheet, those financial statements, those are all historical financial statements. So although that is really important, that dashboard that you do on a more consistent basis can really empower you day to day,
week to week to make the right business decisions on a forward looking basis. And so the dashboard includes our signature framework of pieces of information that we know is really important to your, your business. What I’ve done here is I’ve taken all of the experience I had as working as a CFO. And my job in corporate accounting was to compile all this information and arm,
our CEO and our board of directors and our management team with key pieces of information so that they can go and drive the business. And so I’m taking all that experience from that time. And I’m arming you at the entrepreneur with that same information so that you can go drive your business. Okay. I love it. So what are some of those key metrics that people should be looking at?
You know, what are the financial numbers that every single business owner should know and should be tracking? Yeah. So included in your dashboard. So I want you to pick a day of the week, so this dashboard should be done on a regular basis. So at this time in your calendar, I don’t care if it’s Monday, Wednesday, Friday, every Sunday,
I don’t care what day of the week it is. The idea is that I want you to be consistent. And so on that day, I want you to look at what are your balances? What is your cash balance, which a credit card balance. Maybe you have a line of credit credit, look at your PayPal, balances, everything. I want you to pull all of that information so that you know,
how much money do I have today and how much availability do I have to pull from my credit cards? So that’s figure number one. Okay. Number two, during the same time period that you’re working in your dashboard. I want you to look at all of the people who owe you money, the accounting world, we call it your accounts receivable. So I want you to look at your accounts receivable.
This is going to be the time that you send out collection notices, right? You have the permission I give you permission. You worked for that money. You are to collect on it, send out those collection notices, look at who owes you money, and then use that information to understand where you’re going to be for the week. If you have no,
you have, the client always pays you 15 days after the invoice is due. And that’s 15 days this week and they owe you $10,000. Then you can bet that money’s coming in and that’s going to help you make different business decisions this week. Then if you know that one client who never pays me, I’m probably not gonna get it this week. You know,
not to include that money to make business decisions this week. Got it. Alright, so that’s number two. Okay. Number three. I want you to look at who do you owe money? Right? So in the accounting world, we call this accounts payable, what credit card payments are coming up. So this includes credit card line of credit. If you have a brick and mortar,
you might have a rent payment coming up, your utilities, your cell phone bill, maybe you use zoom or Dropbox. All of these larger subscriptions that you know are coming up, maybe it’s your 10 99 or the branding and website development that you just had done. Anybody that you could owe money to that’s coming due over the next week. I want you to jot that down in this dashboard,
that’s really important because then you can see a full picture, even if you have a lot of cash in your business, but you know, you have some large payments coming up this week. You know, that you need to change the way you make this decisions this week. Maybe you can’t sign up for that new course. Maybe you can’t travel for the next conference.
Maybe you need to wait to pay that. So it can really drive how you make this decisions each week. Yeah. You know, and about that, I know a lot of online businesses, those that don’t have brick and mortar stores and my business included in that there are a lot of software expenses. And I remember it was three years ago. All of a sudden I was,
I was sitting there and I actually realized I had never totaled the amount unless I was looking at like a profit and loss. In hindsight, like you were saying, I never really thought about how much money we were spending on software. And I think we had a really like 35 different charges coming in. Some were only five bucks. Some were 55,
some were 500. And all of a sudden I’m like, Oh my gosh, you know, this is an absolute drain. It’s a huge hole leaving my business that I just considered a necessary evil. And I think a lot of online businesses are like racking up the software expenses too. Yeah. So I love that you said this and just keeping track of what’s coming in each week and making sure that honestly,
that we aren’t frivolously spending on something we don’t need to, but you know, even that dollar 99, Google drive storage, all of these little numbers add up and definitely take away from the province. So super smart. And then the last figure I want you to calculate on the dashboard is your sales. The reason I want you to look at this every week and compare it to two numbers,
compare to what you did last month, what you did last year and what was your goal, right? What was your budget? What was your goal? And the reason I want you to compare it to those three is because it’s second week of the month. And I’m way behind what I did last month, or I’m way behind what I did last quarter,
or I’m way behind my goal. I need to really focus my energy and my activities and my to do list over the next two weeks to really be income generating activities. Are there any deals that I can close? Is there any thing that I can build out for customers? Maybe I have an outstanding project that can be build out, you know, if you’re falling short of last month,
is there anybody who actually didn’t get their bill this month? Right? So maybe there was a billing error. So I would say your, your financials are trying to tell you a story, read the story, right? So I’m two, three weeks into the month and I’m not where I need to be. I need to listen to that story and I need to change my activities for the rest of the month.
Totally makes sense. Totally makes sense. Okay. I have questions. Yeah. Is there a certain profit margin benchmark that accompany would know that they need to be at before investing in future growth? Did that make sense in the way asset? Is there a certain amount of like you’re, you’re hitting these profit margins and now you are in a place. Is there a healthy percentage of profit that would tell a business it’s like maybe a number percentage and indicator that would tell a business,
Hey, listen, you really now at this point in time, you’ve sustained this profit. You’ve grown consistently. Now it’s a healthy time to reinvest in scale more. Yeah, you did ask the question, so, okay. This is the worst answer I can possibly give you. Oh wait, bring it on. Okay. That’s basically, I can’t tell you April,
cause I don’t see your numbers. You know, I always tell people a health, a healthy profit margin is 30%. I could give you that answer 30%, but there’s more to that, right? So it depends on what your personal situation is. It depends on where you’ve already been at in your business. So maybe this is your third year in business.
And the first year and a half was really tough. And you took out a lot of debt in your business. And although you’re starting to turn a profit, you’re carrying on a lot of debt with you. And so with that person, I might say, it’s probably more important for you to restructure that debt before you go and invest more money into your business.
Maybe you’re somebody who you don’t have to take as much money to support your personal obligation. And therefore you have the opportunity to be able to invest bigger in your business right now. And lastly, it depends on what your goals are. I always tell people, you need to sit back and it sounds so cliche and so entrepreneurial, you know, there’s so many entrepreneur gurus who are telling you to set goals,
but I want you to do it a little bit differently. I want you to set financial goals. We had a client last year, who her goal was to grow her top line revenue, no matter what the cost, she was not taking a dollar from her business. She was growing revenue. And so she was doing some Facebook advertising. She had a budget for that.
She was going to conferences. We had set up a budget for her to go to for conferences. She was doing a ton of in person networking throughout the year. And so when we’ve sent her her financial statements and we kept on saying, Hey, although you are not profitable the day we know that this is aligning with your goal, right? And as we came into 2020 really started to see her revenue sore and was an amazing story to tell,
right? Because she really made that investment throughout the year. We saw that return and she said, okay, 2020 is my year to make money for me. Good for her. I want to go on vacation. I want to pay back me. And so now this year, when we see her expenses start to creep up because she gets excited and wants to go buy the next core.
So she still wants to go, you know, we are able to say, Hey, your goal is to be profitable this year. So we need to keep these expenses in line. Is this something that we really need to do in order to sustain revenue? Or can we do without this expense this year? Mm, super great. I love that story.
Okay. So this is actually a good segue into what about self pay? There are a lot of business owners that still, I mean, they could have been in business for seven, 10 years that still aren’t paying themselves. What does that look like to pay yourself? What is that frequency? You know, what are the benchmarks that our listeners right now should say,
Hey man, you know, I haven’t really pulled a dime unless it was just maybe a couple of dollars here, a couple of dollars there. Yeah. So first of all, no shame we have had clients come to us and every spectrum of this story. And the first thing I’ll say is just kind of, don’t give yourself a hard time about it,
right? It, it has happened too many opera entrepreneurs. I think it’s time to break that mold though. So frequency, I would say at least once a month, if you could do it weekly, when you’re doing that dashboard, you can pay yourself weekly, but let’s say you’re somebody who you haven’t done that type of dashboard yet. You’re only looking at your financials on a monthly or quarterly basis.
When you look at that information, that would be the time to get yourself paid. But if you’re doing that dashboard, you have a little bit more opportunity to get yourself paid more frequently. Another thing I’ll say, you know, a lot of entrepreneurs will come to us. Our clients will say, Hey, look, you know, what do I pay myself?
How do I even know what the right number? I feel like, um, you know, I take too much, I’m robbing my business, take enough. I’m frustrated with my business that it’s not supporting the life I want. So the goal is to find a happy medium. And here’s the exercise that I suggest for every business owner to do, take your cash balances in the bank today.
And I want you to subtract between one and three months worth of operating expenses. So go pull out your piano, but take that profit loss statement, take out any of the outliers. So maybe you had a $4,000 legal bill last month or $2,000 branding bill, the things that aren’t going to continuously happen. Okay. So there are those that you can do this in Excel,
just prospects, right? Maybe any payments to yourself, you know, clear those out. Maybe you let go of your contract or last month clear that. So just want you to have a true average of your monthly operating expenses. And you want to have between one and three months. So take beginning cash minus your one to three months worth of savings.
And then that is your true cash balance. That’s what you can take from your business, unless you know, of a big investment coming in the next, you know, month or so. And maybe you subtract that out as well. Yeah. Wow. That’s awesome. And it’s so helpful and yeah, and I love that you said that too. There’s no shame in this because so many businesses just want to,
so many entrepreneurs want to make their business work and they’re just willing to do everything they can, which is, that’s what it takes to have a successful business, but we have to pay ourselves. And it’s something that I struggled with for years. I didn’t start paying myself. I think I was in business for about nine years before I ever started paying myself.
I remember when I first started doing that, did it felt like I was robbing from I’m like, why wouldn’t I leave it in there? You know, I really don’t need this right now. Why would I leave it in the company? But there was something about as a woman that owned two businesses, a hundred percent by myself, there was something about that just for me about that power and authority.
And maybe it’s just the way I am that I was pulling my own money out of that. That just really made me feel good. And I remember it was like a turning point psychologically for me that even I took my businesses even more seriously, if that’s even a something that I could have done, when I really started to pay myself, it was a,
it was a big shift in my mindset about that. And that was a big deal for me. It’s a huge step. I can’t tell you how many times client will come to us. And they’re frustrated because they’re not paying that. It hurts them in their other relationships. Right? So think about your husband or wife, who you’re spending a lot of time in the business.
And if you’re not taking any of that home to help support your family, it can hurt your other relationships and how they’re supporting you in your business. And so we just really have watched people transform from cutting resentful towards their business. So really being able to embrace and grow their business when they start to pay themselves. So if you haven’t taken a paycheck at no shame,
I’ll just sit down, do the dashboard, put it in your calendar and do that dashboard. I gave you the calculator. I want you to take a paycheck as of next month. Yeah, for sure. Even if it’s like a hundred bucks. Yeah. Okay. Danielle, I appreciate all these numbers so much. And for you being on the show to wrap it up,
talk to us about why it’s so important for entrepreneurs to actually own their own success. Nobody’s coming to save you, right? There’s nobody who’s going to come in and wave a magic wand and say, you deserve it. You worked hard enough done give you the magic beat. You know, it’s time for all entrepreneurs step up. And when you can start to really look at your financials,
look at your dashboards are taking home a paycheck. All of those things are really action steps to helping you step into your success. As a business owner, there are all the steps that you need to start to grow and play bigger. And I promise you until you start to have that confidence, there’s always going to be something holding you back. When we work with clients and see them literally morph into this transformation from going confused and lost.
And I’m not sure if I can buy this, I’m not sure if I can pay myself. And then once you start seeing your financials and once you start setting goals, and then once you start paying yourself, these are all building blocks. And then all of a sudden you wake up and you feel confident and you’re like, I’m ready to make this business,
the success that I knew it was supposed to be. Right. Yeah. I love that. Thank you so much for being on the show for your wisdom and your expertise and sharing it with our listeners and sharing it with me. How can people find and talk to us about your books that you’re writing? So are avid readers out there that love to read,
know how to tap into more of you? Yeah. So you can yeah. Find me at profit planner, bookkeeping.com/sweetlife. You can read more about our services and the books. You know, this is where we took our signature framework that we were using with our clients. And we put pen to paper and we really outlined a workbook for entrepreneurs to be able to use,
to set up and then analyze their financials. We see so many business owners who say this whole accounting thing, it’s kind of a big blur. There’s so much to it. I don’t even know where to start. Right. It’s like going on a diet or running a marathon. So what we did was we took all the information. And so let’s break this down.
It’s a 12 week book and every week we give you, you know, two to four pages worth of accounting education, we just set up the foundation for that week. And then we give you one action step per day. So there’s one activity they set up 15 minutes in the morning is your CEO time do that action step. And then you start to feel,
build your confidence. And by the time you’re done with the 12 weeks, you’re like, wow, I’ve got my business financials under control. I feel like a badass. Wow. How powerful. That’s so horrible. I love that. Especially that it’s your signature framework with all your experience and how you’re used to getting entrepreneurs results and small businesses results. So we love that.
So we’ll make sure as well that a link to where people can grab that is in the show notes for this episode. Or you guys can just cruise directly over to profit planner, bookkeeping.com forward slash Sweetlife. Is that correct? That’s it. Yep. Awesome. Thanks so much for your time. I loved having you on the show. It was great to meet you.
Yeah. So glad to be here. And as question comes in, I will, uh, Washington, social media and whatnot. I’m happy to keep the conversation going. Awesome. Me too. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you.<inaudible> I’m glad you made it to the end. I hope you found this show incredibly informative. We strive to give you business development,
coaching and strategies that other companies charge you thousands of dollars for. We appreciate you being here, listening to the show and sharing it with your friends tune in next week. For another episode of the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. Bye for now.
This episode is for business owners struggling to understand how to use email marketing, when to use email marketing and why to use email marketing. This is a SweetLife Business Foundations show and we’re covering important foundations every business should have when it comes to growth.
Summary:
Many businesses are not using email marketing correctly. Regardless if your business is local or online, email marketing is a must. If you are struggling to understand how to use email marketing to connect with your clients, increase your sales, and the difference between email marketing options this show is for you. You’ll know the difference between email managers and clearly understand your software needs to move forward.
Highlights:
The difference between your business email and your email marketing manager
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Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi, you guys. And welcome to episode 179 of the sweet life business podcast. I’m April beach, your host Development mentor, and strategist. And today it’s just me and you today.
We’re diving into what I would call a sweet life business foundation show. And I’m going to tell you the background as to why I chose to deliver this training. I can actually share with you why this training was important to deliver in just a second, but before we get started, let’s make sure you are in the right place. Today’s show is for business owners that are struggling to understand how to use email marketing,
when to use email marketing and why you should even be using email marketing at all. Now, this isn’t something that is only for new businesses. As a matter of fact, our company helps more established companies that have been around forever, but just haven’t really caught up to how you can grow your business through email marketing and online business development, yet more than anybody else with this problem,
there are more established businesses in the marketplace today, both in person and local businesses and online businesses that are either not using email marketing at all or using it totally incorrectly. So in this show, we’re going to make sure you know how to use email marketing correctly. So regardless of your local or online email marketing is a must and you’re going to fully see and understand that by the end of this episode,
if you’re struggling to understand how to use email marketing, to connect with your clients, increase your sales, and the difference between all the different kinds of email marketing you can do, then this show is for you. And at the end of this show, you’re going to know the difference between your business email and an email marketing manager. You’re going to know how to set up your business email and what to use that email option four.
And you’re going to know how to set up your business, email marketing manager and when, and how to use that option to grow your business. So we’re covering a lot today, but this is a foundational training. It doesn’t mean your businesses has to be new. Like I said, this could be for established businesses and actually more often, that is the case of the companies that are coming to us that need email marketing in place.
So what really actually made me decide that this was an important episode to do because frankly, having my sleeves rolled up in business for so long, sometimes these foundational trainings, they’re just kind of the back of my hand, just like, I’m sure you’re so close to your area of expertise, those basic questions. Sometimes you overlook because you know them so well.
You just automatically think that everybody else knows and understands them. And so here’s a little background story. I was teaching a group masterclass of businesses that I consult internationally yesterday. And during this class we had open questions and answers and one person asked a question. It was a very basic question about email marketing and really the whole rest of this business group coaching session turned this pivot to be all about email setup,
email marketing managers, and a lot of things that people were struggling with with it wasn’t necessarily the content that I had planned to teach as far as business development strategy, but it made me realize how important this topic is and how many companies are missing it. And then in my private Facebook group, this testimony from yesterday’s training came along and I’m just going to read it to you.
This is from a client of mine. I’m not going to mention her name, but if this testimony resonates with you, if you want to feel this way, then this podcast is definitely a good episode for you to stay tuned into. So this is what my client posted. She said for many years, one of the things that held me back, or to be brutally honest,
shut me down entirely is tech and the daunting tasks of building a landing page and opt in whatever hiring someone is not an option for me. And I prefer to learn it just now, as soon as I got off this group training call, I signed up for the software that I’m going to tell you in today’s episode, I was just blown away after watching the tutorial and how to create a simple opt in and how to connect my email responses,
et cetera, after so long filling step, this process brought tears to my eyes and I finally broke through, excuse the tears, but I’m so happy and I feel so much better now. So that was a testimony from one of my clients based on the business coaching session we had yesterday about this topic. And it really had me thinking that this is an important topic,
and I apologize to you as it foundational and advanced business training podcast. If I have skipped over this, I know we recreated a lot of episodes in the beginning. I think episodes number 12, 13, and 14 were all about how to set up your email marketing manager and what is a list and how to use this. But it’s episode number 179.
So years later, I haven’t covered this in a long time. And for that, please forgive me. And I apologize and let’s go ahead and dive into today’s training. All the show notes, all the resources I’m going to share with you can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one seven, nine<inaudible>. Okay. First things first, there are two types of email platforms that you should have for your business.
You should have your personal business email, and you should have a separate email marketing manager, totally separate from each other. They are not the same thing. And I think this is where some of the confusion comes in. So let me break down the difference. The personal business email is something. For example, like mine is april@sweetlifeco.com. That’s my personal business email.
It’s where I email people. One-on-one maybe I might send an email to copy and CC some people at the most five, that would actually be a very large group to send a very personal email to my email marketing manager is the software that it holds my list of leads, clients and partners in my email marketing manager is the one that sends out weekly. Sometimes biweekly broadcast to everybody on my list.
I cannot do that nor do I want to do that from my personal business email, that needs to be done separately through eight email marketing manager. So that is a very basic foundational difference. And I was shocked again on this training yesterday and really overlooked how many businesses didn’t understand the difference between those foundations. So let’s go ahead and dive a little bit deeper into each one.
So your business email, this is for sure. Number one, rule number one has to be, and I don’t care if I’m not supposed to say has to be on the show. You guys know me. I’m always going to just lay it out there. The way it is. It has to be at your domain name. It can be cindy@theworld.com.
It can be april@sweetlifepodcast.com. It is never going to be april@gmail.com. You should never for professional branding purposes, have your business email, not in end in your custom URL domain. If you take nothing away from this show, except for this one thing, I want you to run as fast as you can. And I want you to customize your email so that it is your first name at your URL at your company domain name,
no matter what, please do not send anybody in email from podcast@gmaildotcomoryourbusinessnameburstatyahoo.com. It is incredibly unprofessional and it will immediately disqualify you. And frankly, it’ll make your brand look like shit. And so I don’t want that to happen to you. That’s why you’re here. And so it’s my job to tell you to fix that first. Now let’s talk about how to fix that.
We recommend as a company using G suite Gmail for business, there are a lot of different options out there that you can use. G suite does cost right now. Currently I think I pay $5 per month per customer email that I have, but it’s really important because accessing G suite as a business owner allows me to do a couple of things. Number one,
it allows me to accomplish that professional email that I want and need to have for my brand. So again, mine, and you’re welcome to shoot me an email. If you want. Mine is april@sweetlifeco.com, but then I also am able to create custom email addresses for my team. So I have my assistant, I have my editor, I have my marketing manager.
I have my podcast, guest relations person. They all have their own separate email addresses. And all of them are@sweetlifeco.com. It has the same ending having a G suite account enables me to do that. Now I’ve put some links in the show notes for you. You can go and create your own G suite business email right now for five bucks in email address.
And it will customize your email for you. G suite will also give you access to tons of other software options like spreadsheets and different advanced business bundle options that are really important to have to grow your company and to manage your communications. So we love G suite and no I’m not making any money. I’m telling you to go there. I’m telling you to go there cause it’s easy and it’s cheap and it’ll make you look good.
The second thing I want you to know about this business email is this is where, like I said, previously, you email people one-to-one. So if I’m going to shoot an email over to my business partners at this other company, it’s coming from me personally, and it’s coming out of my G suite business email. Here is a tip. As you’re setting this up,
I want you to do a couple of things. Number one, I want you to customize your signature line within this email, in my signature line, under my personal email, I have my logo. I have links to where people can listen to the podcast. I have my title and I have some other quick action things like my phone number is in there as well.
This isn’t something that I’m just going to email everybody in the world, but these specific people, I want them to know how to get in touch with me. Hence sending them a direct personal email. These are people I want to work with people whose business I want to have and people I want to help and serve and support. So it’s important that they know how to connect with me.
And I make sure that my signature is set up. So every single email I send, whether it’s from my mobile phone or whether it’s from my desktop or my iPad is all looking really spiffy and professional and giving people what they want and need from me now, really super expert tip, if you are just a solo entrepreneur. So if there’s only one of you and you don’t want to manage all the emails yourself in your personal email inbox,
then I actually recommend you create two different emails. And one of them could be your first name at your company URL. And the second one is something like hello or support or info or help or welcome, create a separate catch, all email for all of those other emails that are going to be inbound emails. But frankly, they’re just, you’re not really sure you want to give those inbound emails access to your personal business inbox.
So that means you would connect two separate business emails, one for you personally. And one is a catchall for all the other inquiries, and you should still have that. If you have a team in our company, we have a catchall email. We have hello, it’s Sweetlife co.com. And then we have very specific email addresses for different functions in different divisions within our business.
Like I said, for example, podcast@sweetlifeco.com is where people pitch us to be a guest on this show. I want those emails only landing in one inbox because frankly, I personally hate reading emails. I would rather do anything else all day long than sit in my inbox. So we actually create many different emails. So when I’m looking for something specific, I don’t have to dig it all out of one whole email.
I can go just to the podcast@sweetlifecode.com, email inbox, and find exactly what I’m looking for as an example. So that is the first kind of business email that every single business should have out the gate. Like I said, don’t be that person that has an at Gmail or at Yahoo or heaven forbid had AOL. If you have an at AOL, indeed,
then you haven’t listened to any of these podcast episodes. And I just don’t even know what to say to you at this point in time. But I actually did get an email from somebody that was at AOL and I’m not even sure how technically that is even possible anymore, but I did receive one a couple of months ago. All right. So that is the first type of business email manager you need.
You’re just going to use it to email people one on one, and to receive inbound emails. The second type of email manager you should have is what I call an email marketing manager. An email marketing manager is what manages your outbound communications with either your entire list of leads. So all of the people in your database, or with only a certain section or a certain subset of people on your list.
So an example of this is let’s just go back to that same case study. I shared about my international group of entrepreneurs that I coach on Mondays. I want to, for example, send them an email saying, Hey, don’t forget, meet me for a group coaching session register here. I am not sitting down to write individually emails to go out to each one of those people.
No, I’m writing one email and I’m sending it to only the people who are in that group business mastermind. So my email marketing manager is capable of segmenting, who I want those emails to go to and managing the outbound emails for me, my personal business, Gmail, number one at a one at doing that. Number two. If I did that out of my personal business,
Gmail, I would probably be flagged for spam email marketing managers are strategically developed so that they are compliant and you are not spamming people. That’s why it’s incredibly important to have one. As we talked about here, a lot on the show, we’re always talking about grow your list, grow your list. And frankly, I realized that there are many of you guys that don’t even know what the hell that means.
That’s fine. And don’t, let’s talk about that as it relates to email marketing manager. So your list is a list of names and email addresses that are either leads for your business partners, for your business clients, for your business, or they fall into another miscellaneous category. But where do you grow your list? Where do you collect this database? In a lot of companies,
we call this a CRM. It’s a client relationship management software, but there are so many businesses that don’t need a full fledged CRM. A lot of CRMs managed billing and communications back and forth and workflows and all of these bells and whistles that frankly, most businesses don’t meet. So that’s when we scale back from a full fledged CRM, and you only need an email marketing manager to manage your list,
segment your list, and continue to collect names and email addresses to add to your list. That’s what an email marketing manager does. And in this particular episode, we aren’t talking about the marketing side of how to gather those names, how to increase the leads to land on this list. I’m simply talking about the software and where to put this content, where to put this information in your client database.
So now let’s chat a little bit deeper about what else your email marketing manager can and will do for you. That’s incredibly important. And you must have, again, doesn’t matter if you are a local business, if you’re a brick and mortar business, if you’re an online business, you need to be using email marketing in order to grow and connect with your audience.
Because here is the goal. Here is the magic. An email marketing manager also utilizes artificial intelligence. So we utilize AI in the form of automation to connect, connecting, communicate with the people in your database automatically without you having to be there sitting down at your little iPad when you would rather be at the beach or wherever and typing out emails, having an email marketing manager sets up automation.
So what we mean by that is when somebody clicks a certain place on your website, or when somebody clicks a link in one of the outbound emails that you send a correct email marketing software will identify that they’ve clicked a certain link or taken a certain action, and it will do a number of things. It could either add a tag to that individual person letting you know that that person is interested in the certain link or whatever it was that they clicked on.
It will send that person an automatic email saying, Hey, we just noticed that you visited our scheduling page, but maybe you didn’t actually schedule with us. How can we help you get on our calendar so that we can serve you better? These are the crazy, amazing things that only an email marketing manager can do for you, that you can’t do yourself.
At least after a certain point, if you ever want to grow a profitable business, you are way too busy serving your clients and dreaming up awesome things. And not some ways to grow your business, connecting with partners out there, shaking hands and kissing babies. You’re not going to be sitting in there typing these damn emails, one for one. And it’s really important that you’re utilizing the software that we have available to us as business owners,
to create automation, which is going to build a deeper relationship with your clients. It’s preprogrammed. It utilizes artificial intelligence and you aren’t even there, but they feel like just send them a personal email. That is not something that your individual business email through G suite is capable of doing. So to summarize today, we talked about two different email marketing platforms that every business needs.
We talked about the fact that you need your personal business email in it’s your name or whatever word you can do, your first name and you know, like your first initial or whatever combination you want to do at your custom business domain or URL. And then we talked about having a separate email marketing manager that manages your database. It’s not a full fledged client relationship management software.
So you’re not diving into investing thousands of dollars sometimes into something like Salesforce, or even hundreds of dollars a month into something like 17 hats or even cheaper dub Sato. There are so many different software out there that they’re incredible. And if you were my client and we sat here face to face and I heard your business and what you need, I might actually recommend that.
But on today’s show, we’re just talking about basic email marketing in the that you can leverage it right now and you should be leveraging it right now without even having all the bells and whistles in your business. And the number one email marketing manager that we currently are turning our clients to granted. This could change a year from now. So don’t come hunt me down if I’ve found a better one.
But as of right now, the best email marketing manager that we have, that we love to recommend that super easy to use is called convert kit. We also have numerous clients that use active campaign and Ontraport. And I’m going to go ahead and put links to all of these in the show notes with free trials for you. And there are numerous different email marketing platforms that many of our clients use.
A lot of our clients love MailChimp. We, and I’ll keep it honest here on the show. We do not believe MailChimp is a good option for new businesses. It’s actually confusing for more, most businesses that we find based on the way that they have engineered the growth of their platform. So it’s just, isn’t a manager that we recommend currently, but I’m going to go ahead input all of the links.
Like I said, in the show notes for today’s show, I hope this helped clarify some business foundations. Again, I don’t care if you’re a new business and established business. I don’t care if you are a local business or a restaurant or a salon or a spa or a hotel. I don’t care if you’re a marketing manager or a speaker or an author,
you should be utilizing email marketing to connect with your audience, both from a personal business side and from an outbound route marketing and messaging through an email marketing manager. And I hope this show cleared up any confusion that you might have had about this, just like it did for my client and many on yesterday’s business development call. And if you have any questions about this at all,
you want to jam on email marketing managers, or maybe this actually opened up a whole entire bucket of new questions for you over and connect with me in my free Facebook community and tagged me in any questions you have. I’m always in there supporting businesses it’s totally free, and you can join that community by going to sweet life community.com and all of the show notes that I mentioned can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com
forward slash one seven nine. Alright, have an awesome week. I’ll talk to you.
This episode is for anyone trying to grow their LinkedIn connections to intentionally grow your business(new or seasoned) to connect with the right people and build professional relationships.
Summary:
LinkedIn is the best B2B social platform that exists. However, few people know how to use it, what to post, or what strategy to follow to make the right-profitable connections. In this show, Judy Fox, LinkedIn Expert, shares a simple and powerful strategy to accept the right connections and her 3 part system on the best content to share.
At the end of this show, you will know what to do with your LinkedIn connections, how to increase the visibility of your content and what to post, when.
Highlights:
Have a simple LinkedIn connection strategy
Know the types of content you should be posting on LinkedIn
Understand how to organically grow engagement with the right people at no cost
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there, and welcome to episode number 178 of the sweet life business podcast. My name is April beach. We have not met before. I teach Me as an entrepreneur is to develop programs,
courses, online business options, to grow and scale your business faster. So glad to connect with you here and everything we talk about is delivering a business strategy or a marketing strategy to help you achieve the goal of business growth, which leads to lifestyle, freedom to create the life you really want with your business growth profits. Today on the show, we are talking to those of you guys who are interested in growing your LinkedIn profile.
So LinkedIn it’s been around forever. You and I both know that, but very few people know how to use LinkedIn. And a lot of people still believe that LinkedIn is just a place to pop up your old resume and leave it there. And as a matter of fact, it’s changed so much in the last couple of years that this will be the fifth,
maybe even the six different podcast episode that we have recorded about LinkedIn, because I really feel like it’s an important platform for you to grow your personal brand or your company brand and for you to connect with your ideal clients and increase your sales. But the truth of the matter is, is I don’t believe that my company has been using LinkedIn as well as we could.
As a matter of fact, if I had to rate the way I have used LinkedIn on a scale of one to 10, it would probably be a four and that’s not good. That’s not passable for profitable business. And so today’s guest, I actually hunted her down and so she could share resources and strategies to help all of us increase our sales and the right connections on LinkedIn.
So this episode is for those of you guys who are trying to grow your LinkedIn connections, intentionally want to grow your business, whether you’re a new business or an established business, and you don’t know how to do it on LinkedIn, the last two episodes, if you were tuning into the show one 77 and when 76, my friend AIJ Wilcox was on the show and he was talking to us about how to grow your business on LinkedIn,
by paid advertisement. But this episode is all about how to organically grow your business on LinkedIn, without spending a dime to we’re going to dive in with today’s guest at the end of the show, you’ll know what to do with your LinkedIn connections, how to increase the visibility of your content and you’ll know what to post. And when, so this show is going to help you have a simple LinkedIn content strategy,
no, the types of content you should be posting on LinkedIn and understand how to use them organically to increase your engagement and connect with the right people without spending a dime. So excited to dive into this show with Judy Fox and with you. So let’s go and do it.<inaudible> All right, you guys are welcome back to another episode of this sweet life business podcast.
I am here with duty Fox. And let me tell you a little bit of the background story of how Judy got here. First of all, you guys I’ve been on LinkedIn forever, as long as I think that you can have been on LinkedIn, but I’ve never really figured out how to use it, how to leverage it for my business. And I knew that there was some strategy that I was missing.
We know video is King meat. We actually have done LinkedIn shows two years ago, but it still didn’t connect in my own brain. And regardless of what my team says and tell something connects in my own mind, it’s just honestly, just not going to happen. And so I’m sitting on like 120 LinkedIn invitations, and I knew there was some strategy that somebody out there knew in order to help me connect on a deeper level with the right people on LinkedIn.
And so I went on a hunt and I think it was in one of my Facebook communities I posted or somebody else’s community. I posted other, I said, I need a LinkedIn connection expert. I want them on my podcast. I need it for myself, selfishly and personally. And I know that all my clients need it and millions of other business owners and professionals need it as well.
So we are joined today by Judy Fox. And let me just read her bio and then I’m going to turn it over to her. She’s super impressive. So we’re both gonna have a great time today and we hope you guys do too. All right. Judy Fox hit 3 million views in 2018 on LinkedIn and has been featured in inc com as a topic. My video marketer and speaker at vid summit,
social media week, video marketing world broadcast your authority, authentic leadership summit, and more or less with over 18 years of experience in business development and sales, Judy Fox is a superpower positioning clients online and his authority as an authority in their space, building highly engaged audiences and getting more inbound opportunities. Now, Judy, I want you to introduce yourself and as you do it,
instead of me reading this, cause sometimes that’s just weird. Yeah, it does. But you have something here. Call them LinkedIn business accelerator. Talk about that. And then we’re going to dive into a ton of different LinkedIn strategies for those of you that are entrepreneurs and business owners here on the show. But first of all, what is, is business accelerator?
Because the fact that there is even a LinkedIn business accelerator tells me and many of our listeners that we’re missing the boat somewhere on making more money by leveraging LinkedIn. Yes. Oh my gosh. So I can’t even express how excited I am by the LinkedIn business accelerator because people who implement this literally hit millions of views either in weeks to months. And they are being asked to get on radio shows,
asked for podcasts. I have one client literally got shared by Arianna Huffington who has 9 million followers on LinkedIn. So there are people on LinkedIn who are getting access and getting featured in Forbes. And I just had another client get featured in BBC news. So, I mean, I could go down the rabbit hole for LinkedIn business accelerator, but the point of it is it’s a 90 day program.
It’s a container of leveraging the, what you really need to new do, and not all the things you need to do. What can you do in five days? And I will show you that it will grow your profile views by 2000%. I’ve had some clients literally get 200000% increases because it is just putting the gas pedal down on actually the things that work for what you do in person,
how to show up online and do the same thing. And it’s like a translator. Okay. First of all, we’ll put all of the links to the show notes. So you can find Judy and all of this information in the show notes for this week’s episode, which is number 178. So a couple of things we’re going to cover today. And I like most people have numerous questions about,
well, one of the things that I love about LinkedIn is it’s really powerful for companies like mine, which is strictly. And we just had Aja on the show, you know, AIG and Aja. And I jammed for a couple of episodes on paid reach through LinkedIn. Then he has his own take on that because that’s his area of expertise. But first of all,
what type of businesses do you think should be active on LinkedIn right now? Oh my gosh. So this goes back to my human. I even put this in my profile. I do human to human marketing. So as I mentioned, I have 18 years experience and I started my career as a chemical engineer. I then moved my way up. The corporate ladder in a fortune 500 company was being groomed and trained for the C suite and throughout that entire process.
And especially at some points in my career, being that business development, the seller, the Dewar role throughout all these corporate experiences that I’ve had. And the biggest takeaway is I am a human gatekeeper. I’m still a human being who was the gatekeeper to sometimes millions and millions of dollars at these corporate offices, corporate contracts, proposals requests for proposals. So all of these processes,
I kept saying to myself, I’m being sold to I’m selling other people like it’s this whole circle. And I kept asking myself, I’m just another human being that’s in that gatekeeper position. So I come to a conclusion that if you are human being and you are wanting to amplify the message that comes out beyond yourself. So say for example, we are attracted to other human beings and that’s why we have these influencers that we hire and we pay good money for.
And they advertise our brand. Will, can you imagine having your entire company filled with influential people who are leaders of your company, they can be that way on LinkedIn. And it’s a very natural space for them to be that way on LinkedIn. So it’s almost like we’re just amplifying the message of humans. And that’s why I say almost anyone can be on LinkedIn.
I know that sounds really blunt, but I’ve seen artists who are doing amazing. There’s a woman named Casey who shows her artwork and she is getting a hundred thousand views sometimes on her artwork. And she’s selling out in minutes because she’s visible. We know she exists and we can grab onto her content. And, and we can only imagine how many people are online.
Every single need that you have as a human is still a part of you. When you go to work, sometimes you’re willing to pay even more. Wow. Cause you want it done for you. You want that painting that she put out there because it looks amazing. Maybe it’s great for your corporate office and you want to buy it. Maybe it’s great for your background of your podcast or your video and you want to buy it.
Do you see what I mean? Like the corporate and professional world, I feel like it’s all merged now. I love that example. And I love that case study. I actually have a good close friend of ours will day it’s real day art it’s on LinkedIn and in his paintings, I can’t even venture to say what some of his opinions began at,
but he is on LinkedIn. He does really well. And I feel like I’ve seen that expansion, especially in the last two years where also being a mother and working from home forever. I’m seeing also things that I would never expect to see, but I think I personally pick up on it, just who I am as a human being, things about breastfeeding or things about self care or things that aren’t so much lack and white.
This is business things that don’t appear to be, as you were saying, corporate black and white content that they’re silent. And The only reason I have to say something so quickly is because for how many years were we told what is considered corporate, but it’s also considered corporate because they didn’t necessarily have as a male dominated industry that I’ve been in, in the engineering world.
Those conversations wouldn’t have existed anyways. So I am the leader that I want to be in the world and the leader that I want to be allows conversations for both male and female things that we all face. And just because men aren’t breastfeeding in the workplace, it doesn’t delete that. That is still a professional conversation that needs to happen because it’s work related to talk about raising children.
And it’s not just a female thing. It’s men and women raising children. And I, I challenged, like I love Sarah Blakely’s LinkedIn profile. If you go to her profile at the bottom of her about section, which is making it very clear that I memorize people’s about sections. She actually says my goal and mission in life is to balance the masculine and feminine energies Because that Is a powerful mission and goal.
And I, I love, I love following her. She was just on a LinkedIn live on LinkedIn. She did it from her RV where she’s on the road with her husband and she is still running her company and doing all the things, but showing up as a parent, showing up as we’re parents and all parental conversations matter, They do, especially.
Yeah, that’d be a rant, especially now in the last, you know, in the last three months. And I’m actually looking forward to the way that business models are going to change that it is much more holistically incorporating our role as parents, as well as leaders and executives, business owners and everything else. So I’d love that. Okay. Yeah.
You and I could jam on that all day, right? Here’s my primary question. We talked about it a bit and started before we started recording. The first strategy I would love for you to share is the answer to the question. What the heck do I do with all of these crazy amount of LinkedIn invitations? I know there’s a strategy behind it and for our listeners,
it just randomly sure. I’ll accept your invitation. It’s just random. Just click button, easy to accept. There is a deeper business relationship low that we need to mind. And I know that there is, but personally in my business, I do not have a strategy to do that. And that’s why I hunted you down. And so I loved your strategy.
And can you please teach us your strategy? You rule of thumb in how you approach connections on LinkedIn. So they immediately are the right connections for you. Yes. So first I love that we’re diving into the direct messages because I have spent my most of my business with my direct messages, creating opportunity, creating business. That’s where it’s all going down and the is on LinkedIn,
but it’s not going to happen if we give our attention and spread ourselves too thin, we all understand that as business owners, we can not be spread too thin because when we spread ourselves too thin, we’re not really serving anybody. So I love the idea of taking radical ownership. This is my direct message experience. You’ve come into my world. You are invited in and I get to decide where I want the relationship to go,
not you. So I really like that. That is clear in my head. I don’t have to tell them that, but that’s what I’m thinking. It’s my mindset. And that I get to look at your profile except you very, I except pretty quickly, I would just say accept, except, um, that one looks a little something’s off. I go with gut instinct and sometimes I reject or click ignore.
I would say it’s 80, 20 rule, 80% of the time. I’m accepting connection requests. 20% of the time I’m saying ignore because something just looks off. You kind of know, maybe they don’t have a profile picture or maybe they don’t fill out their profile completely. And they don’t have, they have weird letters in their about section something, but I don’t click into their profiles,
just judge on quickly looking at their titles, looking at their profile picture and their name with that. You can turn around and if you want to take action on, like you said, they’re on my turf. They could be somebody I could warm up. They wanted to connect with me. I could turn around and say, thank you so much for connecting.
Cause I’m just acknowledging. There’s no message. There’s no nothing. You’re just starting from scratch. And we’ve heard over and over. And I was just listening to Shaylene Johnson the other day. And she reminded me of there’s a million people reminding us it’s 20 to 30 touch points before somebody becomes a purchaser, especially if you have a higher ticket or high trust business.
So why would we think that any conversation in the first message is going to convert, we have to have way more touch points. So what I do is I have a generic message that says, thanks for connecting. I love to get to know new connections in the comments on the platform, see you online, feel free to follow my hashtag Fox rocks,
Doody Fox. And by having my own personal hashtag, it creates a very easy light pitch clickable link that sends them to my most recent content. Love it, bam. They don’t have to navigate through my profile. They don’t have to navigate to where you find your most recent posts. Cause every once in a while, somebody will say, I can’t find where your most recent content.
It literally takes you to a newsfeed of Judy Fox Of Judy foxes, hashtagging, and just a side step. So for people that have no LinkedIn started using hashtags, what like two years ago now, but they do well. And so some of the hashtags that I follow on LinkedIn, they only have, you know, a few things coming up in the feed.
Whereas if you all have that same hashtag on Instagram, for example, you’re buried in millions and millions of posts. LinkedIn is there yet. And I love that hashtags in general, but I also love that you have your own branded hashtag, which is so cool and what a great way. Okay? So somebody sent you an invitation. You don’t click on their profile.
I don’t know if I like that too. Sometimes that LinkedIn always tells people their profiles. You don’t necessarily know their profile judging USS just based on the information from the invitation. And then you copy and paste this super nice relatable response saying, Hey, great, you want to connect with me? You know, go ahead and follow My hashtag. Yes.
What is this do at this point in time? What happens after this? So what happens is I either have people say, Oh my gosh, that’s great. You have a cool hashtag or the responses I get are I’m excited to engage in the comments or, you know, if they are respecting the boundaries, the only other message that is freaking awesome is when they turn around and they say,
I’ve been following you for awhile and I’ve been commenting and I love your content. And then isn’t that a great next conversation because I know you’ve had 10 to 20 touch points potentially. So you’re finding out by just that message, by the way they respond. Number one, are they going to respect the boundaries, which you didn’t make them harsh boundaries? You just said,
I like to do this. This is my it’s like a soft boundary. And then if they push back with like, that’s awesome, I have been watching your content. I really blah, blah, blah, something, whatever. Maybe they start a conversation. That’s super hot because you’ve positioned yourself already. And you wouldn’t know that unless you did that message.
It’s without pushing them to tell you, I hate the, why did you connect with me? Right. Okay. Now I have to do all this work to explain. It almost feels defensive. Whereas this one opens up the door. It’s like a slight door, but it also opens up the door to just being amazing comment conversation on the public platform.
And if that happens, you’re just gaining attention on your content, you know, a thousand more views or one more comment or one more share. Yeah. And at that perfectly brings us into the next thing that I want to talk about. What an amazing organic way to increase, increase the eyes on your content. I mean, this is brilliant in so many different ways.
I’m super stoked to be connected with you and love learning from you already, Kelly, my assistant is going to be like, Oh my gosh, April’s going to have 10,000 things for me to do on LinkedIn, send you a connection request. You send me a connection request so I can practice my new DM and come up with my experience. It too.
It’s fun to make your own gifts. Oh, okay. That’s alright. I have a waving. Hello gift. Are you serious? That’s another way to give people one more experience in LinkedIn direct messages. That is not the same as everybody else. I’m not trying to pitch. I’m waving. Hello. And it’s just a nice gift that I can upload really quick.
And it’s in the gift library. I love that. All right. There’s a million things that you can do is send Judy’s gift to you, everybody Fox and shout out to Chad who helped me first launch my gifts. Yay. Thank you, Chad. Okay. All right. So Let’s talk about the content we’re posting on LinkedIn. You have three different personalities that you talk about as recommendations for ways that individuals can show up on LinkedIn.
Can you dive into those three different personalities and how to operate within and why they’re really Huntly important? Yes. So instead of thinking, we always come from a place of, I need to be creating content for my business. I need to attract the right clients. And I always tell people, if you start with these three pillars of leadership voice, so it’s this idea that a leader is recognized by the way that they walk through this earth,
by the way that they show up online. And we kinda know when we see their content, but we don’t always put our finger on it. But if you break it down on LinkedIn like this, and I’ll share, I’m about to share, I’ll start with the opposite first, which is too many people think, and they get on LinkedIn, they come from this,
how can I help you? And that tends to be a very, very low hanging fruit that a lot of people grab onto. And they think that their content needs to come from, how can I help? How can I show up for my ideal client? So this is the opposite. So I want you to delete the world of how can I help you?
It’s not a bad world, but it hurts us. It really does. It hurts our positioning because it doesn’t position you as a leader. It positions you as a helper, helping the helpless and people on LinkedIn don’t want to be helpless. They want to be empowered. They want to also show up as leaders. If you have all of your employees underneath you and you are lifting them up and making them feel amazing,
you’re not helping them. You are empowering them. So we’re going to switch to an empower language. And then the next thing we’re going to switch to is the three categories, which are the challenger, the creator and the coach. So I’m going to start with the coach. The coach shows up as a go to resource. You know, when you have a boss that you can trust to go to,
or a leader, doesn’t even have to be a boss, you have a colleague in your world and you know that you can go to them. When you say, actually you did that. When you were saying, Hey guys, I need to crowdsource for a person to be on my podcast about LinkedIn. You already mentioned that. So you’re showing up as a go to resource and you’re allowing your community to show up as go to resources in the comments.
So instead of just holding court and preaching at us, you were saying, Hey everybody, I know you all are leaders. It’s implied by me saying, I need a go to resource, total different mindset. Okay? Yeah. So then you’ve got that energy and you can say, these are my top tools for working from home. These are my,
this is my mindset hack. That was one of my videos I did recently where I broke down my mindset hack. That’s a coach. That’s go to resource for sharing what works for me, but not telling me it has to work for you just saying, this is what I do. What do you do? How can you show up as a leader in my comments?
Right. Fascinating. Okay. So that’s the leader personality. And then the second one you mentioned was the neighbor personality really ENT. Yes. The creator personality. For example, I was mentioning Casey is doing her. Um, we think creative types, but we also think so she’s showing us her behind the scenes, TimeLapse of her video and the psychology behind that is a before and after energy.
We freaking love that because there’s something that connects in our brains to say, how did a creator get from here to here? It’s sharing the journey. So we love the journey we love seeing how did somebody earn six figures? How did somebody get from barely making ends meet to a seven figure business? Like how many freaking shows do we want to listen to online and podcasts?
So there’s that energy. And then the other part of that energy is step-by-step actions. So when we, as a creator can show up either with that before and after energy, the journey energy, the, those types of posts do so well because they’re positioned with that mindset to think, how could I take another human being from a to B, Love it.
I would say that my downfall is that I would just want to hang out in that personality all the time, just because I’m a teacher, that’s what we do here on the podcast. So I think all of my posts would be like, okay, step by step to go from here to there. But you could and sprinkle in the other ones. Yeah.
But I feel like that’s not, it’s just not deep enough, the way that we’re doing it as a company, to be totally honest. I mean, I’ll just throw my own company under the bus here on some of these shows to be like, we suck at this right now. And that’s why we’re, we’re recording this show. You know? And I really do feel like this is something that as you’re teaching and as I’m learning,
and if you guys are watching behind the scenes on the video, as I’m taking notes, I have like crazy Fox notes, scratched all over my paper, hashtag Fox or hashtag, you know, as we’re, as we’re doing this, I just, I can see myself being like, okay, I think maybe that’s all you do. And it’s just a little almost to the point where it’s redundant or shallow or something,
there’s something off about it. But these bats were the last Leadership style allows you to share a bit more of your, I don’t know what to call it, but like it’s called the challenger energy. So where you come across as learning from your mistakes, sharing some of the vulnerable parts of your business. And that’s probably where you can show up in all these other areas and be vulnerable with the coach saying,
Hey, I need a resource because, and that’s the vulnerable part of the story. Maybe there’s a part of that story that is vulnerable to you. But the challenger energy really does have a curious energy. I’m curious why this failed. I’m curious why it took me 10 years to get where I am, you know, and the figure outable energy as Marie Forleo would say,
it’s the energy of wrestling with something and showing that part in that post. So the way challengers show up is the curious questions. It’s figure outable, but you could have a figure outable energy together where you say, let’s figure this out in the comments below. I need to determine how to start a podcast. And I am struggling. There’s a million platforms to start on and it’s a little bit of the go to resource,
but you’re potentially opening up more of I’ve made mistakes along the way. How can I reverse share so you can learn the lessons along with me. I love that. So that would be an example of that Using yourself to the next level too. Oh, okay. That makes sense too. There’s the challenger from the past when you challenge your past, but you can also challenge your future.
And I, I meant to mention that because I didn’t want to leave you hanging with only looking at past mistakes. You can challenge the future. I have one client that made a post and we decided to do a challenge of reducing our sugars together. And so there’s that that’s still a relevant post for LinkedIn because it came across as a leadership. I still would want to see the leaders of my company.
If they are taking on a challenge to exercise, that’s something we want to talk about in business because health and bringing health to the workplace allows us all to operate better and live longer and thrive and have better meetings because we have less cranky people. You know what? I am just going down the rabbit hole there, but, And mentally process faster and all those things.
Yes. A hundred percent. Okay. So at a post that would just come to my mind would be the same. Hey, listen, I’ve stuck at LinkedIn, just starting out. And just saying that as a company, we aren’t connecting here. We haven’t really connected here authentically with the right businesses that we know that we can help. How do you guys do this year?
And so, by the way, If you let other people look amazing and the comments give you advice, it’s powerful. It’s such a crazy thing. It’s so true. But I think that oftentimes that we forget that a lot of the content should be reading. And we talk about this a lot on Instagram. You and I both love Instagram and even Facebook,
even though Facebook and I have a love, absolute despising loopy relationship with each other for a business standpoint. But we know the rule of thumb is, you know, people like to share things that make them look good just across the board. Shareable content is content. People like to share things to make them look smart and tall and wise and experienced and funny and you know,
all those things. And so that really opening up the LinkedIn communication platform with that same sort of philosophy and understanding that people want to show up and they want to feel good about themselves. And they want to position themselves as leaders. Absolutely freaking brilliant. And I’m so glad I found you. And I will say leaning into the leadership voice. The one thing that when you were mentioning,
they want to share because it makes them look good. It makes them taller. It makes them all these things. It also can make them look like their future selves to be a leader at a business like you were showing up as a leader, wherever, whatever space, it doesn’t matter what your title is. You can be a leader in your space.
And there’s something very shareable about that too. The idea of you are their future self and they share your content because they’re like, wow, I would love to write something like that. I’d love to put something like that, video out into the world and what that person shared was so powerful to me. I’m going to share it. And I think the highest shares,
I think I got close to about 200 shares of a post and that went to half a million views. So it is very, very powerful to be shared on LinkedIn when your content is the one being shared. Basically I got messages saying, all I do is get on LinkedIn and see your content. I love it. I can’t wait to binge your content on LinkedIn and spend more time.
I will be for sure. And so let’s do a quick recap about what we talked about today. Um, beside the fact that we talked about the sweet life company sax on LinkedIn, we will not after this show. And if you’re with me and you want to make sure that you are authentically unintentionally connecting with really great partners and affiliates and your clients,
then you have hung out with us to the end of the show and you have listened to the whole thing. And we should be applying strategies to which are pursing. We talked about the DM strategy, having a set response and a gift that you can send to them. And it’s that response that really is like, Hey, great, thank you so much.
Follow my hashtag, which triggers people to go follow your hashtag actually decide whether or not they want to actually connect with you more than it helps to disqualify, which I love just as much as it helps to qualify ideal connections on LinkedIn and it increases or Ganek reach with your content that you’re directing people back to your hashtag. And then you talked about being a leader on LinkedIn and showing up in three different personalities,
leadership, creator, and challenger. And so my next question to this, even though this could be an entirely different show, but just to wrap this up, how frequently do you recommend companies or individuals should be posting on LinkedIn? Currently it is May, 2020, and this always changes with every social media platform. But right now, how often do you think people should be showing up and posting on this platform?
Oh, so I have, what’s the reason why I have this container LinkedIn business accelerators, because you really do have different patterns for when you are a cold audience, a warm audience, a warm audience, and a hot audience. I consider my audience to be hot. On average, when I’m posting, I hit the 300 to 600 to a thousand likes and comments,
10,000 to a hundred thousand views. So with that audience, it’s a different strategy than a cold audience. So I would start with a cold audience and say, you should be commenting. I know that sounds really interesting, but you should be commenting at least 10, five to 10 comments that are high quality in your ideal circles. Your ideal clients go out into that world into your ideal businesses and conversations you want to be having.
So go out and do five to 10 of those a day. If you can do, if this is the ideal growth strategy, and then you would post two to three times a week. I have some of my clients right at the two posts a week and they’re getting anywhere from 10 to 20,000 views a week. So that’s that strategy. The next is what I call my it’s that warm audience there,
you should be testing and playing around a little bit more. And if you want to ramp up commenting, because again, commenting just changes your entire business. And some businesses drive more traffic by commenting and more business by commenting. Some do really well on video. So it’s almost like playing around in that medium area. That’s where I work with my clients to figure out what’s your sweet spot.
And then I come up with a sustainable strategy. So my sustainable strategy for myself would be different than yours. But mine, for example, is I have a pattern of video document posts, text only post or image posts. And then I do about one post a week because I’d rather have my audience trust that every time I post it’s high quality. And then I go out and I do a ton of comments because I ended up getting more business from engaging with my ideal clients and commenting and showing interest in them.
And then they ended up showing more interest in me. So I ended up having a lot of clients that have never liked and commented on any of my videos or content. I love that. And those connections then go back and happen in the BMS to close deals and land condoms, the same plants. Yeah. I convert business to the direct messages, or I set up my Calendly link to live on my LinkedIn profile,
which is another powerful way to position yourself. It’s right there, but it has an application process to it. And the main reason why is because any human being can see your public profile, if you have your settings on public. So I do want to have you fill out a few basic questions. Do you have a LinkedIn profile or you, do you have a website you want to share with me because some people might be starting from scratch.
I honor that, but I also just want you to have a gate because I can’t have everybody book a spot on my calendar. Also it’d be on the phone calls all day long. And obviously in any case with that too, just free screening appointments where they get to you. That’s yes, that’s incredible. And it’s pretty easy to set up with Calendly and it’s a very powerful part of your that’s why I call it LinkedIn business accelerator,
because I literally want you to get business. I have some clients, I had one client, I just did our second zoom call. One-on-one zoom call. And she said, I have been asked to be on a radio show. Now two podcasts, a live stream. And I’m now being asked to give a keynote presentation at a company online meeting because now everything’s online.
And I was like, that’s only after two weeks. And she was like, I know I just blown away. I love that LinkedIn has come. I think my first LinkedIn training I ever took was an old Lewis house, even though Lewis houses and alas young, it was like Lewis Howes linked, influenced training 2012 or something like that, Which is basically I remember the set us house days,
how to set up your profile. And I love big blue it’s health span anyway. Okay. It’s certainly come a long way. And I, I think as business owners, we’re starving for a platform that we can trust that we can engage in a very real way where we can count on generating high quality. And there is just so much missing from understanding how to do this on LinkedIn.
You don’t have to sort through all the noise on Facebook and even all the noise and other places like YouTube or Google ads or SEO, which is so many different ways, actually like we were saying on a human level. And now it’s always been my preferred way to sell and connect with clients. But now in 2020, we are seeing so much that relationship sell.
And it doesn’t matter if you are a multimillion dollar business or if you are hitting your first six figures, no relationships, relationships sell. And I love, I love your strategy you taught today, and I really appreciate your wisdom and your time, the best today. Do you So welcome. I appreciate yours. I can’t wait to, I can’t wait to bench this And you guys can check out,
go to Judy Fox, J UDI, fox.com. You follow her hashtag Fox rocks yes. On LinkedIn. And we will go ahead and make sure all the links that we discussed today are available for you in the show notes of this episode, which can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com slash one seven eight. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.<inaudible> Thank you so much for sticking around to the end of this show.
I trust that you gained some very profitable and wise insights from Judy and from our conversation today. And I would love to know what your biggest takeaway is or what the action that you’re going to apply to your businesses. First, based on what you heard on today’s show on LinkedIn, share it with me, connect with me. Who’s over to LinkedIn search April beach and send me a connection.
And I would love to watch what you’re posting and connect with your content even greater. And then of course, make sure you’re following Fox rocks hashtag on LinkedIn, because Judy is certainly the expert. All of the show notes, everything we talked about on today’s episode, if you’re driving and just can’t write it down, all you need to do is remember episode number one 78.
If you go to sweet life podcast.com forward slash one 78, everything they talked about and all the links we mentioned on today’s show will be found in there. I hope you haven’t Awesome. I will talk to you<inaudible
