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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.
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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.
This episode is for those in Phase 2 – 4 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
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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 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 [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 signature offer, which I love to teach on, as you guys know, signature offers and signature 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 signature program or your signature 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 your signature offer 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™
Resources Mentioned:
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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. 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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.
[00:23:18] I’ll talk to you next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
Resources Mentioned: April Beach on LinkedIn
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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.
[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 signatureoffer.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 signatureoffer.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.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™
Coaches, consultants, speakers and authors who need to increase sales, and scale your business with a leading offer, course, training or program.
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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’.
[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.
[00:00:46] 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 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 or 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. 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. 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. 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, 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. 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 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] Hey everybody, and welcome to episode number 213 here today. I’m April Beach your host. And it is such a pleasure to be able to talk to you again, yet another week here on the show. Today we’re talking about how to lead in your niche by creating your scalable signature program or offer. It is one of my favorite topics to discuss because this is one of my superpowers, is helping you create your signature offer in your unique methodology.
[00:04:57] And so, we’re continuing the conversation we had on episode 212 last week, and we’re diving into the signature program creation side of your business. We’ve honestly talked about this so many times on the podcast. You can cruise to our podcast website at any point in time. All you have to do is type in the words signature offer or signature program, and you’re gonna be able to pull up all the times over the past four years that we’ve discussed this topic to help you get better results in this area.
[00:05:27] So here we are for another show about this, and let’s be really specific in who this episode is for. So this is for any of you guys who are really ready to scale your business. You have an established business. You’re ready to, and we’re gonna talk actually, about the fundamentals of scaling on this show.
[00:05:43] But you’re ready to increase your profit and it’s time. It’s time to create a framework of programs and offers that you have so that you can scale your business, increase your profit, and um, duplicate yourself. Even faster. So that’s what we’re diving into. If this is you, this means that you are in phase three of my start to scale up system.
[00:06:08] If you aren’t sure what phase of the start to scale up system you’re in, you can cruise to sweetlifeco.com/quiz and you can take a really short quiz and you’re gonna find out exactly where you are and this whole entire lifestyle business roadmap. This particular show is for those of you guys who are ready to scale, you know you’re ready to scale, and this is phase three.
[00:06:31] This is a great episode for you entrepreneurs and experts who are ready to take the lead and become the undisputed leader in your space. Here’s the issue though, so this is why you know it’s good to hang out and listen to this show. So if you’ve been spining your wheels and struggling to get noticed, you’re definitely not alone in today’s everything, everybody is a leader, expert everywhere. You know exactly what I’m talking about. Everybody is an online expert of some kind. It’s really not a surprise that you might be struggling to stand out even if you’ve been in business for a really long time and you wanna become known. You’re probably very, very, very good at what you do, and you might be struggling with communicating that across the board, in your business, across social media, and really across your messaging too.
[00:07:18] We’re gonna dive into that today. The answer to that is to develop your signature offer, and that’s guided by your leading framework, method system or process, which we discussed last week on the show. When you create a signature program, an online course, a membership, an event, or a service, or really an offer, and it’s derived from your unique method. It will change things in your company and it will impact your message and your profit like never before. So that’s what we’re diving, diving into on today’s show.
[00:07:53] And at the end of this episode, you can expect to; I’d be able to identify if you’re ready to scale with a signature program or offer. You’re gonna be able to identify areas of need that you may need to stand out in your niche. You are gonna know the most common types of scalable offers, and you’re gonna know the two different types of signature programs and offers, and you’re gonna know the true definition of what a true signature program and offer really is. So if you’re ready for that, let’s go ahead and dive in.
[00:08:35] Okay guys, so first of all, I have to apologize to you because I’m slightly losing my voice. If you have been hanging out with me on Clubhouse for the past couple of months, then it’s not a surprise. You totally know why I’m spending a lot of time, our whole company and our whole team is spending a lot of time on Clubhouse, and we have actually talked about how to create your signature offer multiple times in private and public rooms on Clubhouse.
[00:09:00] If that’s a topic beyond this podcast that you wanna dive into more with me, please do so. You can follow me at April Beach on Clubhouse, and we have our own Clubhouse Club now. Our Clubhouse Club sounds funny to say that Clubhouse Club, our Clubhouse Club is called Sweet Life Entrepreneurs. Of course it is. And uh, you can follow our club or officially join our club. If you are on clubhouse, just search the word sweetLife, one word under the clubs. We jam a lot on this, and I actually get to take your signature offer questions on clubhouse. But with that being said, that is why I’m losing my voice and I’m just super glad to be sharing this message with you on episode 213 here as well.
[00:09:46] So thanks for being here. So this is what we’re talking about. We’re talking about how to lead in your niche by creating your scalable signature program or offer. But first, let’s take a look at actually why this is important, why this is an important conversation to have and why you may really need to be focusing in and leaning in with me here.
[00:10:07] Number one, it’s hard to stand out with your marketing. If you’re struggling with your marketing, it’s usually because you aren’t being specific enough. And instead with this philosophy of going through and creating your signature program and offer, you’re gonna gain an immediate audience who clearly understands what you do and identifies you as the undisputed leader that’s gonna guide them. So the problem is you’re having trouble standing out. Your marketing is not specific enough.
[00:10:37] Problem number two is actually going through the process of creating a leading, scalable offer. It’s important for you to understand how to organize your ideas, how to turn your thoughts into reality, how to turn your expertise into a signature program, and actually regroup those things into your signature offer and the signature offer that scales.
[00:10:58] So we’re gonna talk about that as well here on today’s show. And if you’re struggling because you have a lack of systemization in the back of your business, so your systems. Aren’t able to be scaled. You might not even have systems yet in certain places. Creating your signature offer certainly solves that problem in a faster way as well.
[00:11:19] So first of all, let’s talk about some fundamentals here. What is a signature offer? This is a definition I wrote, Ooh gosh, back in 2018 when we first launched your signature offer masterclass. It was important to define actually what this is because there’s a lot of businesses out there that just launch a signature offer because it might be the most popular one or the most common one that sells. That’s not really what a signature offer is. Don’t worry. I’m gonna give you a lot more resources here. That will help you take this to the next level.
[00:11:51] But let me just start out by reading this definition. A signature offer is a unique program or service that you create from your expertise, method, and experience that delivers predictable, transformational, measurable results for your client every single time. Okay, so it’s created from your, IP, your experience, and we’re gonna dive more into this as. The reason why we’re talking about this so much here on the show and on Clubhouse is because right now our industry leading signature program called Your Signature Offer is opening again. We open it up a few times a year to help you, so we can roll up our sleeves with you to create your signature offer and become the indisputed leader in your space.
[00:12:38] And so we’re talking about this on the podcast in our clubhouse rooms, in our live stream, in our 1 0 1 calls. It’s all about the most important thing I’m so passionate about for you is creating your signature offer, because it’s all in an effort to help you do two things. Number one, identify if your business is ready to develop your signature offer. And number two, if you’re ready for an expert to guide you through the process and give you the step by step method to develop your signature offer. So if that’s you and you already know you want more help with, please visit signatureoffer.com and we’ll make sure that is in the resources for you as well. But if you’re ready to dive in with us and have us link arms with you and give you our process to do this, visit signature offer.com.
[00:13:28] Okay, so now let’s go ahead and dive into how we’re gonna break out the business training of this episode. We’re actually breaking it out piece by piece from the title. So let’s read the title of what we’re talking about here again today. The title is How to Lead in Your Niche, by creating your scalable signature program or offer. So I’m gonna break this up into three different parts that’s hopefully helpful for you to take these little pieces, wrap your head around them and start implementing them right here from the show.
[00:14:01] I love being known as a podcast that gives you step by step business trainings that other coaches are gonna charge you thousands for. So I wanna make sure you’re leaving with awesome action steps to get profitable and clear results just from this podcast alone. So part one, we’re gonna talk about how to lead in your niche. Part two, we’re gonna talk about scalable, what scalable really means. And then part three of this show, we’re gonna talk about the actual definition of what is a true signature program or offer.
[00:14:30] So let’s go ahead and dive into part one first. Breaking out the title of this show, How to Lead in Your Niche. I know some of you say it niche. Sorry, I, I just call it a niche. So how you do this is by number one, having the very best program, that you are the best of, the best of the best at what you do, That you are undeniably the program to go to in your space, in your market, in your area, in your geographic area, whatever that is for you. Most people, it’s online area, so that you have the very best program. That’s a number one way. It’s a development of your content into your program. That is how you. And this is not in any particular order. These are all parts of the ways of how you lead. Number two, that you deliver the most transformational results. You guys are probably, especially those of you guys that listen to the podcast a lot and and are always in our online business community, you’re probably sick of hearing me say transformational results. I say like, predictable, transformational, measurable results. Those are the three words, and you’re probably sick of it, but here is what that means.
[00:15:41] This is why, you need to deliver transformation through your signature program. There’s a bunch of different types of transformation you can deliver based on your area of expertise, but how you lead in your niche is by creating the very best program that delivers a transformation of your area of expertise, in your area of expertise. Also, how you lead is by becoming the most trusted leader. Now really let’s kind of break out what trust really means. That means somebody is submitted to your guidance and your leadership, that they are sold out in buying into the fact that you are going to navigate the way when they might totally be blind in this area, they completely trust you. When you develop a program, and this is all obviously around developing your signature offer, but when you develop a program and you move forward and you are the trusted leader for the people, they haven’t just bought your program, they actually trust you and they’re trusting you to guide the way, then that’s how you lead in your niche.
[00:16:47] Also, you have the clearest message and therefore the clearest marketing messages. If you do not have your signature offer or your signature program developed, you might be struggling with this. You might be one of the many entrepreneurs that I talk to, even those that have been in business for years, that there’s so many messages cuz frankly, you’re so good at so many different things.
[00:17:12] You wanna talk about it all. But what that does in today’s day and age of online business, way too loud, overwhelming drowning noise is. It doesn’t create that clear message and that clear marketing of your specific primary superpower. And so how to lead in your niche is to have the clearest message and to have the clearest marketing.
[00:17:36] Also, we want you to have some of the best, highest, most profitable sales. One of the ways that we know you’re a leader is that you’re making the most money doing this because people trust you, because you deliver transformational results because you have the best program. So therefore, naturally you’re gonna be, if not the most profitable, one of the most profitable programs because people trust you and you deliver that transformation.
[00:18:05] And this is what this means in order to become that leader in your space. When you do these things, it means you have the deepest client commitment. It means that you are sold out in love with giving your clients and your customers a transformation, that you promise that there’s nothing that’s gonna get in the way of you committing to do that for your clients, and it also means that you have the most thoughtful client experiences. And when we talk about client experiences, it’s really important as we talk about Signature Offer development. We teach this in our year Signature Offer Leaders program, is that there’s so much psychology behind the tactical things you’re delivering as well. That there are a lot of mindset and important psychological benchmarks that your clients have to hit and you are responsible to plan out, map out, and guide them through in order to be the leader in that space.
[00:19:07] Part one, based on the title of this show, How to Lead in Your Niche, You need to have the best program with the most transformational results, that you’re the most trusted leader with the clearest message in marketing, that you have some of the highest sales, if not the highest sales in this area, That you have the deepest client commitment and the most thoughtful client experiences. So that’s part one. And I promise you we’re breaking this up into three.
[00:19:33] Part two. Let’s go back and summarize our title again. We’re talking about how to lead in your niche, which we just covered by creating your scalable signature offer. So now we’re diving into part two, which is by creating your scalable. Signature offer. So what is a scalable offer? Scalable refers to a company’s ability to increase profit customers or services by creating systems and offer structures that deliver those results. So in quick terms, it basically means the ability to make more money by creating systems and offers that decrease time, increase efficiency, customer served and profit.
[00:20:16] It means we are creating structures in your company systemization, behind the scenes. Automation behind the scenes, but the offers, the programs, the services, whatever they may be, courses, memberships, we’re gonna dive into that here in a second, is that they are built and designed. The structure of them, the architecture of those programs is designed in order to increase your capacity while either keeping your time the same or actually decreasing your workload. So that’s what we talk about when we talk about what a scalable offer really, really is. It eliminates or reduces one-on-one work by adding this traditional type of online service. In most cases, it’s a course or a membership community or an online event, but that isn’t it.
[00:21:08] I love to talk about other ways, other unique, customized, scalable offer creation strategies as well. But those are the most common that people know. Scale’s also reached by designing custom or disruptive programs. Now this is usually a hybrid type of a program, so these are also offers and services unique to your business goals, profit and purpose.
[00:21:34] You probably have heard me say before and you’re probably thinking yourself, frankly, you know, just because everybody else is launching a course, does that mean I need to do it just because everybody else is, you know, creating this sort of a program? Does that really what’s right for my business and my goals and my profit plan? And of course, the most important your customers. So when we talk about scale, it’s really about the architecture and the design of what you’re doing and how you’re delivering your services, and it enables you to deliver the same results to more people, either the same time as you were working before or reduced time.
[00:22:10] Scaling also streamlines the processes that you teach, coach, or deliver so that then you can grow in your scale and scale your team. We don’t just scale the offer, we scale your way of delivering it so we can actually scale your method, scale your teaching, scale your processes so that we can grow your team. And that’s what we talk about when we work with businesses to actually scale your team. And it really moves you from overworking to what I call cluster working. That’s a very important thing, especially for entrepreneurs. You became an entrepreneur because you wanted quality of life, and this is how we do it.
[00:22:52] It’s in the process of scaling your business that you really start to achieve this life design that you had always hoped for. And as long as you do it in a strategic way. And your entrepreneur IQ is leveled up on how to do that. As long as you fully understand how to do that, you will achieve those results. Scaling also streamlines your operations and your systems. So it’s not just your team systems or your coaches system. It’s all of your system. It’s your client onboarding system. It’s your client onboarding system, it’s your communication systems, your marketing systems. When we talk about creating scalable offers, all of these things need to be part of.
[00:23:30] And just for one clear definition, Webster’s Dictionary defines ‘scalable’ as capable of being easily expanded or upgraded on demand. So there is the definition, so that’s the closure of part two. Again, part one, we talked about how to lead in your niche. Part two we’re talking about by creating scalable, and so we kind of defined here really what scalable is.
[00:23:58] It’s not only the offers, but it’s the systems. It’s taking your methods and reaching and serving more people at less time or reduced time to increase profit.
[00:24:09] And then the part three of this week’s episode, this is number 213, is by creating Your Scalable, which talked about signature program or offer. And so we have to answer the question, what actually is that? What is a true signature offer or program? Again, I’ll read the definition that I originally wrote about four years ago, just to help you put it into context. So your signature offer is a unique program that you create from your intellectual property, that your experience, your method, and your expertise that delivers people predictable, transformational, measurable results every single time.
[00:24:55] Okay, so the first note we have to make here is that there are actually two kinds of signature programs or offers. This is very important to understand because where you are in business, once we kind of understand this fundamental baseline, Signature program/ offer creation. It’s gonna help you understand the lines of thinking that you can have to move forward to get results faster.
[00:25:21] So there are two kinds, and I’ll reference all the other podcast episodes over the last couple of years when I’ve talked about this as well. Two kinds. Number one is foundational. Number two is influential. Where you are in your business is gonna dictate really what type of your signature offer you’re building.
[00:25:40] Both of those foundational and influential can scale, but which you choose truly depends on your business growth needs and capabilities right now. So a foundational signature offer, this is for those who have never created a signature offer or program before. You may be new in your niche. And this creation of your foundational signature offer gets you on the map, either in a certain area of expertise online or in a geographical area based on where you’re located. Or it’s for those of you guys who established business owners, but you really have not gotten the traction, or you really haven’t become known for something specific yet. So that’s a foundational signature offer.
[00:26:24] An influential signature offer is for those of you guys with an established track record of getting people results. So you are known usually in a one-on-one setting for getting people results in this particular area that you’re creating your signature offer and program around, and this influential signature offer stems from your unique method, process, framework, programming, mapped out steps, whatever you wanna call it, which you have tested and proven to be true.
[00:27:00] Your signature offer or your signature program stems from your unique method or framework, which you have used in the past or you’re in the process of creating based on your experience or expertise. And an influential signature offer makes you known for a specific outcome, deliverable experience, program service, and it makes your method well known as.
[00:27:26] And an influential signature offer when it is built correctly, can establish you as the leader in your industry so that other businesses are trying to follow along, trying to play catch up to you. This is how our, your signature offer program is. We’ve had this program for years. and honestly people are just popping up trying to create programs like it, but we’re well rooted in establishing our area of expertise in this because it’s our signature offer program, and that’s what I want for you as well.
[00:28:02] The what you do. Others are going to try to follow you, but you are the undisputed leader because nobody does it the way you do it. Nobody has your unique method, your unique process, and frankly your experiences that come into it. Your personal opinions in the way you go about doing it, and the method in which you get people results.
[00:28:26] So an influential signature offer can also really change the landscape of an industry and disrupt the space. Now let’s actually talk about, kind of breaking down some of the fundamentals here. What makes a signature offer an actual signature offer? Because we had talked about this in the beginning that just cuz it’s a thing that sells the most, or you know, if you are, let’s say for example, a graphic design firm, the most common product somebody may purchase from you is a logo design. But that doesn’t mean it’s your signature. Okay, so I actually get asked this question all the time, and I teach the components of a true signature offer in my Your Signature Offer Leaders Program. But for the sake of this podcast and just wrapping up this post question again, we’re answering the question of the title of this particular episode, How To Lead In Your Niche By Creating Your Scalable Signature Programmer Offer.
[00:29:20] This is what I want you to take away. Your signature offer is unique to you. It’s created by you. It’s derived from your experience, your expertise, your views, your theories, your styles, and your beliefs. Your signature offer is built from the foundation of your method, your process, your system, or your framework.
[00:29:43] And you can listen to last week’s episode 212 to dive all into how to create your unique method and your unique framework, and the difference between a method and a framwork. Your signature offer delivers predictable, transformational, measurable results. That’s what a real true signature offer is also. And your signature offer provides the roadmap for your clients to navigate the physical, psychological, and or tangible roadblocks that they have hit while trying to do it on your, on their.
[00:30:16] But now your signature offer is that roadmap that helps ’em guide through the way you are the trusted leader when they feel blind ,or at least partially unable to see you know how to navigate through and get to the end result that they are looking for. Examples of business models of what your signature offer could be. So we don’t start with the actual business model. I’m a really big advocate for this. We don’t just say, Oh, I’m gonna launch a course. Oh, I gonna launch a membership site. That is the last thing we do, is actually building out the structure of the business model. The first thing we do is extracting your thoughts, turning your thoughts and your expertise into reality in the form of your signature offer.
[00:31:03] And then here are the most common business models that Signature offers manifest and build into. It could be a full blown program. This could be a corporate program or a healthcare program or an educational program. Our clients develop amazing signature corporate, educational, industry leading signature programs. It’s really impressive. So that’s one of ’em. It could be a course. And how you deliver that course, whether it’s live or on demand. That’s, those are, We have a million other podcasts we can, you know, dive into about those. You’re welcome to search our podcast website. Just literally type in the Word course and it’ll bring you to every other podcast episode about courses and how to create your course.
[00:31:51] It could be a membership community, it could be an event, a live virtual event, or an in-person event. Your signature offer could be a service. It could be a one hour of service. You could have like the crazy, most amazing transformational one hour service that is your signature offer that you are known for.
[00:32:13] It could be a mastermind. And of course it could also be a hybrid business model, which most of our clients are, are building hybrid business models in order to get their clients results. And of course, I always want you to be realizing and remembering and frankly just thinking along the lines of the fact that it can be anything else. Just because a business model hasn’t been created yet doesn’t mean that you can’t create it. If that what works best for or your clients. So if you’re thinking, Wow, well I just kind of wanna do and deliver my, my signature content this way, and my signature offer this way and my signature program this way, but nobody’s really doing that. Please listen to yourself. You can do anything that you’re willing to build and strategize through.
[00:33:05] Here’s a quick story about that and then a will just wrap up this episode for you. In 2008, I had a crazy thriving consulting firm. I had licensed my trademark to offices in seven different states, and I had three babies at home at that time. By 2008, they were all under the age of six. and I could not do one-on-one consulting work anymore. I did not have the bandwidth, and so I, without even being some strategy, decided to launch an online course, and it wasn’t because it was the sexy thing to do. Nobody was doing online courses then you guys. I mean, it was like we had duct tape the thing together with a prerecorded Cisco WebEx. It was really, really, really clunky. So I didn’t copy what anybody else was doing cuz nobody was doing that yet. I did it because I literally had to figure out how to scale and increase profit while not even keeping the same time.
[00:34:04] This mama, I had to decrease my time because I was freaking exhausted. So I just wanna inspire you that it wasn’t something that I just was following the crowd. I literally had to do it because that’s what worked for me. And frankly, the companies that were coming to me to learn to launch their own business, a lot of them were international in my time here in Colorado, didn’t work for their time in Australia or Switzerland. And so they wanted things on demand. So I launched my first and one of the first Evergreen on Demand courses. Because it needed to be done. So I share that story with you because if you’re thinking about delivering something some way that has never been done before, do it. Like go through the process. I would love to roll up my sleeves with you and help you develop out that new business model.
[00:34:53] I’m a big advocate that we’re always evolving and there truly is always a better, deeper, and more efficient way where we can get our clients results. So I’m just gonna end this episode with encouraging you to be disruptive, to be creative on purpose, if that’s what works best for the creation of your signature offer.
[00:35:10] So thank you so much for hanging out with me today. Again, this was episode number 213 here on the SweetLife Entrepreneurial Podcast. I’m April Beach host here on the show. We’re gonna begin re begin bringing a lot of our experts back into the show coming up here in the next few episodes, So I’m excited to dive into back to some business trainings in the form of interviews, and today we talked about how to lead in your niche by creating your scalable signature program or offer. If you would like to work with me and my team to create your signature offer, we have two really fun things coming up. If you’re listening to this podcast in real time, you can very simply go to signature offer.com.
[00:35:52] We have a one day live virtual event to create your signature offer, and we have our your Signature Offer Leaders program, which is opening up in the end of February as well. And I would love to link arms with you and give you my system to make sure that you are creating your signature offer and process to become the undisputed leader in your space.
[00:36:16] I would love to do that for you. Okay. I hope you guys have a great afternoon or morning or night wherever you’re listening to, whenever you’re listening to this, and I’ll look forward to talking to you again soon. 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?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Download: The Ultimate Guide to Choosing the Online Business Model That’s Right for You
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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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
This is a great show for coaches and consultants who are ready to grow and increase sales.
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.
SweetLife Entrepreneur Podcast | Episode 65: Doing Things That Don’t Scale – with John Lee Dumas
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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?
Grab the FREE Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models and Virtual Services
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 signature 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 signature offer master class. 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 signature offer, just cruise over to our website and you can literally search our podcast website, just type in the words,
signature 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 signature program itself. So if you’re a signature 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 signature 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 signature offer that you might build. It could be for a smaller, simple signature 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.
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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.
Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.
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?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 signature offer masterclass. And that’s a totally separate thing to talk about. We have literally numerous podcast episodes about how to create a predictable signature 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 signature,
offer.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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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. Are your signature offer 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 Sweetlife co.com.
And if you are struggling, if you do not know how to turn your ideas into a leading industry, leading signature course offer program mastermind coaching event or retreat, then go to signature. offer.com are your signature offer. Masterclass is reopening in October. We only opened this masterclass twice a year. That’s it only twice a year. Can you 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 signature offer.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 episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Follow April Beach on Instagram
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Grab Annabelle’s FREE Clubhouse Productivity Planner!
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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,
your signature offer 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 life 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 Sweetlife co.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 signature offer.
Right? So where we teach everybody how to build out their industry, leading signature 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 B 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 signature framework or method, you know, how to choose a signature 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 and signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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,
and I will talk to you. 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?
Download the free Ultimate Guide to Online Business Models, Offers, and Lifestyles
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 signature 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 signature program. That truly leads the way. And as a complete side plug, don’t forget, we have our, your signature offer masterclass that is available for you to take@anytimecruiseovertosweetlifeco.com. And you can learn more about how to be involved in the,
your signature offer masterclass. And we go through the whole process with you in developing industry, leading signature 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 signature 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 episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Discover your business growth phase by taking the SweetLife Entrepreneur Self Assessment
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Thank you. It’s been awesome.
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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Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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 signature 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.