Are you interested in expanding your business through licensing but don’t know where to start with generating leads? Maybe you’ve seen our client success stories and want the same for yourself, but you’re stuck on how to begin. This episode is for coaches, consultants, speakers, and service-based businesses who are ready to dive into the powerful world of content licensing. We’re talking about practical, proven strategies to organically grow your licensing leads list. If you’ve been consulting or coaching for a long time and need a new way to scale without exhaustive marketing and launch modes, this episode is your starting line. You will leave with actionable steps to generate leads and take your business to the next level of freedom and growth.
In this episode, we unpack the basics of content licensing and break down three specific strategies to help you get off the ground with licensing leads. We start with a quick refresher on what content licensing is and why it’s such a valuable approach. You’ll learn how to leverage LinkedIn as a goldmine for finding ideal buyers, how to set up and host a roundtable event to position yourself as a solution provider, and the power of teaching workshops and speaking engagements. Our aim is to encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and explore avenues you might not have considered before. Content licensing can truly transform your business and lifestyle, so let’s get into it!
End Results:
You will be able to…Set up a profile on LinkedIn to leverage it for finding ideal licensing buyers.
Understand…How to schedule and promote a roundtable event to connect with potential buyers.
Discover…The steps to offer and teach workshops to organizations as a way to provide solutions.
Know how to…Use speaking engagements to position yourself in front of decision-makers and generate licensing leads.
Be able to take action on…Starting the process of generating leads without jumping too far ahead and being prepared for sales meetings.
Resources:
Visit SweetLife Co to apply for our programs and access training and resources
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Are you a coach, consultant, or service-based business wondering why you can’t seem to break through the revenue ceiling? Feeling frustrated because those with less experience seem to be more successful? This episode is for you. In today’s show, we’re diving into three proven strategies to 10x your revenue and elevate your leadership. We’ll unpack the importance of solving a specific problem, honing in on your ideal audience, and choosing one channel to reach them. If you’re tired of the grind and ready to upgrade your business, this episode is your blueprint. By the end, you’ll know exactly what steps to take to transform your business growth.
In this episode, I share personal insights and real-world strategies that have helped countless clients overcome similar obstacles. We’ll talk about why it’s vital to solve a problem that people already know they have, how to identify and target your ideal buyers, and the best channels to use for reaching them. I’ll explain why LinkedIn is crucial for those looking to license their content and provide tips on other methods like teaching workshops or speaking engagements. This isn’t fluff—these are actionable steps you can implement immediately. We are talking about real, practical advice that will make a difference in your business.
End Results:
Understand the importance of solving a problem that people are actively searching for.
Identify and hone in on your ideal buyer to target your efforts effectively.
Make a decision on the best channel to reach your target audience.
Know how to leverage LinkedIn and other methods for licensing your content.
Discover strategies to increase your visibility and revenue in a saturated market.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you feeling like your business is drifting and you need a quick but powerful reset? This episode will show you exactly how to reset and refocus your business in just four days. We’re talking about how to regain control without spending endless hours or needing a massive team retreat.
Whether you’ve just come back from a vacation or simply feel out of sync, this plan will help you pinpoint areas for improvement and reposition your business effectively. This episode is perfect for anyone who doesn’t have a ton of time but needs to sharpen their focus, strengthen their processes, and align their team quickly. If you’re feeling overwhelmed or detached from your business operations, you will find this episode super helpful.
In this episode, we dive into the‘reset and refocus’ process that I’ve perfected over 15 years working with hundreds of entrepreneurs. I break it down into simple steps to make it very manageable, even if you only have a few minutes a day to spare. We’ll cover how to review your sales, marketing, programs, and systems in a way that leaves you with clear insights without the pressure of immediate action. This step-by-step guide helps you identify what’s working, what’s broken, and what new ideas you want to implement.
End Results:
Identify what’s working well in your sales, marketing, programs, and operations.
Pinpoint what needs fixing without feeling overwhelmed by immediate solutions.
Generate a list of new ideas and future initiatives you want to create or develop.
Schedule focused review sessions, ensuring you protect your time and stay efficient.
Develop a clear plan to discuss with your team or coach for implementing improvements.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
How Much Money Are You Losing By Not Licensing Your Content Right Now
Are you a coach, consultant, or service-based entrepreneur wondering why you should dive into licensing your content now? In this episode, we address the cost of inaction and how it’s impacting your bottom line. This show is for those ready to step up and scale their business by licensing their content. We’re unpacking the tangible financial benefits and showing just how much more profitable you could be with a licensing model. If you find yourself planning to get into licensing“someday” but never really understanding its true potential, this episode will open your eyes and motivate you to take action right away.
In this episode, I dive deep into the numbers, providing real examples and scenarios that highlight how much money you’re leaving on the table. We’ll break down the marketing spend of traditional direct-to-consumer models versus a licensing model’s lower operational costs. You’ll hear a story of a client who found herself at a loss for what to do with all her newfound free time after switching to licensing—a testament to how drastically your workload can change. By the end of this show, you’ll have a clear understanding of why now is the best time to license your content, and the significant financial relief and growth it can bring to your business.
End Results:
Understand the immediate cost savings by switching from B2C to a licensing model.
Learn how to break down and compare your operational costs in different business models.
Identify how much more profitable your existing content can be through licensing.
Recognize the reduced workload and increased free time that comes with licensing.
Feel motivated to take actionable steps toward licensing your content now.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Ever found yourself pondering if your time is more valuable than money? If so, you’re not alone. In this episode, we’re diving into why licensing your content might be the game-changer you’re looking for. We tackle the crucial question: what’s the real cost of not licensing your content now? If you’ve been sidelining the idea due to your busy schedule or the money your business currently makes, this episode is tailored for you. Many entrepreneurs struggle with this decision, and today, we’re uncovering the hidden costs tied to not entering the licensing space sooner rather than later. This show is for anyone who values their time, especially if you’re feeling overwhelmed with the constant need to create, market, and deliver content.
In our discussion, I use real-world numbers to highlight the time and effort you could save by licensing your content. I break down the exact hours it takes to create, market, and deliver your material, and why doing everything yourself might not be the most efficient or profitable path. If you’ve spent years building your content, you might wonder why you can’t catch a break. Licensing could be your solution. By the end of this episode, you’ll have practical strategies to decide if licensing your intellectual property is right for you and your business.
End Results:
Understand the actual time investment to create your content and how licensing can reclaim those hours.
Make informed decisions about licensing by knowing the extensive marketing efforts required for direct sales.
Realize the ongoing time and cost involved in content delivery even after creating it.
Understand the urgency of licensing your content before it becomes outdated and loses value.
Identify whether maintaining your current business model aligns with your long-term personal and professional goals.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you looking to license your content faster? Especially if you’re a coach, consultant, or entrepreneur aiming to scale your business, this episode is for you. We dive into how you can sell licensing deals quickly and efficiently. We’ll explore actionable steps to change the buyer for your licensed offers and how to tweak your products for faster sales. This show isn’t for those who prefer long, drawn-out sales processes; it’s for the hustlers who want speed and efficiency. If that’s you, let’s get started!
In this episode, we talk about two key strategies to sell your licensed offers faster. The first strategy is changing your buyer. I explain why selling to smaller businesses, your clients, or even your competition can close deals quicker than targeting large corporations. We’ll cover why big deals take longer due to multiple decision-makers and why you might want to focus on quicker, smaller sales initially. The second strategy is about changing your product a bit. Sometimes a smaller, bite-sized version of your big program can be more appealing and quicker to sell. We’ll unpack both these strategies and show you how to implement them in your business.
End Results:
– Make quicker decisions on who to target for licensing your content.
– Understand the benefits and drawbacks of selling to large corporations versus smaller entities.
– Be able to break down your big program into smaller, sellable segments.
– Learn how to package and price your offers for quicker sales.
– Gain confidence in approaching both small and large buyers effectively.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Wondering if licensing your content is the right move?
In this episode, we’re talking about the crucial considerations for coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts looking to license their content. If you’ve been selling your genius directly to your clients and are now thinking of scaling your business by allowing other coaches or consultants to distribute your content, this podcast is for you. We dive into the key questions you should ask yourself before making this decision. Are you still planning to sell your content directly? How would licensing affect the integrity of your brand? What pricing structures should you consider? We cover it all so you can make an informed choice that’s right for your business.
What can you expect from this episode?
We’ll break down three main considerations to help guide your decision. First, we talk about whether you’ll keep selling your content yourself. This is essential because if you’re licensing to a direct competitor, it could impact both parties. Next, we discuss the importance of setting marketing rules for how your content is advertised by others. This is about maintaining the integrity of your brand and ensuring it’s presented in a way that aligns with your values. Finally, we go over pricing strategies, making sure you set fair guidelines for how others can price your licensed content. You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of these critical factors, empowering you to confidently navigate the licensing landscape.
End Results:
Understand if continuing to sell your content directly is the right move for you.
Set effective marketing rules to protect your brand.
Determine the best pricing strategies for your licensed content.
Know how to turn competition into clients by leveraging your IP.
Make ethical decisions that support both your business and your licensees.
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
How to turn your competition into your clients by licensing your material:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy6kiIrSSoxVuQfhM2XleupDnUAYTC5Nx
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Are you a coach, consultant, speaker, or expert wondering how to protect and profit from your content? This episode is essential for professionals looking to avoid the most common mistakes with content licensing.
We’re covering real-life stories and practical steps to ensure you approach content licensing the right way. By understanding these key mistakes, you can save yourself time, money, and unnecessary headaches as you expand your business reach and impact.
In this episode, we’re unpacking the top three mistakes that can derail your content licensing journey. From incorrect pricing methods to unclear rules and poorly structured offers, we’re talking about what to avoid and why it matters.
Drawing from real client experiences, we’ll discuss actual scenarios where things went wrong so you can learn and prevent those errors. This episode is a must-listen if you’re serious about scaling your expertise through effective content licensing.
End Results:
Understand Pricing: You will be able to accurately price your content by considering various factors including operational costs and the value it provides to organizations.
Set Clear Rules: Master the rules of content licensing to ensure your IP is protected and leveraged correctly.
Structure Offers Right: Know how to create a licensing offer that is not only attractive but also scalable and non-customizable to fit multiple clients.
Avoid Common Pitfalls: Discover how to avoid the common mistakes many make when they start licensing their content.
Negotiate with Confidence: Be equipped to handle negotiations by knowing what to include in your licensing agreement and how to present your offer.
After listening to this episode, you’ll be equipped to confidently move forward with content licensing, knowing how to avoid the pitfalls, protect your intellectual property, and maximize your profit potential.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Struggling to scale your coaching or consulting business? In this episode, we dive into the powerful strategy of content licensing. We’re talking about how you can offer your training, courses, or systems to other companies, saving them time and boosting your income. Perfect for coaches, consultants, and service-based businesses wanting to expand their reach, this episode unpacks who would want to buy your content and why. From your current clients to even your competition, you’ll learn how to transform your existing content into new revenue streams.
By the end of this episode, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge and strategies to make your content work harder for you, opening up new avenues for profit and impact. We’ll explore four levels of potential buyers for your content, starting with licensing to your own clients. Discover how empowering them to use your processes can be a quick and easy win for both parties. Then, dive into higher levels, such as turning your competition into partners and licensing to agencies, nonprofits, corporations, universities, and government organizations. This episode provides actionable steps to align your long-term business goals with scalable growth, leveraging your expertise without burning out.
End Results:
You will be able to understand who to license your content to, from clients to large organizations.
Learn how to transform your competitors into partners by licensing your materials to them.
Make a decision on which level(clients, competition, agencies, large organizations) suits your content licensing strategy.
Understand how to navigate the complexities of higher-level deals with corporations, universities, and government organizations.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
325
[00:00:47] Hey you guys, thanks for tuning in. This is episode number 325 and today we are talking about and answering the question, who can you license your courses, your content, and your trainings to? If you are new here to the show, please subscribe and make sure that you share this and see because everything I share here on this suite life entrepreneur podcast are proven business strategies and trainings that you can take to the bank that other coaches will charge you thousands of dollars for.
[00:01:12] So you can rest assured that you can actually take action on every one of our episodes. Welcome. If we haven’t met before, I’m April Beach host here of the show and founder of the SweetLife Company. And on today’s show, we’re really diving into. Who can you license your content to, and you’re going to walk away with ideas and even strategic moves that you can make moving towards licensing and scaling your business faster.
[00:01:36] So if that’s what you’re looking for, absolutely dive into the show. All of the show notes can be found by visiting sweetlifeco. com. Are you ready? Let’s go. Okay. So when we talk about content licensing, it means we are giving another company the ability to rent or utilize or distribute your training or your course, your system, your workshop or your process.
[00:01:59] So you’re not distributing it yourself. And I have tons of resources for you on actually what is content licensing on our YouTube channel and our podcast. So make sure you’re checking those out and you are not missing those. Now I really want to dive into specifically. Answering this question, who can you license your stuff to?
[00:02:17] So I get this question all the time. People are like, okay, April, this is really cool concept, but who would want to buy my stuff? And so let me share with you some basic mindset strategies first with the preface of saying, I’m not a mindset coach. I’m a business strategist, but I think this is important for you to understand.
[00:02:37] Companies identify that it’s faster to buy your trainings, courses, programs, your systems, and your processes than it is for them to create them themselves. Especially larger companies know that they probably don’t have somebody in their team that can do as great of a job as you can do by teaching your expertise.
[00:02:58] So they know that they can actually save time and save money by bringing your content in. Other coaches and consultants know that as well. So when you have a niche specialty that you are, it’s your genius, right? And you’ve gotten people great results, whether it’s through consulting or coaching before.
[00:03:16] Other companies want this. They know it’s very valuable to them. Increases the value of what they do. It helps deliver better results to their teams and even to their clients. So again, I have so many other resources for you on why licensing a different licensing strategy. I really want to move into who you can license it to, but I felt like that was important foundational information in case you, you haven’t tapped into our other resources before.
[00:03:40] So now. Answering the question, who can you actually license to? So the first thing I want you to be aware of is that licensing first starts with your individual personal business strategy, your personal goals of where you want to see your personal brand, your business brand, and the content of your work in the next five, 10 and 15 years.
[00:04:01] Licensing is a really cool process where we expand the reach of your work, but in order to decide who the best people are. Companies are to actually license your information to, we want to make sure that the strategy is right for you. So please take a moment and think about where you want to see your business, your personal brand, and your content.
[00:04:21] And as we move into talking about this, it will give you some more clarity. So there are four different levels that I’m going to generally share with you In this training, right? In this recording that we’re doing here, this video, four different levels of buyers, and we’re going to talk through each one of these here briefly to give you some information to be thinking about if that’s a right fit for that long term strategy for you.
[00:04:46] So number one, the first buyer, if you will, the first potential user or licensee of your content, you could consider actually licensing to your own clients. Okay. So hear me out. If you have a training or a process that you have taught your own clients, let’s say you’re a marketing coach and you have a specific way of creating, you know, content or, or doing online marketing processes, right?
[00:05:13] You’ve taught actual individuals, even other companies, but you know, individuals how to do that. Okay. Can you, should you, do you want to actually give those individuals who have already gone through your training, they’ve already completed your process, the ability to now utilize your trainings to share in their own business with their own clients.
[00:05:32] This is really, really a powerful option in licensing to your own clients. It’s usually one of the fastest ways that we see that we can start licensing your material without big, huge heavy sales calls or negotiations like we do in, in bigger corporations. So number one, I want you to think about. Are you in a place where you are ready to start releasing some of your processes to clients that have been through your systems before and they’re qualified to deliver it?
[00:06:00] That’s one of the things I want to talk about too. And I, I’ll do a whole separate video on this, but just a sidebar, you know, there’s this kind of master resale license business model where people that are totally not qualified at all can actually take other people’s content and resell it as if it’s theirs.
[00:06:15] That’s not what I’m talking about. I never recommend allowing your content to be distributed or licensed by somebody who is not qualified. So these are qualified individuals, you’ve trained them personally, they’ve been through your programs, they, they know exactly the process and you’re giving them permission to utilize this.
[00:06:32] So let’s go back to that marketing coach example. Let’s say you are that marketing coach and you thought you taught other marketers how to create content marketing plans. Now, would you like to enable them to use your processes? Maybe even some of your recordings or your trainings in their business, whether it’s to their own teams or even distributing it to their own clients.
[00:06:53] So that’s kind of licensing buyer. Option level one. It’s usually a quicker sale and it’s something that can really expand the reach of your work without a lot of heavy sales lifting. It’s really beneficial for you. And of course it’s really beneficial for your clients as well. Level two. Is licensing to your competition.
[00:07:12] Okay. This is an absolute game changer. I love talking about this, how to turn your competition into your clients. So this is for those of you guys who you’re kind of done coaching or consulting or teaching on what you have been doing. You’re ready for this next level of your business. You don’t so much want to continue to do this one to group or even went to individual through your own company buyer level two are actually going and reaching out to businesses that have been your competition and giving them permission to utilize your trainings with their clients in their business.
[00:07:48] So imagine this and oh my gosh, I have so many podcast episodes and resources on this and more videos on this If this is what you want, we can just totally geek out on this whole buy in level option But let me just leave this with you imagine Not having to compete With your competition, creating this really cool, even mastermind community collective of businesses that are doing the same things, and they’re all utilizing either all or even parts of your training and content to actually insert into to Their business so immediately they’re no longer your competition because you’re not selling that content yourself You’ve leveled up their business.
[00:08:29] You’re making more money and you’ve completely moved yourself into a blue ocean So level number one licensing to your clients level number two licensing to what has been your competition? There’s a lot more deep business future strategy we should talk about in that, but for the sake of what we’re talking about here in this video today, it gives you a great baseline of things to be thinking about.
[00:08:50] Okay, so now let’s go a little bit bigger. Now let’s talk about level number three. Level number three are organizations like agencies or smaller businesses. Or even nonprofit organizations. These businesses, these companies are always looking for great content. So that’s that kind of level three buyer.
[00:09:12] And as you’re moving up these levels, I want you to know that in many cases for most of our clients, the cost of their licensed product, basically they make more money goes up. So the higher the organization and the higher the value and the more people Okay. The more people that your content is going to reach, the more money you’re going to make licensing that particular piece of content.
[00:09:32] So at level three is think about agencies or think about other small to mid sized businesses. Think about even chambers of commerce or groups and collectives. So if there are, you know, big business associations, these are great level three buyers. And if this is the place where you’re at, you can even still continue to sell your own content and license your things to agencies.
[00:10:01] So that’s at level 3. So level 3 is at, again, that mid size business or small to mid size business, non profit agency. And I want you to pause just for a second and imagine at least one or a couple pieces of your content and trainings and how that could benefit a mid sized business. And frankly, how it could benefit you and how many more people you could reach with your work and how many more companies you could help.
[00:10:27] And then level four are universities, corporations, and government. And we have clients that actually license their content in all of these different levels, all the way up to universities. We have multiple clients that are licensing their courses and content into universities. And corporations and government.
[00:10:48] And so this higher level, me be honest with you, these deals usually take longer to close, but they’re bigger deals. So just think the bigger the deal, the higher the level that you license to, the longer these deals take to close. There’s more people to talk to more red tape that you kind of need to get through.
[00:11:05] Um, so, you know, again, As you’re watching this and you’re thinking about this strategy, you can be thinking about how fast do I want to profit or do I want to, you know, wait for these big deals to close, but that level four, these are great buyers. So universities, government and corporations are also always on the look out for your content, whether your content is an internal training for their staff to really level up their, their staff’s ability in a certain, Area or whether they’re gonna take your content and distribute it to end users so your content can be internal and it can be distributed.
[00:11:43] And so that next level a buyer is a really great opportunity for you if you have a significant program that can guarantee results to their end users, whether it’s internally to their staff, and of course externally to their buyers. So those are four different, very general levels. And the purpose again of me sharing this with you is to help you just open up your mind to the world of all the things you can do with your content.
[00:12:11] So that training you created that you aren’t selling anymore, maybe frankly, you’re just burned out teaching that topic. Maybe you’re ready to move on to the next level. Maybe you have been working a nine to five job and this is your area of expertise. And you have processes and systems that you have created that are out of your own intellectual property.
[00:12:31] They aren’t owned by a company, they’re yours. And you want to start increasing your profit outside of your work. You are absolutely in a place where you can look to other companies and all these different, may not be your clients. You know, you can’t really license content to your clients if you’re working a nine to five, but other agencies and even other businesses based on your work, of course, as long as it doesn’t compete with your employment agreement.
[00:12:55] So. Those are some things that I want you to be thinking about, and I just want to kind of share a little story with you just to wrap this up about one of the first things that I did with licensing and my thought process around this. So hopefully this helps you. So when I first got into licensing, it was late 2020.
[00:13:13] 2008, 2009, and one of the things I realized about myself was that I really wanted to be helping other businesses, and I had all of this content that I was sitting on. In this content that I was sitting on, I had actually created it for a B2C company and my own B2C company. But prior to that, I had even been a business strategist and coach even before I created this content.
[00:13:37] So I just knew that I wanted to work with other businesses. It’s just where I belong. And so the very first thing that I did is instead of continuing to sell my online courses directly to clients, I connected with every other coach in my industry that was trying to do the exact same thing as I was, and I gave them an opportunity to take all of my classes.
[00:13:59] And this is the language, this is the goal that I want to give you today. This is a language I used with them. I said, Take my courses and make them your own and sell them to your clients. That’s what I said. And when we’re looking at like the cost that it takes or the time that it takes, I have a little cheese sheet note here that I always reference back.
[00:14:22] On average, data shows that it takes 28 to 36 hours to create one hour of an employee training. That’s 28 to 36 hours to create the IP, create the actual curriculum, actually produce the training and have it ready to go 28 to 36 hours to create one hour of training. So going back to what I was offering these other consultants, I had eight courses that were created and each one was about on average an hour long.
[00:14:55] I was literally saving them hundreds of hours by taking my own courses and making them their own and giving them permission to license my own courses. And that was to my competition. And it was an important part of my longterm business strategy for myself. So I always love sharing like real world practical stories about my clients and about how I’ve done licensing to help you really understand how you can apply this to your business.
[00:15:18] And you can be thinking about how you want to move forward with licensing. So again, today. We covered who you can license to. We covered the four different levels of starting out with your exact clients. You can license your material to, and then you can even reach out to your competition. Then you can go to small businesses, agencies, even organizations.
[00:15:37] And then the next level up would be corporations, government, and universities, and all of these are possible for you as long as you have amazing content that gives people transformational results. All right. That is a wrap for episode number 325 for all the resources and even the transcription and the show notes and everything that I talked about.
[00:15:57] Cruise over to SweetLifeCo.com and you can get everything you need there. And if you’re ready for personalized strategic support, you can apply to work with us, attend one of our online workshops, or even attend one of our in person retreats. I would love to work with you and help you Again, all of it can be found over at SweetLifeCo.com I’ll talk to you soon.
Are you sitting on valuable content and wondering how you can monetize it through licensing? This episode is tailor-made for coaches, consultants, and other subject matter experts who possess content that’s just waiting to be shared with a wider audience. We’re going to clarify what content is licensable, how companies are hungry for it, and why knowing this is critical for taking your business operations to new levels of growth and efficiency. If your content is collecting dust, listen up – this is not the show for you if you’re not yet clear on what content licensing is. I suggest first catching up on our previous episode about the basics of content licensing before diving into this one.
In this chat, we unpack three lucrative types of licensable content—each with varying income potential, represented by one, two, or three dollar signs. From leveraging distribution channels with compact pieces like articles and videos, to enhancing other programs with your trainings or workshops, and even offering complete processes that other companies can use independently. I even share a personal story about how I repurposed my own courses, and how that could be a game changer for you, too. We break down these strategies into real-world applications to help you visualize the incredible potential of licensing the valuable content you already have.
End Results:
Recognize short, impactful content that can be used to fill a company’s distribution channels.
Identify how your smaller training modules can augment existing programs to create added value.
Understand the goldmine that is complete programs and courses, ready for you to license.
Get clarity on whether your content fits better as internal training for teams or as client-facing solutions.
Realize the potential profitability of licensing and how it contributes to a scalable business model.
Resources:
For all your licensing resources, free tools, and business strategies, visit sweetlifeco.com.
To tap into a complimentary licensing 101 video, check out licensingtools.com.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Are you sitting on valuable content and wondering how you can monetize it through licensing? This episode is tailor-made for coaches, consultants, and other subject matter experts who possess content that’s just waiting to be shared with a wider audience. We’re going to clarify what content is licensable, how companies are hungry for it, and why knowing this is critical for taking your business operations to new levels of growth and efficiency. If your content is collecting dust, listen up – this is not the show for you if you’re not yet clear on what content licensing is. I suggest first catching up on our previous episode about the basics of content licensing before diving into this one.
In this chat, we unpack three lucrative types of licensable content—each with varying income potential, represented by one, two, or three dollar signs. From leveraging distribution channels with compact pieces like articles and videos, to enhancing other programs with your trainings or workshops, and even offering complete processes that other companies can use independently. I even share a personal story about how I repurposed my own courses, and how that could be a game changer for you, too. We break down these strategies into real-world applications to help you visualize the incredible potential of licensing the valuable content you already have.
End Results:
Recognize short, impactful content that can be used to fill a company’s distribution channels.
Identify how your smaller training modules can augment existing programs to create added value.
Understand the goldmine that is complete programs and courses, ready for you to license.
Get clarity on whether your content fits better as internal training for teams or as client-facing solutions.
Realize the potential profitability of licensing and how it contributes to a scalable business model.
Resources:
For all your licensing resources, free tools, and business strategies, visit sweetlifeco.com.
To tap into a complimentary licensing 101 video, check out licensingtools.com.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Course Creators: License Your Way to Growth. In this episode, we’re diving into the major question that’s on many of your minds: Can I license my course, training, or content? If you’re a coach, consultant, author or speaker with valuable trainings and content looking to license to other companies, you’ve come to the right place. We’re peeling back the curtain on the prerequisites for licensing to help you gauge if your content is ready for the next step. This isn’t for newbies still finding their footing – we’re looking at established business owners who are already good at what they do. If you’re wondering how to leverage your expertise and extend your influence, then this is for you.
We cover the key ingredients that make your content license-ready. You might be surprised to learn that your program doesn’t need to be fully built before licensing— in fact, it’s better if it’s not. Save yourself time and adopt a strategic mindset to turn your proven methods into licensing gold. I share insights on positioning your business for the future and discuss how important it is to think about how licensing will shape your brand in the long term. Plus, you’ll hear an inspiring case study about a client who licensed her yet-to-be-created course for a whopping seven-figure sum!
End Results:
You’ll be positioned to start considering if licensing is a suitable growth strategy for your business.
Understand the necessity to provide predictable, transformational, measurable results through your content.
Gain insight into the strategic foresight required for long-term thought leadership and brand positioning.
Discover the potential to turn your expertise into a licensed program, even if it’s not fully developed.
Learn from real-life success stories to inspire your own journey in content licensing.
Resources Mentioned:
Free licensing business growth tools: visit sweetlifeco.com
Licensing 101 Video: licensing-tools.com
Million Dollar Licensing Offer Masterclass: For those who need guidance in curating their curriculum for licensing.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
322
[00:00:46] Hey there. Welcome back to the show. Today we are answering the question. Can I license my course? Yes. Training for content. And so if that’s what you’re looking for, you are in the right place. I’m April Beach host here at the Sweetlife Entrepreneur Podcast and CEO of the SweetLife Company. And I’ve been teaching experts, coaches, and consultants to license our content for over a decade.
[00:01:09] And I want to unpack who this episode is actually for. So if you are a subject matter expert, we’re Coach consultant, you may be an author or a speaker and you have trainings and content that you’re interested in licensing to other companies. I want to unpack some prerequisites for licensing here to help you identify whether or not your content is ready.
[00:01:32] So if that’s what you’re looking for, this is episode number 322. You can find all of the resources and tap into our free licensing, business growth, business tools, videos, strategies, worksheets by visiting SweetLifeCo. com. All right. So this is for those of you guys who are established business owners. So.
[00:01:54] Let’s take a little hint from that. The idea here is that you need to be good at what you do. So prerequisite number one, you need to be able to deliver results. If you are a brand new coach, a brand new consultant, welcome to the world of coaching and consulting. It is growing rapidly. It has been growing rapidly, especially over the last decade.
[00:02:16] And we want to make sure that before you give another company permission to actually utilize it, that you have a proven record of getting people results. So prerequisite number one is, do you have a system, process, curriculum, an outline, a methodology, a framework? Do you have a way of taking people from one place to another place?
[00:02:45] Or businesses from one place to another place. We’ve talked about this on shows over the years. We actually teach this when we teach million dollar offer engineering. But the key phrase I want you to ask yourself is, does my program, content curriculum, whatever it is, deliver predictable, transformational, measurable results?
[00:03:10] Are you capable of doing that? Now, one of the things I do want to say is number two is you actually don’t even have to have a thriving, established coaching and consulting business. And I’m going to share with you a case study of one of our clients who was very good at what she did, but she didn’t even have her consulting business launched.
[00:03:29] She wasn’t even in her own independent business space. She was just very good at what she did based on her professional background. So I don’t want you to think, Oh my gosh, I don’t have a business. I don’t have all these followers, by the way, followers do not equal the value of what you deliver. Those are vanity metrics.
[00:03:47] We don’t even look at those. The reality is, is can you deliver companies or individuals reason results and, and have you done that in the past? That is the most important thing. Now, number two, and this is probably going to surprise you and I’m going to save you time. I’m hoping to save you time. Your program does not have to be built all the way out.
[00:04:09] As a matter of fact, and I will be doing more podcast episodes about this, so make sure you’re subscribed and we can hang out together. I can keep pouring into you. As a matter of fact, taking the time to build your program out could greatly hurt you, which I will be unpacking why that is in other episodes.
[00:04:26] It doesn’t have to be built into a place. As a matter of fact, when we talk to new clients that are considering working with us to help them build out their licensing packages and in pricing and sell them, oftentimes I hear, well, I just keep need to work on it. I need to build it first. That is absolutely not the case.
[00:04:46] So if you do not have a course built or a training built yet, I But you still have a proven method for getting people results. You can totally move into licensing and I actually don’t want you to wait. You know, there are so many different strategies when we talk about scaling, coaching and consulting businesses.
[00:05:05] There’s so many different strategies about selling something before you build it. I have to say that I am usually not an advocate of that. In that coaching and consulting space, I at least want us to be frameworked out to have a built in an LMS to understand the user experience and in the client experience and the transformational benchmarks.
[00:05:27] If we were just talking about building and growing your coaching and consulting business on the B to C side. Normally, I’m not a huge advocate about totally winging it, pulling something out of the air. Actually, I’m never an advocate of just pulling something out of the air. And selling it. But a lot of coaches say to do that on that side of the business, and I’m sure they have their reasoning and strategies.
[00:05:49] Normally, I’m not that person, guys. Okay? I’m just going to be honest. But, now we go over and we talk about content licensing and whether or not you are able to release your content. Now we’re talking about the fact of selling a proven method, curriculum, strategy or process that can be built out later, according to who you license it to.
[00:06:13] So number one, you have to be really good at what you do. Number two, you don’t have to have it built yet. As a matter of fact, please don’t take the time to build it, because time is money. Is money, especially when we’re talking about content licensing. If you’re thinking about doing this, you’re thinking about getting into it and you’re like, Oh, well, I don’t really have the time and I don’t, you know, I’m not really ready to start in it.
[00:06:35] You are absolutely losing money. Thousands and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. Okay. So just be mindful of that. And you know, the other thing, and this is number three, I’m going to share with you here on this particular show, I told you these are going to be high value short time, so you can binge them and move on to the next one.
[00:06:54] The other one is something that I really want you, if you can take away anything from today’s show, please take away this in order to license your content. We need to know what you want your next five to 10 years of your business and life to look like. And oftentimes that seems like so big, especially if you are new into an industry like licensing, like most people are, because it’s still this best kept secret.
[00:07:23] It’s one of those things that with licensing, We can’t take it back, okay? So let me expand on that a little bit. If you were to launch a course, or a training program, or a retreat, or a mastermind, and you do it, and you go through the process, and maybe you liked it a couple times, and you got burned out on it, and you just, you can stop.
[00:07:45] You can stop selling it. When you license, And you give permission to another company to distribute your content. It’s for the term of a license agreement. And so once you put it out there, you can’t take it back. And so let me tell you why this is important for the context of, of what we’re saying here today.
[00:08:02] And, and I don’t want to scare you away from this, but I want to be fully honest with you. Because a lot of coaches, consultants, and experts come to me for help licensing something that they did not get coaching on before, and they made a lot of mistakes and they can’t take them back. And that’s one of the reasons why I decided to do this podcast series, because I want to save you from these mistakes.
[00:08:27] Okay? And so here’s what I want you to take away from this show. I want you to ask yourself, what do I want to be known for in regards to this training or content for the next five to 10 years? If you’re in a place like frankly, many of our clients are, let me give you a little bit of behind the scenes here where you’ve been in business and you’re looking for your next level business model, you’re looking to free up your time and increase your profit and truly scale, then licensing is a great opportunity for you.
[00:09:02] But here’s the question. What you license, or I should say, what will you license? Because what you license. We don’t get to take back and I want you to be thinking about how well known you want to be for that content Are you okay with the thought of another business? Distributing your training and content if this is the mountain you’re gonna die on and you want to become the thought leader And you want to be the end all be all company to directly deliver that particular training B2C then who you license it to Matters We’re not going to license it to your competition.
[00:09:44] And so those are just some of the things that I want you to be thinking about. When clients come in to work with us for licensing, the very, very first thing, phase one of our licensing plan is positioning. And that’s what I’m sharing with you here today on this show. I want you to understand the importance of how you want to position yourself in the next three steps.
[00:10:04] Five, 10, 15, 20 years. How do you want your thought leadership to be positioned? How do we want your brand to be positioned? We can do it any way you want. I’m not saying you’re going to lose it all. As a matter of fact, we build thought leaders through licensing. Let me say that again. We build thought leaders through licensing.
[00:10:25] I want you to sit with that, but what we give away, what you’re thinking about extending out to others will be affected based on your personal professional goals in your company goals. And so those are the three things I wanted to unpack on this show. Who can license their content, right? So number one, you have to be good at what you do.
[00:10:49] You have to have a methodology, content, framework, training, course, or process. Whether it’s built or not, that gets people, remember these three words, predictable, transformational, measurable results. If you don’t have that yet, even if it’s not built out, but if you don’t have your content, your method, your process, your curriculum built out, cruise over.
[00:11:16] We are happy to help you. We have our million dollar licensing offer masterclass where we actually teach you how to curate your curriculum to build your licensing offers. It’s called offer engineer. That’s where you should be. And that’s where you are. Awesome. We are here to help you. But if you already have that, you’ve had that for years, you’re an expert in your space, then great.
[00:11:38] Well, you know, skip to step number two, don’t worry about guessing where it needs to be built out. You just take what you have, whatever the structure of that looks like. And then we get to take it into step number three, which understanding how you want to position yourself as a thought leader in the future, that’s going to help you package up your material to license it.
[00:11:57] And so those are the three steps I want you to be processing, and I can’t overestimate how important your understanding of your strategy is in, in this whole process. If you want to be known for your work, thinking about that, and we can make you as known as known can be, or we can make you a ghost and still make hundreds of thousands of dollars through licensing your content.
[00:12:22] But it’s up to you. And the point I’m making to you is once you decide that, we can’t. Really take it back. And so those are the things I want you to be thinking about. And that’s why I am recording this show in this video for you. If you are finding us on YouTube, our new YouTube channel, I’m so stoked that you’re here.
[00:12:39] Please subscribe to this. We would love to continue to pour into you. Now, let me tell you. Go ahead and share with you a case study like I promised I would about one of our clients who didn’t have a consulting business and didn’t even have a course built. As a matter of fact, her case study, um, she just closed.
[00:12:59] Two of our first licensing deals in this past week of recording this show, but I did do a whole 30 minute interview with her where she shares her process. She went through that also can be found cruise over to our YouTube channel as well, where you can really hear behind the scenes and the details. But I just want to share this story with you so that you are aware.
[00:13:18] So this particular client was a professor. Okay. So she did have an established area of expertise. She’s been a teacher. She has her doctorate. You know, she has been in the corporate world for a very long time. So she’s worked with companies. She’s developed plans and processes in curriculum within companies.
[00:13:39] So she, she was great at it. And she just licensed her course, That’s based on her intellectual property, but it’s not yet built anywhere to multiple universities. And her first check is 142, 000. Her licensing deal for one university is over a million dollars for one course that she hasn’t even built yet that’s based on her expertise.
[00:14:07] And if you want to tap into her case study, and she’s not the only one. I mean, it seems ridiculous. As a matter of fact, I was saying this in one of our live streams where I was like, I can’t even share this case study. People are going to think this is absolute bullshit. Like this is crazy to take a course that isn’t even built, but from established IP and license it for over a million dollars.
[00:14:28] She’s a single mom. She’s a professional. She’s awesome. And frankly, she’s just like you. And so those are the things that can happen with licensing. You don’t have to have it built yet. You just have to have content that is proven, even if it’s from your own brain and your own teaching and your own workshops and your own expertise, maybe it’s from your book.
[00:14:49] Many of our clients, we turn their books into a license program. We turn their signature talks into a license program. Maybe it’s from one of those places, but you don’t have to have a built out yet. And that’s what I want you to walk away with. That is the mind blowing that I want you to gather when we’re talking about content licensing.
[00:15:10] So if you want to know more about content licensing, cruise over to our website at SweetLifeCo. com where you will find tools and resources to get started with content licensing totally free. You can also cruise over to licensing co. com. Tools dot com. And it’s going to take you immediately to a licensing 101 video.
[00:15:33] You can put me on fast forward where I’m going to go through case studies to get your wheels spinning even more about different ways that you can take your content, whether or not you’re even selling it could be content you’re selling or contents collecting dust, and we can license it to other companies and expand your reach.
[00:15:51] And I’m not going to be the police here on who’s ready to license our content and who isn’t. I want to be, I’ll be honest with you. We’ve seen, this is a, this is a little raw April beach here. If you’ve been following this podcast, you know that I’ve just kind of say what’s on my mind in the history of the coaching and consulting space, especially as it’s grown online.
[00:16:09] We have seen a lot of coaches that frankly are not good at what they do. Uh, we’ve even seen some opportunities where people are releasing something called the master resale license, where they’re teaching people how to do their thing. And then giving them like a business in a box. And these people are in most cases, not very qualified to do that.
[00:16:26] You know, you’ve probably seen some of these things coming around. That’s not what we do. That’s not what we as a company do with content licensing. We work with established experts to license their content out to other companies, nonprofits, corporations, other coaches and consultants, universities, and not all here in the United States, across the world.
[00:16:47] And that’s what we can do for you too. So please subscribe to this YouTube channel and follow us on Instagram and DM me on LinkedIn. I am always available to answer your questions because I geek out on this stuff because I know it can do for you and your business. Thank you so much for tuning in here to the SweetLife Entrepreneurial Podcast.
[00:17:07] This is episode number 322, and we’re going to be continuing our series where I’m answering the most common questions I receive about how to license your content to scale your business. All right. Bye bye for now.
Why is content licensing one of the fastest ways to scale? If you’ve been establishing your expertise in your domain and possess a trove of valuable content that other businesses could benefit from, this episode of the SweetLife® Podcast is curated with your needs in mind. What we’re talking about today isn’t just an opportunity to broaden your business horizons—it’s a transformative approach that can substantially enhance your profit margins and free up your time. I share insights that are particularly important for subject matter experts, coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, and leaders who are looking to upscale the dissemination of their knowledge without increasing their workload.
In this podcast, we unpack specific strategies that fundamentally change the traditional growth model. From sharing firsthand how I licensed a single course and exponentially multiplied its reach, to discussing the potential of licensing your content to other companies who can then market your intellectual property. We cover the successes of content licensing, the practical steps in the process, and how I have helped clients in the past decade, utilize these strategies to reduce their effort while massively scaling up their businesses. My experience and the case studies we dive into serve as a testament to the substantial impact that wisely implemented content licensing can bring to your enterprise.
Key Takeaways from Today’s Episode:
Get to grips with the actual mechanics of content licensing and how it can act as a catalyst for rapid business scaling.
Hear inspiring stories and case studies that demonstrate the successful implementation of content licensing from my clients and me.
Discern specific strategies for using content licensing to multiply your reach without proportionally increasing your effort, time, or costs.
Discover who is best suited for content licensing — it’s aimed at established professionals armed with content ready for wider distribution.
Learn how one course or training can be licensed in various ways, from individual trainers to large organizations, for broad-reaching impact.
Content licensing isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a robust business model that can augment the reach and profitability of your content. We’re talking about a strategic movement that could revolutionize the way you think about and engage with the growth of your business.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Episode Bonus: Video on HOW TO LICENSE YOUR CONTENT TO SCALE YOUR BUSINESS & INCREASE PROFIT. To watch visithttps://licensing-tools.com/
We’re starting a new series focused on the transformative power of content licensing – a strategy to scale your business, increase profits, and gain more free time. If you’re an established business owner adept in your field and curious about content licensing, this episode is specifically curated for you. However, if you’re new to the business world, I suggest revisiting our past episodes to build your foundational knowledge first.
In this episode, we dive into the nitty-gritty of content licensing. What is it, exactly? How can it be a pivotal part of your business growth? I’m here to unpack these questions, offering clear insights and strategies. Content licensing isn’t just a concept; it’s a viable option for expanding your business reach. We’re going to discuss how leveraging the courses, trainings, and content you’ve already developed can open doors to new opportunities. Through real-life examples and case studies, you’ll see how content licensing has been a game-changer for many, including myself and my clients.
Key Takeaways from Today’s Episode:
Deep Dive into Content Licensing: Get a comprehensive understanding of what content licensing involves and how it can be a turning point for your business’s growth.
Real Business Cases: Learn from stories and case studies that illustrate the successful application of content licensing in various businesses.
Strategies for Scaling Up: Discover specific strategies for using content licensing to not only enhance profits but also to assert your expertise and thought leadership in your niche.
For Whom It’s Meant: This episode is tailored for those looking to significantly upgrade their business operations. If you’re not yet at this stage, our previous content will be more suited to your current needs.
Exclusive Insights and Tips: Benefit from the direct experiences and advice I share, grounded in proven success and practical application.
In this episode, we’re talking about leveraging what you’ve already created to add value to other businesses and, in turn, to your own. It’s about understanding the strategic importance of content licensing and how it can radically change the way you do business. So, let’s get started on this exciting journey to unlocking the full potential of your content!
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This episode is a treasure trove for established coaches, consultants, subject matter experts, and service-based entrepreneurs who’ve been serving clients and are ready to take things up a notch. We’re delving into 10 innovative strategies to boost your revenue by $50,000 in the next six weeks. It’s all about actionable advice, proven systems, and strategies that April Beach has refined over 27 years as a business coach. However, if you’re just starting out, this might not be the episode for you just yet. Remember, this is about matching your dedication with the right strategies to build a profitable consulting and coaching business with integrity.
In this episode we’re diving deep into specifics. Expect to learn about personalized mentorship and the unique advantages it offers, like connecting deeply with your clients and sharing your hard-earned wisdom. VIP days, another gem, provide an intensive, focused experience that can significantly uplift your business. And let’s not forget about course licensing“quick sales” – an ingenious method to extend your reach and earnings without the heavy lifting of delivery. We’re also unpacking 7 more powerful ways you can bring in extra money like planning retreats, launching new programs, and effective cost-cutting, and more. All are designed to elevate your business swiftly and effectively.
Takeaways:
Enhanced Revenue Strategies: Learn techniques to significantly increase your income in a short time frame, specifically designed for established professionals in coaching and consulting.
Business Growth Insights: Gain insights into unique and practical strategies, such as personalized mentorship, VIP days, and licensing your content, to expand your business reach and enhance client engagement – plus 7 more options to choose from.
Operational Efficiency: Discover ways to optimize your business operations, including revisiting past programs and smart cost management, to maximize profit fast.
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
This episode is tailored specifically for you if you’re an established subject matter expert, coach, consultant, strategist, service provider, or if you’re deeply entrenched in the B2C model but feel the pull towards transitioning to B2B. April Beach, a seasoned business strategist with over 27 years of experience, guides you through this critical juncture in your career. This episode is crucial because it addresses a common yet challenging pivot point: shifting your business model while leveraging your expertise and maintaining a balanced life.
April Beach delves into the intricacies of transitioning from a B2C to a B2B business model. You will learn about:
Recognizing when you’re ready for this shift and how to initiate the move.
Strategic questioning to align your future business goals with personal aspirations.
Techniques to repurpose your existing B2C offerings for a B2B audience, such as through licensing and embedded partnerships.
Exploring high-level strategic consulting for B2B, to understand and cater to the new audience’s needs.
At the end of this episode you will:
This episode is a deep dive into how you can redefine your business model while keeping true to your expertise and creating a work-life harmony.
Self-Reflection is Key: Understand the importance of your legacy and how you want to be known in your industry. This will influence how you transition and what parts of your business you carry forward.
Designing Your Future Work-Life: Consider who your new clients will be in a B2B context and how this will change your work dynamics, from daily interactions to the nature of your engagements.
Leveraging Existing Assets: Explore how your current B2C offerings can be transformed into B2B solutions, such as through licensing or partnerships, allowing for a smoother transition.
Embracing Strategic Relationships: Engage in high-level consulting in your new B2B sphere to build relationships and gain clarity on what these clients need and value.
Simplicity and Impact: Learn how transitioning to B2B can often simplify business processes and amplify your impact, potentially leading to more significant results with less direct effort.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a clearer vision of how to navigate the shift from B2C to B2B, making strategic decisions that align with your long-term goals and lifestyle aspirations. Tune in to uncover insights and strategies that will empower your journey into a new realm of business.
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You’re in the perfect spot if you’re a subject matter expert, coach, consultant, speaker, author, or leader contemplating or already developing a Train the Trainer program. Whether you’re looking to license your content to other companies or elevate your existing certification program, this episode is a goldmine for you. April Beach, the founder and CEO of the SweetLife® Company, brings her expertise directly to your journey of expanding the reach and impact of your work. With a focus on strategic content structuring, this episode is not just about creating a program but ensuring it is profitable and impactful.
What We Cover and What You Will Learn
In this episode, April Beach delves deep into the intricacies of building an effective Train the Trainer program. You’ll learn how to structure your content strategically to facilitate success for other trainers. This includes providing the necessary materials, such as outlines, speaking topics, benchmarks, training agendas, and the core content like PDFs, slides, and workbooks. More importantly, you will understand how to infuse your unique thinking and genius into these materials, elevating the trainers to deliver the content as effectively as you would.
April doesn’t stop at just content delivery; she also explores the importance of communication skills, the creation of a learning roadmap, user management, and internal marketing techniques. These insights will help trainers not only present the material effectively but also engage and inspire their audience, leading to a more impactful learning experience.
Key Takeaways
Content Foundation: Understand how to break down your program into manageable parts, focusing on both the core materials and the high-level strategic thinking behind each segment.
Communication and Facilitation Skills: Equip your trainers with the necessary skills to handle sensitive topics and foster engaging, productive discussions.
Visual Learning Roadmaps: Create visual aids to help trainers and learners track progress and understand the journey through the program.
User Management Strategies: Learn to manage and track attendees effectively, ensuring a streamlined and accountable learning experience.
Internal Marketing for Buy-In: Develop materials to help trainers advocate for your program, ensuring engagement and enthusiasm from participants, particularly in scenarios where they don’t have a choice in their participation.
This episode is more than just a guide; it’s an empowerment tool for you to elevate your program, making a profound impact while freeing you up to pursue your passions. Tune in to transform your Train the Trainer program into a dynamic, effective, and profitable venture.
Resources:
Join our elite business consulting programs for support building your Train the Trainer program, licensing courses, or creating a certification https://www.sweetlifeco.com/amplifyphase
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This episode is a must-listen for coaches, consultants, and content creators eager to explore the lucrative world of licensing. April Beach delves into the specialized area of licensing intellectual property, particularly focusing on content, trainings, systems, and courses. This topic is crucial as it unlocks new revenue streams and allows for the expansion of business reach and impact.
What We Cover and What You Will Learn
April Beach guides you through the practical steps of pricing your curriculum for licensing. You’ll learn the importance of understanding your operational costs, including software, team expenses, and the logistics of content distribution. The discussion goes further into calculating the Return on Investment(ROI) of your content, emphasizing both tangible training benefits and lifestyle improvements. April introduces two main pricing strategies: bulk pricing and‘Amplify ROI’ pricing, explaining how these can be applied based on the specific needs and outcomes of potential licensees.
Key Takeaways
Understand Operational Costs: Know the expenses associated with licensing your content, like software and team support.
Calculate the ROI: Assess both the tangible and lifestyle impacts of your content.
Customized Approach: Tailor the pricing based on the licensee’s specific situation and outcomes.
Value Communication: Communicate the measurable value and transformation your content brings to the licensee.
After listening to this episode, you’ll be equipped with insights and strategies to confidently price and license your intellectual property, enhancing both your business growth and the value you deliver to your clients.
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This episode is crafted for you, the seasoned consultant or coach, who’s considering moving from B2C to B2B. It’s essential for those of you who have proven success with clients and have developed systematic approaches in your work. This is about taking your impact and profitability to the next level while easing your workload.
In this episode, we specifically guide you through developing and implementing two core strategies for transitioning to B2B consulting. First, we focus on creating a certification program to train other professionals in your field, turning potential competitors into your clients. This approach leverages your expertise and establishes a collaborative network. Second, we explore the process of licensing your unique methodologies to these professionals. This strategy not only extends the reach of your work but also enhances your role as a thought leader in the industry, all while reducing your direct workload.
Takeaways:
Developing a Certification Program: You’ll learn to transform competitors into clients by creating a training or certification program in your expertise.
Licensing Your Expertise: Discover how licensing your methodologies can broaden your business scope and reinforce your thought leadership.
Reducing Workload, Increasing Impact: Understand how these strategies can lessen your day-to-day tasks while boosting your impact and income.
Establishing Thought Leadership: Insights on how to position yourself as an industry thought leader.
Fostering a Professional Community: Emphasizes the value of building a network of professionals using your methods towards shared goals.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Thinking about selling VIP days and don’t know how to start? You’re in the right place! In this engaging episode, we sit down with Amy Yamada, a seasoned expert in the coaching realm, to explore the ins and outs of creating and offering VIP days. This episode is a goldmine for coaches and consultants eager to inject a fresh, personalized approach into their services. If you’re looking to set yourself apart in the coaching market with offerings that truly resonate with your clients, offering VIP Days might be your answer?
In this show, Amy walks us through the key elements of crafting VIP days that not only meet but exceed client expectations. You’ll learn how to pinpoint exactly what your clients need and tailor your VIP days to address these needs effectively. We also dive into strategies for confidently setting and communicating your prices, ensuring your clients understand the immense value of these specialized sessions. Plus, Amy shares her secrets on post-session follow-ups that keep the momentum going and strengthen client relationships.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a starting roadmap for offering VIP days in your coaching or consulting business. You’ll also be equipped with actionable tips and a deeper understanding of how to create these powerful, transformative experiences. So, if you’re ready to take your coaching game to the next level, tune in and let’s get started.
At the end of this episode, you understand:
Tailoring VIP Days to Client Needs: Understand how to identify and address your clients’ unique challenges and goals, ensuring that each VIP day is a personalized and impactful experience.
Effective Pricing Strategies: Learn how to set and communicate the value of your VIP days, enabling you to confidently charge rates that reflect the high-quality, bespoke service you provide.
Post-Session Engagement: Discover the importance of follow-up support and how it can enhance the effectiveness of your VIP day, leading to stronger, ongoing client relationships.
Marketing Your VIP Days: Gain insights into effectively promoting your VIP days, highlighting their unique benefits and differentiating your services in a competitive market.
Practical Implementation: Walk away with actionable steps to integrate VIP days into your coaching or consulting business, enhancing both client satisfaction and business growth.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Established coaches and consultants looking to separate from the pack in 2024. You want to do your work differently and reduce friction. The theme of this year is“less in more”. We’ll be focusing on making smart decisions to reduce overwhelm and create more traction in your business. Though there are a lot of things you can do to build your company, in this show we’re focusing on 4 of the most important areas you’ll want to nail first.
For each of the four areas of your business, I’m breaking down key things to consider in evaluating how you’ll upgrade your process and profit including:
2024 industry trends in each of the 4 core areas
How they affect your current business
Innovative ways to upgrade, change, and pivot
…All while reducing work time and doing less.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Know the 4 areas of business you need to focus on to scale in 2024
Have evaluated each area to determine necessary changes
Be able to take action
Episode Bonus:
6 Components of a Scalable Coaching Program – Includes AI Offer Engineering and more!
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This one’s for all you independent consultants, coaches, and experts who are looking to grow your business next year. We’re going to chat about what it really takes to build a million-dollar consulting business.
Yes; you need the right mindset.
Yes; you need to be good at what you do
But did you know there’s an actual mathematical formula to determine if your company is capable of hitting a million dollars in gross revenue a year? There is, and in this episode April Beach, an international business strategist, unpacks the key values you need to be aware of that become the inputs for your million–dollar business formula.
This episode is like your personal guide to growing your business in a smart way. It’s super helpful if you’re working on your own and want to increase your sales without burning out. We’re going to talk about knowing your limits, which is really important, and using that knowledge to make better plans for your business. This way, you can make more money, keep your customers happy, and still have time for yourself! April’s approach has helped people all over the world. She’s got some great strategies that can be tailored to your own unique business.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Assess your Offers: It’s important to really know the ins and outs of the services or advice you provide. This helps you see where you can grow.
Understand Your Limits: Knowing how much you can handle is key. It helps you plan better and grow your business without getting too stressed.
Clean Up Your Offers: Quickly see what offers are dragging you down and where to build improvements
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop.
Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Entrepreneurs in Phases 2-4 of our Online Business Roadmap™
Summary:
This episode is tailor-made for entrepreneurs who have an established training or program but struggle to generate leads or have a smaller list. If you want ways to increase visibility for your business without diving into conventional advertising routes like Facebook or LinkedIn ads, then this episode is a must-listen.
April’s conversation with JV partnership expert, Charles Byrd, provides an alternative path to business growth that is dependable and requires less effort to generate leads. You will be introduced to the world of joint venture(JV) partnerships through Charles, a renowned figure in this arena. They’ll uncover the four distinct types of JV partnerships, learning how each can be a lucrative option depending on your business’s unique needs. This episode delivers actionable steps on implementing these JV strategies. When you’re finished listening you’ll have more clarity on which type of partnership is best for where you are in business currently.
At the end of this episode, you will:
Understand the 4 types of JV partnerships
Determine which type is best for you based on your offers
Gain confidence in starting JV partnerships even if you have a small offer and no list.
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Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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This is a great show for entrepreneurs with limited time, who are looking to grow a warm audience with Clubhouse.
Summary:
Clubhouse is an amazing platform to grow your audience, but most of our listeners have limited time and you want to be strategic about how you spend it. So, in this week’s episode, we dive in with Annabelle Bayhan, Clubhouse marketing expert, to clarify 3 strategic objectives that can save you time and make you money while using the app. We also pull back the curtains on our Clubhouse to Masterclass sales funnel, and tell you exactly how to increase sales with decreased time.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the 3 money making activities on Clubhouse
Know the 3 secondary strategies that will lead to money down the road
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hi guys. And welcome back to the show. This is episode number 243, and I am April beach host here and founder of the Sweetlife company, where we help coaches, consultants and niche experts,
launch and scale your company online through proven strategies with decades of business success. And here on this podcast, it’s our extension where you can get business trainings that you can bank on. So welcome to the show today. We’re talking about how to make the most of your time on clubhouse. Now, this is a really important topic because if you’ve been listening to the show for a while,
you know that I am a big clubhouse fan. We dove in headfirst into clubhouse last December, and it’s been a really great special platform to build relationships. And for us to grow our list as a business, we’ve had multiple clubhouse episodes that we’ve recorded. You are welcome to search those on how to get started on clubhouse and how to grow your club.
But today we’re talking about kind of the elephant in the room here in that is how to make the most of your time on clubhouse, because we like many people dove in to clubhouse, but we have also taken the last three months off of the app for the summertime for us to travel in. So have the majority of leaders that we moderate rooms with,
they have taken time off the app as well, but as seasons change, everybody’s diving back into clubhouse. Now, as we go into September and October and the end of 2021. And so the real question is how do you make the most of your time? What are the activities that you can be doing in order to make money in a limited amount of time and be really strategic about what you’re doing on clubhouse in a way that really aligns with your business.
And so this particular episode is great for those of you guys who do have a limited time, and you’re looking to grow your warm audience and increase sales using clubhouse. This is also great for you guys in any phase of my lifestyle, entrepreneur business roadmap, if you are not sure what phase of business you’re in, you can go take a little quiz and I’ll tell you exactly where you are and what stage of business and give you a checklist of what you should be focusing on to grow your business to the next profit stage.
You can grab that anytime by going to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz. So now let’s go ahead and talk about what you can expect from hanging out with us here today. This is the deal, you know, clubhouse is an amazing platform to grow your audience, but most of you guys have really limited time and you want to be strategic about how you spend it.
So in today’s episode, we’re going to dive in with Annabel by hand. Now she is a friend I met on clubhouse. She’s one of the many amazing business friends that I have met on the app. And she’s a clubhouse marketing expert in today’s show. We’re going to talk about three different strategic objectives that can save you time and make you money while using the app.
We’re also talking about three other secondary activities that are also great to do on the app, based on your goals, that you are setting your strategic objectives for the time that you spend there. And then at the end of this show, I actually pull back the curtain and you can totally hack our funnel. I lay out our entire clubhouse list, growth to sales funnel into our,
OFFER ENGINEER™ MASTERCLASS, how we did it at the beginning of this year and how we’re actually about to start it again right now. So I just give you everything and I lay it out there for you, so you can see how we’re doing it because it works really well. And when things are working really well, we want you to be able to apply those strategies in your business too.
So at the end of this episode, you’re going to know the three moneymaking activities to do on clubhouse. You’re going to know the three secondary strategies. You can also do that lead to money, just not immediate money in your pocket, but there are also good activities to do on the app. And you are going to understand and know our complete clubhouse sales funnel and that’s ours at the Sweetlife Company.
So I frankly just give you all of that. I try to give you so much here on the show and just lay it all out there for you. So let’s talk about our expert and our guests. So first of all, I met Anabel on clubhouse. And when you spend any time on clubhouse, you can just tell the people you want to hang out with and the people that you want to get to know more.
And she’s really one of those people where I had my eye on her in the beginning, and she kind of shares her story about how she has risen as a clubhouse marketing expert, which that in itself is a really amazing lesson about just diving in, even when people around you think that maybe that’s not such a great idea. And so you’ll get to hear her story.
And she is the founder of clubhouse for bosses in the business and digital marketing strategists for coaches and consultants who want to increase their influence income and impact using clubhouse prior to becoming a business and marketing coach Annabel worked with digital marketing for over a decade. And you can learn more about Anabel by visiting Annabel bay han.com. And of course, we will go ahead and link to that in this show.
She also gives you her whole entire clubhouse productivity strategy workbook. And so you’re really getting a ton out of this episode. So I hope you stick with us if you want to grow your business on clubhouse and you have very limited time. Like I do, like Annabelle does, like most of our clients do. Then this is a really important episode for you to listen to in order to get all of the loaded and free things that Annabel has for you and all the notes for this show,
you can visit Sweetlifeco.com simply click on the podcast button. And this is episode number 243, and Annabel will be live with us because we are just kicking off our wave makers, mastermind rooms again on Tuesday night after our three months off. We’re so excited. We had a room this evening in there and it was just so great to see so many faces and people we haven’t spoken to in a long time.
So we hope that you join us Annabel. We’ll be live in clubhouse with us in the wave makers club, talking about the same things we’re talking about here on the podcast and taking your questions. So make sure you’re following Annabel. You’re following me at April beach on clubhouse so that we can connect with you and help you grow your business further through clubhouse and other proven online business strategies.
Okay, let’s go ahead and dive by then. All right. Hi, you guys. We are so excited to be talking again today about clubhouse. Yes. My new favorite. I have my friend Annabel here with us today and I asked her to come because of the fact that she has really become the clubhouse guru when it comes to building your business on clubhouse.
And whereas I totally went Mia and took three months off of clubhouse this summer. You have people like Anabel who have been consistently on this app, understanding the ins and the outs and the strategies of business, and really being faithful to watching this app grow and helping you grow in your business. So I’m so excited to invite Annabel today, to come and talk to us about the realities of how to use clubhouse as a strategy,
but also for people like me and probably most of our listeners, how to actually fit this into your life and your time and your business. So welcome to this Wheatland entrepreneur podcast and about, we are so glad that you are here. Thank you for having me. I love your whole entire kind of transition into being the marketing guru, the business guru of clubhouse.
Can you just briefly tell everybody a little bit about your business and how you help entrepreneurs? Yeah, So I am the founder of clubhouse for buses it’s to my knowledge, one of the very first business coaching programs using clubhouse. Before that I’ve worked behind the scenes with a lot of small businesses growing their businesses. Many of them being, you know, people who work on Instagram and they teach people how to use Instagram to grow their business.
And so I was very familiar with the model and actually very interested in doing it for myself. And so when I noticed that clubhouse was something that’s up and coming there was nobody working like this in this space yet. I thought, okay, this is my chance to be a very early adopter of this app and teach people what I know about growing businesses from,
you know, Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. It’s all very similar model with a different basically funnel head, I guess you could say, or a marketing positioning. And so I decided to just dive right in, like right when I had 300 followers, which was really intimidating and I would go into rooms and tell people that like I was a clubhouse for a business coach and they would laugh at me,
but now seven months later that has worked really well because I positioned myself very well to be somebody that people turn to for this information. But like I said, I took like about 10 years of experience growing companies, whether corporate or small business, all in my overbroad company called scalability, marketing and coaching, where I’m now taking those principles and those concepts,
but I’m making them applicable to clubhouse specifically. Well, I love that you dive right in. Okay. So let’s just take a pause for any of our listeners. Like this is the story of growth and success. You guys, it goes with diving in, even when other people might be like, oh, what is she doing? Or who does she think she is to do that?
So like, this is a perfect example of how you only need to focus on your vision, what, you know, you’re supposed to be doing and just like race, horse blinders on and dive fully in. So take Annabel’s experience, apply it to wherever you are, if you are afraid to die fully into something, but you know, you should be and you want to be,
go for it. So that’s a whole entire separate podcast episode. I love that you share that. So let’s go ahead and roll into what we’re going to talk about today. So here are the problems that we know entrepreneurs experience on the app definitely burn out for sure, from being on clubhouse in the middle of December, I think is when I joined clubhouse and fashion,
I don’t even know how many of there, a couple of thousand, maybe at the most. And it was so exciting to be on there in the beginning. And I remember like we don’t fully in, and I loved having these amazing, authentic conversations. And I know that other entrepreneurs felt the same way because basically we had been so disconnected in the world with what has happened until we’re craving these amazing conversations.
And then I discovered something that I know you’re going to talk about today, which is the goal of professional and personal development. And I was able to literally sit at the feet of people like Myron golden and go through total masterclasses on live virtual events with people like Barry and blue. I mean, and really be in these spaces with these leaders that I otherwise never could have had an opportunity to become connected with and now become,
you know, business professional friends with. And so it was really amazing in the beginning. But then as a mom of three kids, I owned five companies. All of a sudden I really started feeling that fatigue as well, especially as we got into our summer travel season. And I know that so many other businesses feel that way. And so it’s so important what you teach and your expertise because I love clubhouse,
you know, we’re back on it. Jose, I think I was telling you that behind the scenes, before we started recording we’re back on it tonight, launching our regular weekly wave makers mastermind room, which is so much fun. And I’ve really missed everybody, but man alive, we have to have a strategy behind this in order. It’s like not a sprint,
it’s a marathon for sure. Can you talk about some of the things that you have noticed are problems with businesses in having a long-term strategy for this and maybe some of the stuff that you’ve even experienced yourself and being consistent on clubhouse. Yeah. Yeah. So I’m going to tell you three places. You could spend your time on clubhouse that won’t pay your bills.
So let’s start with that. And one big mistake that I think people make right from the beginning is not being clear about why they’re on clubhouse, what they’re there to do and who they want to be known as on clubhouse. And this is the same for every single social media network, right? If you go on social media and your purpose, there is either.
So here’s the first one, your own personal development, although it’s great. It won’t pay your bills unless you turn it into something else and give yourself that time to implement it, your own entertainment, right? You can go on Instagram all day and take talk and watch them all day long, but they won’t pay your bills. And the last one really is something that’s more of a long-term strategy,
which is networking, right? It’s great to network with people, but if you aren’t getting yourself positioned and your brand position to actually convert people when you’re just meeting people, it’s all fluffy. It’s all nice. You might be developing. You might feel really good. But you know, when we think about burnout and we think about business owners is that it feels really good until it really doesn’t.
And so you start asking yourself, like, I’ve actually invested a bunch of time on this app and all of a sudden, now I’m asking myself, why did I just do that? Like, it felt really good. I was lonely. I made some friends, but now, okay, I’m six months in and I spent 20 hours a week on an app.
What does this actually mean for me and my future? And this is the point that I think a lot of clubhouse users are coming to. And a point that I want to maybe help people avoid if they’re just getting on the app or just building a strategy around how to use it, because it’s real, right? Because here’s the thing. Unlike Facebook or Instagram or LinkedIn,
really, where you could pay someone else to actually engage for you, get in front of your audiences, you can pay ads. You can’t do that on clubhouse. It’s you in a room talking to people. Now the power of it is that when you’re in a room, talking to people, you build relationships, you build networks, you get yourself in front of prospective clients,
but if you’re not in the right place and you’re not talking and you’re not in the right positioning, and you’re not clear about what you want to do, all of that is literally just wasting time. And you have to decide, like, there are moments of my day where I want to scroll tech talk because it’s stress relief for me, it’s fun.
But if I do that every day, I’m not going to reach my goals. So I think what it comes down to is like to avoid burnout in the first place. What do you really want in your life? What is that driving force? What is that life that, that you want to design? And then as we kind of like get behind that,
we can then say, okay, how can we use clubhouse to create that? And that’s what I’m really passionate about. I think that, you know, something that a lot of people don’t know is that like underneath every single thing that I do it’s to empower women, to have more decision making power, because they’re able to create and monetize the lives that they love.
Like every single thing that I do clubhouse is just the tool that I use to do that. And so for me, that’s why I drive that message so clear. And that’s the best way to avoid burnout is know what you want, if you know what you want. It’s so easy to say, like, is the action that I’m taking right now getting me what I want.
And then when you say, no, it’s very easy to not do that thing. So yeah, that’s what I wanted to say, Writing down your quotes and like writing them down here and I’m going to go make these quotes and put them out on it. You are so, right, right. So like, understanding why are we doing this? How does this play a role in the bigger part of this?
And that’s why I’m so excited to have you here on this show. Because as you know, like that’s everything we talk about, it’s reverse engineering, the lifestyle, and then we build the business to get you there. So love everything you’re saying, of course, which is why I love you. So let’s talk about the ways that do make you money on clubhouse.
And let’s kind of hone in on those business trainings. There are three primary ways that you teach entrepreneurs and small businesses to interact into function on the clubhouse app. And so can you dive into, let’s start with number one, what is the first money-making way for somebody to spend their time on this app? So it’s awareness, right? It’s building visibility around who you are.
If nobody knows you on the app, nobody’s coming to your room is going to be very hard to then take them down the rest of the journey. This is something that I actually see a lot of people getting in the awareness trap, right? It’s very addicting. Especially for entrepreneurs. We get a little bit mixed up with like, oh, I can grow here.
And so we come to this point where we have to decide how much exposure do I actually want before I try to then take people along a journey to actually sell something to them. And that’s also a very personal question. How much time do you have, right? How much time does your business have before you need to drive leads before you need to turn this traffic into leads and what would best serve the people that you’re generating awareness around.
Right? If you kind of like go on a clubhouse stage and you’re talking about something that people could really use more information on that they could use more of a transformational journey, and you’re not providing that, just be rest assured that your competition will, right, but you might be the person to like create the awareness around it. You might be the person to let those people know that they have their problem,
right? Those are like kind of two things to really think about, like how much time do you want to spend as simply building your account, building up your social media profiles. That’s more of like an influencer strategy, but also every single brand, every single business needs people to know that they exist. And so the ways that you really do that on clubhouse is by either being on other people’s stages within other people’s clubs,
opening up rooms within other people’s clubs. And of course, opening up your own rooms with other mud squads and you know, that type of thing. And the whole goal of this awareness strategy is really to get in front of as many new people as possible and have them remember you for what you do, right? So you want to make sure that your bio set up,
you want to make sure that you have a clear introduction. You want to make sure that the rooms that you’re going to are going to make sense with, you know, the topics that you open up when you open up a room, you know, you don’t want to be like in a music room talking about how you like create business strategy, right?
It probably would not make as much sense, but people literally do this. Like you want to be in a place where you can get in front of an audience that needs what you do. So the first question you want to yourself is, you know, from my ideal client, from the person that I want to be on clubhouse, whether or not you’re becoming it,
you’re it, whatever it may be, where are the people that you could serve the most sitting on clubhouse right now and showing up in those places in the biggest way possible. That is what the awareness phase looks like is getting people to really know who you are, Where are the people that you can serve the most on clubhouse right now. And so for those people that are new and they haven’t actually dove into clubhouse,
let’s give them a hack. How would they find those people? What are some of the ways they can use the app to actually find their people that they want to be in front of? Yeah. So something really cool is happening right now on clubhouse, where they’re using interests, that’s to tie in people and clubs together. So the first thing you can do is really make sure that your interests match the interests of the ideal client that you’re trying to actually attract.
So for business owners, when they’re setting up their clubhouse profile, I recommend that you try to show up in the places where your ideal customer is going to be. And then you can add in a couple of your own interests, but for now I think that’s very smart to make sure that that’s niche down to your category. So that clubhouse begins to recommend you in the places that matter most.
So clubhouse did not use to recommend people based off their interests, but they’re about to, so I want everybody to set up their interests. The next is to make sure that you show up in keyword search for your industry. So whatever that ideal client might be searching for, make sure that you show up in your bio and your entire clubhouse bio is searchable.
So just make sure that those keywords and you can use a lot of them are all there, but also reverse engineer that right? If we know that people are putting keywords in their profiles, we can also go out and find the community leaders, the thought leaders, the people that might want in our network, the people we might want to be on stages with the people who have already collected the community.
We can go through and follow some of those people so that we start to see their rooms in our hallway. And then the last way is really using that keyword search in a similar way, but for clubs and I think clubs, they work very much like Facebook groups. There’s something that we’re all, you know, intuitively aware of, but maybe not everybody is as strategic about it.
When they first joined, they probably think, what clubs do I want to be in. But then we’re always asking the question, which club does my ICA most likely spend time in. Right? And so those are the things that you want to ask yourself, because what this is going to do is basically open up the content and the communities that are already being created with your ideal client already in it.
It’s going to accelerate your growth because when you show up in those places, when you’re like, okay, I want to become aware of there’s a room of like 100 to 200 people that are all within my ICA set. I’m going to get up. I’m going to talk, I’m going to build awareness. It becomes very easy, but all we have to do is make sure that we’re showing up in the right places.
And the best way to do that is really through keyword search to start from there though, what’s really cool about clubhouse. And I don’t know if this level of visibility is going to always be available, but if you find somebody that’s a thought leader in your space, you find somebody that maybe is serving your ICA. Maybe they’re complimentary to you. You can go through their entire network.
You can go through every club that they’re in, you can everything. So if you want to take this to the next level, the next thing to do is once you have your clubs set up, is that you go in and you see if there’s anything that you maybe didn’t think about that somebody else did. And so that’s what I would do. I think that’s the most strategic approach to really set yourself up for maximum awareness.
Oh my gosh. That is so great. Thank you so much for all of that wisdom. Quick question. Before we go into money-making strategy, number two, because I have been off clubhouse for the last two, three months traveling, and I know this is always something we were trying to figure out before, but I’m wondering if it’s become clearer. Are there now proven better times here for those of us in the USA,
when certain audiences are on the app, are we starting to see that like the business people are usually primarily using the app during the daytime? Are we starting to really have been on this app now for now a year, almost a year, it’s starting to see those flows in those trends and when are people active on that? Is that becoming clearer? Yeah.
Yeah, it is. So most people are on in the morning. And the reason why is because you have, you know, India in the evening, you have Europe, you have us up. And so maximum times are really at the top and bottom of our time zone. So I’m in Pacific standard time zone. And so was clubhouse HQ. So it tends to be like anything like 8:00 AM and before,
and like 5:00 PM. And after there seems to be a lot of people on the app. But if you think about your ideal audience, right? When are they on the app, if it’s an entrepreneur or maybe it’s during work day of your hours, the trend that I’m seeing is that, or the trend that clubhouse has talked about is that all the rooms are going to start getting bigger because fewer people are creating more people are listening.
So I would say like the number one thing to worry about would be when is the best time for you and your business, right? So that you could do this sustainably over time in the future. And this was a big question I had for myself. Okay. What is the absolute best time that I can do this for a long time? So I had to ask myself that question,
but on top of that, what you can do is you can go in the app and you can see how many members are on the app and in certain clubs at every single hour. And you can start to think, okay, you know, I have two different time slots I could do on a Tuesday. Let me see which one of those might have the maximum potential.
Let me also see who is doing regular rooms during that time slot. So I can see what if I have a competitive advantage or a competitive, you know, situation here where there might be other rooms that are pulling people in the same direction for the same topic. So I think that that is a little bit individualistic, but I will say that there’s more people on the app in a global sense in the mornings and at night,
but that might not matter for everybody. For instance, I coach people mostly in the U S right. So I’m okay with hitting people in the U S but just know that as people go back to work, you want to set yourself up for success for thinking, you know, when our people that my ideal client, if it’s somebody that’s working, when will they most likely be on a social media app?
So those are the questions we want to ask them. Great advice. Great advice. Yeah. And that’s exactly what you were saying. So we picked Tuesday night for our wave makers mastermind room, because I know I’m usually not on an airplane. I know that sounds silly, but like, when I’m traveling to see my kids, I’m on an airplane,
like Friday to Monday, right. I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to be there every single Tuesday night. So as we roll back into the fall, I never have to wonder about a Tuesday night because I’m always there. And so I love that you said that, and then I have so many questions for you clearly.
Hopefully all of our listeners are getting value out of the questions. I’m asking you as well for our Australia participants. Are we starting to see more of a growth in Australian participation on clubhouse than we were in the beginning? Yeah. Yeah, we are. And I think it had to do with like more lockdowns, more like of the pandemic actually grew the user base.
So we do think that there’s more people from Australia. I’m meeting them. They’re a little bit of an opposite time zone for me. So I don’t meet as many of them, but there’s growth in that side of the world has accelerated a lot, like all the way from India to Asia, to Australia. Europe has also grown a lot too. I think that us kind of had a strong user base before you left,
but that side of the world, I mean, they’re, they’re creating communities and the app just continues to grow. Like it really only has like a few million people on, like the growth potential is still in the billions for the app. So it’s something to really think about. It’s still a baby. Yeah. You guys are all a drop in the bucket.
So this is why we love clubhouse so much. You know what Annabel was saying? Like, she’s an early adopter, even you who would be on this app now would be an early adopter. So you are not late on the upswing on that at all. Thank you so much. And those were kind of very specific questions, but these are questions.
I knew that our clients and our audience is asking, we have a huge client base in Australia and yes, it’s like three to five o’clock, you know, in the afternoon here in mountain time. When, when, when it is there tomorrow morning. And so there are some, some different times in there. Okay. So way to build your business and be productive with your time is number one awareness and everything we just talked about can fit kind of into that awareness category.
What is the second way to make money off of clubhouse and be strategic about your time? Yeah. And these next two, I think, are things that I told you, a lot of people are getting in the awareness trap. They’re just building awareness, building awareness, building awareness. Okay. Let’s think about the human beings, right? That we’re meeting,
we’re building relationships with and the fact that we’re going to see them again, because here’s the thing on clubhouse. We’re all clustered together. Everybody that’s interested in business development. We are in a cluster. As people follow more people in your social graph, you are going to be more visible to them, especially now. So going back to what you said,
where this is a great time for people to be an early adopter. Yeah. Because discoverability just started right before the rest of us were kind of like, I hope you see me over here. You can’t really find me by my keywords unless you’re being super strategic, like that doesn’t exist anymore. So here’s the thing is that if you are setting yourself up to get to know people really well,
you’re treating them well. You’re giving them a ton of value in that awareness phase. They’re going to like and want to maybe see you again. But as we know with the business buying cycle, people don’t necessarily buy from you the first day they meet from you. So I think what a lot of people need to do is nurture their audience, right?
You are literally building a community on the app. There’s something called clubs on the app, which we talked about a little bit, but you could have your own, right? Most people when you’ve been active for like maybe a week, you could start your own club if it’s aligned with your brand even better, but that’s basically your hub, right? You can take people also,
I just want to put this out there into a community of your own. Like maybe you have a Facebook group, something like that. You can take people, but the level of readiness for them to take that journey with you is going to depend on how you treat them and how you bring them into your world. So, one thing that I think is really important to do is through that awareness phase,
bring people onto your email list so that they can see even more value from you. See if you can get them to take the journey over to Instagram and follow you there so that you have more touch points. These touch points are so important in like developing that trust. When you see somebody on video and you also heard their voice, you’re going to trust them a lot more.
And also what this also informs is that I know that there’s people who are aware of me, but they don’t know me that well. And my content, I need to nurture them on clubhouse, right? I need to create rooms that maybe are not the big, bold, like huge rooms where everybody sees me that are nurturing people in specific needs. So if somebody comes up in a clubhouse room and they ask a specific question,
I may create a room about that specific question to best serve them. If I think it’s going to, you know, serve the community that I have, because I want to nurture that community and help them with their needs and give them a chance to get to know me in a smaller setting. And so that’s really nurture is like kind of moving people along,
getting them to like you more, giving them more resources, maybe engaging with them on social media. So you can hit them in more ways. It just depends on how robust you want to be. But at the very minimum form, it’s, you know, you might meet me in a room with other people on a stage. You might like me,
you might follow me. Now, I’m going to take you into a container where you can really learn from me specifically, have an incredibly clear idea about who I am and know my style, know what I have to offer. And so that’s, the second part is nurture. I love that level of that. Okay. And then number three, the third way to make money,
grow your business and be very productive and strategic of your time on clubhouse. Yeah. This is the one that almost nobody is doing and it’s conversion. It’s converting straight from the stage. So what I’ve noticed is that people can sell anything from an SLO or a very low ticket offer all the way up to something that’s a few thousand dollars. Sometimes even more from the stage,
like you don’t even have to like get them into a fancy funnel, but if you have one, it does help support you, but it’s having those rooms and being in that position where you are literally by yourself, hosting a room. And the whole intent is to get your super fans into the room. The people who are the hottest that know you the most and basically drive them down a sales sequence.
So that content might look like why you need an email list to build your business. Then you would sell to them like some sort of email list building service at the end of the day. But having something that’s like very coherent with the room to what you are selling and selling it directly from the stage. And in order to do that in the way that has the highest integrity,
in my opinion is to really be the only moderator to not have any conflict between offers and to have that be a very small niche down room that, you know, like, okay, somebody came into a clubhouse room and awareness phase. They asked the question, I did a nurture room on that. And then, you know, maybe, you know,
as I’ve, I’ve warmed them up, I’ve gotten to know them on socials. I’m now going to sell them something that answers that. But it’s me as part of the solution. And so bringing people down those journeys on clubhouse, it’s really, really working well, but people have to do it. They have to be okay with being in a room with one or two people that said,
heck yes to them. And sometimes it’s more than that. Right. I noticed that as you grow, it’s more than that. But this conversion content is really, I think what makes or breaks businesses as being okay, sitting there and saying like, by myself, do you like me? Do you like what I have to offer? Are you interested in taking a further journey and then offering that to them in a way that’s like,
of course of service. And so those are the three types of content to grow your business on club. Yes. Okay. So I want to give an example of that. I always try to pull the curtain back on what we do in our business. So this is a strategy that we’ve used on clubhouse since the beginning of January. So let me reverse engineer for you guys,
because some of you guys have actually been in this strategy who are listening and we’re about to do it again. Okay. So I’m going to tell you here on the podcast, and then you will be able to go and watch us do this. Okay. So we have a masterclass. So we only hold a couple of times a year called your leading offer.
Right? So where we teach everybody how to build out their industry, leading leading online course and program mastermind coaching program. So that is starting here in October. We were talking about that behind the scenes, right? So before that we have a challenge like creating your industry, leading offer challenge, right? What we do is we host clubhouse rooms for three weeks leading up to that on the primary questions that are answered in the beginning parts of our masterclass and in our challenge.
So the rooms are going to be like how to create your leading framework or method, you know, how to choose a leading offer. That’s right. For you, you know, is launching a course, right? For you, like all of those questions that people are asking. So that’s, I’m just telling you guys exactly how we do it,
and you’re going to see us doing it on clubhouse here over the next couple of weeks towards the end of September and October, because that’s leading that up. And that’s exactly like Annabel was showing you that when you do this, that conversions are incredible because you’ve been able to have conversations with people. They know that, you know, what the heck you’re talking about.
They know that you actually can, that you are proven to give them the results they’re looking for. They know that you understand their frustrations and their pain points, and you are like the golden arrow to the problem they’ve been probably trying to solve for a very long time. It’s full of integrity. It’s very straightforward. There’s nothing hidden or tricky about it.
It just goes from a conversation to a smaller solution to our masterclass and those people that want it, they totally want it, right. They’re like, yes, please let me do this. I need this industry leading program. And so that’s just sharing with you guys and just laying it all out there on the table. Exactly how we do this strategy.
And, you know, it’s interesting that you said something in there, you know, as long as you’re okay, being on being on stage and being like the one. Totally. And I think that makes people scared. Right? I think the reason why some people get scared of that is because they aren’t so sure about their solution about their leading program and offer.
If you aren’t sure about your solution, then, then that’s a problem we need to solve for you. Right. But I think that they are not so sure about themselves. And so that’s how they, you know, don’t want to do that. Some people that are just shy, what we have seen people do in the past is bringing in. So instead of it just being them on the stage,
bringing in affiliates and friends or clients who have actually experienced their services, and I will have some people ask a question, I’m like, Hey, you know what, that’s a better question for, you know, Nicole or somebody else to answer it because Nicole has actually been in our class and we’re always very upfront. We sell the solution to this. We’re never,
you know, like cryptic about it. We’re like we actually sell the solution to this. And so I just wanted to share that with you guys, as we’re talking about it. So as Annabel’s teaching you the structure of it, that you will also have like set example of it in action as well. And it does work really well. And I’m really surprised that you say that more people aren’t necessarily doing that.
Why do you think that they aren’t doing that so much? Yeah. You know, I think it’s because they don’t have a business. Like they don’t have an offer exactly what you’re saying. They got on the app. Now they have all the awareness. They know people like them. They know they like their ideas. They probably know the problems they could solve,
but at the end of the day, they don’t really have either that confidence or that flow. So there’s some people that like, maybe they start with, okay, you can get on a discovery call with me and I’ll try to sell you coaching. Right? Like that’s probably the level that they’re at with their funnel, but they don’t really realize that you could do a masterclass or you could have like freebies to build your email list or you could have some sort of launch sequence.
And so I think that all of that’s really important, but at the end of the day, you have to know what it is that you’re offering people so that you can then back that up and say, okay, what’s the bridge between you knowing who I am in a clubhouse room, me actually make an offer to you and you actually buying the thing.
Right. So people kind of need to know that bridge. And so I think that it’s a little bit like a happy surprise for many people that they grew group, they got all this awareness. They have all these people that like the thing is about a clubhouse is if people are interested in you, they’re going to come to your inbox and say, can I work with you?
And then if you don’t have an offer, you’re like, Hmm, yes, you can. Let me just like, create something for you right now. Like, let me just, if you want that, yes, I’ll do it. But we want to get people into a model that’s really scalable, right. Something that they could do over and over again,
just like you are like, you know, that it works, you’ve measured. It, you practice it. You know, that like if people go from clubhouse room to masterclass to challenge, they’re going to buy the product. Right. And so that’s kind of the thing that we want to build for everyone is just knowing that that conversion content will always work for you on a consistent basis because your offer matters.
It’s something that people want. It’s something that they will take that journey on with you. And so that’s why I think it is, is that a lot of people are disliked kind of like in that development phase. And it’s totally okay. I think that’s awesome. Yeah. And we have actually had multiple clients come to us for that exact reason. Like,
I don’t have an offer. I don’t know what I’m selling any of my leading offer. I help them out. So totally. Yeah. A hundred percent. All right. So today we talked about how to be really wise on your time, but we actually didn’t talk about the numbers of time in itself, but I know everybody’s different. So before there’s my children calling in my emergency breakthrough listeners,
there’s another child podcast listeners calling for more lunch money, probably for our listeners that are really kind of wondering how much time do I actually need to spend on this in order for it to actually be worth my while. Is there at least a minimum time or is it a cadence or a consistency that you recommend? Yeah. Okay. So I would say that like,
you’re probably not going to move the needle a lot if you’re not willing to spend at least four hours a week on an app and at least one of those hours being you having your own room. So I think that that’s something that’s really important. It’s a time intensive app, but here’s the other side is that the sky’s the limit with influence awareness and all of that.
So to me, the real question is what do you actually want? Do you want to build something that’s more evergreen? When we talk about the offer, when we talk about the funnel, do you want to build something where it’s like, you can be on the, in the conversations? Do you enjoy them? Does clubhouse let you up? There’s a lot of people that are like,
I love it. I just love it here. I just want to spend all day every day. Okay, great. Let’s build the model that lets you do that and be profitable. So that’s kind of like the question that goes to my mind. But at the same time, there’s people like Janet who does Pinterest marketing and she’s made a ton of money on the app.
And she does her two regular rooms every single week. And in her free time outside of her business, she goes into other rooms and she creates awareness around who she is. And her funnel is really strong, but it’s a service based funnel, right? She has coaching. She has her courses. She has a little bit of a mix. She’s made a lot of money on the app to spending around four hours a week.
So the sky’s the limit for you. If you’re somebody that has the desire to build your personal brand and build your social media, and maybe you are starting at zero and you have a lot of time use the time to grow that, build that. I think it will serve you for years to come. If you’re somebody that’s super busy, you have a great funnel already in place.
Maybe you have a Facebook funnel or something that’s already existing. Maybe you want to add a little bit more. You want to actually use clubhouse to nurture your community or get in front of some new eyeballs or be an expert guests. That’s great position yourself for that. I really think that anytime, but I would say the minimum is around four a week.
And I think most people could probably figure out four hours a week. Right. And it’s worth it. We love being on the app. I love the app so much and I get to meet amazing people like you. So thank you so much for being on the show. So you actually have a guide that you’re going to give to our listeners, a clubhouse productivity guide,
just share what is in that. And then we’re going to make sure it’s in the show notes of this episode so everybody can grab it for free. Yeah. Yeah. So this guide really came out of the question of so many people say like is clubhouse worth my time. And so it’s literally your answer to that. So we go over the six different places where you can show up on clubhouse effectively.
But then we also asked the very hard question is like, what is your ideal life and week actually like, right. Take the time to actually do the worksheet in order. I tell you my winning formula, how to use awareness, how to use, you know, nurture how to use, you know, conversion. You can do all of that,
but none of that matters to me unless it fits into your ideal day and week. And that is going to help you to decide, okay, what are the hours that I might spend on clubhouse? Why is it worth it to me? Because I want you to define what you want. Right? What makes it worth your time to show up in a clubhouse room,
do the scary thing, add some value, get in front of people, build your brand, do the work around clarity. Like what is it that gets you to actually do that? And then once you do that, then it’s like, okay, so what time am I going to do it like that? That’s where I want to get you. And that’s how I designed the guy Love.
That sounds so awesome. I know our listeners really appreciate it. And I really appreciate you sharing that with everybody. This is episode number 243, and all of our listeners can find you and how to connect with you@theshownotesatsweetlifeco.com, just click on the podcast button. It’s episode number 243. But before we go, what is your clubhouse handled? So everybody can follow you.
Yeah. At Annabel, by Han. And then if you went to follow my club, it’s now the club under clubhouse mastermind. And so you could follow me in both places and that will get you right into the content that you want to see. It has mastermind. I love that. Okay. Well we’ll for sure be jumping in your rooms from your club too.
I appreciate your expertise and your time so much. Thank you so much. And Thank you for having me.
This is for those of you who’ve nailed your first offers and you want to scale.
Summary:
Predictable systems are what makes the work flow. Systems to scale, systems to grow your team, systems to manage your marketing, client facing systems, and more…
This 2-part show with systems scaling queen Racheal Cook makes understanding how, why and when to create systems within your business, simple. There was so much business IQ delivered that we broke this show up into 2 parts, so be sure to tune in to both for the full effect in your profit. In detail we discuss, scaling versus growth, the 3 systems every business needs and why you don’t need to try to do everything to create a profitable online service or consulting practice.
At the end of this episode you will:
Learn the difference between growth and scaling
Understand why the best sales start with subtraction
Gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere online to be profitable
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. You guys welcome back to two of the systems that scale show here on the Sweetlife entrepreneurial business podcast, we have a very special guest Rachel Cook. And if you missed episode number 238, please just pause it here.
You can come back to this right after you listened to episode number 238, because I want to make sure you don’t miss any foundational parts of what we’re talking about today. I want to make sure you leave with a whole entire clear business picture on the systems that you need to scale your business. Today’s guest is our returning expert. Racheal Cook. She’s an award-winning business strategist who believes entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so complicated.
And over the last decade, she’s helped thousands of women entrepreneurs designed predictably profitable businesses without the hustle and burnout. And Rachel’s work has been featured in places like fast company, us chamber of commerce and other resources online. And she is an Amazon, Amazon bestselling author of the fire and up and focused challenge in your business sweet spot. And when you tune into last week’s episode,
you’ll hear that I have been a huge fan of Rachel Cokes for a very long time. So this is a very special treat for me personally, to be able to bring her on today’s show so that you can learn her amazing simplified strategies to scale your business. In today’s show, we’re going to talk about the importance of following systems and creating systems for your business,
including marketing systems, sales systems, and customer-facing user experience systems for coaches, consultants and service-based online businesses. So if you are at the point where you are trying to scale, you’re struggling to scale and you know that the systems part of it is the missing piece. Then this is the episode that you need to be paying attention to of course, partnering with last week’s episode,
number 238 and all of the show notes and everything we’re talking about today can be found by visiting sweet life co.com and simply click on the podcast as well as all the places where you can connect with Rachel tap into Rachel’s amazing challenges. The ones that initially connected me to her over eight years ago in so many other places where you can learn from Rachel directly.
All right, so let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. Now let’s jump to the next area of systems that companies need to have in place to scale. Yeah, we had talked, I the earlier about, you know, each time you add a new offer to your business, you have to make sure you have a marketing system, a sales system,
and a customer experience or a delivery system for each offer. So you almost need to do an audit of your business and figure out what are the things that you’re doing in each of those that are working and what aren’t working. Because often I find that we’re doing things because we feel like we should do them or that’s because how everyone else does it or how the industry says to do it.
But if we pop the hood and take a look under there, we realize, oh, maybe this actually doesn’t work that great for me. So thinking about marketing, I’m always thinking through the framework I mentioned before the marketing pieces attract, engage, nurture, so attract getting it in front of brand new people. Who’ve never heard about, you don’t know who you are,
what you do, what your brand is about. Engage is getting those people to kind of raise their hand and go, oh, I’m interested in learning a little bit more. I want to connect with you and learn more about what you talk about, what you have to offer. And then nurture is actually building the relationship and helping them to build that know like,
and trust so that they are like, oh yeah, April is the person I want to learn from. Or April’s the person who’s going to solve this problem for me. And then I’m ready to have a conversation about what the thing is that I’m buying from you. If you don’t have a clear idea of what your strategy for each one of those is going to be,
it tends to be throw spaghetti at the wall marketing, right? And that is the biggest waste of time. And this is where I see so many people burning themselves out. They create these ideas of all the things they think they need to do all the places they think they need to be, but nothing works together and pulls people in a singular direction.
So for example, in my business, my number one attract strategy is doing interviews on podcasts. See, And you guys are all gonna follow her after this and eat up everything she puts Out. So interviews on podcast is my number one strategy. How did I realize it was my number one strategy? I actually went back, looked at my last 10 or 25 or a hundred clients.
I pay attention to where they came from. And if 80% are coming from podcast interviews, then I’m going to do more podcast interviews. And I intentionally designed systems around it. And when I was able to, I hired someone whose whole role in my business is to pitch me for podcast interviews, because we know that it drives results. So we’re putting a system in place we’re tracking it.
We’re adjusting when we realized this one thing is working really well. Once I do a podcast interview, what happens? Well, I’ve already mentioned the fired up and focused challenge, which one is one of my best performing engaged pieces of content I’ve ever created. So it’s free value where people can come get into my ecosystem and learn more about me and how I operate once they do that.
We’re nurturing them with our podcast, promote yourself, CEO. And every week they’re getting more content along the same types of topics as the fired up and focused challenge and what we’re talking about now. So it’s all very congruent. It’s keeping people on a similar learning path. So everything is mostly audio because we know if they like podcasts and they like podcast interviews,
and we want to make it really congruent for people to access all the content that I’m sharing. It’s all designed to travel with them. And that system is just rinse and repeat for us rinse and repeat, rinse and repeat you. Won’t see me add much complexity to that. I might do experiments here and there. We’re going to drag you on clubhouse.
Well, And that’ll be a fun experiment. Like I am. I’m always open for experiments. When I have the bandwidth to play around with them. I find that there are certain things I could take away from my business and it would not impact the bottom line. I could go silent on Instagram and it would not change the revenue I bring into my business.
But if I go silent on my podcast, it will absolutely change the revenue I bring into my business. Right. So you have to know what actually works for you and be able to track so that you can make those smarter decisions. And it follows that 1, 1, 1 rule, like you just need one thing in each thing and make sure it makes sense for your people.
So that’s kind of a marketing system is what is your attract strategy? Where are you sending them? How are you engaging with them? And then what’s your nurture strategy? How can you make sure that all of those things are very symbiotic. They’re all working together in this really easy to manage ecosystem. Now, as the CEO, it doesn’t mean you have to be doing all of those things a hundred percent by yourself.
Your goal should be to have other people who are helping you deliver those things, because the most important thing for any business is consistent marketing. If you turn off the marketing, it’s like driving your gas tank down to empty, and then hoping you’re going to go somewhere. You’re just not. So if you’re starting to feel like you’re on a content hamster wheel and you’re exhausted and you feel like I don’t have time for this stuff,
then you had to hire some help and have team to help you with that. So I have team that helps me with every part of that. Literally the biggest part of my role in all of it is to sit right here in this chair with this big microphone and talk, everybody else handles all the other moving parts of that. All I have to do is sit down and talk,
which makes it sustainable. So if you can answer those three things, you will have a marketing strategy that becomes scalable. And if you’re willing to keep it simple and instead focus on the quality of what you’re putting out there, instead of the quantity of places you are on, you will see amazing results. Hmm. I love that. And I think that’s important for our listeners to hear as well,
you know, especially with so much push to, to be everywhere and do all the things. And I really, it’s just so important in, in fundamentally proven and Just think about everybody points back to, we talked about Gary V and how he’s like be everywhere. Do all the things. If you follow him long enough, you’ll realize he has a team of about 15 to 20 people who all they do is follow him around all day,
record everything coming out of his mouth and then repurpose that into tons of content. So he is not doing that on his own. He has a massive team that is producing at that volume. And his play is as an influencer. He has to be everywhere because that is his approach is widespread messaging. That’s not everybody’s approach. So if your approach is you have a very specific topic,
a very specific niche, a very specific person you’re trying to talk to go deep. You don’t have to be shallow and playing on the surface level, trying to reach as many people as possible. You can go deep with a smaller group. Well, And I love that you said that too. And I think that this will resonate quite a bit with our audience as well.
Is it? You said something. I think I wrote it down here, somewhere in my, in my notes, but you said that you’d rather be, you know, incredibly significant for a smaller group of people than superficial and barely making an impact to thousands and millions. And I think that that is really an important differentiator because it is a different business model.
And I think that maybe even starting there, if you guys are listening to this and you’re like, oh, you know, which, which approach do I really take? Listen to what Rachel said and think about what aligns with what you want to do, your significance, your impact, and frankly, your, your business model in your, your life.
I mean, listen to the show, you guys know me, we’re always talking about building, you know, really the life we build the business, you build life. Like, what do you, what do you really want? And so building a profitable business with a small audience is done all the time again and again and again and again. And so I think that that is maybe the first step as our listeners are thinking through what you said for you guys to think about,
you know, how does this really fit into, you know, really what I want my big picture to be, who do I really want to be in this space? And how does that align with how I see myself in my significance? And so I really appreciate that. You said that. So we talked about scaling with teams. We talked about scaling with marketing.
I really, your simple marketing three-step system is amazing. And then the third area that you were going to share with us today is scaling through your customer experience. Yeah, yeah. That I love this too, because I feel like no one talks about customer experience. Everybody is so focused on the brand new people coming in the front door that they forget about all their clients are losing out the back door.
And the reality is most strong, successful, sustainable businesses. It’s not about the one-time sale. It’s about the repeating sale. It’s about the lifetime customer value. And these are things that I feel like no one talks about these days. But if you look at any traditional business model, which is the world I come from, they’re always looking at who is their customer and how are they getting those people to continue,
right. Customers. So retaining them as customers getting repeat business from them, getting rave reviews from them, getting referrals from them and just having those people continuously engage with them. And if we change it, our perspective there, instead of putting all of our effort on the front end and into putting it behind the scenes and how we take care of our clients,
it gets a customer for life versus a customer that’s one time. And I think this is a huge differentiator for a lot of people. If you think about the research shows that it’s seven times easier to keep an existing customer than to go out there and buy a new one. Well, we know right now that there’s more noise than ever before. Ad costs are going up.
It’s harder to break through than ever before. Our industries are becoming more saturated. They’re becoming more sophisticated. Taking care of your people is one of the simplest things that will help you to stand out. And it does not mean that it needs to be complicated or it needs to be expensive. It just needs to be thoughtful. So a huge piece of this is actually thinking through the delivery of what you’re doing.
And this is like the bare minimum, the delivery of your promise and your product program or service needs to be thoughtfully done and not just thrown together at the last minute. And I’ve seen this happen so many times, especially in this online world where people are so focused on how big the launch is that they forget that on the back end of those launches is upwards of a 10 to 20% default or refund rate.
And the reason that is so high across the industry is because the customer experience is terrible because there’s no follow up with those clients because they buy something. And then it’s like, thanks for your purchase. And they never hear from that person again, there’s no personal attention given. So this is one thing where we want to scale deliverability in a way that brings back the human touch to business.
And I think we’ve gone so far in the direction of automation that it’s been to our own detriment. Like the idea of everything should be evergreen. Everything should be automated. It’s left a whole lot of people right now who are saying things like, I don’t want to buy another course, right? I didn’t open this course. I didn’t complete this course.
I didn’t get as much value as I thought I’d get out of this. But if we do a few things differently, they would have a different opinion and a few simple, simple things. You can do one, you can continue doing the automated things like you should have some sort of email delivery reminding people to go in and use the thing. They just bought coaching them through it,
answering questions, highlighting cool things going on in the community that is like the bare minimum that is highly scalable. But then do the things that don’t scale because the things that don’t scale or the things that are memorable Heights, this is one huge thing. We forget that some of the most amazing businesses in the world will still pick out a few people to send amazing experiences to they’re still upgrade people’s experiences.
And that’s how we end up with these customers for life. So one of the things that we do, I mean, these are just little things. One is we actually track our clients progress through our programs. And if we see in our coaching platform that we use that they’re getting stuck, or they’re not moving forward in their plan that we’re tracking with them.
If they’re not responding, if they’re hiding, we proactively reach out and we’re like, Hey, what’s going on? Right? And half the time they’re surprised. They’re like, hold on. How’d you know, and it’s like, well, we can tell that you haven’t logged into anything. We haven’t seen you on any calls. And so we’re concerned,
are you okay? How can we help? And to some people, that’s all they need. They just need that little nudge. And sometimes it opens up a whole like, oh, I’m stuck or I’m having a hard time and we can get them back on track and deliver the promise of our offer. But if we let them default into overwhelm or I don’t know what to do,
then they’ll fall off. And there’s another customer who feels less than happy about the experience they had with us, as opposed to a customer. Who’s like, oh my gosh, they actually reached out and checked in on me. Right. It’s just bringing that human approach. Right. And, you know, and even small things like you were saying, writing like a handwritten card and dropping it in the mail.
And we were talking about this. And one of our programs is where identifying where that places, where people can, whether it’s the hardest work in the program or the part that’s not fun and doing that phone call then. And, and I think that, so it’s really interesting. Again, there’s a certain need to have a, a higher level perspective on the evolution of online business to have this conversation about,
you know, being in this space for a good deal of time. So I actually speak about this often on the show, but just for our listeners that haven’t heard that yet. There’s an evolution of like courses like the, we’re talking about where we used to do these like huge courses and set it and forget it. And evergreen, huge launches and people ate him up and he was amazing.
And then like 2015 came along, 17 came along and now we’re to the point where only 6% of people are completing online courses. And I love what you said, it’s doing the things that don’t scale. It’s doing the things that actually matter. Like, okay, if I’m a teacher and I’m actually trying to teach people and not just sell them into my big launch,
what do they really need from me? And I love that you share that you guys do that because you, that those are the things that separate the oil from the water. When we’re talking about businesses that really, really delivering a transformation to their clients and their students. Yeah. And this is important if you’re delivering a transformation, you just have to know that the industry has shifted away from the automation,
the evergreen, I know that’s what everybody’s selling right now because they made their money on it five years ago. But right now, what is getting those clients stick around. And like, we had a 90% renewal rate of our program this past year, 90% of the people who took it last year, renewed again this year. Okay. And you guys,
Rachel has a year-long CEO program. We’re going to make sure you know about, so this isn’t like joining us for, these are people that have worked with her for a year. 90% of them are like, I want to stay with you. They want to continue. And they’re either continuing in the same program or they’re upleveling to work with my team in a higher level one-on-one way.
And when you start looking at it from that different lens, it’s like, does it make sense for us to send a handwritten note? Yeah. Does it make sense for us to say, Hey, do you want to come to Richmond for just a small peer mastermind day? Here’s some people who live in the area, let’s just send them a quick invite.
Heck yet, does, does it make sense that we ship out books and print planners and all these things that five years ago, people thought I was crazy when I was mailing out little bundles to my clients. And I’m like, but you don’t understand. These are the tools that I think will help them and they get it. And they’re like, it feels like Christmas because no one gets that stuff.
So it’s not about sending a gift. That’s just like a fun thing. It’s about how can you make this experience thoughtful? How can you show people that you’re really committed to the result that you’ve promised them? Does it mean that if you see somebody struggling, you offer to jump on a quick 15 minute call. Yeah. I mean, this past year we have gone through new babies.
We have gone through miscarriages. We have gone through divorces. We’ve gone through weddings. We have gone through movies across the country. We’ve gone through spouses, losing jobs. We went through the global pandemic. We went through a crazy election cycle. We went through all sorts of things. And at the end of the day, it’s the commitment to saying,
you know what? As a team, it doesn’t take us a ton of extra time each week to sit down and go, Hey, who could use a little extra love and check in with our team of mentors, check in with who’s running our communities and say, who could use a little extra something from us? Do they need a little email? I’ll send video emails out to people.
Do they need a little extra love? Do they need a reminder? Hey, we’re here for you. Those are the things that stand out compared to just feeling like another number on a list that paid, you know, a couple of thousand dollars for a program. And that program designer, celebrity, entrepreneur doesn’t know who you are, right? It’s a whole different experience.
Does that mean every business needs to be as high touch in their approach as I am at this point, no, you don’t have to be at all. You can definitely scale up lower price point things and have a more hands-off delivery of it. But I think this is where you have to know your purpose and the work that you’re doing in the world and how you want to do it.
There’s no right or wrong. I’m just giving a different perspective of, I would rather work in a really meaningful way. Go really deep with people have clients who work with me for a few years at a time. And then they come around and tell me the things they’ve been able to do. You know, like my husband quit his job and is working with me full time.
I was able to take two months off this summer and the business kept making money. I was able to hire people in my team to deliver my course. And all I have to do is show up a couple times a month. Like those types of things are really exciting to me because it does give them back the freedom and the life that they really want.
And I love how you design businesses. And that’s why I’ve followed you for so many years. All of these really, I don’t want to say common sense because they, they aren’t common unless you’ve gone through the process of seeing what else is out there. But fundamentally we’re teachers, we’re, we’re coaches, you know, we’re we’re teachers. And especially if we just compare it to like how our kids,
third grade teachers are to them, you know, they’re doing these things are trying to figure out all the ways like to make them laugh and make them happy and make them, you know, do all these things. And granted it’s totally different situation, but as teachers and as people that people pay us money and they trust us to help them. Yeah.
I love the way you engineer your programs. And I love the way that you explained that customer experience. So we talked about a lot, totally to break this episode up into two episodes. This might be a, two-parter Going to be a two-parter. You guys are recording it Now, not a plan, but this will be a two-parter if you know,
I think that what is so important, what I want people to take away. In addition to all the things you should see, all the Rachel Cook quotes. I have that written down on this paper. You guys, you’re a scale is about adding and it’s not, no scale is not about adding it’s about subtracting. I can’t even read my own writing.
What comes easiest to you is most often your greatest asset. I mean that you are gold. You’re like just gold or gold. I have like five quotes in my chicken, scratch written here on my paper. You know what I want you guys, listeners, you know, every, every show we want to give you proven processes, trainings, tactics,
and strategies that you guys can take to the bank, but it doesn’t mean you should take every one of them, right? We have shows and all these different topics, but why I’m so excited to have Rachel here is because of the fact that if you are designing a, like, Rachel does, like I do, you know, family, how frequently we work,
how often we work, the capacity in which we work simple is always better. And it doesn’t mean that it’s the right way for everybody, but it is very, very profitable. And it’s very tempting to make things really complex. It’s really tempting to make things complex. So I really want you guys just to like, take a deep breath as you’re listening to these now,
two shows and put them on repeat, make sure you’re following Rachel. And the first and the first episode, I, you know, we, we sent you to go do the fire up and focus challenge. So hopefully you did that. If you’re listening to part two of this, go back and listen to part one, take a deep breath and just,
and just be like, this is doable. This is smart business. This is taking what you were saying, traditional business and applying it to the online landscape, which not very many people do. Looking at those metrics, referrals in, you know, lifetime customer value, things that are very important to look at that again are oftentimes missed and not discussed in the shiny world of the online coaching space.
Go back and listen to this episode of repeat, just absorb. And then we really want you guys to reflect in what aspects of what Rachel talked about today, that you could be implementing into your business because it’s not about adding it’s about taking away in the simplification in order to scale in getting away from the grind, the more, and really coming back to the key factors that are going to increase profit and decrease time and capacity is such an important,
there’s so many lessons in gold that, that you share today. Rachel. And so I appreciate you being here so much. We’ve talked about a lot. Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. You know, tell everybody, you know, in the end of this episode, day time that we’re spending together, what do you think that you know about yourself as a leader,
through this process of what you’ve done? What do you, what do you feel like that you really love of how you grown as a CEO in this space over, you know, over how long have you been in business over a decade? For sure. Right. I mean, Yeah. I think I started my business in April of 2008. So it’s been awhile.
It’s been awhile. I would say, you know, the biggest thing I’ve come to love about myself as a leader is that I’m continuously willing to be uncomfortable. I think as a leader, you have to be willing to get uncomfortable and to be able to sit in discomfort, which does not make leadership sound too appealing. But what happens when you’re willing to sit in the discomfort,
when you’re willing to sit in the discomfort of coming up against your own inner critic, coming up against your own imposter syndrome, coming up against your own resistance, being willing to look at the different sides of yourself that maybe you really don’t want to look at. That’s where the leadership growth has been for me has been when I’m willing to sit in that discomfort and lean into it and push myself through it.
Because often for me, the leadership parts that have been the hardest have been the one about the parts about surrender and letting go of control and getting out of the way and trusting that I am hiring amazing, amazing, smart, brilliant women who also have a gift. And who also have things that they’re here to leave the world with. And I’m providing them an amazing opportunity to make an impact within the scope of this container called my business.
And if I’m just willing to continue leading into my own discomfort and stop trying to control the heck out of everything and let other people do great work, too, we’re going to do amazing things together and it’s going to be incredible, but I can only do that if I’m willing to push myself out of my own comfort zone. And right now that comfort zone is learning how to rest.
It’s tracking my sleep. It’s taking intentional time off and not feeling like the urge to jump in and start a new, a new thing because what I really need right now is rest. And I really need time off. And sometimes as an entrepreneur and as a leader, it’s hard to really fiercely protect that thinking time, that recovery time, but it’s so true.
The more higher up you get in your career and your journey as a leader, the more you need to protect that so that you can come back to your team and really give them everything you’ve got. Everybody’s just kind of gone nodding their head listening. Yep, yep. Exactly. Free to aware. Can besides we said it in what will now be the first part of this episode?
I really highly encourage all of our listeners to follow you. I, like I said, I’ve done it for years. I have my team follow your stuff. You’re very, very smart. And the way you teach is very understandable. And so I appreciate you consistently showing that you have consistently shown up. And that says a lot, that says a lot.
So, so we appreciate that. Where can people find you The best place to find me is going to be on my podcast, promote yourself to CEO. We have an episode going out every week, all about how to scale a sustainable business without the hustle and burnout. So I’d love to see you over there. And of course, we talked about the fired up and focused challenge.
You can get the full 10 days@firedupandfocused.com it’s available on demand and absolutely gratis. So go dive in. Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much for all your time and, and making this a two-parter cause there was so many things. I just, anytime you, anytime you’re talking, I’m like writing it down. If I know our listeners so much appreciated getting to know you,
if they don’t know you already as well. And so all of the show notes will be available for you guys@sweetlifeco.com, click on the podcast. We’ll have everything there, all the resources that Rachel said and how you guys can continue to follow her as well. Thank you. Thank you very, very much. I really appreciate finally getting to meet you face to face after all that you have poured into our company from your knowledge and wisdom over the years.
Well, thank you so very much for having me. It was such a pleasure. Okay. Thank you so much for sticking with us. That was amazing. Rachel is one of my favorite people and now you know why, again, don’t hesitate to follow Rachel, reach out to her and connect with her. And of course, Rachel and I are also connecting on clubhouse live in all the places that you can find her and tap into the solution she provides can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com,
simply click on the podcast. And thank you so much for listening to this show. It’s because of you guys that we’ve been named the top 50 moms in podcasting, and this show is going on our fifth year. Really, really appreciate you guys and appreciate you sharing the show with your friends. Have an awesome day and I’ll talk to you next week.
This is for those of you who’ve nailed your first offers and you want to scale.
Summary:
Predictable systems are what makes the work flow. Systems to scale, systems to grow your team, systems to manage your marketing, client facing systems, and more…
This 2-part show with systems scaling queen Racheal Cook makes understanding how, why and when to create systems within your business, simple. There was so much business IQ delivered that we broke this show up into 2 parts, so be sure to tune in to both for the full effect in your profit. In detail we discuss, scaling versus growth, the 3 systems every business needs and why you don’t need to try to do everything to create a profitable online service or consulting practice.
At the end of this episode you will:
Learn the difference between growth and scaling
Understand why the best sales start with subtraction
Gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere online to be profitable
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate Back to the show and welcome to a very special two-part episode here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast, episodes, number 2 38 and 2 39 coming straight at you. As a matter of fact, these episodes are so good.
I didn’t actually set out to take the value today’s guests offers and break it up into two shows, but it was so great. There was so much information and I want to make sure you have an opportunity to absorb and implement it, that we did break it into two shows for you. So welcome. If you are a new listener here, I’m April beach,
founder of the Sweetlife company host here of the Sweetlife entrepreneurial podcast and everything we do is to help entrepreneurs design, launch and scale their business online since 2006. And we are so glad that you are here in tuning into today’s show. Today’s guest is somebody, let me be really honest that I have totally fan girl over four years. And if you know me,
I don’t fan girl often like ever actually it takes a lot to impress me, but I totally fell hard for this one woman because of her scaling systems. When I first found her back in 2013, and I have followed learned from it admired her ever since this is Rachel Cook MBA. If you do not know her, I am super excited to be the one to be able to introduce you to her.
She is literally a systems genius and all the way back in 2013, 14, her lead magnet guys lead magnet, it was called fired up and focused was so good that I put my entire team through her lead magnet. So let me give you a formal introduction into who Rachel is. She’s an award-winning business strategists who believes entrepreneurship doesn’t have to be so complicated over the last decade.
She’s helped thousands of women, entrepreneurs, design, predictably, profitable businesses without the hustle in burnout. She’s the author of Amazon bestselling books fired up and focused and your business sweet spot and hosts a weekly podcast promote yourself to CEO. She’s a sought after speaker on entrepreneurship, marketing productivity, productivity. Look, I can’t even flow through that word because Rachel is so amazing.
She’s just going to make everything so much more productive on this show. And her work has been featured by the us chamber of commerce Ford’s coaches, council, fast company, and more, and we are going to dive right into today’s because I want to give you an opportunity to truly focus in on what we’re talking about, implemented in your business and walk away on the other side,
changed and transformed by what you applied from, what you learned today. At the end of this episode, you’re going to learn the difference between growth and scaling. You’re going to understand why the best sales starts with subtraction little puzzle there. You’re totally going to understand what I’m talking about at the end of the show. And you’re going to gain confidence that you really don’t have to be everywhere,
online to be profitable. So all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And let’s go ahead and dive in to episode number 238. All right, you guys, I am super excited to be joined by this very, very special guest. And you need to know a little bit about why this woman is so special to me. First of all,
maybe eight years later, she never knew how special she was to me and how powerful she was to our business Intel. Like right now, this is the one person I can say that I have probably fan girl over for almost a decade in this space. And so here’s a story why, okay? She said here, I’m telling embarrassing her behind the scenes,
but here’s the story why you guys know I’ve been in all my business for a very long time, since 2006, but inherently, I am not somebody that thrives by creating systems. And so 2013 was coming around and although we had our online offers, we didn’t have the systems in place that we really needed to scale. And I came across this amazing woman who’s here today and literally her lead magnet back in 2013 was so amazing.
I put my entire team through it and it completely got our business organized and in place. So that’s the intro. This is literally very surreal for me to be here with this woman that I have found, because what she teaches has literally changed our business. And I know it will change your suit. Welcome to this. And we live podcast, Rachel Cook.
I’m so glad that you, Oh my gosh, April. I think I need that little intro to just come with me for every interview and every talk that I give from now on. Thank you for having me. This is going to be a fun conversation. You are amazing. Okay. So tell everybody let’s like take it back. Was it 2013?
Is that how long ago was, yeah, It was end of 2013, beginning of 2014 when I created the fired up and focused challenge. And it’s still around today. Yeah. Everybody, what that was and the situation, the circumstances in which you created it, because that’s what makes it even more bad-ass than it already is. Oh gosh. So the circumstances for me creating the fired up and focused challenge is I was at that point,
it was actually going into new year’s 2014. And I had already planned this very fancy online marketing launch for my, at the time signature course, I had hired a videographer. We had done the three-part video series. I had a makeup artist, I got my hair done, all the things. And about a week before I was set to release that very professional,
fancy looking launch, I was just getting this feeling like this. Isn’t what I want to talk about. I don’t think this is as relevant to my community right now. So I sent out an email. It was like that quiet week between Christmas and new year’s. And I was like, Hey, I’m just curious as I’m creating content for the new year,
what is your biggest challenge when it comes to getting things done in your business? And I sent that little quick email out. I said, just hit reply. I did not realize that within a day I would have hundreds of replies. And I went through all of the responses and just saw that there were these themes coming up. And what I realized was,
you know what? Entrepreneurs have no shortage of great ideas. We have no shortage of creativity. What we tend to have a shortage of though is follow through is the sticktuitiveness to actually implement those big ideas and to get to the other side so that we can see these goals become reality. And that’s when I decided I was going to create the fired up and focus challenge,
because I realized where a lot of people were getting stuck wasn’t that they didn’t understand the opportunities in front of them or ideas for how they wanted to grow their business. They were simply running out of time and didn’t know how to manage your time and didn’t know how to structure their schedule. They didn’t know how to structure their team. They didn’t know how to structure much in their business.
And unfortunately, when you hand a bunch of creative people, no structure, not much gets accomplished of really good at starting things, not so good at finishing them. So we created the fired up and focused challenge. I remember my son who was born earlier that year was a baby, which means I was up probably to one or two every morning. I was only a couple of days ahead of recording the challenge and releasing it at the time.
It was 28 days. It’s now 10, but it became such a huge pivotal piece of work that I’ve created because it was a moment for me where I realized things that I had learned and had intuitively or, you know, implemented in my life and my business that I took for granted for how I was approaching my work and how I was approaching my business.
Other people didn’t know those. And I think it comes back to what comes easiest to you is often your best asset, because it comes easy to you because you have mastered it. You have a level of mastery over it. And that is something a lot of times other people want and need is someone who has that level of mastery to show them how,
or to help them do things at that level. So, yeah, so we created this challenge. It skyrocketed my business. It totally took me on a different path because up until that point, I hadn’t really been talking as much about systems and productivity and the operations and internal structure of businesses. I had been talking a lot more about just marketing and sales and I realized that marketing and sales is what draws often a lot of people in,
because let’s face it. It’s very sexy to talk about marketing and sales, but when you have the operations in place, that’s when you actually have a scalable, sustainable business. Right. And that’s a perfect flow into what we’re going to talk about today. And really that challenge. I went through all 28 days, all of my team went through the 28 days,
like I said, and we ate up every single bit of it. And it was amazing. And that’s exactly what we needed at that point of time as a company. Yes, we had, you know, we had the marketing down, we have the offers down, but there’s this middle place. And I can’t wait to talk about it today where,
you know, everybody says, they want to scale. Scale is sexy, right. You know, scale is what we do. But, you know, without these things in place, it’s going to be a bottleneck for your business. And oftentimes companies fail. And like the word that you use behind the scenes that we were recording was like, they implode on themselves.
So now this is something I’m so glad that you’re here on the show, because I don’t think that you’re saying that yeah, the marketing brings people in the marketing and the sales is what everybody wants to talk about, but what really people struggle with or the systems, the actual systems to scale. So first of all, did you ever watch that thing?
I don’t even remember. I just was so into the fired up and focused challenge, what did you do with your, did you still want your signature program? Yeah, it was actually our best lunch ever. It was my first six-figure launch after that very first time running the challenge. But you know, it’s interesting is fast-forward I turned that challenge into a book,
into a podcast and two signature talks it’s turned into multiple other things. The challenge continues to be one of my biggest assets and I give it away pretty freely just because I know it’s so valuable to people. Yeah. Let’s tell everybody where they can find that before we move on because listen, you guys seriously. It is absolutely amazing. Amazing. It really is.
It’s very clear, very precise, very like pinpointed to what people need to do. So how can they Find that fired up and focused.com? You can go there and get access to the full 10 day version of the challenge and it’s available on demand. So you can go get that at any time. You guys totally go get that, especially for those of you,
for our listeners. If you’re in phase one or two of our business growth system, if you’re a listener to, you know, our different phases. So it’s really planning really the launch or you’re in that launch phase, moving on to scale, you guys need this. So I think that’s a great asset and resource. Okay. So we have a problem.
We globally here, you know, we have a problem. The problem is systems systems to scale systems to grow the teams systems, to manage the marketing, all of the systems that really make a well-oiled machine, whether you know, our listeners have just themselves on their team or they have a team of eight or they have a team of 80 systems are still necessary.
So what do you feel like right now? And we’re going to dive into your most important systems to scale here. What are you seeing? It’s 20, 21. There’s a lot more online businesses now than there were, you know, back in 2013, what are you seeing now are like the biggest bottlenecks that your students are experiencing when it comes to growing their business?
Yeah. Well, one thing when it comes to systems at scale is remembering that scale does not equal growth. They’re not words that you can just transpose and think they mean the same thing in business growth can happen where it takes just as much effort to achieve each level of growth. So you can bring in more revenue in your business by just working harder,
putting in more hours, bringing in more and more team scale comes from economy of scale, where you’re actually having less resources produce higher results. So that’s where you’re getting to the point where the growth is more exponential with less resources, less time, less energy, less money, less team going into achieving that higher level of revenue. And I think that’s a really important discernment because oftentimes I find people think that scaling their business just means working harder,
just means throwing more at it. And those two things couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not about working harder. In fact, if you start talking to CEOs of businesses that are making multiple 6, 7, 8 figures, you will find that they get to the point where they prioritize their thinking time, just as much as they prioritize time that they’re in their office,
because they know how important that time away is in order for them to show up and lead and be creative and be strategic. So it’s not about more time and energy and efforting. That’s not what scale is about. It’s also not about just throwing more at it. Scale is not about adding it’s about subtracting scale is about taking away all the excess. And this is something that I think when we’re in earlier stages of business,
we have to try out a lot of things to find out what works. Because with each thing that we’re offering, we have to have a marketing system, a sales system, and a customer delivery and experience system in place. So for each offer, you have, it doesn’t matter if it’s working one-on-one or having an online course or having a product, you have to market it,
sell it and then deliver it. So when you add more and more and more offers, which is often what happens for a lot of people, they they’re like, oh, I have an idea for another program. I’ll have another thing for this next thing. And what happens is each time they’re adding a new thing, they’re not adding one thing, they’re adding three.
So they’re adding layers of complexity. And when you add layers of complexity to your business, it makes it harder for it to run efficiently. It makes it harder for you to reach economies of scale in any area. And it also makes it harder for your team because your team never knows what’s the priority. What are we focused on? Where should my time and energy be?
What is the goal right now? Because there’s too many things going on behind the scenes in the business, cause it’s too complex. So if you want to scale, if you want economies of scale, the key really is to do less, to hone in and look at your metrics, look at your numbers, figure out what’s actually working and double down on what works and strip away anything that is extraneous to that we don’t need to just keep adding more and more and more.
So I often see this happening in, like, let’s say in marketing, there’s always something new happening in the world of marketing, right? And so what you’ll start to see is people who, and this is one that’s easy to see what’s happening just because it’s very obvious when people are trying out lots of things, right? We see them suddenly. They’re not only on Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn,
but now they’re on Tik TOK and they’re on clubhouse and they’re doing all of these other channels. And if you try to do too many things and spread yourself too thin, it is very, very difficult to do any of them. Well. But what if you find one that you started as just an experiment like April, you found clubhouse is working really well for your business.
Well, if clubhouse is working great, but you’re getting nothing really off of Instagram and Facebook. Yeah. Then the scalable approach would be okay. The channel that works best for us is live audio. So I’m going to strip away anything that is not aligned with live audio. And I’m going to take that time and energy and resources and apply it towards the marketing channel that is working for us instead of saying,
oh, clubhouse is working, let’s go do Tik TOK and this and that. You know, I really, I love that you said that because one of the things that is really being spoken about so much as Omni presence of needing to be everywhere and all the channels, and it’s this old, you know, Gary V approach to crushing it. And it’s really,
really tempting. And it does make entrepreneurs and small business owners feel like they need to be everywhere and they need to be doing everything. And so I just think that this is, so this is so fundamental to building profitable companies. And I love that. I love that you’re sharing this. I also love that you showed the difference between growth and scaling.
We talked about that a couple of weeks ago on the podcast and actually did a clubhouse room on this. Nobody I asked when I started the room, like, do you understand the difference between growth and scaling? Not one person could define that. And so it was really interesting. So when we’re in clubhouse together talking about this episode, we should talk about that because it’s,
it’s really, really important in that. Have you heard of the rule Of ones? The rule of ones? Yeah. So I, I didn’t come up with this. I, I heard this Program, one client, one marketing tool, one sales strategy. Yeah. That’s pretty much the approach I take is I have one core, one core strategy for each area of my business.
And I use a framework that I teach a lot, which aligns your marketing and sales with the customer journey, where we have one attract strategy, one engaged strategy, one nurture strategy, one invite strategy, and one delight strategy. And once we, once we figure out what our primary one in each of those are, I just doubled down on those and try to avoid anything that is taking too much effort away from each of those.
Yeah. The rule of one, I haven’t heard it that way in a long time. Yeah. All that. It’s super old and that’s why it’s like old is good, but you know, and yeah. I was wondering that. Yeah. And so, and I think, I mean, we’re not old, but when, I guess when we think about online business,
we’ve been an online business for like we’re old on my business. People we’ve been online business for a long time. And so yeah, as you were saying that, I was like, oh yeah, this is like that rule of lens. This is really great. And it’s so smart. So when we’re talking about scaling and we’re really talking about these systems and thank you so much for sharing your method,
if you guys should pause this episode, rewind it 20 seconds. And listen to Rachel’s method. I have her like five or six steps of whatever that was. I was genius. Let’s talk about these scaling team, scaling, marketing, you know, scaling client experience. Let’s jam on each one of those a little bit. Can you dive in and help our listeners understand when we’re talking about scaling with teams?
What does that mean? And where can they start in this process of doing this and what are the problems I’ve shared this before on the show? My greatest weakness is delegation. I have been a terrible person to work for for years, and I have amazing people that work for me. Not because I don’t honor a value them, but because I don’t stop and think about what I’m doing to best communicate and to empower them.
And about seven years ago, I had an amazing woman working for me who loved me enough to say, Hey, listen, I don’t want to quit. Cause I love you. But you know, you’re not good at this. You’re a terrible boss. And I knew it. I knew it, but I didn’t know. I guess it was more than seven years ago.
Cause it was before I found the fired up. It was like 2010, 2011. And so I say this to say that I think are a lot of leaders like me who struggle in this area. At least I’m conscious about it now. And I work really, really hard at that, but it does not something that comes naturally To me. It is not something that comes naturally.
And I think, again, as entrepreneurs, we have a lot of those double edged sword parts to our personality and our kind of mindset. It’s like, we’re really great at what we do because of this. But it’s also the thing that holds us back. So being raised by entrepreneurs as I was, I had a built-in mentor in my dad and he told me the most important lessons in leadership that I could’ve ever learned.
And he said, your job as a business owner is to fire yourself from every job in the company. It’s to fire yourself as quickly as you can. And some people are like, well, what do you mean if I fire myself, then what am I doing? You’re being the CEO and the business owner. You’re not being the marketing director and the project manager and the assistant and the bookkeeper.
You’re not doing all those things, but this is really hard for entrepreneurs to embrace because especially for those of us who are building our businesses from the ground up, our businesses are built on our experience and expertise and our intellectual property, our passion, the thing we care about the most, it can be so hard for us to pull ourselves out of our business.
And when we are really bad at it, what tends to happen is we get in everyone’s way, every person who we try to hire on the team, we end up getting in their way. And that’s where they’re emailing you finally and being like, can you just get the hell out of the inbox? Because I am trying to do my job here.
And can you just let me do my job, right? So you have to learn how to fire yourself. And this is one of the most important lessons when it comes to scaling your business is every time you bring someone new into your business, it is changing your job description as the CEO, because you’re no longer the CEO and whatever their role is that you just brought in.
You’re eliminating again, you’re taking things off, you’re taking things off your plate. So one of the exercises I always have people do that are working with me inside of the CEO. Collective is whenever they’re bringing new people into their business, I make them rewrite their job description as CEO. Now this is an exercise that most people have never done because we go out there and rewrite job descriptions for everybody that we’re bringing on the team.
But we never sit down and say, what is my role as the CEO of this company? What are the most important things for me to be focused on? And each person is going to be a little bit different because we all have our own different strengths as the CEO of our business, right? We all have something a little bit different to bring to the table,
but you have to get really clear on what your role as CEO is. And when you hire people in, you have to reevaluate, okay, what is most important? So for me and the CEO of my business, my top three tasks that drive results, that I only allow myself to focus on content. So my business is built around my intellectual property.
So I’m either creating content free or paid my clients really diving in and understanding who they are, what their needs are, what their challenges are, having a deep understanding and connection to my clients. And then connection, connection drives my business. I am not here to be an influencer and make a small impact in lots of people’s lives. I’m here to be someone who makes a big impact in fewer people’s lives.
So I know that that connection is what drives my business. And so each time I bring somebody on my team, I’m like, okay, those tests are off my plate. What do I need to stay focused on? Is it related to these three things? If it’s not related to these three things, then it should not be where I’m spending my time and my energy.
And that has prevented me from doing things like getting into the inbox or making graphics in Canva or editing podcasts or, you know, any of those things that we start to do when we are like itchy to get our hands back in the day-to-day of our business, you’ve got to get used to pulling yourself out of it. And a huge part of that when it comes to bringing on your team is just knowing that you have to be constantly firing yourself.
And re-evaluating your role. And even as you reevaluate your role, you will have to be constantly asking yourself, what is my zone of genius versus my zone of excellence? Because for a lot of us, we’ve had to get really good at lots of things, but it doesn’t mean it’s what we’re best at. Like I can put together a really great slide deck.
Is it what I am best at? No. Is that the highest and best use of my time? Absolutely not. If I am bored and I don’t know what else to do with myself, will I sit down and start getting into Canva? Absolutely. That’s my favorite way to procrastinate doing the real work that I’m supposed to be doing is to be getting into Canva And say,
Canva black hole mine. It is, It totally is. But if I talk to my team, they’re like, well, why did you do that? Why didn’t you record something new? Why didn’t you go take some time off so that you can have that thinking space. We know that you need, why didn’t you write the first chapter of the book that you’ve been putting off for six months,
because the canvas is easy and right there, and I’m pretty good at it. That’s why. So we have to be aware of that and really get into, as you’re growing your business, you’re pushing up against your growth edge as a CEO in your own leadership. And it is uncomfortable and it’s not always easy to sit down and do the higher level things that we know will move our business forward.
Like sitting down and writing my book is more likely to move my business forward, then making another slide deck in Canva. But I’m more comfortable making the slide deck in canvas than I am sitting down and figuring out what do I want to say right now? Right? And when you do say it, I want to be on that team. So make sure whatever,
whatever you put out there, I’m waiting. And I think that’s important to know too. So let’s talk about it from my perspective, everything you said is so, and you guys now know why leverage heal so much, right? And like, yes, that is exactly what is happening in my mind right now. I’m thinking the exact same thing. I do the exact same thing,
but then they put me on perspective as somebody who’s learned from you, I need your content. And I think that, that is like sometimes I think that helps me as a CEO to think like, I’m the only one that can do this. Right. And I know that there’s somebody out there that literally needs to hear what I’m going to say, whether your books about whatever,
raising kids or systems or whatever you write about, I don’t care because I’m going to read it because I, I appreciate everything that you say and I resonate with it. And so I think that that has been a driver for me to push through that. And I feel that there is, it’s almost like walking up a river, like upstream, like your thigh deep,
and you’re walking up upstream and you really want to just go to the side and sit on a rock and work on canvas because it’s fun. But instead you need to get back out in the middle of that river and walk upstream in think like my husband always says, she’s like the hardest work that we do as entrepreneurs is, is that thinking it is for sure.
Absolutely. And so I, I appreciate everything that you just said. And because I, I literally, that is me you’re is resonating and with our listeners too. I know. So this team aspect of it, where we’re talking about scaling with teams, let me ask you, how is it, how many people do you have on your team if you’re willing to share that?
I think we’ve got about 15 right now. Okay. Yeah. I mean, we have seven, eight now and I mean, I honestly, it’s like a shared, like, that’s hard for me to help each one of them, Brad, just because of who I am as a leader. How do you pick people for your team? Like how do you know they’re the right people?
I know we could do a whole, I think I just did an episode with this on it and somebody else, but I love asking these questions because I think it’s very important when we talk about scaling. I know that the selection of team members is a bottleneck for leaders. How do you navigate That? It is because you have to be able to not just outsource and delegate,
you have to be able to give ownership and that’s a whole different level. And this is one of things. It does prevent a lot of people from scaling because they will hire someone to delegate the marketing or to delegate the launch process or to delegate all the onboarding their new clients. But they always end up in a bottleneck because if all you’re doing is delegating,
it means those people are going to be coming back to you to ask questions and for decisions to be made. And if you are the only person in your organization that has clarity about where the business is going, that understands the values that you have and your purpose, and that understands your kind of internal framework for making decisions. Then you will always be the bottleneck because you will always have people coming back to you to ask a thousand things.
They will always need things from you. So building a self managing team is like a whole nother level. Another show about that. I mean, it is, it’s a whole nother thing, but for me, when it comes time to hiring people, I mean, I have people on my team. Who’ve been with me for over 10 years now and they’ve grown with me.
And the biggest reason why I think I’ve had so many people, I mean, I hear all the time people saying, I can’t find a great assistant. I can’t find a great project manager. I can’t find this. I can’t find that. And they’re like churning through people. And I’m like, do you have clarity on what your purpose is and your business and who you’re really trying to help and how you really want to show up and what your business stands for.
Because if you don’t have clarity on any of those things, it doesn’t matter who you try to bring in. Because at the end of the day, you can train anybody to do just about anything from a tactical practical perspective, but you can’t train people to care about your business or about your clients or about why at any of it matters. So when it comes to hiring great people for your team,
it takes time and you just have to know, it’s just like dating the first person you’d go out on a date with might not be the love of your life. You might have to kiss a few frogs and eventually you find the right person. And maybe sometimes you end up with somebody who’s great for a while, but then you kind of grow apart and you need to go find somebody else.
Like it’s a relationship. So like any other relationship you have to spend time having clarity about who you are showing up as and who the ideal person is. Who’s going to be that good compliment for you in the role that you’re looking for and take your time and finding that person, just know that it’s, it might not be the first person you talk to,
or the first person you hire. You might have to try a few different times, but if it’s a fit and you’re willing to invest in the person and in the relationship, then the delegation part of it becomes easy because they understand who you are, what you stand for and how you would make a decision about something. So they can take ownership over that.
Thank you so much for sharing your, your perspective on that. I know our listeners are already thinking about that. The processes we’re talking about delegating the team. So I think that that was really, really helpful to share that All right. You guys, that was an amazing show. I know we cut it off there in the middle. And as I said,
we didn’t start out this interview to actually break the show up into two episodes. But Rachel was so generous with her expertise and she delivered so many tangible things you can take right now and apply to your business. I really wanted to make sure that you had an opportunity to actually do that. So make sure you tune in with us next week on episode number 239 to catch the second half of systems to scale your business.
And again, all of the show notes, all of the resources and all of the ways that you can connect with Rachel directly can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and simply click on the package. All right, guys, talk to you next week. Bye bye. For now.
This is a great show for those of you who want to build a global brand or international empire without paid ads.
Summary:
Today we’re diving into the actual, step by step, proven process of building a global empire organically without paid ads. Following Lorraine Dallmeier’s proven process, you’ll not only be inspired but leave this show with tactical marketing you can apply to your brand right now, even if you have no marketing team or little marketing experience.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the 6 steps to create a global empire
Be inspired that little marketing skills are required to grow a loyal following
Understand the power of brand protection and how to apply this to your company
Learn about“edu-tainment” and how to apply this to your content marketing
Have yet another confirmation that consistency is king
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi guys, and welcome to episode number 237. Here it is the end of July, 2021. And we are so glad you’re listening to this episode. I’m April beach host here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast and founder and CEO of the Sweetlife company,
where we help entrepreneurs did not design launch and scale a business for high profit, deep impact lifestyle. Freedom today’s episode is really special. You’re going to love this guest. She is an absolute delight, and we’re talking about the actual proven step-by-step process to build a global empire. This woman did it starting only 11 years ago with a baby on her hip.
And she is breaking down her exact formulation for how she did it without running high cost ads and really in a way that creates brand consistency and gets her message across. And so I’m very excited to introduce you to our guests today, and if you’re new to the show and you have never listened, thank you so much for tuning in. There are a lot of really amazing podcast episodes out there from different hosts all over the world.
And I’m so appreciative that you are here hanging out with us today. All of the show notes, everything we do as a company, to help you design, launch and scale your coaching business, your consulting business, or your expert focused business can be found by visiting us@sweetlifeco.com as well as all of the show notes and all of the resources we have available for you.
Let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. I am pleased to introduce you to Lorraine doll Meyer. She is absolutely literally an amazing woman. You’re going to be so inspired. She’s an award-winning CEO of formula. Botanica the organic cosmetic formulation and business school, which has trained over 13,000 organic cosmetic formulators and ND beauty entrepreneurs in 177 countries. And probably counting.
She’s voted the most influential person in natural beauty for 2020 and awarded the digital achiever of the year for the cosmetics industry by Google. Lorraine is on a mission to teach the world to formulate and in this process and you’ll hear her story. It is so cool. She’s going to break down what it was like moving from an employee role, becoming a mother,
realizing that that isn’t what she wanted and that she just had so much more that she wanted to do. And you are going to leave this episode, understanding the exact six pieces. I should say, being six steps to her formulation. She breaks it down very, very clearly her six step formula on how she created this global empire. So the end of this episode,
you’re going to know her exact six step formula. And it doesn’t matter if you’re in the beauty industry or whatever you’re in. If you were in the education industry, if you were a coach or consultant, this is the level of business that you want to design. You’re going to walk away knowing her step-by-step process. And you’re also going to realize that you can absolutely do this yourself.
So I’m so excited to dive in today’s episode. It is episode number 237. So all of the show notes, everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com simply click on the podcast. And this is episode number 2, 3 7. All right, let’s dive into the show. Hi everybody. I am so excited to be joined by my new friend,
Lorraine Domar and she is going to blow your mind. You are literally going to be inspired just by the little chat that we have done behind the scenes here to get ready for what she is going to teach on this show. I am taking crazy notes and you are going to absolutely love this woman and be incredibly inspired and learn so much from this show today.
Lorraine, welcome to the show. Can you give everybody an introduction, share who you are, how you started out and all about this amazing online empire that you have built. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for having me on the show April. It is amazing to be here and I can’t wait for our chat. So I’m Lorraine. I run formula Botanica,
I’m a biologist, I’m a chartered environmentalist and I am on a mission to teach the world to formulate. So I run formula Botanica the online organic cosmetic formulation at school, and we train people how to make their own natural skincare and haircare using botanical ingredients are we are taking the world by storm with what we’re doing at the moment. It has been phenomenal.
So I’ve been running the school for almost eight years now, I guess. And I have 40 staff. We have over 13,000 students and graduates for in 177 countries. It has been a roller coaster to get here, but it wasn’t always like that. So just to give you a short intro into how I got here, I was on maternity leave with my eldest son who will be 11 in a few weeks.
And I decided that I couldn’t go back to my day job anymore. I had to work for myself. You know, I’d had really good jobs, but I just couldn’t handle working for other people anymore. And having listened to a few podcasts with you now, April, I think you probably heard that vaping quite well. So I decided I was going to start my own business.
I was watching the BBC’s apprentice. I was sitting there on the sofa with breastfeeding, my son. And I like, if these idiots can do it then, so can I, so that’s, I guess where it started. And then by the time I was on my second maternity leave, I had my business up and running. I was teaching people online already.
I had an app, I was teaching people how to make simple beauty products. And then I had the chance to actually buy formula Botanica in its infancy. It was a one woman side hustle. At that point I was, as I said, I had my second baby with me at that point. And I thought, you know what? This could be a fun hobby project.
And then I went back from attentively for a second time and my employer has ghosted me entirely. And so I thought I got to make this work and I have, so that’s like a potted history of, of how I got to where I am today. I guess You said something to me before we were recording. You know, you said I went from being this,
you know, mom would just a baby on my hip to having this global empire in 117, a hundred. How many different countries? It’s insane. Saudi 777 different countries, friends. Okay. This amazing woman has done this. And you literally have a formula just like you teach people how to formulate natural beauty products on their own. And I want to,
I want you to share your mission because I think that’s incredibly important. But what you’re going to share today on the podcast is the act is the actual formula from how you went from a mom with the baby on your hip, to where you are right now. But I think it’s important to know that for people to know, like, why are you doing this?
You shared this a bit with me before. Why are you so particularly passionate about what you teach women to do? Well, I love formulation because it takes us right back to our roots. It’s a skill that we’ve lost, that we’ve forgotten. And yet everyone used to do it. Like they’ve even found like fossilized face creams from Roman times. You know,
this is not something new and we can all formulate. Cause formulation is fun. It’s easy, it’s empowering. And most importantly, it disrupts the mainstream beauty industry because they want you to go and buy that product for 150 years. They’ve been telling us we’re not good enough. We don’t look right. We don’t smell right. We don’t conform to that.
Blonde stick thin what teeth person that they put, all the adverts, you know, everyone is different and we can embrace our own beauty by reclaiming that power from the beauty industry and learning how to formulate ourselves. And that is so incredibly empowering because then not only can you make your own skincare and haircare and even makeup whenever you need it. But it’s also more sustainable because the beauty industry produces over 120 billion units of packaging a year with that is just staggering.
And most of that ends up in landfill or in our oceans. And we can do better than that. And we can do that by learning how to formulate for ourselves and making things as in when we need them. So I am on a mission to make formulation as commonplace cookery and the entire world had to do it. And thankfully the world is very receptive,
which is a good thing. And you’re doing a very Good job out of that. You are doing an incredible job. And so thank you for sharing that. So before we even go into these six steps to how you have built this online empire in hearing these six steps, and I know our listeners after they hear them are going to be like, wow,
I can absolutely do this as well. I want to point something out. You are so incredibly deeply fiercely fire, really passionate about what you do. And you are very clearly leading with that determination. It’s not leading with the money because you want to build an empire to take over the world. You want to change and you want to create a transformation for women and disrupt an industry that needs to be disrupted.
So I say that. So as our listeners are listening to understand that underneath all of these things that we’re going to talk about in content marketing and all the other strategies to build literally a global empire with your online courses and your education business, that under that all is a fierce passion and conviction for what you are doing. And I think that in order to be successful,
frankly, anything, unless you just want to make a lot of money and not have a deeply purposeful company. I believe that that’s a requirement. And so I just wanted to point that out to our listeners and our listeners and pick up on that anyway, they’d be like, wow, this, you know, this, this woman’s amazing. She loves what she does diving into,
you know, history and, and the history of what she’s doing. So let’s transition. Let’s dive into that a little bit. How on earth did you go from this mom who was kind of working kind of decided she wanted to stay home, had an app, bought a company, having another baby to where you are now. You literally have a formula for this as well Through it.
Well, first of all, thank you for all those lovely things you said as well. I mean, yes, you have to drive forward with that passion, but then there are various steps that as you say, anyone can do. And the first one for me and I live in a brief there, so I absolutely love this is content marketing. Now I have been a prolific content creator since I was 15 years old.
And I badgered my parents to get the internet at the home. We were one of the first adopters of the internet where I lived. Everyone was like, why do you have the internet? I didn’t know what to write to, you know, web pages that really had anything of use for me. But I started blogging when I was 15. I started designing websites then,
and that has stuck with me ever since. So a big, big part of what we do is putting out content and I call it edutainment, which is a slightly pretentious word. I mean, you’re mixing education entertainment, but it says what it does on the 10 basically. And so we write, we film, we record content every single week that our followers want to read,
want to listen to what to watch. And a lot of people say to me, well, how’d, you know what to record? And I’m like, well, I go to ask people, you know, because they tell me what they want to know. And we put that content out there and that has been so, so successful for us because by showing up every week,
it doesn’t matter if it’s raining. It doesn’t matter if I’m on holiday, it doesn’t matter. What’s happening. That content will go out. And that means that our followers become dependent on it. They want to read it. And actually as a result of that, we’ve become like a publication as well as an online school. And we get more visitors now than the many of the sort of mainstream publications in,
on niche as well, which has been phenomenal. So let me ask you, where do you distribute the majority of your content? I know our listeners are thinking, okay, well, they’re doing this content. What are your, I know every industry is different. What are your primary social channels or content distribution channels that seem to have worked for you?
Well, social does well for us, but I have to say the main channel has been email. I mean, it’s all in the list, right? And I’m sure everyone listening who wants to do this understands you have to have a list. And I started off at 300 people on my list. I now have 125,000 and we clean that list rigorously.
Let me boot people off all the time because they don’t open our emails. Otherwise we’d have hundreds of thousands of peoples out there. So that is the primary outlet for content because people then sign up and they know they’re going to receive value in that inbox every single week. And that is so powerful because it means they stay subscribed as well. So you guys send a weekly email.
Yep, absolutely. We’re thinking of making that bi-weekly, but at the moment it’s just weekly and yet then the rest goes out on social. I mean our main channels, I suppose, are Instagram. I mean, we have, we’ll have over a hundred thousand followers by the time this episode ads, which quite exciting Facebook, we have big groups on Facebook.
I have a big networking group there with 47,000 people, which is free. So those are the main channels ready, but email first and foremost. And then, and I suppose that’s 0.2 and the sort of six step process. It’s all about the SEO as well. And I’ve only recently hired someone for the first time to do that before that it was just me writing lots of really good content,
then hiring people to write really good content. And I’ve always believed that rather than delving into what Google says about its algorithm, the best thing you can do is to just write top notch content, make sure it’s a good length and make sure people want to keep coming back to read it basically. So, you know, one of the things you said to me behind the scenes as well before we started recording this with that,
and I think this is important for people to know that you have been consistently hitting the pavement with content and putting content out for seven years. I think that’s important for people to know that consistency is king here. And I’d love also how you say that you clean your list. And I think people are afraid to do that as well. You know, get people that have an open things off their list.
I think people are really afraid to do that. And I love that you said that because we want a vibrant list of people that are actually absorbing your content in and really love what you’re doing rather than a dead list. And when people really don’t, who wants to talk to people that don’t want to listen. And so I love that you said that as well,
but I feel like one of the important things to say here about this number two is that you were just out there posting, like you said, rain or shine for seven years, and this is organic growth. You guys, we aren’t buying a hundred thousand people to end up on the reins list. This is, you know, fully putting amazing content out there that people want to absorb and organic growth.
And so I’m really admire how hard you’ve worked at doing this. And I just want to commend you for that. People want to shortcut all the time and it’s not that you can’t be successful fast, but there is, there’s much more to the iceberg underneath the water, for Sure. Absolutely. And I’ve seen so many people sort of try to shortcut or get bored of doing it.
And then if it doesn’t work within three months, they’re like, oh, I’ll do something else. And so many of the entrepreneurs who started in my sort of year group, I suppose, when I got going, they’re all doing something different now and I’m sitting there going why? And they’re like, I’m really impressed. You kept going with like, well,
yeah. And look at what I’ve achieved by just plugging away at the same thing every single day. It’s been amazing. Wow. Well that alone, what a great testimony and just a great amount of encouragement. That’s exactly right. And I think that we get so afraid that maybe we’re doing the right things, or we need a confirmation faster in that trust in what you’re doing and what you’re creating and the consistency in doing it.
And that’s a whole podcast episode on itself. So I just want to highlight that. And I just think that’s incredibly powerful. So we talked about step number one and then step number two is just really being out there consistently posting SEO, you know, really diving into that. And then step number three is one of my favorites in people. It’s not that I think that entrepreneurs don’t want to do that.
They all do, but I don’t necessarily believe that there are many entrepreneurs that fully understand how to fiercely protect their brand. So let’s talk about number three. Yeah. So three is all about the brand and I’ve created a really, really strong brand around formula Botanica. And when I look at a lot of digital marketers online, they often bypass that step.
They just go straight for the ads, the shortcut, as we said, and actually building that strong brand is something that has made the company so unshakeable. So rock solid that if something terrible happened to us, we would weather it because the brand is so strong. And I protect that brand fiercely. Now I have brand guidelines. I make people read them all the time.
I, I tweak little, you know, the very fact that I’m sat here in a green top, in a green office, it’s just all part of the brand. I live in every single components of it. And that comes down to how we speak the tone we use in the emails that go out, even in our help desk, the way we support people,
the way the courses are put together, the way we show up for events, just literally every little detail is overlooked by that brand. And people often come to me and they’re like, can I say this? And I’ll go, ah, let’s rejig it slightly. So it looks like that. And this is the reason behind it. So I’m constantly trying to educate my team as well so that they can live and breathe that with me because no one can take that away from you.
You know, if your ads bomb or if no one comes to a website, oh, you know, if something goes horribly wrong on social media, your brand is still there. And that is a thing of beauty that I think, yeah, as you said, lots of people overlooked, but yet it’s the core components to growing an online empire. Wow.
That is so powerful as I have my, my wave mug and my, my way of wall. And it’s what we do. If you guys are watching behind the scenes in the video, you have to, you have to go to the YouTube channel. You have to see Lorraine behind the scenes and see all her great. It’s fabulous. And this is an example of that,
but I also love what you said with the language and the tone and the brand personality. And I think that that is so incredibly important as well. So thank you for that. I love number three. So what’s number four. What was a fourth thing? What’s a fourth step in your formulation for building this online empire. So we’ve got the content,
we’ve got the distribution, we’ve got the brand step. Number four is all about the community. I mean, it’s the people who sits at the heart of all of this in some respects, they should be step number one, but I thought let’s walk through all of them in sequential order. So I’ve built a really strong community around formula Botanica as has my team as well.
And these are people who we know we love, even though we have over 13,000, almost 14,000 students and graduates. We know so many of them and we get really excited by them because we know what they’re doing. You know, I have, if you’re watching the video, I have all of that products behind me. I sit here with them on my desk.
I’m always sort of holding them up, going, oh, this is so-and-so. She lives in Denmark. And this is so and so she lives in India and you know, the community is what makes us who we are. We wouldn’t be where we are without these incredible people. And I’ve met so many of them over the years. I know their stories.
I’ve become friends with so many of them as well. And they inspire me to do better as well, because that constantly out there changing the world, being part of this global green beauty movement that we’re spearheading and yeah, they’re helping us drive it forward. So to do that, we’ve used social media. We use Facebook groups. It sounds really simple.
And it is in a way, and in the beginning I would be in that and I would show up all the time for our students and graduates. And that was how we built this incredible heartwarming community where are really kind and generous to each other. And that still exist today. Even though we have, I think about 10,000 students in our online classroom,
it’s got huge, but still that, that really heartwarming aspect is that. And if someone posts and says, I’m having a bad day, you know, there are hundreds of comments from people just going, we’ve got your back. And most of the people who go through our courses and launch a brand, go, I love the courses I learnt so much.
I can formulate, you know, you’ve empowered me, but oh my goodness, the community, I wouldn’t have got to where I am without my, my sisterhood, basically, because as you can imagine, it is mostly women who go through our courses and that has just been heartwarming and incredible to watch. So that’s step number four. And Question about that.
You have both a free, and so we’re talking, you know, we’re talking about business modeling, restructuring for our listeners. You have both a free and paid community, Correct? Yeah. We have a big free networking group as well, which has almost 50,000 members. And that’s incredible too. And now I have a community manager, but not just that.
We also have a whole team of people around the world, our student mentors, so that we have 24 7 coverage in our groups because otherwise, you know, it is like a groups. You have to be there to sort of support, to help, to moderate sometimes as well. And so I have staff members literally around the globe so that there is always someone on and they have a rotor.
So they’re going through the groups all the time. And that has been incredible actually. So the community is everything to her. I love that. I love that. And Facebook makes sense, you know, the global community Facebook makes sense. And, you know, it’s when we talk about structure and tech and enabling what you want to do and the experience that that does,
you know, it’s really completely make sense. Okay. So then number five, what is the fifth step to your formulation to building a global empire? So stage, you’ve got your ducks in a row and now you have to start really putting yourself out into the world. And so step number five is very much that I’ve made sure that we are viewed as thought leaders in our space.
And again, that can sound like quite a pretentious word. You know, what is a thought leader? It’s someone who has an opinion, the other people readily take on board and follow. And we have that. Now people follow us because we teach them all viewpoints and all sorts of what natural means and what green beauty means and what clean beauty means.
You know, we’ve redefined a lot of these concepts and we’re regularly tagged in social media posts where people go, I listened to this podcast from formula Botanica and I now understand that the three or four shades of natural, and I’m going to show you have made my own little infographic. And I finally understand these concepts and I’ve learned them from these guides. And we do that thought leadership through,
I have my own podcast as well called green beauty conversations, which is all about green and sustainable beauty and the science and indie beauty. But I’m also constantly on summits, on podcasts, giving interviews, speaking to journalists, you know, I out that all the time as is my team. And that means that people view us as the people to follow because we hold opinions on things.
We share those opinions. I make sure that they’re always balanced. They fit with the brand. They’re very sort of rational and scientific and the heartwarming and friendly and natural and people buy into that. So you have to have opinions when you’re running a business. And I see a lot of people really struggle with this because they don’t want to put themselves out there,
but it is. Yeah. Step number five, for reason, it’s been a huge part of our growth in becoming this global empire. It is so important. And I understand that. And I, I think that there is a, there is a fear about not having everybody agree with you, but that’s also part of the destruction and the part of leadership and,
and most leaders don’t have, you know, everybody that loves them. I mean, that’s the way it is when we’re doing works. That work, that really matters. It means it’s work, that’s different. And to do work that’s different. It means that you’re probably going against the grain on the way that the commonplace has been. And so I really love that.
You said that. And I think that that is, that’s just very encouraging for some of our listeners to hear. Okay. And then step number six, what is this final icing on the cake to bring it all together? So following on, from what I said about putting yourself out there, now you have to go and form a network. And that means getting to know people,
big players, small players, any players, really people who also hold opinions and who are active in your world in your sector. And we now have partnerships with NBC brands, with our graduates, with bloggers, with influences, but also with the mainstream beauty industry. You know, I have stood on major stages in front of the big players, the L’Oreals,
the Unilevers, the Proctor and gambles, but also the indie players at the same time. And I’m trying to bring people into our world so that they understand that we’re the bridge that brings everything together. So for instance, we are, we’re the formal NDBC partner for the world’s largest cosmetic ingredients exhibition. They have 12,000 visitors a year. You know, they tour around Europe.
It’s like going into three aircraft hangers. You know, when you go and visit these trade shows and we’re there in DVC part in that. Now I have spoken at major industry events because of a lot of the work that we’ve done and the networking that we’ve done. And because of that, that’s opened the door whereby people don’t do formula Botanica as Lorraine’s little side hustle with her baby on their hip anymore.
They view us as a big accredited award-winning online institution. And obviously that’s all part of the seven years of just showing up every week and just putting yourself at that. But you have to make a network and you have to invest in that network and be kind and really give back because it will come back to you tenfold every single time. And that’s certainly what I’ve found over the years.
That’s Incredible. And so let’s recap these six steps, and then I have one last question for you. So Lorraine’s formula to build a global empire, but not just any global empower you guys that really matters. It’s really, really making a change in this space are your six steps. Okay? Step number one, content creation, educate and entertain your followers at the same time.
Step to constantly promote that content, put it at that great SEO, social media outreach, but most importantly, your list, you need one step, number three, build a strong brand that you fiercely protect and build. And you’re constantly growing it. Step number four, create a thriving and happy community. Make sure that the people around you know, that you love them because they’re your biggest assets,
your biggest fans, they’re everything. Step number five, be viewed as a thought leader, have opinions and put those opinions out there and make sure that people buy into those opinions and hear you. And step number six, build a network and build a strong network that you pour your love and heart into because it will come back to you. Tenfold, how I Love that.
I love that. Thank you so much for sharing all this wisdom. This is an amazing lesson. You guys hear that you are hearing and I’m taking notes and listening right along, right along with you. And so I have one last question for you. And I don’t ask this. Isn’t like a set question. I ask all the guests. I just really,
I would love to know this answer from you. What have you learned about yourself along the way through this process? What do you believe about your, I know I didn’t even prepare you for, this is such a tough question, right? Sorry. You know, like what, what do you know and believe about yourself that only could have come through your tenacity,
your resilience, your consistency. What have you learned about yourself in this process? That is a great question. So before I took them formula Botanica I worked all over the world. I lived in multiple countries. I worked in high-powered jobs. You know, I ran all sorts of fantastic projects, but I kept coming up against this massive glass ceiling everywhere I went.
You’re too young. You’re too inexperienced. Lorraine. It’s too scary, too outspoken too. In your face, you voice your opinions too much. I do that. And it got to the point that it started to chip away at me because you start to internalize a lot of what you hear. And when you’re constantly told you need to tone it down,
you need to be less outspoken. Yeah. You need to put your opinions out there less. You start to do that. And I now know that the only way I think for women to achieve true gender equality in the workplace is by building something like this for themselves and driving it forward. And I know myself that I am more confident and more able,
and I believe in myself more than I ever have before because of the work that I’ve done here over the last seven years. And no one can take that away from me and I will never walk into a workplace ever again, where someone will tell me I’m too scary because I will eat them alive. Thank you so much for everything that you have shared.
I know our listeners just like Marriott, we just want to eat up everything you’re giving to us. So, you know, and just absorb from you. So this is, I’m just so honored to meet you. Thank you so much for applying to be on this show and wanting to come here and share your story with this audience. It’s incredibly powerful and proven and you know,
that’s what we, that’s what we do. We bring in experts like you, that have created their expertise through resilience and, and determination. And, and I’m just so glad that you’re here. So how can people find you? How can they connect with you? All of you join your, your formulation school. If we have listeners that want to start doing their own thing and they haven’t done it yet,
or go and follow you to learn and watch and observe how you are building and how you’re continuing to grow your empire, where can we find you? So wherever formula botanica.com, where we have a free online organic cosmetic formulation course that anyone can take Instagram is the biggest platform for formula Botanica as well. But I am also on Instagram and on Facebook where you can follow me.
And I talk more about the business side of things, the sustainability side of things. Cause that’s my bag. And I just want to say, thank you so much April for having this amazing podcast and for welcoming me onto it, because it’s fantastic to talk to you. And it’s a real honor to be here. It’s such A pleasure and Lorraine and I will be live in clubhouse.
You guys. So this is episode number 237. It will be episode number 237 when it drops. So Lorraine and I are going to be here to talk to you. And you guys get to come in, ask Lorraine all of your questions, whether it’s about formulations or how she went from baby on the hip to literal global empire creator through online business.
These steps work. This process works with consistency. And so we’re going to be live in clubhouse on July 28th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Please come join us there. We’ll make sure all of the links to where you can connect with us in clubhouse are found in the show notes of this episode@sweetlifeco.com. Ryan, thank you so much. We really, really appreciate it.
Experts who are ready to increase sales with video.
Summary:
You’re an expert, and you’re pretty incredible at what you do, but sales from your online videos aren’t exactly reflecting just how amazing you are. This means there’s a disconnect between who you truly are and how you’re showing up on video. Or there could also be some bumpy roads between how you show compassion on video, establishing your authority, or entertaining viewers long enough to stay until the call to action. Does this sound like you?
No worries my friend! McCall Jones, creator of Charisma Hacking, is here to break down her proven framework to“make strangers trust you and followers become aggressively devoted to you.”
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the F.A.C.E. Framework and how to apply this to your videos
See the formula to pin-point your own areas of improvement
Solve the disconnect between the great videos you already make, and your lack of sales
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, April Beach. Hey everybody. And welcome to episode number 200 in 33, we have a very special treat in store for you today. You’re Going to leave today’s episode with fully knowing how to look at your own videos,
how you’re showing up in video and edit and change anything so that you can create an, a crazy devotion to you where people love you and increase your sales. So we’re going to dive into all of that in just a second with our guest expert today, McCall Jones, before we get started, first of all, welcome if you’ve never listened to this show before I’m April beach,
founder of the Sweetlife company and host here at the sweet life entrepreneurial podcast. Thank you guys so much. I keep forgetting to share back with our audience. I’ve been trying to in the last couple of episodes that you guys have just voted me top 50 moms and podcasting, and I appreciate you so much that never would have happened without you turning in your votes and lifting this show up and lifting me up.
And I appreciate it so much. So I just want to say thank you to you guys. We’ve been producing this show for about four and a half years, and if you’ve been a faithful listener here on the show, you know that the Sweetlife entrepreneurial podcast gives you business trainings from the trenches proven business trainings from decades and decades of proven frameworks systems pass and coaching to bring your business to the next level.
We like to say that this is the podcast that other coaches would charge thousands for the information you hear on this show. And I just want to thank you so much personally, for being a listener. If you are not officially a subscribed yet, please click that subscribe button and take a screenshot and tag me in it. Take a screenshot tag at April beach life.
And so I can know you. I can know who’s listening, and then I want to follow you back and I want to follow your business back, and then we can keep supporting you back on Instagram. So I would love to do that for you as well as if you haven’t connected with us yet. Every single week we host a live Sweetlife entrepreneur pot house podcast room on clubhouse at 12 o’clock Eastern time on Wednesdays.
That is your time to come to me, come to our guests and ask your questions. We want to workshop with you based on the podcast trainings that we drop here on the show. So listen to the show as a drop some Monday, join us live in clubhouse on Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And we’re there to workshop with you in order to find us on clubhouse.
All you need to do is search my name. You can search at April beach and then click follow up and click the bell little bell next to it, to turn on notifications. And you will actually also see a schedule of rooms that I’m hosting, and you can even RSVP for those rooms to get a notification on your own calendar, as well as we always post the clubhouse calendar every single week to my Instagram,
which is at April beach life. So lots of places for you to get connected and to get answers and to get support. We’re just not here talking to ourselves. Everything we do here is about giving you proven strategies and giving you support to take your business to the next level. And let’s go ahead and dive in and talk about what we’re talking about on this episode with our amazing,
amazing guests. So who this episode is for first of all, if you don’t know what stage of business you’re in, just stop for a second. We actually have a self-assessment you can take, you can go to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, and you can take a self-assessment and you can find out exactly what stage or phase of business you’re in as composed as compared,
I should say to my lifestyle entrepreneur roadmap. And the reason why I say that is because every single one of our episodes here on the podcast are tagged to a stage of business, because I don’t want to just give you more content. We want to give you a transformation, but if you’re not ready for what we’re teaching you and talking about on today’s show,
based on where you are in business, then go pick another episode to listen to this. That is, that means that, you know, you, aren’t in alignment with where your business is growing right now. And we want to make sure that you continually stay in alignment. So I say all of that to say that this episode is for those of you who are in phases two,
three or four. So primarily you two and threes, but also some of you fours. So if you don’t know where you are, again, you can pause this and just open up a new window on your phone. Really quick, go to sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, or you can text the word quiz to the number 8 0 5 2 5 4 0 8 8 0. And we will send you a link to take that,
to make sure that what you’re being taught, what we’re pouring out today aligns with something that is going to take your business to the next level, because you’re ready for it. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive in. This show is very important because you’re an expert and you’re probably really pretty incredible at what you do, but sales from your online videos.
Aren’t maybe re exactly reflecting how incredible you are, how great your services are. This means there’s a disconnect between who you are and how you’re showing up a video. Or there could be some bumpy roads between how you show compassion on video, establishing your authority, or maybe making your videos a little bit more entertaining. So that’s what we’re solving today on the show.
And my friend McCall Jones, creator of charisma hacking is here and she is breaking down her proven formula to solve these problems. So let me tell you whom a call is. She’s going to introduce herself a bit. So I’ll just read a little bit here to get you prepared. She’s a founder of charisma, hacky, and a set of business systems built from Hollywood tactics that make audiences notice you then obsess over you and then compulsively buy from you.
And she goes in and she’ll share her whole entertainment story on this show. It’s fascinating. And the connection between her background in entrepreneur growth is this perfect superpower that she has is there. You’re really gonna love today’s show the secrets of charisma hacking success is in its systems and how they adapt to each entrepreneur’s personalities. McCall says we’ve cracked the code on how any entrepreneur can amplify the best parts of themselves to build a rabid fan base,
regardless of whether they are as intense as Gary V nurturing his Bernay brown, energetic as Russell Bronson, or matter of fact is Dave Ramsey with charisma hacking clients have increased YouTube video watch times by up to 242% tripled their revenue, 20 X, their Facebook ad click-through rate, and more than anything else, finally, we’re able to connect with their audience and meaningful way and deliver their message in a way where they responded by being the best versions of themselves.
That’s everything you get today on the show. And it is a little bit longer than most of our episodes. So I just wanted to prepare you for that. You are going to want to stay till the end. I promise you, you are those of you go getters that never leave before the end. You guys are so rad. We love you,
but if you can’t stay too long, make sure you pause the episode and you come back to it. All right, let’s go ahead and dive in and all of the show notes and everything I mentioned previously, and everything that is going to be mentioned on the show can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number 233. Let’s go Hey guys,
welcome to episode number 233 here on the sweet left entrepreneur and business podcast. And I am joined by my new good friend. I say new good friends because yes, of course, all my listeners are laughing and be like, oh yeah, I bet you met her on clubhouse. Yes, you’re right. I’ve met McAllen clubhouse. By the way, side note,
if you aren’t over there yet, you need to come over there and chat with us on clubhouse, because this is what it’s all about. Meeting amazing people that can pour into your business that can pour into my business and create these amazing dream teams, a business collaborations that bring us all to the next level. And I have had such a great time the last five months getting to know my friend McCall Jones.
And I’m so excited. She’s here on the show today. So I’m so proud of be April. Yeah, guys, you got to get over to clubhouse is the place to be. We’re just making all new friends kind of hang out with us. Kim, hang out with us with that being said, one of the things that we know about clubhouses is it’s a great place to establish your superpower,
your true superpower for how you get people results and your exact method and strategy. And you have risen to the top. It’s like the best rise to the top and clubhouse because of your very niche, amazingly charismatic, important like important superpower. So tell everybody who you are, what you do and how you got into doing what you do first. Let’s start there.
Yeah, of course. So I own a company called charisma hacking. So with charisma hacking, we work with coaches to solve two problems in their business. Number one, people aren’t watching my videos and number two, people are watching my videos, but they are not buying. So we tap into your specific personality to make sure that you are being yourself so that you get higher value customers that stay forever.
The way that I got into charisma have you, I’ll give you the short version. It’s a long story, but I grew up actually as a child performer. So I was performing in front of audiences of 25,000 when I was eight and 35,000 when I was 11. And I was performing on a very consistent basis, did a couple of movies in high school.
I was in high school musical two a, which was really fun. But the whole time I have this incredible performance anxiety, that was pretty crippling. All of my worth in my mind was wrapped up in the fact that I was a performer and I had this recurring nightmare. That one day I would wake up and not be able to sing, not be able to act,
not be able to perform and that nobody would love me anymore. And this nightmare started when I was a really little girl and it led me to, you know, long story short, it led me to creating these frameworks back then I called them checklists so that I could wake up and feel like I could teach myself how to do what I did the night before.
I also started paying attention to what audiences paid attention to and what they cheered for louder, things like that. It all started with Donnie. Ozmen, it’s a long story, but basically I was watching him perform. He saying right before me at the Steve young benefit retirement cruise. And when I was having this panic attack backstage, basically I saw the audience interact with him in a way that I had never seen before.
And I snuck over to the side of this room divider that they used as this backstage area. And I honestly got really envious and really jealous. And I thought to myself, I could do exactly what he’s doing. And I started to make a checklist of like, oh, what he’s doing with his hands, what he’s doing with his space, what he’s doing with his voice,
who is he pointing at? How is he walking on the stage? And I started to log these things into this checklist. And then I realized that these checklists were going to lower my anxiety considerably. And I just made checklist for everything. After that, I realized that it’s more of a science and it led to creating checklists for acting, for dance for all different types of audiences and sizes.
I used it for auditions. And then when I was 18, I was fired from an acting job for being too fat. They literally dismissed me from set because I had been wait between the audition and when we were actually filming, which it isn’t their right to do that. But it was very devastating to me. All of a sudden this fear of rejection became just rejection.
And in that moment I vowed to never get on camera. Again. I knew that I never wanted to do that again. I, I didn’t want to feel the way that I was feeling in that moment. So I didn’t, and I stayed low for a couple of years. Then the really depressing thing about that. I went into this very deep depression.
I had spent my whole life at this point, perfecting the art of being in front of people really perfecting it of, you know, all of these checklists of like, this works, this doesn’t in front of these audiences. You move this large and in front of these audiences, here’s what you’re supposed to do. And you know, an auditions. And then I wasn’t using the skills that I built over,
you know, my entire life. And within a couple of years I had somebody come to me and asked me if I would help then with an audition. And I said, yes, under very strict circumstances, because I didn’t want to be the reason they succeeded or failed. And I told her that I would help her as long as we did it before after video.
And if I could prove that I made a difference, then yes, we could do it again. I could take her money and we can move forward that way. And I just taught her some of the checklists that I had really never verbalized out or verbalized yet outside of, of my brain. And it worked in a very real way. The before after video was insane,
which led to my whole first business, which was helping entertainers basically be better in front of people. And then about a year and a half ago now I went to funnel hacking live, which is a big internet marketing convention. And I just went to see my sister-in-law speak. She was speaking. I knew it was big deal for her, but I knew nothing about the internet marketing world.
And as I looked around, I started taking notes of all these entrepreneurs that when they would come up to me, they would light up and share all of their solutions and the amazing things they were doing. And then we’d go five feet, you know, to the left or to the right. And they would be networking with other people and they would shut down and it would be a completely different person.
And then I’d see them filming things for ads or joint ventures or logs. And they were just not great. They were not themselves. And I realized that nobody would ever hear their solutions. Nobody would ever listened to them. People on stage that I was just like, oh my gosh, they just had these techniques. I could help them. And as I looked around,
I realized, you know, with entertainers my whole life, I had gone through, you know, the, that I’m going to change the world first as a performer was, I’m going to make people happy. Then as a coach of entertainers, I’m going to change the world by basically trying to help people be famous. And then as I sat there surrounded by people who had these incredible solutions that truly were going to change people’s lives.
I realized that my impact on the world could be infinite because theirs was, if I empowered them to make people, listen to them, basically. So Prisma hacking it’s been going really well. And it’s really fun. All of the techniques that we use, like I said, have been proven. I’ve used them since I was eight years old. I have hundreds of before after videos proving their effectiveness.
Yeah. That’s what brought us here. That’s I really, I don’t think I could do anything else. This is so much a part of my identity and everything that had been since I was a little girl. Wow. I have honestly, never heard that whole entire story. I never knew that that was your background actually in all the time we spent together on clubhouse.
It’s really interesting what you say. So I don’t know if you knew this, but my middle son is a professional hip hop dancer. And so we have lived in Los Angeles before COVID a week, a month. He was there working. And interestingly enough, since COVID, and since he’s kind of not currently dancing right now, but in some of them,
some of the, the wave that you were sharing, like about viewing yourself and how you show up. I see some of that. I’ve seen some of that in him and some of those same challenges actually. And so it is really, really fascinating to hear that. And just being like a mom in that industry, there is nothing like that industry.
And how cool is that that absolutely a completely, perfectly positioned you to help other kinds of stars, people that have amazing solutions for businesses, but actually utilize what you know, from the entertainment space, because it’s like, what does that reminded me of gladiator of Russell Crowe when he’s like, are you not entertained? You know what I mean? I just think that’s such an amazing story and absolutely you’re the perfect person to give this solution to people.
And you know, me being in the entrepreneur space, my whole life you’re right. I see so many people that have these amazing solutions, but yet it’s not getting out. There’s like a block of some kind and you have the gift to see that. So I’m so excited. You’re on the show today. We’re going to talk about your framework that you’ve developed,
literally, since you were eight, this genius started following your framework that people need. And when we give people frameworks to build their own genius within that’s when we truly created something, that’s amazing. That’s going to, like you said, your one framework impacts literally a magnitude and a multitude of people. Let’s talk about what does this look like? Like,
first of all, when people say, what is actual charisma hacking? Like what actually is the definition of charisma hacking? Let’s start there. Absolutely. So I defined charisma a little bit different and I will tell you why. The first thing that I feel like people define charisma as is like what the masses consider high energy. And they’re like, oh,
they can command a room because they’re this very specific personality type. I do not define charisma that way with all the research that I’ve done with all the clients that I’ve worked with. And with my own experience, I defined charisma as making strangers trust you and making those who know you aggressively devoted to you, that does not matter. And it’s not dependent on your personality type.
It only matters the level in which you communicate with people. So for me, you know, it’s exactly what you said with the entertainment industry. Everything is about rejection. You get so many more rejections than you actually get jobs, really. And you know, people who like you or dislike you and people are picking apart every single part of your personality.
And for me, you know, growing up a lot of times, people wanted me to be something different. And because I was an actress, I could do that. I had a very specific skillset that any time somebody didn’t like a very specific part of my personality, I would change. And a lot of times they wanted me to be sexier or I was called step Ferdie.
Once some people have told me that because I am bubbly, they thought I was stupid. Like, there’s so many different things that kind of built up this, what people want me to be, which I know a lot of times that’s how people define charisma. They say, what do people want me to be? What do they need me to be?
And I will be that when I started charisma hacking, you know, remember I made this vow to myself that I would never get on camera again. And at funnel hacking live, I had this really interesting experience where the whole first day that I was planning, you know, creating this new business model, I was trying to figure out a way for me to do it behind the scenes.
Cause without whole first business, I was, I was very much behind the scenes. I was pushing other people, you know, out in front of the spotlight on the stage on camera. I was the director, the producer, and I felt like I was happy and satisfied with that. So that’s what I tried to do the whole first day. I tried to figure out a way to not be on camera,
to not be the face of my business. And I very quickly realized that that was not possible if I wanted to make the impact that I wanted to. And there was a wonderful woman who spoke at funnel hacking librarians, Heather Quizzle, she’s a friend of ours now. And I went up to compliment her on her speech and she stopped me and said,
what do you do? And I tried on my new business title and my new business description. And she just told me it was like, she saw through me. She’s like, whatever you do, make sure the face of it, make sure that you are on every video, on every ad on everything. And it really struck me. I was like,
oh my gosh, I’m being seen. So when I got home, I had to make this promise to myself that I made all of my clients also promise themselves that they have to be themselves 100% of the time. They cannot try to think, Hey, if I’m going to be charismatic, I need to be whatever people want me to be. Whatever people think I should be,
whatever will attract the masses or satisfy the masses, whatever they will. Like. Instead we focus on this aggressive devote. And like I said before, that actually draws people to your specific personality. I will tell you, I am not for everyone. And a lot of people will tell you that, right? I am cooky and crazy and silly and all these.
And I wasn’t that for a really long time. And my greatest achievement, I believe with charisma hacking is building a business around actually who I am. Because every time people watch my videos, every time they move higher in my programs or up my value ladder, they only want to get to know me more or at the very bottom. They know if I’m not for them and they leave don’t waste any time,
I don’t spend any money marketing towards people who are not a good fit. So with this, when we put it okay, charisma hacking, right? We make people themselves and we make them not only themselves, but that version of themselves, that level of themselves is the very best person they can be in their business and for their clients. So when I said like,
I didn’t want to be the face of my company or led me to taking all of these amazing things, all of these things and really breaking down what was important, how do we make you yourself? Because the frightening thing is you absolutely can build an audience if you are not being yourself. And that should terrify you because all of a sudden you’re creating a new problem.
You are building an audience for a person who does not exist. If you create an alter ego and a character that you feel we’ll help you be less nervous and you just no put on your Sasha fierce face and you go on camera, you are building an audience for that person. They are investing in that version of you. That is not sustainable. You can build an audience that way,
but you will spend time and money acquiring an audience, acquiring a customer that is not a good fit for any of your higher programs, especially as a coach, because the closer they get to you, the more they will realize. First, you create distrust. You create a sense of discomfort because they realize you’re not the same person and they leave, right.
So instead we say, okay, you’re going to be the face of your company. You’re going to be the same 100% of the time so that we can create trust and we can make them aggressively devoted to you by being the face of your company. So I know we have a big face framework that we’re going to go through too, but that’s the core Prismic mapping.
And that’s a scary statement to hear for some of our listeners. And I am so glad that you said that the fact that you are literally building an audience around somebody that doesn’t exist, because it isn’t you and you aren’t showing up authentically to who you are and who you’re going to be after they buy you and, you know, refunds and, you know,
disgruntled people. I mean, that’s all part of what happens in that. And so it’s so important that you said what you said, but I also think it’s pretty sobering in the fact that you said it as clearly as you did. And so I also know that, you know, we have a lot of listeners and with the process of where they are in business,
when you are starting to launch, I actually think that in my experience, in coaching businesses, through the development and growth phase, the launch people, surprisingly, they, yes, they deal with kind of struggling with this so much. They actually are pretty good at being themselves. It’s after they start getting a little traction, I have seen them go to this next point of saying,
oh, but I’m not enough. Oh, now I need to become somebody different in order to actually keep getting a little bit more attraction. This is usually like in the first 18 months, sometimes I see that transition. And so I love that you said that because eventually that’s going to be a brick wall for them. And thank you so much for speaking the truth.
And that’s what we do here on this show. And I know our listeners really want and need to hear it. So let’s talk about this face framework. What is it, why do people need it, break it down for us? Absolutely. So with the space framework, what we are really assessing is two things. So it’s your personality style or type,
or your charisma style or type that’s one side of it. And the second side of it is the level, right? So the first thing that we establish is making sure that your personality type is right, or we can even say is true, right? And I’ll break down the different parts of your personality that we make sure that we assess the second part of that.
It never changes your personality or charisma type never changes, but the level does as you get more competent or more, you know, at an expert level on video, these very specific things are going to level up, but who you are and your personality type doesn’t change them up super important. So we go through F a C E so F is the floor,
or we can save a level. We can call it the Flavell level if you want. Right. And this is where we assess how competent you are or how effective you are at making sure these next three, the AC and E are the right type and what level they’re at. So Fs floor. So we’re going to assess the level a is authority.
C is and E is entertainment. So with all of our research that we’ve done, you know, not only over the last year and a half, but obviously for the last, you know, 20 years, I have found that you have to have these three things in order to fully connect with a human. Now everybody has them within their personality. So it’s really important that on-camera,
we make sure that all three of these things are present in very specific times. So authority makes people act, it makes people buy. And I’ll tell you how we measure that in just a second. Compassion makes people confess. It makes you safe. It makes them engage in the comments. And I’ll tell you how we measure that. And then entertainment makes people watch,
right? So with each one of these things, we have a way to measure, not how you are in person, right? What we’re saying is we have to make sure how you are in person when you are with your very favorite person in the world is the exact same person. We call this emotional accuracy as you are on camera. So we look at these very specific types of your personality or parts of your personality.
So authority would be like, when you’re in charge of something, when you are in your element, teaching something, how do you act when you are with your very favorite person? We have very specific ways. We measure that with compassion. It’s when you’re being empathetic with people, when you are counseling them, when they come to about hard things or when you’re being vulnerable,
how are you sounding? Right. Voice face, body language, right? How do you sound? How do you move? How do you speak when you are actually doing those things with your favorite person in real life? And that entertainment is when you are goofing off, when you are being lighthearted, all those different things. Now, each one of these things are going to look very different for different people.
Some people’s authority is based in strength and empowering, and it can even feel a little bit aggressive. Some people’s authority is very much based in patients and making sure that people know that they know what they’re talking about by being very patient with them, right? Compassion, same thing. Some people are like, Hey, I’m gonna kick you in the butt.
Like we got to go. This is how I’m being compassionate. And other people are deep listeners. And they want people to feel very seen entertainment. Some people are dry, some people are bubbly. Some people are, you know, the kid in the back, coroner making jokes under his breath, right? There are different types of all of these different things.
So making sure that you assess how you are when you’re with your very favorite person, once again, I’ll give you the ways to measure these. You say, how is my voice? Right? The most common thing that I see with my clients is when they’re on video with me and they’ll be like, oh my gosh, I’m so excited. This is so great.
And then they get on video when we’re filming now. Like I am so excited to be here. And I’m like, okay, well, if your voice like this, we’re actually excited. And then you sound like this. When you’re on camera, when you’re excited, it’s not emotionally accurate. Right? A lot of people say the word authentic. I don’t actually like to use the word authentic for this very specific reason.
I like systems. I like to measure. I like to be measurable and repeatable. And authenticity is just a little bit vague. Right? I know what they mean. And I, I think that that’s fantastic, but emotional accuracy with exactly what I just did with my voice, we can say, is it accurate? Or is it not? Is that actually how you sound move speed when you’re excited,
when you’re being compassionate, when you’re being authoritative or not. Right? So we dive into all these different things. So now with the level, so once we find the type, once we find your specific personality type, then we assess the level. And as you go up in level, you are able to retain attention more. Your watch times go up.
That’s the entertainment part. You are able to know pain points, objections, and get more comments and engagement because your compassion is higher and you are able to move people to action in very real ways, any call to action that you give them, whether it’s by opt in, watch the next video. If it’s in a course, it’s very effective. And people do what you basically tell them to do,
right? So we have your type and then we start moving up your level. So within the authority, I’ll give you this. And then I’ll tell you a quick story. So within authority, we have five different levels. Only the top three, make you any money. The bottom two do not. The very bottom level of authority is the level of authority where,
okay, have you guys ever watched somebody and thought they have no idea what they’re talking? Right? You watch them in your life, their stuff, or associate my business with them. It would do bad things to my business. It would not be a good idea, right? Yes. Bottom level of authority. The next level is the most interesting level because it still does not make you money,
but this person is very likable. You watch their stuff, you share their stuff. You like route them on from the side, but you would never pay them money if you will watch them. But you’re like, oh my gosh, they’re making their dreams come true. This is so great. I would never hire them as a coach, but I would totally,
you root for them, right? I’ll share their stuff. This is great, right? Still doesn’t make you money. You can be the most likable person in the world have the most views in the world. But if you’re missing that authority, you still aren’t making any money. The next level up from there is employee authority. What this means, we’re basically saying how much control will somebody give you of their business?
Right? So with employee authority, somebody would give you a checklist. They would feel, and a lot of coaching clients, guys, if you are a coach and you get clients that feel like they will give you the checklist of what you’re going to do, you have employee level authority. Even if you can get them to bring you money. At first,
it is not a good client for you, right? Because they feel if they gave you a checklist of exactly what to do, you would be competent to accomplish it. The next one is contractor level authority. This is the good, because of the glides who feel like every single thing you do is up for discussion and that they can decide which actions they want to take.
And not because with contractor level authority, they trust you in one very specific area, but they don’t trust you with steps. They don’t trust you with direction. These are things like funnel builders, where we say, okay, you know, I am in charge, but I trust that you have expertise in building this funnel. But every single thing we do is up for discussion.
And in the very top level of authority is coach level authority. When you get to this level of authority, not only will people pay you and see you as a coach, but when you get coaching clients, you have been given control. They do what you say. They trust your expertise in your area. It’s something where you can give them steps and direction.
And they are ideal clients. They pay you money. And then they thank you for taking their money because you have this level of authority. They don’t question that, which is really great. So with all these things, like I said, I have not said anything about some personality types have more authority than others, right? Every single personality type, regardless if you’re introverted,
extroverted, loud, quiet, whatever, right. Every single personality type goes through these levels. Right. And the way that we measure, if you’re being effective in this is do people move to action, right? Do they buy, or do they opt in or whatever your call to action is at the end of your video, if they don’t, you know,
your authority is probably down in the second from bottom level, right. They probably like you, if they’re engaging with you and be like, oh my gosh, I’m being myself. Right. But they do not see the authority enough to buy from you. Go ahead. Given you so much. So yes, obviously so much to say, I’m sure our listeners are like,
oh my gosh, okay. I’m like, I’m not taking notes by the way, side note, Macola and I are always co moderating clubhouse rooms. So just join us in a clubhouse room and, and McCall, and even expand on this for you personally as well. So this is really interesting as you were breaking it out. One of the things that I,
from like the offer development side of it that I see as I see like level three and four, for those businesses that do like the done for you or the done with you type services, which is interesting because some coaches obviously also have another separate of their division of their company that is like the build-out or, you know, whatever that is the done for you.
But one of the things that I coach my clients on is you’re not the person that does that. You’re the coach. Like you have to have a separate team to do that, that works with that client to actually implement that. That is a way to grow and scale your business. But I’ve never clearly, I like the way I’m communicating it has gotten through,
but the way you communicated, even now, I’ll be able to say yes, because that’s a different level of authority in taking your coach authority and bringing it back down to the contractor or that employee authority is actually reducing your expertise and bringing you down a scale after they have paid you top dollar or whatever it is that you do. And so, as you were saying,
all of that, that’s immediately. What I was thinking is these entrepreneurs that are listening to this show, small businesses that are listening to this show that have the coaching authority, but also this separate, oh, I’ll do it with you or I’ll do it for you after I coach you and strategize how to do that. It’s a great business model. It’s a great way to scale and grow your business.
Like we even have a separate design division of our company, but I don’t do it. And so it’s just really interesting that you were saying that. So getting back to these coaches though, what do they do? McCall, if they are like, oh my gosh, I think I’m at this. I’m looking at my notes here. And like millions of McCall notes behind the scenes and with a pencil because my children steal all my pens.
It’s all we have left in the house and you know, like, what is the deal? If they’re like, oh my gosh, I met this employee level. I’m not showing up with confidence. How do you get them from where they are now to that level five that I have the authority here. I know what I’m doing. You know, me,
I’m like, I have a framework. Everybody has to have their own framework or method. How do we help them? Absolutely. Such a good question. So the very first thing that everybody needs to do is they need to make sure that their type is correct. Right. So you can be very competent. And if you’re trying to, you know,
I don’t know how many of your listeners know who Garrett J white is, but if Garrett J white and Russell Brunson, right? These are two internet marketers in the online space. If Garrett J white and Russell Brunson, or let’s say Tony Robbins and Bernay brown, or Marie Forleo, if they tried to use the same tactics, they would work for one of them.
And they would not work for the other one of them because they’re very different people, right? So if you look at Marie Forleo, the way that she entertains is very authentic to her, right? He uses her voice kind of like this, and she’s kind of spilling all over the place with Bernay brown. If Bernay brown, tried would be Marie Forleo,
it would be a disaster. And Renee brown people would be like, I don’t buy it. I don’t buy, it would not only like lower her entertainment level, but it would also lower her authority level. Right? The first thing that people can sense is just a yes or a no, they just say is something off here, right? Is something off.
So the first thing that you want to make sure that you do is we’re going to find emotional accuracy in all three of these areas. I’m going to give you a very specific thing that you can do in order to do that. Because being emotionally accurate first, then you can actually be likable, right? As soon as you’re likable, we can start to increase your authority with very specific things as well.
So the first thing that you’re going to do, I’m going to tell you a very quick story. That’s going to make sense of how to do this. So we’re looking for emotional accuracy. So when I was a voice teacher, voice acting performance teacher, I had this wonderful nine-year-old student named Beck. He was incredible, was like a bounce off the wall,
kind of spastic kid who seriously, it was one of my very favorite humans ever. And I had taught him singing lessons, voice lessons for the last six months. But this was the first time he wanted to try acting. It was big audition coming up. It was this all male version of Annie, which was really interesting. And he had a three line audition.
He had a script that gave him three lines and a description of how to say it. And he memorized his script because he was a go getter. And remember, my whole first business was before or after videos. So he comes down to my studio and he’s all ready to go. And I’m taught him singing any hard to get him to stand still.
Right. And I read this description. I like, he hands me the script. I read this description. It just says very excited, basically excited out of his mind, there’s boats in the Harbor. He’s never seen boats and it’s, it’s supposed to be really exciting for him. And I was like, oh my gosh, he’s going to nail.
This is going to be thing. So I’m like, okay, back, we’re going to do your before video. Are you ready? He’s like, yeah, I’m totally ready. And you kind of see him, like looking off to the side to recall his script, that he’s memorized. These three lines. I was like, okay, ready? Action.
And he goes, the boats, mama, you were holding me up to see the boats. And they were right there. I was like, yeah. Okay, cut. Let me kind of like bounce around. He’s like how’d I do all day. Well, I was like this time. I just want you to be excited about the boat. Right.
We just need to be excited about the boats. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Okay. I’m like, okay, ready? Action. He’s like the boat’s mama. You were holding me up to see the boats and they were right there. I was like, okay, let’s try something different. So Becca wants you to tell me about your very favorite thing in the entire world.
My puppy snickerdoodle it was the best puppy in the world. When you tell her to sit, she sits. And when you tell her to stay, she stayed. I was like, okay, here’s what we’re going to do. I want you to talk about snickerdoodle. We want to be just as excited as we are when we talk about snickerdoodle. But instead of saying snickerdoodle we are going to talk about the boats.
You understand? He was like, oh yeah, totally. I was like, okay, ready? Action. Just like the bumps, mommy girl, you have to see the bumps. And I can see the bright there. And what I understood in this moment with this wonderful nine-year-old is he didn’t have any emotional context for his copy. He had memorized it,
which for a lot of people, if they have something memorized or scripted, they feel like they are doing it well, when instead that accuracy was not there, he knew need to have something in his life that was emotionally accurate for the emotion he was supposed to be on camera. And then he just had to make the match. Right? Coolest thing.
I’ve had people when I’ve done this in trainings before say, well, what if I’m not like that? What if I’m not bouncing off the walls? Right? What if my snickerdoodle story? Cause this is what we call them. Sounded like the boats, mama, you were holding me up to see the boats. I can see them right there. That’s perfect.
Right? Because then the way he talked about snickerdoodle will be, you know, my puppy snickerdoodle, Snickerdoodles coolest. As long as it’s emotionally accurate, it’s effective. Doesn’t matter what personality type. It just has to be accurate, has to be emotionally accurate. So with which one of these things we want to create or have snickerdoodle stories for authority, compassion,
and entertainment, right? These are going to be, our triggers are trigger snickerdoodle stories. So when you are authority, when you’re in charge, when you’re in your element at home, right. With your friends, when you’re giving advice and you’re making sure that they’re moving to act in the way that you tell them, right. As a parent, whatever,
as a teacher, right? In person, what are you like when you are doing these things? Things, how do you sound? Next voice was different. It was from the boats, mama snickerdoodle to the boats, mama. Right? Don’t let that happen. If it’s snickerdoodle, then it needs to be the boats. Right? How do you move when these things are happening?
What do you do with your arms? What do you, how do you speak if you use very formal language online, but you will never use that in person. It is not going to translate very well. Right? So you need snickerdoodle stories for all three of these things. Once you find your personality type, you also can start to charisma that other people who have the same personality type in one of these areas,
but a higher level than you, right? Easiest way to do this, find somebody who you feel you can. I can see yourself in and pay attention to how they communicate with people, pay attention to what’s effective, take notes, see what they’re doing with their voice, with their face, with their language body, right. You can say, oh,
I like this person. They are like me authoritatively, but there’s so much more effective. Okay. I’m going to, I’m going to charisma, hack those things. I’m going to write them down. And I’m gonna use that. If it’s somebody who has a different personality type than you, like I said, Renee brown can not be Marie Forleo. If they tried to be something different,
it would be a disaster. Right? So find your personality type. First with authority, we have content strategy and we have charisma strategy, right? Making sure that we have emotional accuracy. And second it’s making sure that you’re hitting very specific things in your content that lead them to buy before you ever to what all of my clients called the pitch transition.
If you’re doing it right there, shouldn’t be a transition, right? The entire time you’re pitching or telling a story, you’re establishing your authority in a very specific way so that people ask people, ask for your programs. So when you get to the call to action, it is so easy. All of a sudden they just buy. They just buy from you because you have highlighted their pain in very specific ways.
You’ve highlighted your solution in very specific ways, right? The way that you deliver it and the content that you bring to the table, the way that you structure your own frameworks that I know April has helped you with. Cause she’s a genius. That’s what I would say. That’s where I would start. Oh my gosh, the sneaker, everybody needs a,
here’s my notes. This is what I wrote down. That we all need a snicker doodle story for each one of these areas, authority, compassion, and entertainment. So, okay. Next question. So when we are speaking in authority, when we’re speaking in compassion, when we’re speaking with the entertainment component, I know it all comes together into one video.
What if those different stories bring up like another part of our personality? Does that make sense? Like what if like when you’re talking, like some of this is like, this is really serious and blah, blah, blah. But then it goes into my, but like, does that make sense? Am I making sense? Like if part of when somebody is on video,
if the flow of the stories brings them through experiencing multiple, I don’t want to say multiple personalities. Cause that’s not the right word, but multiple emotions from me or whoever’s making the video. What about that? Like we’re taking them through a wave of different types of experiences through that. Is that okay or not? Okay. So you’re a genius because that’s what we call emotional mapping.
That is 100% of thing that we do in everything. So with very short videos, usually you will have one snickerdoodle story, right? Very short videos. You have one emotional point that needs to get across. That is one, but with longer form content, right? We have what we call an emotional map with every single part of your speech, of your life,
of your webinar, of your ad, whatever it is, right. If it’s long form video, then you are going to map out the different emotions that people need to feel. And then if you have a script you’re going to color coordinate it, right? You’re going to color code it. If you have bullet points, you’ll color code those, right?
So you’ll have a color for entertainment. You’ll have a color for authority. You’ll have a color for compassion. Now, every single video doesn’t have to hit all three, but your audience has to see all three in order to fully connect with you. A lot of times, compassion isn’t introduced into every single video, right? Deep compassion, vulnerability. Sometimes you don’t see that in an ad,
right? You only see entertainment and you only see authority, right? A lot of times when we get to sales calls, because those are also on video, compassion is extra high. You need people to confess their pain to you in very specific ways. So that compassion piece needs to be higher. So as you map out your video and you map out these snickerdoodle stories,
you’re going to emotionally map it at which points do they need to make sure that they are feeling very specific things. Now, what I have my clients do is write out, post it notes and just stick them to your computer with those snickerdoodle story triggers in them. So when you get to those stories, you can look at your trigger and you can say,
oh right, that’s the emotionally accurate thing. The other thing I would say is before every single video, we call it a cold open versus a warm open. You have to make sure that you get into that snickerdoodle story that you get emotionally accurate before you ever push record. The analogy that I like to use is imagine you were an Olympic sprinter and you decided,
right. You’re like I got this or you were nervous and you had a 400 rates, right? Four times around the track. And you decided that because you got it or because you were nervous, you were not going to warm up. The first lap of your race would be your warmup, right? Either your warmup is chosen for you or you choose your warmup,
right? So you would hit your stride after that first lap, after you’ve warmed up. Same thing with video. So many people push record. And then they’re like, well, five minutes into the video, I really get to be myself or like eight minutes into the video. All of a sudden I hit my stride. It’s because you are not in an emotionally accurate place before you hit record.
Instead you push record. And then you’re like, hello everybody. I’m going to try to do this right. 30 to 45 seconds before your video starts, before you push record, before you start a clubhouse room, before you start your podcast, before you start whatever, speak out loud, your snickerdoodle story. But we turn it into an I M phrase,
if your snickerdoodle story is all about, okay. Yeah, my entertainment, oh, that is silly. Right? Then you say, I am silly. I am silly. Right? Whatever this snickerdoodle story puts you in the frame of mind to write voice-based body language, right? You say, I am silly. I am silly until you get to the point where it is emotionally accurate and say other things out loud as well.
If it’s authoritative and you’re like, I am empowering. I am empowering. So then when you start your video, you’re not like, hi guys, I’m here. You’re like, hi guys. I’m here. And here’s what I’m going to do. I’m an emotionally accurate person. Who’s being authoritative right now. Instead of having to warm up, having that time and losing people at the beginning of your videos.
So you have a snickerdoodle story for each one of them. You map out those points. If it’s a long form video. And before you ever start those videos, you warm up, you do a warm, open 30 to 45 seconds before you get in that emotionally accurate place that we practiced with those snickerdoodle stories. So that it’s effective from the time you push record.
Amazing. You guys, this is so much more McCall, just poured so much more into us. And we discussed before we started recording that she was going to talk about on this show. So as usual you have shown up and delivered and supported our listeners and you are freaking amazing. It’s just, it’s super unique in what you do. And I love that you have found your stride and your super power that is so different from everybody else’s out there.
And it’s such a pleasure to work with you and to know you and do fun collaboration stuff with you. It’s just, it’s just always a blast. And I appreciate you so much. So this is ton of great information, and I know our listeners are going to go and really start applying the actionable steps that we talked about here. But like we have tomorrow’s next level entrepreneurs to listen to this show.
People hone in here because they want to know that they’re getting trusted business advice, not just anything it’s really proven and trusted by us. And so we also have people that are action takers here, where they know if this is something that you guys know that you suck at this, that this is something that it is like, this has been it everywhere else in your business.
You might be nailing or maybe you’re even not there, but you keep trying and trying and trying. And there’s just something off about the way you’re showing up. Then I want them to make sure that you guys know how to connect with McCall. In addition to our clubhouse rooms, in addition to the places where I would highly, highly recommend that you follow McCall and clubhouse,
and that you do join our rooms, because we talk about these things, she’s goes in there and workshops it, all these things and helps. But like what would be the first step for somebody who is thinking, Hey, listen, I am really struggling with showing up authentically. I have tried. I want to be myself. I want to be true to myself.
It’s deep rooted. I really want to be what I know that I am to my people, but I can’t figure out how, how do they work with you to start going through that process? Yes. The first thing that I want to be very clear on is most of my clients. So yes, absolutely showing up authentically. We work on that,
but a lot of my clients feel like they rock on video, but their sales are not great. Right? They’re like, I am very likable. I am myself, but I am not selling right. Or they are rock stars. 90% of my clients speak in front of audiences of hundreds, of thousands of people in person. But for some reason can’t sell on video,
right. Something doesn’t translate. So the way that you guys can work with me. I know that April’s going to put all of the links in the show notes that you guys can check out all the things, but I felt like the very best thing that you can do. I have a free thing for you. It’s charisma vault.com on charisma vault.com. I break down five days a week on Facebook live,
and then I put them into this vault different personalities using my charisma hacking tactics. So you can see people of all different personalities, all different levels broken down using these tactics so that you can find those people who have the same type of different levels@charismavault.com. When you sign up, you get an email that literally says, be my friend. And if you want to work with me,
you book a call. When that comes through to be my friend and we can bond and you can hire me as a coach and do all the things you also will get the free thing. No, you signed up, you get access to every single episode. There was like 120 episodes in there separated by different people, different personality types, different video types,
whether you’re wanting to do ads, whether you’re wanting to do Facebook lives, YouTube webinars, live presentations on stage. Any of those things, they’re all broken into different categories and really, really easy to find. Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. That is incredible. Charisma, vault.com. You guys. All right, Ms. McCall, we really appreciate you.
Thank you so much for your wisdom and pouring into our guests today on the show. Super pleasure. Hey guys, such a great episode. I love that McCall was here and she spent so much time with us today. Again, all the show notes and everything we talked about can be found by visiting sweet life co.com clicking on podcast. And this is episode number 233.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us. Please take a screenshot of this episode, tag me at April beach life and tag McCall Jones in it. And let us know your favorite part of this episode and how you’re going to apply her charisma hacking formula. I can tell you right now, I literally have two pages of notes from everything we talked about and I get to hang out with a McCall all the time.
And I learned so much on today’s show and I really trust that you did as well. Thank you so much for tuning in here on this sweet life entrepreneur podcast and sharing this episode with your friends. We really, really Appreciate you. You guys have an awesome week and I will talk to you again.
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Who This Episode is Great For:
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and who are ready to grow to the next level.
Summary:
You know you need help. You’ve been doing most of the work in your business and it’s time to move your valuable time to the CEO role. To do so, you need a team, or at least one person to begin your delegation process. But you haven’t moved to take action for a variety of reasons but they primarily all come down to mindset. And, you’re probably thinking one of these thoughts:
“I can’t afford to hire help.”
“I’m uncertain of which role to hire first”
“I don’t have systems in place yet to delegate to someone else”
If you’re thinking one of these things, you’re not alone. You should already know these are very common issues for many leaders… or we would not dedicate a whole show to discuss it. You’re in good company, but let’s get you into the right company with next level leaders who know how to manage their high-value time, delegate tasks to others, and give you the steps to find the right people to bring on board.
In this show, Theresa Loe, founder of streamlinedandscaled.com, talks you through proven solutions to overcome hiring hurdles so we can take your business from 6 to 7 figures.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know the most important mind shift you must make – and by doing so, everything falls into place
Know how to hire the right person, not just any person with a skills
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate Friends. Thanks for tuning. In this episode, you are listening to this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast. As my friend, Alexa, so beautifully introduced in our intro for this show. I’m April beach,
the host here on the sweet life podcast. And thank you so much for being listeners big announcement. I can’t believe I’ve been forgetting to tell you guys this for the last, actually couple of weeks on the show, I was just named one of the top 50 moms in podcasting. And I just want to say, thank you so much to all of you guys,
because you are the ones that made that happen. So many of you voted so many of you voted for me and voted for this show. And I just wanted to say, thank you so much. I appreciate you guys so very much for being honored out of all the moms to be in the top 50 in podcasting, you know, this isn’t a moms podcast,
but having somebody recognize that it is hard to be a mom and run the businesses that we do and produce a show, especially for so many years consistently. I just want to share that with you guys and share with you. It’s all because of you. And I just thank you so very much. So just had to take a moment to appreciate all of the listeners here on the show.
This is episode number 231, as I said, and today’s guest is somebody who’s going to really help you get over the issues that may be in your way from scaling and growing your business to the next level. Today, we are talking about getting over your fear of hiring people. So first of all, let’s talk about why the heck this is a fear.
What is the deal? What is the matter with us? Here’s the issue as an entrepreneur, we have amazing ideas in our mind. And I’m saying, we, because this is definitely me. You guys, I have struggled with management over the years. It’s not my strength. I have had to work very hard to learn, to become a better leader and manager and delegator.
And so we have all these ideas in our head and we think it’s so much easier. It’s so much faster if we just do it ourselves, but I’m going to tell you that. And I learned this the hard way your business is not going to get to the next level until you know how to create systems delegate. And most importantly, find the right people find the right people.
You know, you need help. You have probably been doing most of the work in your business, and it’s definitely time to move your value time. Your dollar, your time is high is worth higher dollar, and we need to move you to that CEO role and to do so. You need a team or at least one person to begin your delegation process.
But if you haven’t moved yourself out of a mindset blockages to the place of taking action for a variety of different reasons and you know, that it’s time to do so then this particular episode is definitely one that you want to hang out and listen to. You might be saying things to yourself, like I can’t afford to hire help, or I’m uncertain of exactly who to hire and what role they should fill,
or you might be thinking, wow, I don’t even know how to help them onboard. I don’t have any systems in place. This is not just a beginner, entrepreneurial problem friends. We have so many clients that we can’t scale you guys into higher level online services until your delegation is in place until it’s not going to be a bottleneck. When we bring more clients into your business with higher level amazing programs and offers,
this is a problem that my multiple six figure clients face as well. It definitely something, as I said, that I have struggled with over the years and I’ve had to force myself to work through and you’ll hear a little bit of kind of some of my struggles and some of the things I do behind the scenes when we talk about this episode. So if you’re thinking about these things,
you are not alone. That is why we are recording a podcast this week about it. So let me go ahead and introduce you to our guest expert today. Her name is Theresa LOE and Theresa is a leadership and business coach for overworked entrepreneurs. She helps them streamline their operations to build self-managed teams so they can finally get their time back in scale with ease Theresa guides,
people through that sticky transition from wearing all the hats. Raise your hand if that’s where you are right now, to just wearing the most important, how to evolve the CEO in the visionary hat. Nobody else can wear that hat, but we can help you get some of the tasks off your plate with other perfect people. And Theresa specializes in cultivating small,
but mighty teams for online course, creators, coaches and other creatives. She’s amazing. And we’re going to be diving into all of this today here on the show. In addition, as you know, now, Theresa is going to be live with us on Wednesday, June the 16th, taking your team building questions in clubhouse. So join us under our club for this podcast.
It’s called sweet life entrepreneurs, of course, and join us at 12 o’clock Eastern time on June the 16th, 2021. If you’re listening to this show live this week, and we’re going to roll up our sleeves with you. And so what we’re talking about here on the show, then we take it on to clubhouse and we workshop it with you. That’s what we do here on the podcast to really make sure that you are getting implementation for the business strategies here on the show that you know,
you can’t take to the bank. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode with Theresa Lowe.<inaudible> Hi everybody. And welcome to episode number 231. My friend Theresa LOE is with us today. And you guys are in for a huge tree, especially if you are to the point where, you know, you’re ready to grow, but you felt like you have this bottleneck.
And the bottleneck is, is that, you know, you can’t do everything. You know, you need to hire help, but there are some fears around that and I can personally attest to these feelings. So I’m so excited that Theresa LOE is here today to help you streamline and scale your business by growing your team by overcoming these fears, Theresa, welcome to the show.
Will you please share everybody your background and a bit about you and how this became your area of expertise? Absolutely. Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. So what I do is I help people, entrepreneurs who are overworked, they’re stressed, they’re stretched to the limits. I help them streamline the back end of their business so that they can get their time back.
But also I help them build self-managed teams. And it doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or you are multi-six multi seven multi-age you always want to have your team be self-managed so that you’re not doing all the managing and you can, instead of wearing all the hats, you’re just wearing the most important hat, which is the CEO hat. And so I work with people at different levels because the sooner you can start this the better.
And the way I got into this was I was a co-executive TV producer for nine years for the top organic gardening show on PBS. And as the co-executive TV producer, it’s what we would call in the digital industry and integrator or a chief operational officer. So I was second in command and I had to run multiple episodes at the same time. So it was a very project management heavy,
but at the same time, I had to have teams filming around the country and they all had to be completely self-managed. They had to understand what their jobs were. They had to be able to get all the episodes out the door, which is like little mini launches in our world of digital marketing. And so when I started my own business, six years ago,
it took off really rapidly because I started getting a team right away. And as I started coaching other people in the industry, I realized that team was one of the things that was holding people back, though. We all start out with our laptop and a dream, and we start out doing all the things and wearing all the hats. Well, the sooner you can bring in a supportive team and not just anyone but a self-managed team,
and you can have everything streamlined and clean on the backend that allows you to scale. So I help businesses scale with ease by streamlining and having self-managed team. Wow. And you’re right. I mean, I can imagine just the thought when you said that of all these little mini launches just gave me like a little like, oh my gosh, that sounds,
that sounds terrible. To me, 96, We did 26 episodes a season. So it was A lot. Oh my goodness. So you’re constantly living in this mode of like getting this produced, making sure our systems are streamlined and that people are doing what they’re supposed to be doing at each phase along the way. And I can only imagine how many different moving parts that that would take.
Yes. So you and your history, your experience, your expertise coming into online business totally makes sense. Why you can see things that most online entrepreneurs can’t in a way that it can make it completely easier. And I imagine really simplified compared to your project plans that you were managing and what you were doing. So one of the things that oftentimes we run into with new businesses is the fact that they either don’t know when it’s time to hire,
or they think that it might not be time to hire, but they’re really dealing with some mindset issues around hiring. And we talked about this a little bit behind the scenes and how I personally struggled with this for a very long time. But talk to us about what are some of these mental blocks? What is the mindset of an entrepreneur who’s ready to scale?
Absolutely. And before I even dive into that, sometimes like what you said, how do people know that they’re ready? So let me just address that. You know, that it’s time to get help when you are stretched too thin, you’re overworking, or you’re sacrificing yourself for the business. You’re sacrificing your time, your health, your marriage time with your family,
your weekends, your evenings. We all have these ups and downs in our business where it might grow. And we have little moments of that. But when it goes on for long periods of time, that’s when you absolutely need to get more support and structure in your business because you didn’t start the business to be working 18 hour days. That was not your goal or your dream.
And yet we can get stuck there because we don’t know how to fix this. And one of the things like you said, it’s a mindset issue. And I should also probably say right off the bat, that it doesn’t matter what level we’re going to be talking about, what the different things are that you can do in your business to get help. But it doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out,
there are different ways to hire. So you can hire someone overseas. If you are really strapped on money, you can hire a virtual assistant that’s part time. It can be a working mom who maybe used to work in corporate and has incredible skills, but when her kids are in school or go back to school and aren’t, she’s no longer homeschooling, then she was going to be looking for something that she can do in those other hours.
And so you can bring in someone part-time, but it can also mean when you are a multi-six multi seven multi-asset that you’re bringing in a full-time employee. So what we’re going to talk about here happens at all levels. So the first thing that happens with most people is they get stuck in a solo preneur mindset, and it doesn’t matter how much money you’re bringing in.
You can get stuck thinking too small. And so what I mean by that is that they’ll say to themselves, when my business gets to the next level, then I will bring in the next help that I need in my business. And then my business will allow me to be a higher level CEO. And what I want you to do is flip the script on that.
The truth is that you’re never going to feel ready to take it to the next level that doesn’t just magically happen when you wake up. So you have to start thinking differently. You have to step into your future self and start making strategic decisions. And so the truth is that when you start acting and making decisions as a CEO, then that means you would realize that you need to bring in help.
And that is actually what gets your business to the next level. So rather than just waiting for the next level to happen and then bringing in help, you need to bring in help to get to the next level. Can you Say that again? Yeah. Say that again. This is really please, as you’re listening to this, you guys are, you know,
hit, rewind on this or just hit pause Theresa. I want you to say that again in the reason why this hits home for me and I, I just appreciate it so much learning from you on the show as our listeners are learning right now is because I literally have on a whiteboard. I have my very own little whiteboard of what I’m eating each day and today’s intentions and kind of little notes to myself.
But on that whiteboard, just like two weeks ago, I put on there for my things I need to do each day was millionaire mindset. And I realized this. So I have built a 7, 6, 7 figure business in the past. But this company that we’re working with right now, the Sweetlife company is on our way to seven figures consistently. And I realized that this was,
I was not having that mindset. You guys, this is so important. And since I wrote this on the board, like Theresa is saying, and I’ll go and look at what I’m eating every day. And my goals, my workout plans, it’s all right there. That’s what I wrote. And I think that people think, oh, well, that’s just like a weird note thing,
a weird mindset thing, but it has shifted my activity significantly in my business over the last couple of weeks. So can you say that again? So people hear that. Absolutely. So what we’re talking about here is the be, do have model. And that means that you need to be the CEO of your future and do activities that they would be doing in order to have what your goals are,
your business that you want. Right? So people go, okay, well, how do I do that? Here’s a real, simple thing. Every single morning. When you’re looking at your list, I want you to ask yourself your, to do list. I’m talking about when you’re looking at your to-do list, I want you to ask yourself, what does my business need from me today?
Who do I need to be today? And which activities on this long list are going to get me to the next level that I’m trying to get to, rather than working in those smaller activities, those things that you could actually hire out for it makes you realize that you’re spending a lot of time in the mundane and not in the 20% that moves your business forward.
In fact, you’re so busy. You have like a 1% little sliver that you’re trying to fit. All those CEO activities in and the rest of your day is taken up with other things. So that’s why I started with this one. You want to be the CEO of your future. And so everything that you do needs to be aligned with that so that you can reach your goal.
Yes, Yes, yes. And you should see my notes behind the scenes. You guys like a million million Teresa low notes already from this episode. And I think that, you know, people look to strategies, they look to benchmarks to accomplish. They look to be able to check off this list when in fact doing exactly, as you say is going to then reverse engineer what those activities are each day.
And it’s just such a powerful thing. So I just wanted to pause there for a second. It’s a good one. Okay. Like this is not like, woo you guys. This is like, this is a set solid strategy. That is very important. And I can personally attest to it. So what’s next after we do that. So another belief that can hold people back,
because we want to hit people from all different angles. Maybe that was it. Maybe they were waiting because they’re waiting for their business. A lot of times we’ll say, and this is probably the most common one. They’ll say I can’t afford to hire anyone. Right. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at. You might say, I can’t afford to hire the next person or a high level person.
And so the analogy I like to give here is if I were to come to you April and I were to say, I’m going to open a hotel and I just want to tell you all about it. And you’re like, cool. Tell me all about the hotel. And I said, well, I am going to be the person who checks people in at the front desk.
And then I’m going to help everyone carry their luggage up to their room. I’m going to be the maid. I’m going to do the cleaning. And then when they come back down, I’m going to be at the restaurant and I’m going to take their order. And I’m going to cook the food and deliver the food and then run back out to the front desk for the next person.
You would think I was a nut. And you’d say, you can’t do all those things well, and you can’t grow. And yet that’s what we do in our businesses, because we started with just us. And we were doing all the things and we kept getting spread thinner and thinner and thinner. So when you’re saying, I can’t afford to hire a team,
what you’re really saying is that you aren’t putting yourself first and you don’t want to grow. And what I want you to do is realize that there are different ways to hire at different levels. So if you are just starting out, you can hire someone part-time. If you already have a business, then you can hire someone who is virtual, but maybe works more hours.
And if you’re at a higher level, you can bring in someone as an employee. But the truth is that you can always hire. It’s a matter of finding the right person for the right seat to do the right things so that you’re not wasting your time or your money. And we’re going to talk more about that as we go through the other ones.
Great. Thank you for that. And that’s a great analogy. So after this is established, right, we’ve established that you absolutely cannot grow without help. And this is very important. And certainly there are, some of you are listening who want to be solopreneurs. And this episode probably is not for you when you are ready to grow this, isn’t it.
These are important strategies. So what comes next, Theresa, after we have gotten over these mindset hurdles that we’ve discussed so far, Right? So then the another thing that can hold you back is that you’ll say, well, good. People are hard to find. So let’s talk about that piece right there. Because if you are holding yourself back, because you think you can’t like,
okay, maybe I understand that I will never feel ready. Maybe I understand that I need to hire, but I don’t even know where to start in hiring. And what I want people to understand is that there are good people out there. The trick is that you have to hire the right person by looking at character over resume. So a lot of people teach how to go out and hire,
and they’ll tell you to put a post out a job listing, and then you bring in the person and you’re just looking at their resume to see if they have experienced. And I actually teach hiring in a very different way. I want people to be really, really clear on the type of person that they want to bring in. And I’m talking about character,
what type of person do they need to be? Because even if you only have a team of one other person besides you, you’re building something here. So you want to start doing that right out of the gate. And as you get bigger, you want everyone on your team to have a certain character level. So when I’m hiring, I’m looking at character because the truth is that if I can get someone who’s a go getter,
a problem solver, they’re excited about my work. They’re excited about my mission. I can teach them anything. They don’t even have to have the experience on their resume. So when you are going through the hiring process, be looking for the type of person who can grow with you and can learn, even if they don’t have experience, if you just feel right about them,
because they’re like pumped and excited, then you were hiring more to character than to resume. Hmm. That’s such a good point. And that is, that’s how I hire is with, with an established skillset. But one of the greatest things that I, if I can just share for those of you guys who are listening, one of the greatest things that I have,
I decided to do about 10 years ago, when hiring was, I decided to hire people that wanted to see their future in my business as well, could see their own, what, anything they’d life they wanted to build the time they wanted to be working, the kind of work that they were fired up. And although it might not have been the actual activity that they wanted yet,
what was really helpful and how we’ve grown. Our teams is listening to them, trying to figure out what they want to do. What are their big, huge moonshots? What are their dreams and how can they accomplish those dreams underneath our brand. And I think that that’s why we have had a team who’s worked with us for so long is because of that now definitely skill set as well.
But then I will also pay to have the right people trained in this skill set. So I’ll pay to have the right people in my team learn a skillset that I want them to have, even if they were just totally clueless, because it’s more about the person Kelly Buckner who’s our director of operations is that she is like my dream COO. And I just don’t know where I’d be without her,
but the things she’s doing, don’t always align with her biggest dream, but she knows her biggest dream is within the future of our company. And so just wanting to kind of add that in there, as it is an example, for those of you guys who are listening. Yeah. Having lifelong learners is one of our core values. So we do the same thing.
I have had different members go through courses so that they could get up to speed and it’s a game changer and they feel even more committed to you because now you are helping them grow as a person. So we’re all about growth and stepping into a bigger you. And sometimes someone on my team will find a course and they’re like, I really think this would be helpful.
I would love to take it. And I’m all for it. I will pay for them to take that class. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. And, and I think that what we’re talking about is the future of culture of small and micro sized businesses. And it really is true that so many people look for the skillset we’re in clubhouse rooms.
You and I both are in clubhouse rooms all the time where people are talking about how do I hire and how do I do this? And how do I do that? And they’re getting great advice. Like, we’ll go to this and search for this skillset, but I love a warhead, the conversation we’re having here too, because you can have a person who’s really great at something,
but doesn’t fit into the culture in the future. And, and I think the hardest thing, and I’ll just share kind of this fear since we’re talking about the fears of hiring, one of the hardest things that I had to deal with before I really started hiring for the right person, rather than the skillset was hiring somebody, training them, investing that time.
And then they leave and being so fearful of so much time lost. And I know this isn’t just a, an April problem or a Teresa problem. These are problems that corporations deal with, you know, at this replacement costs in this replacement time. But I just, I remember feeling so fearful of going, gosh, I’m going to invest in this person and they’re just going to ditch me,
You know? Yeah. And will, that can happen. And so one of the things that I work with people when I’m, I’m helping them streamline their business, there’s really three pillars we go through. And it’s the structure, the support piece, which is what we’re talking about here. But what you’re talking about is the scalability piece and that is having contingency plans.
So that’s really having the structure behind the scenes so that if someone steps out, someone else can step in and having systems and processes. So that, that happens. But absolutely, we are also investing part of our heart when we bring someone in because we’re small businesses. So it’s a very small but mighty team. And there’s a lot of heart that goes into bringing someone in.
But here’s the way I like to look at it. When someone is leaving for me, it’s happening for me rather than to me. And I want them to grow and go find a better fit because something that was not a good fit for them. And if it’s not a good fit for them, they’re not going to thrive. Just like if we take a flower and put it in the desert,
that flower might be beautiful somewhere else, but in the desert, it’s going to wither and die. Right? And so if we have someone on our team who really is not aligned with staying with the team, it’s better that they go sooner rather than later. So sometimes we’ll have signs. And that’s some of the things that I coach people through. There’ll be little signs that we missed or along the way that we weren’t really paying attention to.
But when someone is going to leave, I’ve had people leave to go on and start their own business. And I actually give them some of my coaching programs because I want them to do well because we’ve built a relationship. But if someone is stepping out, it’s actually happening for you because there’s going to be someone else that can step in that will take you even further than that person ever could.
What a great set mind you have to read it. Yeah. Mindset is like everything. Yes. Thank you for sharing that. That is an amazing different viewpoint on that. Thank you for sharing that. I think that’s so incredibly powerful. So let’s get back to some of these fears that our listeners might be feeling. Some of these, almost like we could have named this like that,
the four, the five lies you’re telling yourself, but you really need to be hiring by now. You know, what are some of the, what are some of these other thought processes that people need to overcome to really get into this let’s scale? This business let’s hire I’m ready for the next level. Absolutely. So one of the other roadblocks and this actually tends to happen with people who have,
are already a little bit more further along is that they worry that they have to manage the team, or they are currently managing the team. And that’s why I specialize in self managed teams. If you are managing the team, as the CEO, something is wrong, you should never be managing the team. You want to be bringing in people who are in the right seats,
doing the right things. And they are self-managed. So the way that you can tell if you are in the management, rather than the CEO role is if you are helicoptering them, right. We know we all know what a helicopter parent is. There’s also a helicopter CEO and it’s where you’re hovering. Like, are they doing it? Are they doing it?
Are they doing it right? And some of that can be your systems that you have set up. Like maybe, maybe you don’t have touch points where you can kind of keep your finger on the pulse without being in the weeds. That’s something that I help people set up so that they don’t have to be in the weeds to know what’s going on. But sometimes it’s really a matter of learning to let go and let go in the right way.
So what I want you to realize is that what we want to do, what we want to be stepping into is mentoring our team, not managing the team. This means having real clear expectations and results that we’re looking for. So they have a very clear lighthouse and we can have like, you know, 30, 60, 90 day check-ins and be able to say, okay,
you know, we’ve got a little off track here, but as long as they know what lighthouse is, we shouldn’t have to helicopter them. They should be able to figure out how to get there. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Helicopter CEO. I’m definitely, I’m definitely writing that down. It’s so it absolutely makes sense. It was a great analogy.
Yeah. And this is a random question. Just putting you on the spot here for our listeners. Is there a favorite team software for communication that you have that you like to recommend to your clients? Absolutely. So most of the industry uses a sauna and a sauna is great. I have used a sauna, but for project management, I really like monday.com.
That’s actually my favorite. And the reason is because not everybody adapts well to a sauna and monday.com is much more visual. And I find for entrepreneurs, they’re very creative and they tend to have a lot of creative people on their teams and the team. If you have never used any project management software, and you currently have a team, it’s a much easier transition onto Monday than it is to a sauna.
Now that said a sauna is great. I’m not saying a is bad. If you’re already using a sauna, don’t switch. If you love it. And it works for you. Great. But if you’ve never used project management software or you’re intimidated, or your team is Monday works really well. It also is very intuitive. And so it makes it easy for the team to,
to adapt to that. If that makes sense. It does make sense. Thank you for sharing that. Our listeners always want to know everybody’s software stack of what we’re using. And I know a lot of our listeners use Trello air table is where we manage our, our podcast production. But back in the day, we used to use Smartsheet and Gantt charts and all these things that were just not user-friendly at all.
And they were so detailed that we would send it to people and they would just be like deer in the headlights. And they’re just done. What is this? W w what is this? And so I absolutely loved Monday. We’ve had a guest recently who is talking about, is it like click up? I mean, whatever works for you guys. And I think that is the thing here,
but I’d love, you’re an expert in this. And so I love hearing of what, what you recommend and what works for you. So thank you for sharing that. And any, yeah, go ahead. I was just Going to say what’s most important is that, is that you use it. So if you try something and it doesn’t work, try something else because everyone’s brains work differently.
So it’s okay. If something else works for you, right. Perfect. Yes. The great advice. And then any final thoughts to, you know, this hesitation to hiring that you want to leave with our listeners, any like actionable steps. You’re saying, okay, listen, you’re listening to this episode because you know, you need to be hiring,
but there’s a wall. There is a mindset shift that needs to happen, but there are actually things that you, as a leader are putting in your own way. And those are the things we talked about today. Like, I can’t afford to hire a team or what if they leave, or, you know, how do I actually go through the process delegation?
And you shared some really important thoughts that people are already having. I know our listeners are hearing being like, oh yeah, that’s me. I’m thinking this in this process, what do they do now from this episode, from listening to the show, what are some actual actionable items right now where they can leave in that they can start fixing this problem today.
Right? Well, if we circle all the way back to stepping into being a CEO and thinking like your future CEO self, what I want you to do is start doing a time audit. Now, when I say time, audit people’s eyes glaze over and they go, oh, that sounds so corporate. And I have to write down all the things I did all day,
but here’s what I want you to realize. You may think, you know what you’re doing every day, but you’re probably doing some things you shouldn’t be doing, and you don’t even realize it. And you keep thinking, oh, I’ll just do it real quick myself. And it ends up taking an hour, or I can just whip this together. And you end up your whole day is totally shifted because you got down a rabbit hole in Canva or something.
So what I want you to do is to do a time audit on yourself so that you can see, where am I currently spending my time and then put on your CEO hat and take a hard look at that. Are those the things that I should be doing? Which of these things do I know I just shouldn’t be doing, or I’m not very good at them?
Which of these things could I hand off to a current team member or do I need to bring in a team member? So really doing a time audit should be your very first step. And then absolutely every single morning looking at that to do list, do I really have to do these things, which of these things are going to move the needle the most in my business,
which of these things are the moneymakers, which of these things are driving me to my goals and make sure that you’re working on the right things, because we can very easily get busy, busy, busy doing the wrong things, and nothing can slow down your growth faster than doing that. Great. Teresa you’re you are so wise, thank you so much for your leadership in this.
And you coach entrepreneurs who are in six figures, seven figures to eight figures, and you have a couple of different programs. So if you guys are listening here, you know, this isn’t a podcast where we sell you anything. We don’t even accept advertisers on this show. The deal is, is we want you to have the next steps to take action.
So Theresa, can you tell people how they can connect with you and based on where they are, what phase they’re in, what do you have available to get them to that next level with their teams? Absolutely. So where people can connect with me is streamlined and scaled.com, all one word. And on the website, I have information, lots of free resources.
What I have in the way of programs is if you are just hiring your very first team member, or if you have just hired poorly and you need help hiring the next team member, I have a program called team up like a boss. It’s a very low, very inexpensive program that has all my templates and processes my whole methodology for hiring to character first.
Okay. Then the second program that I have is a group coaching program, multi multi figure, and multi seven. And that’s where we streamlined the backend of your business and get your team to be self-managed and make your set you up to be scalable so that you can scale with ease and have your time back. And that is streamlined and scaled. And then I do consulting for multi eight figure businesses who already have major teams and headaches going on,
and they need someone to come in and check out where are the issues? And I do that as well. Theresa, thank you so much. So based on where you guys are, there is a program, there is a solution start like Theresa said with going through your activities today, really focusing on the things that only you, and you can only,
you can do, maybe like me write on your whiteboard or a sticky note or on your mirror and lipstick or whatever it is that you need to be honing in on the millionaire activities in your business. And that is, it starts, it sounds very basic, but this is truly, I can personally attest to this. This is truly where it all starts rolling from there.
And we do have a very special tree for you guys, as you know, that we promote and share in network with you and help you link arms with you and coach you in clubhouse now. So if you’re an active subscriber to this show, that means it drops on Monday. This particular episode is dropping on Monday, June 14th and Theresa and I are going to be live answering your questions workshopping with you,
taking your specific team, building questions, helping you strategize through the struggles or your concerns or your fears or your issues of growing your team on Wednesday, June 16th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. It’s totally free for you to be in there. If you’re really ready to take your business to the next level, it starts by taking action. And that starts by joining us at 12 o’clock on June 16th in our clubhouse room about this topic and to find the clubhouse room,
you can very simply follow our club, join our club, even all you Android users now, by going to sweet life, community.com, again, that Sweetlife community.com. You can talk to Teresa, she’s there for you, and we’re, we’re all here to support you and all of the show notes of course, to reach Teresa beyond. What we talked about here will be in the show notes for this episode.
This is episode number 231. Thank you so much Theresa for your time and your wisdom and your expertise and pouring into us on today’s show. We really appreciate You. Thank you so much for having me. It was fun. It was fun. Thanks.
This is a great show for entrepreneurs and companies who are ready to scale and grow, but lacking systems to make it happen.
Summary:
It’s time to scale your business, and you know that systems and SOPs need to be in place. But, if you’re like me, the thought of sitting down and documenting your tasks sounds as fun as having teeth pulled. Thankfully Brittany Keeling, our guest expert, is sharing practical ways and clear, simple systems you can follow to start scaling now.
In this show we’ll also cover the difference between a platform, a system and automation. These common terms are misunderstood but important to understand. Stick with us and join us live on Clubhouse to meet with Brittany personally and get your questions answered after listening to this show.
At the end of this episode you will:
Brittany’s 5 Steps To Scale
How to create SOPs without crying
The importance of choosing the right platform to make your business easier to manage
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. We are so excited to dive in depth. So number 230 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, and today’s guest is simplifying your systems and helping you put standard operating procedures in place so that you can scale your business.
And this is why this is incredibly important. We have so many companies that come to us and they want to launch courses and masterminds and memberships, and they want their suite of offers created. But oftentimes when we do a really good job launching scalable online programs, there are some systems that are missing in the backend. And when these systems in the backend are missing,
then what happens is a bottleneck. And you actually can’t even absorb all of the money and the clients and the hard work that you’ve gone into in order to actually launch and reap the benefits of the hard work. And so today on episode number 230, we’re diving in with Brittany Keeling, she’s the CEO of be elevated a business operations and launch expert. And she’s going to take you through the processes of how to really simplify your systems.
Now you’re going to laugh. I am being really transparent about how I hate creating SOP on this. So if you’re like me, you’re going to be able to relate real well to what Brittany’s saying. And we’re going to give you some amazing strategies to get through that today on this episode. So this is a great show for those of you guys who are in phases two through four of my Sweetlife business roadmap,
that’s the startup to scale up system that we’ve created. And in order to figure out what phase of business you’re in simply go to sweet life co.com board slash quiz, and you can take a very short self-assessment. So this episode, this business training that we’re talking about is specifically for those of you guys in phases, two, three or four of that business system.
What you can expect at the end of this is to first of all, know the most common standard rating standard operating procedures that should be in place for your business. You’re also going to get tips on software that can simplify your processes. And you’re going to know how to use the way that you work as a leader, as an entrepreneur, in order to put it into systems in a way that is actually going to happen for your business.
So I’m so excited to dive into all this. And of course, Brittany will be with us live on clubhouse, the Wednesday that this show drops. So if you are not a member or following the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club on clubhouse, please make sure you search us on clubhouse life. One word, just like this podcast. And you’re going to get access to that room where Brittany is going to be able to take your questions.
She’s amazing. And I’m guessing you’re going to want to have somebody like Brittany workshop with you, and that’s what the clubhouse is for. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. All of the show knows everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting our website@sweetlifeco.com forward slash two three zero. Oh, wait. I lied about that. All of the show notes can be found by visiting sweet life coat.com
and then you got to click on podcast, but then it is episode two, three, zero. All right, you guys, I can’t wait to dive in with you. Let’s do it. All right. You guys welcome to episode number 230 here at this sweet life entrepreneur business podcast. I am joined by Brittany Keeling and yes, you’re probably getting entired me saying this.
I met Brittany on clubhouse, like all of our guests, like lately, all my new clubhouse friends and she is amazing. I was in a clubhouse room with Brittany and she said three words that I was like, oh my gosh, I need this woman to come and talk to us and really simplify and clarify these three terms. And you’re going to find out what they are here and just a little bit on the show,
but, you know, Brittany is a scaling with systems expert. And so that’s what we’re all about here on the show, giving you tools and strategies to move forward and scale your business. And so here we are, Brittany, thank you so much for joining us. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself and how you became such a systems ninja. Yeah,
I’m so excited to be here. So I have a really sort of unconventional background. A lot of people get into this space from, you know, they were in the corporate world and they decided to go off on their own. And I actually started my first business straight out of high school. So I was a serial entrepreneur for a few years, with a few various different businesses.
They were actually all online businesses as well. So been in the space a while and towards the end of 2018, I was feeling really burnt out with what I was doing. I wanted to change it. I just didn’t know what to do. And so I started asking people who knew me like, Hey, what do you think of when you think about me?
What am I good at? What are my strengths? Literally, everybody came back and was like, oh, you’re type a you’re detail oriented. You’re great at like being productive and helping people reach their goals. And I was like, okay, I can do something with this. So heading into 2019, I started trying to like make that shift. But right at that same time,
my dad who was a business owner actually passed away unexpectedly. And so I took over his company the day after he died. So yeah, I put my business hold and took over his company. I was 21 and it was a mess. He did not have. I mean, obviously I was grieving, but also he didn’t have anything documented. He did not have,
you know, a second in command. It was basically two months of me being on the phone all day, every day with clients saying, sorry, he’s not here anymore, but we’re still business as usual. It was very weird. But another thing that we ran into a lot was like the questions being asked and us not having answers. And that didn’t feel good for anyone.
Of course, we didn’t want to say, sorry, we don’t know the answer to that. But at the same time, my dad kept so much in his head, in his head and all over his desk. I mean, papers everywhere. So it was just really hard to try to run once he was gone. And thankfully we did end up selling that business four months later.
And at that time I had planned a move across the country for like a month later. And I was like, oh, I have now no income and no clients and no business, I should do something. So I relaunched my business and I went like full force headfirst into the deep end as an online business manager. And so at that time, this was like August of 2019.
And I just dove in, I invested in a mentor and I was like, you know, I’m just going to help other entrepreneurs create something that actually can outlive them. For me. It grew really quickly. I’ll give you the cliff notes version here, but essentially I created a bit of a monster that was doing for me the opposite of what I was trying to do for others.
And so I ended up restructuring a bit around this, actually around the same time, last year. So around like August, September of 2020, and now we work with clients in either one day or one week and we have a few leading offers, but we really essentially help them either get their systems in check, do like an overhaul, get them things simplified,
make it make sense for the long haul for them. Or we help them have a large-scale launch of a digital product or service in a short timeframe. We do like a seven day package for lunches or a one day for one week package for systems, depending on how robust it is. And clearly to have that done. We have to have a lot of really clear systems internally as well.
Yes you do. Oh my gosh. So first of all, congratulations on all your success. It’s so hard when you know you’re doing something well and all of a sudden it’s running your life. I love how you have modeled. We talk a lot about life, first business modeling here on this show, and I love how you’ve modeled your offer to actually deliver that time in life that you want.
Secondly, I’m so sorry about your dad. I lost my dad a couple of years ago and that is it just really hard still sometimes today I’ll like forget, and I’ll go to pick up a phone and call him and it’s just this weird thing or I’ll think, oh, I can’t wait to tell dad or whatever. And so I totally get that.
And I’m so sorry about that. Your dad also was a total entrepreneur like that entrepreneur brain, like the notes everywhere, papers everywhere. I’m literally not going to turn the camera. You guys, before this, behind the scenes, you were typing something out to think like that’s way out. I need to write in order to think and process in. But because of that,
then I have a million pieces of paper. And so your dad sounded like amazing man and very typical classic entrepreneur. And then the last thing, you know, I love how you have always been an entrepreneur out of high school. Like we have very similar stories. I absolutely love that. And so I’m just so glad that you were here on the show.
Now what you’re talking about from a business sense, first of all, it’s no surprise that you are so successful because what you need are what people need are the tactical things that you actually deliver. It’s the not sexy part that everybody desperately wants and needs. They’re the systems and that like the SOP and the client pipelines and the launch plans and the content plans and all those things.
So I’m so excited to talk about what we’re going to dive in today. And I know our listeners will be like, okay, bro, gen up so we can hear her talk. So, so like, so this is very exciting. And so I’m really, really excited about what you’re going to download for us today. So one of the things that we find as a company is a lot of companies come to us and they’re like,
oh, we’re so excited to scale with courses and offers. And all these things help us design them, but it’s like, let’s stop because they don’t have their systems and processes in place. Yet. I was actually in a clubhouse room last week when I was saying that to somebody and the woman ended up DME me on Instagram saying, so you said I shouldn’t do this yet until I have systems in place.
What are the exact systems? People don’t know, like you were saying before we started recording what they don’t know. So can we first for our listeners who might not be familiar with that, we first talk about what systems should you actually have in place before you start really scaling your business. Yeah, 100%. And I love that we’re talking about this because every business I’ve ever worked with that has overlooked these steps in the beginning has had to spend more time and more money and more energy backtracking to redo the things that were not done properly.
So my hope is that if you’re listening to this, you will not get in that position. It is never too late to start creating systems. And just like April said, it is not at face value, super sexy to talk about, but it is super sexy when you get weeks of your life back. So, yeah. So I have sort of a top five systems that I like to focus in on whenever talking about like getting started with systems,
mind you, there are a million systems in the world and I totally understand that, like can be really overwhelming. So I always just suggest starting with these five. And if I feel like too much, start with one, like just do one at a time because it’s going to be better than nothing. Okay. So let me make sure you guys heard this before.
She says this. When you walk away from this show commit to start with one, if this is an area you need to grow. So sometimes when we hear all five, it is overwhelming, but Brittany is going to download you on what they are. So I’m really excited about this. Okay. What are they? Yeah. So quick overview of the five systems I like to hone in on are a task management and project management system.
So this is where you can keep all of your ideas. So instead of having 12,000 places to look for things, it’s all in one place, an SOP standard operating procedure creation system. So you may or may not have heard of SOP before. And if you have heard of them, it may be in a corporate setting or it may just be like,
sure, I’ve heard of it, but I don’t know what to do with it. How do I create them? Having SOP are important, but you need actually know how to create them. So having a system for creating new SOP is on an ongoing basis is going to be huge. The third system is a content planning and repurposing system. Let’s be real,
pretty much all of us are marketing through social media. So we probably need to have a system there so that we’re not having to spend hours every single day typing up a last-minute caption just to get it off the door. Right then the fourth is a client management system. This one is huge, huge, huge, I’m such a huge fan of white glove experience and really kind of going above and beyond with the client experience because we want everyone in our sphere to feel really valued and a huge way you can do that is with your client management system.
And then the fifth and final is email marketing. And if you’re like, well, maybe I don’t have a list. This is fifth for a reason. It is very important of course, but you don’t have to start with this one if it’s not the easiest one for you to dive into, but we can keep it super simple. Maybe you have an automated welcome sequence or some sort of automated email marketing in place.
But even if you just have some sort of system for showing up regularly in your email marketing, like a task for yourself to write a new email once a month and send that out, it’s so much better than nothing, and you’re still going, nurturing your audience chat. Okay. So let me state those again for our listeners. And then we’re going to move on.
We’re going to dive into a couple of those today. So the five systems you recommend people have in place to start our task management, SLPs and a process for actually creating SOP and an SOP. If you’re listening in stands for standard operating procedures for any of you guys that didn’t know that number three is a system for content planning. Number four is the system for client management and number five,
it’s a system for email marketing. Is that right? That’s right. Okay. Let’s kind of pivot in. Let’s just focus in actually on those first two things tax management and SOP is here on this podcast. So when we’re talking about task management, there are so many things that businesses are doing on a regular basis. And oftentimes companies that are looking to scale,
you have just very few people doing all the things, talk to us about how you recommend and how you really kind of lasso all of these things that are happening in order to get them into one place. Yeah. So I think the biggest thing is like, you know, there are first of all, so many ideas in our brain at any given time.
And even if we just think about the ideas alone, not even the to-dos, it’s like you could have a million dollar idea, but if you write it on a sticky note and forget it exists, there goes your million dollars. Right? So I’m a huge advocate for getting things in one place. So initially, I mean, I would start with hunting down all the things you have all over the place.
If you’ve got just tasks and ideas and to do’s everywhere, get them all streamlined in one place from there, you can probably then start diving into breaking things into categories. And again, this can be really overwhelming. And like a lot of times people are like, well, I just have one big list. What do you mean I need categories, but we can structure things very strategically when we are intentional about it.
So if you zoom out of the day-to-day of your business and actually look at everything from a bird’s eye view and look at all of the tasks on your list, look at everything that’s popping up. Do you want assessment of what do I, and if I have team members, my team do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, yearly, so on and so forth basis.
And what maybe aren’t we doing that needs to be done more regularly and even seeing like what tasks have popped up that are not recurring tasks, but you’re noticing them coming up more and more often that can really help guide you and figuring out what the departments of your business really are. So being able to identify it, doesn’t have to be like 18 departments.
You don’t have to have a whole marketing team to have a department for that. When I say departments, I’m really, especially for small business owners, mostly honing in on the fact that like, there really are still segments of our business, where if we were to scale to a much larger level, we’d likely be outsourcing those two different team members. Yeah.
And that’s usually where most of our listeners are. They’re like really ready to the point they want to scale. They have all these things that are happening. And many of them have even really started building their teams. But yet they’re not exactly sure. Also with that being said, many of our listeners are to this point where they also have a, just a ton of,
VA’s doing a couple little things for them at once. So as they’re listening to this, I’m guessing you’re the expert here in this process. You also really recommend that even all these little pieces, even if it’s somebody who’s only working a couple hours a month doing a task for you that you develop SOP for that as well. Correct. 100% a gauge that I like to use is like,
okay, if you were to take on 10 clients tomorrow, would you be ready? Yeah. My business mentor talking more says that all the time. He’s like, you know, it doesn’t matter if we get you all these clients in here, he’s like, you know, it can be like, it’s like a fire hose. If you do not have these systems in place,
like don’t go out and grow. Right. Oh, that’s so good. That is such a great analogy. Oh my gosh. So you’re just going to lose them. All right. And that’s why when companies come to us and they’re like, we want to develop our leading offer. We want our leading courses or masterminds. We’re like, okay, are you going to be able to handle it?
Because if you can’t then literally everything. That’s like an overflow out of the top and you know, let’s make sure your stuff is in place. And so I love this conversation we’re having. So in the process and behind the scenes, you were sharing how you guys go about doing this. You have a software that you love, and I’m just going to say out loud,
you know, Kelly Buckner, our director of operations for our company is going to geek out when she hears this episode. Because I think that what you’re talking about is like right along the lines of something that she would love to look into more. So talk to us about how you go about this process for people. And, and also, I mean, they are in a million different places.
All these things are in a million different places. Let’s talk about simplifying software for a minute. Yeah, absolutely. So a lot of entrepreneurs are, and you know, we’re in 18 different softwares when in reality there’s probably one or two that could replace the bulk of them. And I think, you know, at the end of the day, maybe you’re going to pay more for one software,
but then you’re going to be able to let go of three others. And it’s so worth it. Now, if you’re using six softwares and it’s like, you know, you don’t have any problems and it’s working well for you and future casting. You’re not going to have any problems. Great. If it’s not working or if it is working, you don’t need to necessarily change it.
But if you’re starting to grow and you’re ready to scale, and you’re like, you know what, being in all this software is just really not working for me. Then. I mean, something that my business does all the time is like helping businesses get streamlined into less software or at least suffer. That makes more sense for them. And so one of the things that we do is we utilize click up and this is where we use like our task management and our project management.
But also we use this as like the one-stop for the whole business. And we do this with our own business, as well as for our client’s businesses. Because if you’re listening, I can almost guarantee if you don’t have some sort of system in place, you’ve probably got your Google docs, a hundred different docs or folders in your drive. You’ve got your handwritten notes,
sticky notes, your whiteboard, your mirror, that you’re writing on your, your, everything, just everything notes on your phone. You’ve got your, your 18 journals on your desk. Like it’s just all over the place. And so being able to create an atmosphere where it doesn’t feel like, oh God, another place I have to look every day and instead positioning it in your mind.
And also in the way you structure it as the only place you need to go and look at things every day, it really is a game changer because instead of waking up, you know, three hours into your slumber, remembering that you forgot to do three tasks that are like really important, and now you’re going to be panicking about it. You can have one place to put them all as soon as they pop into your head and then literally forget about it.
Like you can just forget about it and come back to it later. Yeah. I love that. And that’s so important for entrepreneurs like me too. Not officially, but pretty officially have ADHD. And so this process of going through and understand like the tasks, changing task management, having things in one place is, is really, really, really important.
And another thing you said just triggered something that I like to tell businesses all the time. And this is what Brittany is talking about. This is why this is important. I like to say, you know, how would you carry your business today? If you were already a millionaire, you’d already have these systems in place, and you’re never going to be there until you have these systems in place.
This is the bottleneck. And this is so important. And you know, we’re not saying you have to use one software or another, like you can do it whatever way works for you. But the reality is, is simplified systems scale. They do simplified system scale. And so this is so incredibly important. Okay? So in this process you’re going through and people have all their ideas and they’re bringing their,
all their ideas together, taken all their sticky notes and their pieces of paper. And they’re getting it. Like you guys use click up for this. How do you recognize, are there like certain departments of a business that are standard or typical for, you know, service-based businesses and online entrepreneurs where you tend to group together type of department. So you sort of,
our listeners can kind of at least clarify their mind and start heading in one direction of how to organize their stuff. Yeah. Such good question. So some like standard departments that we like to utilize are like your headquarters, right? So for us, at least in here, we house various things like our capacity so that anyone on the team can come in and see what we’re working on.
Like what big package, but also what’s coming. We have like the next several months booked out and we can all see it and be prepared. And then also if I’m on a sales call, I know what’s available and what’s not I’m meeting notes, go in there, employee onboarding various things like that. Team resources go in there. So like SOP is our brand kit,
affiliate links, testimonials our team agreement. So we have like, all the team has come together and agree. Like this is our way of working so we can all reference that. And then another department is operations. So you’re going to have your recurring operations more than likely that may be broken down into various things like social media. So Instagram, Facebook,
LinkedIn, so on and so forth. Maybe your email marketing can go and hear your metrics management. So if you’re needing to check on your numbers weekly, the list, of course. Yeah. Right. I mean, I’m thinking in my mind, I’m like podcast processes, like for us, you know, podcast processes, you know, PR speaking,
client management. So as you guys are listening to Brittany talk, just think about like the grouping of repetitive tasks that you’re doing in your business and start to figure out what falls under each one. And then take an opportunity to understand that for each one of these, you need to develop these standard operating procedures, which brings me to the next question. So we hear this all the time and I’ll be really honest with you.
Especially somebody that’s like always in all directions. I own four companies. I have three kids. I’m always on an airplane somewhere when somebody tells me and it’s okay if you have to tell me this, but let’s just keep it real here. When somebody tells me that I have to sit down and document every single thing that I’m doing in some capacity or some way for like a week straight,
first of all, I’ve never, ever, ever done that. I can’t think of anything worse than doing that. And so what I ended up doing, and this is why, if you’ve also listened to the show before, I’m like not the best person to work for. I mean, I have an amazing team, thank God. But you know,
it, it’s kind of hard. So it literally, I’m not kidding. You it’s taken me 25 years to get through. And so when I go down and I document like an SOP, it is usually like in a scrub, like we’re working on a project like that day. That is my work I’m going to do. But going through my everyday,
you know, week just kind of documenting my time and managing my time and stuff. You couldn’t actually, I’m being so honest. You’re going to like school me here. Probably like you couldn’t pay me to do that for my own company. Like I am Wade. I’m like all off in a role. Is there any other way to do it? Yeah,
totally. Okay. Good. Cause that way sucks. Right? At the end of the day, it’s like we’re busy and the thought of creating a whole system and process and documenting the SOP, Internet’s going to take me three hours longer than if I would just do it all myself and then never outsource it. Right. Right. But of course in the long run,
we know that’s not true, but it doesn’t make it any to do in the moment. So I do have a philosophy that I like to follow a system. I like to follow with creating these because most business owners are very similar to you. Like I can’t say that I have a lot of fun sitting down and creating all of SOP for my business.
And so if you don’t like it, then that’s yeah. Then they really are tough work. Okay. Right. And any, you don’t have to do it alone. And it’s actually to be so much easier than we think. So here’s what I like to do. And here’s what I tell people to do. Start identifying what needs to be documented.
Right? So obviously your recurring tasks, easiest thing to start with, you know, it’s going to happen on a recurring basis. So start there. And once you’ve identified, this needs an SOP, take a loom screen recording. The next time you do the task, you can literally do the task, the exact same way you would without documenting anything,
but screen record it and talk through what you’re doing as you’re going. And then if you have a strategic and like, well put together template for the written SOP, you can then give the loom or whatever kind of screen recording. You utilize to another team member. You can give it to somebody else and they can build out the SOP, the written version.
They can include the video version in there. They can plug it into whatever. You know, if you’re using a task management software, get it in the right places, create templates within that. If you want, it can get really nice and crazy robust, but it doesn’t have to. And even better when you do it that way, you now have a video,
an audio with your video and a written. And so no matter what kind of way somebody learns on your team, you’re meeting them where they’re at. Okay. Thank you. So I do that. I do LUME recordings and then you’re like Dropbox fanatics, and then I’ll put it in Dropbox. But I really thought that I was like duck taping the process together.
And then, you know, we can get them transcribed through our Searchie and everything that we do. So thank you for saying that because I literally is like, this is just the way I work and it’s just the way it’s going to be. And this is the way I work and I just, I’m never going to change me. So I hope this works out for y’all,
which, which it has. I mean, I have an amazing team, but in the back of my mind, I’m always like, you suck at doing this because you’re not doing it the way it’s supposed to be, but I know I would never, ever like literally over my dead body, am I going to sit down and write down my steps that I am doing?
So, yay. I feel a little redeemed here on this show and then Kelly in the process, like she does this as well. And so like listening to the podcast, you guys all know like what we really like struggle with behind the scenes. We try to share it all with you. This is one of those things that I haven’t really liked so much.
Okay. So in that process, you know, documenting it in whatever way that works. I also do audio recordings on my phone. So I do audio as well too. And that has seemed to work, you know, to upload them for certain files as well for my team and our team Dropbox folder, I should say, hopefully that’s acceptable, but it does work.
Okay. So after somebody has, you know, really documented these processes, let’s go back and let’s kind of circle back and let’s talk about the importance of simplified software. Share with us more about click up, why you guys use that, why this is your chosen spot to do this in really why, of all the things out there, as, you know,
there’s a million there’s Monday and Salesforce and all these other things, like why is this your go-to? And so our listeners is, is there processing can think, oh, well maybe I should check that out. Yeah. Great question. So let’s tie it in with SOP is right. If you create a hundred SLPs and they’re sitting in a Google drive that nobody knows exists,
what’s the point, right? Versus if we can pull them in to a software, like click up, or if you’re using something else, you know, whatever you’re using, bring it into one place so that someone can super easily search the name of what they’re looking for, or go to the SOP folder or list and look through it, what they need to find.
And you can even from there, so like in click up, you can create like a template of tasks essentially. So you could also turn your SLPs into templates if it’s like things that need to be tasked out. So if you’re onboarding a new team member, for example, that can be a template. Every time you onboard a new team member, you duplicate the template,
you assign things out and boom, like you’re good to go. Okay. So this is making my mind totally gone in a different direction, which I won’t on this show, but I also teach entrepreneurs how to license and scale their content programs and systems. And every single one of them has a different place where they build those systems. And so what I’m hearing you say is it click up,
could possibly be a place for those of you guys that this is really advanced scaling. But those of you guys who are listening to this show who are licensing your courses, your content, you’re creating a certification program. All of these mixed level scaling could use a software like this to really streamline the distribution of your processes and templates a hundred percent. And you can even like,
you can like sell templates. You can share templates. I mean, you can do so much with it. And the reason that I really love click up above all the other platforms, I’ve, haven’t been in all of them, but I’ve been in many of them. And what I tend to find is kind of twofold. One click up is 10 steps ahead.
Of many of the other platforms, other platforms are coming out with a lot of the things click up has, but they’ve had it for months. So why not choose the software that is going to be 10 steps ahead. And two, it has a very, very, very customizable interface. The aesthetic of it. You can look at it in so many ways and customize fields and can do it everything in your own brand colors.
I mean, there’s so many ways to go about it. So I, I love it. I it’s just the, in my opinion, I clearly am a nerd about this platform, but I’m a huge fan. I’ve been in so many different ones and it just has proved to be the best and has the most robust options for what we need. Okay.
This is, I really love this episode. Thank you so much for everything you’re pouring into us. Okay. Before we wrap this up, I do have to say, I love the aesthetic side women entrepreneurs. We really like this side. Like, I really love the fact that I can change the picture on the back of my Trello board. I mean the stupid stuff like that makes me really happy.
So I love the fact that it does offer that option as well. And I appreciate you sharing this resource so much here. You guys, as you’re listening, we’ll make sure that we are going to share Brittany’s affiliate link to click up with you so you guys can go and play with it and try it out. There are three different words I would love for you to,
this is the circle back from the beginning, define for us as we close up this show. And I think that the clarity and the definition of each one of these, whether whoever’s listening is new or established is going to be very, very helpful. Can you please define the difference between a platform, a system and automation for any of our listeners that aren’t crystal clear on these saints?
Absolutely. And it’s really common to not be crystal clear on this because some of these buzz words right there, total buzzwords are used interchangeably when they shouldn’t be. And so it’s confusing for most people. And so what I have found is that if you’re not clear on what each of those are, it can be really difficult to know what you need or ask for help or find the right resources.
So I’m really passionate about helping find clarity throughout these. So let’s start from, you know, a platform. So a platform is like a click up, right? Click up is a platform. Or of course there are other platforms like, you know, later first scheduling on Instagram or depths auto active campaign. There’s so many, right, but having a platform does not mean you have a system.
It’s really how you utilize the platform that you can create systems within a platform being signed up on click up does not mean you have a system being signed up on any software does not necessarily mean you have a system. You can create systems within the platforms. Like we create systems all throughout clicker and they can go hand in hand, but they are different things.
So a system is something that can actually be documented, right? A system is something we can put into an SOP that we can duplicate and do over and over again. And then an automation of course, is something that is going to be automatic. But again, it’s different. Not all of your systems are going to be automated. Some of your systems are not going to be automated and that it can still be a system.
It doesn’t have to be automated to be a system and you can house. So an example here too, all three of these things can go hand in hand is within click up. There are automations. So you can have the platform I’m just using click up as an example here, you have to pay me to say this, but wish they were. So you could use click up as your platform.
You could house your content creation system in here, and you can have automations in here as well to move things accordingly. So they can all go hand in hand. They are very different things though. And so I think being able to define those is really, really helpful. And being able to talk about things. Yeah, I love it. I wrote down that quote,
having a platform does not mean you have a system. And I think that is so powerful and that’s really a great way to wrap up today’s show. Of course my like business coaching minus went crazy. Now I actually want you to reach out, to click up and have them sponsor a room on clubhouse in pay you to talk about it. Like, let’s get this right.
So click up, we’re going to tag you in this and you need to be, listen, you need to hit Brittany up, sponsor her clubhouse rooms because it’s, it’s good for everybody. So, all right, well, I just really appreciate your expertise so much. And we are going to be live in clubhouse on June. What did we say?
I think it was June the night at 12 o’clock Eastern time in the club that goes with this podcast. So this podcast club is called the sweet life entrepreneurs club. Search it up on clubhouse, hit me up, hit Brittany up, like send us a DM. If you want to know where the club is because Brittany sent me coming in live and we’re gonna be taking your questions from today’s show.
And this episode is going to drop on Monday. You have two days to listen to this and come in and let Brittany roll up her sleeves with you and help you guys get your SLPs and systems in place, you know, answering platform questions, whatever it is, we are here to serve and support you. Not just listen to this show, but to implement the show and put it into action.
So now you have a couple of, you have a resource as well, and I’m going to make sure all the things that we’re talking about here in the show notes for you guys. So what is a free resource you have for our listeners? Yes. I have a pretty doozy guide. It’s called five systems to take your business from scattered to scaling.
And it goes a little more in depth into all five of the systems we touched on at the beginning of this episode. And then also I actually include in the guide my own SOP templates. So there you go. Yeah. I’m so glad. Oh my gosh. An SOP template. Okay. So all of the show notes are going to be found@sweetlifeco.com like on the podcast.
And this is episode number 230, and everything’s going to be in there for you as well. But we want to see you guys in clubhouse, even you, Android users are getting invites now. So we want to see you guys in clubhouse. And if you need an invite, hit me up on Instagram. We have actually a lot of club invites they’re releasing to us.
So we’re excited. You can RSVP for this event and we’ll get you an invite to that, Brittany, thank you so much for your time. I’d love to everything we’ve talked about and clearly appreciate you confirm me. I’m not totally crazy about the way I’m supposed to be doing things and just really appreciate all your expertise, how clearly you explained things and those you guys who are listening,
please follow Brittany, pay her and follow and just thanking her for her expertise in Korean and tossed bang. It’s great. Thank you. I appreciate you. Thank you. Have a lot of fun.
This is a great show for small business owners who are looking to scale but they’re missing the strategic foundational plan.
Summary:
When it comes to entrepreneurship, people just start working. But, sooner or later when the time comes to scale, 60% of businesses realize they are missing a strategic financial plan and the foundations needed to move forward. Today’s guest expert Arnesha Bobo, Founder of CFOForWomen.com breaks down her Smart Financial Roadmap and the first 3 steps to building your strategic plan in detail.
If you don’t know your numbers, don’t know how to analyze KPIs and you want your business to grow, this is an ideal business coaching episode to get your foundation in place. You’ll be surprised that the first steps actually have nothing to do with your numbers at all.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have 3 clear steps to start creating a clear financial plan
Understand how vision and core values must be part of your financial plan
Be aware of the 4 numbers you should know every month in your company
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate This week on episode number 229 of the suite life entrepreneur podcast. We are talking with Arnesha Bobo about how to create strategic financial plan for your business. Now, this episode is incredibly important because she actually says it’s 60% of businesses come to her.
Who’ve already been in business for an extended period of time and never have a strategic financial plan. So in this episode, Arnesha breaks down everything that you need to know, and the first three steps to create your strategic financial plan. So the reality is as entrepreneurs, we just kind of get in there and start doing the work, doing the business,
selling the service and miss a lot of foundational steps. But when it’s time to scale your business, or when it’s time to get funding, when it’s time to apply to be a member of, of some sort of a, a board or an organization, people are going to want to see your numbers and you need to see your numbers in order to continue to be profitable.
And then this is the episode where we dive in and help you really start building that out. And so that, you know, the process that you get to go through in order to fully take control of your numbers and your business. So let me give you an indication here of who this amazing woman is. First of all, yes, I met her on clubhouse.
I know don’t laugh at me. We are going to be going live in clubhouse on Wednesday that this show airs again. This is episode number 229, and that is going to be Wednesday, June 2nd, 2021, 12 o’clock Eastern time. Join us in clubhouse because what we’re talking about here, I understand that you might have some questions. So it’s really important that we are then taking this from just a podcast,
this one way conversation and giving you an opportunity to really workshop with our Neesha, to get your questions answered. And so Wednesday, June 2nd, join us at 12 o’clock Eastern. Let me give you an idea of who this amazing woman is. She tells her story. So I’m going to summarize this here, but our niche as a small business CFO in strategic planner,
she works with women, led organizations who are ready to gain visibility in their finances and build a smart growth strategy together with her clients. She focuses on three key areas, capital structure, profitability, and growth planning. She is absolutely amazing. I know that you’re going to love her. And I’m so excited to invite you to tune into this episode. Again,
as we always say, all the show notes can be found by going to Sweetlife co.com. This is episode number 229. So all these links, everything that we’re talking about here are going to be waiting for you on tap. And if you’re a new listener to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, thank you so much for coming. I’m April beach, founder of the suite life company.
And I am absolutely stoked to have an opportunity to welcome you on this show. This show we’ve been named top 50 moms in podcast, but the show isn’t just for moms, all of you are welcome here. And we deliver a business strategies and trainings that other coaches charge thousands for. As a matter of fact, this podcast is part of one of the giving missions of our company.
And we’re pouring into you week after week for four and a half years straight so that you know that you can take the business trainings and strategies that you hear here, here on here, here, here, here on this show, and truly implement them and take them to the bank. So thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for being a subscriber of this show.
And I appreciate you so very much. Now let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. All right, friends. We are joined by my new clubhouse friend. Yes. I know another new amazing club friend that I have met. And so grateful for clubhouse are Nisha Bobo. And she is here because of the fact that she has been in clubhouse rooms with me,
literally drilling down on what women need to know about their money. She is absolutely amazing. She’s a CFO for women. I can’t wait for you to meet her. And today on the show, we’re talking about creating a strategic financial roadmap for your business. And our Nisha is going to walk you through the steps in order to do that. So, or Nisha,
thank you so much for coming to the show. Thank you for spending time with me here and all the time that we’ve spent together on clubhouse. And tell us a little bit about you and what you do. Yes, absolutely. I help women become better leaders in their business by improving their decision-making women are the fastest growing demographic of business owner. Yet they are the least paid.
They’re not growing in other industries. And most importantly, they’re not getting access to funding that they need to help either grow their business or expand in other markets. So I help women. We’re all things, money with all things, money. I love that. Okay. So reminds me. I was actually in a meeting a week ago with an author of a book it’s about the new entrepreneurship and he was talking about women and minorities and immigrants as well coming in,
and that they don’t have funding, but this gentleman who funds a lot of regular business was saying, they’re looking at ways to create new programs to do that. So just decide now, but it was very interesting to hear and just triggered me to say that because I do think that the funding hopefully is coming around, but like what we’re going to talk about today,
there’s a lot of things that every business owner needs to do to get their ducks in a row before anybody will even pay attention to fund them. And those are the things you’re going to share with us today, but tell us a little bit about you and you know, really how you got into this, why you started your company and your, your journey about getting yes,
absolutely. I have a 14 year corporate accounting career. So I’ve worked with very large companies. I’ve managed multi-billion dollar portfolios. And when I first started my company, I was at a nine to five or so I was a part-time entrepreneur, like many businesses starting out. So I would, you know, work my full time job, my nine to five.
And then I would go home and work on my business, five to nine, how I became a consultant. I actually work with the procurement department for some corporations. And if you are familiar with the procurement department, that’s the department you go through as a business owner to get corporate contracts. So you have to go through a procurement process, you have to register your company with them.
You have to submit financial information, you have to apply. And then you start bidding on different contracts that they have. So you can do this at a corporate level, government level, city, state, and federal, but I was at the corporate level and I noticed a lot of businesses did not qualify to do business with these corporations because their business head,
no proper foundation. So they were not set up correctly. They didn’t have access to financial information because they only met with their tax accountant once a year. So I found myself a lot of days working with business owners to set their foundation up just so they could do business with that corporation. I am not a gatekeeper. If there’s an opportunity for me to help you come on and come on,
but I want to make sure that everything is done correctly. So that’s how I started my business is helping other small businesses get into these corporations to do business with them. And then it started to grow from there. I later joined a national organization for women. It’s called<inaudible> the national association of women business owners. And I joined to become a better business owner because I had that corporate mindset and everything was structured,
but I wanted to learn how to be a business owner. So I joined this organization, you know, attended some events, was able to do a couple of reasons, patients or answer questions that event. And I caught the eye of the president at no idea that she had watched me or she, you know, I was on her radar. Well,
she asked me to join the board. And as I actually, yeah, I joined the board as a financial secretary. So I was responsible for doing all of the financial reporting for the organization at our chapter level. And I started working with a lot of female owned businesses. So that’s how I, you know, that’s why my core are women because I was able to help them birth.
And I’m a woman. I love women. I love to see women win mommies, aunties, everybody. I want all women to win because I coming from corporate America and just seeing the huge disparities between men and women, the earnings, all of that, I was like, oh no, any opportunity I can help women. I’m going to do that.
So that’s how I kind of got started. And I actually left the organization because relocated to Atlanta. So I’m in Atlanta, Georgia, the home of entrepreneurship. And I actually joined another business organization. It’s called the Atlanta black chambers. It’s a chamber dedicated to helping black businesses grow coffee. I have the executive director of course started. So, you know,
do a lot of great, amazing things. Patients with the chamber got into leadership. So I chaired a couple of committees. I co-chaired another counting the financial services committee at one event. One of my chamber members actually invited me to speak at an event because she was a program manager for a city accelerator. And I was able to get a contract with the city.
So I got my first contract sole source. I didn’t have to go through a bidding process. And that’s one of the longest standing contracts that I have. So now I teach a financial consulting to new and small businesses here. Wow. That is an amazing story. I mean, your story is just amazing. There’s so many things that people can take away from that story alone.
And I think that like, it is remarkable. You are clearly very good at what you do, but I love the part of it where you just did it and people recognized it because you did the work and people recognize you for just like being true, doing your skill, doing the work and connecting important into others. Yes. Thank you. If I was building a personal brand and didn’t know that I was building a personal brand.
Yeah. You had no idea. That is so amazing. That is so cool. Congratulations to you. And I hope our listeners are like, okay, like I can do this. Like there, isn’t always some big, huge, hidden strategy behind it. It’s just leading with what you know, doing good work and pouring into people and you get recognized and you get elevated.
You get brought up. Yes. We could just end the podcast. This is today’s lesson, boys and girls. Oh my gosh. Okay. So you currently teach businesses on a regular basis. How to get their financial Jackson row, how to get their foundation in place. You do it on clubhouse all the time. If you guys are not following our Nishawn clubhouse,
please make sure you do that. Is it our Nisha Bobo? Yes. We’ll make sure that’s in the show notes for you guys as well. Plus of course our Nisha is going to be going live with us in our suite life podcast, clubhouse room though, week this show drops and you get to connect with her even more directly and bring your business questions.
So that’s just a side note, those of our listeners that know that, and can’t wait to have this conversation in a live setting. So you can get a chance to really workshop with our listeners too. So what we’re talking about today is really creating a roadmap for your business. And you have a method, you have a way that you bring businesses through this and it’s so important.
And when you explained it to me, kind of behind the scenes, before we started recording, I was like, oh yeah. Oh yeah, that’s really, really good. So today you’re going to guide us through really the first three steps of that process of that business roadmap. So why don’t you go ahead and get us started here for those of our listeners.
You guys should have a pen and paper, please make sure you’re taking notes or if you’re driving or at the gym or wherever, you know, you can always come back and replay this. So what is the first thing businesses should do in order to really start creating a great foundation? Thank you. Yes. So the very first step is creating a solid foundation.
I work with hundreds of business owners a year and they, most of them just get into it. They just get into business. You just started doing it. There was no business plan. There was no page today. Your business is not registered. You don’t know which state you’re at should pay taxes. And like they’re all over the place. So I’m going to help you right now,
create a foundation, a solid foundation. You need a business plan or some type of strategic plan, right? We’re known in our industry for strategic planning. That’s our jam. We do strategic planning from the top to the bottom of your organization. I have a top down approach. You need a plan. The very first step of creating your foundation, whether you are a new business established business,
you’ve been in business 15 years, every single year, you should have a plan. And that plan should start with your vision. What is your vision for your company for this year short term and long term, right? Where do you want to grow this year? What do you want to accomplish this year? What do you want to improve this year?
What do you want to be this year? What is your vision? Create a vision and stick to it because you are the leader of your organization and your team is going to follow you in your leadership style. They need to understand your vision. They need to understand where you’re trying to go. I had a meeting this morning with my marketing strategies that I just hired.
And I sent her my strategic plan and she was like, oh my God, I’ve never had this happen before. Right. Never had a strategic plan. It lists our goals, our objectives, everything. I want her to have clear direction on what I need her to do for my company. I absolutely love that. Okay. I totally geek out on that whole entire thing.
As you know, like we do strategic planning when it comes to drill out Venus suite of offers. And we were talking about this behind the scenes too, but like the whole financial side of it is so big and there’s so much more of a process that people don’t even talk about. And I’m not an expert in that I don’t, you know, build out their,
their financial plans. And so that’s why, like, I’m just geeking out on the whole strategic plan thing. So let me ask you a question here. And this is, I think a lot of our listeners, we have businesses that are scaling, who are listeners. We have brand new businesses when we are talking about guilt or like, this is a problem.
Like when is it usually with, and sadly, this is the case. Although it shouldn’t be entrepreneurs, aren’t very proactive on the things that, you know, we really just don’t want to do that. Isn’t fun. It doesn’t feel like we’re creating anything. So obviously they need to do this in the very beginning. Every business should be doing this in the very beginning,
but honestly, how many businesses do you guys have coming at you that have been in business for a long time? And they don’t have any of this? I’ll say about 60% because, and the reason why they don’t have it in a place, like I said, when they start off, it just started doing business. There isn’t a roadmap in place.
You just started doing business because you are good at it. Or you don’t really think it through or plan it out. And typically when you start to hurt in business or something goes wrong or not making the money yourselves or not increasing in your conversion rates are low. There’s a problem somewhere. And you need to just pause, pause so we can figure out what’s not working where the issues are and create a plan to fix that issue or implement some type of solution that will fix that issue.
But if we don’t know what the problem, if you don’t have visibility on the problem, and you’re just trying to figure it out, that you’re going to continue to build yourself in a hole. So you need to just stop and figure out what’s going wrong. I’ll use myself as an example. I struggled with creating content because as an accountant, when I first started my business,
I sounded really technical. My language was very technical and my content was not combining. I hired a content strategist. I was like, because look, I have tried Facebook. I’ve tried Pinterest, I’ve tried this. I’ve tried that. And I’m just not seeing the conversions or the view. I’m making the money. That’s not the problem. It’s the view.
And she was like, oh, this is the issue. And this is the issue. But I had to hire an expert to tell me where the issue was. And I was like, oh, okay. So now we have a map in place. Now she’s like this. We start here to create this and you create this. And this builds on that.
And then boom, there’s that content static every over, like over the next, maybe seven days, I saw a drastic improvement on our views. I was like, okay, thank you. I love that. Okay. So you guys are listening. If you haven’t done this yet, like, don’t feel bad. Don’t feel guilty, but it’s probably time to stop.
If you don’t have this financial foundation as our Nisha is saying and place, all right. So after this strategic plan is created, what comes next? What’s step number two, that people should really start diving in to understanding. So step number one is creating the foundation, solidifying your vision. After you create your vision, you also need to create core values and smart goals.
Your core values. You know, this is how your compass is what your company believes in. This is what you support. And this is how you pretty much operate. We have six core values in our company, and I always work with a business to create them when we’re going through the strategic planning process. So step one, creating a foundation, eat a vision,
core values, and smart goals, right? And a lot of times with the goal planning every year, every January, we all get excited. We’re going to create these 15 goals and we want to achieve all these things. You have to structure your goals and organize them, right? You don’t need 10 goals. Maybe you just need three, three short term,
three long term. That’s six that’s enough for the last year, the entire year. So creating those goals is enough, right? So step one, foundation, step two. We’re going to get into business performance. You need to analyze and assess your business. So once we solidify your vision with your company, the next step is I’m going to do a full,
I’m going to analyze your business top to bottom. What’s not working in operations. What’s not working in finance. What’s not working with you. Hiring people. I’m looking for missing processes. Do you have a hiring process in place? Because if you don’t, you’re probably not compliant with the state you’re operating in, right? Do you have a business budget in place?
Do you understand how much money you’re projected to make? How much are predicted to spend and your contribution margins? Do you understand your profit margin? So we get into some KPI reporting. I’m a numbers person. So I’m going straight for processes and then numbers. So making sure you have bird’s eye view and business owners, they typically only want to know how much money they may,
how much is left over and how much they only taxes. There are so many other moving it’s telling me this. I’m fine. Just tell me the rest I’ll be on. I’ll be on a beach somewhere. Yeah. Just give me those three things and we’re good. Oh my gosh. Those three things are, there are still other factors that you need to understand total income,
right? What are your top revenue performing items? If you offer, if you have a full product landscape by April, you work with businesses to build out their product suite. So business owners need to know what are their top performing, you know, products or startups. Don’t just dump everything in sales, right? That you need to see everything listed out expenses.
What are your top expenses, right? How much of your expenses contribute to your labor? What are your labor margins? If you have a team, how much is your team costing you? Right. I know for a fact on a 70, 30, no product that I released is going to cost me more than 30% of their product so that I can remain 70% profitable.
That’s how we build our service landscape. I’m not reducing my total projected income or increasing additional costs. Say that again. That was so powerful. Can you say that again? Cause I want to make sure our listeners did not just pass that up. Okay. So listen to this financial structure for your products. Okay. So what is your, what is your,
when are your numbers right? 70 30. So that means out of a hundred percent, it only costs me 30% to produce my services so that I walk away 70% profitable. That’s a very small conversation around pricing, which that’s a whole different conversation, but you need to understand your profit margins going in. How much is it going to cost you to produce this product or service?
How profitable do you want to walk away be? So I know every time we create something, whether it’s a bootcamp, a group coaching program, authoring a book, whatever it is, we’re going to walk away. So many percent profitable. If I cannot do that, I need to restructure the cost. Amen. Yes. And this is a thing,
and I was actually speaking to a client about this this week. And we talk about it all the time. Like in your clubhouse rooms, I was in there and you were talking about this. The thing is, is that when we’re, most of our listeners obviously are online, businesses are offline going online. And so what I tend to see is that they purchase so much software and they have no idea how much money they’re spending on an ongoing basis as well,
and what they actually need to use to produce that particular offer or a product. And so this whole entire conversation is, is just so helpful. So thank you again for being here, talking my best today on the show. Okay. So know your numbers and like down and dirty, what are the numbers that people need to know? So knowing your total revenue,
knowing your total income, how much money did you make, even if you use a lot of payment gateways, like, Hey, Pao, Stripe, square, collectively, you need to know your total income, right? You need to know number two, your total expenses, how much money are you spending? Like you just mentioned, April people use all of these tools.
We downsized all the time. I have what’s called shared services. So if we are creating digital products or consulting services, I want to utilize the same system. So I can just do a percentage allocation across the board. I’m not going to implement a ton of systems because that affects my profit margin. So total expenses, total income, and your bottom line.
The difference between your total income and total revenue is your bottom line. Are you operating at a net loss or are you operating at a profit? You need to monitor that every single month because that’s going to affect you at tax time or when it’s time to seek capital when it’s time to grow. When it’s time to have the bit management conversation where you want to apply for funding,
you need to understand your bottom line and all the factors that positively or negatively impact your bottom line. Yes. And a lot of businesses right now have also spoken to clients about this. As far as that, the relief loan, like the COVID relief loan. Like if you don’t have these numbers and you don’t know if there’s been a loss or a decrease or whatever,
then you know, they aren’t there. Aren’t qualifying for some of this really powerful cash injection that they can get it. They weren’t in 2020, they can get into their business. So, so important. And then KPIs, can you really like dumb that down? Explain that. So people really understand how to look for this in their own business. Yes.
KPIs are key performance indicators. So these, there are ratios to help you analyze areas of your business. Like your have revenue KPIs, you have labor KPIs, you have production KPIs. So when I say KPIs like they’re in ratio form, so you’re just taking numbers and providing them over to percentages. My favorite is revenue growth. How is your revenue growing period to period when,
I mean, period, every single month is your revenue growing month, month, month, per quarter, or a month to a year. So how is your revenue growing while your a monthly recurring revenue, each department of your business is going to have their own KPIs? So you have financial KPIs, which I monitor. You have operational, you have logistics depending on the nature of your business,
traffic to conversion. So there are different types of numbers. It depends on your operations, you know, marketing, they’re going to look at visits to conversions or visits to sales, to figure out what’s working. What’s not working in this particular marketing strategy or marketing campaign. So just understanding how to analyze your revenue and your income, or all of your numbers for your business in a percentage capacity.
And don’t worry has a guide. We’re going to make sure that you have so that you can really start diving in this and make sure that you guys are taking action. As you know, here in the show, like we’re going to give you the step-by-steps business trainings here, things you can look for, but then, you know, it’s your job to go and implement this.
And so our Neesha has a guide. That’s going to really start walking you through that process. We’ll make sure that you have a link to download after we’re done chatting here. Okay. And then what is this third step that you recommend businesses go through? The third step is creating a long-term plan. So once you have you slip out of your foundation,
you’ve created a operational plan for the year. It’s time to think long-term and long-term in the, the mains of everything, right? Capital are you, do you have the right capital structure? Do you have the right money in place? You have access to excess capital like lines of credit and business credit. Are you able to grow that you have debt in place?
Are you able to properly manage your debt? One of my clients incurred a lot of debt over the last few years. So we put together a very aggressive bit management plan to reduce their bit because it was affecting her bottom line. So you had this heavy umbrella of debt over your business. And if you’re in the rat race every single day. So being able to create opportunities to reduce that debt without hurting,
you know, operations, too much team, your team and operations capacity planning, what is your team doing now? What can I do better in the future? And how long can they do it? Right. We have a lot of technology that’s coming down the pipeline. A lot of AI, what can be automated in your business for us? We actually started out as a bookkeeping firm.
So we started out providing bookkeeping services and we’re quickly able to scale up to CFO services because a lot of bookkeeping services offer automated bookkeeping. So we’re doing the day to day, that can be done automatically. You don’t have to pay a lot of money for that, but the strategy and the planning you’re going to spend money on because a computer can’t tell you that you have to have somebody to sit down and read through the numbers with you and read through your operations and fill in that.
So number three is definitely planning for the loan term. Wow. What a powerful thing. I mean, that must feel so good for businesses to have you go in there now probably virtually and be able to help them unpack what they want and hand them a strategic plan to get that. I mean, just like for a second, you guys listening, like imagine what that would feel like to you to have somebody like our Neesha come in there and unpack all of this for you and what you’d walk away with.
And no, I don’t get like commissioned for making sure. She’s just saying, you know, like imagine how much that would take off your plate of wondering what you’re missing. See, here’s the thing I find that most business owners worry so much about the things they don’t know that they’re missing. They don’t even know specifically what they’re worried about, but they know that they don’t know enough about certain things that they don’t know enough about.
And they know that they’re there in sometimes business owners, even clients of ours, who’ve been in business for years and years. It’s like, they’re waiting for the other shoe to drop. And that is no way to run a business, especially creating a business. That’s going to skill you into the future. So I love everything that you’re saying. And it’s so incredibly important that businesses go through this process.
And after they figure out their long-term plan, you guys are Nisha has a full guide. That’s going to go into detail, but just really, really like top level. What are the next couple steps that people go through in this process? The next step will be assessing your tech deck. So what is what tech interviews is using? You know, do you have outdated processes?
Do you have outdated systems? A lot of times we found that companies that have smaller team, they have a team size. That’s unnecessary because too many people are doing too many manual things. There’s no automation in place. There’s no, there aren’t any sequences set up to trigger this action. When you have poor outdated processes, you have unhappy employees, you have a lot of manual work.
That’s costing you a lot of billable hours for your company. And most importantly, you have people doing a job that could be automated. I was an unhappy employee in one of my corporate dives because the tech was just so old and it was so manual. And I was just, this is, I felt like I wasn’t living up to my potential because I was trying to figure out how to automate this process instead of doing the actual job.
And you don’t want unhappy employees, you want people that are happy to do the work for you to help you in your organization. And they can help take things to the next level. Asset protection is another one, making sure your intellectual property is protected. I just had a meeting with my attorney because we were talking about some programs I want to roll out.
And she was like, make sure you send the prelim over to me so I can look at it to make sure it’s part of our IP deck. So making sure that your IP is protected and then last but not least for my small businesses tax planning, please, please, please free tax plan. That’s why no longer a number is important. You should not wait until tax season to know your numbers,
especially in a year like this. When we had an administration shift, we are in a pandemic there a particular way. Things have to be calculated. Are you ahead of the game? Are you being reactive or are you being proactive? I would prefer for you to be proactive when it comes to the pre-tax planning phase. So those would be the remainder of the steps in the rule.
Wow. Okay. So today we talked about creating a strategic financial roadmap for businesses and you are the founder of CFO for women and everything was so informative today. You’re always just giving so much not, you know, we say that I’m also giving so much value. Well, yes, it was incredible value. But today I just appreciate you so much.
And you do this in clubhouse as well because you really, really dialed it down to the tactics. It’s not just all about idea or strategy or what needs to be done, but it’s going through the tactics. And so I appreciate your time so much on the show today and how can people find you? And we’re going to make sure the links to your download are in the show notes as well.
So if you’re driving, you can’t write this down. No worries guys, but how can people really connect with you more? Absolutely. You can always find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at CFL for women. Those are the handles for those three platforms and I’m on clubhouse ads. Our mission speaks up there every Monday at 3:00 PM. I am also there some Tuesday evenings hanging out with April,
but I’m always there. I’m just slide in my DMS. If you have any questions, I’ll make sure you get access to the right resource. If you are in the city of Atlanta and you are a new or established business, but you need some additional support, you can contact the urban league, the entrepreneurship center and register for one of our free accelerated programs.
This is about $20,000 worth of free training for you and your business. I am one of the coaches for their program. So please come out and receive the assistance. That’s why you can find me. Wow. Yeah. Luckily Blog that goes out every first, Monday of the month, it’s called your bottom line. So you can go to www.cfoforwomen.com and click on blog.
It’ll take you straight to our blog. So we upload a blog every single month to help you get access to resources and strategies for your amazing, amazing, thank you so much for being a guest on the show. And this is Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, episode number 229. So everything that our Nisha just said, and you weren’t able to jot that down will also be found@sweetlifeco.com
click on the podcast. And this is episode two 29, and don’t forget to join us. Live in clubhouse under the sweet left entrepreneur’s club on Wednesday, the week this show drops, I’m looking at my calendar right now. I think we said, that’s going to be June 2nd, Wednesday, June 2nd, at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And Arnesha and I are going to be in there taking this conversation a bit further and strategically there to make sure you guys are getting your questions answered.
So thank you so much for joining us Arnesha. I appreciate your time and expertise. Thank you so much for having me
This is a great show for women who know they are called to lead and need a plan to accomplish their goals.
Summary:
Goal setting is only as good as the plan you have to achieve them, your personal drive, and self-ownership of your goals to assure they come true. When it comes to building your future, you are the driver of that car and sometimes life and business get off track. In all cases, to get where you really want to go, you need a map that’s customized to your personal destination. On this week’s show Ashlye V. Wilkerson, empowerment and leadership coach for women, shares her Phenomenal Women Leading Pink Print Process™: 4 proven steps to get from where you are to where you want to be.
At the end of this episode you will:
Have framework of Ashlye’s Pink Print™ Process and know how to apply it to your life
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate Welcome to episode number 228 here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach host and founder of the Sweetlife company, where we give you proven tools and strategies to design, launch, and scale your business online for 26 years collectively with our business and four years here on the podcast.
Thank you so much for joining us everything that we’re going to talk about. All of the resources, if you’re a listener, you know that you get a lot of gold from this show. This show is known for delivering business trainings and strategies that you can take to the bank, but business coaches charge thousands for you. Get them all here, free on the show.
So because of that, I want to make sure you know where to find the recap and the links and the resources mentioned on today’s episode, you can cruise over to sweet life co.com simply click on podcast. And this is number 228 today on the show. This episode is for entrepreneurs in the first three phases of my sweet life business system of the start to scale up online business system.
What does that mean? If you haven’t yet? We have a very short self-assessment that you can go take very simply by going to Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. And it will tell you exactly what phase of business growth you’re in and based on the base of business growth you’re in, there are certain things you should be focusing on this particular show falls into an appropriate tool for you to be focusing on if you were in phases one through three of that business system.
So that’s where you can access it. Make sure you’ve done that all the resources are of course, proven, trusted, and they are available to you completely free again@sweetlifeco.com forward slash quiz. So today on the show, this is what you can expect. We are talking about unlocking your potential in achieving your goals and dreams with the one and only Ashley Wilkerson. I can’t wait for you to meet this powerhouse woman.
She truly is dedicating her time and she’s dedicated her life to teach and elevate other professionals. And so she is such a gem and a treasure, and you are going to walk away with tangible tools. You’re even going to get access and understand her proven method to help women walk into empowerment and unlock their potential to achieve their dreams. She actually gives that to you here on the show,
and we dive in a little bit deeper to help you implement that process. So there’s a lot of great things coming to you today. So let me give you a little bit of an introduction. Ashley has received distinguished honors, such as being named the who’s, who among professional women, the state 2040 Columbia business, monthly best and brightest 35 under 35 national council of Negro women living a legacy award,
the ramp foundation education trailblazer Midlands chapter, the American business women’s association business associate of the year, Brooklyn Baptist church, millennial magic award, South Carolina, black pages, 2040 Columbia metropolitan magazine, top 10 Columbia young professionals, alpha Kappa alpha sorority incorporated. South Atlantic region married the vote in outstanding graduate member incorporated cluster seven leadership award United way of Midlands live United cheeky award and Columbia regional business report,
2020 phenom. Wow, she’s amazing. Let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show<inaudible> Hey, you guys welcome back to the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I am so excited to be joined here by my new friend, Ashley Wilkerson. And yes, we met on clubhouse actually is an absolute rockstar. As a matter of fact, she’s one of these people that,
you know, those people like you’re in a room and that’s the person walks in the room and everybody just gets happier because they’re there the whole atmosphere and the room is just like, Ashley’s here. Well, that’s what it’s like on clubhouse. You’re watching the video. You’re going to see this, you know, behind the scenes in this episode. And I’m so excited to have her on the show.
Ashley, welcome to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. Tell everybody about you, what you do and your superpower. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such a pleasure, thankful for the opportunity. Love you April beach. And thank you clubhouse for club because I’ve had the opportunity to meet some phenomenal women such as yourself. So I greatly appreciate the here with the sleep life.
So I am a health and thought leader of the phenomenal women leading a community. It is a women empowerment community where we strive to help women become better versions of themselves, unlock their full potential and achieve the goals and dreams that they have for themselves and their lives personally and professionally. So it is an honor to serve as a coach, to the ladies in my community,
as well as a mentor and a friend, everyone in the community does not necessarily need coaching itself. They may be a part of the community for the support for the empowerment for the connections network with others is so there are different reasons why people join the community, but they do have the option to utilize the coaching services if they need to as well. And you know,
I know it’s such a fantastic resource because on clubhouse people actually come in the rooms that you’re hosting and talk about, oh yeah, I’m in your community. And I love it there. And I mean, there, there’s nothing more powerful as a coach than having other people who you didn’t even ask to be there, show up and be like, oh my gosh,
I love Ashley’s stuff. I love being part of this. So kudos to you for truly designing an engineering it place that is so real and safe for women to grow. So it’s amazing. The stories that I’ve heard people say about this community, and we’re going to be making sure you guys know how to tap into Ashley here. So let’s go ahead and talk about what business training,
you know, this, this show is known for business trainings and strategies that other coaches charge thousands for. And so our listeners I know, are fully excited to come and show up here and be like, oh my gosh, what is Ashley going to teach today? And so today you and your area of expertise, you are going to guide us through your framework.
And let me set you guys up for this framework because yes, I, I get to get a little peak to it before Ashley walks us through it today. But you guys listeners, you guys, you know how a lot of those coaches out there are saying, Hey, listen, you know, really live your dream life or walk into who you are.
And there’s a lot of motivation. There’s a lot of amazing inspiration out there, but there is a gap between where we want to be and actually how to get there. Well, what is so special about Ashley is she has a method and she has a framework to actually guide you to that process. And you’re going to get a sneak peek of that framework here today.
Actually, can you tell us just a little bit about how long you have been working with people and how you really got into this space of, of guiding women to empowerment and achieving their goals and dreams? Absolutely. So my background is actually in early childhood education and psychology child psychology. And so I’m a former kindergarten, first grade teacher and that’s how I entered into the space of education in the field of education.
But then as my career evolved, I became a teacher trainer. My first year teaching the school district hired me to lead a series of professional development sessions, teaching other teachers how to best teach reading. And a lot of the teachers were senior level teachers, meaning they had over 10, 15 years of experience and I was a first-year teacher leading and conducting those sessions.
And so in that moment, that’s when I developed a love, not only for children, but a love for adult learners as well and the entire continuum of education. And so that is really the core part of everything that I do. I believe that education is my true framework. That’s my pillar, that’s my foundation. And I bring that into everything that I do even as I facilitate and moderate sessions on clubhouse education is a part of my moderating style on clubhouse.
So that’s where I started with bringing adult learners into the fold of what I do. And from there, I ended up transitioning into higher ed. And so from teaching those professional development workshops, hosting conferences, leading seminars, developing curriculum, I then transitioned into the higher ed space. And I became a adjunct professor, a professor, a sitting on a university board of trustees and being really ingrained in higher education and the adult learning process.
And so transitioning into that, I initially taught in the college of education, but then I was approached by our local women’s college. And they asked me to do something that no one ever asked me prior to them, which was, Hey, can you develop a course for our women in leadership studies? Hmm. Interesting. You want me to develop that course?
Because my background is in education. So the courses that I usually develop are pertaining to education it’s early childhood and elementary education and they say, yes, well, your background is education, but you’re elected to a university. It’s a state level board. You’re the youngest, you’re the only woman of color. You lead leadership initiatives in the area you’ve completed different leadership preparation programs.
You would be ideal to lead the charge for developing this course and you’ll serve as the inaugural professor. And so I said, okay, I’d be happy to do that. But know that if I do that, I need the autonomy to develop the course as I see fit. And they said, sure, that’s totally fine. So I said, okay.
So I developed the course and I included an educational component. My husband always says that learning happens in a conversation. That’s what I sought to do in that course. So in that course, I didn’t structure it as me being the instructional authority for 14 weeks, I actually developed the course to include a panel discussion 10 of the 14 weeks. And what we did was I focused each week on a different topic.
And I feature women leading the charge in that topic area, in that area of expertise. And so one week it was women in religion. Another week, it was women in medicine. Another week, it was women in politics with another week. It was women in media. And so for 10 weeks I had women from all over the state of South Carolina,
come in, we had CEOs, we had senators, we had mayors, we had everyone doctors, attorneys, everyone from all backgrounds come in and they share their trajectory. They share their journeys, they share their teachable moments. They share their backgrounds. And that is where the true learning takes place. When we can glean from the insight of others, where we can learn from their experiences where we can ask them it real time questions that we have,
that’s how we then answer and unlock our full potential. That’s how we then develop ways that we want to improve, enhance what we do, what we offer, who we are or identify who we’re trying to be. So that’s how I entered into the space, but the course was for two semesters, it lasted for one year. And then that department was downsized in that course was not offered again after that.
And I became a mother of two during that second semester. And so I transitioned my schedule and I transitioned my life. And when I did that, the ladies missed the community because I actually opened up the courses. I opened up the sessions of the course for people in the community who weren’t students of my class. I made it open to the public and free admission.
So we had women coming in from all over to sit in and listen to these conversations. It’s a really grow and learn with the attendees and the participants and the feature speakers. And so I did that and they did not want the community to end. And so, as a result of them not wanting the community to EDD four years ago, it didn’t transition over into a Facebook community,
a small intimate Facebook community, a few hundred people. And then from there, it evolved into mentoring sessions and webinars offerings and our conference, our women empowerment conference. And so it just kept evolving and evolving based on the needs of the members of the community. And it grew even more so as a result of COVID and clubhouse, I say the two CS COVID club app.
And so I grew as a result of those two days, and now we have a platform on clubhouse. We have a platform on Facebook, we have touchpoints on other social media processes. And then we also have a targeted group on mighty networks through our mentoring circle. So it’s really evolved over the past four years. It’s evolved significantly. So over the past year,
as a result of COVID in clubhouse and yeah, that’s how we’ve started. Okay. So many this could go in a million directions from there. I’m going to, I’m going to hold to the promise of stain so that you can teach everybody your, your method here. A couple of things about this for our listeners. I think it’s really important for you guys to pick up on,
and I want to just highlight this. And what Ashley was saying is that you see the evolution of the process of business development. So often it is tempting to think that you want to start at the very end that you want to launch this thing. And it’s just going to be what it is. As a matter of fact, I had a client this morning that was struggling to move forward because she wanted it to be perfect.
She wanted it to be at the end, but it wasn’t an evolution of the business. And Ashley’s story is a perfect example, how your ideas and your intellectual property evolves and grows. And so this is just such a great example of such a powerful story. And so want our listeners to take that away. We could have just end the episode right there and just say,
see what Ashley did. It’s it’s so cool. So I, I just appreciate you sharing that so much. It’s just a lot of wisdom and business growth and development there. So as we’re sitting here right now, we did meet on clubhouse. I actually remember now, I think we’re in one of John Lee’s rooms and you were asking a question about mighty networks,
which is a whole nother conversation that we can have. And I think that was the first time that I ever saw you. And I love how you have curated a bunch of different places for conversations to happen. So smart, the way you’ve done that in here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, we’re extending the conversation too, as well with your method. This is an very important topic because of the fact that this is what every woman really wants,
but yet again, they lack the framework to get to this injury result. There is an idea there is this picture painted and there’s a feeling inside women of, of what they want to be and who they know they’re called to be. But there’s usually these barriers to get there in this process. So start guiding us through your process. First of all,
what is your process called so that everybody knows the phenomenal pink print? Yes. Okay. It is absolutely amazing. So this pink Framp process is Ashley’s and you ladies can bank on it. I will tell you, so, you know, kicking this off, you said the very first step in this process is really helping women to identify their goals. Can you walk us through the first step in this process?
Yep. So oftentimes, and I work with women on all ends of the spectrum. I work with a women who are transitioning out of college and they don’t know exactly what they want to do to begin their adult lives in their careers. I work with women who moms and significant others, and they spent a lot of time pouring into their children and their family so much so that they feel they’ve lost themselves,
or don’t quite know what they want to do next in their lives for themselves. And then I work with women who have had amazingly successful careers. They’ve achieved all the goals, they’ve done all the things, and they’re still stuck with what’s next, right? And so those are three different age points, but it’s really the same pain point that they’re experiencing.
Who am I, what do I want to do? Who do I want to become important aspect, an important element of our journey. And as women, we experience that element several times through, out our lifespan, our lifetime, our journey. And so really, really focusing in on what goals do we have and what do we want to do next is so important.
And you have to really map out what those goals are. And those goals are not just for your professional side, it’s for your personal side too. So what are your personal goals? What are your professional goals? Where do you see yourself in the next year, two years, three years, 10 years, 15 years. Where do you want to be?
What are the goals you want to achieve during that time period? Where do you want to go? That is so critical. And that’s the first step of the pink print is identifying. What are those goals? I have a question for you. Do you find that when women come to this place and they want to identify their goals, do they ever feel,
I guess guilt is the word I’m thinking of? Do they ever feel guilty or shy or embarrassed? Because sometimes I know the women have huge goals. Like I want to be a TEDx speaker, or I want to do these really big things. And are women sometimes afraid of actually sharing how big they really want to be, because they feel bad about that.
Is that something that you see very often? So I see a couple of things. I see the confidence. Isn’t always there to work towards or to go towards those things. And so they’re not confident in who they are, their abilities, their value. They don’t feel worthy of attaining certain things at high levels. They feel embarrassed sharing. They get caught into the comparison trap of,
I don’t have what this person has. I haven’t done what this person’s done. I haven’t attained with this person hesitate. So I must not be able to get those things. And so they get sucked into that comparison trap that happens oftentimes. And then ultimately, sometimes the issue really is being able to name exactly what it is that you want for your life,
what that desire is, and then be able to walk towards that safe. And that’s why the pink print is so important because it helps you to name it. It’s to identify. What’s a part of it. What are the components of it what’s required to achieve it. And then it takes you through that roadmap of identifying strategies for doing that thing in achieving that thing.
Wow, it’s so powerful. Absolutely. And I can imagine that that is you have a great deal of experience in all these different situations, all these different reasons why women come to the table with a big heart’s desire, but yet all the excuses are the reasons why that they maybe shouldn’t or don’t deserve to achieve or do those things. So again, why your pink print is so powerful.
So after somebody goes through this process of really identifying what those goals are, what’s the next step? What do they do? So then the next thing I have them do is to get focused, gain clarity, because it’s one thing to have all of these goals. But if you are actively trying to accomplish all of these goals, but they don’t contribute to each other,
or they don’t compliment each other in any way, then you’re going to find yourself And Running all over the place. Right? And so you have to gain clarity and you have to get focused in, in order to do that. I walk them through prioritizing their goals. All right? So all of these are goals. Ours. I have a lot of goals,
but let’s put these goals into priority. And that priority is up to how you see fit, the priority that you set for your goals. So it could be a time priority. It could be a finance priority. It could be whatever it is, whatever way you define that, how already system it’s neither right or wrong, it’s yours. So you identify how you’re going to define that.
And then you prioritize it that way. Once you do that, once you prioritize it, then you go through and you get focused and you gain clarity on these are my goals. This is how I prioritize it. This is my roadmap. Because now that you have this, guess what the books you read are going to be determined by this rooms you attend on clubhouse are going to be determined by this.
The conversations you participate in are going to be determined by this, the things you watch and listen to, they’re going to be determined, this, the actions that you take, they’re going to be determined by this. And that’s what clarity and gaining focus for you. Woo that’s Right. That’s so great. So powerful. So powerful. I mean, just,
I had somebody called the other day a shiny squirrel. So it’s this, it’s this shiny object and squirrel absolute fix. And I think also when women can, I don’t know, everybody relates and sees things the way I do, but I know a lot of us are visual and we need to see things. And when we actually see that pink print,
we can actually see it there. And there’s just so much power in, in having something come to life in this very clear action plan. Okay. So somebody has gone through this process, they’ve gone through the process. They have this clarity, they have their roadmap that you’ve guided them through. They are seeing things the way they have never seen it before.
Almost a simplified way. A very, like all the noises calmed down. They’re hyper-focused, their goals are crystallized what now? So this is the step where we actually develop the pink print itself. One of the words that I use in, within my framework is called smart goals. Okay. And so for smart goals, you’re breaking down the acronym, smart.
You are making sure you have all of the components that are a part of that goal. So you have the specifics, you write specific details, information needed for that goal. All right. And then the M is for measurement. How do you measure if you’ve achieved that goal? How do you measure your progress? If you are on track towards completion of that goal,
what’s the measurement that you’re going to use? The a is for achievable. Is this goal achievable for you with the time, with your effort, with your skillset? Can you achieve it? The next letter R is for realistic. All right. Is this something that’s realistic for you to do? Is it realistic within a time frame? Is it realistic within your skill set?
Is it realistic based on the measurement? Is it realistic based on the specifics of the details you’ve identified. And then the T is for time, you set a time for when you want to start this goal and you set an anticipated time for when you would like for this goal to be complete so time. So I use smart goals, which is a framework within my framework of developing your peat print.
And once you’ve already identified those goals, you’ve gained clarity. You’ve prioritize those goals. You’ve made sure that those goals are smart goals. Now it’s about developing your strategy within your pink print. So what are your strategies for achieving each one of these smart goals? What are those action items that you need to complete for each smart goal to be achieved? And that’s the pink print that is genius.
That is absolute genius. As someone who teaches people, how to develop frameworks, this is why people in your programs are so successful is because you have taken the time to truly create a transformational program for them using these frameworks and frameworks within frameworks. And I have a lot of listeners that are laughing. Cause we talk about frameworks within frameworks and methods within frameworks here on this show all the time.
And sometimes they get our listeners are like really confused about that. Cause they’re trying to do it. What’s the difference? What comes first, a method or framework? Well, this is a perfect example of how Ashley has brought this to life in her transformational program. So great, amazing explanation and job. So I have a question for you also, because this is constantly a topic you’re on the show.
Totally random question. How do you find people tend to measure their own results? What are some examples of the way people? Obviously the goal is different. So that’s going to dictate the measurement, but just generally speaking, if some of our listeners are like, gosh, you know, I really, I really want to start measuring my results. What are some examples of the ways people can measure their own results as you’ve seen your students do in your programs.
And so some of this is a probing thing and I have to probe out of them, what I really want, what I need to know about what they want to achieve. And so for instance, one of my clients, they knew that they, they wanted to sell their new book project, right? And some question for her was how many units do you want to sell?
And I said, Hmm, let me think about it. And I said, well, you need to identify, you need to know how many units you’re trying to sell. Because knowing how many units you trying to sell will help guide you when you are utilizing your strategies. And you are really targeting in on your book promotion, you’ll know exactly how many people you want to target.
How many groups you need to speak to. If you’re on track for selling the number of books that you’re trying to sell. And then I challenged her to take it a step further. Now that you know how many books you want to sell. I want you to break that down into three categories that you offer. How many paper book, back books,
how many hardback books, how many Kindle versions? No, what you are striving to do, and then identify the measurement. So if a business owner says, I want to increase my revenue. By how much, if a business owner says, I want to sell more products, how many units, if someone says, I want to lose weight, how many pounds,
if I want to save money, how much do you want to say? If I want to eliminate debt, how much debt do you need to eliminate? Knowing what that number in that measurement is helps you to then target in, right? If you’re trying to make an additional $20,000 a month and you have services and products that are 1000, 5,000, 10,000 a year,
trying to make an additional $20,000 a month. Okay? It’s different to say, I’m trying to make an additional $20,000 a month versus saying, I’m trying to close two, $10,000 clients, right? Close $4 clients to close $21,000 clients. Great example. We took our goal from I’m trying to make more money a month. I’m trying to make an additional $20,000 a month.
I’m trying to close $21,000 clients too. I’m trying to close five of four or $5,000 clients too. I’m trying to close to $10,000 clients. Yes. Yeah. A hundred percent. What a great example of that. What Ashley just shared. So bring it down, down, down, down, ask yourself more specifically, more specifically, more specifically such a great example.
Okay. So your students, they’ve gone through this point. They have their pink print, by the way, such a cool name of your signature framework. I love it. And they have, they have their phenomenal women leading pink print. Yes. What happens next? And I already know what you’re going to say. And obviously our listeners are probably like,
okay, well then they need to do it. But like, let’s actually talk about what this really looks like in real life. What’s what’s next. So all of my clients will tell you that I’d say three things to them. Number one, take action. Number two. Don’t let me work harder on your goals than you’re working on your own goals.
And number three, I will fire my clients. Meaning I will fire you. If you’re not taking action, I will fire you. If I don’t see you committed to your process, I will fire you. If you’re not making progress, I will fire you. If you’re not doing your homework, which are whatever the action items are. I will fire you.
If you’re not honoring your commitment in yourself and your investment in yourself a year time needed support into yourself, into things that you want to achieve. Make absolutely that you’re taking action that you’re working hard on your goals is that you’re honoring the commitment with yourself. Amen. That is so important. And I love that you fire your clients. I think that is such an important thing to do.
It’s almost like you’re, there you go. I’m going to fire you because something needs to change here. And I, and I, and what was your second thing? Don’t let me work harder on your goals than you. We’re going to, we’re going to get that out. That’s going to be an Ashley Wilkerson quote that goes out how good This podcast episode.
All right. So my team, as you’re listening to this, pull that quote out of that is like the winner. It’s just amazing. And there’s one other point you said, you know, as we’re wrapping this up in the beginning is that you said to me before, behind the scenes, before we started recording and I wrote it down, cause I was like,
it’s just so important. Is it? You said, we, we bring all of what we are to what we do. We buy all of who we are to everything we do to everything we do that is also so important because I think that especially those of our listeners that are transferring from corporate and really getting into entrepreneurship or those people who have been entrepreneurs for a great deal of time,
which is a lot of our most registers. Now in that scale phase of their business, there is this division where people think, okay, well this is life and this is business, but I love your philosophy. It’s a philosophy that my husband and I abide to as well and our family. It really is. It’s everything who you are, is brought into this.
And I love how you teach creating this cohesive harmony between everything we were designed to do for the people that we were called to serve. And so I, I really love everything that you teach Ashley, and I love you being here on the show. I appreciate it. Thoroughly enjoyed myself. You just a gem. I absolutely love it. So let’s talk about how you guys can connect with Ashley.
So as you know, now we have our regular weekly Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast room on clubhouse happening every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time where you guys get to jump in and jam with our guests. Talk about the topic of this week. So this week, especially if you’re alive subscriber to this show on all of our podcasts listening channels, which is everyone,
as you guys know, even Pandora and apple music, now we’re everywhere as you’re listening, make sure you join us on Wednesday and you get to connect with Ashley directly as an extension of this podcast episode. So she is going to be there like she always is on clubhouse. Totally. They’re pouring into you and taking your questions and workshopping with you beyond what we’re talking about here on the episode of this show.
And besides that, okay, so those of you guys are like, oh my gosh, Ashley is exactly what I need. I’m ready to move. I want my pink print right now. Ashley, how can people move forward and get in line as far as joining your program or working with you privately? Absolutely. So they have a few ways they can do it.
They can connect with me personally. It’s a S H L Y E V on all social media platforms. You can connect with me at Ashley B on all social media platforms. They can also go to my link tree slash Ashley B. And when they go to my link tree slash Ashley B, they will be able to see, they’ll see the community group that’s on Facebook,
the free community groups. They’ll also see the option to get registered. So tin our second annual moving and leading phenomenally conference taking place on October 23rd, they will see details for coaching with me. They can join the group, mentoring, coaching circle community, or they can register to sign up for a free consultation with me for one-on-one coaching services. So either way,
whether they are in the free community, whether they are joining us on clubhouse. They’ll also see my, all of my social media connections on my late tree, so they can email me directly. They can tap into any and all of my social media pages right there on that page. Everything is right there, easy peasy for them to access me and access the phenomenal women leading.
Awesome. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show. I just have to send, or it’s my pleasure. Absolutely. For everything you’re doing and thank you, clubhouse for our listeners already been on there yet. So they’re Android listeners. So I promise you guys, you guys are getting on there soon in the meantime, connect with us on Instagram here.
And of course this is episode number 228 of these two great live entrepreneur podcasts. So we will make sure that all of the show notes are available for you@sweetlifeco.com click on the podcast and you guys know the drill episode two 28. We’ll have all the goods. All right, thanks again, Ashley. Appreciate you.
New or established entrepreneurs who are struggling to differentiate your brand from others.
Summary:
Struggling to stand out? Perhaps your business has been rolling for some time, but the seas are getting crowded and you’re not standing out. It’s time to brand outside the box. In this episode brand personality specialist, Carrie Thomas-Omáur explains how to understand your customers’ core drivers to connect on a right-now level and create raving fans by understanding your brand archetype.
At the end of this episode you will:
What really drives your clients to buy
Your customers thought process when considering your offer
Understand brand archetypes and how to find yours
First steps to laying out the visual representation of your brand
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome to it. Episode number 224. Thank you for joining us back here at the sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast. And today I am joined by a very special guest. Who’s going to help us dive into brand archetypes the way she teaches it is so easy to understand.
And so I can’t wait to get into today’s episode, but before we get started, just a little bit of housekeeping, first of all, if you are not yet following us on clubhouse, please do. So. We host a live clubhouse room every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern based on this week’s podcast. So if you’re listening to the show and it drops on Monday,
and you’re a subscriber of the show and you have questions and you want us to dive into your business with you and answer your specific questions based on the content we’re talking about on this week’s podcast, we do it every single Wednesday on clubhouse faithfully at 12 o’clock Eastern time, and you can join me and my guest and this week it is Carrie. I’m so excited and we are here to support you.
It’s an extension of this podcast, a free service, and part of, one of the many outreaches we like to do here as a business here at the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. If you’re new to listening, we give you tools and proven business coaching and strategies for decades and decades that have been proven that you can bank on. And one of the most popular tools that we have,
I want to share with you, if you haven’t grabbed it yet, is the lifestyle business roadmap. I call it my start to scale up system. And that is a very quick short self-assessment that you can take to find out exactly where you are in the process of designing and launching and scaling a business for high profit and deep purpose. And you can take that self-assessment simply by going to sweet life co.com
forward slash quiz. And when you do, I’m going to give you a specific customized list of exactly where you are in the process of growing and scaling your business. And you’re going to get a pinpointed checklist of what you should be focusing and working on right now. So you can go grab that@sweetlifeco.com forward slash quiz, and please join us on clubhouse so we can get to know you and know all about your business.
All you have to do is follow me on clubhouse at April beach. The link is also in my Instagram bio at April beach life. And I would love to connect with you further and take your questions. Okay? So today’s podcast is about brand strategy. I love how my show is about brand strategy today. We’re talking about really, what is a brand archetype?
How does this fit in? And when I sat down with our guest, you are going to love her, by the way I met her on clubhouse. So we love the collaborations that are happening on that great app, very real time and authentic. And her name is Carrie, Carrie Thomas Omaro. And I want to make sure I’m pronouncing her last name correctly.
She has a beautiful last name. She is a branding expert, and here are the things that you can expect from today’s episode. You’re going to understand your customer’s core drivers and motivators and how they fit into your brand strategy. You are going to understand brand archetypes in general, and you are going to know how to exactly create raving fans from your brand archetype.
So let me go ahead and give a formal introduction. Carrie Thomas Amaro is a former corporate rebel turned entrepreneur. She’s a branding extraordinary Carrie’s top mission is to help entrepreneurs build premium brands to increase their visibility, credibility, and profitability in the business market. Carrie believes there are so many good people with amazing messages and MIS and missions that can really be impactful to others,
but they lack visibility. Raise your hand if that’s you, you have an amazing world changing message, but you’re just not exactly sure how to get that out to the world. Then this podcast is for you, Carrie dives, into her personal story and how she literally fell into brand strategy. And because of this, well, maybe godly accident is some people might call it.
She is become a leading brand strategist, and I know you’re going to be able to relate to her. I can’t wait for you to connect with Carrie after this episode on clubhouse with us. And let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. All of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number two, two, four.
All right, let’s go ahead and dive in. All right. You guys welcome back to another episode here on the show. I am super excited to be connected with Carrie and to bring you Carrie’s genius today on the podcast. Let me give you a little bit of back story, Carrie and I met on clubhouse and immediately when I heard her speak, I was like,
Oh my gosh, I want to hang out with her. I want to learn more from her. And you’re going to know exactly why if you haven’t met her already yet on clubhouse today’s episode. So Carrie, welcome to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. And so excited that you’re here. Tell everybody a little bit about how you became such like a brand whisper.
You’re like the landing branding, Ninja genius teller. First of all, thank you so much. Like it literally means the world, like for you to invite me on show, literally all The things. So I actually started in this journey. I used to be, well, I have my degree in human humanistic psychology. So I’ve always wanted, like,
even when I was little, like I used to always be like, why do people do the things that they do? Like, what are the things that make them like, make the choices that they make? So I was doing that, that my degree in human psychology. And then I actually got a job. It was actually thrown at me. I was working at a restaurant,
like, what am I really like? My, my brother. He was like, Hey Kara, I want you to run my restaurant. And I’m like, you not, never did any of this ever in life. And he was like, yeah, but you’re smart. You’ll figure it out, figure it out. So I did that and I remember like the most pivotal moment.
That’s why I was like, I gotta get my stuff together. It’s like he was a pizza place. And I was like doing the order and stuff. And I was like, okay, we need cheese. I was like sick. Not knowing that this was like six boxes. Is that like, It’s bulk ordering. I definitely originally spent a lot of time in restaurants,
so I absolutely totally know what you’re talking about. Yeah. And it’s funny. Cause he left me, like, I would say at least three weeks, then he left me to go on vacation for a month. But like I’m over here, like trying to do orders and do all this stuff. And I’m just like, well, the shipment comes in.
It’s like all the shift keeps coming in and they’re like, what is your I’m? Like, I ordered like snakes and it’s like, each box has 12 bags and I’m just like, okay, let’s figure this out. So we have key pieces of dollars slice it out. But actually it’s funny. Cause everybody always asked me like, how did I start learning all the things that I learned that mistake,
like we were very new in business and I was like, we have to get people in these doors. I have all this chief Shamar comes home in two weeks and he’s got to literally like yell at me and cuss me. Yeah. I have to figure this out. So I was like, I need all the people around us. Like, no we’re here.
Like how can I do it? And I was like, well, what would be the easiest thing to do? And I was like, easiest thing to do is like to get in touch with all the restaurants and businesses around me to know us to come over. So Lily, what we did, I was like, Hey, we got this chief.
We’re going to give everybody a free cheese pizza. We’re just going to drop it off. So I literally just started dropping off cheese pizza and me happy personality. Hey, thank you guys so much. My name is Carrie. I’m the manager. I probably seek the pallets. I just want to drop off this chief. Please let me know if you ever want to come hang out.
I’m always there. My team’s always there. We would love to have like literally just everywhere, like just drop it off cheese pizzas, the glory I’m like Oprah, which it was so crazy. Cause literally like within a week people just start coming and they were like one, they were like here, like no one’s ever dropped this off pizza. And then like,
you were just like, your energy was just so amazing that we just went to come hang out with you. So literally like people just start coming and coming. Luckily all the pieces, all the cheese was Columbia before he came. So that was good. Yeah. But that was when I realized that I was like in business, you need to double down on what you’re good at that.
For me, it’s always been connections and relationships. So I was like, I’m going to have to double down on this. I’m going to have to create this visibility strategy and what I start calling with a fat visability. So like literally I want to be extremely visible to every business within five minutes, like around the perimeter. And that’s what we did.
And we were able to become extremely profitable in the business. And I did that for about two years, but like I just graduated from college and it wasn’t cool to have that type of insurance anymore. So I had to go into corporate and I did corporate restaurants and I actually was at felt like corporate working on the opposite side as a business consultant, working with franchisees have increased their visibility and profitability.
So that’s what I was doing. But the whole time I was still with my thoughts of like, how can we get people in the restaurant? How can we change the perception? Because of course the way big plays, how come change perception, especially when there’s so many subways, how can we make this the way the go-to set weight in terms of everybody else that’s in the area.
And that’s what we kept doing. How can we do the things? How can we do it? And sadly, my father passed away March of 2019 and that’s kind of when I was like, I wanted to do more. My dad was in the military for 26 years. He may so much impact. And he replies, like I remember at the funeral,
they were like, I had one conversation with Paul and like literally my life changed. I was like, Oh my gosh, one call like one conversation. And that’s when myself, I want to do more. I wanted to do more outside of that. And one of my franchisees, he always used to say that, cause I made those schedule and I didn’t really work a lot of hours.
She was like, here, you need to do something like start a business. And I was like doing what he’s like, and I was going to do it in restaurant. But after my father died, I was like, I really want to work with impact or entrepreneurs. I want to work with people who have missions and messages that they want to get out,
but they’re not visible. They’re brands. Aren’t in alignment with who they are. I need to help them get visible so people can like, so the impact that they want to make, they can find, make it. First of all, I’m so sorry. You lost your dad. I lost my dad six years ago and I still every single like week or so,
like pick up the phone to call him and then remember he isn’t there. It’s really, really tough. And sometimes having a vision into seeing something differently, whether it’s, you know, what happened to you is just such an eye-opening thing. And I I’m sorry that happened, but I also love your story because it’s usually something like that and it makes us stop and be like,
okay, Hey, wait a minute. Am I really where I’m supposed to be in my actually using my skills? The thing I love about what you said brand strategy, is that what you have taught these businesses to do. Isn’t this like, you know, Proctor and gamble or Budweiser or huge big brand strategy. You’re really talking down on this level to these what we call micro businesses.
Okay. Like 90% of our listeners is a show where micro businesses wouldn’t qualify to be a small business cause that you can have up to a hundred employees. Right? And so these micro entrepreneurs that have very, very small teams and the concept of being the go-to business, not for everybody, but just within this fear of influence, granted it’s different. We’re talking about online business is so simple.
It’s yet so smart. And so I love what we’re going to dive into today on this show. And thank you for sharing that. I think that so many are like I did years and years and years waiting tables and bartending, my husband was in the restaurant was in corporate restaurants. There are so many entrepreneurs that are from the restaurant industry. It’s because we are bad-ass and multitasking actually I’ll say that if you can,
if you can be in the restaurant industry, you can do anything, anything. I usually do fine dining. And I think that’s what I was like, Oh, I can do all things out. Right? Yeah. I did find dining. Like at the end I did find dining and I was like, man, I actually should have been doing this.
I sell $300 bottle of wine, make as much money as I did. You know, back when I was 17 serving vegan food across a bar, but you know, it was great. It was, it was good experience. And so diving into, you know, kind of brand strategy, some of the things that we’re going to talk about today in our audiences want to know my people ask me this,
your people ask you this, like this is the thing they want to know. And we’re going to break this down for you guys today on the show. The biggest question is, is how do we build this business and personal brand at the same time? How do we know the balance between, you know, what we’re sharing out there as a company and what we’re sharing out there as a personal brand,
as a human that kind of behind the scenes and you have three different things you’re going to take us through today, which I’m so excited to talk about. And so the first thing that you say in your process that you bring people through in branding and strategy is understanding your customer’s core drivers and really like what keeps him up at night. Can you elaborate on that?
Teach our listeners, that process and this being step number one. Here’s what you guys got to do in order to tap into this level of influence. Yeah. So what do you want to do is you really want to understand who they are. So of course, like people say like, what books do they read? What Facebook groups that, Hey,
that’s great. But you also want to really understand the psychological like back, like who motivates them. Like when they have a bad day, what, like, what are the things that kind of gets them out of? And the way that you do that is the easiest way to do that is by start talking to your customers, like start asking those personal questions.
I have that relationship. Cause we were like, Hey, you know, I know that was crazy. Like you were doing that launch. I know it was a little rough. Like what were you kind of going through? Like, let’s talk about it, let’s see if we can adapt to it. So next time they might understand what you’re doing next time we can fix it.
And a lot of times they were like, you know, Carrie, like I want like, I really, really want to be able to like be there for my family. I want to be able to create this life for my family. So that’s, what’s keeping them up at night. Like that’s the thing and you’ll hear it. They’ll tell you.
And they’re like, I want to be able to do this with like every time I feel like I’m getting almost there, I just can’t take that leap. So having those interviews with your clients and actually listening to what they say, because I think a lot of times we don’t really listen to what our clients say, but actually listening and then actually diving deeper,
say, okay, like, so you really want to help your family? Like what, like what are you trying to do? Like, what do you want to do with your family? I really want to put my daughter in private school. I really want, I really want my wife to be able to homeschool like our youngest stuff like that. Having those conversations is what is going to be able,
so you can understand how to communicate with them and how to do those other people that we’re going to talk about in a way So smart. Okay. So first of all, people don’t like taking time to do this and it’s the best market research they can do. And it’s the most direct. And I love that you said that because a lot of entrepreneurs,
like we are solutions finders, so we just want to solution and be like, Oh yeah, yeah, it’ll sell. And I love that. You talk about how important it is to actually talk to your audience for sure. The best market research. If you guys are not on clubhouse with me and Carrie, you should go and clubhouse. Cause it’s like market research gold.
You can just room about a question that you want answered and you’re going to get all that feedback. Some you don’t want, but some really great important feedback regarding what, what you guys are trying to do. And so understanding basically what keeps him up at night and the things that matter to them that do not have anything to do with what you’re selling.
That’s what I heard what you said. Oh, I like that. I like that. Yeah. It’s funny. Cause I feel like I’ve been, I’m always on the soap box is especially because we’re all entrepreneurs just because we’re an all white space doesn’t mean that our clients are just like these people laid at people. They’re real people in the real world with real life,
things that are going on every day and those things just because they’re on the screen, it’s still happening. So you have to take time and ask those questions and try to figure out what is their real day to day life. Like for me, I’m a at, so I get up at seven o’clock in the morning to homeschool my knee, that there is something that up and that’s a driver for you.
And, but it very impressive by the way, just so you know, your superstar rockstar For sure. But very important. Okay. And just understanding Those other drivers behind the scenes and like the second thing you had said in this, like really kind of pulls off of what we were just talking about is understanding your brand archetype. First of all, can you please explain to our listeners that don’t even know what a brand archetype is?
Like, what is the definition? What is a brand archetype and then help our listeners understand how to utilize? Yeah. So the easiest way to explain what a bread archetype is, if everybody is familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. So everybody has certain needs and desires that they have to get to be able to survive and feel like they’ve made the next step.
So of course, you know, water, shelter, money, commitment, relationship, that’s what people need. Those same things that they need are the same things that go into the bread archetype. Like they have the hero brands, musician brands, the innocent, the Sage, like all those are different bread archetypes, but all of those are based on the core needs that we have Nate.
So what happens that how to really leverage it is a differentiation factor. So a lot of times, especially right now in social media of everybody came online. But a lot of people that do the same thing, like I feel like you’re gonna throw a rock in social media and he had a bread strategy. Yeah. But because they haven’t leveraged a brand archetype,
they’re speaking the same language that everybody else and speaking actually create a brand archetype and speak in that language. You’ve differentiated yourself. And you’re actually now tapping into the coordinate and core desires of your dream client of your Raymond band. So now when it comes to your offers and your services and your updates, they’re like, Hey, I’m going to listen to this person because they’re speaking to me is that it’s speaking to every black everybody else.
And it’s what we call is that the true foundation of creating a frictionless print. Wow. Okay. And one of the things, one of the notes I took and we were talking a little bit behind the scenes in planning, this show is that people go to the brand that understands their thought process. And I thought that was so smart that you said that and they’re going to the ones that speak to their heart and they’re going to the ones that speak to their true desires.
And honestly what their personality is as a person. Those are the ones that they’re attracted to you even like said, you said something about your mom, you shared this really cool thing. Like your mom’s are attracted like safe brands. Like, you know, like a lot of moms are in that, you know, and that whatever Ramy is and moms are right.
And maybe that just generation where as that’s not the same thing that necessarily drives everybody else. Yeah. Cause it’s like a key example about, let’s say you have a mom who really like bills. Like I’m looking for like a brand that’s safe, that’s secure. They’re going to be looking for conversations and words. That’s going to be like assurance secure. Like that’s the words that they’re going to want to hear because that’s going to speak to their language.
But for me, like, I get excited by like transformation, innovation, things like that. So I’m going to want to hear things like creative, like innovative moving things like that. That’s the stuff that I would like to me. And that’s why I said it’s super important to understand who your customer is, that it may level to be able to have that conversation when it comes to your brand archetype.
So cool. So cool. Okay. And then the next step you’re going to take our listeners through is understanding now how to represent that visually. What does that look like? What are your tips on actually bringing a visually to the world? So the thing is like always tell people that colors have feelings and fonts have emotion. So you want to make sure that when ever you choose your brand architecture,
you look and you kind of see like what feelings actually are kind of bringing off like what the words are actually bringing it all. So let’s say you have a rebel brand. If you think of a rubber brand, like if you think of like Harley Davidson and things like that is very bold, disruptive, challenging the status norms. So when you think of their colors,
you’re going to think of Rez black, things like that. They’re not going to think of like a baby pink is going to throw it all out. You and be like, hold up. Like, this is not speaking to me Down. Yeah. And you said colors have feelings and fonts have emotions. Wow. That is so true. Yeah. We wouldn’t,
we wouldn’t think that for sure. And I think oftentimes we’ll look at a brand and wonder why that maybe that brand doesn’t really turn us on or we’re really not really attracted to it. And yeah. A lot of the times like, yeah, those colors just don’t make me feel like I want to go on a field. They don’t do it for me.
And it’s funny. Cause I always, I feel like makeup brands. I used to be a makeup artist. Like in my past life, I love entrepreneurs. We’re so cool. We’re so mixed up. There’s so many experiences. Yeah. So I used to do makeup and like I used to always think it was super cool. Like how makeup brands created different looks and feels to attract different people.
So like, are you a makeup girl? I literally don’t wear makeup at all. I’d go, I get my eyelashes glued on. So I don’t even have to wear mascara is anything I do. I don’t know how to do makeup. I’ve never worn makeup. I have zero clue. But all of my I’m just weird. All of our listeners probably know exactly what you’re just about to say.
Yeah. So like benefit tarts. Like those were really poppy, like millennial brands. Like that’s what they give off. They give that puppy millennial, like this has the new trendy items, but then you have like NARS, Estee, Lauder, things like that. They give like this look spiel and the prices are different just because of it. Cause you’re like,
Oh wait. But when you go over to nurse and Estee Lauder like you and your mind already say, Hey, I’m probably gonna spend $300 And what, what I don’t, but that’s an airplane ticket to me, but I get what you’re saying. You know that that’s a ticket on a journey to me now I get what you’re saying and it’s such a good correlation.
And so this visual representation. So first we talked about understanding what keeps your people, your ideal people up at night, at night, not even necessarily as it actually relates to your product or your service or your program or your course or whatever it is that you’re selling. So what are their core drivers? The second thing that you talked about, I love the brand archetype in understanding how to create that connection between the personality of your buyer and the personality of your brand.
And I know that, you know, that’s spoken about often, but I really appreciate you breaking it down on the show. We haven’t had somebody on the show in four years, that’s actually talked about brand archetypes. So I wanted to make sure that that was really defined for our listeners. And then you’re talking about bringing it out visually and making sure that there’s a visual,
very clear visual representation that is thoughtful in color and font. And then obviously in messaging and the work that you did within the brand archetype development. The last question I want you to answer for us today, very interested to get your take on this. This is clearly a topic of conversation within my mastermind today. You know, everybody has a different thought on this for entrepreneurs that are building both that business and that personal brand.
And we’ve talked about understanding the actual brand strategy of it, but now actually the process of posting and sharing. What percentage do you recommend people share transparent, totally irrelevant behind the scenes versus about the business. Is there a split that you have seen that’s working behind being transparent in what you’re showing your audience, even at literally Siri’s listening to me, she’s always listening.
You guys turn her off. What does that percentage, what is that difference that you see as far as posting about the business and posting about the company brand versus posting about what’s personal, maybe what you’re cooking for dinner or a hike you’re on or even your kid. Okay. So this is exciting for me because I always talk about this and we have a thing.
We call it our content bucket. And in those contents, it’s not me. There are about, I would say at the minimum about three to five, but that kind of depends on like where you’re at, how we try to map it out is what strategic pieces of content. And this will kind of break down, like how all is it happens?
The strategic pieces of content. That is how you think about STEM. So like, what is your thought processes on your business? And a lot of times the easiest way is like, what’s your show? Like what’s your stage? Like, do you have a podcast? You have a YouTube, you have a Facebook show where you’re actually able to have conversations with people and people can understand how you think.
So that’s going to be your one bucket. Your second bucket is going to be, what are the, that can come from those pieces of content that you just talked about. That can be resourceful for people who might not be ready to work with you now. So what are the things? So for me, like if you ever go to my social media,
like we teach about bread architects. We teach about color theory. We teach about different pairings and color palettes that people can use. That doesn’t really do anything for me, but it becomes a resource will aspects for somebody else which provides education, but also still goals aligned with our strategy. The next car is always going to be, what is your, what is your heart’s feet?
Are you a person that like is motivated by like, you want to inspire people. You want to motivate people. You want to make people laugh. What is that heart piece? That’s like, really like really close to you. So for me, it’s always to try to inspire other people. So in March we’d have like the Sheik who marches. We had nothing to do with our business,
but it was aspirational for me because I always want to highlight other people, inspire other people to show like, Hey, these amazing people are doing amazing things. You need to see what they’re doing. Get inspired by them. The next part is who are our clients? What’s their testimony is whatever our case study. What are the people that you want to actually work with insight?
Like who are they are inside? Like what, who are your avatars? Why do you work with the people? Like where are they at in their journey? Why they want it? When are they ready to work with you have that in there. And then the last piece. So it will be 20%. If you decide the last piece, we call it all things,
your name. So it will be all things, April, all things. Carrie’s like, what are the things that is about me? So those are like, for me, it’s like my real, like I’m showing my personality. I’m doing all my things. I’m doing my dancing because that’s me. I’m actually like a happy-go-lucky person. Like I did like an egg drop thing with my niece and nephew this weekend.
I did that in my story. That’s my day-to-day life that showed the different parts of me, but what happens? And this is what super cool. And I love it with our clients is their social media becomes a place where people just want to hang out. Cause they just want to see what’s going on. What are they doing today? Like, Oh,
this is really cool. I didn’t know about that. That’s a great thought process. Then think about that. They keep coming back over and over and over again. You start seeing all these profile businesses while you’re patient. Like these people just keep hanging out. I really anything this week, but it keep coming back because you become a place where they just want,
they feel comfortable and happy. Mm. I love that. Okay. Those five buckets are absolutely genius. And I know people are like, okay, don’t forget you guys as podcasts. You can replay it. Let me see if I can restate the five buckets. Number one is your thought processes or your methods or your systems are kind of your, your,
what I would call your signature method, your signature framework, like your IP, your zone of genius. The second one are actions people can take and a place where you can be resourceful based on your zone of genius and what you teach, who aren’t ready buy from you. The third one is what does your heart speak? Like, are you a motivator?
Are you funny? Like what other things can you share that might or might not relate to your business? The fourth is who are our clients? What are the case studies? What do they need from us? How to know when they’re ready to work for us or work with us, what does that trigger? What are some of the things that our clients are working on?
And then the fifth one is all things, your name, like, what are you up to today? What are you doing? And so that does answer like the 20%. I think that what is your heart speed is also possibly very personal is what, But it can go business. And that’s the really cool part because like, for me as caring about people as a part of our core values.
So when it came to the shoe marches and even like our biggest coming up in June, it is an alignment with that. So like the boss brushes in alignment with what my heart speaks with my heart speaks of how to inspire people, to take those next steps in their life. Even if it’s not, when we just take the next step. So cool.
It’s the things that your beliefs and your motivators and things like that. I, I love that so much. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show. This was a lot of great information. And I know our listeners went from some of our listeners who went from never even understanding branding to going from how to understand the audience and even now how to create content.
I mean, that’s just way above, you know, but I think a lot of our listeners, so if you guys hung out until the end, you’ve literally got your content buckets, which is super genius. How can people find you? How can they connect with you if they want to know more about your services? Yeah. You can just visit us at www dot Connect dot com.
It’s funny because the last is the Irish word that means to bring light to which goes into our brand, which is what we try to do. Even like in our businesses and shining light on other people’s brands, bring light to them and have people see them. So that’s why I love, like, I, I love our business Smart. Say you’re a brand strategist,
good meme or good, good business name or two. And then this is episode number 224 here on the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. So you guys can find all the show notes and all Carrie’s links and how to find her in the show notes here@sweetlifeco.com. But then also we get to jam in a clubhouse room. So if you guys are unclip housed in your listeners to this show and you are subscriber,
like you’ve clicked the subscribe button, you’re getting downloads of these episodes. And so you’re listening to it real time. Carrie and I are going to be live on clubhouse on the Wednesday that this show drops at 12 o’clock Eastern time. So if you’re listening to the show in real time, Carrie is going to be in our clubhouse room, taking your questions,
workshopping with you, talking about these five buckets and brand archetype and in all this stuff. And if you, if you’ve never moderated or with a room with her, you never been in a room where she moderates. She’s so much fun. That’s where I found her. And I can’t wait for you guys to get a chance to dive in deeper with Carrie as well.
So Carrie, thank you so much for being a guest on the show and all of the genius that you brought. It’s been such a fun time hanging out with you. I love everything that you said, and I know our listeners really appreciate you pouring into us. Thank you so much. It literally means the world to me. I said at the beginning,
you’re so sweet. It’s it’s truly our pleasure. All right. You guys, thanks so much for hanging out with us today. Isn’t Carrie, just such a gem, such a sweetheart. I hope you walked away with exactly what we promised you would the understanding of brand archetypes and how to use this in your business to speak to the core needs of your audience.
Again, you can join us on clubhouse, the live conversation and Q and a at 12 o’clock Eastern time, every single Wednesday, simply by following me on clubhouse and clicking the little button next to my name, to turn on alerts. So, you know, when we’re going to be talking and you can find me at April beach on clubhouse. All right.
You guys have an awesome, awesome day. I can’t wait to talk 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?
Close
Episode Bonuses:
Join Francesca live on Clubhouse Wednesday, April 14, 12:00 Eastern time Click here to join the SweetLife Entrepreneurs™ Club and get notifications and room links.
Who This Episode is Great For:
Those who want to know how to file for and use copyright protection.
Summary:
In this episode we’re talking with The Trademark Attorney, Francesca Witzburg, about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your creative works by filing for copyright protection. If you’re a course or content creator, and you have work that is not protected, this is an urgent episode for you. We dive into who needs copyright protection, what you must be careful to do when hiring help to create works for you, and how to start the process of protecting your work.
This is part 2 of a 2 part show with Francesca Witzburg. In part 1 we dove into Trademark protections for your work.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know if you have work that needs to be protected
Understand how to own the work that others create for you
Have the first steps to file for copyright protection today
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome back. So the show April beach here, host of this show and founder of this wheat life company. I’m so glad that you’ve joined us again. This is part two of a two part series that we’re doing with our special guests,
Francesca Whitesburg. Last week, we dove in to trademarking protection who needs trademarking, the difference between word marketing and design marking. And so if you miss that, please pause this show, go back and start with last week of that is an area of need in your business. That was episode number 221. And today this is episode number 222. This episode is for those of you who are in any stage of business development in that stage is connected to our start to scale up system.
If you don’t know what phase of business development you’re in, we have an amazing, powerful, free resource for you where you can take a short assessment and get the exact stage and phase of business development you’re in and get a complete list of what you should be working on right now. And you can get that short assessment and access all of those tools by visiting Sweetlife co.com
forward slash quiz. If you haven’t done that, or if it’s been a while, since you’ve tested where you are in your business growth phase, I highly recommend you tap into that amazing resource. Now let’s talk about what we can expect from today’s show. So this episode is for those of you who want to know how to step into the process of protecting your creative work through filing for copyright protection,
our guest is absolutely hands down amazing. She has done work for our company and many of our clients, and I’m so pleased that she agreed to be on this show. Today, we are talking with the trademarking attorney, Francesca Whitesburg about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your creative works by filing for copyright protection. If you’re a course creator,
if you’re a content creator, if you have work that you have actually built, brought to life in tangible form and you have not protected it yet, we need you to be very careful. That is your creative work. That is your genius, and you need to protect it so nobody else can take it from you. And so we’re talking about how to go about that in today’s show clearly a very important show for our audience.
Now, the end of this episode, you’re going to know if you have work that needs to be protected. You’re going to know the process of going through the first steps to filing for protection. And you’re going to understand a few other very important things like how to own the work that others create for you. Other independent contractors, and even how to avoid getting into trouble when using protected material from other businesses within your marketing.
There’s so many important things that we discuss on today’s show. And so I’m so glad that you’re here and you’re not missing it. So let’s talk about our guest. If you did not hear her amazing introduction last week, let me give you an introduction. Francesca Whitesburg is an award winning intellectual property law attorney specializing in trademarks brands and copyrights. She advises Tom businesses,
brands, entrepreneurs, professionals, talent, startups, and individuals. Francesca has experienced working at various in-house global luxury brands. She has also worked in the world’s largest law firm today. She’s a partner at an IP law firm, Loza and Loza and creates content on her Instagram. And she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram. She’s absolutely amazing.
So I’m very glad that you’re here, power packed episode. So let’s go ahead and dive in all of this show notes and the resources that we’re discussing can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com and simply click on podcast. And this is episode number two 22. Also, we have one more important bonus. So Mark your calendar. If you are on clubhouse,
we invite you to join Francesca and me in our regular Wednesday room on Wednesday, April the 14th at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Now, what does that mean? That means you get to jump into a clubhouse room and you get to ask Francesca your copyright questions, your direct business questions. That’s what we love clubhouse. And we actually use clubhouses our community extension to this podcast now.
So we have a regular room. We host every single Wednesday at noon. You are invited to join us there this week on April, the 14th, Francesca is going to be there taking your copywriting questions as an extension from this podcast episode. So it’s an amazing opportunity of course, completely free and a chance for you to really get your business legal questions answered.
If you’d like to join this room, here are the steps to do that. Visit me on Instagram at April beach life. And you can click on the link in my bio and simply follow me on clubhouse and follow our club on clubhouse. When you do that, you’re going to have notifications and with clubs house, when your notifications are on, that gives you access to these very special rooms.
So very simply follow me on clubhouse. And I can be found at, at April beach on clubhouse, where you can go to my Instagram at April beach life on Instagram. And both of those opportunities will give you a chance to follow me there or giving you notifications in access to Francesca. So that’s our special bonus with today’s episode. And I know that’s going to be so powerful for so many of you who really do have important business questions you need answered right now.
So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast episodes. Welcome back to another episode here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. I am joined again by my very favorite person this year, Francesca Whitesburg. She is here diving in with everything legal for you to protect your content, your intellectual property. And this is actually part two of a two part podcast episode we did last week.
We dove all into trademarking. So if you miss last week, pause this, go back to episode two 21 and start with that one and then come back here and join us. If you listened to last week, let’s get ready to go. We have so much to cover today and you are going to gain so much knowledge by this wonderful woman who is here just strictly to pour into you to protect your intellectual property.
So welcome back to the show. Francesca, thank you so much for me. Thank you for having me April. I’m excited to talk about copyrights. Yeah. Okay. So actually let’s go ahead and dive right in. So really what is copywriting for anybody who is absolutely brand new at this? They know they need to know what it is, but they don’t even have a baseline starting point.
Yeah, of course. So copyright is a form of intellectual property protection that the text creative works that can be your videos, your photos, your courses, the layout of their website, your podcasts. It covers anything that you’ve created. That’s fixed in a tangible media. So it can’t be like an idea in your head gotta be written down, actually like manifested in the real,
but once it’s out there, it’s protected automatically under copyright law. Okay. So let’s take a step back. I know we talked about it extensively in last week’s episode, but can you just give a general description to our listeners in what is intellectual property, Of course, intellectual property, which is IP, which we refer to as refers to creations of the mind.
They’re your invention. Anything that’s proprietary that you can upload your photos, your grants, your slogans, trade secrets. These are all things that you have created that either you or your business owns. I like to say you have your IP toolbox. And then in that tool box, there’s different tools you can use like patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
So good. Okay. So incredibly foundational, but yet so many businesses aren’t aware of that. All right. So my next question for you, and I know our listeners, especially those who listened to last week are automatically asking this question right now. What is the difference between a copyright protection and trademarking? Yes. Trademarks really protect source identifiers. So Sweetlife when you read that name,
you know, that that’s April beaches programs, she’s offering her consulting services April. You’ve seen, created a full brand around that. And also it’s your company name too, but to consumers, we know that that’s April. So that word tells people that if you get consulting from this person, it’s April, who’s behind it. The same thing. When you see Coca-Cola or burger King,
you go to a McDonald’s in Spain, you’re in a know that it’s the same person who’s behind that. That’s the function of a trademark. Now a copyright is a very different tool, but they can overlap. So copyright extends to any creative expressions. So if you have a really unique logo that went along with sweet life, I it’s like a little like circle with some interesting artwork in there that you use.
And when I, anyone one sees that I think April, but also it’s very detailed. It’s original. That can also be protected by copyright. So if you are working with IP counsel, a good lawyer is going to advise you holistically and really tell you all the tools that you can use to protect your intellectual property from different angles. Okay. Fascinating.
And so for our listeners, do they need to register their works for copyright protection? So copyrights are similar to trademarks in that they are granted automatically. As soon as you create something you posted online, put it, like we said, in the fixed medium, then you have protection. However, if someone is using your work in an unauthorized manner, that your permission,
right. To actually get them to stop in the United States, you need a registration certificate. So I like to say, you know, you could send them a letter, you can send them a DM telling them to take it down. Cause it’s, you know, using your copyrighted material. But with that, without a registration, it’s like waving an empty gun.
You’re really not gonna have any teeth behind it. Got it. Okay. And so let’s kind of just pause here because I want to get back into content around courses and really big written works that many of our listeners do, but let’s just kind of take a jog for a second and talk about a couple of areas where people tend to run into trouble and they have absolutely no idea when they’re using other people’s works.
So the first one is photography and using somebody else’s photography within your business, what do people need to know in relation to copyright? Anytime you use photos taken from the internet or anyone else’s photos, technically you need permission and you can get yourself into a lot of trouble if you use it even on just a random post or you’re using it for something more visible,
even mental, a lot of trouble. And so the way that you get around it is you either use photos and images that you’ve taken yourself, or you can purchase the rights to some of these images. That’s where you can use database as like Getty images to buy a license, to use those infants for certain purposes. Yeah. And I think that the,
you know, so many new businesses and actually even established businesses that are just trying to scale online, just kind of starting to get their Instagram out there. They don’t realize that grabbing another photo out there, you know, there is a license, but behind that and that you have to be within your legal rights to use that. And so just wanted to make sure that we were discussing that here on the show as well,
because I, I know that people have ran into problems with that in the past. Another kind of side question for you here, going back to our listeners original piece of work, their course that they’re creating the content that they’re delivering within their coaching programs or their mastermind, or they’re teaching their intellectual property, their methods, their signature programs, right. With some of our listeners hire other people to create parts of their work for them.
What do they need to know and be careful about when they’re doing that? Yeah, that’s a great point April. So when you hire someone to create whether it’s a logo with design web design, anytime you’re paying someone to build software or whatever it is, if they’re not an employee within the scope of employment, paying them a salary or hourly, or the bank benefits,
then technically they are the owner of the intellectual property. So you need a written assignment called an assignment for what an assignment means is a transfer of rights. So that person needs to sign a document that says all the intellectual property created around this program. And it’s more detailed than that, but I give all that copyright and all that property is transferred to two and you’re comfortable.
It’s very critical, especially if you’re going to pay a lot of money, really need to get this in writing because otherwise they own what you thought you paid for and they can continue to use themselves, or they can give it away to other people and competitors. Yeah. Imagine that nightmare hiring somebody to, you know, create something for you and your course or your program.
And then it’s not actually yours. So important. So thank you so much for discussing that. And that assignment is, is really incredibly important. And, you know, I know that the majority of our listeners, their teams that they have are actually independent contractors. So this is completely something that is critical for them to be aware of is this assignment within their independent contractor agreements.
And that’s why working with an expert like you to make sure it is, it says exactly what they used to say is so incredibly. Okay. So let’s go back to this process of protecting copyright. So another side question for you when our listeners are using the notation on the bottom of their slides or their PDFs or delivering, or their written work, and they have the little copyright protection and then they have the gear on there and then their ownership,
why is that important? And what is the correct way? If there is a correct way just to enter into that sort of, Yeah, you, you hit the nail on the head, you see the copyright symbol, which will say do it in an emoji you’re on like on your phone. And then you put either your name or your company’s name.
Whoever’s really claiming rights to that ID. And then the year, and what that does April is that’s putting third parties on notice it’s again, reminding people, Hey, this is my copyright. This is protectable information. If you use it without my authorization, it’s illegal. So don’t do it. We’ll do it. The only way that you can really get them to stop is if you file that registration.
Got it. Okay. And so I know that we get that question all the time. Clearly if I don’t answer it because I’m not an attorney and I know that so many of our users are wondering that, you know, they see that when can I use it? How do I use it? Especially those that have multiple years listed on that listing and in exactly how to go about doing that.
And so does the year usually reflect the original work or does the year cover when it is currently being protected in that listing on it? It could vary, right? So like sometimes it’s like people open up a book, you’ll see the original publication copyright notice, but then they’ll be the most current version. But for our purposes, I think it’s fine to do it.
Like, let’s say you had to create your website in 2020, you can have 20, 20 is the date, but then if you make changes to it, which you’re going to just keep updating, updating the year. Okay. So many, I already know that these are questions people listening or are having, okay. So now let’s go back to kind of the center of what we’re talking about here today for our listeners,
how do they start the process of protecting their intellectual property, their content course program outlines, where do they begin with this process? Yeah. I’d love the way you put it April, because you implicitly said, how do they protect what they already have? Everyone already has IP. It’s just a matter of understanding, which are your most important assets and how you go about protecting them.
So I actually offer an Ikea audit where I will look at websites, social media pages, courses, some of my clients give me access to their, you know, their subscription-based or whatever, log in to see their forces. I do a very holistic review. And then we will go get on the phone and do a 30 minute call to discuss what their most important assets are or we could talk about,
okay, here’s the name of your operating vendor? Have you thought about three markets that’s going to filing for that copyrights? Do you have your independent contractor agreement language? We’ll kind of go through and just do like a checklist, like as if I literally am doing an audit on your seat and make sure you have everything there. I recommend that as a starting point,
and there’s also an IP audit and I can action plan, which is like the deluxe version of that, which is going to really do a deep dive. And then we come up with eight phase one plan, which is your first three to six months on what filings to do. And then also the next like six to 12 plus months for the next round of filings,
because everyone has so much great content. That’s great IP. It gets a little overwhelming to think, Oh, I have to do everything. The reality is that you don’t, you stage it out. And if you have a plan strategy about it, it’s really not going to be that expensive. It’ll be way more expensive than the end. If you don’t do this.
And if you try to do deal with cease and desist letters or sending this letters as they arise. Yeah. Nightmare. So once somebody submits their work for copyright protection, each time they update it, do they need to resubmit that Great question. So anytime you modify a work that it becomes a new popular, it’s a new work. So I would say as long as the modification is substantially similar to the original work,
then you can rely on that. But if it’s very different and using that a lot publicly, it’s probably worth at least running it by an IP lawyer to come up with a strategy. Okay. So much great information, Francesca, thank you so much for being our guest again here on the show and joining us in clubhouse rooms where we talk about this.
There’s so many places where people can connect with you. You know, we highly recommend that people take up the opportunity to go through an IP audit. And what I love about why I have you on this show is that you understand the way service-based online entrepreneurs work and you understand what they’re creating and you understand courses and masterminds and signature programs, and you understand all these things.
And so it’s hard, frankly, to find an expert like you, that fully understands the assets that our listeners are creating. So thank you so much for being on the show and being an amazing resource and the best place for people to connect with you is through your Instagram. Is that correct? Yes. I have a link in my bio. It’s my counselee.
I’m happy to get on a 15 minute call just to hear about your business And to discuss if you want to do an IP audit or if you just want to Connect. Yeah. Great. All of you guys should take her up on that. It’s a very, I know it’s crazy. It’s totally free. So you can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and we will make sure that a link to that of course is in our show notes as well.
So it’s the trademark attorney on Instagram. And what is your clubhouse handle the trademark at the trademark attorney on clubhouse as well? Of course. Thank you so much for being here again and being our guest expert this week. I know that everybody really needed to hear a way, the things we’ve been talking about the last two weeks on the show. So certainly appreciate your time.
Absolutely. Thanks April. Thank you so much for sticking around with us. What an amazing episode Francesca is a super genius and perfectly in line with what our listeners and our clients need. If you would like to work with Francesca, if you would like to just take her up on her opportunity to connect with her for a free IP audit, please visit Francesca directly by visiting at the trademark attorney on Instagram.
So for handle is the trademark attorney on Instagram and the trademark attorney on clubhouse. She can be found at both of those places. Thank you so much for tuning into the show. Again, all the show notes and everything we talked about, and all these links can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. You guys have an awesome day. Bye bye for now.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Lifestyle Entrepreneur Roadmap™ Not sure what Phase your business is in?
Close
Episode Bonuses:
Bonus – Join Francesca live on Clubhouse Wednesday, April 7 & 9, 12:00 Eastern time. Click here to join the SweetLife Entrepreneurs™ Club and get notifications and room links.
Who This Episode is Great For:
As you name your business, programs, courses or creative work, you want people to recognize them as your brand, and it’s important that you know how to protect your creations so that others can’t use it.
Summary:
In this episode, we’re talking with The Trademark Attorney, Francesca Witzburg, about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your company name, tag lines and creative work including your courses, branded programs and more. In this jam-packed powerful episode, we’re diving into; Who needs trademark protection? How much it costs? How to check if the name you want to use is available? How to block someone from using your trademark and more.
This is part 1 of a 2 part show with Francesca Witzburg. In part 2 we dive into Copyright protections for your work.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know if you need to file for trademark protection
Understand the difference between word and design marks
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
Need faster business growth?
Schedule a complimentary business triage call here.
Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everyone. And welcome to episode two. You one here, we’re diving into an important topic today, and that’s how to protect your business through the process of trademarking. And there are so many questions around trademarking.
We get this all the time in our business programs, especially in my year leading offer business program, where people are really coming in and branding their method, branding their industry, leading leading programs. And so there are always questions around how do I protect the name of what I’m creating? And so I invited today’s guests to come in, pour into you.
And this is what we can expect by spending time together here today. First of all, this episode is for those of you who are in any stage of business growth and development. Now, this really aligns with one of the tools here that we give away completely free with the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. And that is a self-assessment where you can find out exactly what stage of business you are in.
And you can take this self-assessment by simply visiting Sweetlife co.com forward slash quiz. So when we’re talking about who this particular podcast episode is for this episode happens to be for any of you wherever you fall in the phase of business development. Because if you haven’t protected your intellectual property yet through trademarking, then this is an important topic to pay attention to. So as you go through the process of naming your business and your programs and your courses and your creative work,
you want people to recognize that they’re yours, they’re your brand. It’s an important part of building your business, a recognizable brand. And so in this episode, we’re talking to trademark attorney Francesca Whitesburg about what you need to know when it comes to protecting your company, name, your tagline, to your creative work, including your courses, your branded programs,
and more, this is a jam packed episode. And she talks about powerful things in here that every single business owner needs to know. And then we’re diving into who needs a trademark protection. How much does it cost? How to check if the name that you want is available, how to block someone who could be using your trademark or infringing upon your trademark.
And there’s so many different things we’re going to dive into. So I’m going to go ahead and get right over to the episode. However, I want to make sure that you know, that this is part one of two episodes where we have Francesca on the show. And so next week we’re talking all about copyright protection and today is all about trademark. At the end of this episode,
you will know if you need to file for trademark protection, you will understand the difference between a wordmark and a design Mark, and you’ll know where to start in your protection process. Everything we’re talking about here can be found@theshownotesbyvisitingusatsweetlifeco.com. This is episode number 221. And one last thing we are going to be live with has got on clubhouse the Wednesday that this show drops.
So that will be Wednesday, April the seventh at 12 o’clock Eastern time. So if you were not following me yet on clubhouse at April beach, and you want to connect with Francesca in, take your questions from this episode to her, live in clubhouse, then make sure that you join us. And you can simply do that by following me at April beach on clubhouse and turn on the little bell for the notifications.
And you will get notified when we’re going live, which will give you access to Francesca. It will give you access to this room. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s business training.<inaudible> Hi everybody. I am so excited to be joined by Francesca Wittenberg, who has been instrumental in helping our business, make sure that everything that we have is our ducks in a row.
If you will say, and she’s here joining me on the podcast today, talking about quite a few very important legal foundations that you really need to have a no for your business. And so Francesco, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here. Tell everybody a little bit about yourself in UHIN, who you serve and really how you got to where you are right now,
professionally. Thank you so much, April. I’m super excited to be here. My name is Francesca Pittsburgh. I go by the trademark attorney on Instagram and I’m an IP lawyer. We’re going to talk about what IP is, but basically I help creators businesses, anyone who has created something using their intellectual creativity and especially people who are trying to monetize that I help,
whether it’s trademarks, copyrights, helping businesses get started to monetize and protect what they created is what I do. And I service really a variety of industries. I have fashion experience, story brands, online businesses in particular, and navigating how to protect content and all of the assets that you’ve created online. That’s really been my niche for the past year or two.
And, you know, I got started by going to law school. I had no idea what intellectual property was like most people. And I thought it was so amazing how, what you create are your real assets. These are real things that you can command. You can protect, you can sell. So I really fell in love with that. And also helping businesses get off the ground.
I feel like I’m able to kind of give back really help people launch. And so I got into it. I worked at a small IP boutique. I also had experience working in the legal departments at Prada and Tory Burch and the international jewelry brand from there. I really got the bug and I just wanted to learn everything in anything about intellectual property, in whatever industry.
And then I worked at the world’s biggest law firm called Dentons. I worked in Manhattan and Brock center for a little bit over three years, and then I made a big change. Yeah. I mean a big change becoming a partner at an IP boutique firm, meaning we only do intellectual property from start to finish like firms located in LA, but I’m based in New York and New Jersey.
I can service clients everywhere. And since September, I’ve just been really hitting the ground, running, helping a lot of online businesses, connecting on clubhouse, meeting people like you April. So I’m super excited to share my knowledge with everyone today. I’m so excited that you’re here and you know what? You do this super hyper niche area of serving online businesses.
I mean, you help our listeners protect their ideas and protect their services and their programs and their courses and their actual digital products, which is absolutely right on. And I know that there are so many people in this business space that are creating content that are creating different assets and what we call IP that have no idea, even the first step on, on how to protect that.
So let’s go ahead and start there. What actually is IP? What is intellectual property? Sure. So intellectual property refers to creations of the mind. They are inventions designs, creative works, brands, slogans, or anything that you’ve created kind of creatively. And so the law is divided up into certain categories and I like to call it, you know,
you have your IP toolbox. So there’s certain tools that you can use to protect whatever it is that you created or your business there’s patents, which protects inventions. Sometimes it protects certain ways of doing things processes, and it also sometimes protects designs. If it meets certain thresholds, then there’s trade secrets, which kind of works in tandem with aunts. If you’re not eligible for a patent may be able to protect confidential and secret information that is proprietary to your business so long as you’ve kept it private and you haven’t publicly disclosed it.
Then what we’re really going to focus on today is trademarks and copyrights. Trademarks are your brands. They are the symbols. And the names that you have created to tell that this is my business. I April beach am the owner of your leading offer. I upgraded this course, and that is my protectable content. The function of trademarks are to point to the source.
And then there’s copyright. Copyright is the creative regime. It really extends to creative, works such as content photos, certain texts, if it’s eligible videos, website layout. So, you know, just by saying that alone, there are so many different tools that you can use to protect an online business. And so we can talk about that. Wow.
Okay. So in, this is exactly why, I mean, just in that definition that you just gave, you talked about four really important areas that our listeners can and should be possibly if they qualify, protecting what they have created and what they plan to create. And I really want to dive specifically into trademarks today and we’re going to have Francesca back on the show.
Everybody don’t worry, and we’re going to be diving into other things as well. But I think this is really the most important place to start out. You know, just in my, your leading offer master class, we were having this kind of behind the scenes conversation about this. And even those students of mine that have been in business for over a decade are just almost like in this panic mode when this conversation came up because they realized they might not have done things correctly.
And so that’s why I’m really excited to dive into trademarking today. So first of all, I understand that there are two types of different trademarks that you can protect. Is it like a design Mark and a word Mark? Can you explain what those two different types of, of marks are to our, Yeah, I get asked all the time I have a brand name and I have a logo,
which one should I file for what’s protectable? And the short answer is that the word market itself, if you file an application with the government, just for the word in standard characters, that will automatically protect the name and any siloization. So if you go to re rebrand and change your logo, if you have a wordmark registration, that’ll extend any specializations colors,
whatever format. So we do searches for the word. And if that’s available, I usually say, go for the word Mark, but you’re right, that sometimes clients will have, let’s say it’s not just a script, right? Let’s say that they came up with a unique character or some sort of interesting artwork that they have in a circle next to the word,
a good example of this is target, right? You know, target has the word target and red, and then you’ll see the bullseye above that bullseye they use as a trademark. So they could file for the word target without a stylization and be protected. They can also file just for the bullseye, which is the design element, and that will be protected or they can file for a lockup version,
which includes the word and the design. So there are a variety of ways and it really is case by case specific, but more importantly, it’s about budget. And I always tell clients, start with your corny for your forklifts and services, because it can get very expensive. And also as a point of strategy, it may not be worth filing for every single variation of the bark.
Just start with your core name and your core goods or services. Okay. And who needs to file trademark protection? Let’s kind of really cover some basics like who needs it. You know, what’s funny is that if you were asking this question 10, 15 years ago, the answer different, it used to be fortune 500 companies had trademark lawyers and they were the ones Coca-Cola Pepsi,
big brands were the ones registering trademarks that has completely shifted with online businesses. And I think we need to take a step back and explain an important concept April that you and I have discussed. So in the United States, trademark rights are based on use. So I’m sure all of you have one point or another. Someone has said to you, Oh, you don’t need a trademark right now.
You don’t need to file the trademark. You have rights just based on use, just continue to use the problem with that is, like I said, 15, 20, 30 years ago, that wasn’t really an issue because you were a store in one particular market in one city, right. Or your restaurant, or you were consulting in one area in person.
So it didn’t matter. Really. If someone was using the same name, you’re in New Jersey and someone’s using it in LA necessarily. So the law as it States is you have Commonwealth rights. Your rights are limited to that, to where you’re actually using who you’re servicing with online businesses that has caused to be blunt chaos, because how do you prove where your servicing clients by being on Instagram online,
you know, having websites that technically target and market, not only all 50 States, but even outside the us. So the way that you get around those issues is by filing the application with the government, having a registration gives you a presumption of rights in all 50 States. So that way, if someone is using your name, all you have to do is send them that piece of paper.
That’s triplicate of registration and show them that you’re the owner and they should in theory. Got it. So many questions that, and I’m obviously, you know, I’m bringing questions from clients that I, that I know have been asking as well. So let’s kind of start back at the beginning. If there’s somebody who’s listening to this and they have program that they’ve named,
let’s say it’s best business, one, two, three, or whatever that they have been using for a long period of time. What are their first steps as of now versus somebody who hasn’t even, who’s coming up with a new name, let’s start with the established people that are saying, Hey, listen, my company name isn’t registered my program, or my course name or my mastermind name,
isn’t registered. What should those people that are already have an existing piece of work that they own do at this point in time? Yeah. And I think it comes back again to budgeting and understanding that a little bit of money can go a long way if you’re strategic about it. What I like to do differently, I think than most lawyers is clients come to me and say,
Oh, for test that I want to file for this. I say, let’s take a step back. We can definitely file. But did you protect your brand name, your core name? I have clients that come and say, Oh, this slogan, I want to protect it’s brand new and it’s new. No one’s using it. So what I do is I do an IP audit for a lot of clients,
but when they come to me, I say, let’s just take a step back. Let’s look at all of your websites, all of your courses, and let’s figure out what’s the most important instead of you deciding or someone telling you which trademark to file let’s think strategically and say, what are your most core names, your core content and connection with your core services?
Because it gets very expensive very quickly. So I would tell people who are using, and they haven’t had anything registered to really, you know, touch base. I’m happy to do this, to discuss and do the IP audit, but you can also do it yourself and just think like, what are the core names that I’m using and for what particular services,
and then get those on file. Yes. Maybe you came up with like a super cool name slogan that you’re using, but are you really going to be using that in six months to a year versus I would say the name that you’re operating under, that may be the first starting point. So I would say, you know, either check in with an IP attorney who can do that with you,
for you, or think about it and then get those on file. Okay. And let’s make sure that you guys don’t have to wait until the end of this. If you want to connect with Francesca for that IP audit, find her on Instagram at the trademark attorney. And she actually has a link in her bio on Instagram. You can just schedule a call with her.
So we’re making it really easy for you. It’s the trademark attorney on Instagram. And plus she has amazing videos and things on there that you guys will love. And you can schedule a call to set up that IP on it. Okay. So for those people that are listening and they’re new in business, and they’re just trying to, they’re thinking, wow,
I really want to name my company. This, what are their first steps? You know, let’s actually talk about how to search the U S PTO. What is that process and is, Yeah. So the first thing is to come up with a name, if you’re just getting started, I would say, come up with names that try to not be so descriptive because as business owners and content creators,
we want to express to our viewers what exactly it is that we’re offering. But unfortunately that falls on the lower end of protection. On the trademark scale, the really strong trademarks are the ones that are either made up terms like Google or terms that have nothing to do with the product that you’re selling, like Apple computers. Then there’s this sweet spot that a lot of marketing people like,
like April, you do this really well. You will find names that kind of hint at what you’re doing, but don’t literally describe like your leading offer. So those are the sweet spot they’re called suggestive marks. But anything like weaker than that is, is a little bit more descriptive in there. You can still get them as trademarks. They’re just a lot harder to protect and enforce,
meaning other people may be able to use them. And then when you go to create a brand that you’re about to invest a lot of money in, you know, you need to think about these things. So the more made up the less related to the actual things that you offer the stronger and the better. Okay. So for those people that are like,
okay, this is what I want to do. How do they go search and see if somebody already has that trademark registered? Yeah. So let’s say you came up with an awesome name. The first thing to do is go check on the U S T o.com. That is the government website. The government has a database of registered and pending trademarks. You can plug in the Mark,
but unfortunately it’s not very user-friendly. For example, if you put in the Mark, it really may only give you either the exact spelling, maybe with a space, but it really is very limited. It’s going to look for the exact Mark. So if you did work with the trademark where like, for example, I have special software where I plug in the Mark,
I plug in the goods and services and then with its AI software, it’ll pull up marks that are medically similar. Maybe they have a translation and a foreign language, and all of those can be potential issues that you’re not going to find yourself. However, for your due diligence. The first thing to do is for you to check on usp.gov, because maybe there is a dead hit,
and you’ll find that there, the next thing to do, though, it’s not enough just to look on you as PTO, because there could be people who are using the Mark that may not have a registration. As I mentioned before, trademark rights are based on use. So it’s really important to see who’s using and who can raise a potential objection. You check Google,
check, Instagram, check all those platforms, and then if it looks good, that’s when you go and you work with a trademark attorney. Okay. Okay, great. So you do your due diligence, you know, go, you know, was us pto.gov, not.com. It’s not geo OB do that check and then Google the heck out of it as well.
And I, I think that that is so important. I know that, you know, some people go, Oh, they’ll just search it and they’ll be like, Oh great, it’s available because it’s not popping up. And that is absolutely nowhere near enough. And then I can speak for experience. You guys, who are listening that I have had Francesca put our trademark names in her AI system and crazy things that there’s no way I ever could have found pop up.
So it is definitely an important investment to make. If, if you were in the process of growing your company and you have IP that you want to protect. And so I think that’s really an important thing. So any other last words today, when we’re talking about trademarking moving forward or any other things that our listeners need to know that are often missed,
maybe common questions, basically, what am I not asking that I should be asking you? Yeah. Number one, we’re in the middle of a, of a pandemic and a financial downturn. So you’re going to have a lot of people who may not want, or may not have the deans to file trademarks. So I will tell you there’s things you can do to try and protect your name,
even without a registration start using those TM symbols. And you may not know what that is. So a TM symbol, now that I’ve mentioned that you’re going to see them everywhere. It means that people are claiming rights to a name or design as a trademark. They’re saying I’ve created this. And when people look at it, it points to me means that’s my website,
it’s my services, whatever it is. So you came up with a slogan, or if you have your brand name that isn’t yet registered, put the little TM in the upper right hand corner. And what that does is that puts third parties on notice. So if you have another person to get the Google search went on and found your website, they’re going to see immediately,
Oh, this person is claiming trademark rights. I better back off. So that’s an extra element that you can do. It’s not as strong as a registration clearly because your rights are only limited to where you’re using until you get it on file. But at least it’s something. And I would say, think about budgeting for that registration, for some of your four names.
It may sound expensive. And I think it’s worth quoting. You know, you’re going to get people who are gonna do this cheaper, and you’re going to find people who are gonna do it more expensive, but my firm has a fixed fee package with a trademark search and the government and the filing. And it’s 1250, you know, that’s a deal,
it’s a deal. And I’m just thinking like the cost to respond, who would demand letter or to send a demand letter is that amount. So to get that on file, to kind of not have to worry, think about maybe budgeting that as part of your business process. Yeah. And I will say about, Oh gosh, it’s been about 12 years.
We filed a registration for a program that we were licensing to healthcare. And this was 12 years ago. And I think I paid, you know, well over 2,500 for somebody to just file that registration for me. So this is 12 years later, grand Jessica’s team. This is a deal. You guys it’s like the deal of a lifetime and it protects you.
And it really covers you. So we love that. So all of you who are listening, if you’re in this place, whether you’re new and you are just coming up with names of really, frankly, especially for those of you guys who have content, you have IP, you have things that you haven’t protected yet. You haven’t done your due diligence.
I don’t want you to lose those Francesca. Doesn’t want you to lose those. And so if you have questions about this, I highly recommend that you hit Francesca up for an IP audit. Again, she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and she will, of course be back here on this sweet life entrepreneur podcast, again as well. And we’re going to be diving into copywriting next time,
which I know so many of our listeners have questions about protecting, like what actually is that? And so I’m excited to talk about that the next time that you are on the show. Thank you so much for being here and for all of your wisdom and pouring into our listeners. Thank you April. Thanks everyone.<inaudible> Wow. What an amazing episode.
Thank you so much for hanging out with us today. Again, join us live on clubhouse. You can follow me at April beach, turn on the little bell for notifications and you’ll get exclusive access to this room where Francesca will be here this week on Wednesday, April the seventh at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Taking your questions based on what we talked about on today’s show.
And don’t forget to connect with Francesca directly for her IP audit, which is a very important thing. It’s totally free. I don’t know anybody who shouldn’t take this opportunity up. She is absolutely a gifted expert at what she does. You can visit Francesca at the trademark attorney and she can be found at the trademark attorney on Instagram and on clubhouse. And on Instagram,
you can just very simply click the link and schedule a direct free complimentary consultation to get your intellectual property audit started. All right, again, this is episode one of a two part episode. Next week, episode number 222. We’re coming back with Francesca again, talking all about how to protect your creative works through copyright protection. All right, you guys have an awesome day.
It’s so great to chat with you and thanks again for tuning into this sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast.
Small businesses who either currently use or want to utilize email marketing.
Summary:
Email marketing is an important way to connect with your warm audience, hold an ongoing conversation and increase sales. However, most businesses flop when it comes to writing emails that truly compel their audience. In this show, Copywriting expert, Kate Doster breaks down the process of writing great emails in an ethical way by wooing the hearts of your ideal clients open.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know what makes a good email and a great one
How to use“calls to actions” correctly in your email
The process of writing amazing emails that convert
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. So two 20 here on the suite live entrepreneur and business podcast. I’m April beach, your host, and I’m super glad to be chatting with you. And yet another week here on the show,
this is episode number 220, and I can’t wait to dive into today’s topic. This is one of those ones where behind the scenes here, I was taking so many notes based on what our guest expert was teaching today. So there’s just gold inside this episode, as we hope to deliver to you within every single episode. First of all, before we get started,
if you’re new to listening to the show, thank you so much for tuning in here. We also go live and talk about the podcast and take your questions every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time on clubhouse. So if you are not yet following me on clubhouse, please do so. I would love to connect with you. We can really dive in and roll up our sleeves regarding your business questions.
Every single Wednesday, faithfully at 12 o’clock Eastern time. And my handle is at April beach on clubhouse. So I would love to see you there also, if you’re new to listening, or maybe it’s been a while since you’ve tapped into this important powerful resource, we have our lifestyle entrepreneur roadmap quiz, and this is based on my start to scale up system.
It’s a totally free tool. If you’re a listener to this show, you can go and take a very short quiz, just six simple questions. And it’s going to tell you what phase of business you’re in and based on the phase of business you’re in, we give you an exact checklist of what you should be focusing on and what you should be working on to scale your business,
or just really get your business to that next level. And you can take that quiz any time you can go back and take it again and again, by visiting sweet life co.com forward slash quiz, or you can simply text the word quiz to the number (805) 254-0880. And we’ll send you a link to that. So those are our free tools. In addition to all the gold,
you’re going to hear her on the show that I wanted to make sure that you have upfront so that we can keep your business implementing as we move forward through the entrepreneur podcast here. So I appreciate you listening to this show. This is what we’re talking about today. So let’s set the stage. This show is great for those of you guys who are in the first three stages of my start to scale up system.
So that’s based on the quiz. So if you’re in phase one, two or three, this is a great episode for you to listen to. If you’re in phase four or five of my start Taylor scale system, you’ve nailed this strategy. And so I recommend going to find a different podcast to listen to that applies to your stage of business. I want to make sure that I value your time so much.
And the strategies we’re talking about on today’s show are for those people in the first one, two or three stages of the start to scale up system. So what we’re talking about here is how to literally write emails that are so good. They lick the screen. You’re going to be mind blown about what you hear on today’s show. This is for small businesses who you either currently use email marketing.
You’re not sure if you’re doing it right, or you’ve never used email marketing before, and you want to learn how to leverage email marketing in your business. Email marketing is an important way for you to connect with your warm audience. It’s also important for you to hold an ongoing conversation and to increase your sales. However, most businesses flop when it comes to writing emails,
it’s truly because it’s, it’s actually a skill it’s not as easy as you would think that it would be in your emails really need to compel your audience. So in the show we have Kate Doster, who’s a copywriting expert. She’s going to break down the process of writing great emails in an ethical way, by wooing the hearts of your ideal clients and their wallets open.
At the end of this episode, this is what you can expect. You’re going to know what is the difference between a good email and a great email. You’re going to know how to use calls to action correctly in your emails. And you’re going to know the process of writing emails that convert. So let me tell you who is here today. She is absolutely amazing.
Kate Doster is the host of the inbox besties podcast. Creator of love your list. 2.0 email marketing mega course, it is dangerously obsessed with helping ethical entrepreneurs carve out their slice of the interwebs by winning the hearts and wallets open of their small, but mighty audiences. Thanks to funny bell marketing and easy yes, many offers. So that’s important as we went through our bio,
her bio here, that what Kate’s bio says is she helps you. Even if you have a teeny tiny small list, increase the engagement in the sales based on your list. That was one of the key things. When I was reading her bio and why I asked her to come on this show because listen, you guys, you only need a hundred true fans to build a great business.
That’s what it starts with these huge audiences. I mean, this can be an illusion. So those of you that don’t have huge lists with 10, 20,000 people on it. This podcast is great. And it’s also for those people that do have huge email lists. And perhaps you are failing at connecting well with your list. Kate believes you don’t need to bleed the alphabet or be a dirty rotten spam face to write emails,
adult subscribers, and to taking action gobbling up your paid offers like candy or kale, if that’s what you prefer. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast. All of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com simply click on the podcast button. And this is episode number 220<inaudible> All right, you guys, I am joined by Kate Doster and she is going to give you the complete strategy that you probably didn’t even know.
You’re actually missing to write amazing emails because what she teaches, what she talks about, isn’t just the fundamentals. It isn’t just like how to section out the content in your email. She literally teaches you how to write emails for so good people lick the screen. And that is her quote. I stole that from her to name this podcast. So giving credit where credit is due,
Kate, welcome to the show. We are so excited to have you here tell everybody about your superpower in your company. Sure. So I’m Kate Doster of Kate doster.com and hosted the inbox besties podcast. And my super power is really being able to help people. Not only feel like they can do anything, but actually give them the tools to get them there.
I think that there’s a lot of people that kind of hype you up and make you feel amazing. But then when they’re like, but how do I do X there’s like, go figure it out. But like, no, like we do the whole approach because our mission is to put money in the hands of good people so they can do good with it.
So our business is primarily a digital course business. I am extremely selective about the one-on-one clients that I take on, but primarily it’s courses digital products. We just we’ve got to help the good people out there. Right? And you teach people how to like create these insane bodies of copy that totally bring to life what it is that they do, their super power.
And there’s such a disconnect. I’m so excited to have you on this show. I need to give Angie true blood, our favorite person credit for connecting you with us. And when Angie was like, okay, this is an amazing guest for you. First of all, anybody Angie sends to me, I know it was just an amazing guest, but then I saw your,
your topics. And I’m like, Oh my gosh, yes. Emails that not only like convert, but emails that give an experience. So let’s dive right in and talk about one of the things you said behind the scenes, as I was getting ready here and taking my notes for what we’re going to talk about today is you have kind of like this four things that you go through.
And the first one you talk about is something that really other copywriting teachers don’t, and that is all about mindset. Talk to me about mindset and how that plays a role in copywriting. Sure. So like I said, good people do good. Most good people have very bad associations with things like selling. They don’t want to be annoying. They don’t want to be lumped in with a spammer faces.
Are there really bro Hames as we call him the world, he’s our arch rivals. He has a whole voice as he does. So because of that, they tend to really freeze that when it comes to emails, you know, Oh, I don’t want to be annoying or I don’t want to be spammy. Oh, you know, like I haven’t emailed them in three months.
So now they are literally psyching themselves out because either they feel bad, they feel guilty. Everyone’s been telling them everywhere. Like you need to have an MLS. Why don’t you have an email list, email, your email list, you dummy. So they get all up in their heads and they do no thing because everyone’s been on the receiving end of really bad emails.
But here’s the thing. The sheer fact that you are having this thought of, I don’t want to annoy people. I don’t want to be a spammer means that it is physically impossible for you to be there. And it is physically impossible for you to write one because the really broad themes as a world who are those farmers, they do not care. The fact that you care proves that you are going to send them high quality stuff.
So who guys think you already did it? And when I talk to people like 100%, it is always, Oh, I feel like, or I think it’s like, so it’s not truly the mechanics. It’s I need to get your finger to, to hit the sand on the good old convert kit, Right? Oh my gosh. Okay. Like we can just end the podcast right there.
Like, okay, you need to fix your mindset. You’re amazing. You’re not like a douche bag. You’re going to send grace. So I think that’s so cool. Okay. And then the next thing that you talked about is, you know, being on your list is a privilege. Let’s talk about that mindset all together. What do you mean by that?
Okay. It is a two side of the coin. One. When you realize that people are honestly lucky to get your enthusiasm, your encouragement, your knowledge, your expertise, they are lucky to be there. So all of a sudden that scarcity mindset of, you know, if I send a newsletter, a hundred people are going to unsubscribe. So no,
like I don’t have this mystical thousand number. Like who cares the people on the other end of the screen, do not know if they are one of, 100, one of five or one of 10 million. They have no idea when it is our mission to help you need to help regardless of that number. So when you’re like, Oh, bring it on my list as a privilege.
And somebody sends you a nasty email back, you laugh at them and then you kick them out. You’re like, no, like literally I send a lot of emails. I send a lot of what’s called sales emails. I got two last year. One was because I said home slice. And the other one I think had, but face in the subject line,
I literally went to go see what these people had signed up for. I’m like, how did you get here? I was mad at my landing pages, my gatekeepers, my content like allowed you in here. So when you go out with that mindset of being on my list is a privilege. Not only are you not going to care about the heaters because you’re like,
whatever, Sally, there’s a way more people for me to help. I hope you go find your own teacher is that, then you’re going to have a plan for it. So it’s a two side of the coin, like on next again, you’re allowed to have that human experience. If somebody sends you a me an email back, but then you get to laugh at them and be like,
man, I wish I had so much time that I could sit there and complain and whine and have my day ruined by somebody else. But like I’m too busy out there making a difference. So I can’t, Well, you just like blew my mind. That is so profound because I mean, what are the things we’ve talked about in the, the last four years is having somebody on your list as a privilege and,
and treat them with care and all these things. But what you’re saying is just so true to every single thing that I know, I feel as an entrepreneur bit like basically, like, I feel like you have just given people permission to be like, you are valuable. What you say is worthy. Your content is amazing. If somebody doesn’t resonate with it,
see you later celly, like you said. And then the next thing I said was really important, which we can even get into in this episode. Was that the gatekeepers is that making sure that your opt-ins, we’re totally not going to go there. Cause we could do a whole show on this, but making sure your opt-ins disqualify people at the same time as they qualify people,
the right people, that connection that you meant, I’d love that you mentioned that too. Okay. So when we’re writing email, the next tip kind of mindset strategy that you have is, is really treat people like people. I know I’m literally doing the shocked face. You guys can hear it. So again, because good people doing good things, right?
No one wants to be a spammer face. You tend to forget the, like there’s another person on the other side of this screen. So like how many times have you gone to like check your email, but then like the dog knocks over the plants and I need to clean it up. And then by the time you get back to your email, it’s like the next day or two days later.
So like, if you have this amazing product, you have this amazing coaching program and you only email people about a once you’re being the jerk. Ironically, it is the other way around because what if they just didn’t check their email that day? Now they are never going to know same thing with, and I know that this goes beyond the scope of this particular lesson,
but same thing with launching, like when you’re actually doing a launch. Yeah. If all of your emails are, you’ve got one day left, you got five minutes left and all of those are awful. Awful. You do need to send things about time limits because people do need to know. So I have nothing against timers, but you need to understand what actually goes through a person’s brain.
People are not logical. And when my students kind of grasp that around their heads, they’re like, Oh, Piedmont logical. If there were, you would have all exercised today, there would be no smoking industry. There’d be no drinking industry. There would be no drugs because people, if they were logical, why would you start smoking? When you know,
it’s only going to hurt you. Cause they’re not logical. So realize that they’re not logical trying to be like what? There’s eight modules. And my competitor only has four. You dummy is never going to work because they’re not logical. You have to actually compel them. You’ve got to cut through the crap. You need to know how a human brain works.
And that’s why my students get like astronomical results. And they’re like, Oh my trip wire, it’s converting at like 5%. Can I go higher? I’m like you to realize that normies only get it at one to two. Right? And they’re like, Oh, so then we’re just like, you know, going against ourselves. But when you understand how a human brain works,
treating people like people it’ll all work, which is why, if you haven’t emailed your list in a while and your first emails is big sob story about why you haven’t emailed them in forever. Everyone is going to be like, I don’t like you. Cause like they don’t care. But if you go in with some type of value and then you’re like,
Oh yeah. And if you’re wondering, how would I get your email address? Again, treat people like people because you signed up for this. Oh, all right. Help me out with something. You tell me what I’m thinking. We’re good to go. I’m not going to hit spam. I might just unsubscribe quietly. So treat people like people realize how their brains work.
So many good things that you said there. I love that. Okay. So let’s actually talk about, and I was actually laughing. I had to put myself on mute cause I started coughing. You’re totally. You totally have me. Correct. You know, leverage really love it. So talking about like I know, right? Like talk about, let’s go into actually the mechanics of writing an amazing email.
So walk us through the mechanics of actually doing it after everybody deals with all the mindset stuff, which I’m so grateful that that’s how you open up this training. I mean, you just have to, again, just like set up. So you can’t do one in seventh grade and have a six pack forever. I mean, I wish present witness tasks could have just been like take that postpartum weight.
Right? So again, it can be a daily thing, you know, it can be a daily thing. So don’t just think like, Oh, but I thought I worked on this. It’s always going to have a thing. So when it comes to writing emails so good, they can like the screen one getting out of your own head is important too.
Like we had just talked about treating people like people is important. Why do you check your email? Cause you don’t want to have to write that sales page you’re supposed to, because you don’t want to have that awkward conversation with your VA because you’ll know that you’re supposed to be pitching podcasts, but you don’t want to get around to it. So they’re like,
Oh, let me just check my email real quick. Right? So you’re doing it as a distraction. You’re doing it as an escape, which is why when people are like, Oh, but I send these big, long, huge emails. Yes. I know being in spam is probably a bad thing. Promotions it’s all right. People check that tab.
The thing you do not want to be in is the all read this leader email. Okay. So you cannot info slap people in your emails because people are not going in with the mindset of an email of I’m going to do hardcore learning. That’s what a blog post is for this sort of podcast is for that’s what a YouTube video is for. That’s what a course lesson is for an email is that short hit of escape.
Okay. So you need to realize that. So when you’re doing your email, yeah, you can have on that super long, as long as it’s entertaining. No one’s going to care. And as long as you’re not trying to tell them a hundred different ways to get clients, they’ll be fine. So when it comes down to actually writing an email like that makes them want to like this screen one,
you need to realize what your actual goal is. So your goal might be for them to reply back. Your goal might be for them to read an email, your goal might just be to build comradery. Then you’re going to want to make sure you have an action. I say, every email needs a call to action. It doesn’t have to go someplace else,
but it can be a reply back. I think that reply back is one of the strongest calls to action. Because next time it is more likely that your email is going to be in the folder that you want to be in. Or again, it can be a follow me on Instagram. It can be on this, but you’ve got to give people a reason to go over there.
You just can’t send an email being like, Hey, are we connected over on clubhouse? No, you need to entice them. What is in it for them? Treat people like people. So in order to make your emails more entertaining, I get constantly, but Kate, I don’t have a big personality like you, but I’ve averaged, but I’m boring.
I guarantee you, there are something about you that you can start putting into your emails, whether it is the name of your cat, your favorite song. You can, one of my favorite things. If I can’t figure out, what I want to email about is I’ll go to a website called holiday insights. You can just Google any of them and I’ll see like what day is it?
Like a national nacho day? Okay. So like say if I was a food blogger, then I could just send Nasha recipes because it’s natural nacho day. If I’m somebody else I could talk about like know like it’s natural natural day. And you know, since that’s pretty cheesy, I want to tell you about the three things that are going to make your website cheesy.
Like you can just rip off of these things. And now all of a sudden, not only are you just using just stats to like 200% of blondes, make more money, I’m making that up. But again, look for stats about your industry stats, about what day it’s going on and then just make some correlations. And the more that you get used to doing that,
the better that it’s going to be. Again, there was a reason why you created a blog post or why you’re going Facebook live, which got me thinking about, which is why in the slide. I don’t just necessarily give them the link, give them the link, but then put a little bullet points because you got to remember, people are reading on their phones.
So when it comes to structuring things, you want to make sure, honestly, if it’s longer than two sentences, I say, give it a paragraph. It used to be three. But I feel like if it’s a wordy three, the probably should be a paragraph. So you’ll see that a lot. Cause people will skim, you know, make sure you use things like bold texts,
but have, you know, little bullet points underneath to talk about like, what’s so great on there. Like, Oh, okay, it’s going to tell you the one thing never to send in your email. She’s going to tell you, if you haven’t emailed your list in forever, these are the two words you used to not having your email, like think of what can I do to make these a little bit more interesting.
And then it’s like, Oh, because every email guys spoiler before, really every email is a sales email because you are selling the fact that you get them, that you understand them, that you’re going to be there for them, that you’re consistent, that you want to interact with them and that you are not ability to borrow him. So whether you’re asking for cash or not,
every email is a sales email. So now you don’t have to get over sending any cause they all are. Oh, I love that. I love that. Oh my gosh. It’s so good. You’re just gold. Okay. I mean, that’s just, you just nailed it. That is so good. And I have learned so much here. Okay.
So I’m going to throw out a couple of common questions that we receive as a company. And since you’re the email queen, let’s see how you answer these. So, and you already answered the first one was does every email need a call to action? And so you’ve already answered that. So we’ll just skip through that. And I love how you answered that in some form.
Oh, you know, let me ask this question in case anybody’s thinking, could the call to action, be giving them steps, like now go outside and look up at the sun and take two deep breaths. Like could the call to action be something that doesn’t have to do with replying or interacting back to you at all? Or is it just having some sort of a call to action?
So definitely give them action steps. Like quick wins are huge, which is why I love how you said go outside and take two deep breaths. And you didn’t like tell them like this whole giant routine to do, but there’s nothing to say at the end of it that you can’t be like, and when you go outside snap a pic and tag me on your Instagram stories.
So that way it’s really organic. And so that way you can share them on for doing something. So if you’re going to give them a little task, give them a place where they can brag about themselves, treat people like people, they like feeling good About themselves, post About it. And some people will, some people post in the Facebook group tag me on your eyes,
your story post on my business page. So I can say how awesome you are. Let’s go outside together. You know what I mean? So that way you can incorporate them more in the world and then treat people like people they’re going to associate that good feeling with you and that’s what you want. Cause then So cool. Okay. And so along those lines,
we’ll just say, if you’re listening to this podcast and you absolutely love everything that Kate’s saying, make sure that you take a screenshot, I’ve listened. He does put it on your IgG story and tag Kate and tag, thus we live company, or you can just tag April beach life and okay. So cool. Now next question. Newsletters versus emails,
you know, the newsletter was kinda dead honestly like seven years ago, but now we actually have clients that like their newsletter is so amazing and they only send it out like once a month and it’s like long and juicy and almost like a calendar. What is your take on the strategy and the difference between newsletters in regular emails? How have you seen those playing out?
If you will only send a newsletter and by newsletter, I want to make sure that we have the same definition. Are you saying something where it’s like multiple calls to action, multiple sections? Is that what you’re defining as a newsletter? Yeah. These are huge newsletters that some of our clients, which are larger companies already, that you know, are in the process of scaling that they send out these newsletters,
people like go crazy at one of them could be sign up here for this. And one of them could be, did you remember to join this? There are multiple calls to action. In these things. We call that more of a magazine style email. If that is the only one that you will do, so you will actually send it, then send it.
So I had an interior designer who was a student and when she tried to do of that one call to action type of a thing, she really mindset got into her head a lot. And so what we did is we went ahead and we turned it into like her Wednesday newsletter. We gave it an actual name and I told her just like magazines have repeating sections.
You need to have some repeating sections, but realize that if you are trying to sell, say an ebook and you’re still having all three of those sections, then the likelihood of them buying is going to be a lot lower to people. Like people, you give them a lot of stuff to do. They will do everything else or they’ll do nothing. Like there’s actually a scientific study.
The jam study. If you get 12 choices versus 24 at 24, you’ll just walk by because you’re just like, that’s too much for my brain. Right? So when I told her, that’s not to say she can’t have flash sales or launches because I feel like, Oh my goodness, she’s emailing on Monday. It’s gotta be important. So then she can just do the one that has the one call to action.
So make sure that you are strategic realize with those newsletters, that the likelihood of them going to spam or promotions is going to be higher. The more outward links to different places that you have, the more likely it is to trigger something. So you can link to your Instagram five times if that’s your call to action, because it’s going to the same spot,
your Instagram. But if you’ve got an Instagram one, that’s going to a deal that you have one that’s going to a blog post one, that’s this one that’s that it can go in there. But again, if you are more likely to send us a magazine style newsletter than send nothing and send it, just realize that your sales aren’t going to be as high because you can’t focus them on one particular action.
So like I would never send a new style in the middle of a launch that would make no sense because people would get derailed. So that’s just the difference if what you want to go with. So if you’ll never do anything, just one of those, but again, try to keep it consistent because then people that are interested in certain parts, they’ll always go right down to that section.
Okay, cool. And now I have a couple other questions that are coming up that I know people are probably thinking. So I’m trying to be in the mind of our listeners right now, a question about the frequency of sending. Is it better to send more frequently, you know, less frequently? Does it depend on the relationship between the business and the audience?
Is there like a regular consistent, like rhythm that you recommend with email sending? Okay. For most people, if you only send once a month, this is nothing. That’s your client. And again, if they’re a larger corporation, they could probably get away with it once a month. Especially if you’re a smaller, more personal brand is not going to necessarily be enough because people are going to forget about you.
You’re not top of mind, they’re their goal. Fishes. Everybody has a goldfish treat. People like people. You’re going to hear that a lot. What I would say for people, especially if you are a personal brand, especially service owner, you’re selling your own courses, aim for once a week. That’s four emails a month. Y’all handle writing four emails a month and what’s gonna end up happening is you’re going to get so good.
You can batch them, meaning, sit down and write them all. Sometimes w a lot of my students really love to do is they will come up with a topic for all four and then they’ll write like two at a time. Right? So again, it’s done, they’ll load them into the convert kit. They’re active campaigns. Doesn’t matter whatever tool you’re using.
And then they know that they’re settled and then people get so hyped about this. Or they do some casual selling, which we teach in the course. And then I’m like, okay, I’m going to add another day. But I would never say like, email this. Now, if you’re doing a launch or you are doing a flash sale, you’re going to want to send more than one email.
Because again, people might not check. They might forget treat people like people they procrastinate so that you’re going to have a little bit more. But as long as honestly, what you have to say is interesting and it’s tackling different doubts or your habits that people have, you can keep sending Austin repeat yourself. Okay. And then the one last question I had is when somebody does have a launch,
you know, it’s normal that people unsubscribed from the list and people get so afraid of that. They’re like, Oh, like the whole mindset thing, which we already knocked out of the ballpark, that’s gone. Now, we already dealt with that. What the question here is, is there like an average expectation for a percentage of unsubscribes that you have seen during launches or is it totally vary based on different brands and businesses?
How frequently they launch? How big obviously, how great the relationship already is with building the relationship? Is there like a average percentage that people can quote unquote expect in unsubscribes around a launch period or no, I don’t know if it’s necessarily during a launch period. The only stock that I could find was in general and it’s actually does hold true. If you guys go look at your analytics is usually when you send any type of email,
you can expect about a 1% unsubscribe rate, which is pretty interesting. So again, if your number is a hundred, then your percentages are going to be like very skewed. So keep that in mind. We need to have some logical, even though I don’t do logic, but like, so keep that in mind, right? When it comes to a launch,
the biggest reason that people are unsubscribing is because you started talking to them about something they didn’t care about, or you never gave them an out. So like the launches that I do, even though, like, I teach email marketing. If you didn’t sign up for a launch, trigger a webinar, a challenge, all of that. I’m not going to send you all my launch emails because you’re not going to want them.
I will send you two. And one of them is just a recent it’s like, Hey, I know you didn’t sign up for this webinar, but I know that you were struggling with ABC and D this is open until Wednesday. If you want to come, come, if not, that’s cool. And then in my launch emails that I have, and I always tell my students to do this too.
I always have that link bottom of the email, sometimes top of the email, Hey, if you know that love your list is not for you. This round, then click here and we’ll chat after the launch is over. Or Hey know that you have a great relationship with your list and you’re making more than $10,000 a month with it. Click here.
I won’t tell you any more about my course, because you don’t need us right now. Just give people an out, treat people like people. But again, if you are setting that one hour to go 30 minutes to go five minutes to go, and you’re making everything about you, then I guess if you could take anything away from this, especially when it comes to launching,
you need to be more excited for them than yourself, because nobody, I mean, we do care that like you have expertise. So I’m not saying any of those fake it till you make. And I hate that line. What I’m saying is I am so disproportionately passionate about seeing Sally earn money from our food blog. When everyone else in our whole fricken family thought that she was nuts.
Like, I am like hardcore rather than like, love your list. And I make all of this money. And like, yes, obviously in each of them, a copywriter, not some rando that hit like big with a pin, obviously that’s important, but it’s not like, Hey guys, my course is open. Never it is. If you are struggling with this and I get very,
very specific, we call them moments. We don’t have time to talk about them. Now y’all are going to have to tell me to find out that’s right. Then I got this and it is going to help. And here’s how it’s going to help because I am so excited. Literally you can see my face to see my people succeed. You have no idea.
And when you come at anything that you create that way, and I don’t care if it’s a meal planning guide, I don’t care if you help cleaning products, I do not care. We are more excited for what they’re going to be able to avoid and achieve. It’s like, I know, yeah, I’ve got this thing they’re going to buy. This is why my students and I get a logical Results and people like that’s bananas.
Like no that’s treating people like people. You are so good. I’ve appreciated you sharing and totally pouring out your crazy good expertise into our audience. This is amazing. Okay. So you have, of course an amazing free thing that people can have. Like if they want to connect with you further, or if they just want like these amazing results, you have two years worth of emails that you are giving to our listeners.
Tell them what that is. That’s amazing. Sure. So what it is is two years worth of email idea prompts. So if you’re ever sitting there looking at your screen, you’re like, I’ve got no idea what to email about. Or even if you’re like, I don’t know how to make this next thing sort of interesting. We do have it dated.
Now, keep in mind if you’re listening to this and it’s like July, it’s like, Oh, well, half the month is wrong. Spoiler alert. January is going to come back. So as April, so it’s may, so you can just restart it over. Like there’s no problem. And some people will actually they’ll follow it verbatim. Like,
Oh, may it sets in this, this, this, and this. And we’ll do it. Some people mix them up. Some people go and just peer in other months. And that is 100% there because now, you know what it is. If anything is time-based because a couple of months we’ll have something like, it’s not Neil national hug your cat day,
but if there’s something that’s going to be time-based to be, well, we make sure that at least once a month, you’re really highlighting some type of paid offer, whether it is an affiliate deal, whether it is her own stuff, any of that sort of stuff is in there as well. So you can hand it on over to Kate Doster dot for slash Sweet life,
either with a hyphen or without I got you both. And then you guys will be able to get that. And you can always listen to my podcast, wherever you’re listening to this. It is in a box of besties and my Instagram, which I’m working on. Let’s say it that way. I spent so much time cultivating my email list, social media.
I kind of forgot about, so it is Kate underscore Doster. So y’all can see the name and I’m sure we’ll have it in the show notes. Yeah, we will. And yeah. Yeah. Instagram followers does not equal amazing experts. Definitely. There’s not an equivalent therapist. I want people to be able to connect with you more. And also you are newly on clubhouse.
So I’m like talking to you behind the scenes. You guys, if you’re in our Sweetlife club on clubhouse, I’m talking to Kate about getting on the calendar. And so we can do a clubhouse room for you guys where you can connect with her directly and ask her your questions, which is so cool. So we’ll put all of that information in the show notes as well.
Kate, thank you so much. It was so awesome to get to know you and to hear everything that you deliver today. We really appreciate your time. I think you’ll ever remember guys being on your list is privilege. So treat it like one<inaudible> Thanks so much for hanging out with us at the end, you are the a game players, right?
You were the winners, the ones that stay and apply all the strategies. As a matter of fact, I was speaking in a clubhouse room recently that if people actually just listened to this podcast for the last four years, they probably would save up to a hundred thousand dollars in startup and scale business coaching that they might have spent on other coaches. We really are here to dedicate true and proven business strategies that you can take to the bank.
So thank you so much for listening to this show do join us in our clubhouse room. We would love to meet with you and clubhouse. We’ll be speaking live at 12 o’clock Eastern with Kate Doster herself. If you’re listening to this live, that will be Wednesday, April 2nd, at 12 o’clock Eastern. And you can find that room by visiting sweet life business.club.
I’ll say that again. Sweet life business.club. And all you have to do. If you are a clubhouse member is you can quickly simply click the button and join our club and you’ll get a notification of this room. All right, you guys have an awesome day. I’ll talk to you next week. Bye-bye
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Who This Episode is Great For:
Entrepreneurs in the first stages of business growth, who feel like you’re struggling to make a decision on your personal brand and how to represent yourself to the world.
Summary:
As an entrepreneur, expert or professional leader, one of your strongest assets is your personal brand. Your brand is the outward representation of who you are and what you bring to the world. But oftentimes, leaders struggle with imposter syndrome, or get confused about how they want to show up. You might be afraid that you can’t take things back once you show them to the world or you’re fearful of judgment or regret.
In this, our guest Nicole Herring, NLP Practitioner, breaks down her process to help you make strategic. personal brand decisions.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand personal vs company branding
Have a set of questions you can ask yourself to make personal brand decisions
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate, Hey there, and welcome to episode number 219 here on the Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast. And today we are diving in and Having a conversation all about how to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime with our guest in the house today,
Nicole Herring, this is a great show and we’re going to go ahead and dive right in. But before we do, I want to make sure you have utilized the tools we have for you here to grow and design and scale your business here at this sweet life company. And through this week, I have entrepreneur podcast, all of which can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com
on there very specifically, I want to point to our start to scale up system. If you haven’t yet taken the self-assessment to find out what stage of business you are in, it is absolute gold. There are some short questions for you to answer. And then based on the stage of business, you’re in, we give you a whole entire list in a checklist,
actually with support in steps to get your business to the next level. So no more confusion overwhelm or shiny object syndrome. There’s a very short assessment will get you there. And you can take that assessment simply by visiting Sweetlife code.com forward slash quiz. Okay, let’s go and head and dive into today’s episode with our guests. This is what we’re talking about.
This show is great for any of you who are in the first stages of your business, launch and development, and even scaling your company. So based on where you are in that, self-assessment, this is great for those of you in stages one through three, and you feel like you might be struggling to make a decision on your personal brand and how to represent yourself to the world.
Because as an entrepreneur expert or professional leader, one of the strongest assets that you have is your personal brand, right? And your brand is an outward representation of who you are and what you bring to the world. But oftentimes commonly leaders struggle with imposter syndrome. They get confused about what they want to show up, who they want to show up as who they want to show up for.
In actually I talk with a lot of entrepreneurs who are kind of afraid just to even put their personal brand out there to the world, because they know once they do that, you know, you can’t really take it back. And so they feel like they are just stuck in this place where they can’t move forward. You’re worried maybe somebody is going to judge you and you don’t want to have any regrets,
but as a leader, as an expert, even if you have a company brand, it’s important that your personal brand shows up to the world, because people are going to connect with you as a person so much more than they’re going to connect with a brand or any sort of accompany brand first. That’s why everybody loves seeing behind the scenes on your Instagram or talking to you directly in a clubhouse room,
who you are and who you show up as are incredibly important things. And so that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. Today’s expert is Nicole Herring. She’s an NLP practitioner that breaks down her process to help you make strategic, personal brand decisions. And here’s a little bit of Nicole story and she shares it more when we dive into this, because I think it’s important for you to connect with it.
Basically she’s done everything. She’s been a designer and an entrepreneur, and she struggled with the fact of really stepping into who she is called to be as far as being also a mom. And she has gone through the process to create an amazing structure that she’s going to guide you through today that helped herself go through how to make personal brand decisions for her business.
Another little backstory here is Nicole is also, I first met her. She traveled with us to Florida in fall of 2020 for our Sweetlife company planning retreat. I had never met this woman before. She was absolutely a gem, even though she lives like 12 miles from me, isn’t that crazy. We had to fly to Florida from Colorado to meet each other for the first time.
But one of the things that really stood out to me, she photographed our entire week there and it was amazing, but how she did that was she really worked with my team. She photographed my team as well to really extract who they were as people so that it represented in the outward view of the photos that they would use professionally. It was absolute genius.
And that’s why I have invited her on today’s show. You’re going to absolutely love this woman, just like I do. So at the end of this episode, you’re going to understand personal versus company branding. And we’re really diving into the personal branding side. And Nicole has given you a set of questions that you can go through and ask yourself to make the smartest,
most confident, personal brand decisions for yourself. All of the show notes and everything we’re talking about can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number two 19. All right, let’s go ahead and dive in.<inaudible> All right. You guys, I am joined by my very, very good friend, Nicole Herring. And let me give you a little bit of a background story.
Before we dive into today’s business trainings. Nicole lives 15 minutes from me, but we had never met. We were introduced by Cathy Hawn. Who’s an amazing woman and she connected us because I was looking for a photographer. Now here’s a little bit of the background story too. I have never been into like personal photo shoots because I didn’t believe anybody could actually capture me and who I authentically am.
I was, my experience was I was always like forced to be somebody that I’m not anyway, long story short. We were planning our business retreat at a beautiful beach in Tampa, Florida on the beach in Tampa, Florida. And I really wanted to bring a photographer and I met Nicole and I realized he was the first person that I had ever found that could truly capture the authentic behind the scenes of what we were doing as a company and to get amazing photography of really what it’s like to be part of the Sweetlife company and who I am as a person.
So I had the pleasure of spending a week with Nicole on the beach in Tampa and walked away with the most incredible photos, just capturing everything we did as a company. But then also, I mean, this woman took the time to know me. She even had me like laying down in that sand And I was like, yes, you want me to lay down with my hair and the seashells in the ocean.
I would love that. You know, so she, I really took the time to know who I was as a person. And I am just so blessed to have her in my life. Now, the thing that we’re talking about today is one of Nicole’s incredible giftings, and that is helping entrepreneurs actually create this personal brand that lives a legacy that is true to who they are as people.
And so there’s a big process of doing that. It’s not just showing up to take pictures. There’s so much more than Nicole identified in that. And that’s why I’m so pleased to introduce you guys to her today. Because after you hear about her process, it’s going to really put you in the right direction of creating your personal brand in a way that’s true to you.
So Nicole, welcome to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. So glad that you’re here. Thank you. I’m thrilled to be here. I just want to say thank you. And yeah, I love, I love how we had to travel to another state, literally on the other side of the country to finally meet each other, we have had a couple of calls and COVID kind of came up and our original plans derailed,
but we came together anyway. So I love how worldwide our brands are. And yet, like we still had to meet, we still had to get on a plane to actually connect. And it just, it’s just the way I love to do business. Like, I’ll meet you by the beach. I think I wrote that at the bottom of the email.
I’m like, just tell me when, and I’ll meet you by the ocean. Right. And we did too. Like she met me by the beach. It was awesome. Tell everybody, yeah. Tell everybody about, you know, kind of your evolution To your now area of incredible expertise. Thank you. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. Cause it’s like at one point when I decided I wanted to leave the version of motherhood,
that was the stay at home, the homemaker version of motherhood. What else is out there for me? I really did not know what that looked like. And I just thought, how can I get paid to be creative? I didn’t know what that meant. There was a whole entrepreneurial part of the journey that I was just like, so outside my realm of possibility at that point,
I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And so I did, I went on a journey for a couple of years of just allowing myself to say, Hey, I would love to get paid as a personal stylist. As an interior designer, I rebuilt and refinished furniture. I paint on canvases, like all kinds of things and then fell into finding that I had a knack for writing.
And then writing led me to copywriting and copywriting led me to branding and branding led me to photography. And then it was like this whole full circle cycle where it was kind of like, Oh, branding, photography, personal style, interior design, all of that is all so well encompassed and all the facets in one nice and neat package. And I was like,
Oh, so like, I didn’t even know branding was a thing. So I really pursued that path. And I really loved it. I worked with some great women, helping them build their brand, writing content, helping them create launch strategy. And then they would do nothing, right? Like they would pay me thousands of dollars to develop these concepts.
And then they would get stuck in their own brain. And in their own minds of feeling like they were an imposter or they couldn’t figure out how to then become visible in their business, even though they thought they were hiring me to solve the problem of, Oh, as soon as I have the copy, I’m good to go. As soon as I have the images,
I’ll be good to go. As soon as I have a launch strategy and I have the bird’s eye view, I know how to take steps. I just need somebody else to show me, help me see the way. And so I thought, Oh great. I’ll be happy to be, get paid to be creative and do all of this. But then I found that they were just not taking action in the business.
And I thought to myself, okay, what is it that is keeping some people from taking action and some people did not. And then it kind of, I stumbled down the path of NLP, which is neuro-linguistic programming. It’s a modality for coaching through the mental and emotional blocks that keep you from creating success in your life. And I found some of my own blocks and healed and transformed theirs.
And then I was like, sign me up. How do I become a practitioner? So I put a pause in offering creative services so that I could bring this to my clients so I could support them mentally and emotionally while they are creating a brand so that they’re not living in this tension of who they are portraying themselves on social media versus thinking there’s somebody different in real life.
And so as a really a matter of eliminating that tension and helping them see that they are the best and the worst of both of that and owning the good, the bad and the ugly so that they could actually move forward with their business. So there’s the long and the shit of it. Yeah. I mean, that’s so it’s so important. I think there are so many people listening that have spent so much money on valuable deliverables like you were creating,
right. And they thought that that’s what they’re missing and they still don’t take action on it. And so I love that you were so intentional and you’re like, wait a minute, you’ve paid me thousands of dollars and you’re still not using this stuff. What’s the problem here. So I love your journey. It’s very much who you are now that I know you kind of being like,
okay, now where let’s take another step back, where are we getting stuck? Where’s the bottleneck. So today on the show, we’re talking about how to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime. And we’re really talking about a really how to encompass that. And there’s so many different things that we’re going to dive here. And, you know, if you’re listening and you have bought many things before and maybe felt like you were stuck and you haven’t taken action,
this was a really important episode for you to keep tuning into cause Nicole’s can actually take you through her framework in order to actually that outlines a thought process for you. So you can make intentional decisions, which is so cool. But before we get into that, let’s kind of set a baseline for somebody who’s listening that might not know. So first of all,
let’s define the difference between a company brand and a personal brand and kind of dive into that just real quick. If anybody, I wouldn’t say, if anybody I know who so many people ask me these questions, like, should I brand myself or should I brand my business? And what’s really the difference. So can you just basically explain that for anybody who might be wondering?
Sure. So when you’re branding a business, you’re branding a solution that appeals to a particular ideal client. And so everything that you’re doing within a brand of a business is okay, who’s our ideal client. Who’s willing to pay for the solution that we’re offering. What is their price point? Is it for a business to business solution? Is it a business to consumer solution,
right? It’s all about the consumer and the problem that they’re attempting to solve when you’re in a personal brand, you’re still very focused on the client, but the client also wants to feel like they’re resonating with the person who’s delivering the solution, who’s delivering the transformation. And so the personal brand aspect is just, it’s a bit about who you are as a human and you’re injecting those qualities into a brand.
And the very simplest way is to take like, like you and I were talking about previously is just taking, you know, a few basic adjectives about who you are as a person and injecting that into the visuals of your brand. And so that when people meet you in person, they feel like they already know and connect with who you are, because your feed or your,
you know, the way that you speak, the energy that you have comes through. And so there’s, there’s no disconnect there in the personal brand, from the visuals we’re seeing online and the person that they meet in person, right. Because you don’t, your brand is speaking for you long before you’ve actually connected. One-on-one Right. And something you said to me before we started recording,
that was just super important is that you said the personal brand also tells the idea of clients. It tells them a story of what’s possible. So they are actually able to see what they personally, it’s very hard to find, see yourself personally, in a company brand, right. But when you’re looking at a person and you’re seeing their life and what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing that,
where they go and what they’re wearing and who they’re hanging out with and all those things, all of that is representative of what is possible for them when they work with your services. And I thought that was so important for people to understand. And that really speaks a lot to, if anybody has that question, should I brand myself, or should I brand my company?
There are very important. We could have a whole podcast on that, but just, just to take away, there are some very important to note that doing both is very important. Moving forward to a certain extent, obviously, based on, on your company and based on honestly, based on your company, exit strategy, if you want to have your company acquired and things like that in the future.
Okay. So let’s go ahead and dive into why it’s important now. So some of the reasons why it’s important to create an authentic personal brand that is really, really true to who you are in a couple of things I want you to define for us, if you could, please are number one, what is imposter syndrome? Because that word is used quite often and people might necessarily not necessarily know the actual definition.
And then what’s in between that in self-doubt. Yeah. Thanks for asking. And I did bring up the definition just because I want to make sure that I am saying it correctly, because the way that I, well, I’ll just go with it. So imposter syndrome, according on a quick Google search, it says that it’s loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud.
And it’s disproportionately affects high-achieving people who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments. And so basically when I say, what, how self-doubt and imposter syndrome differ is it, imposter syndrome says that you even look at the evidence and then you diminish it. You actually say, Oh, I’ve created 40 grands in my business, you know, in X amount of time.
But that was just a fluke. Like I got really lucky. These three things happen, X, Y, and Z. I didn’t really make that happen. It was a fluke. It was by accident, all that. So you diminish what you’ve accomplished and also hold it against yourself. And so the self doubt is what keeps you from taking action in the future.
So then you’re now diminishing. What’s possible for you, even though you have evidence that supports that you can create Results because you’ve done it. You’ve now diminished it and created self doubt that then prohibits you and even self sabotages. You moving forward with the expertise, the zone of genius that you have, the skillset that you’ve nurtured, or your natural talents that you have,
right? Like all of that, you then now discount and say, it’s not, I mean, I can’t really charge. I don’t really know what I’m doing. Like I just, you know, whatever. So now you’re discounting what you can do in the future. And the imposter syndrome kind of is how you reflect on what you’ve accomplished and say,
I’m just surprised if, if only people I, the fluke made 40 grand or whatever it is. Right. Right. Okay. So just a random question for somebody who’s listening. I mean, most of our listeners are in this growth and scale phase of their business, but for those that are listening, that are brand new business and they haven’t done anything yet,
like they’re starting from scratch and they’re looking around and being like, like, how do I do this? There’s all these other people that are better than me that have been doing this longer than me, that LA LA LA like all these things that they’re saying to themselves in their mind, we’re going to go through this framework here, which I’m so excited for you to share your framework.
But is there something that you would say to them specifically? Oh, for sure. So all the time, and I mean, this is, I’m not making this statement up. People say it all the time, but it’s like, you cannot compare your beginning to somebody else’s chapter 47 or whatever it is. And so you have to allow yourself to,
to be bad, to be a starter, to be fresh, to be new. And also, if you really want to look at what you’ve accomplished in your life, you can lean back and evaluate self-evaluate every job you ever had, even as a babysitter when you were 14, right. Like take it way back and go old school and look at every job you ever had and look at the skills and qualities and things that you have honed and created from each individual job.
I mean, I know I worked at a bagel shop when I was a child. Like not<inaudible>. Yeah. You definitely got through that. I mean, 15, we were children. Right. We thought, we thought we were so big, but yeah. So, you know, 15, I worked at a bagel shop and then I worked at a law firm when I was 16 years old,
just, you know, working in the back. And so every single job that I’ve had, I’ve been able to look and see like, okay, well, if I could do that job at age 16, then what did I get from that, that qualifies me for what I’m doing now. And you can actually go back and just prove to yourself and self-evaluate and say,
actually, I had no luck, I’ve done a lot, acquired a lot of skills. And so it’s the human condition to look at where we’re lacking, as opposed to where we’re actually having the skillset and honoring what, what we do know. And so you have to literally train your brain to not look towards the negative and seek out the positive. Okay.
So, and then one of the, one of the ways that this works, even with one of my clients recently is that she was like, I was like, okay, tell me a time in which you felt really successful. And she was like, Oh, I don’t know. I’d have to really think about it. And I’m like, don’t think about it.
Just tell me a time in which you felt successful. She’s like, well, I don’t know if the is like successful enough. And I was like, see right there, right there as a, as a feeling of not being good enough. And the reason why is because if I said, tell me something that sad that happened, you could immediately go to a sad memory,
but you wouldn’t second guess, was that sad enough? Was that the status memory I’ve ever had? Probably not. Right. And so it’s a human condition to really look at the least important parts of the detail and make them the most significant things you have to retrain your brain. And so that’s a process that I actually teach my clients. That’s the reframing process that I’m going to teach you right now.
It’s a bit of, a lot of different things that I’ve learned. There are so many teachers out there who teach different parts of this. And for me, pulling it all together was not a feat in the sense where it was a hard accomplishment, but when I really saw the full picture, it just kind of blew my mind. And so until that process,
yeah. Do you want me to Right into it? Yeah. So let’s tell him, let’s kind of set everybody up for what’s about to come. So there are seven steps to it and you actually break out the word reframe into an acronym. So sh so you’re going to guide people through this process. And so at the end of this process, like when they’re done with this,
they’re going to have a clear thought process to make decisions on building their personal brand. That will last a lifetime. So that’s the outcome of what you’re about to teach here. Yes. Okay. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Yes. Tell us your reframe process. Okay. So when you are reframing something, the first thing we want to do is really look at,
okay, what is the real and undeniable facts? What is the reality? That’s what they’ll let our RFC on spore. And so what we want to really do is break it down into three words or less of the problem that you’re trying to solve and take away all of the unnecessary words and all of the emotion and just simplify what you’re trying to create.
And so if what you’re trying to do is sit down and create, copy, offer a website. Or if you’re trying to write sales content in an email, or if you’re trying to start a nurture sequence in, in social media, you know, you just don’t make it into a big problem. You just like writing content. You know, what’s the most simple way for you to say this is the problem that we’re solving with the reality of the situation.
And so then the next letter is E which is experience. And so you really want to talk about like, what is the experience, the reference in which we want the person plays through the event of the thing. So in reference to writing social media content, when it’s the experience that I want my clients to have, when they’re reading through this, what is the experience I want to have when reading this same thing with writing content,
for an email sequence or in sales page, what is the experience we want people to have? And what’s the experience I want to have, right. Do I want to feel confident? Do I want to feel right? So that’s actually F I dumped right into the next step. It’s, it’s such a natural process that I can lead right into it.
And so the next letter of reframe is F. And so then you think about, okay, well, what are the feelings I want to accomplish in the writing this piece of content? I want to convert our readers into clients. How do I want to feel the number, one thing that people neglect to feel as confident, or like they know the answer to their client’s problem.
And so they sit down and they start to go into this worry, like, I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what my clients need to hear. Oh, what am I doing? Who am I anyway? Right. So they go into this emotional mind drama instead of sitting with confidence that they’re the expert and they know how to solve this problem.
If you can tap into that energy and get into that feeling and dictate the experience you want your clients to have. And so when will you, right? So like, let me Over to like building their personal brand. So once somebody listening would be, you know, you’re thinking when you’re writing the copywriting for your social media or in your website, you know,
really going through, you know, what is reality? What isn’t, you know, what is the experience you want people to have when they experience your personal brand? How do you want them to feel when they experience your personal brand? Yeah. This process is so good. Okay. So, and then R yeah, so the R is for the reaction.
And so a lot of times there’s an unintentional way that we react to our own thoughts and feelings. And so just how I was saying, when you’re sitting down and you’re thinking, okay, what is it, how do I want to be feeling when I’m writing the sales page or developing my brand and deciding who I am in the world and how I’m offering my services,
who am I, what are the feelings I want to have? This is the reaction of going in and thinking immediately the human design of just saying, I don’t know what I’m talking about and having that knee-jerk reaction of, of discrediting or diminishing all of the things that, you know, to be true and accurate about yourself and the a and the next one is just assuming radical responsibility and choosing an action instead.
And so instead of having the negative reaction and making decisions about your brand, what if you were just really intentional and you chose to like, trust yourself and believe in what you were saying and believe in who, who you were being and not live in that tension of that, your online personality or your online identity, and that brand is any different than who you are at home.
Sometimes there is some tension there, and that’s the mental and emotional awareness pieces that you have to kind of get the coaching on because the strategy is nothing. If you don’t have the mental and emotional pieces that support who you’re becoming and who you’re growing into in the online world. And so the M and reframe is for mindset awareness. And this is a different way of looking at it than most people usually do,
because a lot of times people think that mindset is, you know, like you’re either in growth mindset, you’re either moving towards something or you’re in limited mindset, or you’re in a lack mentality. And sometimes there’s something in the middle called neutral that nobody really gets to. And so I like to really attribute the mindset awareness to even like a storyline. So if you have a story,
there’s like a hero that’s out there, like saving the world. And they’re the ones that are in the growth zone and they’re making all the magic happen. Right. Then you have the other side, which is the victim mentality, the fixed mindset. And then sometimes there’s these innocent bystanders that are just part of the story, but it’s not really their drama,
but they’re just there, they’re a neutral person. And so sometimes I think that when it comes to in a mindset, when we’re looking, especially if you’re trying to build your brand, you coach people on this all the time, like find your competitive people, look at what they’ve got, what they don’t have assess their brand what’s missing. And then from there,
fill in the gaps with what’s natural and true to you, and really honor what you’re better at, but then get out of there and do not stay in the place where you are now living in comparison land and looking at their, at their content. And now going into the victim mentality that your brand is not as good as theirs, you know, all that kind of stuff.
You just need to get back to neutral by just removing that negative feedback from your own brain, by just knowing who they are, knowing what the competition is, and then not living in their world is the only way you’re going to create success. And so you have to just decide, am I going to grow into this? Can I go into neutral?
Or am I going to tumble down into victim world and, and be in a limited mindset? And now second, guess everything that I’ve made a decision on. And then the very last word is E which is the three E’s. Cause I could not pick one. There’s too many great words here, but listen, you have to experiment. Okay. So you just have to shift things and just be willing to experiment live in the curiosity whenever you’re testing your brand and you’re validating your offers,
you just have to say, what’s working and what’s not working and really take the failure of things landing or not landing away from who you are as a person, a failure. Is it about an event? A failure is not an adjective of me as a human, right? But it might be a rat. The failure of a specific idea that I had,
the idea was a failure. That doesn’t mean I’m a failure as a person. So you have to be able to experiment with curiosity, obviously, execution of all things, right? You give strategy to people all the time, how many people are taking strategy in and implementing, right? Like this is the disruption that you want to create in the market.
And, and in your industry of saying, okay, like, listen, information is not enough. If you’re not executing and implementing, you’re missing the Mark. And you, I know as a, as a brand and as a company are wanting to really change that. And then self-evaluation, I mean, here’s the thing, the reason why we fire people in business is never the reason why we hire them.
So if you can’t go back and look at why you’ve fired employees and you’re not learning anything from that experience, right? So the same for ourselves, like if we don’t self evaluate and look at where we, what worked, what didn’t work and allow ourselves to grow through all the circumstances, building a brand, launching an offer, all those things. If you’re not able to self-evaluate without being hypercritical of yourself,
right. It’s like critiquing and experience without being hypercritical of the self, that’s a learned skill set. So, and that’s one of the things that I found is that people were just, their inner critic was so harsh mine too. Right? Like I was like, everything that I did was not good enough. And I did not become an expert in overcoming imposter syndrome because I just learned from a book.
This is the crab. I don’t know if I can say cuss words on here, but I’m like, this is the S H I T that I went through to overcome my own self doubt and my own imposter syndrome and be like, actually do know a lot and had to go through this process. So this came from a year’s worth of wanting to get out of my own damn way to be honest.
Right. Right. And I love your framework. And I just want to highlight something you said, just kind of in recapping here, it was under the mindset piece. I love the neutral piece. And I think that you’re so right. I don’t hear that spoken to very often too, though, the gross or the fixed mindset, but what you said is you have to just decide to grow through this.
And I think that is so important because I mean, there’s nothing sexy or glittery about that. You just choose to go through the process of taking the action, which is your next step, you know, really in believing in what you do. And you just choose, take action to continue on, to force that wall down. And I think that that is so important that you said that.
So let’s go ahead and just kind of recap this reframe. So this is your reframe process. And what our listeners can expect is when you go through this and you take these concepts and you apply them to developing your personal brand, it gives you the thought process. So these are things that you think through as you are developing your visual in your written brand and the way your brand is represented to the world.
And so first you said the Aras reality, what is real and what isn’t the E is experience. And you elaborate on that. So beautiful. The F is diving into your feelings. The R is the reaction that a is assuming radical responsibility, love that the M is really the mindset piece. And then the ESA experiment execute. And self-evaluation, was it evaluate?
Yeah. Yeah, it was evaluate. It’s also good. It’s also good. And so this really is a thought process. I love that you have created a process of thinking to make sure that people are making strategic decisions about their personal brand personal branding. And I think that that’s why so many people get stuck, but when we’re branding a company, you know,
it’s totally different and we can pivot brand strategies and all those things. When you are personally branding yourself, especially putting it out on that forevermore timestamp on social media and what that looks like online, things that, you know, we cannot take back. Like once we put them out there, they are there. I think that’s also why people like there’s some confusion or fear or worry of doing it incorrectly,
but you’ve just done a beautiful job laying out this framework to have people really consider, you know, this is what I want to create. This is why I want to create it in a very intentional way. That is in fact, going to build a personal brand that lasts a lifetime. So thank you so much for taking the time for people. And how cool is it?
Like it’s always through our own journey that we build the most incredible solutions for other people. So the one thing I do want to say, I just want to say one thing is that a lot of times too, people put, they put this feeling of this as like, Oh, it’s, it’s forever, right? And it’s, it is building a lifetime brand doesn’t mean that you have to choose this one thing,
and then you’re going to stick to it for the rest of your life forever and ever. Amen. It just means that, you know, like you’re going to be true to yourself no matter what. So your brand is going to be aligned with you for the lifetime of your brand. It doesn’t mean that what you’re choosing today is the thing you have to stick to for the next 72 years.
It’s just how to be aligned for the lifetime of your brand. No matter how your alignment, the ebbs and flows of your own journey can always re attribute and rebranding is a thing. People do it all the time. You don’t have to say this needs to be set in stone. So don’t worry about that part. Just know that your brand will always be a reflection of you.
If you are really in tune with your and who you are as a human and confidence in that is what creates the most beautiful brand identities. Right? So well said, thank you so much for being on the show, Nicole, and we’ll put it all in the show notes here, how people can find you, but in the meantime, for those just listening,
tell everybody about your business and how they can find you on social media and online. Thank you. Yeah, I do personal concept coaching and I do brand identity coaching. And really it is the beautiful part that I love is to support the woman, to feel like she is the best of who she is in real life. And then making sure that that transfers into her brand.
And so that it feels this like it’s business, it’s personal and it’s, it’s a one beautifully reflective relationship. Instead of living in the tension of that, my website is really simple. Nicole herring.com and I C O L E H E R I N d.com. I have brand retreats coming up. Let’s all fingers crossed. The travel opens up internationally for right now,
we’re doing some, you know, a mainland of retreats. And of course I do coach my clients on a one-on-one basis. And I do have a group program that the sweet life company is helping me to get out into the world. So that’ll be exciting. And yeah, on social media, you can find me on Instagram as Nicole Herring, brilliant or no mine mastery coach.
Sorry. I recently changed the name of that. And then of course, I’m on clubhouse under Nicole Herring, just my name. So come find me, I’ll be getting on there and helping women to break through their self belief and limitations within themselves so that they can just get out there and make a difference. Yeah. And I will say, I actually get a lot of questions on who does our photography.
So this is the woman you guys, if you’re following me on Instagram, you want to know who’s taken all of our pictures. Nicole is the one and people have been asking me actually like, who is she? I want her to come to me and on my retreat. So those are, those are all good things. And what she’s teaching here in her coaching process sets you up to make sure the outcome,
the visual outcome is in line with who you are. So yes, the photography, the retreats are amazing, but I would highly recommend if you aren’t sure, and set and confident in who you are and who you were supposed to be to the world to really make sure that you’re honing in with Nicole and getting that set first. So everything you build and create is manifesting in the way that it is supposed to,
and it’s in line with you. So thank you so much for being on the show. I absolutely adore you. Thank you for who you are to us and the things you do for us as a company as well. All right. You’re welcome.
If you’re a sleepless entrepreneur, this show is for you.
Summary:
Sleep is affecting our businesses. Whether good, or bad, your sleep is connected to your company’s performance in some capacity. And, beyond that… our health and livelihood as humans. But we all know that, right?
If you’re like me – You have no desire to listen to a podcast that discusses everything you already know! But this episode is different. Sleep expert, Mollie McGlocklin dives into tracking your sleep with tech, understanding Heart Rate Variability HRV, and simple small-steps you can do each day to work with your Circadian Rhythm.
At the end of this episode you will:
Know how your Circadian Rhythm affects peak performance
Know how to read the date from your wearable sleep technology
And have basic things you can do tomorrow morning towards more productive and healthy sleep
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to episode number 218. And I’m April beach, your host founder of the suite Life company. And I am so glad to be talking to you again, usually on this show,
we’re talking about scale strategies, online, offer creation, how to create your courses or your mastermind and funnels and marketing. But we are all about building a business to give you the life that you want. And so that requires a holistic view on strategies for both business and life. And so I love doing shows like the ones that we were doing today.
And let me be completely clear with you about why this show really hits home for me. About two weeks ago, I landed in Philadelphia from Denver for a weekend to visit my oldest son who plays lacrosse for the university of Delaware. And I was on my laptop. The whole entire time got out of the airport, got in the rental car, turned on clubhouse,
and I was really tired. You guys, I had just gotten to this point where I had been going, going, going, by the way, I thrive on going, going, going, but I turn on clubhouse and I was browsing through the rooms of what I should listen to. And there was a room that popped up regarding sleep and it really hit home for me because I knew that this is something that I do not do well in this area.
Now a little bit more behind the scenes. I don’t like sleeping. I love being awake. I do really well from 10:00 PM to 1:00 AM. You know, the world falls away, everything’s silent. And that’s when I really thrive as a creator, frankly. And so I would much rather be awake living life than be sleeping. And that’s the way I’ve been my whole entire life,
but it’s really taken a toll on me and let’s even go a little bit deeper in transparency behind the scenes. What I used to think when people talked about, Oh, you know, I hit quote unquote, that wall. These are the things that I thought, Oh, you’re going to love me. Or you are totally going to hate me and never listened to this podcast.
Again, here’s the honest truth. When I heard anybody say or tell their stories about how they got like super tired and hit a wall. These were the things that went through my head, keeping it real. I thought I am stronger than those people. I thought that will never happen to me. And I thought I am born to thrive in like this balls to the wall type of a life.
It’s always how I have been. I love living like this. These people just aren’t built like me. Okay. Talk about really, really judgmental. And that’s when things like hit us on the face because it is in the face because that’s exactly what happened to me in over the last couple of months, I have gotten completely exhausted. The second part of this and why this episode is so important to me personally right now is that I lost my father to dementia.
And I realized that the way my brain is functioning is not the same way. It was 10 to 12 years ago. And for whatever obvious reasons that is, you know, age, maybe being one of them, I’m not taking care of my brain. And it is one of my greatest assets. And so when I heard our guests today speak on this clubhouse room about sleep.
I knew that I personally needed for her to come in here and deliver some insane wisdom to me as a CEO, as a business owner. And I believe that there are some of you guys out there that need to hear this message and what she’s talking about as well. Now here’s the deal. If you’re like me, you haven’t seriously, no desire to listen to a podcast that discusses everything you already know that you aren’t doing right?
But this episode is different. Our guest today is going to dive into tracking your sleep and understanding technology behind sleep trackers. And she’s talking about simple steps, okay? Simple things that you can do. You know, we’re not going to come in here in this show saying you got to get sleep, but that’s not at all with this show is about,
which is why I personally appreciate this episode so much. So let me introduce you to who our guest expert is today. Molly McLaughlin is a creator of sleep as a skill, a company that optimizes people’s sleep through a unique blend of technology, accountability, and behavioral change. She created this company from her own experience when she literally has had not slept well her entire life,
she had massive, poor sleep habits. And all of a sudden she found herself in for months. She dealt with insomnia in her background is in behavioral change. And so she went down this rabbit hole to figure out like, what is going on with these disturbances in my sleep. And she really went in a way that did not include sleep AIDS. And because of her experience,
now this company was born and she is an absolute expert at helping you know, how to really get the sleep that you need and understand sleep. And that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show. So at the end of this episode, you will know how your circadian rhythm affects your peak performance. You will know how to read the data from your wearable technology,
which was super cool because I wear sleep technology, but frankly, I really didn’t understand how to read the data. And so that is very cool. We’re talking about this on today’s show as well. And you’re going to walk away with some basic things you can do. First thing tomorrow morning to move towards more productive sleep in more healthy sleep. So here are the background notes,
everything we’re talking about, including a link to join the Sweetlife entrepreneurs club in clubhouse, where Molly and I are going to be going live. And she’s going to be chatting with you about your Entrepreneur sleep and peak performance questions can be found by visiting the show notes for this episode. There’s a lot of things in here and even more tools that Molly’s given you.
So if you want to know more about, we’re talking about Connect with Molly further, be part of this conversation and frankly learn right alongside me, visit Sweetlife co.com click on the podcast. And this is episode number 218. So let’s go ahead and dive in with Molly.<inaudible> All right. Hi, you guys. Welcome to another episode of the Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast.
I am so excited to be joined by my guest today. I’m actually found her on clubhouse. Many of you know, who’ve been listening that I am bingeing clubhouse and can’t get enough of it. And this is exactly why, because I get to dive into spaces that I never would have been able to before in find people like Molly. How do you say your last name off?
Yes. Perfect McLaughlin. Absolutely. Yes, I know. Is it phonetic? Is it not? Yes. And find people like Molly McLaughlin. I am so excited to welcome you here on this show. Can you introduce everybody to your area of expertise in super power? And just give us a little bit of background before we dive into what we’re talking about today.
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me here. This has already been a pleasure. I can’t wait to get into more with you. I am the creator of a company called sleep is a skill that helps people optimize their sleep through a blend of technology, accountability, and behavioral change, and a little bit background on me and why I’m so obsessed with the topic of sleep and why it’s totally changed.
My life is that for so many years, I did everything not to do for your sleep. You know, every article you read what to do. I was doing the opposite in a lot of ways, but it really didn’t think it was much of a problem. I didn’t think much of it at all. Living in Manhattan as an entrepreneur, burning the candle at both ends stressed to the max.
And I just thought of my sleep as a lot of labels. I thought of it as I’m a night owl, I’m a short sleeper. I’m not the greatest sleeper. Oh, it must be in my jeans. That’s just how it is for me. And, and you know, a number of different things, but didn’t think of it as something that I would have much of a say of how to transform.
And I didn’t correlate when I was starting to get more and more sick at different things, you know, just getting run down anxious. I had guessed straight as I had shingles. I had a number of things that were just indicators, right. That you are stressed and things are not working. So, so yeah, and then it was not until I went through my own period of insomnia while traveling internationally.
So in different countries, you know, not speaking the same language and I cannot sleep. And it was really a lot of the entrepreneurship part of it that, you know, our businesses weren’t ready to be taken on the road yet. My fiance and I, and how it manifested was suddenly I can’t sleep. And the amount of anxiety that was happening during that period,
I went to the doctors in Croatia, got, you know, with Google translate and leave with their version of Ambien. And in that moment, kind of like, what is the game plan here am. I’m supposed to just take something like this for the rest of my life, that doesn’t align with my identity of who I think of myself and yet I’m desperate to sleep.
So what do I do? So what ended up happening was really just getting up under this area, going really down the rabbit hole of what it would take from a, what I learned to chronobiology and circadian rhythm perspective to transform my sleep. And then from that place, it really just snowballed into like podcasts, newsletters, courses, all of the things.
Okay. So you said so many things and we’re just going to kind of come together and pack it. But right now, I mean, your super power is helping high performers and entrepreneurs and small business owners have a healthy life and sleep. Yeah. That we all identify just like you said, I mean, I am you back in the past, right?
I definitely, I do not sleep as much. It goes in flows. I have an inconsistent sleep. You know, I have kids which brings a whole nother dynamic into that and I travel about five months a year. So with that being said, I think I have like a recipe for disaster relief disaster. And so I’m so excited to learn from you today.
And I know our listeners too, are going to be like, Oh yeah, that’s probably me. I’m like, so let’s start by just really unpacking this. So you said circadian rhythm. What is that for anybody that is not really aware of that term and what part of our bodies function in that capacity? How does that work? Yes. Perfect.
And I also want to say for what you’re sharing too, despite that being one of the lowest points at the time of my life was what it felt like, you know, just nothing is working. This is the worst thing is horrible. And yet I do now look back on it as being one of the best things that could have happened to me.
So if you are at any given spot in your journey around sleep, I think there really is so much to learn from it. It really, no pun intended woke me up and had me transform my life in ways that I don’t think I would have, unless it was at such a rock bottom place. So having said that, Well, just along the lines to thank you for saying that.
Cause I do feel like, I mean, I’m really transparent here with our listeners on the podcast. I mean, I do feel like, like I had hit a wall, I just turned 45 this week and I’ve always been able to push and push and push on a high performer, had tons of energy, always been able to do it. And it was just finally a couple of months ago as a first time in my whole entire life where I was so tired and I couldn’t push through,
I’ve still always been able to do that. I like, literally couldn’t think I literally couldn’t speak, like the words were coming out of my mouth incorrectly, but it was the first time ever where I feel like I hit that wall and I couldn’t keep pushing it forward. And so I knew at that point in time, and this was prior to Christmas that like,
I’m not healthy. I’m like, it doesn’t matter. I go to the gym every single day. All those things don’t matter. Like I knew that I was literally aging my brain and frankly, as with my father had dementia and these are all things that I’m starting to think about. And I’m saying, listen, I have really hit this wall and I need to sleep.
This is no longer something that, and I don’t want any of our listeners too. And this is the whole point of the show. Like, don’t get to the point that Molly did. Don’t you get to the point where I am, where I’m like stalking this woman on clubhouse. You guys help me. I have hit a wall. So we don’t want you to have to be to the point where I frankly am literally at this recording and where Molly was,
because how much more are you capable of being before you ever, ever get here and so on and so forth. So thank you for saying that. And that’s why I stopped you. Yeah, absolutely. It’s really important because I won, you know, I was reading nonstop, all these different things around how to improve my sleep and speaking with all these different experts and one thought leader in this area had made the point that when your sleep is not working,
there’s something that your body is really trying to tell you. And I’m not trying to say that in a loose, like esoteric way or anything, but I think that’s really important because how I was running my, this didn’t come out of a vacuum. This was from, you know, years of kind of a mismanagement of my time, my days my,
you know, keep pushing it to the next level. And, and so it occurred from a snowballing of that. And so what it really took was that to actually, for me to listen. So I don’t know the plus side while I at the time didn’t want to go through it. It actually was a blessing. And so I hope that there can be that message and that there is,
there are so many success stories on the other side of people being able to shift this area. So one, I acknowledge you for the sharing and the, the vulnerability there, because it’s so important. And to, you know, so then the, how, so what you said about the circadian rhythm, why this is important in this conversation is one just to kind of bring it back to the basics.
So no matter where you’re at and where your sleep journey is that we can always start to come back to one that this is a skill that, okay, so this is learnable. So let’s just let’s learn. So from the strategic rhythm perspective, one that exists on a spectrum was something that I didn’t understand. So the circadian rhythm is this 24 hour rhythm as human beings that we function within.
But that rhythm, the queuing system for that rhythm can either be on the spectrum of, from a strong side or weak side. And you might be falling somewhere in between that spectrum. Then I would make the argument that many of us are on the weaker side of that just as a modern society, how we’re, how we’re functioning and as diurnal creatures.
Yeah. This is all kind of coming from this concept around chronobiology the science of really time and how that impacts our biology as diurnal creatures. We are meant to be active during the day and at rest at night. And of course, in my example, I was doing the opposite, like, you know, upside down living. So we’re looking to,
how can we bring things back and align with those cue givers that will help our rhythms be strong? So we, you know, those people, those friends of ours that might go out, everyone goes out and out super late, but they still wake up at the exact same time, you know, early morning. And you’re like, how are they doing that?
That’s crazy. That’s actually what we’re looking to train for is that kind of specificity around just the automaticity of waking up routinely going to sleep routinely around the same times, but there’s tons of things we can do to get to there. Okay. Fascinating. And I know those people I’m married to one of those people that it doesn’t matter what time he goes to sleep.
It is like, this is what time he gets up every single day. Yeah. Okay. So talk to us about, you know, really why is this important for fully understanding for those higher achievers busy entrepreneurs? How does this fit into our, you know, whole life business strategy? Because to me, as a business strategist, the way I need to form it within my own brain is say,
this is part of my strategic business in life design. This is just as important is marketing and selling and other things. So it’s a very holistic approach to business and life. And so how for entrepreneurs and small business owners are really just high achievers who are listening to this, why is this so important? How does this really affect their everyday? And honestly their profit and their performance.
I mean, that’s what we’re really getting down to get to if that’s the driver great, that’s the driver, are you not making as much money as you could be because frankly you aren’t sleeping. Right. I’m sure that there’s some data and some correlation there. Absolutely. Well, so there’s so many places we can go with that, but I can just even say anecdotally that my fiance owns companies that help train poker players at the table that are high stakes,
lots of stress, and how to make those decisions, that their decisions in their thinking from a cognitive athlete perspective will impact, you know, possibly thousands and millions of dollars as a result. Right? So one of the first places that they begin is the sleep optimization perspective. And I work with tons of poker players in the management of that. And so I share that just because that’s a very tangible experience of at the table,
you can either walk away with lots of money or not. And so it’s kind of entrepreneurial in nature, but you apply that in the high stakes of your days of your, you know, business interactions with people and just that cognitive ability to show up consistently and reliably, like, you know, so in the example of myself for years, I, there wouldn’t be accountable illness around how I would be when I’d wake up in the morning.
It wouldn’t be like, Oh, okay. So for that next, really important client call or what have you, I will be bringing my a game. It wasn’t like that. It was like, I hope I get a good night’s sleep and you know that I can have that functionality. Right. Like, That’s me, I’m raising my hand. If you guys are watching the video,
it’s like, this is me. Yeah, for sure. Yes, exactly. Cause that, you know, and there’s tons of studies that will point to this. So whether it just error rates, if you’re sleep deprived and the amount of errors that you might make, if you’re taking scent, you know, test, or this is important for pilots,
you know, these would become life or death elements, but certainly from a productivity perspective, like you’re gonna have all your faculties available to you in those really times. So just to scale it back, I think of it as a couple of things. One, I think of it as super, super important for that productivity perspective. And also because I had so much of that mental health component in there with anxiety and stress and moodiness and crankiness and freak out,
then, then with that just, it provides for me just a really important space to be at a equilibrium with how I’m approaching the world around me and stress levels and anxiety levels. And we can get into some of the wearable indicators for that. So it’s not so esoteric. It really has some kind of quantified data behind it. Right. Okay. So yeah,
let’s go ahead and do that actually. Can you, I definitely want to talk about the wearables at the time of this recording. Probably if you’re listening to this six months or eight months from now, the wearable part will probably not be accurate enough today because the technology is evolving. And that’s what we’re kind of talking about behind the scenes, but let’s go ahead.
Can you start just by sharing a couple of steps for those of our listeners who listened, they’re like, okay, this is, I am April right now. I mean, just tell me like, what should I be doing to get on top of this, the process of bringing this into order. Yes. Great. Okay. So step number one.
What I actually say is despite the fact that a lot of what I’ll be talking about from the circadian rhythm kind of lifestyle perspective is that a lot of it’s kind of how to harken back to almost Hunter gatherer days and like, you know, aligning with sunrise and sunset. I’m not saying everyone needs to rise with the sun. I’m not making that at all,
but I’m saying that there’s a lot of things we can do to bring about that workability with those rhythms of nature, because that’s going to really result in higher sleep efficiency and quality of our sleep. And at the very same time, despite the fact that I’m saying that I’m also gonna promote the marriage of technologies. And so much of this technology is at the source of our kind of being off-kilter with the,
that relationship, ironically, then bringing in tech, I’ve found to really make a difference to game-ify this. So again, you know, down the road, you’re listening. What I would say is the first place to begin is a logging system of where your sleep is at right now is really, really eyeopening to people because often people say, I know I’m not sleeping well,
but then we try to get up under will. How much, how many hours are we sleeping? What times are we sleeping? How many wake ups, what’s your sleep onset look like? All of these sorts of things. And a lot of it is like, well, I don’t know some gray areas, a lot of question marks because it is it’s,
it’s such a hard area to track. So getting a proper or getting a sleep tracker of whatever at the time of listening to this is known to be one of the most effective on the market at the moment. Right. And follow them On Instagram or club ads. Cause I’m sure she’ll be up to date with this. So yes it is. She will.
I’m sure be talking about what is the most up-to-date thing when you are listening to this episode? Yes. I’m often fondly known as gadget girl by the end of the clubhouse. So we were talking about that was my name and not from a perspective that these are infallible, there’s still things you don’t want to just blindly listen to whatever stats are coming back.
You want to be aware of what they’re good at, what they’re not so good at, but either way, what they tend to be pretty solid at is are you asleep or are you awake? What time does that look like? But then also some health metrics that indicate the, your recovery that you attained throughout the course of the night. So all of those things will give us,
you know, kind of a window or insight into your sleep. So I say, start with that first place because, and years back, what it was, one of the first recommendation was keep a sleep diary, you know, write it out manually. And now you could do that, but also, you know, to begin to start tracking, it will be automated for you and often provide a way more insight that you might be surprised by some blind spots.
And along those lines, I have a question for you about one of those metrics with one of my slit trackers that I, that I had used in the past. And you mentioned it when, before we started recording this, which was heart rate variability, can you explain? I mean, I saw it on my sleep tracker. I, when I’m like Googling it online,
it was actually really hard for me to understand why that was so important. Can yes, it was a one Oh one on that. I’m so glad you said that. So this metric, this one metric you could devote into multiple podcasts, there’s actually entire podcasts that just talk about how to kind of understand this one metric and influence it. You’re not alone in the confusion of it better.
I’m like, why don’t I get it? So it, but it’s the reason why it’s I foresee one, it’s already ballooned in popularity around understanding this. And I foresee it being even more and more influential in our health. So the one, what is it? It’s heart rate variability HRV is basically the time interval in between your heartbeat and indicator of your recovery.
So if you can think of heart rate as kind of your load, that’s put on to you, you know, moment to moment, then HRV is reflective of how quickly can you recover from moment to moment? So it’s recovery of both mental elements of recovery, but also physical elements of recovery. And that physical can be about like the foods you’re eating the workouts,
you’re doing the air quality in your space, preexisting conditions that you might have going on. But then the mental component is really eye-opening to just how you’re relating to the world around you as entrepreneurs to, Oh my goodness. Like that can be really eyeopening. You get a lot of stuff on your plate and suddenly that that number will show that impact. And that can be a really cool way for those of us that might want to do that.
Push through, push through mindset. And I’m so one of those to start to respect the importance for recovery time and almost relating to our body, like an athlete would to build in that really next level of recovery so that you can take on all the things you gotta take off. Okay. Yeah. And I can see that I do understand a certain aspect and the correlation of that because when I used to train for fitness competitions and we used to do the heart rate training,
and when you know, between the things I was doing, like how fast would my heart recover between sets? And so is that kind of the same thing that we’re talking about here that’s happening in sleep that we’re measuring? Yes, exactly. So that’s why a lot of people are excited about particularly longitudinal nocturnal HRV. So there’s, you can measure, of course your HRV 24 seven and the nighttime HRV can be really eye-opening because that’s giving us an indication while there’s not presumably as much noise that’s happening because there’s a lot of noise on your measurement of your HRV during the day.
Cause you’re, you’re eating, you’re, you’re talking, you’re working out all these things. Whereas when you’re sleeping, presumably that’s largely recovery time and that is what HRV is all about. But so if you wake up and traditionally, this is very simplified because there’s way more nuances to this metric, but often the higher it is from your baseline, the more recovered you are and the more you see it kind of dipped down,
then that can often indicate that you are being more taxed, you’re stressed or you’re getting sick. So it’s actually really popular right now. That’s why it’s trending to with COVID that a lot of people are looking to this as indicators and days in advance of when you might even feel that you’re getting rundown, that that number is shifting. Then that can be a signal to really prioritize that recovery.
So those are just some of the ways that you can relate to it. But in the practical application, what I see with my clients is so all the clients are wearing wearables. They’ll see, Oh my God, my HRV is really dipping like significantly. So then they’ll prioritize recovery from whatever that looks like. So if they’re big time athletes, then they will adjust their training to really lower that.
And to take that off time, if they’re just entrepreneurs and they might kind of scale back some of their calls or what have you to really make a difference with that number and then get recovered in a way that can make a difference. The following day, That’s amazing. This is so much great information. Okay. So number one, log, make sure that we’re paying attention to what we’re doing.
Get a wearable let’s, you know, we’re not going to do with the archaic way of tracking when we go to sleep. I mean, there is just absolutely so much data out there that I’m hearing you say that it’s important for us to track know and be able to understand so that we can adjust things. So what else would you recommend for those people who are listening after they go through these first steps?
Like what type of common adjustments are typically? I know every single person is different, but are typically beneficial that you have seen with high performers and entrepreneurs. Yeah. So one asterisk that I would put for the wearables is just ensuring that you’re, we’re not getting like a no CBO effect by saying, Oh my God, I have so many friends that literally would come because I’m only getting 20 minutes of deep sleep,
30 minutes of REM or whatever. And so one just know that as of, at least this time, the recording, most of the hand and wrist wearables, they are said so much great information. I love what is available there. And the sleep stage classification in particular. So knowing is this deep is this Ram is this light, it’s not the best.
So to not get yourself all riled up around that part, instead focus on those basics that we talked about, what time did you go to sleep? What time did you wake up? And then some of those recovery metrics, so to stay in that zone. So that’s just my aspect around that. But then what I would say for, for all humans and particularly entrepreneurs is this concept of circadian rhythm.
Entrainment is really, really valuable to have a framework by which you set up your days so that you can strengthen that circadian rhythm. So you can be like your husband, right. And just kind of the goal is to be like your husband and to basically wake up around the same time off to go to bed at the same time, all of that comes from that.
So this is actually a term you can find in any kind of chronobiology textbook of understanding that you are in training your circadian rhythm, but that is from a number of what they call time givers that are external to you, that you are playing a role in from a behavioral perspective of getting so a couple of those that’ll just rattle off real quick. The top down most important one is light,
particularly sunlight. And the timing of that. So if you get nothing out of what I’m saying, then I would definitely say that first thing in the morning, how to train yourself to get even just a few minutes. I mean, ideal would be more, but a few minutes of sunlight outside. And unfortunately behind a window, doesn’t really count. It counts,
but takes much, much longer estimates with Jamie’s ICER out of Stanford, puts it at anywhere from 50 to a hundred times a longer to reset your master clock each morning, if you’re getting sunlight behind a window versus outside. So you want to just get yourself outside, but also expose particularly your eyes to that morning, sunlight, you know, you want it to be wherever you might be on the globe.
We’re aiming for that to be in the morning hours usually before like 10:00 AM of getting that morning light. And the reason for that is that behind your eyes is the super charismatic nucleus, which is your master clock that influences all your peripheral clocks as to what time it is. And why that’s important is then a whole cascade of kind of hormones and functionality happened based on what time the body perceives it to be.
And so we want it to be as consistent, those triggering systems as possible. So that’s that light in the morning and then dosing it throughout the day. But then you want as bright days as possible and as dim nights as possible. And when I say dim, it’s like post sunset, you want to be getting, I mean, really the, the actual recommendation is like candles,
but I know that’s not always so practical. So even like, I got like red lights over here. So, you know, you can, that can be another thing that you can bring in if you’re not willing to do the candles. But so we’re looking for very, very dim lighting that allow us to have our cake and eat it too. So versus like how things used to be sun would set.
We kind of go to sleep not long after for thousands of years now, we want to be able to still like, you know, do things, but we don’t want to impact our melatonin production. So that kind of red light candles or worst case scenario, incandescent lights that have more red in them, those can make a difference. So that getting that light right,
and then the next step would be temperature. So being mindful of really having this arc of your body temperature throughout the course of the day. So high temperature throughout the day movement activity, eating, you know, having engaging in lots of dynamic, cognitively demanding tasks, all those things during the day. But then in the evening, shifting over to fasting,
you know, relaxation, resting, connecting kind of calming everything down. So for entrepreneurs, what we do is create really like say layout of your day, where you have a set wake up time, he was set bedtime. And then from that place that had a Creek kind of two parts of your day, like a day mode and a night mode.
And then even just these little things like understanding like, Oh my God, when I have my food will influence the timing of when I fall asleep. And when I wake up and, or the amounts of wake-ups that I have throughout the night, things of this nature can be super, super empowering for people I learned so much. I never knew that about the sun in the morning.
Thank you so much. I’m like, literally I’m here taking notes. It’s just incredibly fascinating. And so the sun and the light, obviously all makes sense now that you explained that, but that would never be anything that would be, you know, just obviously common knowledge to those of us who aren’t experts like you. And so thank you so much for sharing that.
Okay. You have given us a ton of information. I have one last question that I’m curious about how you’re going to answer. Obviously I don’t know it, and that’s why I’m asking it. Is there a minimum amounts of sleep that general and I’m sure everybody’s different, but generally speaking that you believe people need to function in a healthy capacity. Oh yeah.
That’s the million dollar question. Everyone wants to know that one for sure. And you know, so some of the, the known recommendations are having us as it, a healthy adult, as it changes throughout the years, basically what age you are. But as a healthy adult than getting anywhere from seven to nine is the recommended amount that we’ll have thrown out.
There are other people that will speak to that you can, for some people might make sense to be in the, you know, six is range and what have you, based on their, the quality of that sleep. So I will say that it’s kind of split on that, that topic, but certainly what you can do is through the tracking element of things,
start to get up under that. The more we have some of these kind of top down, most important things addressed, then what often begins to emerge because, you know, sometimes you got to get past all of this sleep deprivation and built up time of variability, of sleeping all kinds of hours, and then not enough and ups and downs. So once we start having those structures often,
what emerges is more of your kind of set point for your sleep at the age that you’re at and at the health level and energy expenditure that you’re at each day. So you can have a clear understanding of that once everything else just kind of falls into order as well, is what I’m hearing you say. Okay, I lied. I have one, one more question.
Can you catch up on sleep? Mm, yeah. Good question. I know. Cause then it’s like that sleep debt topic was very popular for a number of years. So that is another one that is a bit of a point of contention, but there’s different schools of thought so well, if we go back to the conversation around dementia that you mentioned,
that’s a really big topic that’s come out of. This looks like a really strong correlation between sleep deprivation and neurodegenerative disorders. So whether it’s Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s dementia, different things of that nature really linked because of the lack of proper cleaning. So glymphatic drainage was the coin, the term that was coined around this. So glymphatic drainage meaning versus lymphatic it’s glymphatic and glymphatic is the cleansing process of the brain each night during sleep,
during deep sleep in particular. And what it’s doing is it’s basically rinsing out with a janitorial process of your brain, of the buildup of waste products in the brain each night. And that’s what amyloid beta plaques are. Basically what’s left over. It’s a kind of calcification in the brain if we’re not having that proper amount. So the concern, so the reason I mentioned that is that we don’t see a lot of great ways to counteract that.
So say if you’ve been doing that for years and years, and there’s this buildup of this kind of a dirty brain, if you will, that buildup, and it’s very similar to brains that we see for late stage Alzheimer’s dementia or what have you. It looks a hand in hand and we don’t have a really strong way to then reverse that. So what I would say,
even from that perspective alone, is that we don’t want to rely on this kind of messy relationship to sleep where I’ll make up for it on the weekends, or what have you, because also if we just get back to the basics of what we know for great sleep, that the more we have that variability and the up and downs, one of the term for it is actually social jet lag.
And so social jet lag being this concept that, you know, Oh, around five days of the week, I’m really great with my sleep. I do pretty consistent, but then on the weekends, you know, I want to let loose and then you stay up late and it’s like three hours difference and, or more or whatever. And so with that,
then it’s, you’re having the experience that’s similar to, from a biological perspective, similar to jet lag. When you try to get yourself back on your normal schedule on Sunday night or Monday or whatever, but you didn’t go anywhere, but you’re still having that negative impact on your body. So the long and the short of it is it doesn’t seem to be a reliable method to build that sleep debt and kind of knock it out by having these long stretches of sleep.
Because then that also impacts cause quality sleep is a measurement of how your sleep was the night before the night before that. And they, before that. So it kind of all plays a role in there. So if you didn’t sleep so well, one night, often people will benefit from what’s known as kind of rebound sleep because you now, the body is really craving to get itself back on track and it will,
you know, kind of greedily get the sleep staging that it needs, but you can’t rely on that as a sustainable element because then that throws off your circadian rhythm. And now you’re getting tired at the same time. And it’s so frustrating. Right? All of that makes sense. Oh, thank you so much. I learned so much today. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show and we’re going to make sure everybody knows how to find you in the show notes,
but can you tell everybody who’s listening to this? Like, Oh my gosh, I need more of Molly. I need her help. I need her in my life. You know, what does that look like? How can people work with you more? Yeah. Well, number one, just thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much for your also just transparency and vulnerability about how you’re relating to your sleep.
And, you know, just gives us all hope in these different periods when we are struggling to hear, okay, I’m not alone. Cause you know, that’s really what I was dealing with with my sleep. So, and it’s takes courage to share that cause you could be like, Oh yeah, I’ve got my whole life together. And dah, dah,
dah. So, you know, I really, really admire that. So great work with that. And then yes, if you are struggling with your sleep, this is a real mission-based thing for me. so1@sleepasaskill.com, there’s lots of things that are available for free. We have a weekly newsletter, so I call it Molly’s Monday obsessions, cause I’m pretty obsessive about this topic.
And so all of these, you know, things that I’m obsessing about in the world of sleep and also kind of asleep experiments, lots of graphs and fun charts and whatever. And so that’s every Monday when you sign up for that, you also get a free downloadable PDF. That’s optimized bedroom, how to optimize your sleep environment comes right along. And then we also have a sleep assessment that you can take.
So whatever you’re dealing with with your sleep, then that will get you some kind of tailored advice around those areas. We have weekly podcasts with different sleep experts and you know, sleep tech and what have you. So all of that is available for free. And we put out a lot on social media and we’re really amping that up as well. And then if you are really struggling,
you need more than that. Then we do have courses and one-on-ones and different ways of working together as well. Wow. All right. Thank you so much, Molly. I’m definitely going there and I appreciate your time and your expertise and pouring into me and our whole entrepreneur community. And I am sure that this is going to be an important topic. It has been,
but really, as you said, moving forward. So we just really appreciate your expertise and, and being here with us today and it was such a pleasure to get to meet you same here. Thank you so much. You are welcome. Thank you.<inaudible> What a great show. Thank you so much for learning alongside me and hanging out. Most likely you knew a lot about this information.
Probably a lot more than I did, but it’s just such a pleasure to, to learn. And I took a million notes if you’d like to join Molly and me in a clubhouse room where we are talking all about sleep, wearable technology and all these things so that you can function at your peak performance as an entrepreneur, whatever that looks like for you go to sweet life,
community dot and There you can join by link our clubhouse club. You still need to join separately on clubhouse if you’re not a member, but you’re going to get an email with reminders and, and an invitation to this room with a direct link to this room. So again, you can go to sweet life, community.com to join our Sweetlife entrepreneurs club on clubhouse to talk to Molly live about this.
And of course, all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com click on the podcast. And this is episode number 218. Have a great day. And I’ll talk to you guys soon.
Entrepreneurs looking to get in front of your ideal audience and establish yourself as an expert in your space but you’re not exactly sure how to go about it through the process of speaking.
Summary:
If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re looking to get in front of your ideal audience, establish yourself as a trusted source and solution, and sell more of your leading programs, services or offers, speaking is a great way to do that. However there are strategic steps that should be followed in order to achieve your ideal outcome, and what we learn in speaking to this week’s guest is that you can actually send clients away by saying the wrong things.
And this week’s show, Heather Seger, strategic speaking advisor, guides you through her four-step Speak for Authority method to fill your programs using speaking. Heather also dives into statistics speakers need to know, how to tell the right story, and expert insights to make sure you are speaking up in the right way, to the right audience, about the right topics.
At the end of this episode you will:
Understand the four steps to the“speak for authority method”
Know how to nail your message
And understand quick strategies to choose your leading talk topic
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Welcome back to the show. This is episode number 211, And then I’m April beach. Super great to be connected with you today. We are diving in and we’re talking about how to fill your programs using guest speaking.
And we have Heather Sager, the one and only in the house. So what you can expect from today’s show is if you are a coach or a consultant, and you’re really good at what you do, even the leading expert in your space, but you’re having trouble getting noticed will speaking could be a really powerful way to establish yourself as a leader and get in front of the perfect audience.
And so today we’re talking all about the steps to do that and giving you the methodology from the expert herself, Heather Sager, but real quick, before we jump into that, if you’re new to hearing the show welcome, this is the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast, and we give you step-by-step business trainings that are so good. There’s no way they should be free.
You can find all the resources we have by visiting sweet life co.com. And if you’re interested in scaling your business, developing your leading program, leading method, leading offers in truly scaling your business to live life on your terms for massive profit. Then we would love to help you get to that place. Visit Sweetlife co.com and that is our Ninja skill. And that’s what we do.
All right, diving into today’s episode. This is for entrepreneurs in all stages of my start to scale up system. So we like to tag these episodes in advance. So, you know, whether or not this is really a good, good opportunity for you to learn and grow based on the phase of business you’re in. So if you weren’t sure what phase of business you’re in and therefore what you should be focusing on right now,
you can go and take a very short quiz just by visiting sweet life co.com forward slash quiz. And we’ll give you a full download of exactly where you are in your business, growth and development in exactly what you should be focusing on right now, so that you can grow your company faster. So that’s one resource I wanted to share with you. And along those lines of this particular episode is for those of you who are in phases two,
three or four of that start to scale up system. So hopefully that will equip you to know whether or not you should hang out with us any longer. And I’ll tell you if you’re in this phase, you are not going to want to miss this episode. And one other quick housekeeping announcement. I know that we have probably been talking about clubhouse way too much,
but I wanted to let you know that you can connect with us and connect with our suite life podcast, guests experts. By following me on clubhouse, I am at April beach on clubhouse, and we now host a weekly room at 12 o’clock, every single Wednesday. And that is Eastern standard time. So if you want to be on the hot seat,
if you want my eyes and your business to help you strategize your next steps, find us on clubhouse and subscribe to our clubhouse updates. If you are not on clubhouse yet, or if you just want the updates you can visit Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse. And we’ll keep you in the loop of what’s happening on clubhouse while you might be waiting to get on the app and we will send you reminders and invitations to our upcoming rooms.
So I know that was a lot of information and you can find all the information I just shared with you and the resources for these show notes, which is going to be@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two 11. Okay, let me introduce you to our fabulous guest on today’s show. You get to hear from Heather Sager. Heather helps entrepreneurs structure their ideas, clarify their message and hone their speaking skills so they can deliver a magnetic live presentations,
videos, and workshops to grow their authority, whether on a physical or a virtual stage, she’s spoken on stages around the world. Teaching six to seven figure business owners, how to grow their company using effective communication. She also works one-on-one with business owners to prep them for the stage and help you manage and prepare your message for the most impact. So let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode.
Again, all of those amazing resources that I shared and everything we’re talking about with Heather can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash two 11.<inaudible>. All right, you guys welcome back to another awesome episode here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur business podcast. And I am visited today by none other than Heather Sager in what we’re talking about is something that’s so important.
I know many of you guys have questions about, so we are immediately diving into how to fill your programs using guests speaking. So Heather, thank you so much for being on the show today. Give yourself an awesome intro, an intro that you deserve because you are a very powerful at getting people amazing results and tell everybody about what you do. Thank you so much.
I’m thrilled to be here. Thanks for the chance to serve your audience today and talk about pressure on an intro. I mean, I mean, honest, I will say behind the scenes, so I have followed Heather on Instagram and it’s one of those things where you’ve been connected and a little bit connected, but not completely connected. And I knew that you guys needed to hear from Heather.
So very excited to have you here. Thank you. Thank you for that. So, as April said, I’m Heather Sager. So I’m a coach for online Entrepreneurs and essentially what that means. I always joke that I teach people how to do the thing that most people fear more than death, which is public speaking and in the online space. It’s kind of funny because we think about public speaking back.
If y’all worked in corporate ever, how you think about getting up in front of a group and giving a presentation or teaching a workshop, or we think about speakers as the people who live their life on the road at conferences on big stages. And none of those things seem to really fit in the online space of coaches and course creators and online entrepreneurs. And what I like to remind people is the fact that as business owners,
we speak to people every single day. So we are already speakers. It’s not like a label that we just, all of a sudden adopt. We’re already speakers. And so I, what I do is I teach people how to do it with intention and purpose. So what they speak about actually connects back to not only what they’re passionate about, but also what they do in their business.
I think your voice has the potential to be a magnet for other people, for them to go, Ooh, I’m not only do I like her. I want to learn more from her. And the more that you get out and use your voice on different platforms, the more you pull people back with you that they’ll want to join your programs and hang out with you more and buy from you.
So that’s what I do. My background is my many entrepreneurs is incorporat where for years I spoke on stages around the world as a corporate trainer, where I taught actually entrepreneurs in the medical space. So doctors and their teams, I taught them customer service and sales to very taboo topics in the medical space tell you, as a 27 year old kid, it felt like teaching doctors how to sell,
how to talk about what they did, how to talk to their teams, how to talk to their patients. That was an intimidating task at hand. So I had to learn how to speak in a very different way. I had to learn how to be influential and persuasive with an audience who was highly skeptical of my experience, my age, everything about me.
And so that’s where I got my like big girl chops around speaking. That’s where I had to fight through all my own insecurities about being a, I was talking about being like a baby nugget on a stage being an unexperienced or inexperienced professional. Like I had to work through all of those mental issues. We go through. I had to do that in a very highly publicized,
highly criticized space, but I did damn good job. And I realized that while I love my job as a trainer, what I really loved was teaching people how to use their voice for good. And I got really good at storytelling. I got really good at the body language and the hand gestures and all those things that come with speaking that are more than just the message.
And I started getting people asking me, could you teach me how to do that on a stage? Or could you teach me how to lead a workshop? And I found all of my free time in corporate was teaching my peers and other businesses how to do what I was doing. And at some point I was like, I don’t want to do this for anybody else anymore.
Why don’t I just do this full time? So I made the leap like many do, which is, let me start my own business and help other people do the thing that I love. But here’s the kicker. It wasn’t just about speaking. It was about speaking with purpose because I think speaking is like gasoline on a fire. I think speaking is one of the best marketing strategies that we can use in our business.
And I think people treat it as a skill, but speaking, it’s actually a strategy. So many things that I want to say, right, right now about all those things. First of all, now you guys know I wanted Heather on the show buyer that was like, okay, we can just end it, just go work with other, and she’s going to help you be just this insane speaker,
but you don’t really, you said so many things though. So as business developers and obviously that’s what we do at the Sweetlife company, we help people develop their programs and we help them develop life-changing programs and offers and these amazing services. Right. And one of the things that they are always asking about is, but how do I separate myself from other businesses that are delivering the same type of results besides doing it within the framework of my program?
Like how do I stand out? And it always comes back to taking the authority on what, you know, in stepping out and speaking about it. So that’s the first thing. And I can’t wait to dive into the strategies we’re going to talk about here today on the show, but something else that you said that it’s so true is that you’re speaking to people all the time.
It doesn’t always have to be a webinar or an actual live event. But when, as an online entrepreneur, when you have the opportunity to actually speak to somebody and take them on a journey that you have pre crafted, it is a skill. And that’s how you get people to follow you that are the right people. And I, I want to just kind of pause for a second saying,
even if you’re listening to the show and you’re like, wow, I, you know, speaking doesn’t fit into my business model, listen to what Heather’s saying, because you’re already speaking. So let’s make it so you don’t suck at it, right? Let’s make every single moment that you are having the, honestly, the privilege, just like I just felt very blessed and privileged that people listened to the podcast.
Right? All of us, when somebody is listening to what we have to say, it is a very unique opportunity and a privilege to be able to speak to these people. So what we say and how we say it is incredibly, incredibly important. So just love everything that you said there. And I appreciate how direct you are about the importance of this.
So you help establish business owners really take the lead in doing so by speaking an increase. What I love of course is the sale of their programs. Talk about how you do that. You have a very special method and I’m going to tout Heather’s method here for a second. By way. If you all don’t have a method we need, we want you to have a method to make you known into gain the trust of the people.
You’re leading. Talk to us about your method in what is that called? And can you guide us through your method today? Yes. 100%. I love methods. We were sharing our love of frameworks and methods, and just easier ways to help people understand what it is you do, right? We all think things make sense in our own heads, but really our own heads are a very special place that only we understand.
So we have to be able to articulate them. So my leading method that I teach inside my program speak up to level up. It’s where I teach online course creators and coaches, how to leverage speaking in a way that’s going to grow their business. We walk through something. I call the speak for authority method. And the reason why we call it the speak for authority method is every business owner has different goals related to speaking.
Some people might be like, Hey, I want to get paid to speak $10,000 for a keynote or $40,000 for a keynote. That’s one strategy. But when it comes to speaking, there are several strategies that you can apply. One can be growing your revenue in your program. So selling from stages, another could be driving leads to your social media accounts or leads to your list or leads to your offers.
Another one could be just not peeing your pants. When you go live on a platform, it could just be growing your confidence. But I think throughout all of it, speaking is like a business card for your business and all of these, their authority boosting activities that when you grow your authority, you have the ability to charge more, get on better stages network with the people that you want to network with,
collaborate with the business partnerships you want to have when you have authority, which is clout, where people see you as the go-to in your field, it seems like doors open naturally. So if you aren’t known, if people don’t know who you are, you could be the best at what you do, but until other people point at you and say, she knows what she’s doing,
or he’s an expert in this, by the way you don’t say you’re an expert. You let other people do that for you until that moment comes. It doesn’t really matter how good your program is. You have to articulate it, make it sound like a big deal and get other people talking about it. And that’s where growing your authority becomes a really important thing.
Wow. Okay. Yeah. So talk to us about this, speak for authority method. And I love how you preface it by saying that the reason why it’s so important is because all these goals are absolutely important and they do apply probably to every single person listening to the show. So what is the first part of this method? Where does somebody start when they want to take action on that?
Yeah. You’re going to love this one because this goes right up your alley of what you teach, which is number one is nail your messaging. What I mean by that is you have to nail, who are you talking to? What do you have to offer? And how do you talk about those core offerings, your messaging? So, what’s interesting is the first time I taught my program,
when I started working with groups of entrepreneurs versus one-on-one, I started by going, let’s create your talk and I would start extracting ideas out of their head and formulating a leading talk with them. And what I realized pretty quickly was, Oh my gosh, this was the first time they were vocalizing their ideas. And some of them didn’t even have their programs fully formatted or organized in a way that really got people Results.
So I found out, you know what, when people start moving from just writing down their ideas or drawing out their ideas, when they start articulating their ideas, that’s when they realized, Oh, this either makes sense or it doesn’t. So step number one, nailing your messaging means that you are not just thinking off, like speaking off the cuff or winging it all the time.
Here’s this big myth that happens a lot of times when we see experts where we see influencers on a podcast or on a video or on clubhouse, we think, Oh, they’re just so naturally gifted. But here’s the thing. These people have been talking about these things over and over and over and over again, they know what they’re talking about. It’s not by chance.
It’s on purpose now, sometimes it’s by chance because they’ve just done it enough where they know no, but they have discovered what their core talking parts are. You have to understand what should you, and what should you not be talking about to lead people into your business, not lead them to other people’s businesses. Like there is a difference. You can talk about a lot of things,
but if you don’t have your messaging nailed, you could be providing a lot of education, but then serving them up open doors to have other people help them because they don’t realize how it connects back to you. Wow. Okay. And to totally put you on the spot here, at least as because everybody’s saying like, Oh my gosh, shoot, am I doing this?
Am I, cause everybody wants to be out there and sharing information, a great value. Can you give us an example of how sharing some information as in a particular way, may lead somebody to go work with somebody else? Yeah. I’ll give you me. It’s an example. Okay. I talk about speaking, right? And I want you to imagine speaking.
This is like this giant ocean of information. It’s in the, the marketing ocean. There’s so many different things we can speak about. And one or two times I did podcast episodes or interviews where people are like, Oh, speaking on camera, Heather, will you come talk about getting over your fear of the camera? And I’m like, sure, I love this.
This is within my wheelhouse. But what I realized is when I would start doing all these interviews that were specific to getting over your fear of the camera or going live on Facebook or all these things, which I, I do teach, what I realized was my messaging was really specific to social media speaking. And my offer is how do you speak on all kinds of stages?
Get your messaging down, use guest stages. Yes. Use your stages. But the speaking on lives and Instagram stories was such a minute point. I don’t want people to know me as the person to help you get over your fear of the camera. Like that’s not what my program is about. Even though I have episodes around it, like the messaging while it was a good,
relevant topic, it wasn’t core messaging. That’s going to drive back to my program, speak up to level up. I mean, it’s a lesson in my program, but it’s not the core concept. So I think a lot of times this thing that happens is we’re like, Oh, it’s within the wheelhouse. Well, you have to think about, is it like a neighbor down the block in your content?
Or is it like on the block, like on your street, in the house that you’re trying to attract people to. Wow. That’s so important. Okay. I’m just going to take a little, left-hand turn tangent here as we are all diving into, or as many people as we possibly can, we’re driving into clubhouse. For example, I just did the recording of this hosted a,
a welcome event room for a bunch of women entrepreneurs last night. And they were all asking, what should I be talking about in these rooms? And I felt grateful now. I didn’t totally lead them astray, but it was always coming back to cause I’m obviously not the speaking coach, but it was always like, what do you want to be known for?
And I think that this is so exactly important what you said, because there are so many things that we can talk about. I can, you know, talk about a million components of, of our program as well in, in the ways and other things that are like supporting evidence, supporting document, but not that may nugget. So what I’m hearing you say in what I want,
all of you guys to hear is what Heather saying is that go for go after what you want to be known for. This is also important why we have your leading program created so we know what we’re selling people into. So it aligns with your program so important. And I think that there are so many people that are just looking for any opportunity to get in front of an audience that they are willing to speak on.
Oh, I can speak on that. Oh sure. I can speak on that. And what you’re saying is that is not strategy. Let’s be very strategic and make sure that in the little amount of time that somebody is willing to give you attention, to hear what you have to say, that you are making a good use of that in establishing an understanding of who you are,
who your brand is and the, in the end Results you provide bingo so power. And let me give you a visual for that, because I want to make sure hearing me say, don’t ever talk about those things. Right? Okay. I want you to imagine, do you remember back in, I don’t know if some kind of math class, when we were in school,
that something called a scam. I think it’s called a scattergram. It’s like the graph that you would draw with the dots. And it’s like, when you would have a point, it’d be like all these dots that you’d look for the trends of the dots. Maybe this is a terrible example, but go with me here for a second. I’m sticking.
Yeah. You guys should see behind the scenes in the recording. I’m like, ah, So if you think about like the dots, like mapping different coordinates, but I want you thinking about is you want to map like the bulk of your coordinates. I E the bulk of your speaking to your leading offer. But if you have a little dab, like,
Ooh, I’m going to talk about this because it’s sexy or I’m going to talk like, I’ll do a room talking about how do you do your voice on clubhouse, not what I teach, but it’s a sexy topic that people want. Like if my little scattergram, gosh, I hope that’s what it’s called. If I have like a couple of beeps and boops of topics that are outside of my core,
that is not going to dilute. I’m known for, it’s just going to expand it. But if I spend too much time outside of my core topic, then I will be unforgettable because there’s no repetition on my core topic of people seeing over and over again. Oh, I want to speak on guest stages. Heather, Sagers a speaking coach for online entrepreneurs.
Oh, you want to know how you speak into this strategy? Heather, Sagers the coach to help you with that. Like you have to make sure your repetition in your wheelhouse is happening in order to earn the right to have those scattered topics. Absolutely. Awesome. Visual. Thank you so much. I have no idea what you’re talking about because frankly,
I think I was skipping school in stoned, every high school math class, but just keeping it real with that being said, I can totally get the visual and that completely makes sense. My teenage boys are going to listen to this podcast and yeah. It’s cool. Your mom’s super cool. Oh, they they’ve heard all the stories. Okay. I am redeemed.
Whew. Anyway. Yes. Totally makes sense. Okay. So you’re going to be unforgettable the closer you stay to what I’m hearing you say, the core, the center of that. Scattergram like the primary message. So powerful. Super awesome. All right. So step number one is like, we’re still at step. Number one, you guys, this is our goal.
The information that Heather has given you here. So nailing that message in deciding what we’re talking about. So the second step in that is obviously an extension of that. The second step you say is creating the actual leading talk itself. Sure. A little bit about how to go about doing that. Yeah. So for those of you who like cooking, I love cooking.
Imagine step one is like your amazing applause where you get all your ingredients out and you know what you’re going to make. Step two was actually following the recipe to build your delicious food, whatever you’re making your meal. So your leading talk, you’re not coming up with random things on the fly. It’s strategic because you’ve already done that homework. So your leading talk needs to guide your audience from where they are to where you want them to go,
which doesn’t have to be like a hub, but a tricky to buy my program. You need to guide them in their thinking and equip them with the tools to be successful on whatever the transformation they want. Your program just helps them do it faster. So your leading talk, it has to include stories. You have to be speaking to people’s beliefs. You have to be hitting that really good balance around insights and awareness and speaking to where they are.
But gone are the days where you can just talk about the why fluffy stuff for your whole talk. People hate that they know when they’re being sold or when somebody is bringing fluff. So people in today’s market, what tangible tips and strategies. So you have to balance your talk with both. How do you provide insights and teach people how to think differently about your topic?
You can’t skip over that because if you do, when they go back in their business and try to apply it and something’s off, you, haven’t equipped them with the right context for them to be successful, to be able to maneuver it in the context of their business, you have to teach them how to think. And then you have to give them some tips and strategies.
How I recommend people do that is you teach the why, and then you teach the what, and it’s gonna get a little technical, but I feel like your audience might love it. My format that I follow with people is you go, why, what, how easy model for a presentation? And you sandwich it with an opening story and a closing story.
Like not rocket science. It’s what I work with. Every client on opening story, closing story in the middle of the sandwich is the what, why and how, and if you’ve worked with April and you’ve been around her world, the what section is essentially your method. So you’re almost there. You just need to work on, okay, how do I get this messaging in?
And what’s the right place to talk about it in the how to make people hungry for more. But your leading talk should be like an accordion where you can deliver your leading talk in five minutes because you know your talking points, but you also can expand it and make it, I mean, a full day workshop, maybe even a full course, right?
So you should be able to know what your talking points are within your leading talk. And that becomes your business card on those guest stages. And it perfectly segues into purchasing your leading program. And I mean, this is just absolutely the journey that you take people on it and how you nail and get it and get people really understanding what you do and your zone of genius.
Couple of questions for you about the stories do you find? And maybe there isn’t a right or wrong answer, but I’m just asking the questions. I think that possibly your audience is hearing. We should totally do a clubhouse room on this, like in conjunction with the week we dropped this, we should, we should do a clubhouse room and take Q and a I’m here for it.
And that would be so much fun. So talking about really quickly about the stories, are they usually a story about another client, personal stories about how the expert themselves or the leader has overcome? Like what type of stories? I mean, are we making people cry? Does it depend on the context when we’re talking about stories in general, is there a quicker,
seriously? You guys follow us on clubhouse because Heather and I are going to do this. I’m just putting her on the spot right now. We’re going to house the clubhouse room on this. So just join our clubhouse room and you can ask your story. Questions, go to our Instagram. Bio is go to Heather’s Instagram bio. I’ll give you a little to give you a little teaser.
The secret to good storytelling is knowing what emotion you want people to feel. That’s the key thing. You have to be intentional with the emotions you want to evoke. So for example, when I was working with Tyler McCall last month, we wanted people to feel heart, but we also wanted to laugh. So we talked, we did a story about the time he went to forestry camp and was too embarrassed to tell his father that he had to take a dump.
So he had to go home. So like outside of the content, very weird left story about like 11 year old Tyler, that was one. But like, you have to catch people off guard, but you have to know what emotions are you going for? And obviously your stories have to have a point. There was a business lesson in that story.
I promise you. Yes. I’m sure there was, yes, we’re too. Like on the nose with our stories where like, I hate this people’sleading story where they’re like, let me tell you about my perfectly curated journey, which pumped me out of this perfect place to be your expert. No, I think it’s bullshit. Your audience is not in the exact same space that you were.
You can’t say I was in your shoes because I think it’s obnoxious and rude because you don’t know what their shoes are. I think we have to tell our journey stories differently in a more authentic way. If we want to attract the kind of clients we want. That’s if you want to have, I think, authentic, ethical, meaningful relationships that make impact,
you have to tell stories differently than what we’ve been told with the bro marketing online. Ah, here’s here’s my class name. There you go. Nice. Yes. Yes. Okay. Awesome. All right. Step. And we are going to do a clubhouse to room on this. So let me just say you go to sweet life podcast.com forward slash two 11,
which is this episode number. And we will make sure there is a link to how you can get into this club has room and has asked Heather your questions. Also follow us both on Instagram because we’ll post our events on our Instagram accounts to Heather. What’s your IgE handle at the Heather Sager at B Heather Sager. Awesome. Okay. So step number three,
we’ve nailed theleading talk. We are on a roll. What happens next? What’s the next most important thing? Okay. So I think as entrepreneurs, we get by a lot by writing things out and typing things in our Google docs to post on our blogs or whatever else. But if you want to speak, you actually have to speak. Which means the first time that you speak your leading talk out loud should not be on a stage.
It should be in the privacy of your home office, where you can sound like a blubbering idiot because you will. So, so step number three is becoming magnetic with our delivery skills. So you have to learn how to speak in a way that’s captivating and entertaining that serves your audience gone are the days where you can just show up and shoot a video on something good on a,
how to people’s attention spans are short. Even our live events are like on clubhouse. People can jump in and out of rooms quickly. So you have to understand that your delivery skills, it’s not just the words you say, how you say it matters more. So you have to think about, am I speaking in just audio right now? Or am I also,
do I have video when it comes to communication? There’s three parts. The words that you say, how you say those words and your non-verbals. And I think people put a disproportionate weight on those. What it works out to studies that came from Southern California universities in the seventies, show that in marketing, when we’re talking about things that have an emotional message,
which most of our marketing messaging does, 55% of what we communicate is our non-verbals. So our facial expressions, our gestures now posture over half of what we communicate, which is why video is so powerful in allowing us to see, Oh, she’s authentic. Or she’s not like video is powerful because you see those. But 38% of what we communicate is the,
how we say it. The, the pace, the volume, the emphasis, those kinds of things. It’s 38% leaving. Only 70% of our communication to our words. Now, as online entrepreneurs, we’re used to writing, we’re used to emails. We’re used to captions. We’re used to putting all the weight there. So it’s scary to think, Oh crap,
I have to focus on these others, but I see it as a gift. You don’t have to be so precious with your words when you’re speaking. In fact, I screw up all the time. If you rewind this back, I have misspoken. I have I’ve strung words together to didn’t actually make a sentence. I speak like war all the time,
wrong words, whatever. You just keep moving because your energy, how you deliver it in your body, language carries you and your message. So if you don’t get intentional with how do you want to be received? What kind of energy do you want to create for other people? What do you want them to feel when they hear you? See you listened to you.
If you don’t practice that, you’re leaving it to chance. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t, I don’t want to leave to chance what people say about me. Like, I want to be intentional and be like, damn, I want to work with Heather or, Oh, you can get speaking coach. That’s going to help you bring your energy up,
work with that. Like, I want to be more intentional. I don’t want to like be caught up and obsessed with what people say about me, but I know I can influence it. So I say, why not? Yeah. That’s amazing. Those stats are very interesting. I had not personally heard those before, so super, super surprising. And then step number four.
Okay. So how do we, how do we go about wrapping all this up together in this is your speak for authority method. This is your unique IP, your methodology. You have gotten people Results going through this process going through these steps time and time again. So wrapping this up, what’s that last really important thing that people need to do? Yeah.
So building your authority means you need to make sure that your speaking strategy fits your strategy. That you’ve outlined. So if you determined that speaking is going to grow your authority, you have to say, okay, what podcast stages do I need to be on? Which live events do I need to be on? Who would I need to partner? How do you identify the right player in your industry to help position you in that way?
If your strategy was to grow your leads, all right, in this stage, we’re going to make sure the freebie that you offer on stages correlates with your leading talk. So it’s not just a, one-off like, Oh, go take my random free training about something. That’s not what I’m talking about. You’re not going to drive that. So that’s what we’re going to talk about.
How do we get results from our speaking determined by the strategy that you identified as your number one, so making money, but that’s negotiating a higher fee. Great. If that’s selling your program, great. If that’s driving leads great, like it’s kind of a pick your own pathway there. You haven’t figured out what strategy you want for you. And then we have the template to say,
okay, how do I make that happen from a stage? Fantastic. How powerful is this? You guys? All right, let me make sure that I can summarize your four steps as clearly as possible, because there was so much gold throughout this process. So your speak for authority method that you just laid out like a red carpet here. I mean,
this is gold. You guys, you would have had to pay Heather a lot of money to get this information. And so make sure that connecting with her more, both on clubhouse, and we’re going to give you some ways to work with Heather after this. So the first part of your method is really nailing your message. The second part is really creating that leading talk.
The third is delivering it with confidence in the fourth. Part of your method is elevating your authority. Did I summarize that correctly? You did great. You did great high fives and applause for your articulation. Okay. Students, good students. You guys should see my, see my notes behind the scenes. I’ll just share personally, you know, public speaking has just always been something that I love to do.
And once I get up there and once I get on a roll, I’m great, but it is such a head trip for me to get up there in the beginning of it. And my biggest fear, I tried to figure out what I was afraid of. Cause clearly I talk all the time. I’m not afraid to speak, right? And I really don’t care what people think about what I look like.
I’m one of the few speakers that usually takes a stage in some sort of flip-flops. But what I realized I was afraid of is that people were going to leave that room. And this was when we were having, you know, regular events that people are going to leave that room unchanged. And I realized that, wow, what if somebody says that was a biggest waste of an hour?
I ever spent it scared the shit out of me seriously, forever, because I was like, gosh, I just want people to leave here and have some sort of a transformation. And I was taking that. I’m really an advocate for that. As you know, like that’s how we develop programs, your programs should deliver a transformational measurable result. And I wasn’t really sure that my leading talk was doing that.
And so if you guys are listening and you have whatever issues, like Heather said it at the beginning, people would rather wet, like die than speak on stage. What is that saying in the beginning? Yeah, it’s a good Jerry Seinfeld joke around more people would rather give eulogy or a B in the coffin than give their own eulogy. Right? That is awful.
We were all given a voice for a reason. We’re all called to do great things for a reason. And using what Heather told you guys today in this show and her method is going to help you get clarity on all of this. And I’m super excited and appreciate your expertise and your time here today on the Sweetlife podcast. So we’re going to do a couple things to wrap up this episode.
First of all, Heather has a way to get you started. Obviously we want to give you tools to take action right now. So Heather, where do people go to learn more about working with you directly? Yeah. So the speak for authority method we talked about today, I outlined this in a little bit more detail and at a little slower pace,
if you want to head over my free training is up right now. If you head over to Heather singer.com forward slash free, you can download that free training. You can watch it right away and go through it. And I teach you how to actually use this method to start driving leads into your program. So you can grab that. Now it’s really designed for coaches course creators and small business owners who do not have a large following,
but want to start establishing their self as authority. So that’s perfect for you, but also if today’s conversation was of interest and you’re trying to out what kind of stages would even work for me? Like how does this even play out? I think maybe we should go on a second date. So maybe let’s jump into a training. Let’s go on a second date.
So I have a podcast it’s also on that page. Heather sager.com post free. You’ll have two options. The podcast is the Heather Sager show and you get like a little Besta playlist that you can hear a little bit more around how I speak. You can get used to my style a bit, steal it, use it for your own and start getting more comfortable with this concept of what does it look like to speak on other people’s stages,
but also use daily opportunities to exercise your voice, build your confidence. And most importantly, be more intentional with your message that you want to share so you can make a bigger impact. I love it. Okay. So I’m looking at my phone here. If you guys are watching the video behind the scenes, looking at the schedule, this show is live on January 25th.
It is episode number 211. So that means sometime this week, you and I are going to host a clubhouse room and we are going to implement and talk to our audience and answer questions for people that are listening to this show. So I’m so excited to, we’ve been talking about like, you know, doing rooms together. So here is how you find out when this room is happening.
First of all, you can go to sweet life co.com forward slash clubhouse, and you’ll get a list of events and the direct link to the event so that you guys won’t miss it. Cause clubhouse is a lot of fun things happening. If you are not on clubhouse, then listen to my podcast that I recorded episode number 209, about how to get started on clubhouse.
And I just want you guys just to take a second here like me. I do have many notes. If you feel like you are struggling to be seen as a leader in your space, that you really want to connect with people on a more personal relational level relationships sell. That’s what sells and you want to get in front of your ideal audience and give them an experience,
transform them through your speaking so that they can work with you more. I highly recommend speaking in general, but specifically hitting up Heather to see how you can do that more confidently. So Heather, thank you so much for being on this show so much gold. Again, this is Sweetlife podcast.com/two one one. So episode number 211, we’ll have all the links that Heather mentioned cause we dropped a lot of gems in this.
So all the links, so you can find Heather and work with her more. And of course, a link to our clubhouse room when we get that scheduled<inaudible> Hey guys, thanks for tuning into the show to get updates and join Heather live in our clubhouse room, please visit Sweetlife co.com forward slash clubhouse. And follow me on clubhouse at April beach. If you would like to have Heather’s buys on your business and ask Heather your questions and also to our weekly clubhouse rooms,
every single Wednesday at 12 o’clock Eastern time. Thanks so much for tuning into us and I will talk to you next week.
This episode is for those in Phase 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 of the Start to Scale Up System™ Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Summary:
Pinterest could be the sleeper tool you’ve been looking for to generate leads and grow your business. Pinterest is not a social media platform but a powerful tool that can increase website visits and bring you great new clients. But, few companies know how to use Pinterest. This episode covers the 101 of how to use Pinterest stories, videos, hashtags and more.
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey everybody. Welcome back to episode number 210 on the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Happy January, 2021. We obviously just finished commitment week 2021 for entrepreneurs and small business owners.
And we had our fourth podcast anniversary birthday last week. So first of all, great way to kick off 2021. Thank you so much for being a listener of this show for the last four years and keeping us a top of the charts for business development online for entrepreneurs. We love you guys. If you haven’t had a chance to yet, please cruise over and leave us a review on Apple podcasts,
or just simply share this podcast from your Spotify up to your Instagram stories, or share this on LinkedIn. We appreciate you spreading the word about this show and just honestly how awesome you guys are as listeners. I get direct messages from many of you on Instagram and on LinkedIn, and just appreciate them so much. So we’re kicking off our fourth year with more proven business trainings that you can take to the bank.
We are known for giving you business steps and strategies that coaches charge thousands of dollars for. And it’s all totally proven. I’ve been coaching entrepreneurs for 24 years and the guests that also come on the show are proven experts in their space. So I’m so glad to turn you over to another guest expert on today’s show. We’re talking about how to generate leads with Pinterest stories,
videos, and hashtags. And let me give you a quick little backstory. I don’t do Pinterest. I’m not the Pinterest kind of girl whatsoever from a business strategy standpoint though. I definitely want to be where our clients are in where it’s a great place for our company to be, which is called the sweet life company for people to access our resources in the content that we distribute here on the podcast.
And so last year we got on Pinterest. We recorded a show about Pinterest with a guest expert, and my team quickly got to work implementing all those steps in our Pinterest engagement grew by something crazy. It was like 813%, which could be two things. Number one, it could show you how terrible we were at Pinterest before. So, you know,
there’s only way only one way to go is up or the strategies once are implemented with Pinterest. You can see almost instant results when you’re using Pinterest correctly. But with that being said full transparency, I still am not great at Pinterest. I’m grateful to have a team that does Pinterest. I’m not really on Pinterest. And so as an entrepreneur, I had a lot of questions for our expert today on,
you know, really who should be on Pinterest? What can you do on there? And especially all the new Pinterest stories feature. So on today’s show, we are talking to you guys about the fact that Pinterest could be that sleeper tool that you’ve been looking for to generate leads and grow your business. It’s not a social media platform. We’ll talk about that in today’s show,
but it’s really a great way to get eyes on your business and have people land on your website and increase your website, traffic and therefore generating leads. But honestly not a lot of companies are still leveraging Pinterest really well. So inter today’s expert, Laura rag is in the house today and she’s at Pinterest powerhouse who helps high performing business owners, content, creators,
and influencers grow profitability the right way with sustainable systems using Pinterest. She’s helped clients and students bring in over $50,000 in monthly revenue with her strategies. I mean, she’s really rad. You guys are gonna love her. And she’s been featured as a guest on podcasts like tailwind, ultimate marketer, twin cities, collective, and small business revival. And Laura lives in Minnesota with her family.
And she can be found@laurareich.com and we’ll of course, make sure all the links and everything we’re talking about in today’s show are going to be available for you guys in the show notes. If you’re new here then just so you know, you can find all the show notes and all the bonuses that we deliver with this podcast, by going to Sweetlife co.com, simply click on podcast,
and then you can click on the podcast number, or you can just type in the number of the podcast in our search bar. This is episode number 210. So welcome here to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast. And just a little bit of housekeeping before we dive into today’s show, if you haven’t yet held your seat or joined the early registration waitlist for my,
offer engineer masterclass, that is coming in February. So now is the time to get on that wait list. It’s a two half day intensive, so not two and a half days, but it’s two half day intensive that I’m going to be teaching in the middle of February. And this is going to teach you how to extract your own intellectual property.
Take a look at all the assets and all the great things you’ve created, and we are going to together build your leading program. Course mastermind, membership, whatever the business model of that is, we’re going to help you extract it all and create it into a leading offer. That’s perfect. Should give you the results that you want. Make sure that you’re joining that early registration list by cruising over to theofferengineer.com.
Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast training.<inaudible> I’m super excited to be here with Laura Reich. And I will say that we did reschedule this episode because we’re both moms and that is what happens in our life. And Laura, you guys have to see this behind the scenes, this video, make sure you go to our YouTube channel and to our Pinterest,
there’ll be videos on there because she is glowing because she is beautifully eight months pregnant. And we had to make sure we recorded this show before baby, right. Number three, arrived. So we’re, we’re getting this out of here for you, Laura, welcome to the show. Thanks so much to everybody. A little bit about yourself. Yeah, for sure.
I thank you so much for having me. I am a mom of two boys with a girl on the way. So we are so super excited over here in this neck of the woods. And I am a VA gone rogue is what I call myself. So I used to try to do all the things and with a family that doesn’t work. So I picked one thing I love,
which happens to be Pinterest and design. And I have been going hard at that ever since and just love it. That’s awesome. Okay. And what is your URL? So people can find you, even though we’ll put all this in the show notes for you. Yeah, of course. It’s just Laura wrike.com. So it’s L a U R a R I K e.com.
Awesome. Okay. So today on the show I have a million Pinterest questions. So we had Melanie fountain on the show a while ago, almost a year ago, really diving into Pinterest Pinterest marketing. It was a great episode. I will say, as a case study, we took those like Pinterest one Oh one steps, and we tried them. And as a company,
we had crazy results. It was like we went from being nowhere on Pinterest, having random pins to, you know, having thousands and thousands of impressions. And it was like an 813% increase with applying some basic steps. And so I am a believer in Pinterest now, but I will also say I am completely still Pinterest illiterate because my, my team does it.
And I get questions all the time from business owners about, you know, still, should I be using this? What is this look like? What can Pinterest really do? And so today’s show is all about kind of dissecting some of those high-level business questions. So our listeners can, first of all, determine whether or not they should be in Pinterest.
So number one is this worth your time, number two, how to get started and you have a toolkit for people to get started, which I wish that we had had in the beginning, I will say for sure, you know, really what is this toolkit? How do we get started with this? But there’s so many things kind of spinning around with Pinterest.
So let’s kind of start, I would say, spinning around in my head with Pinterest. So let’s go ahead and just start with question number one. How does Pinterest rack up and compare to other social media outlets such as Instagram or LinkedIn? Yeah, for sure. Really the biggest difference is it’s not a social media platform like Instagram or LinkedIn. LinkedIn is been known for the more professional type connections and Instagram.
You have conversations and the comments and things like that. Pinterest really does not focus there. They really focus on you putting in the conversation into the copy and making sure that you have the keywords there so that people can find you when they find you. Then they read that conversation and they click through to the destination, which is where you can take it from there.
So it’s more search based and it’s more top of funnel based because you can utilize Pinterest to send it where those conversations are happening right now and bring in a wider audience over there. Okay, fascinating. So it’s SEO, it’s search engine. It’s a way to take a conversation and become the top of that question for you. Is Pinterest owned by Google or is it a Google product or something of that sort?
It is not, no, it’s separate. It actually plays off of Google’s domain authority and their own domain authority. So when you have your website and then you have a Pinterest profile or business account, right, you’re going to get more domain authority with your profile on Pinterest than you are your own website. Unless, I mean, you’re some super big wig,
but it has been around forever. Right? But like my website is not going to have as much domain authority as Pinterest. And so I really use that and play off of their authority to be able to bring people to my website. Very cool. Okay. So what businesses should be there. And so let me rephrase that question. You know, obviously who should be on Pinterest,
but as a business strategist, my brain works the other way, what buyers are on Pinterest, like who is actually looking for content to increase maybe their performance, their profit, their business ability or whatever it is. You know, we have a lot of marketing coaches, brand new coaches, video coaches, health coaches, a lot of physicians, a lot of attorneys and even a lot of CPAs that listened to our podcast are their buyers.
Absolutely. So there’s kind of two different ways that I tackle that for people. One, I am a Pinterest junkie, right. It’s my jam. So I’m always going to tell you, yes, there are buyers there to give you kind of an unbiased opinion. I tell everybody to go to the platform type in something that your buyers would be searching for,
right? Like what is the problem or the pain point that they are having and how would they find you? Other places on Google, on Facebook? Like what are they looking for? And if what pulls up underneath that search is offering or information or education that you can provide to them because you know how to do that as well. Then 1000000%, that’s where you should be listed because you’re missing that opportunity.
The other thing that I like to talk to people about is really when you’re thinking about buyers, like where are they? Right. Cause everybody has a different stage. And so we talked about this for a second too. Like, it might not be that they’re a startup or they’re established or whatever, but where do they aspire to be? So if they are someone who is earning three figures right now,
they’re not going to be looking for how to earn three figures on Pinterest. They’re going to be looking at things like how to grow your email list to earn five figure months. And that’s because they aspire to be in that position. So that’s also something that you need to kind of reverse engineer and think, okay, is my buyer talking to where they’re at right now?
Are they aspiring to be a five figure person? Are they aspiring to maybe lead a life where it’s freedom, right? And so they have more time in their day or their moms or whatever. And that’s really how you want to address it too, when you’re going about it that way too. So smart. Yes. And you know, there are always,
people want to hang out just you and I do too. We want to hang out with people that are just slightly ahead of where we are. Right? Those are, those are the best people that are going to hold our hand and grab us to the next level. And that totally makes sense that that’s the same thing people will be looking for on Pinterest as well.
How often should people post let’s actually talk about the content that should be posted on Pinterest? What is like the baseline, if you’re going to get started, this is how often you post. This is what it really looks like. Yeah. So it used to be an everything that I’m going to tell you guys here is how I handle it, right?
So I am not saying this is the end all be all. I’m not saying this is a hard and fast rule. You have to do it this way. This is what I’ve implemented for myself and my clients and my course members and things like that, where they see the results. So one of the things that I really tell people is it used to be pin 20 to 30 to 40 different times a day,
and you would pin your stuff and other people’s stuff. And really that’s not necessarily required anymore. What I teach is that you need to be consistent on the platform. So if you’re someone that’s just starting out and maybe you don’t have a ton of content out there, which I can try to prove you wrong, because there are multiple places that I can find content you have already posted online that can work for this.
But if you’re thinking content in terms of like landing page or sales page or blog posts, and you’re feeling like you don’t have a ton, then start at one or two pins a day, right? Even if it’s a time constraint, like how do I create all these pin designs? Start at one to two pins a day, then start to work your way up.
If you’re someone that’s been blogging or you have tons of an audience, and you’re looking to really expand on that and you know that you have tons of content, then start hire. We did a case study actually on my website. It showed, even though they had a smaller audience and the other account had a larger audience, one pinned, I think it was like seven times a day.
And the other one pin 21 times a day, they still saw the same incremental increases on their own accounts because they were being consistent. And it was the quality over how often they were posting that gave them that feedback to know that that was beneficial. Wow. That’s so awesome. That’s super encouraging. I know because our listeners are like thinking like, Oh shit,
20 times a day. Like, how am I going to ever do that? Like that is not ever going to happen. And so that that’s super cool to look at the case study and the stats and, and really just the incremental growth that’s happening with. What’s being posted now, little tangent, what software do you recommend that people use to manage their Pinterest?
So I go back and forth on this. I personally use tailwind. I love them dearly because they have tailwind tribes. And that’s really like a community-based where you’re sharing ideas together. And then, I mean, sharing other people’s ideas and really having that community type feel like you would on social media. The problem with me only telling you to pick one platform that I see though,
is it’s not a good fit for everybody all the time. So if you’re out there and you’re like, I’ve tried tailwind, it doesn’t work for me. I apologize that it didn’t work for you. I love them. They are amazing. But what I urge you to do is go to Pinterest and make sure that the scheduler you’re using, whether it’s ladder,
whether it’s meet Edgar or whatever is a Pinterest approved platform. Because if it’s not, you set yourself up for possibly getting marked as spam or even shut down because they might not be following Pinterest best practices. Wow. Okay. I know that is such a fear. I’m so glad you said that because people would never know, know to even look, they’ll just think,
Oh, well, because this platform offers it does works. Great. I’ll just take this one, but it is so important with not just Pinterest, all the different social media platforms that whatever schedule are you using does it does abide by their regulations. So thank you for that. And we’ll go ahead and make sure we leave some resources so that you guys can find Laura.
And then also to some of the software tools in the show notes of this show. So we’re not going to totally leave you all hanging out there with that. So this week I was on Pinterest and I have a confession to make. I am never on Pinterest. I’m not a Pinterest girl. I’m just not okay. And so this week I thought,
okay, I’m going to go ahead and post a video. I think I had posted something to a LinkedIn story downloaded, like the little five second video. And then I, you know, distributed it or long all of our, you know, Instagram and LinkedIn story channels. And then I’m like, well just sitting there on this little five second video,
why don’t I just try to put it on Pinterest? And so I went on there, not knowing even that Pinterest had stories, I was just going to post it like as a little video on there and, you know, boom, I’m sure everybody who’s listening to. This is like, yeah, duh, April Pinterest is had stories for a while.
You know, but to me that was, I was like, what, it’s another thing with this story. So what are Pinterest stories? What should be posted there? What is the purpose of a Pinterest story and how can they be leveraged in the business? Yeah, for sure. So it’s actually not something that’s entirely like completely past you, right?
So it is new. So don’t worry about that. Some people have had it around for a little while, but it has now opened up to more people. And so a lot of people are seeing the get early access symbol when they’re locking in, there are two sides of it, which is awesome. One side is the, I really feel like Pinterest is stepping up their game in terms of providing an opportunity for content creators,
to be able to tell a story better, to be able to educate more. Because when you think about it, you only have one graphic and you can only have so much on that one image to try to tell that story and capture their attention. So the purpose of stories right now is to be able to have multiple images so that they can kind of tap through.
And it’s kind of like a slideshow. I teach people to do more of like step-by-step, or this is what I’m working through or behind the scenes, or like more of that conversation visually in those stories. The only downfall to stories that I see currently, which I’m hoping they open up in the future is it’s not clickable to an actual landing page. So you wouldn’t use it like you do a static image because you can’t get them to use that referral traffic in our research that we’ve done in the past few months,
though, it really does help increase the brand awareness and authority on your account. So you will see that if you are using it, to teach people things and to educate them and to provide more information for them at the end, Pinterest puts on a follow button so they can start following you on Pinterest. And it’s really bringing in that authority from that platform.
And then we’ve also seen the link clicks and the traffic and the leads increase on the other things that we’ve been consistently putting out there because of the help with the stories. Okay. Totally makes sense. And leads me to, first of all, say, that means I really failed on my first story. Cause I just uploaded that one video and I was like,
wow, they want me to share more. I don’t have any more right now. All right. What the hell? I’m just going to upload this one video. So first of all, how people find your stories if they’re not already following you, does Pinterest use hashtags? Yeah. So Pinterest uses hashtags. This is one of those controversial type things though.
Pinterest, a while ago said no hashtags. Then they said, yes, hashtags. Now they’re saying don’t use them a ton. So my philosophy has always been when they’re, when they opened up hashtags, don’t use them to keyword stuff. Use them within a sentence that you have put into the description, like use up your entire 500 character limit. And then if you have room and you can’t put on a whole,
a full another sentence in there, but there’s a hashtag or a phrase that still is relevant to what you’re sharing, then use it as a hashtag. Right. And just kind of take it that way. I’ve never done more than like three on a pin at most. So I don’t really see it being a problem. As long as you use it,
that way, those that have gone gung ho or followed the ups and downs of the hashtag or no hashtag I think are starting to not see the best results. The hashtags are still searchable, so you can still find them in search. So it really just depends on, on what placement you have for them in the description. So if your pin is about how to create a content marketing strategy,
and it’s like a download of a calendar or graphic, you’re not going to use a hashtag girl boss. I hate that hashtag by the way, every girl listening to the show is going to hate me for saying that I can’t stand that term. Yeah, no, it’s too general. Yeah. Right, right. You know what I mean? You’re going to put like content marketing or content calendar or a social media calendar or something.
Yeah. So two that don’t do the girl boss. I’m not a huge fan of that either. I like the terms that actually are like leading me somewhere. Right. Like that seems anyway. So I would say if you’re talking about content marketing though, in the description, don’t waste your hashtag on hashtag content marketing, maybe do calendar download or calendar template or something like that.
So it’s still relevant, but it’s playing off of a different type of search that someone would do. Maybe they don’t know about the content marketing calendar, but they’re looking for calendar templates or some sort of business template or something like that. That way. Then you have the conversation, it still flows. You’ve got the keywords in the description. And then you just add in a couple of those hashtags that are still keywords,
people would search for, but you couldn’t put it into the sentence flow that you were creating. All right. I got you girl. That totally makes sense. So with our stories, can you add hashtags? I kind of went back to that question. How did, how do people find my stories if they aren’t following me? Stories are still there like a collaboration of pins.
So you get to put three or five or however many you want in there and you still get a description on each one. So it’s still going to be searchable. You still can put a couple of hashtags in there if they’re not already following you and they search for something, it’s going to show up in the feed, just like any of the other static pins or video pins.
So in terms of your video, you could have uploaded it just as a pin instead of a story. And it works the same way as a static pin. You do get a little bit more tagging capability in terms of topic, tagging for videos. Then you do a static pen. So you can also use the tags for keywords that you want to be found for.
And that increases the searchability as well. Okay. So let me make sure I understood this correctly. The stories are basically a collection of pins related to the same things, is that right? Yep. So if I have a static pain, can I like Instagram? When you have something in your feed, that’s a post, can I push that to story?
Like, can I push a static pin to story or is it a separate, complete way to post that It’s a separate, complete way to post that you can repost it? The only problem that I see by doing that though is Pinterest is very heavily encouraging people to do fresh content. So they will see that same static pin posted. And then again on your stories and they’ll consider that as like a spam duper kit.
Got it. Okay. I lied that. Wasn’t the last question before. Thank you listeners for bearing with me. I hope I’m not asking like questions that you all know the answers to. I really include this in this area. And so it was, I’m so glad to have you here, Laura. And so how long the stories stay in a story?
How long are they shown for So completely different than social media? They stay on there just like a Pinterest pin, unless you go and delete them, they will be on your profile. Awesome. Okay. That makes me really happy. Nothing bothers me more than posting a really great Instagram story that people only get to see for 24 hours. So that’s super awesome.
Thank you. I’m super excited about stories. Like I said, Kelly and JC on my team really create our Pinterest content and post that. So thank you. By the way, to those of you guys who have been following us on Pinterest it’s, it’s cool to see that and those interactions and things, but I’m totally personally Pinterest illiterate. So I’ve just have so many questions that I am not able to answer for our clients.
So I’m very excited about all this. Okay. So let’s chat a little bit about video pins. Now, what is the parameter around video pins? Are they all vertical? How long can they be? And are they clickable? Yeah, so they Do not all have to be vertical. I still suggest it because then you’re taking up more real estate on the feed.
I personally don’t want to go more than a minute to a minute and a half. I believe you can go longer. I think it’s like two or three minutes that you can go up to. I’m not a hundred percent positive because I stick on the lower end. And then what was your other question? That was my other question. Oh, it’s are they clickable?
Oh yeah. So they are not clickable unless they’re used for ads. They have been clickable in the past. Again, I’m not sure if that’s something that’s changing or updating because there have been a lot of changes in the past, like four to six months on the platform, but they really do help with that growth of the account as well. When we’ve seen a lot of people come to us and say,
you know, I had a huge spike in October and now it’s December and everything’s dropping and I don’t know what to do. They post a couple video pins, they do a story pin and they’re back up again. Right. And they’re doing that consistently. I’m not going out there and telling everybody to post one and you’re going to be like woo through the roof and like,
awesome. But like, if you keep doing that, you’re going to keep seeing the results go up and back in the direction that you want them to go. Love that. Love that. Thank you so much. I have my million of Pinterest notes here and, and Laura, the couple of things. So for our listeners who want to get started with Pinterest,
I will say in full transparency, even though I’m not the one that does it, I’m really grateful for an amazing team that manages our Pinterest there. We really have seen amazing results and growth from using Pinterest as a platform with our audience. So I will say that from what I I’ll just say, if you guys are considering using Pinterest, definitely have a strategy behind it.
And really what I would like is to direct people towards some steps to get started. Nobody wants to recreate the wheel and you have a Pinterest like toolbox a toolkit it’s really cheap. It’s like 37 bucks or something that people can get started with what is inside that toolkit and what can people expect with that? Yeah, for sure. So the toolkit is really put together for anybody that needs that simple strategy,
right? That’s actually gonna help them convert on the platform. And so it’s easy. We provide different templates for them, whether they’re static, pen templates, video template, story templates. I have an awesome keyword swipe file in there too. So I’ve gone through over 700 different type of niche, specific keywords and hashtags in this swipe file. And the cool thing is,
is we constantly update that. So the swipe file for fun stats has actually brought in over $33,000 for clients and toolkit. So That’s been super fun. Yeah, That’d be good work. That’s so good. Talk about an ROI. Yeah. Tons of other stuff too. Like we have a call to action, swipe file a branding blueprint to help them really understand how to brand their pin images.
And then there’s some bonuses of course, like a custom dashboard for Google analytics and how to track and make sure you’re getting the ROI and stuff like that too. So Yeah, I mean, when we, when we got started and we started implementing what I was saying is so true, like if we had had a toolkit like this, we would have grabbed it in the second.
And so based on our listeners in our show, if you guys are thinking you want to get started with Pinterest, we’ll go ahead and make sure we leave a link to grab this toolkit in the show notes for this episode. So make sure you guys go over and grab this. I would recommend those of you guys that are listening to get started here.
It’s a low investment and it saves probably months and months of time and years of learning because you’re getting Laura’s wisdom for only $37. That’s crazy for those of you guys that are scaling your business. So for those of our listeners, you’re scaling your business. You have a team like me that you really just, you want to delegate this, you know,
you, you probably want to be on the platform. Maybe your team doesn’t know Pinterest. They aren’t experts. Then I am going to point them towards you, Laura, we’ll go ahead and make sure that we put these show notes and I would really consider like hiring Laura’s team out to manage your Pinterest for you or something like that. At least chatting with Laura on the phone.
I know she has a bunch of other stuff for you guys. So based on our listeners, I always try to give recommendations. So if you guys have ever gone through and taken our quiz to figure out what phase of business you’re in, I’m going to tell you exactly who needs to buy kind of what here, if you want to do this, if you’re in phase one or two,
then I would go with the toolkit. If you’re in phase three, four or five, then I would go with one of Laura’s other done for you services. If you don’t know what phase of business you’re in, go to sweet life code.com forward slash quiz. And you’re going to get a whole rundown based on where you are of your phase of business development,
and then we’ll direct you there. But for those of our listeners, most of our faithful listeners already know what phase of, of our start to scale up system they’re in. And so they know, so phase one or two, you guys are the toolkit people three, four or five, then really done for you services near you’re ready to scale. Thank you so much.
Yay. Love everything that you shared. My, my Pinterest entrepreneur IQ, just like totally leveled up three levels. I feel like awesome. And I can’t wait to, you know, for our team to like start implementing some of the stuff that we talked about on the show as well. So super appreciate your time. Congratulations on your new baby. When this airs he’ll be here and I’m so excited for you and we’ll make sure we leave all the show notes for everybody to get their hands on these things.
I will say you guys, honestly, Pinterest has been a real nice pleasant surprise. We’re not on Tech-Talk or anything. We’re not on Twitter. And Pinterest has been really awesome and powerful for us to grow our audience. So thanks for being on this show. Yeah. I love hearing that. And I mean, honestly, it is such a great platform.
I’m so glad that your team can help you with that. That’s absolutely amazing. And thank you so much for having me. Of course. Yes, of course. Thanks for being here. I’ll talk to you soon. Thanks. Awesome. Some show. Thank you so much for tuning in and sticking with me here with Laura at the time that we recorded this,
Laura was expecting, and now she is probably listening to this episode, holding her beautiful baby girl in her arms. And so we just really appreciate Laura’s time and making sure we were able to record this episode for you guys before she gave birth and went on her maternity leave in such great information, follow us. If you aren’t yet on Pinterest, you can find us at Sweetlife podcast and you can see some of the things that our team has been doing over the last year.
You can even see how our, even our branding and our usage of Pinterest tablets has evolved how we’re using Pinterest stories and how we’re using video. We’d love to connect with you there and follow you back. All right, you guys have an awesome day. Again, all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. This is episode number two.
Entrepreneurs and leaders in all phases of business who feel like you just can’t catch up, and you know there’s a better way to live.Not sure what Phase your business is in? www.sweetlifeco.com/quiz
Summary:
To kick off the new year, I’ve brought Peak Performance Coach, Eric Partaker, on the show to help you get started on the right foot and make 2021 the year you become the most productive version of yourself in multiple areas of your life and business. Eric has worked with and led high-performing teams at McKinsey & Company, Skype, and Chilango. He is one of 300 people worldwide certified as a High Performance Coach, by the High Performance Institute. Over the last 20 years he has studied and modeled the traits and habits of the world’s most successful people, in order to help his teams and clients break through their barriers and reach their highest potential, in both their work and life.
At the end of this episode you will:
No longer waste time
Have a strategy to root your identity in who you want to be(even before you get there)
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the SweetLife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to 2021. The first show, and we are starting out with a major bang that is going to be a game-changer for you. I’m so excited to dive in and help you understand how to be a peak performer in your health,
wealth, and relationships this year and beyond with our guest expert, Eric partaker. So let’s chat about what we’re doing here and why this show is so special. You know, as entrepreneurs, as leaders, as human beings, we all want to operate at our highest level. We all want to be that person that we envisioned we would be right. But what happens is we get burned out.
We get stretched thin, and there are some things that just don’t balance out to equal the vision that you might’ve had for what you wanted your life and your company to look like. And so we’re going to dive into that and we’re going to start out with a powerful plan and strategies to really be a peak performer in your health, your wealth and your relationships in 2021.
And let me just tell you, this is not another piece of content or some other podcasts on how to become productive or how to set goals. No, no, no. Our guests today shared strategies that I have never ever heard before. These aren’t the same old, same old things. These things are game changers. You guys, if you watch our video episode of this,
it is totally me behind the scenes taking massive notes. The things that he was saying was just gold. And so this is an episode that is definitely not to miss for those of you that really want to operate at your highest level in 2021. And, and frankly take back control of your health, wealth, and relationships, which are all things that we have left behind struggling with this last year.
We all hope and pray. So let’s talk about, you know, really what you can expect out of this episode. In this episode, we’re talking with Eric and I’m going to give you a bio on him. This guy is super duper awesome. So we’re talking with Eric, who’s a peak performance coach and author of the bestselling book, the three alarms,
a simple system to transform your health, wealth, and relationships forever. And the information on this show, like I said, it’s not going to be the same old, same old. You’re going to discover powerful new ways to increase your productivity, deep root your identity in who you’re supposed to be. And you’re also going to understand how to become even stronger with each challenge that comes your way.
It’s really, really good stuff. You guys. So at the end of this episode, if you apply the strategies in here and the bonus, that’s going to be given to you here with this show, you’ll no longer waste time. You’ll have a, to root your identity and who you want to be, even if you’re not that person yet. And you’ll stop being an amateur and become a pro.
Now let’s introduce you to Eric partaker. Eric’s a CEO coach and mentor, author, and peak performance expert. He was named the CEO of the year in 2019 business excellence awards. One of the top 30 entrepreneurs in UK 35 and under by startups magazine and among Britain’s most disruptive entrepreneurs by the Telegraph, he’s advised fortune 50 CEOs while at McKinsey helped build Skype’s multi-billion dollar success story and has founded several businesses of his own.
He’s a certified peak performance coach and has also completed a coaching certification and apprenticeship with professor BJ Fogg who leads Stanford university’s behavior design lab told you this guys it’s just super rockstar. He continues research evidence-based studies in psychology, neuroscience, habit, change leadership and peak performance. And he is giving you a totally free digital copy of his book. You can cruise over to Sweetlife co.com.
This is episode number 208, and a link to download his book will be found in the show notes. So if you are really ready to make a change that is going to stick and your business and your work and your relationships so good. You guys let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> Alrighty. You guys, I’m so happy to be joined by Eric partaker here today,
and we’re talking to all about peak performance, peak performance, usually in the past, have you been listening to the show for a long time? We talk about peak performance with extreme and adventure sports. And as that relates to the company you’re building basically. So you can have more time to take off and play with your extreme inexpensive venture sports. But today we’re really talking about peak performance that comes before that something that is not discussed often enough in the entrepreneur space.
And that’s about really performing at your highest level all the way across the board, so that you have an opportunity to reap all those benefits and rewards. And Eric is in the house today, talking all about his new book and how you guys can get to this state of becoming a peak performer and doing this in your business. You can do it in your life.
Eric. Welcome. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us here on the Sweetlife podcast. Super glad to have you tell everybody a little bit about yourself. Yeah, thanks April. And thanks everyone for taking the time to listen. Yeah, I’ve, I’ve been obsessed with peak performance for over two decades, but well, first, definitely in the wrong way.
And then in a, in a much better way. So about 10 years ago, it was all, you know, work. It was hustle mentality, and that’s how I was for the whole first half of my career. You know, so a hundred plus hour work weeks at McKinsey and company and helping build up Skype before we sold it to eBay,
few of my own businesses. And you know, I’m on a plane. Start to feel unwell, Dr. On-board rushes over, takes my vital signs and says, we need to land the plane immediately. I think he’s having a heart attack 10 years ago, playing emergency lens, where to a small town in France, the runway shut down. They take me off into a waiting ambulance where they administer nitrates to open up the arteries and increase the blood flow to the heart.
And as the ambulance sped off to the local hospital, I looked up to the eyes of the French paramedic looking down at me and I said, please don’t let me die. I have a five-year-old son. I didn’t say, please don’t let me die. I need to clear my inbox. And you know, my point there is that as entrepreneurs we’re so into the hustle,
we’re so into, you know, what, what do we got to do next? And, and it can all go at any moment at any time. And what I said in that moment, it really truly changed my life because the next morning I woke up and I thought, you know, all of my success to date at that point had come at the price of my health and relationships.
I almost lost my life. And then the very first words out of my mouth had nothing to do even with my own life. But, you know, with my boy at the time, right, my two boys now, but at the time, my, my only son and then that just struck me as, okay, that’s the three legged stool.
That’s what peak performance means. You know, we need to perform at a peak level across our health, our wealth, our work as a wealth driver and our relationships. And when I say peak performance, I’m not meaning turning. Yeah, I don’t, I don’t mean like in a turn a person into a Ferrari, you know, I mean, close the gap between your current and best self across all the areas of life that matter most,
you know, on the health, you know, work and home front. That’s the mission that I’m on now that I’ve been on for the last 10 years. And my book, the three alarms is, is about that mission. And it’s about how I’ve, codafide it as if you want to reach your best on the health, wealth and relationship fronts,
you need to do it through IPA, like the beer, but better for you and the IPA standing for identity productivity and antifragility. Yeah. And thank you so much for sharing your story. You guys watch the videos of these, you know, any sort of story like that. I’m here, like tearing up behind the scenes, but I understand that there are so many people that are on their way to hit that point without what you’re talking about in this book and,
you know, praise God, you were able to come back and figure it out and, you know, share it with the rest of us and really be able to leverage this to the next level and come in here and step in and help entrepreneurs. And so this is a perfect episode before we were recording. I was thinking, I wonder, are we going to air this?
And this is a perfect one to kick off 2021, because some of the things that you’re talking about, you know, we all want 20, 21 to be different than 2020. And it wouldn’t be nice if we just woke up and the whole entire world that was glittering on January 1st and everything was perfect again. And, and, and it’s okay to want those things.
But what we know is that we need to have a plan regardless of what comes about. And that’s what you talk about here in your book. And I love that now you have worked with really high level executives and entrepreneurs and your work in the past and getting people results in this. And it has really been extraordinary. And so I’m super excited to dig into what we’re talking about on today’s show.
So you say how to become a peak performer with IPA identity productivity, and antifragility, let’s go ahead. Can you dive in a little bit, and let’s kind of dissect each one of these things. So our listeners have an idea of some immediate actions and some areas in their life that they can, you know, rebalance or correct, or take a look at and,
and make some adjustments. Can we dive into IPA and the identity first? Yeah, let’s do it all. Talk about each and a practical tool. And the book of, I give loads of practical tools, but we just give like one quick win takeaway for each, each section. And let’s go ahead and say this too. If I can just interrupt.
You also said, all of our listeners are going to get a free digital copy of your book and we will make sure that is a huge gift you guys, and we’ll make sure that the link to that is in the show notes for this show@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash two zero eight. So yeah. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Yeah. Cool. And,
and I just want to step back just super quickly once again, and say, you know, 20, 20, it was a challenging year. And part of what I’m trying to do with getting the message out around this book is to have it perfectly timed with making 20, 21, a rebound year making 20, 21 the year where you stepped back up to the plate,
right? Where you take things back up a level and you kind of dust things off and you say, all right, let’s go again. And IPA is the path forward. And, and one other thing to remember, my definition of peak performance is not turning you into a Ferrari. None of this is about achieving perfection. This is just about you showing up as your best self in the areas of life that matter most.
This is about you kind of gaining entry to what Abraham Maslow estimated was the 2% of people in the world who realize their full potential. So IPA for me is about gaining entry to that 2% club. So identity, identity, why don’t we start with identity? So the why here is because we cannot become a better version of ourselves now and going forward,
if we continue to be the person that we’ve always been, that doesn’t line up. So what got you here? Won’t get you there. You need to make a change. And entrepreneurs leaders, CEOs are very intentional when it comes to work, they get it. They know that I need to have envisioned. I need to model myself after that vision,
but they don’t bring that same intentionality often to their health and home, or you know, their, their health and relationships. So what I talk about in the book, the three alarms is how I decided, okay, what is the best version of me look like on each of those fronts? And that’s what I’d like everyone listening to do right now.
Just ha have a thing. If you were to give the best version of you, you at your best, a name on the health front, what would it be if you were to give the best version of you, a name or a phrase or a persona on the work front, what would it be? And if you were to do the same on the relationship or the home front,
what would it be? So I gave an example of what I’ve done with myself. So on the health front, it’s not me who goes to the gym in the morning, I’m a world fitness champion. That’s who goes to the gym in the morning. That’s the person who walks through the door. And when I’m in on, in a particular exercise and I get to the eighth rep,
and I’m not sure if I’m going to get to the 10th, a little voice goes off in my head and says, of course you will, because you’re a world fitness champion. And that’s all being driven by identity because behavior follows identity. When I take a Spider-Man costume and I put it on my seven-year-old Leo, I do not need to teach Leo what to do next.
He doesn’t need to go through Spider-Man training camp. I put the Spider-Man costume on and he starts shooting webs from his wrist, jumping around, making funny noises. Right? So what it really, all I’m trying to do here is to get everyone listening to, you know, remember that you’ve already done this. You did it as a kid. You picked an identity,
maybe when you were playing, you changed into that and it changed your behavior. Same concept. You’re just remembering back to something you used to do. Every time I go to the gym now I’m wonder woman, perfect world fitness champion. Now I have that on my phone as an alarm at 6:30 AM, I’ve changed the name of the alarm. And it says world fitness champion to prompt that intentionality.
Okay, because I’ve segmented my day into three parts and I’ve chosen basically a best self identity that will power each of the segments. And so 6:30 AM world fitness champion goes off. The next alarm on my phone goes off at 9:00 AM and it says, world’s best coach, am I the world’s best at all of these things? Of course not. But that’s the version of me.
That’s going to start the Workday. How does that version of me show up and behave in the world? You know, how decisive inspiring and reliable will I be for my clients? If I’m coming from the vantage point of the world’s best coach versus just Eric and at 6:30 PM, the game-changing alarm for me, we’re all different for me. This is a game changer.
It goes off and it says world’s best husband and father to prompt the, how would the world’s best husband and father walked through that door right now? That’s the power of intentionality, right? So I’ve chosen, what does best look like on the three areas of life that matter? Most, I queue it at a particular time of day, that would most benefit from being powered by that best self identity.
And I get three massive benefits. It brings intentionality into the day. It brings wise counsel, you know, into a moment, you know, okay, what should I say in response to this person? What should I do next? Well, what would the world’s best husband and father do? And number three, it prompts, reflection, because if I do lose my cool with my seven year old,
for example, I’m not perfect then because I had something so high to measure against, I feel like a real jerk afterwards. Right. And that’s good because that’s making the gap painfully obvious and it means that I get better and better at closing it. So that’s the identity piece I’m taking course millions of notes here. I’ve already named all of my different sections of my day and who I am.
So I just I’m appreciating this and eating it up. I’m a sponge here, loving this information. I love that identity too. And it’s so true. Like when along the lines did we forget who we believe that we are rather than, you know, what the world tells us. And so, and I, and I love that. And you’re so right about the fact that as entrepreneurs,
we are so apt to believe that before in our business, but maybe not so much in our health and our personal lives, those things for sure are not the same. Maybe it’s because money doesn’t drive it. And it’s not because they aren’t as important to us. Well, maybe the health at first, you know, so I think this is super awesome.
Loving this so far. So let’s talk about productivity, the identities, EEI, and in IPA, what do you do and what do you recommend as far as productivity and how does that, why did you choose productivity as part of your methodology for obtaining people? Yeah. Great question. So, okay. So context then, you know, setting. So first we start with,
well, who is it that we want to be? That’s the identity piece. So now we’re operating from the vantage point of our best self and the three areas of life that matter most. So what do we do now to make progress? Because we’re just awesome, but we’re standing still, right? And we need to progress. We need to climb the mountain now.
Right? And so we do that through action. So that’s why we talk about productivity because knowledge isn’t power anymore. These days I can Google anything and be knowledgeable about it. Within seconds. Knowledge is not where the game is played. It’s about taking consistent persistent deliberate action. That’s where the game is played. And that’s why we need to optimize ourselves for productivity,
because we don’t want to just be taking any action. We want to take the right action and most efficiently, so smart. So there’s loads I go into in the book and productivity. I actually, it’s a big thing that, although the IPA acronym is it’s only three letters I had to do productivity planning and productivity execution, because it’s about, you know,
plan, execute, plan execute. Right. Right. And I think before you go into it, you’re an expert in this. Did you realize that I know a lot of entrepreneurs that have the best laid plans, but then zero ability to execute. Is that why in your experience of dealing this, you know, entrepreneurs, we can think of these,
Oh, this is going to be the plan. We can even set the plan, lay the plan out the steps of the plan, reverse engineer, the plan, Gantt chart, the plan, whatever it is, but then actually doing it tends to be a lot harder. So is that because we all struggle in this? Yeah. Yeah. Well,
I was a chronic over planner. I would just plan, plan, plan, plan, plan. The other thing though, too, that I noticed with myself was that I was also a world-class procrastinator and may have something to do with the entrepreneurial mindset because of our tendency to dream and to, you know, think about, you know, big opportunities and the next big thing,
it’s almost like this, you know, proneness for distraction, right. Or at least it was for me. And so I had to transform myself from a chronic procrastinator to a super producer. And, you know, we won’t have time to go into all the productivity tools, but I want to drive home. One in particular that I think is mind blowing.
So the average person loses and this, this data, I first picked up, by the way from the book, the one thing, the average person under observation loses 28% of their Workday to multitasking and effectiveness. So the person thinks that they’re multitasking in an efficient way, but what they’re really doing is they’re doing what’s called task switching, going from one thing to the next,
very, very rapidly. And that leads to a 28% loss in the day, because rather than sticking with one thing, they’re jumping around. So when they get back to the thing that they originally intended to work on, they’ve lost their place. They have to retrace their steps at the regain, their momentum, all of this leads to lost time, 28% loss of a day.
Now the book just leaves the stat right there. And I thought, hang on a second. This is like not doing that stat justice. So I took that number and I said, well, let’s generously take off six weeks for vacation in a year. So let’s do 28% loss against 46 work weeks. That means that the average person is losing 13 weeks a year,
which is an entire calendar quarter. So of course you don’t feel productive. Of course you don’t feel like there’s not enough time for everything you’ve lost a whole quarter every year Because you aren’t productive. And because you would have lost all that time. I mean, you’re playing a game of basketball and you’re going against the competition. You get to the end of the third quarter and then news to you.
Somebody says, Oh, by the way, we’ve got to tell you, but you and the rest of your team had to sit out the fourth quarter. You’re like, huh. And you’re like, well, how do we even have a chance of winning then? And they’re like, Oh we don’t. Yeah. It’s. So if we extrapolate that across a 40 year career,
that means that the average person loses an entire decade. What could you do with an extra decade? That’s like two more careers potentially. Wow. So what’s the problem here? The problem is people just jumping around too much throughout the day that in their phone disturbed their, their focus and the concentration, having too many browser tabs, open notifications coming in left,
right and center all of these lures to kind of guide us off our path for peak performance, our path for realizing our full potential that’s the issue. And so what we have to combat all of that with is developing the power of single tasking, which is a bit of a lost art, especially nowadays with smartphones angle tasking is nothing more than making sure you stick with what you’re working on for a good chunk of time.
At least 30 minutes provided there’s 30 minutes of work to do. I like to shoot for, you know, 30 minute chunks throughout my day. And then I take a break after 30 minutes. And the way you can develop the habit of single tasking is by becoming a lawyer for a few weeks. And what I mean, what I read is that lawyers timesheet their days because otherwise they don’t know where to assign the client time.
And when I thought about that, I thought, well, if a lawyer can do this every single day as part of their career, then I could certainly should be able to manage it for like, you know, few weeks. So all I did was I had four columns activity start time, end time, total minutes. And I literally recorded every single task I did from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed kind of before and after work,
I was more like grouping stuff together. You know, it’s like getting ready for example. But once I started the Workday, it was everything. So working on presentation nine to nine, 13, nine, 13 to nine 17, LinkedIn nine and 17 to nine 20, you know, Google search nine 20 to nine 23, reheated coffee and check Twitter.
And the alarming thing that it revealed was just how much task switching was going on. On the first day that I did this, I had 77 entries in my Workday. Wow. As I was bouncing around unknowingly from one thing to the next. So when you do this, it does two things. One, it raises an unprecedented level of awareness in you in terms of where is my time actually going and how often,
you know, am I switching and bouncing around? And then two, it starts to become kind of painful when you have two for the third time, for example, on a day, right. Facebook 20. Right, Right, right. It’s really eye-opening. And I could see how that would be incredibly. Eye-opening really, really fast. And gosh,
I mean, I just think that there is so much last time, by the way, the one thing is one of my favorite books of all time. And we’ll make sure that the notes to that book as well are in the show notes for this show. And I think that one of the things that you’re saying here was really, really interesting, the art of single tasking.
So when we single task and chunk our time and block calendar, a block and tackle and do those things, how fast and how much more of an increased you see in productivity in your clients that you have do that. I mean, is that like instant results that they’re seeing when they actually change these are, what are your case studies working with clients who have,
who’ve really tried to apply this. Yeah, that’s a great question. So we’re not machines, we’re not robots. And so what that means is that we can’t actually reclaim the entire 28% and then that may lead you to believe that, okay. So then I can’t actually get the full quarter back. That’s actually not true because when you start to develop your ability to focus,
it also speeds up your output for the 72%. That wasn’t an issue anyway. Right. So what I see is, well, beyond then the 28% capture, it’s almost like people are becoming twice as productive as they previously were and that’s life changing, right? Because you’re producing more with the time you have. And that suddenly gives you the time that you are yearning for when it comes to your health and your relationships.
And yeah, it’s been life-changing for me to personally, because I just work, you know, with an extreme sense of focus I’m intensely on and then intensely off. And there’s no real anxiety during my Workday. There’s so much to be said to this. Like you were saying, I mean, it’s, you guys are just going to be super excited when you get a chance to experience Eric’s book with that being said again,
there’s so many things we could talk about, but moving on to the anti-fragility, let’s talk about that and why that is so important. We were talking about it a little bit behind the scenes before we started recording. What exactly is that to our listeners who are just wondering, I don’t even know how to define that necessarily in my life. Yeah. Okay.
So let’s play a game. Let’s say that you are a shipping container, you know, and my question would be, well, what does the container or the crate, you know, say on the side, if you’re that crate, what’s your label, is it fragile? And then that means you get hit a couple of times you break. And then my question to you would be,
well, what’s the opposite of being fragile. And then you’ll say probably something like robust, you know, or strong, robust, and strong synonyms, you know? So that just means that, okay, I can kick you a few more times and eventually you break and then you might say, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no. I’m resilient. Okay. Well, by definition, that means that we can keep hitting you and you’ll absorb the shock and you’ll stay the same. It’s like, Oh, okay, well that’s pretty good. Enter antifragile. The more we kick you, the stronger the crate becomes, wow. That’s where we want to be.
Now people, when they first hear this say, okay, wishful thinking, that’s like, you know something in a Marvel movie, that’s, that’s not reality, but then you’re dead wrong because every single person, your body is a perfect temple for anti-fragility. You stress a muscle and it causes it to grow. You expose the body to germs and bacteria.
It builds the immune system. You expose tissues to, you know, small doses of, you know, ultra by light. And it actually generates vitamin D you’re already, anti-fragile physiologically your body’s already doing it without you even realizing it. So it’s hard coded in your DNA. You just need to get what’s happening in your body, up into your head.
And so anti-fragility is about realizing that the gym, where you go and you train doesn’t need to just be there in the gym. You can turn life into one massive training camp. So every moment of adversity, challenge, frustration, disappointment thing, that doesn’t go your way. It’s nothing more than a personal trainer in the gym of life, walking up to you and saying,
Hey, here’s a Dumbo. Do you want to curl it? And you can either grab the dumbbell, curl it, complete the repetition and grow stronger as a result. Or you can wimp out and walk out of the gym. So it’s up to you. And the antifragile mentality says, yeah, I’ll take that dumbbell. Yeah. And if you’re in an argument with somebody,
for example, and now they escalate the argument, all that’s happening there is that they’re saying here here’s a heavier Dumbo and you could walk away or you could stay there and you can curl it with your best self. So loads of different ways of building this mentally, you know, anti-fragility, you know, that I cover in the book, but probably the most powerful,
I mean, there’s so I have so many favorites, so hard to choose. Okay, I’ll go with this one. If you can embrace this, just this, if you forget everything else I’ve just said, and if you just embrace this one thing, even if you forget to pick up the free digital copy of the book, that’s fine, but just don’t miss this point.
And that’s in 2021. Do you want to remain amateur in life or do you want to turn pro let’s start with an amateur. So the first half of my career, I let an amateur existence by that I made feeling for me, preceded action. I needed feel like doing things in order to do them. So feeling generated action. That’s how an amateur lives their life.
And the amateur will get amateur. Results a pro knows that it’s action that generates feeling the equation is literally flipped, which means they don’t need to feel like doing something in order to take action. They take action, whether they feel like it or not. And in fact, when you really upgrade this kind of way of being or mentality, the less you feel like doing something,
the more discomfort it presents you, the more you step into it, the more you say it’s there for in that direction. I must step, you know, it’s sorta like elite warriors are trained to run towards the sound of gunfire, not a way. Right? And so turning pro versus remaining an amateur, what do you want 20, 21 to be?
And where have you been an amateur in life? And where can you develop a professional mentality and know that action generates feelings, not the other way around. Wow. Eric, I’ve never heard it explained as well as you just explained that there, thank you so much. I mean, that was just, I mean, the anti-fragility part in one of the things you said,
let me look back at my notes here. So I have it, is that the resilience you bounce off and stay the same. And so many you hear that talked about so often like, Oh my gosh, well, you need to be resilient and just bounce around and just pop off this. But what we’re talking about is, yeah, resilience keeps you exactly where you were before you don’t go forward.
You don’t go backwards. You just bounce off and you remain the same in the way that you’ve just explained that with actually changing with actually becoming stronger from each one of the blows, the pushes, the drops, whatever it is super amazing. And I love everything that you said, and I know our listeners are just really going to get a ton out of this.
Not only that that’s so generous of you to give away a digital copy of your book and for your time here on the show, this is the perfect show. So Jeff Goins introduced us. Thank you, Jeff, for bringing Eric here on the show. Jeff was a guest on the show. Oh my gosh. Like almost four years ago now in the very beginning,
when we first launched and he was right on about you being perfect for our audience and your message that you wanted to share. And I’m so glad that you’re here and this is exactly what we were looking for for honestly, for me personally, to kick off 2021, you know, we have guests on the show. I learned so much from you and really wanting to find somebody that was saying exactly what I selfishly personally needed to hear right now is an entrepreneur and a mother and a leader.
And what I would consider was a peak performer up until 2020. And now I just feel like I have been resilient and I have not necessarily gotten stronger through this. And so I will look at myself very, very closely after today’s episode. And I’m super excited to dive in more to the work that you’re doing and really appreciate your time on this show.
And so tell everybody how they find you. I’m really into reading print copies. I love holding a book in my hands, how they can experience your work, where you hang out when you are being incredibly focused and hanging out online, not all the time and how they can work with you when they’re ready to really take their business and their life to the next level.
Yeah. I just have to say April that, you know, when you say, wow, I really needed this personally. Hey, me too. You know, the reason that I’ve done all of this is not because I wasn’t born thinking this way. I had to become an expert about all this stuff because I really needed it. I needed to become anti-fragile.
I needed to become more productive. I needed to start living more intentionally. So we’re all on the same boat on that. So I just wanted to say that. So, okay. The book, if you like print copies of the book, please head over to Amazon, amazon.com, amazon.co.uk. I’m based here in the, in London, in the United Kingdom,
but either Amazon will have the book. If you head over to my website at Erik, Erik with a C Eric partaker, just like it sounds partaker.com got a free digital copy of the book waiting for you there. And I have some free three-part video training with worksheets as well, waiting for you there that will help you further embed some of the concepts in the book I’m coming out with an entire video course that I’m filming actually this week,
like over 40 different modules, all about IPA, which will be available on the website by the time this airs. And then if you’re listening and you’re like, look, I think I benefit from even just a chat, a single kind of peak performance insight session, which, which I run, you know, on a free basis with people, or if you’re like,
I need a coach or any of that, then just get in touch via the website. And, you know, we can have a chat, basically. I’m looking after, at the moment, 24 CEOs, entrepreneurs, other coaches, and they’re running everything from billion dollar businesses down to pre-revenue, you know, they’re just getting their funds raised to start their business,
but they all share the same quest. They want to close the gap between their current and best self. They want to reach their full potential and they want to do it. Multidimensionally and then, you know, my email, Eric, Eric partaker.com. So there you go, Thank you so much and we’ll make sure all those links are in the show notes.
And thank you so much for your time. I am super stoked to kick off 2021 with you, Eric and great to be connected with you. Thank you.<inaudible> Right. And that is a wrap for episode number 208 here at the Sweetlife entrepreneur and business podcast. You can find all of the show notes and the digital copy of the book that Eric’s promised you here on today’s show by visiting Sweetlife co.com
simply click on podcast. And this is episode number 208. And for those of you guys that are really ready to kick off this year with a bang, make sure to join us for commitment week 2021. It is coming up on January the 11th, totally free to join, and we are going to be covering five different aspects to reset and refocus your business for 2021.
It’ll take less than seven minutes a day. You guys it’s insane. We’ll go ahead and leave the link to join commitment week 2021, as well as the link to download Eric’s book in the show notes, or you can also just simply join commitment week by visiting Sweetlife coat.com forward slash commitment dash week dash 2021. Right? You guys be awesome. Can’t wait to talk to you next week.
Entrepreneurs and small businesses who want to scale by hiring Virtual Assistants but you don’t have the time to look for staff, the expertise to find the best help internationally or the systems in place to onboard your team to scale faster.
This show is ideal for entrepreneurs in Phases 2-4 of my“Start To Scale Up System” – Take the quiz to learn your current business status
Summary:
It’s time to grow your business and you need help. But how do you find the right team members when you don’t have time(or knowledge) to onboard them? In this show, we’ve covering how to hire international help, how to onboard them correctly, and how to do this by using an outside agency. Ruvi Abuvala, founder of scalingwithsystem.com is on the show dishing the powerful secrets his company uses to help other businesses grow and scale with team, systems and“The Ramping Bible”, and how to leverage these in your business right away.
We’re answering these questions about Hiring/Working With Virtual Assistants
When is the right time to hire your first virtual assistant?
Should everyone hire one? When would you not want to?
Where do you hire your virtual assistants from? What are the pros and cons of those areas?
How do you know what to take off your plate(delegate) first?
How do you make sure there is strong communication and reliability?
Should you hire one virtual assistant for everything or multiple virtual assistants for each task?
At the End of This Episode You Will
Understand the exponential scaleability of teams
Be aware of the need for(or update of) onboarding systems
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome to another episode of the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. I’m April beach, your host, and I’m super glad That you’re here today is a heavy heading show. And you’re going to get a lot of powerful,
valuable information. I can’t wait to introduce you to our guest, but if you’re a new listener here to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, I just wanted to say, hello. I’m April beach, the host of this show and founder of the Sweetlife company. And we help experts, entrepreneurs and small businesses scale online, develop your leading offers and become the undisputed leader in your space by providing business consulting and services to service-based entrepreneurs and companies looking to grow and scale with online services,
programs, and digital products in everything that we do here on the show. This is our outreach. This is where we deliver proven business trainings from decades of business coaching that you would pay thousands of dollars to get this business strategy. We deliver to you here on the show, totally free. So thank you so much for tuning in, and I can’t wait to dive into today’s show today.
We’re talking about how to scale with systems and grow your team. This is episode number 205, which means all of the show notes can be found by visiting sweet life co.com click on podcast and episode two Oh five on today’s show. We’re specifically talking to those of you guys who want to scale your business by hiring virtual assistants, but you don’t have the time to look for the staff yourself.
You might not have the expertise in the areas you’re looking to hire. And so it’s hard for you to sort actually who’s the right candidate because you yourself may not know or be a master in a certain area, and you need systems in place to scale your business faster. This show is ideal for those of you guys who are in phases, two, three or four of my start to scale up system.
If you aren’t sure your current business status, cruise over to sweet life code.com forward slash quiz, you can just pause this episode for a second and you can just answer six questions. You’ll get your exact business status and a checklist of things you should be focusing on to grow and scale your company faster. So it’s time to grow your business and you need help,
but you need to find the right team members. Today’s cast is absolutely insane. You’re going to love this guy in the very best way. He is the founder of scaling with systems. And on this show, we are dishing out powerful secrets that he uses in his company to scale his business faster. And these are the questions that you are going to know the answers to at the end of this episode,
when is the right time to hire your first virtual assistant? Should everybody hire a VA when you not want to hire a VA, where do you hire your virtual assistants from what are the pros and cons of those areas? So US-based versus internationally. How do you know what to take off your plate and delegate first? So at the end of this show,
you are going to have a list of the most common roles first fulfilled by virtual assistants, by companies looking to scale, how do you make sure there is a strong communication and reliability when you hire out internationally and should you hire one virtual assistant for everything or multiple virtual assistants for each task? Today’s guest expert is rubby of Evolla. And he’s the founder of scale with systems and business accelerator that works to bootstrap and scale their client’s businesses leveraging paid advertising sales funnels,
and fully trained overseas VAs, which is the area we’re focusing on today. And the past 14 months, not 14 years in the past 14 months, he has scaled to seven figure businesses with less than a thousand dollars of his own capital in four commission-based employees. Today, he’s worked with over 500 firms around the world and place 300, excuse me, 630 virtual assistants.
And he’s spoken on some of the largest stages into the industry, including being featured by Fox news, Forbes and entrepreneur. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s podcast episode. Again, all the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. And this is episode number two, zero five<inaudible> Are you guys well, I am joined by Ravi ABA Vala here on the show because it’s time for us to talk about how to scale your business with teams.
And this is not something that comes naturally to most entrepreneurial leaders. You know, we’re really good at our area of genius. You know, our zone of genius, what we do the ways in which we give people Results, but when it comes to scaling, there’s a couple of bottlenecks. One is usually business model and the second one is growing teams.
And this is something that I have really struggled with as a leader of both of my own companies as well. And it’s not something that comes naturally to me. And so I was super stoked that Ravi wanted to be on this show. And today we’re diving into really how to scale your business, not only by initially growing teams, but growing teams and then sub teams,
and really how to scale the actual teams themselves. Some things that I don’t think we talk about enough as entrepreneurs and experts as leaders. So Robbie, thank you so much and welcome to the show April. Thanks so much for having me here. I am super excited, listen to the podcast for a little bit as well. And I know that majority of it is just pure value.
So that is exactly what I aim to give everybody that’s listening to this today. So thank you guys for your time and you as well, April. So thanks for having me here. Yeah, I’m super stoked. Okay. So today we’re Going to dive into a couple of different areas. First of all, remote teams, internationally based remote teams. We’re going to talk about,
we’re also going to talk about your expert process of growing remote teams, how you onboard people, and then we’re going to dive into how to scale your teams within your teams. So I think one of the first questions that we need to tackle for our listeners here is just breezing by this, because they’ll have all your resources and where to find this more,
but just as a foundation, you know, how do people really find expert remote, highly qualified individuals, really outside of the U S to work for them? Yeah, that’s an awesome question. And it’s one that we obviously hear all the time, and I think with anything in life, you have two kind of ways of doing it. It’s like,
you’re going to roll up your sleeves. You’re going to figure it out. You’re going to do it yourself, which is awesome. Especially if you’re just starting and you have like the training and everything to go along with it. And you want to take them from just like an anybody to the expert of their fields. That’s one way to do it. And the other way to do it as essentially,
you know, working with some kind of third-party company or working with a recruiter, to finding somebody who already has a lot of the skills and qualifications of the tasks that you’re looking to get completed, and then pretty much transplanting them into your team at that point. And then you’re pretty much only selling them on your culture and your vision. So you have two different avenues.
You can kind of go down. I see people going through both. We do both, depending on what we’re going, if it’s like a hyper specialized expert in a certain field that like, I don’t even know how to deliver that result. Like, as you grow in scale, if you’re listening to this, everyone’s like go only delegate to people. What,
you know how to do it. Well, then you’re locked in this like sphere of like knowledge. And instead you’re gonna get to the point where it’s like, I don’t know how to do this, but I want to do this. And so, you know, I need to hire someone that already knows it. So there’s that aspect of him, which is a little scary,
but it was almost like, we’ll talk about later, you communicate KPIs. I think it’s okay. And then like on the other side is like, Hey, I already know how to do this. So maybe I don’t have to go find somebody else that knows how to do this. I can just teach this person to myself, but then you kind of create those systems and that ramping Bible that I’m sure we’ll talk about here in a little bit,
that helps them kind of grow along that process. Okay. So this is a really good opportunity. I want people to know, how did you get into this? Like you didn’t, you didn’t start this, did you say I’m going to be a scale expert and help people build teams? So share a little bit of your background in, in why this is now your Ninja skill.
Yeah, so I keep it really short because I want to stay on the value. But very long story short was going to go to law school, graduated college. My dad was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I had to go take care of him. Instead of law school, I finally got into law school, decided it wasn’t for me. I dropped out sort of my first company prospect social was an advertising agency and knew nothing about systems.
You don’t think about process. Like I was just like, I’m going to come at this just with pure hard work, like pure grinding hustle mode. And for the first eight months I gained about 50 pounds. I was like losing hair. I was getting gray hairs and I made $3,000. The first six, eight months of business, $3,000 as a screenshot on my website.
You can see it. And I almost thought that I made the wrong decision. Then I hired my first coach or consultants. I went to a mastermind. I hired my first coaching consultant. He showed me really the powers of virtual assistants, the powers of systems, the power of sales funnels. I know a lot of the stuff that you guys cover as well.
I implemented that stuff. Next month, we did $30,000. Within six months, we had done a hundred thousand dollars in one month and now that’s a multi seven figure business. And just from that moment that I hit the map by having that first month to a, you know, a few months later when people started seeing me living abroad and traveling the world,
I just had a bunch of people reaching out to me. How did you do this? You know, we were in the same Facebook group and at the same level and all of a sudden you’re shot up here. And so I just pretty much was like, yeah, that’s pretty much just like the sales funnels and these virtual assistants. And here’s how you do it.
And long story short, you know, I think a lot of great businesses if you know, like Slack or a few others, like it’s never really, the intention for that main business was ever to start it, but you just have people like banging on your door. Like, you know, you’re trying to sell one thing and they’re like, I want this other thing.
And so that was kind of the Genesis of scaling with systems. Yeah. I love it. I love it. And we’ll make sure there’s a link to your company and how to work with you as well to do this. So we have these first hires and it is, it’s such a big problem for business owners. You know, we have these first hires,
but they’re on board, but let’s talk about actually how to interview them. You have a really special onboarding process this too. I know from talking to so many companies and I personally know within my own business that developing the onboarding process is a ton of work to do it right in. Sometimes, you know, you really fail in a way that you’re not going to get the end result for that new person.
So talk to us about your it’s. You call it the ramping Bible and really how to do this, how to bring people, team members on board. Yeah. It’s super interesting. It’s like, you know, anytime you just sit down and I know you work with a lot of like people that are creating their intellectual property on coursework or whatever it is.
And so, you know, I don’t know about anybody else, but when I’m doing it, it’s like, I’m not getting paid for that necessarily yet. And so it’s really hard to like, take that time, carve it out and do it. It’s it’s just like, there’s like leverage data and you’re like, I’m going to get paid later for this.
But right now this is really difficult. And the onboarding process is something super similar. And so a lot of people, they don’t have any kind of onboarding process. They don’t have any kind of training. And so instead what they’ll do is just hire someone and they’re like, okay, go do this thing. Or then they’re trying to spend all this time training them and that’ll work with their first hire and maybe for the hire after that.
But if you’re smart enough, you know how to, which I wasn’t smart enough with just so everyone here knows I had to learn the hard way, but now we help our clients avoid it. You can create this kind of onboarding training process. We call the ramping Bible inside of scaling, which systems is 35 pages long. It’s a Google document. And it literally starts out like we have one for our commission-based sales position literally starts out with just like,
Hey, this is why we’re hiring you. And this is the importance of this position. These are the KPIs. And then these are also the<inaudible>. These are the goals. If you do this, you’re going to make this money. If you do this, you’re going to make this. So there’s no like end of the year bonus, there’s no like,
you know, you’re going to get promoted at Rockefeller. And it’s just like, here’s how you will make more money and graduate in our company. And we lay it out from everything into Z. And then after that, I’m telling them because a lot of people mistake this and they don’t even have this systemized, but why should you work for scaling systems?
Why should you work for this company? Like, what’s the vision here? What’s the dream here? What are our past clients? Like you have to sell your employees on working with you. And if you don’t and they’re going to leave the first opportunity that they get. And so then we have a few pages on like who we are, what my bad,
that story. I just told you a second ago, like about my dad, the lung cancer, the drop out of school. And then we get into kind of the hard skill stuff, which is like, Hey, here’s how you send cold emails. Usually you scrape leads. Here’s how you send LinkedIn messages. Here’s how you do demo calls. There’s do qualifying calls.
I mean, it took me probably two months to get the whole thing together. But now, you know, between the 1800 virtual assistants that we’ve hired in the past two years, and then, you know, I personally have onboarded 35 different team members inside of our company. All I literally do is, and I’ll tell you guys a little hack, which we don’t have to get into,
but our salespeople pay us $1,500 to come work for our company and make us money because we give them a pretty much a done for you course almost. That’s like, here’s how you make money online. These are you doing. And we just have our service as a thing that they deliver for. And so we’re teaching them to be like top 1% salespeople,
you know, top 1% lead generators. And so some of my sales guys, I have a guy in Canada he’s 17 years old and making like close to $10,000 a month at 17 years old selling our stuff. And so if you can have something that comprehensive from a to Z, then you can get a 17 year old in Canada to sell for you.
You can get someone in the Philippines to do ads for you or client fulfillment or whatever, the backend stuff for us, but it kind of all lays on and falls on that foundational ramping Bible or whatever you want to call it. That someone gets whenever they join your company. Okay, that’s genius. I’m sold. I want your ramping Bible. And I want my own ramping Bible for the Sweetlife company.
Absolutely. You know, I thought our brand introduction onboarding process was cool. Well, definitely no where doesn’t even hold a candle to this. So if you guys are listening, clearly this is the gold standard. This is what needs to be done that alone. We could end this podcast episode on, well, you could just do that. You’re going to scale exponentially just by doing that,
this ramping Bible, you have it for your own company and your own systems, but then do you also help other companies develop their own ramping Bible based on what you have established there? Let’s talk about that a little bit. Yeah. A hundred percent. So like if I was to just get people, the Randy Bible straight as we haven’t and probably overwhelmed a lot of people,
right? Unless they like have multiple team members already and they have people to work on and consume the content. It’s like people would lose their minds. So instead we’re kind of build pieces of the ramping Bible together. So they get to see ours, they get understand what is involved in ours. We help them build it. But instead of being like,
Hey, do this for every position in your company, usually cause we place these virtual assistants for our, we start there and we’re like, okay, this is what they need to be trained on. And we actually train them for our clients. So we do, they do a 60 day bootcamp and we do all the work for them. So they’re kind of getting the done for you,
virtual assistant, but then it’s like, Hey, you know, what do you need to, we teach them how to great, obviously SOP standard operating procedures. So, you know, what do you need to reference back to what happens if you make another hire, right? What happens this virtual assistant leaves, whatever it is. And so we help them build this ramping Bible with them.
And we usually start in the lead generation side because that is an, our experience where a lot of people are lacking in their business is just like, you don’t have enough appointments or people in their calendar. And then once we get past that, then we can start talking about ramping Bibles for sales or ramping Bibles for our account management or ramping Bibles for chief operating officers or any one of those other positions.
Yeah. So we kind of help our clients create that after they joined scaling with systems and then we’ll give them the virtual assistant, who’s going to go through it already, fully trained. Right. Oh my gosh. What an amazing outline, what amazing program you guys have. Okay. So this brings us to the next area that I really want to talk about.
So the majority of the listeners to this show are established small businesses, but if you really, they call us micro businesses. You know, if you look at a small business, it’s still, you know, a hundred people. So we’re talking, you know, businesses that have anywhere from eight to 20 team members or businesses that are listening to this show that might only have three team members right now,
but they need to get to 12 in order to fulfill all the roles within their company. This brings in so many other growing pains as far as from a management and scaling standpoint. So talk to us about your expertise, what you can pour into our listeners when it’s time to actually scale the team itself. What are the primary roles? We talked about a little bit behind the scenes before recording,
but what are the primary jobs that most companies seem to fill first when they’re starting to delegate and grow their team? And how do you recommend companies go about managing that scaling process within the team itself? Yeah. So there’s a great concept called a scorecard. I didn’t create it myself. It was from the gentleman who created HubSpot. They wrote a great book called inbound marketing,
and they’re talking about the scorecard inside of there. And the idea of it is like, you know, every day as a CEO, other team members should be reporting on their scorecard to you the 10, 12, 15 most important statistics in that company. So, you know, number of leads generated number of appointments, you know, number of cash collected yesterday.
You compare that to last week, whatever it is. So the first thing you have to do before you even talked about scaling a team and making the hires is like, are you systemized? And then once, you know, you’re systemized, if someone was going to take this role, what is the expected KPIs? Where’s this expected goals I would want them to do.
And a lot of people’s like, I don’t know, but let’s just say, have you focused solely on email? And you knew that you could send out 300 emails a day and you could probably get five people. That’d be interested in what you’re doing. Then, you know, that’s while you’re still trying to juggle 15 other things at the same time.
So if you hire one person to do this, full-time they could probably get eight to 10 leads day. That’s a, probably an average or a conservative number to use. And so then you hire the person who said, Hey, I’m expecting eight to 10 positive responses, leads, booked appointments in my calendar. If you do this every single day, they say,
yes, you go great. Then what you’ll do is you’ll try a bunch of things out, LinkedIn, email, Facebook, Instagram, or whatever kind of department that you’re in. Obviously whatever’s relevant to that. And then you’ll see what’s working and you’ll see what’s not working. And a lot of times it’s like one thing is blaring obvious that it’s working.
And a lot of other things aren’t. And the biggest mistake, I see people doing whatever their scaling teams is. They keep everyone focused on this like kind of general level where like, everyone’s just doing everything instead of being like, okay, majority of our booked appointments are coming from email, but I keep on trying to do Facebook messages or LinkedIn messages or whatever it is instead of okay,
email works. I’m gonna put you full time on email and they’re going to hire another person to do full-time on email as well, but that’s doubling our efforts. So the first thing that I’ll usually say is like, you figure out what’s working through your KPIs and your scorecard. And then you can double down on that as long as it’s something that you want to double down on such as sales or lead generation,
right? The typical flow that I see people doing in a business, especially higher ticket service based businesses, which is kind of what our wheelhouse is, is virtual assistants for lead generation is mostly the number one thing that you do then what’ll happen is pretty soon you’ll get so many leads that you literally can’t do. The sales calls. You’re like, you know,
dizzy from doing eight to 10 sales calls every single day. So the second hire that we used see is sales. And at this point you have kind of the front end of your business taken care of. You’re waking up, you’re out, you’re having the BA generate leads, a sales person closed deals. And now you have the back end you’ve got to work on.
And I know you work with a lot of hyper scalable or you help people become hyper scalable through like courses or kind of intellectual property. Exactly. So then we start working on that. How do we kind of make your offer a little more hyper scalable? So before we even hire somebody, you know, you don’t want to hire someone in to do something that’s inefficient because then you’re just spending money to do something that’s inefficient.
So how can we streamline your backend process a little bit more, your offering your coursework, whatever it is, working with one niche. And then you’ll usually hire a virtual assistant of a bill for you or some other specialized person. Then it’s an account manager to handle everything that’s going on. And at this point you’re pretty much just operations, right? You got someone generating leads,
you’ve got someone closing leads, you’ve got someone onboarding clients, you got someone delivering for you. And that’s honestly all really low cost because you’re using virtual assistants and commission only salespeople. And then you kind of have room to do the next hire, which is a little more higher level, but just like chief operating officer, essentially, this is the person that is now managing all these people.
And they’re the ones that look at the KPIs and everything else. And now you’re pretty much free to do what, like I’m doing. A lot of my other clients are doing which like podcasts and play with ads and do content and grow a YouTube channel and work on your products onto the backend stuff, which is a dream state for me personally, I had to make sure that the whole company is growing and scaling month over month.
Right. And, and you’re the only one that can do those things. Nobody else can do those, but you, you know, it’s your genius. And I, and I absolutely love that. And so what we’ve done is a company is, you know, we grow really, we have grown from the top down and I say this the time on this podcast.
So my listeners know that I really suck at management. I don’t mean to be, I’m really nice, but I’m just not a great person to work for because I’m super entrepreneur creator, not, you know, not a great systems person, but then Kevin’s, I have those systems people to do that. But you know, we’ve really grown it from that CEO position that,
you know, CMO position and then down. But I love this idea. Granted, we started growing 16 years ago, but I love this idea about really filling this in. So are companies that come to us and the people that listen to the show, I mean, everybody knows the power of scaling. They just don’t know how to go about it.
And there’s budget different ways. We’ve talked about scaling, you know, scaling your offers, you know, to figuring out your systems, how your, your business model, which is all the stuff that I geek out on this scaling through teams is absolutely seems the first foremost, everything you should be thinking about those you guys who are listening, whether you’re just getting started or you’re just at that tipping point where it’s time to scale.
For sure. I want you to process what re what Ravi is saying here, because it’s incredibly important and I totally see this. Okay. So let me ask you some questions here. As I’m getting through to kind of thinking about some questions that our listeners would be asking. So we talked about finding the right people and whether you outsource or, you know,
you’re, you’re kind of going through the process of finding them on your own finding the right people is, is a big, heavy lifting job. And so that is something that your company takes care of. And we’ll make sure that our listeners know how to find you this ramping Bible, again, huge project, huge project. And so based on where our listeners are in this love the value of taking your expertise in your template and creating their own from that.
And one of the things you said that was really important that I just want to hit on is having our team members find themselves in our mission is a big thing. I know for me personally, we just got back from our 20, 21 planning retreat in Florida. We were in Florida last week. And one of the biggest things for each one of my team members has been like,
okay, what is your vision? And how can you find your vision within my company? You know, how is this great for you in addition to being really awesome for me too. And so I love it. That’s something that you guys hit on and there, do you feel like we can do that as well with international teams as we can growing US-based teams?
And how do you create that culture within your team? I did not tee you up for this. You did not know I was going to ask this, but how do we create that sort of team culture when your team is spread out all over? So I’m super happy you asked it. And, and it’s funny, cause like culture is kind of like one of those little buzz words that people just say,
you know, on an Instagram video or whatever it is. But if you have a team, you understand that like culture is the difference. If like when COVID happens and you’re a business campaign payroll that they’re still working, right? Like that’s a difference in culture. And obviously, luckily we didn’t have that problem because we’re online. But like my brother had that issue cause he had restaurants.
And so culture is a difference in like, you know, you not being able to make salary next month, culture difference. And like you having to ask someone to work later when it’s, you know, it’s supposed to be their night out with their girlfriend, whatever it is. And they are like, no problem, I totally get it. And like finding those people,
it’s a great book, good to great. By Jim Collins, he talks about, you know, getting them on the bus and it’s like finding those people is super, super important. And to do that, you have to develop the right culture and that really starts with, and I’ll be really honest. I will listen. I was really great at this in the beginning.
Then we went from six employees to 36 in a matter of three months. And like, I really lost myself and I lost that kind of culture. Like the address was delegating. Like you didn’t do the culture, you do the culture, whatever it is. And what I’ll tell everyone here is why I brought it back from me and what it was in the beginning was like every 90 days we have performance reviews with our employees and I delegated those out for a little bit time.
Cause I was just so busy, but we care about personal financial and professional goals. So we would say, Hey, you know, what’s been going great the past 90 days, what do we need to work on? You know, this is both of us, everyone get the feedback. They can knock the CEO. They want to, I think it says,
awesome. Let’s talk about goals here. So in the next 90 days, and then even further and beyond what are your professional personal and financial goals. And so some of our team members it’s, I want to lose weight. So when I go back home from Thanksgiving or I go home for Christmas, you know, I look better or maybe it’s like,
I want to be able to buy a house, but my credit is for whatever it is and what you’ll realize. A lot of times it doesn’t have to do with money. Like these are not money goals here just like access to certain things or knowledge or information. And so what you can do as a company is help them reach those goals. If they help you reach your goals.
So Hey, if you hit these numbers that we send this many outbound messages. If we get this many books appointments, then I will pay for a credit repair service. So you can start getting your application for your home, whatever it is. And I was doing that really well in the beginning. But then, like I said, I lost touch.
And recently, literally about a week ago, right in the middle of the move from California to Florida, I’m doing 36 performance reviews in three days. And I’m just like 12 a day, pretty much. I’m like, Oh my God, I’m going crazy. But in that timeframe, I actually was able to like finally go back down and touch every single person and just like hear how much our company has impacted them.
And then like what their future goals are and what, and at the end of every single call, they’re like Ravi, I can’t believe you took the time out of your day to do this call with. And I’m thinking in my head, like, I’m grateful for you. Like, please don’t leave me. Like you’re in the big part of this.
I’m not, this is nothing like you’ve done everything up to this point. And so I guess that’s the point of building that culture has to really do with like asking your employees what they want, including overseas virtual assistants. The ones that were the most honest with me were the ones in the Philippines. And they were telling me like, they want to have kids,
but it’s a little difficult for them to have kids because of like biological reasons. And so we’re talking about adoption and like all these other things that like the other people, you never would hear anybody in the us or someone else talk about what their employer for multiple reasons. But yeah, it sounds cheesy, but figuring it out, writing down what they want,
holding them accountable, I’ve been helping them reach it. If they help you reach your goals on your business, I think is a great way to keep a high performance culture inside of a company, but also have that kind of caring. Like I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry about it. Kind of thing. I love that. Oh my gosh,
love that. Appreciate all of that. And all of you sharing and the transparency and just really all about that. And I think that’s as important as everything else we talked about today. All right. So businesses are ready to scale and they need help. How can they find you? Yeah, of course, the easiest way. And then I had told you the beginning of this and I’m sure you can confirm it.
I talk very fast and I like breeze over topics that people are like, Ravi. I want to learn more about that. And so what I did is I put together a free course. It’s about five and a half hours of totally free content and overs, like where to find the virtual assistants, what kind of lead generation scripts you should be using,
you know, how to kind of build that ramping Bible yourself. And if you want to get access to it, you just go to scaling which isn’t dot com slash sweet dash life. And I know April set, you’ll link it down below, but she actually attaches to the podcast. So that way you guys can make it easier for you to remember,
but yeah, scaling with systems.com/sweet-life. And you guys get instant free access to that course. Yeah. Highly, highly recommend in your company, scaling with systems. We’ll make sure that we have links to where people can find you in addition to not only the course, but across social media as well. You thank you so much for your time. Thanks for talking fast.
Totally love it. We covered so much information and I know that our listeners got a ton of value out of this, especially those that are really at that place where it’s time to scale. They’re serious about it and they want to do it right. So really appreciate your time on this. Yeah, of course. April was an absolute pleasure. Thanks so much for having me on here.
Keep up the great work with all the incredible content and for everyone that’s at home or driving, whatever you’re doing, working out and listening, I do appreciate your guys’ time and I hope you got some value out of it, For sure they did. For sure. All right. Thanks Robbie.<inaudible> What a great show. I appreciate rubby so much for being on here.
And I like you when we have these guests in here, I’m taking notes like a crazy woman. If you’ve seen us behind the scenes or if you haven’t yet checked out our YouTube channel and you can actually see the full interview on video with me and Ruby and see me taking notes here through this process. Again, you can find the course, which is an amazing bonus.
We have, you know, no, no profit stake in this whatsoever. And Ravi doesn’t either. This is a completely free training that he’s given you simply by visiting scale with systems.com forward slash sweet dash life. And you can get access to this complete training that he has for you learn more about that onboarding Bible, the ramping up Bible, and how to create your own.
We are here to make sure you have systems in place to grow and scale your business online faster. And we appreciate you listening to the show. If you haven’t yet, please take a second and leave us a review on Apple or you listen to podcasts and connect with us and follow us at Sweetlife company on LinkedIn. Thanks so much. You guys I’ll talk to you next week.
Established entrepreneurs(in all Phases of my“Start To Scale Up Business System”) who want to stop being scared of the money and start taking control.
Summary:
You either love or hate to talk about money in your business. In fact, most entrepreneurs run and hide when it comes to financial ledgers. But on today’s show, we’re gonna make you love the money and control it. Getting your money right in your business is the best feeling ever, and the first step to getting a company that’s going to scale, grow, and give you what you really want in business and life.
This week we’re diving in with guest expert, accountant and CFO Consultant, Megan Dahle, and talking about where you are now, understanding where you want to be, and making sure you’re on the right path to get there. We do this by teaching you the simple three numbers you need to know that will give you the power, confidence, and control you seek.
Highlights:
Understand why you need to name your money
Get clarity on the dangers of reinvesting every dime into your business
Know the most important number that you really need to pay attention to
Get a simple routine to look at your numbers without being scared
Are you subscribed? If not, there’s a chance you could be missing out on some bonuses and extra show tools. Click here to be sure you’re in the loop. Do you love the show? If so, I’d love it if you left me a review on iTunes. This helps others find the show and get business help. I also call out reviews live on the show to share your business with the world. Simply click here and select“Ratings and Reviews” and“Write a Review”. Thank you so much ❤︎
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hi everybody. And welcome back. This is sweet life entrepreneur and business podcast, episode number 199. And yes, spoiler alert next week is our 200th podcast episode. And there’s some really cool stuff.
So make sure you’re subscribed. So you don’t miss out on that today. We are talking about how to love your business financials. So, first of all, if you clicked on this episode, then you’re pretty brave because the reality is that you either love to talk about money or you hate to talk about money in your business. And in fact, most entrepreneurs run and hide when we’re talking about financial ledgers,
but on today’s show, we’re going to dive in to make you love your money and take control of it. Getting your money right in your business is seriously. One of the best feelings ever really start to pay yourself. You’re paying valuable team members. Nothing feels better than that, but then we need to take it a step further. Is your business actually going to give you the life that you want.
First, we have the business foundations and financials that need in place, but today we’re talking about your life. How do we have the company generate enough money? And what do we need to do to get your life, to look the way that you want it to? And today’s guest expert, Megan Dali is here to talk about all of that. So the reality is let’s face it.
You either don’t understand the money in your business, or you have zero control of your cashflow, or you’ve done a really great job getting your financial systems in place. And now you’re ready for the next level either way. This is a great episode for you to tune into entrepreneurs. Don’t inherently come wired as accountants, as a matter of fact, most entrepreneurs are creatives.
And so when it comes to these types of systems, you might run the other direction. So that’s why today’s a really important show. And these are the things we’re covering on today’s episode. At the end of this episode, you’re going to know why you need to name your money and what exactly that means. You are going to get clarity on why it might be dangerous to always reinvest your profit back into your business.
So raise your hand. If every time you make goes back into your company, raise your hand. If every time you make those back into your company, but you also pay yourself a little bit. We’re going to talk about why both of those are not good, even though everybody does it and how to start changing that pattern. So you can reach your long-term business goals and we’re diving into important things like the number one number that you should pay attention to.
And why Megan says you don’t have to know all the numbers. We’re not getting into financial accounting lingo here. You’re just going to walk away understanding the most important number that you should know and a simple routine to look at your numbers on a regular basis, to make sure that you are on the right track. And let me introduce you to Megan here,
she’s our guest expert today, and she’s a doll you’re going to love her 15 years in a Megan Dolly’s corporate accounting career. A business owner reached out to her Megan privately because she was worried that one of the partners was taking more of their fair share. After looking at the books, Megan discovered that the partner had in fact taken $400,000 out of the account without the other partner,
knowing it was this sensitive project that was a launching pad for Megan. She is now a consulting CFO who creates light bulb moments inside her client’s businesses. And she makes the numbers easy for you to understand more importantly, easy for you to use so that you can learn how to grow your business stronger and make sure you’re generating cash and that it’s producing long-term wealth benefits for you.
So let’s go ahead and tune into today’s episode. Again, all of the show notes and the resources make it has here for us can be found by visiting Sweetlife co.com. This is podcast number 199. And if you haven’t yet, please take a second to leave us a review on Apple podcasts and share this episode with your friends, other business owners who really need to take control of their financial numbers as well.
Okay, let’s go.<inaudible> All right. You guys are welcome to the show. I am here with Megan Dolly, and today we’re talking about money. We always talk about goals and so many other podcasts talk about goal setting, but what are really comes down to is actually looking at the numbers, then the path that you’re on to make it happen.
And so that’s why I’m so excited to have Megan on the show today, because this is her area of expertise. And before she introduces herself, I wanted to read something to you that she sent to me, which is why I knew she absolutely had to be here on the show, talking to you guys today. She said light bulb moments are my favorite thing.
When my clients finally see what the numbers mean, it’s like watching. One of those videos were colored by blind people, put on those special glasses and can see color for the first time. It’s magical. Those magical moments have appeared in many parts of my life. And that’s how I know I’m on the path God has designed for me. Things that start by devastate is devastating.
Disaster is turned into something beautiful. And these transformations, these transformations that make me believe that all things are possible. And so Megan is absolutely an expert. She has crazy credentials, which I’ve already read for you, but what’s so important when we bring experts on the show is understanding the why behind what you do, not only what your Ninja zone of geniuses,
but the why behind. And so I wanted to share that with you guys before we, we dove into talking to Megan today. So Megan, take a minute and introduce yourself to our audience and tell people a little bit about you and how you got to be what you’re doing Today. Sure. Well, thanks so much April for letting me come on your show.
It’s amazing. I love how many shows you’ve done your consistency. The content is like, Oh my gosh, this is stuff I actually use. Like I’ve actually implemented stuff from your podcast. And so it was no brainer that I wanted to be on this show. So I’m a small town girl. I’m from Midwest, South Dakota. I like gardening. I have my kids.
I work with the marching band at the high school. I like to volunteer there. Yeah. And the numbers are my game. Numbers are my jam. I’ve just always seen them differently. Math always came easily. And my math teachers are like, your brain just works different. I love that. Yeah. You have to have a special gift to see numbers differently.
I do not have that gift nor to any of my children. So there you either have it or you don’t. I think. And, and so we’re grateful for people like you. So how do you work with clients? Primarily you have this amazing framework that you’ve created to help entrepreneurs and business owners make sure that they’re on the right path and that they’re going to achieve their goals.
I mean, this is a tangible framework and we’re going to dive into it today, which I’m so excited to on this show. Yeah. So the whole thing is that people are scared of their numbers or they don’t know what it means. They’re timid around them conversations with their bookkeeper and their accountant. Don’t go so well because they’re using that chart in the depreciation,
but you’ve been a, the, you know, those revenues Rose, it’s almost like they don’t want you to be asking questions, right? I’m going to use some jargon. So you just stop asking me questions. What I want to get to is what’s useful for you. I mean, you don’t need to know the ins and outs of your financial statements.
What’s actually useful. That’s going to help you make good decisions that you can have confidence in and know why you made those decisions and see the progress down the road. So it’s breaking it down into what would be a need. Right? Right. And your framework that you share, and you have a book about this, we’re going to, we’re going to let everybody know how to find you is number one,
where are you in identifying that number two is where do you want to go? Where do you want to be? And that’s the one we’re really diving in here today, which I’m super excited about. And then the third one is, Hey, you know, are you really on the right path to get there? So guide us into that second part of how,
how do you protect your goals? How do you identify, you know, really what is it going to take for me to get that beach house or send my kids to college or, you know, sell my company or whatever that is. How do you work with clients to understand that? Yeah. So it’s like the second half of goal making that is completely missing.
People don’t want to talk about the math part of the goals because it’s scary math or they forget about it or, or they’re more about it’ll come set the goal, set your vision board and it’ll come. I’m more about, well, let’s go get it. Let’s not wait for anything. Let’s not sit around and wait for it, but let’s actually quantify it and then go get it.
So it’s like, yes, I want that beach house or yes, I want to sell my business for X amount so I can retire with that cash. That’s great. Now let’s put a number on it. Let’s put a date on it. And where are we at compared to that? So we can go and get that progress. What happens when you don’t do this is that you make progress towards your goals,
but you might not recognize it. And so you take that progress and you reinvest it in your business, or you use that progress towards, Oh, some other expenses that might come up or the next shiny object. And then it’s like, your three-year goal is still your three-year goals, six years down the road. Wow. That is so true. That is exactly what business owners do.
So we think that that progress that we made financially, you know, instead of putting it to maybe what you’re saying is this in goal, they just automatically invested back in the company, which could be great. Or maybe it’s not what they should be doing with that. Yeah. That’s really fascinating. Oh yeah. Thank you. Yeah. So curiosity,
I love it. When business owners get curious and they start experimenting with things, but it’s also important to like have a, if you want to be curious and experiment, that’s great. Let’s have money that’s designated specifically for that, but let’s not be taking all of our progress and throwing it at this next shiny object. Yeah. Okay. So being proportionate about what you invest,
where each time you get each time you make progress, whatever that is. So if you have 20, $30,000, instead of reinvesting all that say, okay, we’re going to put 10 to this and then, you know, 20 or 30 to that. Interesting. Okay. So super interesting. So step number one is really quantifying how much it’s going to cost for you to get to that goal and really drilling down on those requirements.
And I think that alone, like we could just end the show here. How many of you guys listening to the show have actually sat down? And I know you all have thought about what you want because you’re entrepreneurs and we’re creative. And that’s what we do. How many of you have actually sat down and crunched the numbers to figure out what it’s actually going to cost for you to get there?
Connect with us, like send us a DM on Instagram Sweetlife podcast and let us know if you’ve actually crunched the numbers. And we’ll do like a little poll on our Instagram story on this with the week. This show airs, because I guarantee you, I mean, tell me Megan, how many people actually that come to your, like, this is going to cost me a million dollars.
I’ve had one client in my five years. I’ve had one, one that’s like had everything set up and she’s like, I know exactly how much I want for my daughter’s wedding. I know how much I want for my retirement. I will know how much I want for Beneta da. Great, awesome. That was so cool to come across. It’s like,
all right, let’s work on the next step. You’ve got this covered, right? That’s right. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, it’s a 90% of people will not have that 99.9% of people will not have that. Okay. So after somebody identifies really how much, what that’s going to cost the next step you say is really assessing their progress towards that.
Is there a certain frequency in which a business owner should stop and take a look that you recommend financially about how they’re doing? Is that quarterly? Is it monthly? Is it yearly? Is there a routine that you recommend entrepreneurs are in assessing, not their monthly? I mean, this is not a show about monthly operational costs. This is a show about where I am,
as opposed to where I want to be in my future. Right. So if it’s set up correctly, you’ll just be able to look and see, okay. Part of it is just taking that money out and hiding it from yourself in a special place. That’s either getting interest or invest in somehow to protect that progress and maybe do some work for you on the side while you’re not watching.
So I’ve lost my train of thought a second. When you triggered something, when you said it’s it’s mom mode, it’s our mom brain. No, what I was saying was I feel like as business owners, if somebody is like 30th of every single month, you should do this every single quarter. Should you do this? So I think that entrepreneurs,
you know, we’re super creative people, but when somebody gives us a system, we love systems. We geek out on systems too. So do you have a consistent system where you say to your clients, Hey, we’re going to have a, check-in call every quarter and make sure that your money’s moving, where it needs to be, and you’re still on track or we need to assess what’s happened so far or just regular,
like a routine that you recommend businesses really pay attention and reassess. Yeah. I actually have only a few numbers that I want my people to pay really close attention to. Because if I tell them to, you know, start pull your financial statements every month, it’s one of those things that, eh, I got it, they pull up, open an income statement,
they look at the bottom line. They’re like, yep, that’s about right. And they move on, right? It has no meaning to them. So I actually pick a few numbers, like one that you might need to watch weekly and other that you’ll want to look at monthly and another, that you’ll want to look at quarterly just to make sure that things are going along the way that they need to be.
And we’ll do that deep dive, more quarterly. But one of the most important, one of the most telling numbers is your 60 day cash in 60 days, how much cash am I going to have in the bank to run my business? And then we make sure that what we’re taking out and protecting isn’t going back in and what we’re taking out and protecting isn’t hurting the business.
Cause that’s, you know, you don’t want to be taking out too much cash. And when you can see what your cash balance is going to be in 60 days or other types of business, if you’re like retail and you have busy seasons, we actually take that out much farther. They want to know where the cash is going to be. Cause that’s the blood.
We don’t want to be donating blood if we can’t afford it. Right. Right. Right. So smart. And so the next thing you say is to name the cash before it comes in, let’s talk a little bit about that. What do you mean by that? So once we have that cash projection created, we know what we think our cash is going to be coming in for the next couple months.
And now that we think we know what that cash is, we’re going to have a purpose for it because if we don’t have a purpose for it, what’s really easy to do is to spend it. If we don’t know at that way, coming in as man, those coaching programs, the advertising, the marketing, all it’s, it’s sexy and it’s fun and it’s,
it’s new and it’s novel. So we actually name it like, okay, we know that next week we should have about 2000 coming in. And two weeks after that we have 4,000 coming in and then we know where it’s going out in terms of expenses. We know where it’s going out in terms of the progress towards our goals. And we know what’s being set aside for a little sandbox fund cash and owe taxes.
Don’t forget about taxes. I do taxes and taxes yet. So you actually say Before it comes in, so you know where it’s going versus where somebody like myself, I have a tendency to not just name the money to actually spend the money before it comes in. So in my mind, I’ve already and I don’t actually spend the money, but I think maybe I do that.
So in my mind, it’s already saying this money is coming here for this. This money is going to this and it’s not like robbing Peter from pain, Paul, but I definitely know where my money is going well before it gets here. And so I feel like I’m doing good, according to what you say in that area. Although I’m sure that the categories in which I named my money could use some work.
And like you were saying, so you’re saying taxes, of course, business operations. And you’re saying that we really need to pay attention to the 60 day cashflow. And that is the key numbers are our listeners should be paying attention to, is that correct? Yes, that’s right. And on that cashflow, you’ll see the different categories. You’ll see,
like the marketing that one can get out of hand really quick. You’ll see the tax and all of those buckets, because truth is to get a little bit accounting, jargon ish on you, not everything that is cash out actually appears on your income statement. So your income statement might show that you’re showing have a profit, but cash is like, did you know that you paid yourself?
And did you know that you had these debt service payments? And there it goes, what you thought was your free cash flow. Right. Okay. And I’m sure this happens all the time. It’s just why people need somebody like you to make sure that you’re helping them protect their assets. So the third step you say is protecting this actual progress. So as businesses,
they have their structure in place or they’re getting their structure in place. What does it take to actually do that and put that structure in place so that the money is accumulated in the appropriate buckets so that they can reach their goals. How do you put this structure in place for your clients? So I have a really easy Excel tool in all my clients have to do is put in their bank balance.
At the top of that tool, like open up the bank balance today, it says $7,500. And it will tell them exactly what to do with that $7,500. If something’s going to stay in the business, if something is going to be moved to pay themselves and put it in their pocket, or if something is for their goals specifically for that, and going to move directly to,
I work with a lot of like personal finance people, like go put that in that account over there and your personal finance, personal take care of it. If they don’t have a personal finance person, I’m like, go put this in your savings account, your money market, account, your investment account, and just let it be happy over there. All by itself will take care of itself,
right? Who are The primary clients that you work with? I work with creative females primarily, and between being told that you’re creative and between being told that you were a woman you’re generally taught from a very young age, that numbers aren’t for you. And so when it comes to those conversations and showing people visually how this works so they can get that shift of,
Oh, this isn’t hard. I totally get this. I’m smart enough. I’m good enough. And now I feel like I am a true business person. I feel like I’m in control of my business. It’s really cool. Yeah. Super. It feels super powerful. It’s such a rush when yeah. I think as, as women, as men,
they just are expected to, but as women, when we finally take control of the numbers, it’s such a, such a feeling of, I don’t like to use the word empowered because it’s so overused, but this is a perfect instance in which she used that. And so I love, absolutely love what you do. So now I’m going to put you on the spot and I didn’t prepare you to ask these questions,
but I really want to know what are your favorite books for women founders when it comes to being smart about money? Do you have, besides your own? So let’s talk about your book, you know, getting your money. Right. I know that I hear a lot of people whose agenda and Cheryl’s book, you’re a, bad-ass at making money, which is more mindset around money.
It’s not money strategy. I personally actually loved that book. Are there any other books or resources that you recommend that our listeners who might not have a healthy relationship with money in the first place can use to kind of dive into reset their perspective? Yeah. So profit first was transformative for me. Mike McCullough is a great guy. And when it comes to bank balance accounting,
he’s the King and that’s what we’re doing and using what he has built and expanding on it. He’s really good. He’s really funny. If you listen to his books, listen to it on two X and he’s hysterical the other, I’m actually going to stand up and get the author’s name cause I can hear it. Oh, I love it. Thank you.
And then we’ll make sure you guys that we are sharing, we’re sharing these resources in the show notes too. Along with Megan spoke to one of the things that I know that businesses struggle with is just understanding the fundamentals of money. And it’s really interesting. I have a lot of clients that are CPAs and that are accountants and you know, that are finance coaches.
And it’s interesting to see as we’re helping our finance coaching clients build their business, how they approach scaling their business online and developing their coaching service versus our other businesses because they already know. So a part of the strategy is also part of the structure and the foundation of the money. It is that profit first approach. And it’s a beautiful thing as a business development coach,
you know, to go through and watch. And they’re saying, okay, well, this is the way this is going to be. And they’re very, they’re very strategic about that as far as being entrepreneurs themselves. So I, I love to ask these kind of behind the scene questions like about your own business and how do you do this and what are some of the resources that you love for your own business?
Just because I think that teaches a lot as well. So what was this other book? Cunningham has a couple of really great books. His blueprint to a successful business is like, this is why you need to understand the numbers in your business and how they make you incredibly profitable when you understand them. And he’s also not about all of the nitty gritty bits and pieces of the numbers.
It’s just the overall picture of how it flows together and how it works. Yes. Awesome. Cool. Thank you so much for sharing those. Okay. So in closing today, we have talked about how to not only protect your goals, but how to actually make your goals come to fruition because you are quantifying them to figure out the importance of how much your goals and what that looks like is going to cost you.
We talked about the importance of actually assessing your progress on a regular basis and naming the cash before it comes in and making sure that you are hiding and you’re protecting your money and you are not giving 100% of your profit back into your business that you’re pulling out these small chunks of this. And that’s a really big deal, I think for a lot of our listeners as well,
because especially in the first five years of business, like every dime they make, they put back in, and that does, you’re saying that’s a risk factor of, you’re just putting off that amount of time to even start working on their personal goals. Is that correct? That’s right. Yep. They need to start getting rewarded for the work that they do,
change your relationship with your business. Yeah. And then in your book, this ebook, you have getting your money, right. What does that look like? What are some of the things that our readers can expect to really learn from you in that book? So there are three types of numbers that you need to know in your business. There is the number that tells you,
where am I at? Like, where am I even at relative? How did I get here? What direction am I facing? When, where am I? And the second one is, well, hang on a second. Where do I want to be? And that’s the quantifying, this is what I want my from my business. This is how I want it to serve me.
And then the numbers that tell you, are you on the right path? Are you doing the right activities or does something need to shift? Do we need to take a detour in what those different numbers look like and how you can find them? Great. And so you’re going to, you’re going to dive in and guide our listeners through that process. Megan,
thank you so much for being on the show today. I appreciate your expertise and your wisdom and your sense of humor and just really making this so much more fun than I think that entrepreneurs experience a lot of times when we talk about money and being so real about the fact that you don’t have to know all the nitty gritty terminology, but these are the basic three numbers you need to know.
And our listeners can find out more about that by downloading your free book, which we will make sure there is a link to that in the show notes of this episode and where else can our listeners find you Come on over to Meghan dolly.com or connect with me on Facebook. I love conversations to begin to sit back and have 15 minutes of coffee together, sometime if you want,
Love that. Okay, perfect. We’ll make sure that those links are in the show notes. Thank you so much for being a guest. Oh, thank you so much, April. This was fun. Yes. Appreciate you.<inaudible> Thanks so much for tuning into this show. Here is a reminder that you can get all of the notes that we talked about today,
including all of the bonuses and strategies by visiting Sweetlife co.com episode one 99. And if you are in a place where you’re ready to develop your leading offer or your program now is a time to get in through pre-registration by joining our wait list for our, your leading offer and program masterclass coming in 2021, I would love to work with you and extract your expertise to create your intellectual property,
to make you be this beautiful leader and your space to learn more about our, offer engineer masterclass, simply visit theofferengineer.com. I’ll talk to you next week. We have episode number 200 coming right at you and almost four years of Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast. Rolling out so excited and you appreciate so much have a great week.
Small business owners who want to write a book but need to know the steps, how to approach the process, and the ins and outs of self-publishing. If you’re considering self-publishing a book but you don’t know where to start, you’ll leave this episode with clarity and simple steps to take action.
Summary:
Learn the difference between self and traditional publishing, what your options are to sell a self-published book, the benefits of self-publishing, well-known influencers who’ve chosen to self publish, as well and the 4 steps to start self-publishing your book! If you have a book in you but you aren’t sure where to start when it comes to self-publishing, this is the podcast episode to binge with guest expert Alexa Bigwarf, founder of Write|Publish|Sell and Women In Publishing Summit.
Highlights:
Know the 4 steps to self-publishing your book
Understand the differences between self and traditional publishing
Get insider secrets about creating your own self-publishing imprint
Understand the connection between brand consistency in your book and business design
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the Sweetlife entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there, and welcome to the sweet life. When you were in business podcast, this is episode number 188 in everything we’re talking about on today’s show can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88,
because we’re giving you a ton of resources. Like we usually love to do here on this podcast. If you, and I don’t know each other yet, my name’s April beach. I help entrepreneurs grow and scale their business online and develop their internationally leading suite of leading offers. One of the things that you get here on the show, our business strategies you can take to the bank.
So every one of our experts is vetted and I myself have been coaching entrepreneurs to grow and scale their business for over 24 years, we are so glad that you are here. And today on the show, I’m really passionate about this topic and our guests. I’ve become a really good friend with already in a quick period of time, virtually. And I’m super excited to introduce you to her.
Now, let me give you a little bit of background story. You might not know this, but one of the ways that I grew one of my first companies was by self publishing a book, and it was really powerful. You guys, as a matter of fact, this book sold copies everywhere and still to this day, that company, the secondary business consulting firm that I own it’s called baby planner,
inc leads the industry in business consulting for companies that market to new unexpecting families. And the reason why I still have that reach and notoriety in that space is because they started out by self publishing a book on my expertise in that niche, niche, whatever you want to call it, right? But here is the deal. Here’s the truth. I made a ton of mistakes and some of the mistakes that I made ended up costing me a lot of money and ended up costing me a lot of time.
And if I knew more about what I was doing, instead of just doing it and winging it, then I think that my results could have been a lot better or at least a lot less painful. And so today on the show, Alexa, big Wharf is here and she’s going to walk you through the power of self publishing a book you’re going to be blown away when you hear some of the most well known influencers that we all like love and follow and really admire in that they have chosen to go.
The self publishing route. Alexa is a USA today, bestselling author speaker, and publishing partner. She coaches others and offers publishing solutions to those who want to grow their business and share their story through writing a book. She’s the founder of write, publish, sell Kat biggie, press purple butterfly, press Chrysalis, press, and the women in publishing summit,
which I’m so excited to be able to speak at her summit coming up here in spring of 2021. And so let’s go ahead and dive into today’s episode. You are going to know the quick start steps to publish your book. The difference between self publishing versus going through a traditional publisher and actually getting a literary agent. So we’re hashing out all of this for you today on the show.
And you’re also going to know how and why you can use a book to increase your known well known expertise in your space. So a lot of great things coming your way. This is a great show for those of you guys who are new in business, and you’re just trying to start your platform. And it’s especially an incredibly good episode for you to listen to.
If you have been in business, you have a platform, but you’re what we call like the best known secret. We need to get your voice and your expertise established even more in your space. So let’s go ahead and dive in all of the show notes again, can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com forward slash one 88. And if you haven’t yet be sure to join our new online community business networking app.
It’s totally private. If you haven’t heard we’ve ditched Facebook groups, we’re super excited about it. You can join us by visiting Sweetlife community.com, where you’re going to get all your podcast insights and bonuses in there. All right, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show.<inaudible> All right. You guys welcome back to another sweet life entrepreneur business and podcast episode.
And I’m here with my new friend, Alexa, big war, and we met on Instagram. I was really happy. You know, I’ll be really honest. I don’t meet a lot of people on Instagram, but I totally just want to hang out with and have coffee all the time. But Alexa was one of them. And since then we’ve had a chance to connect deeper and I’ve learned more about what she does and frankly,
you guys really need to know what she does. So Alexa, just introduce yourself here. Welcome to the sweet life podcast. I’m so glad that you have given us a chance to hear all about your expertise. Well, thank you so much for having me and I feel the same way. I mean, I found you, we started connecting whatever, and then of course I do what I always do.
I obsessively like Googled everything, started listening to your podcast and was like, Oh my gosh, she’s saying all the things I need to hear right now. So that’s fantastic. I’m a writer, an author, an author coach, a publisher and a mom, which is a very important part of my story because I didn’t set down this path. I never thought about running my own business or ever even being an entrepreneur.
And sometimes, literally life gives you lemon and you can choose to make lemonade or you can choose to fall to pieces. And without going into all the background, in a nutshell, we lost an infant daughter. She was one of a set of identical Twins and she passed away at two days old. And that took me to blogging. I mean, as you can imagine,
going through anything like that, like I just started, I had, I’m a passive aggressive person and I didn’t necessarily want to share all my feelings face to face with people, but I had a lot of feelings that I wanted to be sharing. So I started blogging and writing about grief and loss and writing about twin to twin transfusion syndrome, which is what they had writing about life in the NICU,
because her twin was a one pound 10 ounce, one who spent a long time in the NICU. So lots of content for blogging and eventually decided I wanted to write a book for grieving mothers. So that’s how my publishing journey started. I figured it all out on myself. I did the things I needed to do fell in love with the process, started writing about parenting.
And I go authored a book called lose the Cape realities for busy, modern moms and strategies to survive. We should’ve gone with a shorter subtitle, but it was at that point really about the second book where people were like, what are you doing? How are you doing this? I want to write a book, tell me what to do. And so a business again,
I love that story. I’m sorry that it started out with so much pain and heartbreak. And I mean, you’re right though. I mean, those are some of the things that we just are so compelled to do. I think some of the best, most powerful companies are started with a deep rooted emotional story like that. And I agree now, writing is such a healing tool.
It can really be an excellent tool for helping people come through trauma, come through grief, come through just anything they’re going through. So that’s actually another Avenue that we really do is work with people on writing to heal because it was such a massive part of my process. Yeah. So give everybody kind of an overview on your company. So write, publish,
sell, and you have the women in publishing summit. So let’s go ahead and lay the foundation and then we’ll dive into what you’re going to train us on today. Great. So I started write, publish, sell as an opportunity to charge people for all the questions they were asking. Right. I started doing the things that were really hard for people to figure out,
like lay out an ebook conversion and how to find all the things that you need to write a book and all of that stuff. And through the process, I created a publishing imprint and created a publishing house. And then another one, and then another one, that’s a whole different story. But you know, I wanted to be a bigger part of the process than just helping someone lay out their book and help them load it to Amazon.
But actually what I found was that where I really enjoy working is not in the, I mean the publishing side. I’m glad I have that experience, but I liken the whole process of helping people figure out what the book is that they should write and why. And then kind of project managing it is really the best thing to get it through from there to publish.
And we work with authors who are self published, who are traditionally published and who are hybrid published as well, which is kind of a cross between the two. I love this process of helping people find the resources and figure out what to do and how to do it. And that’s how the women and publishing some, it was born because I really much like pod-casters,
I think we love showcasing resources and tools and people and putting them in front of the audience of people who need them. So we took that route to create this big basically like week of encouragement and support and educational resources and really a shout out to the women who are writing books, selling books, editing books, creating covers and layouts for books, the whole gamut,
because we just don’t get enough credit out there. It’s so exciting. That’s so exciting. That’s what, so we can just lay it out there, even though it’s going to be months after this particular show airs, but that’s going to be spring 2021, right. Is so women in publishing summit. Okay, great. We’ll make sure that you guys get information about that that’s coming up.
So this is actually a really good place to start. So let’s kind of start out with some basics here. What is the difference between self publishing and going to traditional route of having a publisher? And I understand that obviously it’s not, everybody can just go get a publisher there’s you have to have a certain audience and a platform. And so that’s really difficult,
but many people are self publishing. So talk to us About the difference. So it’s interesting because in the past, And in this time that I’ve been involved, Like we’ve seen self publishing explode. It started at about 2000. Well, it started a long time before that, but it didn’t really begin to be mainstream until about 2009, 10, 11,
12, with the addition of e-readers and Kindles. I mean, it’s hard to imagine what life was like, but it’s own. They’ve only been in our world for about 10 years and it made such a big difference. There are definite reasons why certain people would want to choose their traditional route other than the self publishing route. But for entrepreneurs, the self publishing route offers a really,
really great way forward because you have full control, you do it on your timeline, you make the decisions. So just to back up quickly, when you seek a traditional publishing arrangement, basically there are people who require that you go through an agent or through solicited manuscripts. And then there are a lot of smaller and midsized publisher that allow you to just go ahead and submit your idea for nonfiction,
which is where I would assume most entrepreneurs be. You have to draft a really detailed proposal. They want to know what other books are out there like it, how yours is different, what you can do with it. And I’ll, and it’s a great process for learning and understanding your book. But it’s a very, very timely process. Even if you’re not working through an agent,
even if you’re going directly to a publisher. And then when the book gets to the, or you don’t have to write the full book before you go traditional publishing, actually you just have to create that summary to send to them. And they decide yes or no. The advantages obviously of publishing is that you don’t have to figure out all the pieces of the puzzle.
You, somebody else is going to do it all for you, depending on the size of the publishing house, you may or may not get an advance. It surprises people to know that there are still people getting paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in advances, but those are usually like the Oprahs of the world and that Renee Brown’s a, you know, a hundreds of thousands to millions for somebody and in our sphere,
if you have a good book that the niche that they’re really wanting to fill and the ability to sell the book is a big, big factor. You may, you make it between a 10 and $50,000 advance. So for some people that’s a huge incentive, but for most entrepreneurs, self publishing professionally in a way that doesn’t look like you’ve just thrown it up on Kindle by yourself,
where you have a great cover design, you have great perfectly formatted interior design. You have a perfect cover. You’re following the industry standards. That’s a fantastic route because you can do it on your own time. You can choose what your cover looks like and work with the professionals to make it just right. You know, you generally have the audience already in place that you know is going to be interested in the book.
So definite pros and cons to both sides, but for a lot of entrepreneurs, I bet most of you are familiar with Pat Flynn. He’s self published his books. Um, there are a lot of entrepreneurs. If you were to start looking through Russell Brunson, the key is they’ve worked with professionals so that nobody can tell that their book is self published.
They created a publishing imprint, so that it doesn’t say published by Pat Flynn. It says published by whatever the name of the company is that he or the imprint that he created. So I assume the next question is How did you know? Yes. What is a publishing imprint? Yes. So this is awesome. So they publishers do it too. If you pay close attention to books,
sometimes you’ll see, I’ll make up a random name. Like I think Tarcher is an imprint of penguin, which is an imprint of random house, which is it’s like smaller delineations for the self publishing world. What the imprint means is that you’re creating a name associated to the books that are published. So when you go to Amazon or you go to books,
a million, or you go to wherever, it says published by Kat biggie press or purple butterfly press or Chrysalis press it. Doesn’t say published by Alexa, big Wharf. And you can create an LLC behind that. If you want to you, or it can be a DBA under your own business, some people will make it their company name. So you could have the Sweetlife publishing house or the Sweetlife press Sweetlife books.
People can copyright and trademark things obviously, but generally you can make it to be whatever you want it to be and associate it with your books. Just it’s another step to make you look just a little bit more professional, have a little logo, you know, all those kinds of things. Formation. I think when you dropped names like Pat Flynn and Russell Bronson,
and the fact that they self publish, I, a lot of people are like, wow, I really want to write a book, but I want to be taken seriously. And so when you drop names like you did, you know, some people didn’t know they self published because of that exact reason. And we do actually have our own, we have Sweetlife press.
So, so I have, I have written two books and self published, two books, and it was Sweetlife press in which we did that. And that’s exactly what we did. And so I do understand that process. One of the things that was really interesting as you were talking, I was remembering colleagues and friends and guests that I’ve had on the show.
And I still remember interviewing Denise Duffield Thomas and she was on the show, got a couple years ago and she had just released, I think it was chill preneur. And I remember one of the things we were talking about on that show was that they came back with her and they’re like, this is the cover of your book. And she’s like, why mrs.
Not what bit, you know? And she didn’t have a say, I mean, that’s the cover that the publisher chose for her book. And I still remember being in that interview and thinking, gosh, you know, I didn’t realize it would be that strict and they chose her cover and that was it. And she’s like, whatever I’m going with it.
I know it’s a great book, you know, but this is a cover. They chosen it. Isn’t what I had chosen. And so that’s a great example. And then also I still remember back. So I had a literary agent back in 2009 that approached me to write a book. I had little babies. I think my youngest was like two and a half years old.
And my oldest was only six. And he was so, so excited. It was such a great opportunity. And this agent was like, great, but the deadlines, I couldn’t meet the deadlines. There’s that too. And it was it. And it was exactly what you were saying. I was like, this could be a great opportunity, but I am in this business owner,
mom, life survival mode right now with these children. And there’s no way in hell. I’m getting you all of this by Friday. I mean, this is completely impossible for me. So I didn’t continue with that contract. I defaulted out of that contract. Um, and so as you’re, as you’re talking, I’m remembering kind of some of these things and saying,
okay, I get it. I get it. And just for our listeners, you know, it’s so interesting to again here, because you know, we’re always worried about our personal brand and what the perception is. And we’re going to dive here in a minute to the benefits of writing your own book, which is establishing you as an expert. So you don’t want to look like a cheapo because you’re publishing your own book,
right? You don’t want like, well, I couldn’t get a publisher, so I’m just going to put this out there and hope that people buy it. That’s not what we’re doing. That’s not what we’re talking about. So I love everything that you said. So my next question for you is when you self publish, where are your options to sell your book?
Okay. So you book anywhere these days. So it’s funny, the stigma behind, you know, the self publishing, like I remember years ago when I first was like, I’m going to self publish my book. Like the impression that a lot of my friends had was the first thing that came out of my girlfriend’s mouth was, Oh my gosh, please tell me it’s not going to be one of those horribly written books as 99 cents on Amazon.
But it’s growing beyond that. Like the industry around in the published books has grown so immensely that that’s really just the stigmatism that we carry, but that the rest of the world is moving beyond right now. So now I forgot what you asked me, but Oh, basically like where can you sell it so you can sell it on Amazon. But if I want my local bookstore to carry my book,
I can just Approach them just like a regular, why would any other retailer to sell my product and be like, here, here you go. You absolutely can. And in fact, that’s how most people, indie self published books are now showing up in Barnes and noble and target and all these places. It comes down to just like anything else, your ability to market yourself,
to know your target audience and how you approach them. So bookstores and libraries want to make money. If you know that your book is a good fit for the traffic, they get to their store. And even better, if you can bring something to the table, like I worked with one nonfiction author who approached the bookstore and she said, you know,
this is my book. I’d love to sell it here. But even better than that, it’s a natural book for a, she teaches a course from her book, right? So she was like, I’d also like to bring in my book club, my organization and these people in my workshop, basically, we’ll meet here once a month. And now it’s like,
wow, you’re bringing clients as well with a great love. That totally makes sense. But you have to have it positioned so that they can buy it. And that’s the thing that you can’t put it on Amazon and then go to a bookstore and say, will you please stop by book in your store? It doesn’t work that way. So those are the fine things that you have to learn about.
And those where the expert inside trading secrets When we work with you, I’d never would have even thought About that. Of course. Okay. So let’s talk about the benefits of writing a book. So what we’re talking about here, this isn’t a free book. This isn’t a freebie that you give away as a lead magnet. This is a book with your intellectual property,
your area of expertise, your methodology, your systems, your ideas, your direction, or, you know, precision about how to accomplish something. And it’s not this freebie that we’re talking about. So let’s dive into really, like you said, one of your areas of specialty and expertise is helping people figure out what the heck to write about how do you really guide people through making that decision in order so that it’s going to align with their business area of expertise,
or do you kind of have people that just start out as writers and the might not have a business yet? All of the above. It’s funny. It’s a wild world right now, as entrepreneurs, as writers as all of us, like the doors are wide open for us to create our own path, basically. So I have worked with authors who have come to me,
who have said, I’ll use my friend, Shelley, as an example, she was child has a food allergy. They also have a large family. And she has written a book about how to eat healthy on a budget. So dinner for a dollar is her thing. She wrote her book first and then she wanted to launch a business. So we had to,
you know, create the right path for that to happen. She came to me with her book already written. I helped her do the publishing and then launching and all of that kind of stuff. But then I’ve had other people who have come to me, you may be familiar with sparkle, hustle, grow Julie Ball, the founder of that subscription box for female entrepreneurs.
Like, I mean, No, I’m kidding. It’s created a wonderful product that people love, but now she’s growing her business beyond that. What can she do beyond subscription boxes? So she started a course, a boot camp for people who wanted to create subscription boxes and then a mastermind. So with her, when we were thinking about the right book for her,
it was how do I get something for that group of people who maybe aren’t ready for the course yet are still in that idea of, should I even create a subscription box and definitely aren’t ready for her mastermind yet so that she doesn’t have people joining her program, who aren’t ready for it, wind up asking a lot of questions because they’re very, very new and don’t know these things.
So her book, when we talk about the entryway to your big business funnel, it’s the perfect funnel because it’s a book about how to start a subscription box, what things you need to know, what her process was, what she went through. She uses a lot of examples from other box owners. And then at the end of it naturally, you’re like,
okay, if you’re ready to rock and roll, here’s your next step? Right? So she’s selling a book and she’s potentially growing her next level audience, hugely Perfect ideal audience. And it certainly can separate you and make you an expert in your space. I love that. That’s a perfect analogy as well, especially with the product funnel in that example.
So for people who are listening right now, they’re like, okay, I want to get started. I’ve been thinking about this for a long time. And I know you guys are listening out there and you’ve been thinking about doing this for a long time, because like 90% of the entrepreneurs and business owners I talk about have said, Oh, I really want to write a book.
I’ve been thinking about writing a book. So what are the steps to actually get started in this process for somebody who’s like, this is it, you know, 2020 is my year that I’m no longer going to drag my feet in this, but where on earth do I start? Okay. So to me, the starting places, always first and foremost,
identifying your goal of why you’re writing the book, what you’re trying to get to. And if you can identify that right away, like is it book sales because if selling books and getting on a best sellers list and getting interviewed on Oprah is your goal, then it’s a totally different path. If it’s to grow your funnel entryway into your business, if it’s to give a low cost.
So maybe you have a high end coaching program that lots of people can’t join, but they still want to know your knowledge then is it a solution for that level? Or is it, are you a newer business owner? And you’re really trying to establish your credibility to be known as the person on the street to come to talk to about these topics, to gain speaking engagements,
to be a step ahead of other people, applying for different opportunities, et cetera. So it can be a combination, but those are the general, like three different areas until you get to superstar status. And then it’s because people are telling you, you need to write a book, but for those of us who are not superstars yet, it’s generally one of those three areas.
So really having a clear understanding of that. Yeah. Let me just recap those so that people are really clear. So understanding obviously your why, so is it PR and you really want to be seen on Oprah, whatever that is. And so really making sure that media attention, I know that, and I do talk to a lot of business owners that are interested in that,
and that is obviously a really difficult path. And there are a lot of things that, that need to happen in order for that to happen, especially from an audience building standpoint, then as you certainly number one, number two, a product funnel. So as a product funneling into your other programs is a natural lead in and number three is just establishing your voice and growing your list as far as initially,
did I recap those correctly? Yes. And there are lots of in-betweens and you know, it’s funny because sometimes people will start thinking that they want to do one of those three things. And in the process they realize they have a personal story that they really want to share, and they can’t move beyond that until they write their personal story. It’s interesting.
Like once they get the idea started of, okay, I’m going to write a book, then they veer off in a different direction. You know, I’ve worked with authors who started have almost completely finished one book, and then they were like, I can’t move forward with that until I’ve addressed this issue. And then they wrote a book about how they overcame breast cancer and how other people can do that too.
And then came back to their business, this book. So, so cool. And not a surprise, not a surprise, you know, entrepreneurs we always want to create in creating is so healing. And I think for a lot of business owners, okay. So first figuring out step number one, figuring out what the purpose of what you’re doing is what’s next.
So for me, the next step is sitting down and figuring out the purpose of the book itself. Like, what is the reader going to get from it? Are you teaching them something? Are you sharing knowledge? You know, what are you doing? Are you doing it? How to book, are you doing a self help book? Are you doing a memoir figuring out that and creating an outline.
And this outline is a, sometimes a scary word for people, but it’s really just a, okay, I know I want to get the reader from a to Z and these are the things that have to happen between them and you jot them down in a list and that will help keep you on track and motivated to keep writing that book. So that’s step two.
Then step three is taking some time to either figure out all the steps in the process of publishing or determining. I just want to hire somebody to do all the steps of the publishing for me. And then you figure out who you want to work with basically, or you start researching how to do it yourself. Right? Name simultaneously. You’re writing your book.
Yeah. Okay. So let’s kind of talk about that for a minute. So for business owners that, you know, have a ton of things on their plate, how do you recommend people get the greatest productivity or focus? I know everybody’s different as far as writing, do you say, Hey, take a whole week and go on a retreat and rent a cabin in the woods and write your book,
or do you say, Hey, spend one day a week or three hours, or how do you usually actually recommend for people that are trying to balance all the things that, that they’re trying to balance and get their book? Really? I think the first thing to do is take an audit of what you’ve already created. And we do this through what I call my Quickstart program,
my QuickBook program, I’m actually working on the name of the system itself, but it’s, um, how to get what you already have available to you and start from there because the reality is most of us who are growing businesses have some level of team with us, right? So if you take that initial outline and you’re like, these are the things that I want to cover a next natural step is to pass it off to your VA and say,
go find everything that I’ve already created on this topic. Podcasts I’ve been on webinars, I’ve run all of that stuff and create that vault of information first. And then you can pick and pull things from that. It’ll also make it, if you work with a collaborative writer or someone who’s helping you get the book written that that’s an easy thing to hand off to somebody else.
But, you know, I think to be very honest, like this is where the overwhelmed just gets to them. Cause they’re like, Oh my gosh. Now I have to actually write a book and panic and breathing, you know, all of that, like, you’d be surprised how many people stop right there. They decide they’re going to write a book.
They know what the book is and then the brakes come on because it’s that next step that’s so overwhelming. But there are lots of ways to make it less overwhelming by starting with what you already have. You know, it’s so interesting as you’re going through this, this is our step by step process. Very similarly that we work with businesses to develop their leading programs and offers the outline,
assessing your assets. It’s the same exact process. And it’s true. You know, once they figure out what assets they already have that are going to accomplish a certain stage of that outline in this book, people just realize when they’re like, Oh my gosh, I have to actually go to work and do this. And you know, we have a lot of guys that listen to this show,
but working from home, which many people are and having the distractions, I think there is something super overwhelming about the ability to have an find uninterrupted time. And if, if like, if you’re like me, I have to get on a roll first. So for me to write, I actually have to be in the mood to write, I mean,
whether it’s music or working out first or lighting the dang candle or whatever it is, I have to be inspired to write. And I’ve ran into those problems before. And it’s actually even this way sometimes with recording this podcast where it’s like, if I’m not in the mood to create it, I’m just not creating it. So maybe if, you know,
if our listeners, if you guys are listening and you’ve been in this spot where you’re like, Oh my gosh, I have all this done. I want to keep writing my book. Maybe you’re like me and you’re super emotionally charged and you have to find the right environment or the right pre-activity to get your brain flowing. Because if somebody is like, okay,
well you have to sit down and write from 11 to one. You know what I’m not doing from 11 One writing and this just the way I personally am. Yeah. I completely agree with that. And that’s, that’s why I liked the idea of just sitting down and saying, well, one, you can always hire an accountability partner or a coach to like force you into one hour,
which is all it takes me is one hour to get somebody book out of them and sit down for one hour, go through all the steps that we just talked about and the preparation for it and have this skeleton, because it’s amazing the psychological difference that it makes. Once you have a list of topics just to start with, and then beyond that, you just start feeling.
It’s like, Oh yeah. I remember when I was interviewed on April beaches show, we talked about this, fill that in, in chapter six for that’s what I want to talk about, or you know, that type of thing, or you pick up your phone and you blocked somebody or however you communicate with your team. And you’re just like, here’s the brainstorm I have.
I know I want to include this information, this information, this information, go write it down on a list, go start, you know, filling in the gaps. It takes that overwhelm of sitting down and thinking, Oh my gosh, I have to spend these three hours just, you know, creating the best thing that ever happened. I’m sure.
You know what it’s like when you hire someone to write copy for you, whether it’s your newsletter or your sales page or anything like that, when you start from something that’s already existing, it’s so much easier to craft it and to recreate it, make it sound like you pull out the pieces you want than it is to start from scratch. Well, and that’s the power of working with somebody like you to do it.
So yes, if I had somebody like you to sit down with the deer, like, okay, April for the next hour, I’m going to pull, extract everything out of your brain. Then I would be there with bells on. And that’s exactly. I mean, that’s, that’s a difference. So those of our listeners that are really serious about doing this,
if you’ve been dragging your feet, It’s probably time to get somebody to guide you through this process. Like Alexa, When does the design come in? Is that usually something that takes really a while? Or do you write all the content first and then drop it into a design? How has that process fit into this? So our process and there’s, there’s lots of freelancers.
There’s lots of companies that help with this part of it. But what we do is we get the final edited version from the author when there’s no more changes. Obviously we do a proofread after that. So there may be small changes, but when the content is written, it’s been edited, it is done. Then we have a team of designers and we pick the right designer for the right project and we send it to them.
They do their designing skills because here’s the thing. I’m just going to be brutally honest here, because I can’t say this out loud to people, to their faces, but it breaks my heart when I go to a conference or an event and somebody’s speaking and I’m like, I have to get their book. And I go to the book table and I pick up their book and it’s not formatted properly.
And it looks a mess. And as a publisher, like I’m very in tune with what the industry standards are. So it annoys me probably more than the average person. I’ll, I’ll admit to that, but I can’t buy their book cause I can’t read it because that will drive me. So we have people who know, book, industry standards who know formatting,
who know how to do these different things. We send it to them. They do a couple of mockup chapters. We get back to the author, we say, does this look like what you were envisioning? Kind of like the same idea of designing a cover or graphics or anything like that. We come to an agreement and then we flow the entire book and then they get this beautiful lead designed and laid out book that then we can upload anywhere.
They want to publish their book. Fantastic. And it looks like the brand that they need to represent. And I think that that’s the concern that a lot of people have about self publishing is just really not knowing how to approach this and not knowing how to do this correctly in a way that is going to position them as a brand leader or as an expert or whatever their goal is for that book.
And I it’s the same thing. I mean, it’s like you, you love somebody and then you reach out and you go to their website and it’s not working or things are clicking, right. Or their logo sucks or, you know, whatever it is, it’s all part of the package. Right. And yet I think that another piece that people think is that it’s going to cost like thousands and thousands of dollars because you do see these programs that are like a $25,000 investment.
And I’m here to tell you that you can find people who will do it very professionally and very well, and you don’t have to mortgage your house to pay for the services. And it still looks really, really branded like you would want it to be. And that’s one of the things that we consider, like, are there fonts that you love? Is there a certain layout or things that you use in your things as business owners?
The branding is a huge part of what the cover and the interior looks like a hundred percent having an all uniform with that style guide across, well, this has been so helpful. I appreciate all of your information because you have given our listeners so many steps and so many different things to consider and there’s actions they can take at this point in time, or at least that they know that they can come back and tap into this episode again,
in the future when they are in fact, ready to go down this road, how can people get started? You have a quick start guide for our listeners. I want to make sure that everybody is getting their hands on also so that they can be in connection with you regarding your women in publishing summit and all of your services. Yeah, sure. So if you head over to write,
publish, sell.com, and if you go forward slash Quickstart, That’ll be kind of the freebie download on a recap on some of the things that we covered today, plus some additional resources on, on where to dig deeper, to find out more on those types of things. And then we also have write, publish, sell.com for jumpstart, which is our one hour workshop to help you outline your book.
So if you’re ready to go at that point in time, it’s a very small investment for that one hour to get that done. Wow. That sounds so awesome. That sounds incredible. I think everybody should join the workshop. I mean, one hour and, and see what you have after that and really getting inspired. I think that’s, that’s super great.
Thank you so much for being on the show. I can’t wait to continue to connect with you offline, personally. I know that our companies are going to be connecting again in a lot of ways in 2021. And so I’m excited about that and where can everybody find you on Instagram or LinkedIn and really what’s the best social platform for people to connect with you?
We’re pretty active on, on Instagram with write, publish, sell, and with the women in publishing summit. And I also have my personal account there. Alexa, big Wharf. I’m Alexa, big work on Instagram and then pretty much write, publish, sell anywhere you want to go. You’ll find us awesome. Thank you so much for your time.
I appreciate you. This has been amazing. Thank you. You’re welcome. Thanks.<inaudible> All right, guys. Thanks so much for listening to this week’s podcast. Again, this is the sweet entrepreneurial podcast and all the show notes and resources we talk about as well as our business development programs and how you can find Alexa and get started with publishing can be found by visiting us online@sweetlifeco.com
and get the insider scoop on everything podcast and all of the amazing business bonuses that we give you by joining us in our business community. You can do so right now, by cruising over to sweet life, community.com and create your business profile to network with other companies actually get traction. You might even find some awesome clients in there and get direct business support from me.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I’ll talk to you next week.
This episode is for anyone trying to grow their LinkedIn connections to intentionally grow your business(new or seasoned) to connect with the right people and build professional relationships.
Summary:
LinkedIn is the best B2B social platform that exists. However, few people know how to use it, what to post, or what strategy to follow to make the right-profitable connections. In this show, Judy Fox, LinkedIn Expert, shares a simple and powerful strategy to accept the right connections and her 3 part system on the best content to share.
At the end of this show, you will know what to do with your LinkedIn connections, how to increase the visibility of your content and what to post, when.
Highlights:
Have a simple LinkedIn connection strategy
Know the types of content you should be posting on LinkedIn
Understand how to organically grow engagement with the right people at no cost
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Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hi there, and welcome to episode number 178 of the sweet life business podcast. My name is April beach. We have not met before. I teach Me as an entrepreneur is to develop programs,
courses, online business options, to grow and scale your business faster. So glad to connect with you here and everything we talk about is delivering a business strategy or a marketing strategy to help you achieve the goal of business growth, which leads to lifestyle, freedom to create the life you really want with your business growth profits. Today on the show, we are talking to those of you guys who are interested in growing your LinkedIn profile.
So LinkedIn it’s been around forever. You and I both know that, but very few people know how to use LinkedIn. And a lot of people still believe that LinkedIn is just a place to pop up your old resume and leave it there. And as a matter of fact, it’s changed so much in the last couple of years that this will be the fifth,
maybe even the six different podcast episode that we have recorded about LinkedIn, because I really feel like it’s an important platform for you to grow your personal brand or your company brand and for you to connect with your ideal clients and increase your sales. But the truth of the matter is, is I don’t believe that my company has been using LinkedIn as well as we could.
As a matter of fact, if I had to rate the way I have used LinkedIn on a scale of one to 10, it would probably be a four and that’s not good. That’s not passable for profitable business. And so today’s guest, I actually hunted her down and so she could share resources and strategies to help all of us increase our sales and the right connections on LinkedIn.
So this episode is for those of you guys who are trying to grow your LinkedIn connections, intentionally want to grow your business, whether you’re a new business or an established business, and you don’t know how to do it on LinkedIn, the last two episodes, if you were tuning into the show one 77 and when 76, my friend AIJ Wilcox was on the show and he was talking to us about how to grow your business on LinkedIn,
by paid advertisement. But this episode is all about how to organically grow your business on LinkedIn, without spending a dime to we’re going to dive in with today’s guest at the end of the show, you’ll know what to do with your LinkedIn connections, how to increase the visibility of your content and you’ll know what to post. And when, so this show is going to help you have a simple LinkedIn content strategy,
no, the types of content you should be posting on LinkedIn and understand how to use them organically to increase your engagement and connect with the right people without spending a dime. So excited to dive into this show with Judy Fox and with you. So let’s go and do it.<inaudible> All right, you guys are welcome back to another episode of this sweet life business podcast.
I am here with duty Fox. And let me tell you a little bit of the background story of how Judy got here. First of all, you guys I’ve been on LinkedIn forever, as long as I think that you can have been on LinkedIn, but I’ve never really figured out how to use it, how to leverage it for my business. And I knew that there was some strategy that I was missing.
We know video is King meat. We actually have done LinkedIn shows two years ago, but it still didn’t connect in my own brain. And regardless of what my team says and tell something connects in my own mind, it’s just honestly, just not going to happen. And so I’m sitting on like 120 LinkedIn invitations, and I knew there was some strategy that somebody out there knew in order to help me connect on a deeper level with the right people on LinkedIn.
And so I went on a hunt and I think it was in one of my Facebook communities I posted or somebody else’s community. I posted other, I said, I need a LinkedIn connection expert. I want them on my podcast. I need it for myself, selfishly and personally. And I know that all my clients need it and millions of other business owners and professionals need it as well.
So we are joined today by Judy Fox. And let me just read her bio and then I’m going to turn it over to her. She’s super impressive. So we’re both gonna have a great time today and we hope you guys do too. All right. Judy Fox hit 3 million views in 2018 on LinkedIn and has been featured in inc com as a topic. My video marketer and speaker at vid summit,
social media week, video marketing world broadcast your authority, authentic leadership summit, and more or less with over 18 years of experience in business development and sales, Judy Fox is a superpower positioning clients online and his authority as an authority in their space, building highly engaged audiences and getting more inbound opportunities. Now, Judy, I want you to introduce yourself and as you do it,
instead of me reading this, cause sometimes that’s just weird. Yeah, it does. But you have something here. Call them LinkedIn business accelerator. Talk about that. And then we’re going to dive into a ton of different LinkedIn strategies for those of you that are entrepreneurs and business owners here on the show. But first of all, what is, is business accelerator?
Because the fact that there is even a LinkedIn business accelerator tells me and many of our listeners that we’re missing the boat somewhere on making more money by leveraging LinkedIn. Yes. Oh my gosh. So I can’t even express how excited I am by the LinkedIn business accelerator because people who implement this literally hit millions of views either in weeks to months. And they are being asked to get on radio shows,
asked for podcasts. I have one client literally got shared by Arianna Huffington who has 9 million followers on LinkedIn. So there are people on LinkedIn who are getting access and getting featured in Forbes. And I just had another client get featured in BBC news. So, I mean, I could go down the rabbit hole for LinkedIn business accelerator, but the point of it is it’s a 90 day program.
It’s a container of leveraging the, what you really need to new do, and not all the things you need to do. What can you do in five days? And I will show you that it will grow your profile views by 2000%. I’ve had some clients literally get 200000% increases because it is just putting the gas pedal down on actually the things that work for what you do in person,
how to show up online and do the same thing. And it’s like a translator. Okay. First of all, we’ll put all of the links to the show notes. So you can find Judy and all of this information in the show notes for this week’s episode, which is number 178. So a couple of things we’re going to cover today. And I like most people have numerous questions about,
well, one of the things that I love about LinkedIn is it’s really powerful for companies like mine, which is strictly. And we just had Aja on the show, you know, AIG and Aja. And I jammed for a couple of episodes on paid reach through LinkedIn. Then he has his own take on that because that’s his area of expertise. But first of all,
what type of businesses do you think should be active on LinkedIn right now? Oh my gosh. So this goes back to my human. I even put this in my profile. I do human to human marketing. So as I mentioned, I have 18 years experience and I started my career as a chemical engineer. I then moved my way up. The corporate ladder in a fortune 500 company was being groomed and trained for the C suite and throughout that entire process.
And especially at some points in my career, being that business development, the seller, the Dewar role throughout all these corporate experiences that I’ve had. And the biggest takeaway is I am a human gatekeeper. I’m still a human being who was the gatekeeper to sometimes millions and millions of dollars at these corporate offices, corporate contracts, proposals requests for proposals. So all of these processes,
I kept saying to myself, I’m being sold to I’m selling other people like it’s this whole circle. And I kept asking myself, I’m just another human being that’s in that gatekeeper position. So I come to a conclusion that if you are human being and you are wanting to amplify the message that comes out beyond yourself. So say for example, we are attracted to other human beings and that’s why we have these influencers that we hire and we pay good money for.
And they advertise our brand. Will, can you imagine having your entire company filled with influential people who are leaders of your company, they can be that way on LinkedIn. And it’s a very natural space for them to be that way on LinkedIn. So it’s almost like we’re just amplifying the message of humans. And that’s why I say almost anyone can be on LinkedIn.
I know that sounds really blunt, but I’ve seen artists who are doing amazing. There’s a woman named Casey who shows her artwork and she is getting a hundred thousand views sometimes on her artwork. And she’s selling out in minutes because she’s visible. We know she exists and we can grab onto her content. And, and we can only imagine how many people are online.
Every single need that you have as a human is still a part of you. When you go to work, sometimes you’re willing to pay even more. Wow. Cause you want it done for you. You want that painting that she put out there because it looks amazing. Maybe it’s great for your corporate office and you want to buy it. Maybe it’s great for your background of your podcast or your video and you want to buy it.
Do you see what I mean? Like the corporate and professional world, I feel like it’s all merged now. I love that example. And I love that case study. I actually have a good close friend of ours will day it’s real day art it’s on LinkedIn and in his paintings, I can’t even venture to say what some of his opinions began at,
but he is on LinkedIn. He does really well. And I feel like I’ve seen that expansion, especially in the last two years where also being a mother and working from home forever. I’m seeing also things that I would never expect to see, but I think I personally pick up on it, just who I am as a human being, things about breastfeeding or things about self care or things that aren’t so much lack and white.
This is business things that don’t appear to be, as you were saying, corporate black and white content that they’re silent. And The only reason I have to say something so quickly is because for how many years were we told what is considered corporate, but it’s also considered corporate because they didn’t necessarily have as a male dominated industry that I’ve been in, in the engineering world.
Those conversations wouldn’t have existed anyways. So I am the leader that I want to be in the world and the leader that I want to be allows conversations for both male and female things that we all face. And just because men aren’t breastfeeding in the workplace, it doesn’t delete that. That is still a professional conversation that needs to happen because it’s work related to talk about raising children.
And it’s not just a female thing. It’s men and women raising children. And I, I challenged, like I love Sarah Blakely’s LinkedIn profile. If you go to her profile at the bottom of her about section, which is making it very clear that I memorize people’s about sections. She actually says my goal and mission in life is to balance the masculine and feminine energies Because that Is a powerful mission and goal.
And I, I love, I love following her. She was just on a LinkedIn live on LinkedIn. She did it from her RV where she’s on the road with her husband and she is still running her company and doing all the things, but showing up as a parent, showing up as we’re parents and all parental conversations matter, They do, especially.
Yeah, that’d be a rant, especially now in the last, you know, in the last three months. And I’m actually looking forward to the way that business models are going to change that it is much more holistically incorporating our role as parents, as well as leaders and executives, business owners and everything else. So I’d love that. Okay. Yeah.
You and I could jam on that all day, right? Here’s my primary question. We talked about it a bit and started before we started recording. The first strategy I would love for you to share is the answer to the question. What the heck do I do with all of these crazy amount of LinkedIn invitations? I know there’s a strategy behind it and for our listeners,
it just randomly sure. I’ll accept your invitation. It’s just random. Just click button, easy to accept. There is a deeper business relationship low that we need to mind. And I know that there is, but personally in my business, I do not have a strategy to do that. And that’s why I hunted you down. And so I loved your strategy.
And can you please teach us your strategy? You rule of thumb in how you approach connections on LinkedIn. So they immediately are the right connections for you. Yes. So first I love that we’re diving into the direct messages because I have spent my most of my business with my direct messages, creating opportunity, creating business. That’s where it’s all going down and the is on LinkedIn,
but it’s not going to happen if we give our attention and spread ourselves too thin, we all understand that as business owners, we can not be spread too thin because when we spread ourselves too thin, we’re not really serving anybody. So I love the idea of taking radical ownership. This is my direct message experience. You’ve come into my world. You are invited in and I get to decide where I want the relationship to go,
not you. So I really like that. That is clear in my head. I don’t have to tell them that, but that’s what I’m thinking. It’s my mindset. And that I get to look at your profile except you very, I except pretty quickly, I would just say accept, except, um, that one looks a little something’s off. I go with gut instinct and sometimes I reject or click ignore.
I would say it’s 80, 20 rule, 80% of the time. I’m accepting connection requests. 20% of the time I’m saying ignore because something just looks off. You kind of know, maybe they don’t have a profile picture or maybe they don’t fill out their profile completely. And they don’t have, they have weird letters in their about section something, but I don’t click into their profiles,
just judge on quickly looking at their titles, looking at their profile picture and their name with that. You can turn around and if you want to take action on, like you said, they’re on my turf. They could be somebody I could warm up. They wanted to connect with me. I could turn around and say, thank you so much for connecting.
Cause I’m just acknowledging. There’s no message. There’s no nothing. You’re just starting from scratch. And we’ve heard over and over. And I was just listening to Shaylene Johnson the other day. And she reminded me of there’s a million people reminding us it’s 20 to 30 touch points before somebody becomes a purchaser, especially if you have a higher ticket or high trust business.
So why would we think that any conversation in the first message is going to convert, we have to have way more touch points. So what I do is I have a generic message that says, thanks for connecting. I love to get to know new connections in the comments on the platform, see you online, feel free to follow my hashtag Fox rocks,
Doody Fox. And by having my own personal hashtag, it creates a very easy light pitch clickable link that sends them to my most recent content. Love it, bam. They don’t have to navigate through my profile. They don’t have to navigate to where you find your most recent posts. Cause every once in a while, somebody will say, I can’t find where your most recent content.
It literally takes you to a newsfeed of Judy Fox Of Judy foxes, hashtagging, and just a side step. So for people that have no LinkedIn started using hashtags, what like two years ago now, but they do well. And so some of the hashtags that I follow on LinkedIn, they only have, you know, a few things coming up in the feed.
Whereas if you all have that same hashtag on Instagram, for example, you’re buried in millions and millions of posts. LinkedIn is there yet. And I love that hashtags in general, but I also love that you have your own branded hashtag, which is so cool and what a great way. Okay? So somebody sent you an invitation. You don’t click on their profile.
I don’t know if I like that too. Sometimes that LinkedIn always tells people their profiles. You don’t necessarily know their profile judging USS just based on the information from the invitation. And then you copy and paste this super nice relatable response saying, Hey, great, you want to connect with me? You know, go ahead and follow My hashtag. Yes.
What is this do at this point in time? What happens after this? So what happens is I either have people say, Oh my gosh, that’s great. You have a cool hashtag or the responses I get are I’m excited to engage in the comments or, you know, if they are respecting the boundaries, the only other message that is freaking awesome is when they turn around and they say,
I’ve been following you for awhile and I’ve been commenting and I love your content. And then isn’t that a great next conversation because I know you’ve had 10 to 20 touch points potentially. So you’re finding out by just that message, by the way they respond. Number one, are they going to respect the boundaries, which you didn’t make them harsh boundaries? You just said,
I like to do this. This is my it’s like a soft boundary. And then if they push back with like, that’s awesome, I have been watching your content. I really blah, blah, blah, something, whatever. Maybe they start a conversation. That’s super hot because you’ve positioned yourself already. And you wouldn’t know that unless you did that message.
It’s without pushing them to tell you, I hate the, why did you connect with me? Right. Okay. Now I have to do all this work to explain. It almost feels defensive. Whereas this one opens up the door. It’s like a slight door, but it also opens up the door to just being amazing comment conversation on the public platform.
And if that happens, you’re just gaining attention on your content, you know, a thousand more views or one more comment or one more share. Yeah. And at that perfectly brings us into the next thing that I want to talk about. What an amazing organic way to increase, increase the eyes on your content. I mean, this is brilliant in so many different ways.
I’m super stoked to be connected with you and love learning from you already, Kelly, my assistant is going to be like, Oh my gosh, April’s going to have 10,000 things for me to do on LinkedIn, send you a connection request. You send me a connection request so I can practice my new DM and come up with my experience. It too.
It’s fun to make your own gifts. Oh, okay. That’s alright. I have a waving. Hello gift. Are you serious? That’s another way to give people one more experience in LinkedIn direct messages. That is not the same as everybody else. I’m not trying to pitch. I’m waving. Hello. And it’s just a nice gift that I can upload really quick.
And it’s in the gift library. I love that. All right. There’s a million things that you can do is send Judy’s gift to you, everybody Fox and shout out to Chad who helped me first launch my gifts. Yay. Thank you, Chad. Okay. All right. So Let’s talk about the content we’re posting on LinkedIn. You have three different personalities that you talk about as recommendations for ways that individuals can show up on LinkedIn.
Can you dive into those three different personalities and how to operate within and why they’re really Huntly important? Yes. So instead of thinking, we always come from a place of, I need to be creating content for my business. I need to attract the right clients. And I always tell people, if you start with these three pillars of leadership voice, so it’s this idea that a leader is recognized by the way that they walk through this earth,
by the way that they show up online. And we kinda know when we see their content, but we don’t always put our finger on it. But if you break it down on LinkedIn like this, and I’ll share, I’m about to share, I’ll start with the opposite first, which is too many people think, and they get on LinkedIn, they come from this,
how can I help you? And that tends to be a very, very low hanging fruit that a lot of people grab onto. And they think that their content needs to come from, how can I help? How can I show up for my ideal client? So this is the opposite. So I want you to delete the world of how can I help you?
It’s not a bad world, but it hurts us. It really does. It hurts our positioning because it doesn’t position you as a leader. It positions you as a helper, helping the helpless and people on LinkedIn don’t want to be helpless. They want to be empowered. They want to also show up as leaders. If you have all of your employees underneath you and you are lifting them up and making them feel amazing,
you’re not helping them. You are empowering them. So we’re going to switch to an empower language. And then the next thing we’re going to switch to is the three categories, which are the challenger, the creator and the coach. So I’m going to start with the coach. The coach shows up as a go to resource. You know, when you have a boss that you can trust to go to,
or a leader, doesn’t even have to be a boss, you have a colleague in your world and you know that you can go to them. When you say, actually you did that. When you were saying, Hey guys, I need to crowdsource for a person to be on my podcast about LinkedIn. You already mentioned that. So you’re showing up as a go to resource and you’re allowing your community to show up as go to resources in the comments.
So instead of just holding court and preaching at us, you were saying, Hey everybody, I know you all are leaders. It’s implied by me saying, I need a go to resource, total different mindset. Okay? Yeah. So then you’ve got that energy and you can say, these are my top tools for working from home. These are my,
this is my mindset hack. That was one of my videos I did recently where I broke down my mindset hack. That’s a coach. That’s go to resource for sharing what works for me, but not telling me it has to work for you just saying, this is what I do. What do you do? How can you show up as a leader in my comments?
Right. Fascinating. Okay. So that’s the leader personality. And then the second one you mentioned was the neighbor personality really ENT. Yes. The creator personality. For example, I was mentioning Casey is doing her. Um, we think creative types, but we also think so she’s showing us her behind the scenes, TimeLapse of her video and the psychology behind that is a before and after energy.
We freaking love that because there’s something that connects in our brains to say, how did a creator get from here to here? It’s sharing the journey. So we love the journey we love seeing how did somebody earn six figures? How did somebody get from barely making ends meet to a seven figure business? Like how many freaking shows do we want to listen to online and podcasts?
So there’s that energy. And then the other part of that energy is step-by-step actions. So when we, as a creator can show up either with that before and after energy, the journey energy, the, those types of posts do so well because they’re positioned with that mindset to think, how could I take another human being from a to B, Love it.
I would say that my downfall is that I would just want to hang out in that personality all the time, just because I’m a teacher, that’s what we do here on the podcast. So I think all of my posts would be like, okay, step by step to go from here to there. But you could and sprinkle in the other ones. Yeah.
But I feel like that’s not, it’s just not deep enough, the way that we’re doing it as a company, to be totally honest. I mean, I’ll just throw my own company under the bus here on some of these shows to be like, we suck at this right now. And that’s why we’re, we’re recording this show. You know? And I really do feel like this is something that as you’re teaching and as I’m learning,
and if you guys are watching behind the scenes on the video, as I’m taking notes, I have like crazy Fox notes, scratched all over my paper, hashtag Fox or hashtag, you know, as we’re, as we’re doing this, I just, I can see myself being like, okay, I think maybe that’s all you do. And it’s just a little almost to the point where it’s redundant or shallow or something,
there’s something off about it. But these bats were the last Leadership style allows you to share a bit more of your, I don’t know what to call it, but like it’s called the challenger energy. So where you come across as learning from your mistakes, sharing some of the vulnerable parts of your business. And that’s probably where you can show up in all these other areas and be vulnerable with the coach saying,
Hey, I need a resource because, and that’s the vulnerable part of the story. Maybe there’s a part of that story that is vulnerable to you. But the challenger energy really does have a curious energy. I’m curious why this failed. I’m curious why it took me 10 years to get where I am, you know, and the figure outable energy as Marie Forleo would say,
it’s the energy of wrestling with something and showing that part in that post. So the way challengers show up is the curious questions. It’s figure outable, but you could have a figure outable energy together where you say, let’s figure this out in the comments below. I need to determine how to start a podcast. And I am struggling. There’s a million platforms to start on and it’s a little bit of the go to resource,
but you’re potentially opening up more of I’ve made mistakes along the way. How can I reverse share so you can learn the lessons along with me. I love that. So that would be an example of that Using yourself to the next level too. Oh, okay. That makes sense too. There’s the challenger from the past when you challenge your past, but you can also challenge your future.
And I, I meant to mention that because I didn’t want to leave you hanging with only looking at past mistakes. You can challenge the future. I have one client that made a post and we decided to do a challenge of reducing our sugars together. And so there’s that that’s still a relevant post for LinkedIn because it came across as a leadership. I still would want to see the leaders of my company.
If they are taking on a challenge to exercise, that’s something we want to talk about in business because health and bringing health to the workplace allows us all to operate better and live longer and thrive and have better meetings because we have less cranky people. You know what? I am just going down the rabbit hole there, but, And mentally process faster and all those things.
Yes. A hundred percent. Okay. So at a post that would just come to my mind would be the same. Hey, listen, I’ve stuck at LinkedIn, just starting out. And just saying that as a company, we aren’t connecting here. We haven’t really connected here authentically with the right businesses that we know that we can help. How do you guys do this year?
And so, by the way, If you let other people look amazing and the comments give you advice, it’s powerful. It’s such a crazy thing. It’s so true. But I think that oftentimes that we forget that a lot of the content should be reading. And we talk about this a lot on Instagram. You and I both love Instagram and even Facebook,
even though Facebook and I have a love, absolute despising loopy relationship with each other for a business standpoint. But we know the rule of thumb is, you know, people like to share things that make them look good just across the board. Shareable content is content. People like to share things to make them look smart and tall and wise and experienced and funny and you know,
all those things. And so that really opening up the LinkedIn communication platform with that same sort of philosophy and understanding that people want to show up and they want to feel good about themselves. And they want to position themselves as leaders. Absolutely freaking brilliant. And I’m so glad I found you. And I will say leaning into the leadership voice. The one thing that when you were mentioning,
they want to share because it makes them look good. It makes them taller. It makes them all these things. It also can make them look like their future selves to be a leader at a business like you were showing up as a leader, wherever, whatever space, it doesn’t matter what your title is. You can be a leader in your space.
And there’s something very shareable about that too. The idea of you are their future self and they share your content because they’re like, wow, I would love to write something like that. I’d love to put something like that, video out into the world and what that person shared was so powerful to me. I’m going to share it. And I think the highest shares,
I think I got close to about 200 shares of a post and that went to half a million views. So it is very, very powerful to be shared on LinkedIn when your content is the one being shared. Basically I got messages saying, all I do is get on LinkedIn and see your content. I love it. I can’t wait to binge your content on LinkedIn and spend more time.
I will be for sure. And so let’s do a quick recap about what we talked about today. Um, beside the fact that we talked about the sweet life company sax on LinkedIn, we will not after this show. And if you’re with me and you want to make sure that you are authentically unintentionally connecting with really great partners and affiliates and your clients,
then you have hung out with us to the end of the show and you have listened to the whole thing. And we should be applying strategies to which are pursing. We talked about the DM strategy, having a set response and a gift that you can send to them. And it’s that response that really is like, Hey, great, thank you so much.
Follow my hashtag, which triggers people to go follow your hashtag actually decide whether or not they want to actually connect with you more than it helps to disqualify, which I love just as much as it helps to qualify ideal connections on LinkedIn and it increases or Ganek reach with your content that you’re directing people back to your hashtag. And then you talked about being a leader on LinkedIn and showing up in three different personalities,
leadership, creator, and challenger. And so my next question to this, even though this could be an entirely different show, but just to wrap this up, how frequently do you recommend companies or individuals should be posting on LinkedIn? Currently it is May, 2020, and this always changes with every social media platform. But right now, how often do you think people should be showing up and posting on this platform?
Oh, so I have, what’s the reason why I have this container LinkedIn business accelerators, because you really do have different patterns for when you are a cold audience, a warm audience, a warm audience, and a hot audience. I consider my audience to be hot. On average, when I’m posting, I hit the 300 to 600 to a thousand likes and comments,
10,000 to a hundred thousand views. So with that audience, it’s a different strategy than a cold audience. So I would start with a cold audience and say, you should be commenting. I know that sounds really interesting, but you should be commenting at least 10, five to 10 comments that are high quality in your ideal circles. Your ideal clients go out into that world into your ideal businesses and conversations you want to be having.
So go out and do five to 10 of those a day. If you can do, if this is the ideal growth strategy, and then you would post two to three times a week. I have some of my clients right at the two posts a week and they’re getting anywhere from 10 to 20,000 views a week. So that’s that strategy. The next is what I call my it’s that warm audience there,
you should be testing and playing around a little bit more. And if you want to ramp up commenting, because again, commenting just changes your entire business. And some businesses drive more traffic by commenting and more business by commenting. Some do really well on video. So it’s almost like playing around in that medium area. That’s where I work with my clients to figure out what’s your sweet spot.
And then I come up with a sustainable strategy. So my sustainable strategy for myself would be different than yours. But mine, for example, is I have a pattern of video document posts, text only post or image posts. And then I do about one post a week because I’d rather have my audience trust that every time I post it’s high quality. And then I go out and I do a ton of comments because I ended up getting more business from engaging with my ideal clients and commenting and showing interest in them.
And then they ended up showing more interest in me. So I ended up having a lot of clients that have never liked and commented on any of my videos or content. I love that. And those connections then go back and happen in the BMS to close deals and land condoms, the same plants. Yeah. I convert business to the direct messages, or I set up my Calendly link to live on my LinkedIn profile,
which is another powerful way to position yourself. It’s right there, but it has an application process to it. And the main reason why is because any human being can see your public profile, if you have your settings on public. So I do want to have you fill out a few basic questions. Do you have a LinkedIn profile or you, do you have a website you want to share with me because some people might be starting from scratch.
I honor that, but I also just want you to have a gate because I can’t have everybody book a spot on my calendar. Also it’d be on the phone calls all day long. And obviously in any case with that too, just free screening appointments where they get to you. That’s yes, that’s incredible. And it’s pretty easy to set up with Calendly and it’s a very powerful part of your that’s why I call it LinkedIn business accelerator,
because I literally want you to get business. I have some clients, I had one client, I just did our second zoom call. One-on-one zoom call. And she said, I have been asked to be on a radio show. Now two podcasts, a live stream. And I’m now being asked to give a keynote presentation at a company online meeting because now everything’s online.
And I was like, that’s only after two weeks. And she was like, I know I just blown away. I love that LinkedIn has come. I think my first LinkedIn training I ever took was an old Lewis house, even though Lewis houses and alas young, it was like Lewis Howes linked, influenced training 2012 or something like that, Which is basically I remember the set us house days,
how to set up your profile. And I love big blue it’s health span anyway. Okay. It’s certainly come a long way. And I, I think as business owners, we’re starving for a platform that we can trust that we can engage in a very real way where we can count on generating high quality. And there is just so much missing from understanding how to do this on LinkedIn.
You don’t have to sort through all the noise on Facebook and even all the noise and other places like YouTube or Google ads or SEO, which is so many different ways, actually like we were saying on a human level. And now it’s always been my preferred way to sell and connect with clients. But now in 2020, we are seeing so much that relationship sell.
And it doesn’t matter if you are a multimillion dollar business or if you are hitting your first six figures, no relationships, relationships sell. And I love, I love your strategy you taught today, and I really appreciate your wisdom and your time, the best today. Do you So welcome. I appreciate yours. I can’t wait to, I can’t wait to bench this And you guys can check out,
go to Judy Fox, J UDI, fox.com. You follow her hashtag Fox rocks yes. On LinkedIn. And we will go ahead and make sure all the links that we discussed today are available for you in the show notes of this episode, which can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com slash one seven eight. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time.<inaudible> Thank you so much for sticking around to the end of this show.
I trust that you gained some very profitable and wise insights from Judy and from our conversation today. And I would love to know what your biggest takeaway is or what the action that you’re going to apply to your businesses. First, based on what you heard on today’s show on LinkedIn, share it with me, connect with me. Who’s over to LinkedIn search April beach and send me a connection.
And I would love to watch what you’re posting and connect with your content even greater. And then of course, make sure you’re following Fox rocks hashtag on LinkedIn, because Judy is certainly the expert. All of the show notes, everything we talked about on today’s episode, if you’re driving and just can’t write it down, all you need to do is remember episode number one 78.
If you go to sweet life podcast.com forward slash one 78, everything they talked about and all the links we mentioned on today’s show will be found in there. I hope you haven’t Awesome. I will talk to you<inaudible
New and established businesses who want to learn if LinkedIn is the right platform to reach your ideal audience.
Summary:
In this episode, we cover who should be running LinkedIn Ads, the 4 types of ads that can be run on Linked, and what you can expect to spend to get results. LinkedIn Ads Expert, AJ Wilcox, founder of B2Linked.com and host of“The LinkedIn Ads Show” dives deep covering what you need to know as a business owner. If you’ve been thinking about advertising on LinkedIn but you’re not sure if it’s the right choice for your business goals, don’t miss this episode.
Highlights:
Know your ad budget
Decide what kind of ads you should be running
Know where to access your Ads account to get started.
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Full Show Transcript:
<inaudible> You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator, a probate. Hey guys and welcome back. This is part two of a two part LinkedIn ad strategy business podcast training. This is episode number 177 if you missed one 76 and you were wondering about the fundamentals of LinkedIn ads and whether or not you should be even advertising on LinkedIn at all.
Stop this episode. Go back and listen to that one and then catch back up with us here we have J Wilcox in the house with us again and he really is my favorite business person right now because I have been waiting months and months to get him back on the show. I’ve had a ton of questions. And in last week’s and in this week’s episode you also hear a lot of behind the scenes and what’s happening in our company is I own two companies and some of the ad strategies that we’re using and then some of the questions that we have.
So you not only get a business training with these two shows, you’re going to hear a lot of behind the scenes about how we’re using advertising to grow our company as well. So I always try to be transparent with you guys and share with you actual case studies, whether it’s clients or in my own business. And then we have ADA, the expert here dishing exactly step by step how to go about doing this in your own company.
So in this show, it is an extension, like I said of last week, and we’re talking strategic ad strategy for B to B sales. So this show is, especially for those of you guys who have a business that serves other businesses. In this episode we’re covering who should be running ads on LinkedIn, the four types of ads that can be run on LinkedIn and what you should and can expect from your LinkedIn ads results.
At the end of this show, you are going to know a LinkedIn ad budget. You’re going to have a baseline ad budget that if you can’t come to the table with this ad budget, don’t come to the table at all ages really upfront about that. And so we have a come to Jesus moment about how much you have in your marketing. And so you’re not wasting your money or your time.
You’re also going to know what kind of ads you should be running on LinkedIn. And we dive into how to access the ads manager portal in LinkedIn as well as other really cool tracking that you can do even if you aren’t spending any money on LinkedIn ads at all. So we talk about how to install a LinkedIn tracking code on your business website so you can read a massive analytics to make smart choices for your company.
I’m super excited to dive into this part too, and you can find all of the show notes@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash one seven seven alright, let’s go<inaudible>. All right, this is episode number 177 and I am back again with my very good friend at least I think he’s my good friend. That’s, he is my favorite person right now in business. AGA Wilcox,
who is then, I mean we last week dove into some really important foundational information about what companies can and should be leveraging LinkedIn ads. If you didn’t listen to the last week’s episode, you should stop this, pause it and go back and listen to episode number 176 you have a good foundation. You know, last week we talked about who should be advertising on LinkedIn.
You know, what type of companies benefit from that. Aja gave you guys the solid steps to start moving forward. For me, what it did is it got my wheels turning and of course, and then I had a million more questions, so I really appreciate him being back with us on the show today. So Aja, can you reintroduce yourself again to those who’ve not met you before?
Please? Oh sure. I’m so good about bragging about myself. I run a little ad agency. There are only eight of us. I mean we’re very small and nimble of eight people, but we are B to linkedin.com and we specialize only in running LinkedIn ads. We are official LinkedIn partners. We’re actually the only ad agency in the world, but certified partners with LinkedIn.
We run many of their largest accounts as well as many of the smallest and everything in between. We’re just hyper specialized and uh, call us one trick ponies, but we like what we do. I love it, I love it. Hey, you know what, be the one trick pony is a way to build a multimillion dollar business right now. And I love that you do that.
So that’s super cool for you. Now let’s just do like a super quick recap. Last week we talked about three different types of businesses that could benefit from advertising on LinkedIn. Can you rattle those off real quick for us again? Yes. Any sort of high lifetime value lead generation, whether it’s B to B or B to C is number one. Number two is higher education.
So think of like universities, MBA programs, recruiting. And then number three is any sort of white collar recruiting that you’re doing as a company just trying to hire new employees. Okay. My first question to that is totally a selfish question. Yeah. As a company, we love to run ads to this podcast, to the right audience for this podcast,
but when we look at the podcast, the podcast, you know, we don’t even run ads on the podcast intentionally, so I’m not talking about a lifetime value of, you know, I can’t say yes, this listener is going to generate me $15,000 plus in revenue. That’s not the way it works. So for just exposing an audience to content, would you recommend That a company or a podcast like yours or like mine advertises on LinkedIn to increase their listenership?
Or is it, wait and we’re going to dive into money. Is it way too expensive? Oh man, I love this question and I have a hard time with it because LinkedIn ads are really expensive. What we’re paying on average eight to $11 a click, and me personally, I’m a huge fan of podcasts. I’m a huge fan of podcasting, but when I look at it,
you can’t quite calculate what a listener is worth and what sort of lifetime value they will end up being in the future. I have a really hard time investing eight to $11 into that person and I personally don’t even advertise our own podcast on LinkedIn for this reason. I just don’t think the economics would work out, but I do advertise the podcast on Quora ads and I would on Facebook and on Instagram just because the costs are lower.
So the economics just gets in the way of LinkedIn’s amazing targeting sometimes. Darn it. Okay. Well hopefully someday that might change. Okay. So diving in today we are going to talk a little bit more deeply about the four types of platforms that LinkedIn ads appears on within LinkedIn. I’m super excited to do that. Different type of ads you can run.
You were talking about carousel ads and different strategies that businesses can use when they’re presenting their ad content to help our listeners decide which one is the best for them. And then we’re also going to talk about money and how much money you need to spend. I remember two years ago when we talked about there was a threshold that you told me April, if you can’t spend at least this amount of money,
don’t spend any. So I’m super curious how much is the minimum that we’re starting to see and then you know even for businesses, how to get started, where to find the ads manager, if you will, actually how to navigate to that within the platform and how to set up tracking for retargeting. So we have a really big show and thank you for joining us again AIJ and thanks to you guys for tuning in.
If you’re listening to this show, it’s because you have a business that you are curious whether or not you could increase your sales with LinkedIn ads. And so you are certainly in the right place. So AIG, let’s first of all, let’s dive into the four different types of ads that someone can run on LinkedIn. Perfect. So number one that I tell everyone to start with is called sponsored content.
It shows up right in the newsfeed, which is the homepage experience on both desktop and mobile. So this is a great way of getting in front of pretty much all your users. These come in several different flavors. There’s static image, which I think everyone should start with. It’s just a single one image that’s so easy to create and troubleshoot. Then there’s also video,
which we talked about last week. I don’t really love video ads on LinkedIn. They’re pretty expensive and there’s no retargeting yet that comes in the fall of 2020 but there’s also one called carousel. But if you’ve used Facebook ads, you’ll recognize it’s multiple images that someone can scroll through within your ad. And to all of these, you can actually fix something called a lead generation form ad,
and it’s a native form that goes right within your ad itself. So someone can convert on your ad without ever even leaving LinkedIn. It’s really nice and easy all filled in from your profile information pre-filled. So all they have to do is just hit submit and it creates some really high conversion rates. Okay, that’s crazy. So when we’re talking about Facebook ads or Instagram ads or any other ads,
we have to send them to a separate landing page and it actually leads the platform, which is a big stumbling block for many businesses who also build their own websites or they have a very small tech team because then they have to go, Hey, I need you to build a landing page. It needs to have a forum and it needs to connect with this CRM.
So you’re saying that LinkedIn can actually put the lead gen form there within the ad itself? Yes. And Facebook and Instagram can do this too. I think Twitter might have actually even had it before Facebook and YouTube can now do it too, so everyone seems to be jumping on this, this horse, but it’s a great feature and one that LinkedIn probably released four or five years after Facebook.
Wow. But I think what most Facebook advertisers have found is yes, it increases conversion rates, but at the same time it lowers lead quality because the user didn’t have to put forth as much effort to get to know you. And so a lot of times they’ve forgotten that they’ve had, the feedback I’ve heard from Facebook advertisers is we contacted them and they say,
I didn’t fill out a form with you guys. I’ve never even heard of you. Right. We do tend to see the same kind of thing on LinkedIn, but we’ll see. Cost per conversion, cost per lead ends up dropping by 30 to 80% but lead quality might only drop by 10 to 20% so you’re still net positive and it can still be worthwhile doing.
Fascinating. Yeah. We’ve never used that tool or that strategy on Facebook. At all, we always, you know, send them to a landing page where they can see really what it is they’re offering and whether or not they want that. So very interesting talking about the decrease in the quality of lead versus the decrease in the cost per lead. Fascinating.
Okay, so that is the newsfeed. So that’s running ads right there in the main newsfeed of LinkedIn, the one that everybody sees. And in the last show you mentioned that you have to have a LinkedIn company page to do so Yes, that’s correct. Okay. Now what are the other places where ads can appear in LinkedIn? So I think the next most interesting is called sponsored messaging.
That’s the category. And as is inherent to the name it’s messages, right? It actually shows up in your LinkedIn inbox or your InMail. These can show up in two different flavors. There’s one called a message ad and then one that’s called a conversation ad. So the message ad would be like an InMail that someone sends to you. Someone opens it up,
it says words, and you can, if you want to respond to that or not. But the conversation ads is LinkedIn’s newest ad format. And think of it like a chat bot. You can ask someone a question and then based off of how they respond, give them a different offer or a different link or ask them a further question. So these can be fantastic if you,
one of the main uses we’ve found for these is a lot of people want to try to push people towards their booths at trade shows. Obviously when in person events become a thing again, but of course if you’re advertising you need to ask someone first like are you going to be at this show? And so if they say, yes, I’m going to be at this big industry conference,
then you can start pushing them towards the booth. But if they say no, you could say, well, Hey, do you want to join this webinar that we’re putting on next week? So you’re giving people more options and a better chance of relevancy of your offer to them. Okay. Couple of questions. First of all, do you have to be connected with people to run message or conversation ads to them?
Do they have to be a connection? No, they don’t have to be connected to you in anyway. When you pay LinkedIn for these message ads, you don’t pay per click like you do with the rest of their ad formats. With this one, you pay to send it to them so you define the same way that you would have defined any of your other ad targeting by job title and company size and industry and all that,
and then they’re randomized to that audience so you don’t have to be connected as long as you paid them their 20 to 65 cents to send it, they will deliver it to an audience that fits your targeting. Okay, fantastic. Question number two, we’re more of just an observation. An automated chat box within LinkedIn sounds amazing. I mean we use messenger chat and different things within Facebook that are so important and so powerful.
This is so super cool. This sort of automation or relationship building, utilizing AI to build relationships with our leads is absolutely. I totally geek out on that stuff, so I love that. But question number three, as a LinkedIn user, I don’t know that I want to receive chat ads in my chat as a LinkedIn user. That might piss me off if some like rando person sends me a message.
Is there any pushback yet on people that are like, dude, get out of my chat box on LinkedIn Because they could only give responses that you’ve coded in. We don’t get free form responses of people like shutting us out or anything, which is probably a really good thing. Maybe in the future if there’s like a, an open kind of response. But Lincoln’s done a really good job of these.
Yeah. As a member you can only receive one every 45 days. So in case you get one that pisses you off, you’re not going to get pissed off again for at least another month and a half. I guess it keeps that uh, annoyance factor to a minimum. Okay. And can people turn this off like all together? Like never send me an ad through my messenger or it’s just this one in 45 days.
Part of being on the LinkedIn platform. Ooh. I think if you go into privacy settings, I think you can opt out of receiving these altogether, but realize that when someone takes me into kind of like a little bit of a DVS mode, but if someone sends you a really crappy one of these, they’ve essentially destroyed their brand to you and they paid just to deliver it to your inbox no matter what sort of action you take.
So I think one of the worst punishments you could give them is stay opted in so they spend more money on you in the future and just waste cash. But I don’t know. Okay. I think that that is so funny. You are super devious. I am more like, I have no filter. I’d be like, dude, this actually, this sucked total squirrel moment.
You know when people send me things that are just terrible, I just can’t help myself. I actually had a company, this is a complete squirrel moment, but funny here, my listeners are used to this with me. I had a PR company pitch somebody for my podcast last week and it was the worst pitch I’ve ever received. I actually felt so terrible for the person that we’re pitching that I went and I hunted down the person that we’re pitching on Instagram,
sent a screenshot and said, listen, if you are paying this company, don’t cause you are never going to land a podcast guest spot from one woman to another. Your business looks fascinating. Please don’t waste your more money on this company. So I am so I’m totally, the person would be like, your message sucks. Do not send me this message again.
What a waste of know. I would even like connect with them on LinkedIn just to tell them their LinkedIn ad sucked. But sometimes that gets me into trouble cause I have a big mouth and I just can’t. So like you, we want to know this stuff. We want that feedback. And there’s a class of people like me who would never tell,
tell you to your face and there’s a class of people like you who would actually inform them that they were making stupid decisions. This was woman was like, thank you so much. She could have been like you, you know? But she was like, thank you so much for telling me. So I kind of like, I kind of held my breath to wait for,
I didn’t know what her response was going to be. They Kevin, she was like, thank you so much for telling me. Okay, so end of squirrel moment. Back to our four platforms where we can send LinkedIn, we have the sponsored content and the newsfeed. We have the sponsored messaging ads, whether it is the message ad or the conversation ad going through inbox or in mail.
Now the next one you said text ads when we spoke before. Yes, so text ads show up only in the right rail as well as the fourth platform, which we’ll talk about here in a minute as well. But the right rail, it’s important to understand is only available when you’re on a computer. So your mobile device isn’t going to show you this.
So that cuts down on the audience that can see these. But what I want you to understand about text ads is they are very, very risk. They are simultaneously LinkedIn’s lowest cost ad and they also have the lowest engagement rate, which means if you screw this up, it won’t cost you very much because not very many people are going to click on it anyway.
And then when they do click, it doesn’t cost very much cause it’s the cheapest ad format you can pay all the way down to $2 per click from these. So if you’re looking to just dip your toe in the water and you’re okay with getting visitors that are on desktop that they’re not on mobile, this is by far the best way to test into your audience and your offers and check it out without really spending much money at all.
Fascinating. Okay. So maybe start there before you send somebody a conversation. Okay. And then the fourth one is a dynamic ad. What is that? Yes. So dynamic ads, you may have seen them, but you just may not know that what they were, I call them LinkedIn’s creepiest ad format. They actually take your picture, your profile picture and stick it into the app.
So if you’ve ever seen an ad that says like, Hey, April, picture yourself at IBM or at Microsoft and it’s like your picture next to the Microsoft logo or IBM logo. It started out as a job placement kind of ad and then they eventually gave it to us as marketers and said, Hey, however you want to stick someone’s picture in an ad,
go for it. So these used to be really expensive and they just reduced the price earlier this year, so to about a third of where they were. So I actually now started recommending these to people there are slightly cheaper than sponsored content, but again, they’re like text ads. They don’t get clicked on very much cause they’re way over in the right rail.
They’re obviously an ad, but they cost less on a per click basis than your sponsored content will. They’re like maybe six to $8 a click rather than the eight to 11 that you’ll probably pay in sponsored content. Okay. That’s really creepy. But kind of cool. I would definitely, if somebody had my face in the right hand column there, I certainly would stop and be like,
what am I doing down there? So very interesting. And I could see like you were saying possibly like picture yourself here, picture yourself doing this. Certainly for the educational institutions, you know that are trying to get people into their higher education programs like picture yourself with your MBA or whatever. Super cool. All right, so those are our different platforms.
And then last week we hit on the video ads really aren’t converting static image ads are doing better. And then can you just share a little bit about the way carousel ads? Like what is a carousel ad, what is this look like when it’s showing in LinkedIn? Because these are the ads we get great results with carousel ads for our podcast. So we will run like an image and we’ll kind of,
people can scroll through within the ad to different podcast episodes. You know you need this click here and they do really well. So is it, is it set up the same way? Yes, in fact it’s a direct rip off. If I say so, I, without getting in too much trouble, a direct rip off of the way that Facebook pulled it off.
So in your newsfeed you will have one ad with multiple pictures that on mobile you can just thumb through, scroll through or on desktop you can click an arrow and just see a variety of things. So podcast episodes is a great use case for this. Same with like an in person event or a summit, you might put like four pictures or five pictures of some of your best speakers that are going to be speaking.
These are great use cases for it, but be aware, I don’t recommend these very much on LinkedIn because they don’t necessarily perform much better than just a static image and they don’t cost less. So I go, well, okay, I could spend the time of essentially creating four or five little ads inside of one ad, or I could just create four or five separate ads and it would take the same amount of time and cost the same.
So it’s kind of a toss up, but certainly it’s a format that’s available to you. Okay, Good to know. Okay, now let’s talk about money. Oh yes, the important importance. Let’s dive into money break down LinkedIn ad spend, breakdown budget. Let us hear it. Just lay it out there cause I know it. Yeah, It’s not cheap,
right? So I’m going to be a little bit brutal here because I’m so tired of people coming to me and going, Oh man, I spent $300 on LinkedIn ads and they just don’t work. And I go, Oh man, $300 like that’s just a handful of clicks. You can’t learn anything on that small of data. So what I’m hoping that you as listeners are hearing here is if you aren’t going to bring a large enough budget to actually test it out,
I wouldn’t bring any budget at all. I would save up until you do have it. And what that budget is depends on a lot of different factors depending on what you’re trying to learn. So here’s what I’ve found, and this has nothing to do with advertising. This is just a data model. If you have, let’s say around a thousand dollars in spend,
and this is in North America, it costs a lot less to advertise anywhere else in the world. So the numbers can change slightly. But if you’ve spent about a thousand dollars on advertising on LinkedIn, you will generally have statistical significance to your click through rate. So what that means is this type of thing that you can learn is if I’m testing two,
three, four different ads that are pushing on a different motivation here, I can find out statistically what my audience likes and what they react to better. So if your goal is just to find out with significance, do people like what I’m telling them is my motivation, right? Am I pushing on their rate pinpoint within about a thousand dollars in ad spend?
Whether that’s over the course of two days or over six months, you can find that out. Okay. So that is really, I think that’s encouraging because I think the last time we talked two years ago, you said that we were going to need at least 3000 to start understanding how people are responding our ads. Yes. And so I’ll, I’ll take that to the next step here.
If your whole goal is just to find out what ad copy are people going to click on, you can do that with statistical significance with about a thousand dollars but now because of LinkedIn’s costs increasing as they have over the last few years, if your goal is actually to figure out what gets people to convert, which offer, right? You know I have a webinar and I have a free guide,
which one converts best? You can find that out statistically within about $5,000 in ad spend. So if your goal is to find out what is my cost per conversion, what is my conversion rate? Don’t spend less than $5,000 and think you’ve got it. But if your goal is just to find out what people are interested in, then you probably don’t have to spend much more than a thousand dollars just to make sure you’re on the right track.
So full lead generation track, I would say don’t spend less than 5,000 budgeted towards it, but you can test on less and just depending on what you want to learn, a portion of that much money to it. Okay. And that completely makes sense why the ideal business needs to be selling a product with $15,000 or greater in value. Because this is,
I mean significantly, I mean we have, we have clients running Facebook ads for, you know, as little as $5 a day. So it’s huge difference in ad spend. But the reason why I love the LinkedIn platform is because it’s really right now, you know, when we go on Facebook, we go on Instagram, there’s so many other distractions.
So when our clients go on there, you know, they’re seeing grandma’s birthday and they’re seeing your advertisement to your high end mastermind and it’s really hard to get people to focus in on the business aspect of it. Our clients are in this place where they really need to reach their target audience who isn’t distracted, who’s there for a reason. I mean and obviously specifically our clients that are B2B,
that sort of other businesses, which not all of our clients do, but it’s a significant portion of of who we consult in business strategy. And so we’re saying $5,000 really minimum ad budget. But the interesting thing you said here, which does it make any sense to me is there’s no rhyme or reason is the time in which you drip that $5,000 out.
So you telling me that that $5,000 whether I spend it in the first two weeks or spend it in five months is going to give me the same data. Yeah. Because the only difference here is time. So if you’re in this period of super weirdness like we’re in with COBIT right now, time can change a lot of things. If you were trying to run the same ad three months ago and it was dripping into,
now you could tell that would make a big difference. But in general, I mean if you’re talking about just a normal quarter, let’s say the same ad going to the same audience where not a whole lot is changing, seasonality wise, the data is going to be about the same. So I would say as you’re testing things, maybe take the seasonality into mind and analyze it a little bit.
But in general, add performance today and add performance six months from now. It’s all gonna look the same. When you combine it in a spreadsheet and aggregate that data together and you really just want to make sure you have enough data to analyze. So five K in ad spend metrics in an Excel sheet is going to look the same whether it was over six months or a single day.
Okay. I think that’s fascinating and I think that’s encouraging to a lot of our listeners who want to get into LinkedIn ads, but they’re like, man, I don’t have 5,000 to invest in it this month, but I could have 5,000 to invest in it over the next six months. So I love that. All right, so next question. Moving on.
There is a very powerful, scary big brother watching you pixel that Facebook gives advertisers to embed in their website so that we can track people who have visited our website and then re target them with our ads. Does LinkedIn have a similar tracking opportunity? Yes. So LinkedIn has an insight tag that anyone who’s listening, whether you spend a dime on LinkedIn ads or not,
you can go and open up an account and install this thing on your website. And it does three things. So the first is like what you mentioned with Facebook does retargeting. So if you have this on your website, you could eventually go into LinkedIn ads and say, I want to show people ads who visited my website before in the last 90 days or something.
So that’s one use of it, which can be pretty good. Number two is you get these free website analytics from LinkedIn that no one knows about but are free and great. So once that tag is on your website, you can then go look at LinkedIn and see the demographic breakdown. What’s the job titles that people tend to have who visit my website?
What companies by name have visited my website, you know like, Oh my gosh, last 10 or the 10 most important, or what industry or what seniority do people tend to be? So I recommend everyone have this. It’s a great tag to have, even if it does feel a little bit big brother. Okay. That’s like Christmas to me. Okay,
so everybody should go in. Let’s talk about now just wrapping this up here in the show we’ve talked about so much. Where do people go to actually set up this ads manager within the LinkedIn platform itself? What does that look like? Great. If you’re already in LinkedIn, you can click on a in the upper right hand corner under the work menu and you’ll see an icon that says advertise,
but if you want to navigate straight there, the easiest way I’ve found is just type in linkedin.com forward slash ads ads and that’ll get you there. You click on the create button at the top and it’ll walk you through the whole process of creating your account if you don’t already have one. Okay. Love that. And then again, another selfish question for me and yeah,
forgive me to my listeners, cause I know this doesn’t apply to many you, but I own two companies and so I have two LinkedIn business company pages and completely separate websites as well. Is it possible to create two separate LinkedIn business ad manager accounts because the audiences are totally separate within LinkedIn? Or do I actually have to create two completely different LinkedIn personal accounts?
Ooh, great question. Yes. One person can be connected to as far as I can tell, an infinite number of ad accounts and you can create as many as you want. So if I were you under your same profile login, I would go and create two separate ad accounts, one for each company and then just run them separately. Love it.
Okay. That makes my life so much easier. It’s not quite as easy. It should be quite as easy, but it’s not quite as easy on the tech side of it for me to figure that out. So I always have to give that to to other people that figure out for me. So I love that. That actually sounds really easy. Okay,
so let’s kind of recap again. Today was part two of our two part training here with the one and only AIJ Wilcox, the LinkedIn ads King himself who is the founder of be two linked.com. You guys should totally go check him out and follow him on LinkedIn. Um, we talked about before different places where your LinkedIn ads can appear, right? So sponsored content messaging,
content, text ads and dynamic ads. You also covered, you know, different type of ads to run whether video ads or carousel ads or static image ads. And then we also talked about the lead gen forums. Super cool. So much information. I learned so much on today’s show and I really appreciate that. And we talked about money, talks about being honest about the budget.
This is not one of those things you can go into passively. If you’re a life coach or you teach yoga classes, you’re not going to benefit from what I’m hearing you say AIG right now on LinkedIn, unless you have a really big ad budget and in less the value of what you’re selling has a lifetime of being greater than $15,000 from a client, from a lead on LinkedIn.
So we talked about that and you guided us through how to find the ads manager and how to set up your LinkedIn insight tags, which everybody, regardless of whether or not you are going to be advertising on LinkedIn now or in the future, should go and create this LinkedIn ads account and get this insight tag so that you can start getting these crazy awesome analytics cause this is what we really want.
And you know, I know a lot of businesses don’t use analytics as much as they should. They don’t look at who’s going to their website, who’s searching this, you know, what are the most common search terms for what I sell in my geographic area. These are things that as business owners, if we have these tools available to us, especially for free,
it absolutely cuts months and thousands and thousands of dollars off of our learning curve of guessing, putting a hypothesis out there and wondering if it’ll work. And I love that LinkedIn offers this tool and I appreciate you so much for just jamming on all this and walking me through this strategy and always just having the best guidance and being super honest with our audience about who this is for and who this isn’t for.
So just totally appreciate you. Thank you. I will. Thanks for letting me share. This is the highlight of my week is getting to just freak out about LinkedIn ads. So thanks for giving me the opportunity. Oh, you’re the best. We totally appreciate it. Okay, so for people to find you again, what is your podcast and exactly,
you know, how can they connect with you the most as far as if they want to get on the phone with you and just say yes, agent, I’m ready to get started on this. Can you help? Sure. So the LinkedIn ads show search for that in whatever podcast player you’re using. I should be in all of them. We have about under 20 episodes so far,
but it’s growing and we go real deep on LinkedIn ads. So this is right up your alley. Go dive in there. And then, uh, if you want to chat, go to BTU, linkedin.com our website. Fill out the form on any of those pages. They don’t go to a sales rep, they just go directly to my inbox, so feel free to reach out and I’d love to chat with you.
Awesome. Thank you so much. And this is sweet life podcast number 177 so for all the show notes, if you’re on the go, you couldn’t take notes, you want to go back to all these links. We’re going to make sure we put them nice and organized for you inside the show notes on our website so you guys can cruise over to sweet life,
podcast.com/one seven seven and hyper connect to AAJ from there. Thanks so much JJ. I really appreciate you absolutely party on Z.
New and established businesses who want to learn if LinkedIn is the right platform to reach your ideal audience.
Summary:
You’ve been thinking about advertising on LinkedIn but you’re not sure where to start, or if it’s a wise choice for your business. LinkedIn is a powerful ad platform, but it’s unlike others and you need to be sure you’re spending your marketing money for the ROI you expect.
In this episode my friend and LinkedIn Ads Expert, AJ Wilcox, founder of B2Linked.com covers what types of companies benefit from LinkedIn Ads, the 3 components of successful ad strategies and basic steps to get started. You’ll leave knowing if LinkedIn is the right platform for your business and what types of ads you can start running now.
Highlights:
Decide if your company should be advertising on LinkedIn
Learn how LinkedIn ads work
Know the 3 components of a profitable LinkedIn Ad strategy
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Full Show Transcript:
You’re listening to the suede life entrepreneur podcast, simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probate. Hey Darren, welcome back to the Sweetlife entrepreneur in business podcast. This is episode number 176 and I’m April leech if we don’t know each other yet. I’m a business development strategist for companies who are looking to launch and scale online and develop online programs,
offers and services to increase your profit and everything we talk about on the show is giving you tools and strategies that you can take to the bank is a matter of fact. If this is your first time here, you will soon know that the business trainings we deliver here on this podcast, a lot of coaches and consulting firms charge thousands of dollars for, so it’s all for you.
It’s our mission in order to grow small businesses and it’s our commitment to do this week after week. So thank you for joining us today on the show is part one of a two part series and I’ve invited my friend AIJ Wilcox to come back and chat with us on this show. We’re talking to those of you guys who have businesses and you want to learn if LinkedIn is a right platform to reach your ideal audience.
So you might’ve been thinking about advertising on LinkedIn, but you’re not sure where to start or if that’s even the right platform for you to advertise in. You know LinkedIn is a really powerful ad platform, but what you’ll learn in this episode is there a lot of businesses that are showing up and putting money into LinkedIn that it’s not really the right fit for you.
And then there are other companies who are showing up in you don’t have the ad strategy or you might’ve been actually spending your money incorrectly on the wrong type of ads. So this is part one of a two part series where Aja and I are diving into, you know who should be on LinkedIn. And at the end of this episode you are going to decide if your company should be advertising on LinkedIn.
You’re going to know how LinkedIn ads work and you’re going to know the three components have a profitable LinkedIn ads strategy. So without further ado, let’s go ahead and bring AGA onto the show and everything we’re talking about can be found@sweetlifepodcast.com forward slash one seven six All right, here we go, you guys. This is episode number 176 and I am so excited because my friend AIJ Wilcox is here with me now.
AAJ has been a guest on this show. It’s been about two years. I hunted him down because I wanted to know more about LinkedIn ads, but the honest truth is I have done nothing with the strategies he me because our business, our ad dollar was focused on Facebook and Instagram. But the truth of the matter is is you know we’re a business to business company and we need to be advertising on LinkedIn.
And so I had to hunt him down again and say, Hey, listen my friend, I need to know where to get started again. And I have so many clients that I believe need to be putting their marketing money into LinkedIn ads and we don’t even know where to start. So who do we call our Ghostbusters friend J Wilcox. So Aja, thank you so much for being back on the show.
Um, reintroduce yourself to our audience so they know who you are. Sure thing. April, I’m excited to be back. Name as a, you know, a J Wilcox. I run an ad agency called B to linked.com and we are a very small, there’s only eight of us, but we’re an agency that specializes only in advertising on LinkedIn. So we go crazy deep.
Everything from teaching people how to run their own accounts, consulting, training, all the way to managing the accounts or are you to get your best performance from the buck. Because as we know from the last episode, LinkedIn ads are incredibly expensive. And so any mistake you make or any learning curve you go through, it has to be financial consequences we’ll say.
So working with a team who understands what works and what doesn’t and kind of cut through all that has been really good for our clients. So that’s what we do. And uh, I think we’ve grown a little bit since we talked last. I think when we talked before we only had two people on the team. I think you have to, yeah,
I’ve seen you all over the place. I think when we talked your kids were little in the background, which they’re probably still a little way littler than mine and you are just like, yes. You know, we’re getting started with this. And even when we talked though, even with just two of you, you were telling me how your agency was handling huge ad accounts for people on LinkedIn with like crazy results.
So let’s kind of start there with just answering the question. Who right now should be advertising on LinkedIn? Yeah. So I think there are three categories of companies that I think are a really good fit. So the first is if you’re doing lead generation of any kind with a high lifetime value, and so in my mind, that’s when you close a customer.
If they’re going to be worth $15,000 or more to you, then it’s pretty much a no brainer. So that’s B2B or even there’s some B to C lead gen that can get in that arena. But most of what we do is B to B. The next is higher education. Things like MBA programs who are recruiting the educational targeting that LinkedIn gives us is really good for those kinds of folks.
And then finally, as you’d imagine with LinkedIn recruiting works really well, just white collar hiring someone. So if you’re looking for a new sales manager, you can target people who already have the title of sales manager in your area and ask them if they’d be interested in applying it if you look interesting to them. And those are the three categories that make a lot of sense on LinkedIn.
Okay. So now that you’ve answered that, I feel like I need to take us a little bit of a step backwards. Is LinkedIn still this place where it’s ideal to use this platform to find a job more of like an online resume platform? Or are we finally starting to see a change in LinkedIn to become more of a social platform? You know,
why are people on LinkedIn? Yeah. If you would’ve asked me before 2014 I would have told you, yep, it’s a job searching platform, but since then, you know, you log in and there’s a newsfeed and then for entrepreneurs like you and me, we love the organic newsfeed because it’s so easy for our content to go viral. We’re able to reach people in the right mindset in ways that you just never could on Facebook or Instagram where competition’s higher.
Right. So yeah, it’s a fantastic platform for communicating right now. Not everyone has adopted and figured that out, but I think that is good for those of us who are ahead of the curve. Yeah, for sure. And I know that’s something we’re diving into more as a company and that’s a whole nother show is chatting about that. So let’s kind of get back to B to B,
diving into client or I should say business type number one. So high value ROI. And so that brings us back to the next question of how do you even get started with LinkedIn ads? Is this something that if somebody says, Hey listen, I have a program or I have a product that I want to sell to this company, this corporation, and I want this corporation to be a longterm client of mine.
Is this the ideal type of business that should be diving into LinkedIn? Yeah. So when you start thinking about like even before you decide which platform you want to go after, I keep an acronym in my mind called ammo ammo. And it’s the three things you need for any sort of social promotion. So the first is a is audience, the M is your message and the O is your offer.
So LinkedIn is so good at targeting the right audience if it’s in B2B specifically because we can target people by all kinds of great things, job titles, seniority, what groups, they’re members of skills, they have company size industry. All of that. So you have that in mind. If you know LinkedIn is a good fit for your audience, then you move on to the acronym letter at the end.
Oh, it’s the offering. We know if you put an ad up that just says, click here to talk to our sales rep, or click here for a demo or click here to buy something. You’re not giving anyone any reason to actually interact with your ad. No one will click. Or if they do, it’ll cost a lot per click. So you gotta have something that’s actually media and interesting so that they’ll have a reason to interact with you.
And then once you know what that, Oh, your offer is the message of what is actually being shown to the customer is really easy to figure out. You’re picking a couple lines of and an image, and once you have all three of those things, it’s really easy to go into the LinkedIn ads platform and build your first campaign and ads, but plan out your ammo beforehand.
Got it. I love that acronym. All right. And so when we’re talking about actually what type of ads do well on LinkedIn, we know for example, on Facebook it’s video, everybody wants video. Is LinkedIn the same? I mean, can we get the same click through rate or whatever LinkedIn calls it for a static image as we could with running a video ad?
Can we run video ads on LinkedIn? Yes. So LinkedIn does have video ads, but I don’t recommend them yet. They’re not quite the silver bullet on LinkedIn like they are on Facebook. And I think it’s mainly a pricing concern. On Facebook, you’ll pay one to 2 cents per person who watches at least three seconds of a video on LinkedIn, it’s 10 to 20 times that.
So we oftentimes see 10 15 20 cents per view, which is just quite frankly more than I think people should be paying. So if you have great video creative and you’ve tested on other platforms, absolutely bring it over to LinkedIn and test it. But I would say for your very first dipping your toe in the water of LinkedIn, start with a static image.
Make it as simple as possible. So that you can read the results. If video ad is kind of hard to troubleshoot, you don’t know if it was your ad copy that didn’t perform or the video or a combination of the two. But if it’s just a static image, you know, it was either your text or your image and if there’s a problem you can fix it very quickly and try it again.
Okay. Thank you for that. That is so interesting. Yeah, we’re getting a, you know, even most recently you and I recording this podcast here real time, it’s not prerecorded. More meeting. This one’s going to drop just in about nine days. So real time. As we’re speaking right now, our video ads on Facebook are at 1 cent.
I mean, they’ve never been cheaper, but you’re right, like the static image ads, you know, we’re seeing, you know, conversions, $2 $3 a conversion. And so we stopped doing those because I just think that’s ridiculous to pay. So good to know that that is a flip because I think for people that are getting started with ads, especially companies that are doing their own ads,
when we throw into them all these other techie things, they have to figure out like you got to do a dynamic video and maybe it should have some music in it and we need to put some text over the video. It just becomes so daunting. I think that entrepreneurs are so busy, they’re like, I’m out. I’m just not even doing that.
And those are the things that we’re telling them and they have to do on other ad platforms. So I love that LinkedIn isn’t that way yet. It’s much easier to get them started. So a question for you now about the static image. Does LinkedIn have rules about the images like Facebook does? For example, there can’t be so much text over an image.
Do people seem to be responding more to just an actual picture or is it a picture with texting? Graphics? Yes and no. So the issue here is that I like probably the rest of you absolutely hate the 20% rule. On Facebook. Yeah, the restriction that, Oh, you put too much text in your image. So Facebook’s not going to show it.
LinkedIn doesn’t have that. But what we find is time and time again in all of our testing is the more text we put in an image that we’re set performs. So I like the freedom that LinkedIn gives you. They’re not going to penalize you for it because we have found some instances where text on the image data improve performance. So definitely test. But I would say keep it in mind that the whole purpose of your image is just to get people to stop scrolling so that they will read your ad copy.
So don’t try to convert someone from the image, make sure the image is bright and colorful and contrasting so that they’ll stop and actually read your thoughtful ad copy that will convert. Okay. Thank you for that. Alright, so now let’s kind of switch back a little bit to my original questions about targeting. So many of our clients, many of our customers,
they have programs that they want to sell. They’re either coaches or service providers. Quite a few of them have corporate programs and so they’re trying to reach the internal champion of that. The one that says, Oh my gosh, look at this. That just came through from the Sweetlife company or whatever. I want to take this to my decision maker. And so one of the problems is finding that internal champion.
So when we’re talking about how to target ads on LinkedIn, like who to run the ads to, you mentioned we can break up ads by title and educational level. Talk to us about really how hyper-focused we can get with direct targeting to specific people to find either the champion or the decision maker that initiated the interest in a company or a program. Oh,
I love this question. So here’s what we can do. If you know the individual title or role that you’re trying to go after, then you can build a campaign targeting just people of that title and role in that company size, in that type of industry. And you can go all the way down to the minimum audience size of 300 so I like to use the example because it’s so easy to picture.
If you want to target just the CEOs of the fortune 500 you can do that. You can target job title of CEO at this list of 500 companies and you can hit them all the way down to an audience size of just 300 so I like to kind of break an audience up into two different levels. There’s the person who’s actually feeling the pain. Then you have maybe the influence,
maybe not the influencers, maybe the actual signers, the decision makers, and depending on what stage of that process you’re trying hit, you could target one or the other or both at the same time. So if I’m going after marketers, for instance, because I am a marketer, I think like this, if I’m selling a an advertising tool, I might show an ad to the individual contributor level,
the person who’s actually pulling the buttons and turning the switches. I guess you can’t really turn a switch, but you get the idea. Yeah, I can target them with an ad about, Hey, wouldn’t this make your life easier if you could do this faster and more accurately? And then I might target more of like the manager and above or director and above maybe just the VP level with messages like save money by your employees,
being more, uh, more efficient at building ads quicker. And you have that freedom because you can break them up into two different camps or five different camps if you want and show them all different creative messaging. Yeah, so smart. Okay, next question. Can we geotarget ads? So if I only want to run ads here in Colorado, can I do that on LinkedIn?
Yes, you can. So up until about three months ago, LinkedIn’s GOs were really limited. They were only like Metro areas. So for instance, in Colorado you might have like Denver Metro and you’re like, Oh, well what about just like a specific zip code? You couldn’t do it. But since then LinkedIn has integrated their geo targeting with the being Microsoft data.
Very cool. Yes. If you’ve ever used Bing ads, it’s a great platform. Rivals, Google ads. And about every way you can think of. And it’s half the cost. So they’ve merged those data sets. So now you as a marketer, you can target all the way down to an individual city level. We’re not zip code, we’re not radius yet like you can do on Facebook and Google,
but it’s a lot more specific. Okay, I have a million questions for you. Ha. You’re my favorite. My favorite person right now. Okay. So when we’re actually for those people that are listening, we’re actually going to break this podcast episode into two because we know you guys are short on time and so we’re going to have to really short,
hard-hitting full of information episodes for you. So when you’re listening to now 176 and next week’s episode one 77 and next week’s episode, I want to talk about ad spend budget strategy. Wrapping up here, we’ve talked about a lot of things. So we, you have mentioned the three types of businesses that are really great candidates to advertise on LinkedIn. The first one you said B2B,
so lead generation for high lifetime value. So if what they’re selling is over 15,000 lifetime or greater, you also said higher education MBA. So let’s kind of jam on that for a little bit. What type of businesses would fall into that category? The higher education? Yeah. Are you actually talking about institutions advertising or people who want to reach individuals connected institutions?
I just don’t know that I’m understanding that correctly. Oh, I gotcha. Yeah. At the institution itself. So you imagine like a local university to you who they have an MBA program that they’d like to fill up with students. LinkedIn would let you target and obviously customize for your own organization, but you can say, I want to target anyone who has a bachelor’s but doesn’t yet have a master’s or PhD who got their degree in English or journalism and has at least five years of experience in the workforce.
Oh, wow. Yeah, I can see how powerful that, that would be. A hundred percent. Okay. And then, um, along those same lines, there are many companies that are educational platforms. So, you know, we talk about the knowledge commerce industry. You and I were both in that industry. You know, sharing knowledge, teaching individuals how to up their game,
increase their skills. So could this also apply to platforms, online platforms and online companies that are teaching skills to individuals who also then need to target or want to target people who are already at a certain educational level who might not be, you know, an official institution. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And the targeting on LinkedIn is so great for so many people.
What it usually comes down to though is the cost. Yeah. Because last time we talked, I think the average cost per click on LinkedIn was six to $9. It’s now eight to 11 because you know, increased competition over time. Interesting. Okay. So it’s going up. Okay. Yeah. And I want to talk about that more in the next show too.
Okay. So, um, and then the third person obviously is recruiting, hiring. That’s an easy no brainer. So those are the three types of businesses that are really ideal to advertise on LinkedIn. We dove into your acronym, your audience message, offer your ammo acronym and making sure that as a business you have all of those nailed down before you start your ad campaign.
You talked about the importance of having like simple ads, not these fancy video ads, simple ads with images that are thumb stopping images with. Great copy. Before we kind of wrap up here, because I literally, I have so many questions for your age and I just appreciate you so much, so much being on the show and just allowing me to ask my completely uneducated LinkedIn advertising questions to you and I know there are so many people like me that just want to know more and so I’m thrilled about this before somebody starts even thinking about advertising on LinkedIn.
And just to kind of wrap up this first episode, can you just explain to us what they really need to have set up in place as far as a profile or a company page? You know what I mean? I mean, so I know we have a, we just actually started our Sweetlife company page. I’ve had my LinkedIn personal profile for, I don’t even know as long as I could have had it,
you know, years over a decade for sure. What do you need to have in place before you can even dive into this or what do you recommend? Yes, excellent question. So there are four different ad formats that you can use on LinkedIn. The main ad format that shows up in the newsfeed, that’s the one that I recommend everyone start with.
That’s the only one that requires a company page to be associated with it. The rest, you can use any of them, not in your newsfeed types of ads without a page. But what’s so interesting to me is you don’t have to make sure your pages rockstar for your ads to perform well. The only things that people see from your company page in your ad are the company name,
the logo, and the number of followers. So as long as your number of followers is not like an embarrassingly low number like ours, I’m looking at mine right now, it has 732 followers and I might go, okay, I might try to get that up before I really start hitting for the fences or anything, but as long as you’re not embarrassed by that number,
you can show ads and the vast majority of people won’t ever come to your page to check out anything else you’ve shared or really anything else about your company. They’ll do what your ad is asking them to do, which is come to my landing page and fill out my form. So don’t sweat too much over what is on your company page. Just fill it out with the basics and make sure it doesn’t look embarrassing to you and then then your ads will perform as you create the ads.
Got it. Okay, so that means I shouldn’t be running ads probably yet from my company page because I think we have three followers. Yeah, your 700 is embarrassing them by three. Well, the nice thing is you can cheat a little bit because LinkedIn released about six months ago. The ability to invite your connections so every day you can go in and invite up to,
I think it’s 25 of your connections to follow your company page every day. Go in, invite 25 people that you know are great for your target audience or just good friends. Invite them and start padding that number over time and that way you wouldn’t be embarrassed about. That’s so funny. My assistant Kelly, she’s my assistant Kelly there. Let’s just add that to your daily job tests every day.
She’s literally rolling her eyes right now while she listens to this show. She’s like, great, thanks April, but what? What I’m hearing is you don’t have to have a business page. You can still run LinkedIn ads without having a company page set up. Yup, yup. You can still run message ads which go to their inbox and on the desktop you can run both ad formats that are just hanging out over in the right rail.
One’s called text ads and one’s called dynamic ads, but you probably will want a page four, the main ad format just because it’s the best ad format for most people, but you could theoretically without, Okay. Yeah, for sure. I want to type for many more questions about that in the next show. And then just the profile in general, like a general everybody’s general LinkedIn profile.
You said few people actually come to either check out the company or the actual profile of the person running the ad, so it doesn’t seem like we have to have this rockstar profile in place either. So somebody who’s relatively new to LinkedIn or who’s really never taken the time to grow their LinkedIn connection could from what you’re saying is is correct. Do real well with ads,
just basically because that doesn’t seem to be a deciding factor on how the ads convert. Yes, and in addition to that, you can’t actually even link to the profile of the person creating the ads. So quite often we’ll have a client who they personally don’t have a profile and so to work together they set one up and it’s bare bones, I mean no picture,
barely their name, but we can still run ads for them because their company page is okay or even run some of those other ad formats that don’t require the page. So yeah, don’t let that stuff stop you from being able to run ads. Awesome. Thank you so much AIJ for being here. This is sweet life business podcast, episode number 176 all of the show notes can be found by visiting Sweetlife podcast.com
forward slash one 76 and for you guys to connect with AIG AIG, tell people where they can find you if they already know they want to dive into this. They don’t want to deal with figuring this out on their own as much information as we’re giving them here. It isn’t like having you hold their hand. Where can everybody find you? Awesome. Well,
because you are all listening to a podcast right now. I’m excited to announce. I actually just launched my own podcast about four months ago, so if you’re interested in going super deep into LinkedIn ads, just searching whatever podcast player you’re listening to right now, the LinkedIn ads show, and you’ll see a a bright chubby ginger point now yet or something. That’s how you’ll know it’s may and of course I’m really easy to find.
If you go to<inaudible> dot com our business website, if you fill out the form on any of those pages, you don’t go to a sales rep and you don’t get put into our newsletter. It just goes directly to my inbox and I’m not a sales guy, so feel free to reach out and I’m happy to email back and forth. Dude, you’re awesome.
Thank you so much, JJ. All right, you guys, thanks for listening. Screenshot this episode. If it helped you and uploaded to LinkedIn tag Aja, tag me in it. Let us know what you took away from this, what you benefited the most are white, you know what you learned. We really appreciate your feedback and sharing this show,
and we will talk to you again next week. Thanks for being here
Any business that wants to optimize their Facebook business page and has spent time winging it. Entrepreneurs who aren’t sure how to get more engagement on Facebook. 80% of businesses out there who are missing the basics that could be costing them thousands.
Summary:
If you’ve created a Facebook Business Page, but you aren’t sure EXACTLY how to use it, you’re not alone. Over 80% of small businesses we meet with don’t have the basics of their page set up and could be losing thousands. In this week’s show Sarah Tomes, our in house Facebook Ads expert is delivering “7 Steps To Make Sure Your Facebook Page Is Good To Go”.
Highlights:
How to create a catchy title banner that establishes you as a leader
How and what you should be linking to in your posts(and why)
What CTAs(calls to action) to use and which ones are a“no-no”
The difference between Boosted Posts and Facebook Ads and how to choose the right one.
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Full Show Transcript:
you’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe age Hey, you guys and walk back to the show. I’m really glad you’re here. We’re diving into a topic that we’ve talked about many times previously on this show, and this is about leveraging Facebook and Instagram ads to grow your business. But specifically, what we find is a lot of people actually don’t have their Facebook business page set up in a way that’s gonna optimize the money that you’re spending on ads.
So I asked Sarah tomes, Who’s our in house? Facebook and Instagram Add strategist and the founder of Tomes Social Media to come back into the show into chat with us. Now, this is a perfect episode for those of you guys who you haven’t established Facebook page. But you either don’t know how to use it. You kind of just threw it up there, and you’re not exactly sure the features in there and how they can help you connect with your audience or grow your audience or you have a page,
but you haven’t leveraged the features like Facebook pixels, and you might have been spending money boosting posts with no results whatsoever. So for those guys who haven’t established business Facebook Page, this is a great show for you to make sure that you’re using the right. And then it’s also a great show for you if you have never set up your Facebook business page before we talk about the difference between business pages and personal pages. And no, some people use personal pages. Four business activities when Sarah actually breaks down.
So we’re talking about seven steps to set up your Facebook business page and to start connecting with your perfect audience and growing your audience. We’re diving into all these steps today on the show. If you haven’t listened to the show before. Welcome. I’m April Beach on my business development strategist and host here at the Suite Life podcast in all of the show notes that we are talking about. So the links in a recap of the show can be found by cruising over to sweet life podcast dot com forward slash 170 because this is episode number 170 now,
a quick note about the recording of this show. Right now, all of our kids were home. We’re home. My husband’s home. All three of my kids are home. Sarah’s home, her boys air home. Everybody’s home, which means that the Internet is pretty overwhelmed with band wit. And so we actually had trouble connecting and getting a great WiFi signal to record this particular podcast episode. And so because of that, instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water, we actually recorded this episode for you still in our sky platform but through a Skype phone call instead of the usual video that we do so a mind sound a little bit different than our regular recordings.
Thank you for bearing with us. Thanks for continuing to tune into the show, and I just wanted to give you guys a little heads up of it. Sounds a little different audio wise. It’s because we had to improvise, and that’s what we d’oh we’re entrepreneurs, right? But what we do, we figure out how to make it work, and we make it work. So we certainly did that on today’s show, and for those of you guys who have any questions about Facebook ads. How to set up your Facebook page in any of the things that Sarah’s talking about today On this show,
I invite you to join us in our free small business and women entrepreneur community over on Facebook. By tapping sweet life community dot com, you can just enter that in. It will redirect you to our Facebook community. We love to connect with you there. Okay, let’s go ahead and dive into today’s show. Hey, you guys, we are back again with Sarah tomes. Sarah is the sweet life company, so she’s our companies. Go to Facebook and Instagram ads strategist. She’s the very best of what she does.
And she frankly, she has to be to deal with us because I do a really good job of killing Facebook ads all the time. And for years, Sarah has been the one to make sure online ad strategy. It’s just X selling. She’s also the one that works with all of our clients, and so she’s always has her sleeves rolled up in our communities, and today we’re diving into how thio make your business Facebook page visible, so you’re attracting the right leads. How to use adds to connect with the right leads what the post went to post it and really overall,
how to set up your Facebook business page to be completely optimized in acting the exact way that you want it. Thio As we’re going through here, we’re gonna talk about a lot of things, But we want you to know that if you have questions, cruise over and join us in our community. This is a totally free community for women, small business owners and entrepreneurs to join. Sarah is in there all the time. She’s always giving, giving, giving. So if you guys have a question about anything we’ve talked about today,
join us over at sweet life community dot com and we’ll be there to support you. So, Sarah, welcome to the show. Besides, being are like superhero when it comes to Facebook and instagram ads, can you give yourself another introduction as faras? What? What else? You d’oh! Oh, hey, it’s good to be here again. I love doing these podcasts with you. It’s like girlfriend time so fun. I specialize in Facebook and instagram ads. You guys know that Facebook and Instagram with same company just a little bit different platform.
I focus on them because they it work. They’re the most authentic way to connect your brand to the people that you want to connect with as a brand. The arrow eyes are still amazing, and I just really enjoy it. And I think the thing that I like about it the most is I, you know, had a lot of trouble with it at first because it is so complicated. I think social media is just like people don’t know what to d’oh. It’s overwhelming, and I have been able to figure it out.
Make it easy. And I love helping people get through it and make it easy to understand. And I loving instead your community because it’s love answering questions and making sure that people don’t feel, you know, like they’re asking something that’s that’s silly. And there’s no silly questions inside of there. So that’s why you need to come join us so you can get all the help inside. Yeah, thank you so much. And you do you pour into us and what’s really interesting for those of you guys that are our listeners to the show?
You always listen to a state, sir, has been on a ton of these episodes, and so we’ve been talking about Facebook for years. She’s always in here giving, as you guys know, but one of things we find is that these questions that might feel like stupid questions in the beginning these questions don’t just come from new entrepreneurs. These are questions that established brands established companies that do have a social media presence that are either not understanding how to leverage that. Like all of these,
these questions come from all directions. So it’s not just you, and she is not joking you when she’s telling you she’s there to pour into you and help.
So thank you so much. So today on the show, we’re talking about seven steps to set up your Facebook business page and make sure it’s optimized,
meaning it’s gonna track the right people to buy from. You build a relationship from you and to establish your business,
your brand, how you want to be established into your space. So let’s go ahead and dive into the seven different steps.
We’re gonna roll on some of these here together, so the 1st 1 is obviously setting up your business page.
Some of the people that we talk Thio use their personal page as a business, so shot a little bit about that.
And then let’s talk about actually setting up a Facebook business page and and really, how to go about that?
Yes, if you have a business, you need to have a business page. You don’t want to be running your business from your personal page.
It’s maybe not technically against Facebook’s terms of service, but they don’t like it. I’ve heard of accounts or personal Facebook.
Page is getting shut down for conducting business because people don’t want to see that. You know, I I know that my friends don’t want to hear about Facebook ads.
They could care less, right, so you need to set up a business page. It’s very easy to do,
but it also has to have a lot of elements to make sure that your audience is connecting with you.
You have to remember that it’s essentially like a business card these days. You have to have one. You need to have a website.
You need to have a Facebook page. People are starting to really need to be on Instagram. Now we’re finding through studies that people sometimes go to Facebook instead of Google if they are interested in your business,
so you want to make sure that it really represents who you are. So the first thing that you need to establish is a cover photograph that’s the one of the top,
the long photograph for most businesses. I think it’s great Thio be focusing on now, like what you’re launching,
what product you’re pushing, what course you’re pushing, what often you’re pushing. That’s a really great way to do it.
If you don’t want to do that, makes something that’s very clear. Concise has maybe a little bit of text,
but not too much something that’s easy to read. But my absolute favorite timeline is not. A photo is actually a video that’s a fairly new feature to Facebook,
where you can put a video instead of a photographed anything of you doing anything looking like a boss, like speaking at an event that would be great.
Another way to take advantage of that timeline photo is, if you have any press accolades, that’s place to put it,
cause someone in Milan a little be like Oh, this business has been featured in this magazine or this publication,
and it gives credibility to your business. So the other thing that I really see people make a big mistake is your cover photo.
So it’s a very small right, and a lot of people will put like a group shot of her team and you can’t see it or they’ll put a version of their logo.
That’s really not easy to read if you were representing your company. If you’re the peace of your company,
use a professional shot. Use that same shot across all of your social media channels so that you’re easily recognizable,
whether someone’s on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook. And I think April you had a good example of somebody who does that really well,
is it Todd Herman. Yeah, Todd Herman does a great job of that. If you guys follow Todd Herman on Instagram or even unlinked in its his head shot,
and then it’s a bright yellow background. So it’s super consistent, you know, across the board on all the social media platforms.
But then it’s also really eye catching its basic. It isn’t, you know, elaborate. It’s his head shot with a yellow background,
and it is by far like the best example that I have seen. If somebody doing that really well yet,
yeah, that’s a really important thing to do. And just make sure that it’s very easy to see.
You want to even look at it on a mobile phone, not just your desktop, cause it’s going to be even smaller there.
And then it’s even smaller on Instagram. Very, very small, right? Right. And you know,
one of the things that you’ve said to us before is that some people’s logos were really small. And so let’s talk about the use of an actual logo it in that place and what you recommend.
Whatever version of your logo is the easiest to read in the most recognizable that has, like the most color is the one that you’re gonna want to use.
You don’t want to use something that’s really, really busy because no one will be able to recognize you across the different channels.
Yeah, thank you so much for saying that I love it. I love the video idea, certainly,
and I think that would be very eye catching if I went to somebody’s Facebook page. I would certainly stop and watch what they’re doing in the video,
for sure. So that’s step one step from our two. People want to know When should they post how frequently you know what time of day it really?
What content should they be putting out there? What’s your take on that right now? Because this changes.
I mean, let’s face it. We’ve recorded the show similar to this, and we’ll record more down the road and it could be totally different based on what’s happening right now,
which is why it’s so important to stay on top of these things. Well, what’s going on right now is that Internet traffic is way up,
right, because we’re at the time of this recording were all at home working s O. This is the ultimate time to get in front of your audience,
So typically I would recommend about three times a week. I don’t really think it’s worth it to get worked up and feel like you have to post like,
five times a day. You don’t. You just need to post quality content, and one thing that is very important is to make sure that if you’re posting and you’re letting somebody go off of the Facebook platform that they’re going to one of your assets,
So they’re going to your website. They’re going to your blogged. They’re going to Anything that you own is better than sending them to an article.
I see a lot of business owners they like, Oh wow, I found this great article on entrepreneur dot com Then entrepreneur dot com Get your traffic and they own your traffic.
So if you could send them to your website, that is so much better. I’m not saying you don’t You can’t post things like that,
but really try to make a habit of not doing that very much. Another type of post that is the most valuable is video posts,
and especially if it could be video of you or what’s going on inside of your business. Video is just the most wonderful way to connect with people.
We all grew up watching television, and we connect. We does national. We connect through video. That’s what we do.
And Facebook loves video, and they we’ll give you preference if you use it. And I know April and I’ve had discussions about how difficult it can be too comfortable around video.
But this is the time to do it. And you know what? You could even come inside of our group in post video and no one’s gonna judge you.
You can come in like, bone up everything right? I love that you just said that. So before this recording,
I just got off the phone with a perspective client for our business that wants to work with us and where she was sharing about how difficult it is to really get the routine of posting video.
And so let me share with you guys to some of the stuff that I just said to her. So when you’re recording a video,
whether it’s live or it’s a pretty apart of video, I want you to just imagine that you’re talking to a one person like your ideal client.
If you’re sitting there and you’re looking at your camera, you’re looking at your laptop and you recorded a video,
and it gets really overwhelming when you hit record. It’s because you’re imagining that you’re speaking to the potential masses,
you know, and it gets really intimidating. You kind of forget what you’re saying so The reality is,
is when you first go live, You guys, nobody’s gonna be there watching you. You might get one view here,
one of you there because people aren’t used to you going live. That’s normal. It happens to everybody.
The more you do that, the more people are gonna be like, Oh, hey, great. You know,
Julie’s going live in and I can’t wait to see what she’s posting today or you know, any other video.
So, you know, first of all, like just bring it back to the basics. Just imagine you’re talking to one person.
We could do a whole nother. I won’t continue going on attention on that, but I love what Sarah said to So we have,
like, practice going live sessions in our Facebook community, and that is literally for us to go in there and practice going live in the community before you go.
11. Your business page. You’re totally welcome to do that in our free entrepreneur community. People do it all the time,
and they’re like, Oh, my gosh, where do I hit this button and what I do and what I look like And can you guys hear me,
Okay. It’s totally a place for you to practice, so we just want to share with you that you’re welcome to do that.
Okay, So step number three is asked people to take action on your post. So what kind of action are we talking about?
Like, what does that mean for people that might not be aware? Well, you just want to remember the Facebook is a social platform.
And if you have social interactions with your audience, you’re going to be rewarded in the algorithm. So if I post something and I’m starting to get a lot of likes Ah,
lot of people are commenting. They’re sharing the post than that says to Facebook. Okay, this is a good post.
We’re going to start showing it more. Ah, lot of people make the mistake of saying, you know,
like, comment and share, and that’s actually something Facebook does not like. So you just want to ask questions.
You want to get them to have conversations with you and each other When they comment on your post, make sure that you reply thoughtfully.
I see so many businesses just with very lame replies that are probably you know some sort of pot or employees.
That’s not getting them to engage. But if they answer a question, asked him a question. Keep the ball going,
make it like a volley and that we will really get things going now when you were doing a Facebook alive and you can say something like,
you know, press the heart button. If you agree, that’s fine to do. And that’s I think a really good strategy to get your Facebook live going is to get them to comment,
get them to hit that heart button, and that will trigger the algorithm to give you the more organic reach.
Yeah, love that, too. So the difference between calling Tau action, like on a live stream versus calling the action on a on a static poster video.
Okay, so, you know, you had an example, and I think it’s important to share examples to reassure some,
but like an interior designer and the post that she was doing, I love that example. Can you share that hurt here?
Just so people really know what it is that you’re talking about? Like the color of the foursome. Yeah.
Say, if you were redecorating your office and you were trying to decide what color to paint your walls or whatever.
Asked them Thio give their opinion cause that will connect you to them. It makes the algorithm decided that they like the post and the more people will see the post.
So stuff like that is fun. Like I really like when businesses do post like that where you can give an opinion.
And it’s a really great way for you to ask your audience questions on what’s going on with them. I think that you can ask them thio like Post where they’re working from today.
Like opposed to picture. Show me. Show me your virtual office like you re a picture of your animal is your co worker you just get creative with?
Yeah, totally. I’m gonna go do all those right now because everybody’s home right now. Okay. So step number four is get verified.
So talk to us about what does it mean to be a verified account? And who needs this? Yeah.
So when I talk to people about getting verified, they think about the blue badge or the blue checkmark on instagram.
That’s for public figures and celebrities and global brands. That’s not what we’re talking about right now. Getting verified is a process that you go through because Facebook wants pages on Facebook to be authentic and trustworthy.
We know that there are so many fake pages. Are there pages that have started and they just they’re dead.
So they want businesses that are trustworthy and what you dio is you go to the security center on your Facebook page.
That’s like where all of your privacy settings are. And there’s a section in there to get verified, and it depends on what type of business you have.
You’re a brick and mortar business, and you have a telephone that’s registered. It’s a really simple, just verification process with your telephone.
If you were like an online business, like most of us probably are, it usually requires that you,
like, upload your business documents like your LLC documents, and then sometimes they’ll ask for, like a website domain proof of ownership.
It takes about like four or five days for to get verified. But then, once you do, you have access to Facebook product’s developer futures,
and Facebook does a lot of really cool focus groups where they will pay you. They’ll give you gift cards.
You could be part of a study you could be part of. Ah, Beta testing sometimes will fly you out to Facebook headquarters.
Like if they notice that your pages doing some amazing things and it’s verified, You can really do some amazing things with Facebook.
So it’s just one of those things. Like while we’re around, we’ve got a huge to do list that we’re all going Drew right now.
Just do it. It takes, like, 15 minutes, and it’s really worth your time. And they don’t say that it increases your reach,
but I think it really does. If you have a verified business, okay, thank you so much for all those details.
All right. And then step number five is diving into creating your about section on your Facebook business page.
What are your best practices for that section? So that section is statistically the place people go when they land on your Facebook business page.
So you need to put a lot of thought and ever into it. And right now it really does allow you to pictures.
And there it allows you to write quite a bit of copy. It used to be very simple. So now is the time to really,
like showcase what your company stands for and why whoever’s landed should be interested in what’s in it for that.
It’s also a very unique opportunity for you to put a link to your Optima or to schedule a call or whatever it is in your business that people would want to know to get started.
So really, show your vision in there and get creative and connect with your community. In that about Paige,
that’s really, really important. Super. I love that love that so much and yes, posting the lead to the link to the lead magnet or get started or whatever it’s,
it’s absolutely perfect place to put that. And I don’t think people are utilized in That is a matter of fact.
I have been looking just kind of casually, and I haven’t really seen very many businesses doing that, and the way that it could be Okay,
so that was number five. Now six and seven, we’re going to dive into here. We can’t go in depth about them,
but there are some really important things that you want to share with our audience about these issues. We’re talking about Facebook ads,
and we’re talking about Facebook pixels. Let’s start with the Facebook pixel and really what it is, why businesses need it.
And we’ve talked about this numerous times on the show before. For years we’ve talked about the Facebook pixel,
and yet so many companies are missing this fairly easy, important step. Yes, I mean, I would say 80% of companies don’t have it installed,
which is mind blowing. All it is is a pixel code that you, uh, install very easily onto your website.
Used to kind of be a pain in the butt to do. But Facebook now integrates with, like squarespace,
WordPress wicks most of the major platforms to allow it to be just really a click of a few buttons.
You just goto business dot facebook dot com and you click on events, and that will take you to your pixel,
and it basically just takes you through the process and what it does. It’s that little piece of code that’s in charge of all the things that Facebook does that are totally creepy.
It follows you around the Internet. It tracks where you’re going, what you’re doing, what your habits are,
which is completely creepy. And it’s something that we all just like about Facebook, but as an advertiser and is a business.
It is a dream because you have so much intelligence on what your user is doing. So if you have it installed in your sight and you go to run Facebook ads,
you know exactly who has landed on what page, and you can re target them and do a lot of really creative re marketing.
And it’s, you know, a 5 to 10 minute process to get it installed. You may already have it installed.
If you had a decent Web developer, we hope that they put it on there for you. But inside of the community,
there’s a tutorial to figure out whether or not it’s installed on. And if it’s not installed, I can help you walk up the process.
Yeah, so definitely don’t hesitate toe to reach out and again, you can join us. It’s totally free community,
you guys. This is where we connect with other like minded women business owners. We love it, and Sarah’s in their relentlessly giving,
importing into this community So there is a video tutorial, and they’re showing you how to check whether or not your code is installed.
This is basic business, honestly, marketing 101 And I don’t know, maybe marketing companies charge for this,
but I love Sarah. She’s always giving first. And you know, we believe these are kind of basic things that you guys should have in orderto leverage your business account on Facebook and grow your business.
So cruise over and join us in sweet life community dot com. It’ll redirect you to that Facebook group,
and you’re you’re welcome to go in there, find that pixel post you can search in the community for that and the poster questions and tags era and them.
And she’s always in their connecting with you guys. So let’s talk about Facebook ads now. The most important question that I hear you get when you’re in doing business trainings in our community and everywhere else is why can’t I just boost my post?
Facebook makes it so easy to boost my post. And really, what is the difference between a boosted post and a Facebook ad?
Well, the boosted poster a very easy way to get your ads in front of an audience, but I found that typically they don’t do very well.
And the really big difference is you can’t see the data is to what’s going on, because if you’re starting an ad and it’s not working,
you need to know that it’s not working in these boost interests. Just don’t give you the data that you need.
They don’t allow for the building of audiences. So what you need to do is go to business at facebook dot com and get comfortable with ads manager and build your abs inside of there.
And then that way you can split test audiences. You can split test images. You can split test copy.
You can take a look at the data, and you can say, Okay, this ad is doing awesome.
I’m going to keep it running, or you can say it’s not and you have to adjust. But boosting post is a really it’s very easy to do,
and it’s not worth your marketing dollars to do that right now. Add costs are down about 60% and it’s a very,
very, very good time to get in front of your audience because They’re listening now. So true. So true.
Okay, so let’s recap a bit. What we chatted about here today. Seven steps Thio, Optimize your Facebook business page and get in front of your perfect audience.
We talked about how to set up that page. You gave some really awesome suggestions as faras the video in the header and really,
how to establish what it is that you want your audience to know within that that was so smart. I love that number two We talked about posting times three.
We talked about asking people to take action and how to ask them, like what kind of action they should be taking,
and you should be prompting them to do based on the type of post. We also talked about getting verified and what that means utilizing the about section to the best of your business.
And your options actually grow your list through that process. And then we dove into pixels and adds, Is there anything else that people you know really need to know right now and what’s happening,
or anything to stay away from? As a business owner? Just anything else you’d like to add to this Sarah This is a really good time to really know your audience and use your intuition.
It’s a very delicate situation right now where there’s a fine line that you have to be constantly aware of.
I know that like I scheduled some of my post and I went in, I was like, Scratch that that doesn’t exactly fit.
And I think a lot of businesses air sending out emails that aren’t addressing the elephant in the room. And you have to be.
You have to be aware of that. And I really believe one thing that not everyone is a copywriter.
A messaging could be very difficult, right? But follow big brands. They have the best copy writers in the world working on how to address the elephant in the room and how to be sensitive in the right words to use right now.
So, you know, watch your commercials during her who lose sessions, see what they’re saying. Open your e mails from trusted companies and listen to what words they’re using and just be very intuitive about how you should go about things.
And I think it’s different for different companies and just be careful. But also like you know don’t necessarily be a free to sell right now.
Don’t be afraid to grow. Your email is don’t be afraid to run traffic to your website. Don’t be afraid to run ads is actually a great time while we have people on the Internet to get your business in front of all of these people.
And it’s definitely at a way lower cost than it was a week ago. So maybe have the ad dollars to spend.
This is a great time to spend it growing your audience. I love it. Thank you so much,
Sarah. Thanks for all your wisdom and seriously just giving so much to our clients and those people that aren’t our clients.
Just the the entrepreneur community is general again. A few guys would like to join us, cruise over to sweet life community dot com and plug in there on our Facebook group for us or with us.
Give yourself an introduction and then tap in to Sarah for any questions you have about this episode or any of our other episodes were both in there all the time answering business questions.
Thanks so much for being on the show and you can find all the show notes for this episode of by cruising Over to sweet life.
Podcast dot com forward slash 170 So it’s 1 70 It’s episode number 1 70 Yanda Again in the community By connecting with us.
It’s sweet life community dot com. Thanks, sir. I appreciate it. Thanks, April.
you’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age Hi, everyone, Thanks so much for tuning in with me again for another week. Here on the suite Life podcast It’s good to talk to you and connect again, and today we’re diving Maur into online marketing strategies. Last week on the show, I talked to those of you guys who have been doing a lot of work. Maybe you’re spending a lot of time on instagram or on Facebook or even on LinkedIn,
and your numbers just aren’t growing. And we dove into some really authentic marketing strategies that have worked for years and are important to keep integrating into your business to grow your following. Today we’re diving back into some of the online marketing strategies because, as a business owner in today’s day and age were all online marketers. And so it is important that we’re always continuing too deep in our online marketing skills, and so I am thrilled to be joined by a Pinterest business building expert on today’s show. Now I’ll be honest with you.
I’m not a Pinterest person. I don’t cook, so I usually tell Go after recipes. I do love looking at Pinterest for design and in home needs, but it’s not something I do on a regular basis, maybe like five times a year, So I don’t even think that actually counts at all. But we do is a business, have a Pinterest account and it always shocks me. When I go over to our Pinterest account and I see how many followers we have or how many people are noticing the content,
I often think to myself, Wow, this is a really engaged platform. I should be here more, but the truth is, we haven’t as a company. It wasn’t something that we had had on our marketing strategy and plan. And so I have the privilege of interviewing today’s guest. After this interview, I asked our guest who was amazing to sit down with myself and Kelly, who is my content quarterback for the content for the show, and we started diving into our pincher strategy, and I will tell you,
with only one week of doing the strategy that you’re gonna learn here on this show, are Pinterest percentage has risen by something crazy like 1900% engagement. It was insane. The numbers from one week of doing What Today’s guest taught us how to d’oh from today’s show. So I’m so excited to introduce you and share of these strategies with you. So today’s podcast is for those of you guys who are in any phase of my lifestyle entrepreneur business building system. But if you have not used Pinterest before and you want to try that strategy so it doesn’t matter where you are in your business building if you haven’t built your business yet or if you’re an established scaled multi six figure company and you want to use Pinterest,
this show is for you as well. This show also is going to help you understand the basics of what you should be doing every single day, every single week on Pinterest. How Pinterest works, why Pinterest is powerful, especially when you compare it to other social media handles in the S e o aspects of Pinterest and how you can get started on your very own Pinterest marketing plan today. You’re gonna leave with all of those answers after this show If you’re busy and you can’t take notes of what we’re talking about,
you can find all the show notes over its sweet life. Podcast dot com forward slash 1 65 All right. You guys were here with Melanie Fountain, and she is a Pinterest guru. We’ve been wanting to bring interest experts on the show because you guys are asking for it. We as a company, we want to know more about growing and connection with our listener to followers rip interest. So I’m super stoked about this show. We’re talking about everything interests who should be on Pinterest, how to activate your business and Pinterest.
You know how to grow your list through Pinterest how to get started software scheduling all of the I would save basics. But I’ve been through, you know, we’ve been through this outline of what we’re gonna talk about before, and it is foundational information, but really, really powerful. So I’m very excited to have Melanie on the show. Please introduce yourself and let everybody know who you are. Hi, everybody. I’m so excited to be on here today. Thank you, April for having me. My name is Melanie Fountain.
I am a blogger and Pinterest strategist. So I work with bloggers, content creators and business owners that want to get their contents scene without paying ah ton of money on ads or having to worry so much about website S E 02 ranking Google and that heavy competition. And we strategize based on their content. And really, it’s kind of let the little guy be seen. And it’s possible to market yourself without paying a lot of money and add. I love it. Okay. And how long have you been doing this?
And what’s your history? How did you get end to doing this? I love hearing everybody’s stories, and I know a lot of our listeners resonate with our guest stories. So tell us just really quickly some background of how you started doing this. Sure. Well, you know what? This month is my year anniversary of really calling myself an entrepreneur. And I started as a virtual assistant, so as a general virtual assistant, just wanting to get out of the regular 9 to 5. I’m a single mom and I live in California,
and I really wanted to, you know, you feel like you’re missing out on life when you’re working your life away for a company. But you know, you’re really not going to grow in. So I decided to sign up for a virtual assistant course, and then it kind of went like wildfire from there, and I fell in love with Pin Trust and the visual side event. But then the you know, the strategy behind it, the marketing and I started working with business owners and found that I actually had a talent in it.
And so I actually started as a Pinterest strategist about nine months ago now. But since then I’ve been able to work with over a dozen business owners, helping them grow Pinterest and strategize. And in May of 2019 I was able to quit my job. And so I’ve been working for myself for the last nine months. Net war Basically, since I transitioned over to nation down into Pinterest marketing and here we are that’s such on the awesome story.
Oh, my gosh, that’s a chance. My story and that story alone like, forget we’re gonna talk about pictures today.
That story alone, a lot of our listeners are like I can’t wait to be there and that’s what I’m working towards.
And so it’s really cool, especially in such a short period of time hearing those awesome results, and I will just kind of add in there.
The reason why Melanie probably had such amazing results is because she needs down like she is that pinchers expert.
If she was like I’m the V eight, all people in all things, I can guarantee you her business wouldn’t be where it is today.
So we talk about Nietzschean a lot on this podcast. She is a perfect example. That’s so I’m super excited that you’re on the show today,
So we’re gonna talk about Pinterest everything. First of all, give us some background about Pinterest. What,
actually is it cause it’s not a social media platform? Right, Right? Exactly. So Pinterest is commonly known as a social media platform,
but what it actually is is a search engine. It’s a visual Google, and more than that, it’s a discovery engine.
When people go on Pinterest, they want to be inspired. They want to discover they want to learn,
but they don’t always know what it is exactly. They’re searching for soap. Interest is there for people to discover what it is they’re searching for.
And a lot of the time from a business perspective. They’re there to discover you were there to discover your business and the value that you have to provide.
And Pinterest has over 300 million active people monthly on Pinterest, searching for businesses like the businesses that listen to this podcast.
That’s crazy. That’s somebody over multi 1,000,000,000 searches every month. And and that’s why I’m a little bit we’re gonna talk about s CEO and how to be found on pin trust,
of course, but it’s such a powerful platform. And on Lee now, are people really starting to discover the power of interest?
That’s so cool. Okay, so one of our listeners, you know, she’ll be out there saying,
Okay, that’s cool. But I’m on all these other social media platforms and you know, I’m strapped for time,
So just reiterating what you just said. It is a surgeon, Jen. It is searchable by Google,
and it’s actually on Lee search engine that we know of today that actually is searchable by Google. Is that correct?
YouTube is as well, but that’s right. Yeah, So there’s YouTube Interesting Google and those are the big guys when they have to search engine.
And that’s the funny thing. And I’m glad that you mentioned that April because when you’re searching something in Google,
a lot of the articles and images that come up are also on Pinterest. So when you’re on Pinterest,
you’re kind of killing two birds with one stone, right? Yeah, you’re definitely increasing CEO getting to page one and all that stuff.
You were gonna talk about that? Okay, so who should be on Pinterest? If you are creating consistent content,
you should be on Pinterest and it’s really a simple is that you don’t have to have a blawg. You know it’s helpful.
Absolutely. But if you’re a podcaster, if you create videos if you write article, you know, if you’re creating content,
Pinterest is where you should be. Okay, awesome and some things like Okay, cool. How do I get started?
I talked to people about the different stream like a business account and a regular account is Pinterest have both different types of accounts.
So when you when you sign on to Pinterest is a user, when you create an account most of the time you’re creating a personal account.
The difference between creating a personal account in the business account. When you have a business account, you will lock features like analytics.
You can track the performance of pans you contract clicks to your website. You can leak Pinterest to your website to enable rich pins,
which basically pulls the metadata and on the S E o from your website, making your pants more likely to be seen super cool.
Okay, so is it still one account? So you sign up. Is that personal? And then you upgrade to business or they to separate accounts to usually recommend people have.
It depends, so you could do both. As a personal account. You could convert and make some of your more personal boards secret or if you’re a blogger,
and if your lifestyle blogger and a lot of your boards are already relevant to your ideal audience, then you can keep those boards.
But sometimes I could recommend if you have ah, 100 boards random, completely unrelated to your business, it might be better to create a whole new account altogether.
Okay, Super interesting. All right. And then how does somebody get started setting up their account. It’s freeze.
So if you want to get started on Pinterest, you sign up for your business account. Oh, you know,
if you have a website you put in your domain, you make sure that you clean your social media accounts and then when you’re really got me started on,
Pinterest is all about content and, you know, scheduling to different board. So I have a 10 10 rules.
So you want to start with 10 templates, I recommend Camba. It’s free to start, and they have a really good monthly program with all these stock photos,
and they have a lot of Pinterest template to. So if you’re not a graphic designer and that’s not your,
that’s not your thing. Campbell has a lot of free templates. Create 10 of them and then you can just kind of plug and play.
I recommend about Reed of four pins for a piece of content, and if you have a lot of content,
but you’re just getting started on Pinterest, just pick may be the last five pieces of content blowing post podcast and then create four or five pens for each of those,
and then you could eventually work backwards if you want to do that and then use those 10 templates and then schedule them to 10 relevant board.
So when you’re creating boards, I recommend having, like, a best of board of your business. So on Lee,
your content goes in that board. And then if you’re a blogger having your content with all of your blonde post and one or a podcaster,
whatever your content, maybe and then beyond that have really generally named boards. So that way, when you’re scheduling content,
we’ll get to schedule that you just a little bit. But when you’re scheduling to those boards, you can pretty much set your Pinterest on autopilot.
So you know, if you can’t afford to have somebody managing. But you kind of, you know,
with Pinterest, I’ll get more into this, but you want to schedule at least 8 to 10 times per day.
Oh, my gosh. Okay, let me ask you some questions. One of the things that you said Waas and I want to make sure our listeners you’re hearing this.
So for every piece of content, you want to create three separate kin’s three separate posts from that content.
This is great content repurpose ing strategy, a love that you said that. So for every piece of content you guys create,
whether it is an article that you’ve written on your website or if it doesn’t matter where you want to send them,
you could somebody actually an article he wrote on somebody else’s website to establish you as an expert or if you’re a guest on somebody’s podcasts and them two that podcast,
whatever it is. But for every piece of content you recommend three different posts, and then you recommend 10 different templates to choose those three different posts from so 10 templates that you creating Can va there,
there and all you have to do is plug and play a different title plug and play different image in there.
We heard that. Christ, Lee. Yes. Okay, all right. And then Pinterest for those of our listeners that haven’t been on there yet,
has boards. And you can place your own content, your boards, you can pin somebody else’s content to your board.
And so what you’re saying is, and I love this this is really great. So a lot of our listeners are in the phase of actually scaling their business where they’ve been in business for a long time.
And they do have a lot of content, whether they’re podcasters or bloggers or just straight content creators and other capacities.
So in love, the best of board, so the best of board totally cool. And you’re also recommending those people that are bloggers have a board to put their block post to have or their articles?
Would you recommend any other kind of creative boards like we? D’oh! We like to do a lot of promotion of our clients and of our podcast listeners.
So would you recommend, For example, we had a sweet life entrepreneur, a podcast like featured listener board where we could send linked to our favorite and greatest listeners.
You know, would that be something that you’d recommend as well, even though it doesn’t actually promote our company?
But it would make other people realize what we’re about? Are those type of things beneficial as well on Pinterest?
Absolutely. You could do, you know, and I love my client’s board and share your client’s content.
You can you know your podcast episodes. If you’re somebody that creates AA lot of freebies and you have a resource library.
You can have a board just on sweet life. Entrepreneur freebies. Wait. Have 100 and 57 of them.
Okay, well, you know what? There’s 400 pins, you know? Go. Yeah, and I love how you said repurposing content because that’s exactly what it is.
It doesn’t have to be hard. It’s a long I’m talking and all of you are probably thinking, Oh,
my gosh, this is overwhelming. But it’s really just taking the content you already have and putting it out there for the world to see.
I love it. Okay, so now let’s go back to my short little heart attack when you said eight times today posting.
So let’s talk about posting frequency. What is that like, How often are people on Pinterest? So,
for example, when we look at it another social platform, even though we’re trying to say that Pinterest isn’t one of them,
but another platform where you can put content like Lincoln, for example, the average person only goes toe linked in twice a month.
Okay, so every single different outlet has a different frequency. Talk to me about Penn dresses, Pinterest frequency.
Why? Eight times a day. It’s all about S E O. It’s about also staying relevant because you have,
ah 100 million you active users every month. Ah, good portion of that. Our business owners putting up their content constantly,
and it’s also about staying on top of the feeds you want to be. You know, it is search engine optimization,
so the more frequently you post they could be anywhere from eight times a day to 50 times a day.
And that’s why it’s really important to have a good scheduling tool. The reason why you do that also is to continue to be able to share your content.
Work frequently because you can share one pin once a day. But if you’re on Lee sharing that pin,
then you can only really share that every selected because your feet is just going to be like, Hey,
look at me, look at me. So that’s why you want so many different pens. And once you get in a rhythm of scheduling them out,
it’s not so overwhelming. So you know, at first, you know, getting everything set up is time consuming.
But once you get everything set up and automated in a loop in in a schedule that eight times a day will quickly increase to kind of get your get your content more likely to be seen.
Okay, a ball questions number one. Can you on Pinterest re share the same pin over and over again?
Or would that just be repenting the same pin to a board? Or is it actually fresh brand new pieces of content that should be released eight times a day?
You can repent the same pin every day, but two different boards. That’s why you want to start with 10 boards and continue to grow off of that.
So at it, it’s more important tohave more boards than it is to have a lot of pins and a few boards.
So that’s why I think it’s very important to have general board. So when you have one pin, let’s say you’re a travel blogger or something,
and you have aboard all about trouble and then international travel and traveling abroad and their own really general terms.
But then, if you have something about traveling to bully, you can schedule that panto all of those boards once a day,
and then it can Luke back. But then you throw in some war of your content and then that schedules to different boards.
And it’s a snowball effect because, like Google, Pinterest does take some time to recognize who you are for your account to catch up to the algorithm.
So it could take 3 to 6 months to really start saying traffic, go to your website. But by that time you will have all of the content you need to be seen on Pinterest and start getting that traffic it builds on.
It felt awesome. Okay, so let me ask you one more question about that, just to make sure I’m fully understanding.
And so when you say posting eight times a day, it still could be individual pieces of content, your meaning,
like eight times a day. You should have something landing on a different board, absolutely. And if it’s your content,
as long as it’s a different pain than it could be to the same board, you just don’t want the same pin landing in the same board eight times a day.
And if I say you’re scheduling eight times a day, it could be what, especially when you’re first starting out.
It could be six of your pans and two of somebody else’s, too, because Pinterest favors people that share other people’s content at the It’s a shared platform,
and they want to make sure to that you’re not just hearing your content and that’s how you get re pins and you’re content shared as well.
Okay, cool. Thank you for clarifying that. Love that. So you can actually grab somebody else’s pin and put it in your scheduler.
Talk a little bit about you mentioned at a scheduling tool software tool while we’re on scheduling, you know,
before we started recording that you really like to use. So my favorite and they’re partnered with Pinterest is Tailwind.
You could integrate till one with penne trust, and there’s also different analytical tools that sync up with that.
You can sink it with Google Analytics, and you could basically see all of your pants and a big schedule.
So for those of you that use Instagram scheduler like plan early or something, you could see you’re a good kind of planned out and grades aren’t so important and Pinterest,
but you can school through and see. OK, how far my planned out do I have any duplicate pans like right back to back to back and then also with until when there’s something called tribes and they’re basically like Facebook groups four Tailwind or perp in trust,
and you shared your content there. And when you drawing to TRIBE, if you share something, you also have to repent something else.
So when you share to those tribes, people are almost required to share your content as well. So there’s different sharing analytical features,
and there’s something entailing called Smart Loop. So but Tillman has a free plan for up to 30 pay,
or up to 100 pens a month. But if you’re going to invest in something with Pinterest, I would recommend upgrading that because then you pretty much get unlimited pins per month,
and then they also have Smart loop feature, so you can basically set your your pants and a smart loop,
and it will schedule to your boards for you. And that’s why I recommend having general boards so that you can set up.
You’re scheduling on automation and have your pins circulate to those general boards without having pains go to Pier 11 boards.
That that makes sense. Yeah, it does make sense. Okay, I have questions about the type of content.
Question number one is how much content shows below the pin before it’s like a remora or linked to this site button about how much text copy is usually seen.
And how important is that content and copy in addition to the graphic pen. So the pen description is really important when it comes to the S e O.
Now you really only get about. I think it’s 250 characters that you get and in that and you kind of want you want to give a description with enough C words in there with maybe 2 to 3 hashtags,
you know, up branded one and some general ones know usually with instagram those hash times a really neat show with Pinterest.
You want them to be very general, and then you kind of want to call the action. You know,
you don’t have to have the link, but you want something like, you know, for more tips and tricks.
Visit my website, read my blog’s, but you don’t want anything like Click cheered. You know, by this,
because then you might get registered as Clickbait or spam. So you want to be very careful and Pinterest uses its own S C O.
So when you’re looking for key words for your pin descriptions, you want to use the search bar and Pinterest to find the key words you’re going to use to describe your content.
Oh, fascinating, Yes, totally a different strategy than we see on Instagram and those other places. Okay,
so this is where the search ability comes in is actually the copy underneath the pen because you can’t read copy from a graphic.
Super curious about that in Pedro’s does use Hashtags, so that’s just fascinating. This well, in the different hashtag strategies they aren’t is nish.
I think that’s fascinating. Okay, uh, let’s talk about video a little bit. Okay? Interest actually allows video.
What kind of video does Pinterest like in a wow? So unlike most of the platforms, Pinterest is vertical with video pens.
You see vertical pens or square almost like Instagram because there’s a really great instagram sharing capability to Pinterest now,
and that’s just developing just like the video pins. So it’s a relatively new feature. It’s in beta testing for scheduling per tail.
It and it’s really new. And it’s really exciting because with how visual Pinterest is, introducing video into that is going to be really,
really great for businesses to give a snapshot into their business without having to just create a graphic. And the videos and Pinterest are generally 20 seconds or less because you have a feed of all of these pans and because not many people are making video right now,
when you’re on your phone, when you’re scrolling through Pinterest, the videos are automatically playing, so they’ll catch your attention quicker.
So that’s why it’s so powerful to do it. And you could do something like a goby spark people.
You can use a snippet from your YouTube videos. You can get really, really creative when it comes to your video pins,
and it’s so new that people are just still developing the strategies for it. People use them a lot for Pinterest ads,
so Pinterest does have add capabilities. You know, a lot of people don’t ever use ads, but primarily they were used for ad,
and now you can use them just for organic reach. Supercool. Okay, what else should I be asking you that I didn’t ask you for those of our listeners that are interested in getting started to create more visibility with interest.
So when it comes to pen Trust s CEO is key because it is a search and we’ve kind of touched on it during this.
But I just want to make sure that if you’re going to go on Pinterest and you’re going to start implementing this as a strategy for marketing,
which I highly recommend for any content creators in any regard. But optimize your Pinterest description with keywords and give called actions your board’s make sure that you have each of your boards categorize and described with S E O using the S E o from Pinterest giving called actions to your websites because a lot of the time people get the board recommendations more than profile recommendations,
so they may land on your board before they ever land in your profile. So you want to make sure that you have a called action so they know you’re a business that you mean business and that you have awesome content to provide so and then the pen description.
Something s e o is key. If you’re gonna learn anything about Pinterest. Make sure that you know how to use keywords.
Awesome! Oh, my gosh. I have so much I want to talk to my team about right now that I just can’t wait to get off this interview and turn all this over to them.
Thank you so much for your time. Melanie, This was exciting. I love this. I love this show.
Led this interview. How can people find you so I actually have a free pace. But group where I go with a live weekly and interested Tuesday is that I just had one this morning and I share with the groom have use Pinterest Ansel content ideas.
I also offer free strategy calls for business owners that want some one on one. Just kind of wanna get pointed in the right direction.
And April I will give you my social media links so people can stay connected and I give a lot of probably way more pitch free paint.
Could trust advice that I said I love it. I love it. I love Yeah. We’ll make sure all the links to find you are in the show notes for this episode.
Thank you so much for your time. Melanie. I learned a lot today. I appreciate it. Thank you so much,
April. All right, you guys, that’s a wrap. Thank you so much for tuning into the show today for all the show notes.
And the resource is how to connect with Melanie Moore and how to get literally tons of free resource is to grow your business.
If you haven’t been to our podcast website lately, it’s pretty incredible. You can actually sort all of our shows by what you’re looking for,
whether it’s marketing. Brandon copyrighting online courses Landing your first client Every single thing you need. There are years and years of free resource is there,
so please use that website over at sweet life podcast dot com. And before we go, I want to make sure I’m giving a shout out to this week’s sweet life podcast Superfan.
This is 311 solution. You confined them by visiting 311 solution. C b d dot com there. Empowering healthier lifestyles.
Effective C B D supplements from lab tested hemp life in balance. And Shelly is one of our biggest fans of my Facebook page,
and she is always working hard to build her business, working hard to bring a quality product to market.
I know that based on the the D EMS that she sends me and she tunes in here to the sweet life podcast.
And so we wanted to give her a shout out. Shelly, thank you so much for listening to the show.
Thank you for being a super fan of this show and really creating an awesome, brisk business bringing amazing products to the people that need them.
So go over and give Shelly a shout out at 311 solution CBD. She also could be found on Instagram at 311 solution CBD and on Facebook at 311 solution.
All right, you guys have an awesome day. I’ll 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?
Close
Who This Episode is Great For:
Entrepreneurs who are intimidated by the idea of hosting events
Entrepreneurs who are considering offering events
Entrepreneurs who have never considered hosting events before
Those ready to scale with an established business
Show Highlights:
Four event-hosting myths and a breakdown of the truth
How much notice you should give your audience about your events so they have time to plan
The two things I was nervous to do during my own events that really paid off
About the Guest:
Jenn Murray is an Event Planner who helps online entrepreneurs plan in-person events(such as workshops, retreats, masterminds, and conferences) that meet their business goals and cultivate long-term relationships. Her clients range from entrepreneurs who are just branching out into events to those with 6-figure businesses.
Entrepreneurs come to Jenn wanting to: take their event from idea to reality; cultivate authentic, vital connections with their attendees; execute an event that’s aligned with their unique brand and messaging; and add events to their long-term business model in a profitable way.
Take Action with Episode Bonuses:
Download Jenn’s FREE PDF | This Super Secret Hack Will Greatly Simplify Your Event Planning Process (Scroll to the bottom of the page.)
you’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age Hey, guys, Thanks for being here and tuning into the show. I’m April Beach and I’m glad to be talking to you today we are at episode number 163 and you are listening to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur A podcast now, also on Pandora. I always forget to announce that to you guys. I’m super excited that we’re part of the Pandora family of podcast.
We’ve actually been there for at least six months. And, um, I want to make sure that, you know, if you’re a Pandora listener, you can also catch the show on Pandora. Today we’re driving into talking about events to connect deeper with your audience in to grow your business. But before we do that, let me go ahead and take care of a few little reminders that actually make me so excited to Dio. The first thing is I want to give a shout out to our listener of the week,
Laurie Evans, wherever you are. Thank you. So much for leaving this review on Apple. And this is what Laurie says about this show. It’s just what I was looking for. I’m a long time podcast listener, but honestly, a little burned out. A metal new level in my business, in the usual podcasts are not cutting it. I’ve been on the search for podcast that actually bring value and push me to step it up to the next level. The sweet life entrepreneur podcast, is it?
I’m obsessed. So, Laurie, wherever you are, thank you so much for being a listener. Thank you for your review. I would love to promote your business and so hit me up on Instagram over at sweet Life. Entrepreneur, send me a message and just say, Hey, Abra, I’m Laurie. And, um, we’ll make sure to share your business out with our followers. Okay, Next item of quote unquote actual business, which is exciting, is sweet. Life launches open. Sweet life Launch is my signature business launch development and mentorship program.
And it is a place for you to be if you are ready to stop guessing and to know exactly what to do, tow, launch and grow your business with support access to my business, launch training’s courses, programs and private coaching and feedback on your work every single month directly from me. Sweet left launches only open a couple of times a year. So if you are ready for this level of business launch planning, support, training and commitment, now’s the time to join in there because it’s closing in the next.
See, you’re looking at my calendar right now. You guys have about six more days to join Sweet Life Launch. If you’re listening to this riel time, you conclude cruise over to sweet life launch dot com and make sure that you get in there. All right. Today’s episode is for those of you guys who are intimidated about the idea of hosting events. You have considered events in the past but don’t really know how they fit into your business. And today show is also for you guys who are in phase 34 or five of my lifestyle Entrepreneur Road map.
My lifestyle Entrepreneur Road map gives you the five phases to design, launch and scale your business for lifestyle freedom. If you don’t know where you are, you can find a short assessment within the show notes of this episode, along with all of the other links that we’re gonna mention in this episode simply by visiting suite life. Podcast dot com forward slash 163 Okay, before we jump into the show, I want to share a really quick little story with you. If you’re hesitant to host events in your business,
you are not alone. Before I hosted my first events, I was super nervous. He wise. I’m not, naturally an event planner and not a cook. I don’t think of the order ves And you know I’m not somebody who naturally gets really excited about, like the goody bags and those things. It’s just not me. Before I hosted my first event, I was really nervous that people would regret being there now. Granted, I did everything, and I got help to make sure that any expectations we’re not only met that we went over the top in this first event,
but I was still still super scared because that is not my gifting. But I stepped out on the limb and did it anyway, and I want you to know that this is what happened. Instead of people saying Oh, you know, maybe something here might be a little missing or this isn’t what we expected. People thanked me. They think me for giving them an opportunity to work with me in person for giving them an opportunity to connect with other women who they can develop really deep relationships with. So they don’t feel alone and they can support each other.
And I even had people bring me gifts and son me. Thank you, cards. So it is totally different than what I thought it was gonna be. I was super nervous that people were gonna be sad or disappointed that, you know, they bought a plane ticket to fly to my event, and instead they were so grateful. But they were grateful because it was such a raw, authentic opportunity for them to grow their business and grow personally at the same time. That’s what events do. And that’s what we’re talking about on today’s show.
So let me go ahead and give a quick intro to our special guests. Today, Jen Murray is an event planner who helps online entrepreneurs plan in person events such as workshops, retreats, masterminds and conferences that meet their business goals. and cultivate long term relationships. Her clients range from entrepreneurs were just branching out into events and those with six plus figure businesses. So I’m happy to have Jen on the show today. All right, you guys, welcome back to another episode, and Jen is here to help us and help you realize that you might be listening to some lies.
You might be talking yourself out of doing retreats. And with that being said, you might also have this feeling deep inside of you that you want to connect with your community. And so today on the show, we’re talking about four different myths about retreats so that you can really push through them and decide if you should be connecting with your audience in your community a little bit more deeply. Jen is the founder of Relate Escape, and Jen welcomes to the show. I’m so glad you’re here. Thank you so much.
I’m so glad to be here. Very, very honored. Thank you, April. Oh, you’re so sweet. Thank you. So talk to us a little bit before we dive in. Like, how did you get into this? What are you doing? And why are you doing it. And how do you help online entrepreneurs? So I’m an event planner That specifically helps online entrepreneurs. So I helped them plan any kind of client focused event. So retreats, mastermind, workshops, conferences. It’s something that I kind of just fell into,
you know, is my journey as an entrepreneur started going and I was like, I’m not meant for 9 to 5. I need to be an entrepreneur. So what does that business gonna look like? And my original idea for relate Escape was actually based around my home city of Pittsburgh, and it was helping people have custom itineraries when they would visit the city, because we’re kind of becoming more known, a notable even across the ocean overseas.
I didn’t do any market research. I didn’t validate my idea. My take home was with the county that Pittsburgh is located inside you old.
We had all these accolades coming, and I was like, Why don’t you do market research? You know,
I didn’t listen to anybody and used to say it didn’t really go anywhere partly because of that, and partly because after I sort of started the idea,
I had a couple months of personal issues, and so I had to step away from it. But when I came back to it,
I was like, OK, I really need to be an actual business, right? I need to be making money.
I wanted to get out of my horrible day, child. So I took a course that actually taught you how to create premium packages.
And part of that process was doing market research. Right, Because you have to understand what you’re quiet once.
Hello on It finally made me do the research I should have done in the first place, and I went into it thinking that Okay,
I’ll just pray for your packages that are geared towards businesses to want to do, like team building exercises in the city or have some kind of like corporate event in the city,
like just gonna aim at businesses because then you couldn’t have the higher price tag right? But when I started having these phone conversations with entrepreneurs,
some of them who came from corporate backgrounds, even I stumbled upon this desire in its need for wanting to do in person retreats.
Because there’s an understanding of online as much as we have. It’s limiting and there’s a lot of March more.
Is that really want to be face to face with their clients or potential clients, not just to sell,
but to understand their current clients better and to have those things like organic conversations and really dig deep with them and find out What do you really need?
Am I serving you like what else can I do? But there’s kind of a void out there right now as far as teaching people how to do it or service is to help them plan,
because our needs are a bit different than safe. You’re doing like a corporate party. Or if you’re doing like a wedding or graduation party like we have certain challenges and our lifestyles different,
we also need to make money. So I was like, Oh, this is just, like, so interesting and a judge with still what I wanted to do because I’m very about cultivating relationships and strategy and being creative,
and so I picked in my business and so related skate went from being something that was based around by my city that I live in to just really hoping to fill this gap.
This major gap in helping entrepreneurs get past the desire. Bring those events into reality. I love that I love the whole story and you’re you’re right in the right spot at the right time.
It makes perfect sense. We’ve been talking a lot actually for last couple of years on this show about how we love online business so much.
But we’re really missing that face to face and that that really those relationships are the key. And so I know a lot of entrepreneurs are listening to this and they’re saying,
Okay, I want to do events but I still don’t think that there for me or how do we know whether or not there for me?
And they have fears around it, because when you walk through the process of planning an event, it’s almost like if you build it,
will they come and a lot of them are afraid to do that. So today on the show, you’re gonna walk us through four different event myths debunked,
and I’m excited about this because I really think those guys are listening. If you’re saying, Hey, listen,
I really want to connect with my community, I might not have that great of a list I might not have ever hosted an event before.
How do I provide an experience? You’re gonna learn a ton from this. And I think of the end of this episode you’re gonna have a lot of confidence as to whether or not you guys believe that hosting an event should be something on your 2020 it and beyond agenda.
So let’s kind of talk about the 1st 1 here. What is the first myth that you have come across when you talk Thio online entrepreneurs about events There’s kind of a myth that they have to do.
Ah ha little cookie cutter kind of event. So a lot of events that you see people talking about online are at,
like, five star resorts or there are like a mountain retreat, and none of those are bad. I mean,
if that works for your brand and you have the ability to pay for that kind of event, that’s perfectly fine.
But I feel like that’s kind of the only example that we’re seeing right now on purpose, because a lot of entrepreneurs have yet to do events.
So we’re just kind of seeing kind of like one example of what could be done. So I just want to make it clear that you don’t have to have what I call cookie cutter event everything else in our business,
our marketing, our branding is always about centered around our unique Selves and what we have to offer. And so events should be the same thing,
right, cause it’s just another extension of our brand. So don’t feel that you have to reach some kind of like If you’re not ready to do like a five star hotel retreat,
that’s perfectly fine. Just think strategically about what would work for your particular business or your TRIBE, cause you know your clients,
you know, like what they’re drawn to, what kind of things that they like and you know, your brands are you,
like more Corky, and you just want some kind of like you want to do a workshop. It’s in quarter Pierre be and because it has a lot of character and it’s not like a conference room somewhere,
that’s perfectly fine. But it just did something I run into a lot. Is that because kind of like this one example perception right now and we kind of what we see is what we assume that we have to do.
And that’s not necessarily true events at the end of day about leveling in your business without loving them in your brand and your income.
So start strategically about thinking what works for you. I mean, that’s why that’s the first step in working with me.
He’s all about strategy, cause it’s about what your needs are, what your goals are. What Yuri sources are in making something work for you.
Yeah, and I love that you say that because that is what is most prevalent online right now. Photography from great events.
You know, for example, like I hosted, I didn’t host. I attended a mastermind in San Diego this past year,
and it was a beautiful house overlooking the ocean. Full weekend event, catered event. It was absolutely fantastic.
And then I went to another event, which was just in afternoon. It was perfect. There are great people there in both events were fabulous.
And so I love that you said that because we do on Lee see the photography from the big, glamorous five star resorts.
Or, um, I have a really good friend who’s actually on my team of experts from my company.
Kathy Han and Kathy just hosted an amazing event in Costa Rica until we have these people like Kathy and like others that do events all the time,
and we see the photography from that. But I love that. I want our listeners to know that you guys could do anything you want based on your brand in your message.
And I love that You said that because you’re right. Nobody sees that. And so they think, Oh,
that would suck. I’m not going to do my own thing, but that’s actually not true at all.
So let’s talk about the second myth is that events are really expensive. Touched us through that the money aspect of it.
Because, of course, that’s what everybody’s thinking. Yeah, this comes. I’ve also heard some people say recently,
too. I’ll be happy if I just keep it. So there’s kind of this concept of we’re not gonna make any money with the event like I’m gonna do it to cultivate community and get my brand out there.
But I’m not gonna make any money, and that’s not the right mindset to have. I mean, we understand where it comes from because,
you know, we’re used to events like weddings or corporate events where it’s kind of it gets expensive and there’s a lot of money going out and you’re not getting anything back in.
But again, this is what makes our needs different from sort of the regular event planning. We’re in our business to make money.
So one of the things that you need to do is get rid of that mindset of I’m gonna break even or I’m not gonna make any money.
Because first of all, if you’re doing an event, especially if you’re doing like a workshop or a conference,
you should be up selling something at the end of that event because you’re not gonna get any warmer leads than when you’re in a room face to face with people who are already potential clients in my bought from you before,
or people that you’ve warmed up for a day, three days, what have you They’re gonna be primed to open their wallet and buy from you because they’ve experienced you in person for three days,
right? So that’s the first thing is what do you want to sell. What coaching package? What service?
What chords? And that actually should hope you strategize what you do with your event. Because whatever your event does should naturally lead up to that up cell.
So it’s not even They don’t even have to think about it at the end. It’s just like it’s a natural next step,
right? I love that. The other thing is not to get caught up in the logistics. This comes back to strategy.
This is why I have my package is set up. So we do strategy first and like all the details Second,
because those entrepreneurs were so good, it just jumping straight to all the logistics were like, we should do this venue and I should order that this food and like,
what kind of gift bag am I gonna have? Yeah, so then you’re you’re kind of like spending money without having getting your blueprint and place first.
So once you kind of know, like, these are my goals. This is what I want to sell.
This is how much I want to make. This is what my budget is. Then you’re a much better place to make those decisions when it comes to things like your venue or hiring help or,
you know, what kind of food options do you want to do? So I would also recommend that,
like, get your mind set out of you not to make money. And also, like, focus on strategy first before you start spending money and thinking about what you could spend it on.
Yeah, okay, love, that is well, and I think that, you know, we host we host an event every year.
It’s a lifestyle entrepreneur launch weekend, and we had it this year. And that’s a lesson that I have learned because I host this event that it’s not something I usually have a wait list.
Work privately with me. Well, anyway, a friend of mine said, Listen, April, you’re doing these people a disservice if you don’t open up the opportunity for people to up sell that after this event,
in my mentality, Woz and you guys listen to show I’m always honest. I’m like, Okay, I’m hosting this big event.
People have come here from, you know, across the country. They’ve spent so much money, I’m not gonna sit here and tell them.
Okay, Now spend thousands of dollars more. But it was true, And I remember my friends said to me,
You know, you’re really doing people a disservice. If you don’t at this time at the event offer,
really, what is the gold standard? What’s going to take them to the next level beyond this event?
I just kind of had to change my thinking on that. I’m always trying to watch out for everybody’s dollar,
you know? So if you guys are like me and you’re you’re thinking that in the same way, it’s actually not true at all.
And when I did that, it was a nine day difference, not necessarily out of the sails of that event,
because I was already on a wait list has already backloaded a couple of months to work with me privately,
but it was extended my weight less to work with me privately, but I really feel like it really did help the attendees who were there that really needed that.
I know that there was more beyond that, so that’s just my personal sharing here on that one. As faras up selling after an event,
even though it’s great for the bottom line, it actually is a disservice. Your people, if you don’t have something greater to help them implement after the event,
which is, which was a lesson that I had learned. So let’s talk about, you know, the next myth is a little bit we touched on.
But talking about like to the events have to be super big and elaborate. How many people do you have?
Or if you’re hosting event in Somebody’s listening to this and say, Man, I really would love to host an event.
But what if only five people show up? So let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about the numbers and the size of a bads.
I actually tell clients who are thinking about doing an event, and they’re just not sure that they’re ready to,
like, go big. It’s perfectly fine to start small, but you can do a small but premium event because you’re just providing value.
It’s just to a smaller group of people. So if you aren’t ready to kind of like do anything more than test the waters a little bit your first time out,
it’s perfectly fine to do like a 5 to 10% event. Just make it a premium event meaning you’re offering tons about you.
You’re giving them like, one on one time and you’re just really digging deep with them. Maybe they’re you’re giving them some other kind of special offer.
But this also kind of goes to what we’re talking about about we’re seeing, like, these big Five store kind of resort events,
and then we see, like all the things activities that those include, like they have, like, a champagne hour.
And they have, you know, these kinds of things which are fine, if that’s what you want to dio.
But that could be intimidating to somebody who’s just starting out. And so I just like to just kind of the point out that as faras the logistics go the activities that happened at that event,
the schedule, it doesn’t have to be anything you know, like super fancy thanking air quotes. You know,
it could be again. You know, your TRIBE and you know, your brand do things that give value and that are fun and cultivate community.
But do it in a way that aligns with who you are and who your attendees are cause again, Even if you did something that’s out of character for you on your brands,
but would be, you know, fancy. Then that would actually be a disservice to the event, right?
Cause you’re tends to be kind of like what’s going on, like we all come in jeans and T shirts and there’s like caviar.
Being going around like that doesn’t make sense, so don’t get caught up in that. It happens to be an elaborate affair.
It doesn’t have to be a packed schedule. Do what makes sense for you just as long as you’re giving amazing value cash.
I love that so much I’ll share that my master mind retreat that I hosted this year. You know,
a place like not the one that I went to, which was really elaborate. But you’re right, That’s not my brand.
I’m, you know, outdoor girl and my mastermind, Retweet I hosted this year had I had never seen this done before,
and I just want to share this, so to encourage you guys. And yes, I was nervous to do this because it had never been done before,
but I actually took my group of women up into the mountains and Rocky Mountain National Park, and everybody brought their jackets and warm coats,
and we went and they did a lot of deep work while they were hiking and doing like outside, Not necessarily endurance training,
but they were pushing their physical and mental and mind set limits all at once. And it was very along with along the lines of my brand.
Had I hosted it, it the rich Carlton, I would have been miserable in every single one of my attendees would have been miserable.
So I just want to encourage you guys. It was the biggest hit. Everybody loved it, and they were basically freezing cold.
Their fingers were totally freezing. This was This was a fall in winter mastermind retreat. It was super windy,
snowy, you know? But they have their hiking boots and their jackets, and we got up there into Rocky Mountain National Park and it was a very,
very powerful. In that case, it was like a one full day event. It was incredible. And so I just wanna encourage you guys in that,
And that was just very true to who I am. And it was very true to to whom my followers are.
But we you know, most people think of retreats like you’re saying is, you know, champagne and caviar,
and it would have been a lie hot. I hosted an event like that because I frankly don’t respond well,
and I don’t create. And I don’t grow well in those environments. And so I just wanna share that.
Sure, you’re totally right on. But I was nervous about it at first. That I’m glad. You sure that so thank you.
So and then let’s talk about the fact that people think that nobody’s gonna actually get on a plane and fly to them.
What do you think? You know, be a tough one. Sometimes it’s a self confidence or self esteem thing.
But sometimes we just don’t realize. Like if you have a good strategy in place, which we’ve talked about,
if you know what your attendees, whether their new clients or current clients, what they want. If you you know you’re gonna give them amazing value,
you know you’re going to give them the opportunity to buy something else that’s gonna continue that journey at the end.
There’s no reason to assume that people are not going to come man’s. There’s several ways you can actually help with that.
You can get some of your die hard current clients, like, you know, encourage them to come.
Maybe even give them a discount. And then they encourage their friends. And then when you have your attendees there who don’t know you,
they can talk with these people have worked with you. So then you created this environment that count like,
Oh, wow, there’s amazing stuff that’s gonna happen here, like, you know, So don’t get caught up in I don’t think people will come to see me focus more on your strategy in your plan and just know that you’re hitting all of the boxes and just move forward with confidence.
Because people are quite like we talked about today. People were craving these kinds of in person interactions like there’s a real need for,
like, that’s why I’m doing this. And that’s why I’m here talking to you guys. So be brave and step into that void because people are gonna walked to you.
They want that kind of interaction with you. And it’s going to do amazing things for you and your business and them as well.
Mmm. Thank you so much for everything. You cover today because I do think that I mean, it is really intimidating.
I know personally, it’s intimidating and and not naturally, being an event planner. There was there was a lot to do,
and it’s kind of a big step it first. I just appreciate you sharing that because I agree with you.
And the trends that we’re seeing is so much more about personal connection than anything else, especially for those people that have an online relationship with you.
And so I have one last question for you today, which is more of a logistical question about how far if you’re having a retreat,
that somebody or an event that somebody should travel to about how far in advance should you start sharing your event to give time for people to book their travel.
About nine months is usually, at least when you want to start. It’s very early, huh? Yeah,
it’s very early earlier than you think, because people will need to feel, you know, especially it’s a long weekend or weak that they need to be ableto be,
accommodate their schedule, block that time off and make all the necessary, like flight plans or get a baby sitter plans,
So Yeah, at least nine months. Oh, my gosh. Okay, Yes, that’s that’s way longer.
Guys, if you’re coming to my events, I’m so sorry. I usually don’t get usually don’t give me that much in advance,
but we have them all planned for 2020. So I will make sure that we get them out to you more months in advance.
Which means I’m already a month late on a couple of our events. Eso thank you so much. I really,
really appreciate your time and being here on the show. And I love what you’re doing because why you’re saying it is so true and what we’re seeing with online business.
And it’s just like developing these relationships and developing a following really, really is much more successful when you do have these personal connections to people.
And in the past, which gosh, like 2012 13 14 we started diving into Facebook communities in groups,
and at that time it was really great because Facebook was actually helping people interact better in those type of communities.
But it still wasn’t enough. Now we’re struggling with algorithms, and people aren’t seeing what’s happening in your communities and grooves,
and those are hard things to a hack, and we are craving face to face relationships. And it’s not just your clients.
You are, too, and that, you know you guys will grow even so much more and learn so much more about yourself is not true,
pure and a leader if you choose to step out and start hosting these events, So let’s talk about how people can find you.
So if they need help hosting events in giving on your your board for your strategy session, let’s talk about how people can connect with you.
They can go to my website, which is simply relate. Escape dot com. Another good place to follow me is on Instagram,
which my handle is relate, period Escape and I, every week post at least one of that myth,
that one event tip and how you can work with me. So that’s a good place. Even. Just just roll through my feet and make it really easy,
cause each picture that’s really into a myth or tip actually says it on the picture. I’m Seipei and make things really easy for you to see if you just literally go on binge right now if you wanted to.
And you can always give me an e mail to its Jenn with two ends at Relate Escape. Dr.
Lovett, you’re a shoot jen and email. And then you also have, like, a super secret hack type of giveaway that people can grab That’s going to simplify their event planning process,
right? Yes, it’ll actually this hack will actually hope with the things that we talked about today, because it’ll give you a lot of clarity and focus and help you to sort of get past those myths or those blocks.
So I would definitely encourage you guys. It’s only like two or three pages. It’s very brief, but it really will help you sort of get your momentum forward.
Awesome. Thank you so much, Jen. Thanks so much for being on the show in your time.
We We really appreciate it. I appreciate being here. Thanks so much. Okay, today we talked about four myths debunked,
and I’m curious if your opinion on hosting events has changed, how do you feel about hosting events now,
after listening to this episode, is there an event that you have set in your mind that maybe you want a host in 2021 maybe even later this year.
I would love to hear about that. Hit me out on Instagram at Sweet Life, underscore entrepreneur and tell me about your dream event that you want a host and all encourage you in that.
Now again, you can get all the things that we talked about today in the show notes from this episode by cruising over to Sweet Life podcast dot com forward slash 1 63 and take a screenshot of this episode in Tag both Jen at Relate Escape and Me on Instagram and leave us a review on Apple,
and we will make sure that we share your INSTAGRAM account to help promote your business. It will also give you an opportunity to become our featured sweet life entrepreneur,
a listener which I would love to highlight your business and that as well. Thank you so much for tuning into the show again.
Sweet life podcast dot com For a such 1 63 is where you can find all of our show notes and also the link to join Sweet Life Lunch.
My signature launch program. Plus all of the resource is we mentioned today
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?
Close
Who This Episode Great For:
You’re working 9-5 and want to launch your own business and break free but you don’t know-how.
You want your own thriving 6-figure coaching business.
You plan to keep working until your new company takes off.
Show Highlights:
3 simple steps to launch your new business while still working your 9-5
What you can offer and sell while still working your full-time job
How to grow your email list while you’re still working
How to serve clients while still working
How to get over the fear of charging higher fees in the very beginning
About the Guest:
Luisa Zhou is the creator of the Employee to Entrepreneur system, which teaches people how to leave their day job and start their own six-figure plus business working for themselves.
Luisa’s helped thousands of students, including health and business coaches, designers, copywriters, and consultants, to launch their own businesses that generate anywhere from 30K to 100K in less than a year.
Luisa’s advice has been featured in numerous online and print publications including Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, Success magazine, and more.
you’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast Simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age. Hi there. And welcome back to the show. I’m April Beach lifestyle business development expert for women, and you are in the right place, especially if you’re ready to grow your business, continuing to grow your business and you want to leave your 9 to 5. Today’s show is about how to build a six figure coaching business while still working your 9 to 5.
And this is a perfect episode for those of you guys who are in phase one or phase two off my lifestyle Entrepreneur Road map. My lifestyle entrepreneur system. That is a five step process that takes you from the idea of having your business all the way through arriving company. That gives you a lifestyle freedom. And if you don’t know where you are in the Lifestyle entrepreneur road map, then cruise over to sweet life co dot com forward slash quiz. Or you can simply text the word Sweet life, which is one word to the number 31996 and you’ll be sent a short link where you could take a short self assessment.
And that’s gonna tell you exactly where you are right now in business development, and you’re going to get the complete map so you’ll see the whole entire overview of where you’re going and a list of what you should be working on right now. So again, this episode is for those of you guys who are in face one or in phase two of my lifestyle Entrepreneur Road map. This is also a great episode for those of you guys. They’re still working your 9 to 5, and you want to launch your own business.
You want to break free and you don’t really know how. And here’s what you can expect. At the end of listening to this episode, you’re gonna know three simple steps to launch your new business. While you’re still working your old job, you are gonna understand what you can offer and sell While you’re still working your full time job, you will know how to grow your email list while you’re still working your full time job. How to serve clients, which is tough, especially when you’re still working here full time job,
and you’re also gonna know how to get over your fear of charging high prices in the very beginning so that you can, in fact, realistically replace your full time job. But before we dive into today’s episode, I want to make sure that you have an opportunity to join Sweet Life Launch, especially if you’re looking for support and a step by step plan toe. Leave your 9 to 5 Sweet Life Launch is our signature business launch program for women Just like you. It’s a 90 day business launch program with coaching private mentor ship group Mentorship.
Plus, you get an extra month of support, so it’s actually a four month program that gives you the exact steps toe. Launch your six figure business and leave your 9 to 5. No more being lost or confused or not knowing how to start or what to do or what’s a good use of your time. Sweet life Launch is my signature program, and it only opens a couple times a year, and that program is opening here in the month of February. If you’re listening to this podcast live visit Sweet Life launch dot com For all the details in today’s listener,
shout out Goes to Jamie, Fight with Jamie Fight Nutrition Jamie, thank you so much for being crazy. Amazing faithful listener of this podcast for showing up to almost every single one of our Instagram lives for connecting with us. Commenting on our stuff in sharing this show faithfully, You guys check out Jamie Fight Jamie Fight Nutrition Jamie is also ah, private client of mine. She’s been in my private business mentorship program and in Sweet Life Launch and this woman is a go getter. This woman is one of the hardest workers I have ever met Mom of four daughters and she just released her first book.
So, Jamie, thanks for being an awesome listener. And if you would like a shout out on this show, just leave us a review on Apple or on our Facebook page, and I can’t wait to highlight your business as well. Okay, on today’s show, we have a really awesome guest. Louisa Joe is here, and I loved talking to her because everything we talk about, she followed this step to a T. Louisa Joe is the creator of the employees to entrepreneur system, which teaches people how to leave their do don’t day job and start their own six figure plus business working for themselves.
She’s helped thousands of students, including health and business coaches, designers, copywriters and consultants launch your own business that generate anywhere from 30,000 to $100,000 in less than a year. Her advice has been featured in numerous online and print publications, including Forbes, Entrepreneur, Success Magazine and More So. Welcome to the Sweet Life Entrepreneur Podcast Louisa, give yourself an intro here. Somebody knows who you are. Yeah, thank you so much for having me. So, guys Super brief intro About six plus years ago, I was in 95.
I was struggling Thio replace my income and build my own business. And through a series of mistakes and lessons which we’re gonna talk about today, I took my job skills at the time in digital advertising and use that to build a coaching business which broke six figures before I turned in my notice. After that, people start asking me, Hey, how’d you do it? And I I was thinking, you know what? It took me so long, so many mistakes. I’m gonna help you. And so that gradually transitioned to my current business,
which I’ve been in for going on 56 years now. And what I do is help people go from employee to entrepreneur. So awesome. Great. We’re gonna get dive through this system here today. Let me ask you a question. What did it feel like? Still being in your job? Like, what were some of those initial triggers? When you’re like, I have got to get out of here, let the heck am I gonna do because we are talking. I mean, in the grand scheme of time,
this is a short period of time. But in online business, this is a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. 56 years ago, online business was just, you know, up in coming. And a lot of people in online business now have only been here for the last 24 months. So when we’re talking five or six years ago, how on earth did you come up with this idea? Because still very few people had this business model agreed back then, coaching I what I remember.
So before that I spent two or three years thinking, you know, I need to leave. I needed a have more control. I don’t want to be like in another 10 years like my v p s v p pushing like doing power points in the same old same old. Yeah, but like you said, drink time coaching was not really that comment of a thing. And so all I saw, the only examples were like, you know, do you affiliate stuff or, you know, learn to be a copywriter and make a few $100 a month.
And I was sitting there thinking, There’s no way that could replace my income. I’m gonna have to go,
I don’t know, moving with my parents or something on I. I wasn’t going to do that. And so I just remember researching so long.
Just Google searches. Whatever I could think of online business, you know, leave job, whatever. Until one day I started seeing coaching,
I can remember the first coach I saw. It was, I think was very gradual, like I didn’t hit me the first time I saw some Microsoft Excel coaches.
I saw some career coaches and I tried doing that a little bit myself and I got some clients through those which made me realize,
Oh, whoa, coaching is a thing. And then I saw one or two people who said, Hey,
I built a six figure multiple, six bigger coaching business. I thought, All right, I can do this to let me figure this out So it’s a very gradual process 11 and I want a diamond more to the emotional side of it,
because I think it’s so important. But let’s dig into the strategies first. So somebody’s in there 9 to 5 job,
you know, They’re thinking, Oh, my gosh, this is me. She’s speaking my language, but I don’t know how to exit out here.
You’re gonna walk us through those steps today. So Step one, you actually say, Start with the coaching itself.
Talk a little bit about that. Yes. So the key is with building a business while in your job,
you need a few things. You need something that is relatively higher value, so you don’t need to sell like 1000 products every month to replace your income.
You also need something that allows you to do it while working a full time job so it can’t take 80 hours a week on the side.
So what I did was I realized, OK, the coaching model fits beautifully into this because if you start out,
you sell something for 1000 1,502,000 or more, right? You. Let’s say you need to make $5000 a month,
or for me it was a little bit higher. Let’s say 10,000. Alright. At 2000 pop, five sales a month gets you to 10,000 month.
That’s doable. It ISS so really just taking. The number’s not building this big, huge thing, but just being really clear about what you’re offering and actually start with coaching people in a higher price,
usually to start out. Is that what you’re recommending? Yes, exactly and what this also does. It makes a massive difference because then when you are starting out,
you’re not relying on a beautiful website or how good your copyrighting remarketing is because no one starts out good at any of those.
All you’re doing is talking to people and sharing with them what you know and helping them so that they understand.
Oh, this person’s legit. They know what they’re talking about? I trust them enough to hire them,
right? And what I think is so cool about this is so most new entrepreneurs there sketched out about charging higher prices.
But the fact of the matter is, if you actually want to leave your 9 to 5 job, you need to create a valuable offer and you need to position yourself is valuable.
So the technical truth is by starting out with a really well priced coaching offer, you kind of don’t have anything to lose,
right? If somebody’s like, okay, I’m not paying youth two or $3000 you know, No big deal.
You, right now you want to get out of there, but you still have your job. It’s not like some other entrepreneurs were like,
Oh my gosh, I have to sell this program where we sea establish entrepreneurs like cutting their prices down if you’re still in your non.
If I Is it fair to say, start where you want to be exactly. I love that you said this because it’s such a flip toe.
How many people in John ob stink and how I thought to where I thought, You know, I need to be out.
I need to be out. But that’s the truth. I came to gradually realize. Oh, yeah.
If I don’t make a sale, it sucks. But I’m still gonna have food on the table. I move,
but I have a roof over my head. Right. So let’s make the sale with the perfect client.
That the price I want to sell it for. I think that’s so awesome. Okay, so and the second thing you talked about is leveraging groups.
So what does that look like when you’re new? A ce faras to coaching a consulting? Yes. So the beauty of starting with coaching people one on one is you know what?
You know, whatever that is. Health, relationship, career, whatever. Any industry, whatever you know,
however, what you don’t know is how other people will respond to the way you teach, right? So things that might seem super obvious to you.
You could have a client saying, Well, what can you slow down and talk me through it? So coaching a handful of clients one on one helps you develop your process for communicating what you know to them and helping them get the results.
And then after just I started seeing the systems and the parents after I would say about three clients, so it doesn’t take that many.
What you’re able to do is say, Okay, here’s my system and then transition into a group type model,
which were essentially, you still can do a lot of one on one coaching, but the biggest bottleneck for one on one.
Coaching us after you having to do like one call a week per client. You group those calls into one group call a week.
So you’re allowed. You’re able to take on more clients while spending about the same amount of time. And then,
instead of spending that called teaching the same material the time you can say, Hey, here’s this Google document I put up that I created through coaching my one on one clients,
right? I love that, and one of the things that we didn’t mention here, and I think that we need to hit on is you’re talking about building a business that somebody already has a skill in.
We have a lot of listeners that are trying to launch a business, and they’re also trying to launch a business in a new skill set.
Yeah, super hard. It’s definitely doable. Listen, ladies, you could do whatever the hell you want to do,
right? You can do anything you set your mind to. But what leases talking about and what you did is your first coaching business.
You launch by coaching other people with the skills you were doing at work. Yes, and I love that we’re talking about this because look,
even back then, I knew I wasn’t going to spend the rest of my life talking about adds it just did not appeal to me over what I thought about was at the time.
What’s my primary goal? It wasn’t necessarily that Build a business that I was gonna do forever. It was to build a business I enjoyed enough.
And that gave enough value for Mita be able to replace my income. And then you couldn’t say Okay,
What’s next? Exactly? Okay, that’s super cool. All right. And so in step number two,
we’re talking about scaling, right? So it’s creating this first course courses, air really popular. Not only are they popular,
so you have to identify that we’re kind of in this little bubble here, even though we think we’re in this huge world that saturated you guys.
When we’re talking about online business, we’re like, not even a drop in the bucket to what online business will be 5 10 years from hell.
And so people don’t really speak this language. Courses in membership sides and all those things are common to those of us that are in this space.
And for our listeners, they’re either very commoner. They’re becoming more common. But, you know, toe outside people that are not in the business online business,
space courses, air still like, Oh, wow, I can take an online course to learn how to do,
you know, Facebook ads. Or I can take an online course stiff, you know, learn how to meal plan on Sunday night or whatever in so courses are not saturated.
I say this to save courses are not saturate, and they’re an amazing way to skill your business. And so what you did is you created the course like what kind of course did you create And how did you roll that out when you were still working?
Yes. Okay. So something I’m gonna share both how I created it. And then like we were talking about earlier How I do not actually recommend that exact thing anymore.
So what I did was I took just like we talked about the stuff that I had put into documents from working with a handful of clients.
And I basically put it in your course. And it’s important to note I didn’t put up a fancy course website or anything like that.
I basically had some Google documents and PDS and put people into a Facebook group. And I knew that was gonna be great because I only charged a few $100 for it.
But also, I knew the value was gonna come from me showing up and basically like providing so much coaching and value,
just two people that they wouldn’t care. That wasn’t fancy pediatric or sight. And so I sold my first course that way.
Now, as we were talking about earlier, I hustled my butt off cause I didn’t know better. And I did an open and closed cart.
I said, Okay, I’m gonna start on the state after this day. You cannot buy it. And so I I just talked to so many people.
I you know, I made some sales, thankfully, but it was really stressful. So at this point,
what I recommend is a slightly different thing where you do the same, you know, systematize ation group coaching course material,
but do it in ongoing enrollment. So there’s no stress for all. I have to make this many sales by the state,
right and love that and and I’m I’m really glad you hit on that. Thank you so much because there are these open include,
like, I don’t recommend open and close launch courses for entrepreneurs that have, you know, kids and that you travel a lot.
There’s just really a lot of pressure and last year, doing like a big affiliate launch. And those were really for signature courses and not what you’re talking about here,
which are foundational courses. It’s really hard to fill a course if you’re a new entrepreneur. And so I’m glad that you should,
on the difference between just having it open for people to join as your business grows versus being like OK,
No, you’re out. And everybody is like putting all your eggs in one basket during one point in time.
Okay, so one of the things that I want you to hit on is your strategy for building your business to $1.1 million in sales in the 1st 11 months.
How exactly did you do that? Yeah. So basically, I did what we just talked about not recommending doing,
but again, there was a very specific situation, and I also again didn’t know better. So I worked with what I knew,
which was I’m good at connecting with people. When I do a live stream or a video, they connect with me Really?
Well, my content starting to gain traction. And so I did a massive course launch, and I went all in.
I don’t have kids, so yeah, putting that right out there like literally joining my launch. That’s all I did.
And I did a big program launch, and, you know, before I tested a few smaller launches,
so I knew my numbers. I knew how much to spend on cold traffic, my existing audience. If I was gonna have a Phillies,
I had all of those things mapped out. And so through one really big course launch, we ended up doing about $800,000 in sales.
That was the result of having like a first A $10,000 loans than $100,000 launch and then scaling it up.
And then those previous launches in that year. Plus, my coaching brought me to over 1.1 million. Yeah,
that’s so awesome. It’s so impressive. So for those people that are still listening to the 95 they’re like,
they’re in the 95 they’re listening to this, they’re like, OK, I don’t need to be at 1.1 million Know what Oh,
I need to do right now where I am Obviously Step one, We said, start actually coaching people.
You talk about creating this first package, and we talked about that and making sure that first packages is a higher price.
And then you talked about creating like a mini horse or a smaller course so people can get your information with you scaling your time.
So you’re not trading, you know, dollars for hours. Now what did they do? They’re still there,
and they’re like, OK, this process might take a little while. What’s the next step they do after that?
What’s coming next? Yes, so after that, it really is Look, you’ve got your product in place.
You know how What content to put out, To get people to talk to you. You know how to do sales and you’re starting to build some testimonials and social proof online.
So then the big focus is not on creating new products or figuring out some, like, distracting things like that.
It’s so how can I get in front of more people? And so there are a few different ways depending on where you are in your existing assets.
So for some of the people I’ve worked with over the years, they have a massive existing network. I didn’t.
But some people d’oh and so literally they can sell out their programs. I’m a very common example. Is career coaches right?
You’ve built up your career. Your network knows how good you are at it. You say I’m gonna be doing career coaching.
It could be relatively easier. Still not easy, but relatively to sell that out through that network. Another option for most people who don’t have the network is to start on social media right where you’re building up your own.
Let’s say Facebook community, instagram community, whatever that looks like and really connecting with people better than you can do through email or traditional formats so that your for me a connection faster.
You’re building a two way relationship, and you are really driving more sales. That personally made a big difference for me.
I was on Facebook. I wasn’t other Facebook groups. I created my own, and I was just talking to people in there all day,
whenever I had my lunch break before after work, just showing up and building that and then another source.
That makes a big difference, but it takes longer. Is organic traffic you to blogging that I don’t recommend?
You don’t necessarily need to be able to replace your income. Instead, What I teach and what I did as well is using hate traffic.
Now the key is not to spend a ton of money up front or anything. It’s on Lee. After you’ve gotten clients organic,
not gambling on social media or through your network. You know what sells and you have a feel for who your audience is and proven data for all of that.
You take all of that, you drive ads and you know you can do an e mail system funnel.
You can do a webinar, really? Just taking what you’ve realized people want and need to hear before they’re ready to hire you.
Putting it into that putting ads in that, testing each process in approaching it methodically with the data you’ve gathered to then be able to know.
Okay, everyone, dollar I spend, I make this much money and then you scale that I love it.
I love it. And I love you. Said that to paid ads. And again, a lot of entrepreneurs starting from scratch don’t necessarily have that ad budget.
But those guys that are still in your 9 to 5 have a little bit more, you know, inventive instead of your little started right.
And there is such a difference between, you know, paid ads, earned media and sweat equity. And although all of them are important to do in the big picture of your business,
the fastest way to grow your audience is through paid ads. And frankly, when you’re working 9 to 5 job,
you don’t have the extra time to put in all this. What equity to be sitting there doing, You know,
all these live streams, all day long and hanging out. You know, especially for those of our listeners are like,
Oh, shit. I have, like, five kids and I’m travelling commute two hours a day. How on earth am I gonna do this,
girls, By the way, we know you could do this. And that’s why Louise and I are here talking to you about this on the show.
We have got your back. Tell our listeners where they can find you. Had it connected to your energy is awesome.
I just love what you brought to the show today. Oh, thank you so much. So, yeah,
there are a few places Thio connect with me. The first is out through my website, right. So And I have ah,
special pdf for your listeners, which is a pdf on how to build your own online six bigger coaching business.
And that is at Louisa joe dot com slash gift. Now, let me spell my name really quickly because it’s not spelled out.
It sounds It’s l u I s a z, as in zebra, h o u dot com slash gift.
And then if you get that, pdf you’re gonna be added to my email list. You’re gonna learn about my programs.
You’re gonna get lots of amazing content from me. So that’s how well, the best way to stay in touch.
I’m also on Instagram. I’m loving instagram right now. And on my count is Luisa Dodge. Oh,
so same thing, just a dot in the middle. But those are the really two best ways to connect with me right now.
I love it, and then we should do fun. Instagram live for this show. If you guys are listening to this this week,
tune in and it will promote this up on instagram for you guys to All right. Thank you so much for being there.
And we’ll make sure all of those links are in our show Notes. Thank you. Thanks for listening to this episode of The Sweet Life Entrepreneur podcast.
I’m a pro beach. I’m so glad that you were here. This is episode number 1 61 So everything we talked about and all the links can be found by visiting suite life podcast dot com forward slash 161 I’ll talk to you next
Kat’s four steps to coming up with your business idea.
Kat’s take on purpose vs. profit.
Why you should focus on the skills you already have rather than trying to start a business that requires you to learn a new one.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Kat Mclead is the creator of the Stay at Home Mom Entrepreneur: the proven framework for creating a highly profitable business that you love while working 2 hours a day.
She started her first multiple 6-figure business 20 years ago and hasn’t slowed down since — not even after having her son. A fun fact: That business’s profits meant that she had way more money than her husband when they first got married, and was able to pay the entire $450,000 down payment on their home. Not that he minded!
So, if you’re thinking about starting a business or you’ve already launched one, but it’s not doing as well as you’d like, you don’t want to miss this episode!
How to Take Action:
Take a screenshot of this episode in your favorite podcast app, post it to Instagram, tag me (@sweetlife_entrepreneur), and let me know your favorite part!
Kathy Haan is a business coach, travel blogger, influencer, podcaster, and travel agency owner. You can find her work featured in places like Forbes, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, and Thrive Global. When she’s not at home in Iowa with her husband, three children, and two enormous Great Pyrenees dogs, you can usually find her traveling the world, creating content, and storytelling on stages.
Take a listen to this final part with Kathy to understand why she says, “The best way to gain authority is to borrow it from someone else,” and how you can become an influencer in your industry!
The first three strategies to get influencer marketing.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
This is not an episode about how to have a million followers. If you care more about the numbers than the results you deliver and the relationships you build, you will fail.
However, if you want to learn from a true international influencer whose story and work has changed lives and if you want to develop your influencer marketing plan for the right reasons, this is the episode for you.
Kathy Haan is a business coach, travel blogger, influencer, podcaster, and travel agency owner. You can find her work featured in places like Forbes, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, and Thrive Global. When she’s not at home in Iowa with her husband, three children, and two enormous Great Pyrenees dogs, you can usually find her traveling the world, creating content, and storytelling on stages.
Kathy had so many amazing insights and tips that we’ve decided to split this episode into two parts. So, make you don’t miss part two.
What it really means for my business to bring you this show each and every week so you can evaluate if a podcast is right for your business.
The good, bad, and the ugly behind every aspect of the podcast and step in the process of making it.
The free gifts I have for you as a thank you for making these past three years so special for me.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
I love getting to pour into you every week and provide you with the trainings and guidance that helps you build your business and find lifestyle freedom.
This podcast has allowed me to connect with you in a way nothing else has.
That’s why I could think of no better way to celebrate our third birthday than by giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to bring you a new episode each week.
And, I could think of no one better to help me with this than Britany Felix.
Britany has been a part of this journey as my editor and producer since the very first episode. This podcast literally wouldn’t have launched without her and I’m so happy I get to celebrate this birthday with her and you, my amazing listeners!
How to Take Action:
Share this episode on social media, take a screenshot, and then email it to podcast@sweetlife.co by January 19th, 2020 to get free access to my Ideal Client Avatar Masterclass.
When you do step one, you’ll also be entered to win a 2-hour deep-dive business strategy training session valued at $700!
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, SweetLife Launch.
[Tweet “I love getting to pour into you every week and provide you with the trainings and guidance that helps you build your business and find lifestyle freedom.“]
you. You’re listening to the sweet life entrepreneur podcast simplified strategies to grow your service business and launch a life you love faster with business, mental and entrepreneur activator a probe Age. Wow. Wow. Wow. Okay, welcome to this show. It is episode number 157. Do you know what that means? I honestly didn’t even sink into me and tell the end of November when I was planning our podcast episodes. It is our third podcast birthday. We have been podcasting. You and I have been together.
We’ve been delivering episodes to you every single week for three complete years. Like we don’t turn three until that year’s completed. Wow, I just can’t even believe that we’re here. To be really honest, this podcast has been such a blessing because it’s given me an opportunity to connect with you on a much deeper level than we can do through any social media. Even through writing a book, I’ve written two books. Nothing I’ve done in the past. His enabled us to break down the barriers between technology like podcasting does.
And I am so grateful for you. Literally. I have some big gifts I’m giving you guys big gifts this week for our podcast birthday. It’s gonna be a celebration that want our week long. And I’m so stoked about that before we dive into this, it’s gonna be a little bit of a different episode today. A cool one. I hope you love it. That plan, because it’s a little bit longer than our normal episodes. So just a heads up about that. But it’s gonna give you some awesome insight,
especially if you’re wondering what podcasting is like, what it’s like behind the scenes, how I plan these episodes, how it affects my life and my kids and my money and my travel in my sanity and my sleep and my systems and everything. We’re talking about everything behind the scenes here, but before we get started, I just want it. Bless you. Bless you. Bless you. This podcast would not keep going without you without you subscribing without you sharing this show with your friends without you sending me direct messages on Instagram saying,
Hey, April what you said resonated with me. Those things hit home to me and want to get those comments from you buys when I when I see you sharing it or when I get an email that says, Hey, April, thank you so much for giving this training the way that you did and not charging for it. When I get those messages from you guys, it really keeps me going. That feedback is is so important, because this show really is a love offering and a labor of love for you.
You know, before we started this show, I really felt strongly that any woman that wants to launch a business and grow a business deserved really trustworthy in free, proven, actionable business trainings. And that’s why I created the show in the first place is to make sure that there is good, safe, solid, trusted business coaching for any woman that chooses to watch and grow her business and design her life through entrepreneurship. And if you don’t know me yet, or maybe not that well, maybe your new listener.
Thank you so much for tuning, and I’ve been coaching women tow, watch and grow their business for 23 years, and I’m an online business pioneer. I launch my first online courses back in 2008. Well, we were like duct taping stuff together and my core purpose is to teach women how to design their life through entrepreneurship. So this show really is an extension of my why. And it’s just all about you. So thank you so much for tune into it. And so I want to pour into you guys today immediately here on the show right away and bless you and give you gifts for our birthday.
So let’s start out with that. And then we’re gonna dive into today’s episode, and then we’re going to give more gifts away at the end of today’s episode. So the very first thing is, I want to give you guys. If you are listening right now, during the time that we’re recording this show, so during our birthday week only, which means you’re a subscriber, you’re getting this podcast real time. So it’s January 13th 2020 through January 1920 20. So within this week, if you were in between January 13th and January 1920 20 you get Theresa.
I talk about on today’s show. The first thing is anybody listening? I’m giving you completely free access to my ideal client Avatar. Master class. This is an amazing class and It comes with a huge workbook where you’re gonna be able to hone in and find your ideal clients. And what’s even cooler about this is when you’re done with this class, you’re gonna walk away with the copy written for your website Marketing copy Already planned out. It is a killer class and I’m giving you totally free access to it as our birthday present.
How does that sound? So here are the rules. Every single person listening this week who follows these rules is going to get free access to this master class. The rules are number one share. This podcast episode even shared on linked in you can share it on Instagram. You can share it on Facebook. So I want you to share this podcast episode wherever you want to share. You can share in your instagram stories. And when you share it right, a little message or something about why you like this show.
So people understand why the heck you’re sharing it. And you can also tag us If you’re on instagram at Sweet Life entrepreneur or at April Beach, you could find me that way as well. We’d appreciate you sharing it purposefully not just sharing whatever works for you and then take a screenshot of where you shared it. An email, your screen shot. Two podcast at sweet life co dot com. Okay, so again, sure. The episode Take a screenshot email the screen shot The podcast at sweet life coat dot com has to be This week has to be between January 13th January 19th and we’re gonna send you completely free access to my icy A My ideal client avatar Master class,
which is like the gold standard Master class. If you are in a place where you are having trouble finding your clients or communicating with them or you don’t know what you’re niches, this is all for you. And then on top of that, one person is going to win a two hour deep dive business strategy training with me, and that is a $700 value. Okay, so share the episode, and then one person who does that and gets access yes to the master class is also going to get a two hour,
totally free deep dive business strategy and planning session with me. So I hope that gets you totally excited, and I want you to listen to the whole inter show but positive show right now, and you can share it and send your screen shot and make sure that you get access and that you are intertwined The strategy session. Okay, so this show, like I said, it’s a little bit different. There is no one better that I could think about celebrating our third birthday with us, then Britney Felix.
Britney Felix is our podcast producer, and I found Britney and you’ll hear a little bit about this story. I found Britney because, frankly, I had thought that I could produce his podcast myself. I was like a card. Could this be got into a very quickly and realize that? Yeah. No, that’s just not gonna happen. And so I immediately found Britney, and I will tell you this show would not have launched without Britney. Britney Felix is a podcast editor and consultant who founded podcasting for coaches,
where she specializes in helping female coaches and consultants either launch a podcast for their business or improve their existing podcast so that they can develop relationships with their ideal clients, build brand awareness, generate new leads and making valuable networking connections she’s awesome. And so she is going to interview me on this week’s show, and we’re gonna share a lot of behind the scenes. You guys, we talk about what it really means to produce a podcast week in and week out. For those of you guys that are thinking about hot casting,
I know a lot of people start podcasting and then drop out, which is not great for your brand. And so this show is gonna help you determine Maybe if podcasting can be part of your future can help you connect with your audience more. But then we’re also sharing the good the bad. Am the super duper ugly? You guys were gonna know how I cut corners behind the scenes when I choose guests and why I choose guests and why I choose certain guests over other guests. We’re totally getting into it,
and we’re sharing the complete production. So I’m sure you exactly step by step how we produce this show, what I do in what order what we upload to wear and how the show is completely produced from the audio Thio, the research behind each one of the show’s toe actually marketing the show as well. So sit back. Grab a glass of wine. Celebrate with me. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you guys so much. This is sweet life Entrepreneur Podcast Episode number 157 and all the show notes can be found by visiting suite life podcast dot com forward slash 157 All right,
you guys, this is a really special episode. And that is because we have reached our third podcast birthday. The Sweet Life Entrepreneur. A podcast is turning three this week. Maybe it was last week, someplace in the middle of this weekend, next week, and and that we’re just so grateful to you. This is a celebration episode, and I have Britney Felix on the show, and we’re gonna do something a little bit different today. First of all, as I introduced before, Britney is a reason why this podcast launched you guys.
It definitely could not have gotten off the ground or continued to be produced. Especially which is the high quality and attention to detail that Britney and her team bring Thio Not only my podcast, to be honest, but like so many women’s podcasts, she’s just an icon in this space. And I’m so grateful to have her as part of our smart, hard 10 team bringing this show. And so we’re inducing a little bit different. We’re actually like flipping the interview. And Britney is gonna interview me on today’s show regarding how we go through and produce the sweet life entrepreneur podcast and also talk a little bit about behind the scenes of what it takes to bring this podcast to you guys for 157 episodes three years in a row.
So thanks so much for being on the show. Britney and everything. You D’oh! Give everybody an intro. Dios. They don’t know you yet. Yeah, Thank you so much, April. I always love being on the show because you just shower me with compliments. And of course, that feels amazing. But I am thrilled to still be working with you three years later. This is kind of surreal to me. You are actually my very first launch client. So you’re the first person who’s client are who show I helped officially,
like, launch into the world. So I consider the show a little bit of my baby as well and I really look forward to the information that you provide as a listener. Even so, even if I weren’t getting paid for it, I would still wanna listen to the show. Because I love the rial take and the raw information that you provide to people you don’t hold back. You’re no holds barred, and I just I love that there’s not enough of that in the world right now. Thank you so much.
Thank you. All right, so this is gonna be a cool thing. Britney knows how hard it is for me. Toe. Create content and bring this episode to you guys. Sometimes it’s beautiful. Sometimes it’s really, really difficult. Usually that all spins around what’s happening in my life with my kids. Is most of you guys know been faithful listeners for three years, and so we’re gonna flip this a little bit and give Britney and opportunity thio kind of walk me through the steps as I share them with you on how we bring this podcast of life.
So the first area we’re gonna dive into is actually the podcast planning process. And as we get into more of the production, then Britney is really gonna be able to share even more behind the scenes of what it takes to bring this show to you. So, Britney, you know, you see this planning process that I put together, You know what would be the questions that other podcasters or people considering podcasting might ask about the planning process. So one thing I would say is I see the end result of the planning.
Basically, I see it when it comes on our spreadsheet. For those that aren’t aware of April’s process, we use a system called Air Table. It’s an online spreadsheet. Platform is completely free, and it just helps us kind of keep everything organized. So I see the topics that are going to be coming up. But I have no idea what goes into deciding what you’re gonna talk about and when. So what’s that process like for you? How do you determine what topics are gonna be discussed in what episode and how does that intermingle with what’s happening in your overall business in life?
Great. Okay, so I have a four step planning process for this show. The first thing I do is I usually look at what’s happening with my business.
So what programs do I have that air coming open? What sales do we have? You know, that might be happening in the Desert times throughout the year.
What events, whether it’s a retreat or one of the mastermind events that we have happening. And then what’s also happening with my affiliate partners?
Because I do have some other businesses away affiliate with that we support. So the very first thing I dio is I look at my whole entire 12 month calendar now as a reference point for you guys.
If you haven’t laid out your 2020 calendar yet, gold back and listen to episode number 1 51 and actually give you the steps toe,
lay out your whole 12 month calendar. And so I do that. And I’m pretty faithful about doing that because the purpose of what we’re doing here is to make sure that in a perfect world,
it’s not always perfect. But in a perfect world, what I’m talking about on the show aligns with what’s happening in my business.
Maybe, um, I’m opening a new program or it’s a new training course or it’s a new event,
and so I want to make sure I’m talking about on the show what’s happening with what we’re offering and the extra help we’re giving entrepreneurs.
And then the second thing that I do, which I don’t know if this is like what everybody else does.
This is just my life, because everything I do is I actually look at what’s happening in my own life with my kids.
You know, where am I gonna be? What is the season of that life? So, for example,
my oldest son is graduating from high school this May. So the podcast episodes that I’ve artist sketch to talk about or what happens to you and your business when you know you’re not totally empty nest.
But when your kids are starting to move on to what they want to do and you have a more of an opportunity to design a different version of your life,
then you have for the last 18 years. And so that’s kind of how I am lined the episodes with what’s happening in my life.
Also seasons, right? So is it summertime? You know, our people trying to plan a vacation in other happenings that are going on is far as trends in the year,
for example, and this is just hypothetical. I don’t have this plant, but it would be like how to do a big you know,
Mother’s Day sale. If that Mother’s Day is in May, then that would be a show that that I would plan to do and released in April.
So I really kind of take a look at what’s happening in my life and what’s happening with what we’re offering and what’s happening within the sales of the year as well.
And then I look at the needs of you, buys the listeners, and this is really what it comes down to.
I can lay it all out here on the counter, and I think it’s a great idea. But what really is like the final check is what you buys need.
And so we look at things very carefully. You’ve been listening to this show for a while. You know,
we specialize in service based business development, whether it’s online or offline. Still, So what’s happening in the industry?
What’s happening with online business? What’s happening with courses? Many of you might have heard the episode that I did last year and I’ll look up the episode and put it in the reference for you of the show notes.
But it was like our online courses really working, and that was a really important episode to have because so many people have launched online courses.
But at that time when we recorded it, the data was not great about how many people were actually buying and finishing them until that was an important show to host.
So it’s kind of an example of what I look at what’s happening in the industry and in what you guys need,
what problems need to be solved, what bottlenecks you guys were facing, what fears or different issues could be coming up.
And I listened very carefully, toe obviously my clients to the women in my mastermind programs, to the women,
my Facebook community and I pay really close attention to those of you who connect with me and share your problems and your issues.
And I develop shows to solve those issues. And the final question I really ask is, what is the injuries?
Olt of a show And I do that actually, even before I start recording the show. So you know What’s the Andrews?
Well, what’s the final need? What’s the final goal or knowledge? Or a problem that’s solved at the end of recording a specific show?
And then the last step I do as faras the planning process is I determine whether or not that particular episode is gonna be a solo at this old or whether or not it should be a guest that I should bring on the show.
And I think, Britney, you think we’re probably about 50 50 solo and guest episodes. I don’t know what it works out to at the end of the year,
because I know you kind of go through phases, which might be something else to talk about where you have mostly solo episodes for a month or two,
and then maybe you have mostly interviews for a month or two, and I think that’s a deliberate choice as well.
Yeah, yeah, I can definitely speak to that, and we’ll talk more about, like the recording schedule and the actual production process.
But I d’oh, so I host a lot more solo episodes, usually before I’m about to open a registration for one of my master minds or registration to work with me in some capacity.
I do that because it helps my audience connect with me more. And it helps me to really clearly communicate and help my audience and my clients to identify is is something they actually need help with before the opportunity arises as to whether or not they want to invest in themselves to get the solution to that.
And so I feels, hear me doing a lot more solo episodes before my sweet life launch programs or before one of my master minded programs opens.
But I look for a lot of guest episodes during the times where I know that I am almost totally out of office,
and I think that’s what breaks easily, too. So it’s kind of brings us to our recording in production phase.
So I am mainly out of office from June through August. This particular year. You guys, I don’t know how I’m gonna do it yet.
Connect with me on Facebook or Instagram and and send me some encouraging mama entrepreneur vibes because and when I’m looking at my calendar,
I’m pretty much traveling from May all the way through the end of August in although that you know, that’s a laptop life.
That’s what we all want. It’s really difficult to maintain the podcast during those times, and so I have to be a super awesome planner to make sure that I have guests lined up and we’ve already pre recorded.
So this kind of how this works for me, I usually have a week blocked off on my calendar.
That is all podcast production week, whatever that week is. I do a very good job of not scheduling when I want private client meetings not filling out my calendar with anything else in that week,
and it changes. It’s not always like the first or the third week of the month. It does change,
but its planned well in advance in that week is just too match, recording with guests and producing podcast episodes,
researching my own episodes and outlining my own podcast radiance that I host. So I do that one week a month,
but I don’t record in June, July and August, so that means that I have to start batch ng really early,
and this is for any of you have applied to be a guest on my show. Just know that so I’m already recording.
You know, those summer show’s starting in the month of February were batch ing those. So I do have guests more often during the summertime when I’m not really there,
and it just helps me to be able to serve our listeners more because I am that put in time,
usually only working like a 15 hour work week and traveling around with my kids. I love that you do patching,
and that is what I recommend any of my clients. D’oh! Because it really does help you get into this frame of mind where you can just knock all of these things out.
And how great is it to know that you have your content for Well, you know, like three months plan now?
And it’s not something you have to worry about when you travel, because I can personally attest to this.
I actually, whenever I travel, I find it so difficult that I put my podcast on hiatus every time,
every time, meaning whatever I travel for, like a month or two at a time, because I do that.
So I think that it’s great that you planned this out ahead of time and it’s absolutely critical that is planned out ahead of time.
There’s no way that you can start doing this even a month before you want to take off and travel like this or enter an extremely busy season where,
you know, you’re just not gonna be able to put the time and effort into it, right? And I love Okay,
So you guys that don’t know Britney yet you should definitely connect with her. She travels everywhere, and I think that’s why Britney and I work together so well together because she’ll send me a message or email usually is earlier she can and saying,
OK, hey, I’m gonna be in Scotland for a month or whatever, you know. And so we worked together where she’s,
you know, she might come to me and say, OK, April, I know your batch recording just wanted to let you know I’m gonna be out for this period of time,
too. So let’s try to get in all your batch recording ahead of time so that so it works for both of our travel schedules,
and I think that’s one of the reasons why she and I worked so well together. Very grateful for that because our lives are travel,
lives are very, very similar. And, you know, I think that one of the things I do have to say that’s important about pre recording and connecting with the right audience is even though I’m traveling in June,
July and August, I’m still working with clients. I’m still running my master minds and still coaching entrepreneurs.
I’m still hosting my programs, and so all of my energy during that time is actually poured into direct work with the clients it that are in our community.
And so it’s incredibly important to me to make sure that I have guests on the show that can keep pouring in at the level that I want for our listeners who aren’t yet in our community.
And so I really try to seek out those gas that are experts in their space in order to deliver deliver shows that are timely for that time of year.
So when I say I travel in most of you know this, it doesn’t mean I’m not working at all.
It just means I don’t have extra time to be thinking about making sure we’re putting out great content on this podcast because that would be very,
very difficult. I’ve never recorded a podcast away from home. I know many people do where they can,
like recorded podcast in the hotel. It just doesn’t work for my creative mind. Like I need to be in my space,
my creative space not staring at some, you know, hotel wallpaper in order to be inspired to create a show for you guys.
And so I record everything here. I do not record on the go. I think that’s important to mention.
Yeah, it is. Because you definitely can do this on the go. I mean, I know people who travel full time,
as I’m sure you d’oh! And they still record content. So it is possible. But I agree.
I do prefer to record a home. I have bought travel microphones. Ah, few different ones. And I take them with me planning to record,
you know, maybe like a solo episode. And it never happens because it’s just I’m not in the frame of mind like you are.
Yeah, and I think that that’s just knowing who you are. So if you’re thinking about starting a podcast and you’re wondering how you could do it or you can do it from.
I think knowing how you best create content is a really important question to ask yourself before you decide that.
Hey, I can record, you know, from the car. Or, you know, I could record anywhere.
And so I think that’s just important thing. To know yourself well and to kind of get into that healthy ecosystem that inspires you to create really awesome stuff.
And and this just happens to me, my home office space, you know, which obviously comes with its drawbacks because,
for example, like when the kids were on vacation, a lot of shows, they’re like the dogs were barking and somebody is like,
coming at last, have, like, 10 boys stop in through the garage and drop their skateboards everywhere.
And and that’s just the way it is. And that’s actually in nature of this show, and so it doesn’t bother me,
but that might not be a great thing for somebody else, depending on where you guys choose to record,
right. So before we moved to the next phase in the process, I am curious when you do these batch recordings and you do emus faras a few months in advance.
Are you ever concerned? Because I know this is something I hear pretty often about this information not being relevant anymore or about the links not even being good.
A lot of people don’t think about that. You know a program no longer being available. Does that ever occur when you’re kind of planning out this process to think about that?
Yes, 100%. And so the guests that I curate for the show. So if we backtrack a little bit,
the first thing I want to clarify is that after I’ve determined the right episodes that you guys need to solve the problems that you’re currently facing in your business or the trends within the online business space,
I then go to our guest application list, and I then look for guests that can solve those problems for you.
So that’s my process of doing it. I’m very particular about who we curate and how we bring guests to you guys to pour into you.
And if there is not a guest on my application list that I will go find one. We’ve had quite a few guests and show where I’ve hunted down and said,
Hey, listen, my people need what you have to teach and I will go after them and I will personally find them until with that being said,
when I talk about batch ing ahead of time. So with guests, I always make sure that anything they’re sharing it has to have longevity.
If they’re launching a program or something that is timely in the show has to be produced and released on a certain amount of time in order to support them.
That’s something that’s planned well in advance. So that’s something that’ll do with our affiliate partners. And we’ve done that in the past with,
like, Pete Vargas was on the show because we supported his stage to scale method. But we had those plants planned well in advance,
so I usually don’t bring guests on the show for the purpose of selling their programs. It’s usually for the purpose of pouring into our listeners to give them a skill set that they would normally pay thousands of dollars to learn.
And then I love to honor our guests, however, though, that if we can figure out how to then give our our listeners the extra bump with having an opportunity to join their program.
Then that’s planned really well in advance. And then for my own, you know, lengths and making sure everything is in a way that is always timely and always up to date for you guys.
All of our things that we deliver to you are planned out for the whole entire year and very well in advance.
And so I already know exactly what we’re delivering and when we’re delivering it and in what capacity and the links for those things.
And I actually create them at the time that we produce the show. Okay? And I do actually want to go back really quickly to the planning session.
We walked through your four step process there, but what does it look like when you actually sit down to record?
Do you scripted out? Do you have a bullet list? You just kind of let it flow. What does that process look like for you?
I love that question. Okay, so I outlined all of the business trainings, and then I research and make sure that I have all the most up to date data and then I’m delivering the best training that I can.
And so it’s. It’s a lot of old school writing at first, and after three years of podcasting,
you guys were totally gonna laugh at me. I have a five inch, three ring binder that is hand written notes for every single episode.
It is so old school. It’s being born in 1976 and it comes naturally to me. And so I have notes,
and I have pages and pages based on the training that I’m giving now 2020 I finally and Britney, I just sent this to you.
With our most recent episodes, I’m finally and transferring the whole entire outline in outlining every single episode in Dropbox paper.
So we use is for a software We use Dropbox in order to share files and produces podcast amongst our teams.
And so I am riding out in outlining episode of Dropbox Paper, which does a couple of things. First of all,
it’s not gonna go if my house ever burns down. Secondly, there’s a flight or something terrible. Secondly,
yeah, I’m hoping that really helps Britney’s team to produce our show notes, and it helps my team to create the E mails in the articles and the Social media posts to produce the show because it’s directly coming from me instead of having people have to listen to the episode,
go through the transcription and write a summary to the best they can. And so I just really started doing that.
And I’m hoping it’s gonna be able. Thio Give our listeners even more thorough content throughout the week for every single podcast we’re producing,
more in depth content, more steps and actions. So whether they’re listening to the show on audio or rather than reading the block post,
which will be coming up with the block post for every single show as well, however, they like to absorb content,
so that is my process of doing it. But it’s not just the process of recording the show. It’s for a much greater distribution process of the content to get an entire listeners hands that make sense.
Yeah, no, definitely. And I appreciate you breaking down that process because I know for me, I’ve always been curious because I listened to the raw audio.
I listen to it before, gets edited, and you were so well spoken, and if I didn’t know any better.
I would think it was scripted and that you were like the greatest actress in the world because you just run through this content and they’re I mean,
they’re almost no stumbles. Obviously, we all have our verbal ticks and things that we d’oh. But I mean,
you just breeze through this content and I am always so impressed. Well, thank you so much. Yeah,
I just I just want to talk our listeners through it. I think it’s important to talk to them just as if they were standing face to face with me in a live event I was hosting here in Boulder,
Colorado, and I was teaching them the same training. So I do outline it, but nothing scripted.
I don’t read anything. I have heard that before. I know there are some podcasters that even get like teleprompters to read through.
I am not a great reader, you guys, I’ve never been a fast reader. It’s just not who I am.
So if I Meridian something, it does not come out pretty out of my mouth, so that would not be a good option for me or somebody else.
That may be great and that might be where they’re you know, they’re strength is for me. I just need to look at the outline and then I can teach the outline cause I will.
And also, I should say this. I don’t record a podcaster. I don’t teach a podcast in an area where I am not very well qualified or an expert in right.
I’m not just kind of like Polian podcast episodes and Training’s out of thin air and hoping to give somebody results.
I really don’t teacher training and less. I have extensive experience in getting clients results in exactly what I’m teaching.
I don’t have to go back through and read a word for word because I already know it. I just really need the outline to help my mind stay on task so I don’t go on too many tangents throughout the episode,
which I still do anyway, changes their fun, though, so don’t get rid of all the tangent.
Okay, but now that we’re in the process of talking about what it’s like when you sit down and record,
why don’t you want the listener through what that is like recording your solo episodes and recording with your guests yet.
So after I’ve outlined my notes with the sole episodes, I use GarageBand, Britney has All of our sounds are music,
so she mixes it. So I just go through and I just record the hold. Everything in garage man,
there are some times we all have to stop and delete in. Usually, I stop in the lead and start again.
If I look at the timer on garage Band and I’ve been talking for eight minutes and I don’t think I made a point After eight minutes of talking,
I will even look at me like, What did you just say? If in somebody’s valuable eight minutes of their time,
it’s all totally start again. So I will say that that would be the time when I have to come back to the beginning and say,
How can you get this message across faster without his many, you know, mumbo jumbo words? And so I’ll do that’ll take me a few times in Garage Band to go through that.
But once I’m on a roll once, the show is usually with the intro. Once I’m on a roll.
Michelle was started at Flo’s really Easy and Then I export and upload that MP three file to our shared Dropbox folder.
And then I’ll shoot Britney and email and say, Okay, you know, 1 56 is in the box is really all the email says Our system is so smooth now I don’t have to send anything else to her.
And she actually even gets probably a dropbox alert that I’ve uploaded it. So technically, I probably don’t even need to send her that particular email.
And then when I’m recording with guests, I use Skype, which is super archaic. I will say that you guys,
Skype is like, who uses Skype anymore? But we d’oh! And I know there are a lot of other podcasts recording platforms,
so we get switched to. We’ve always used Skype. Our audio quality is really great on Skype, and so we continue to stay with Skye.
But that’s certainly something that, you know, we revisit every single year. Britney and I have a conversation about that and,
um, talk about if that makes sense, still to stay there and then with those files, I actually record video.
So many of you guys might follow us on our YouTube channel where I share behind the scenes video of the podcast.
Super funny. I even share like the pre recording time and all the bloopers and dogs barking and people spilling coffee and everything before we actually hit record.
So if you’re a youtuber, you should check out the YouTube channel for the podcast and you’ll see those on there.
But then we export split tracks and audio files and bring me Why is that? See, this is when we get into your area.
Talk to me about recording this separate audio files on why that’s important. Yeah, so when it comes to recording multiple people,
so even if you have a show where you don’t necessarily have a guest B of a co host. So anytime there’s more than one person and you have to use like 1/3 party recording program like Skype and the recorder that comes with it,
squad cast is another one. Any of those programs you need to have each person on their own track because if you’re both on the same track and one of you coughs,
for example, while the other one is talking, there’s nothing that can be done about that from an editing standpoint,
that cough is gonna stay in there and live in that content and annoy the listener forever. But if they’re on a separate track literally,
it’s a matter of just highlighting it. Clicking one button and that cough is gone, and no one knows that it ever happened.
And it makes it a much, much more enjoyable experience for your listener, which should be just about your main ultimate goal.
From this podcast. You want your listener to love your show. You never want them to be annoyed or think that it’s poor quality.
Yeah, 100%. Thank you for taking care of all that for us. And then we. So we export this guy files same place,
send him to drop box, and then Britney. Britney’s team produces them and and then she sends us a message back after the files have been produced and she and her team manage.
Uploading it. Thio, do you want to share where we put our files and our distribution processes for us?
The tech side to read me? Yeah. So what? This looks like in terms of what I do in this process,
April sends me the files you know, she sends the email like she just mentioned, so that I know I can go and download them from Dropbox.
I do all of my magic, the program that I used to edit. I have some other programs that are way more expensive.
But audacity, which is a free program anyone can edit with it. There’s some basics you can learn.
It’s one of the easiest programs to get started with, and that’s what I use for the actual content at its still as a professional.
I have, like a $900 editing program that holds me clean it up, but I don’t do any of my contact editing in it because audacity is still better to use for that.
So we put it all together with the music and the intros and the Outro owes. And then we have a final MP three file that we upload to April’s hosting service,
which is listen, and that is who I recommend going with. Once we have that in there and reschedule for publication,
it automatically pushes it out to every platform that April is on, which right now is every one of them.
I’m pretty sure I don’t think we’ve missed one. So So we only have to put it in one place and then lips and sends it everywhere.
So it’s not as complicated or difficult as some people think it is before they start a podcast. It’s not like you’re going and submitting this individual episode every single time toe all of these different platforms.
Yeah, and just a little plug there. You guys, we are now on Pandora. I think we’ve been on panderer for a couple of months.
So if you’re a Pandora listener and you have not searched podcasts, I know they’re really doing a big face lift to their home terrace.
Sight, Please describe to us on Pandora. We would love to have more listeners over there because it’s a whole new podcasting platform That would be super cool for us.
It is podcaster only available on Pandora’s mobile platform at the moment. Just kind of us. Enough. I gotcha.
Okay. Cool. Thank you. Yeah. All right. So and then one of the things I wanted to mention about this,
you know, this is when it comes to business delegation in the production, the podcast. There are some things as a business owner.
You should totally delegate that somebody else could do for you and that somebody else should be doing for you.
And there are some things as a business owner that make you happy. One of the things that make me happy that I could totally delegate is selecting pictures and selecting the photography for our podcast episodes.
If you’ve ever been to sweet life podcast dot com, you’ll see there’s a lot of photography on that site because I think the photography tells a story.
I personally choose every single picture for every single podcast episode. And if you’d haven’t noticed every single picture with maybe the exception of a couple and and it’s still in there somewhere,
even if you can’t see it, it has water in it. And that’s just my brand. And it’s our company,
and it’s the soul of our company is really the ocean. And so every single photograph will have some aspect of water in it someplace,
and that just brings me joy away. And so I just wanted to share that you guys don’t. If you’re thinking about launching a podcast,
you you don’t have to delegate everything and the things that make you happy? That’s an important part to mention.
It just makes me happy. And so I do it. I’ve tried to delegate it before, and it made me sad.
So I keep that in house after that. So the podcast goes to different places. What we talked about goes to Britney to produce it,
and then the other half of it, which is the last part of producing this show, is I send it to my marketing in my content quarterback team and what that means is there so much podcast?
There’s so much information. There are so many tips and there’s so many steps with an ever single one of the business training podcast that we now need to distribute it out and get in in the hands of everybody.
And so that goes in their direction. And this is also an important reason why I need to match record because it makes everybody’s life better,
makes Britney’s life better, that she has the audio files ahead of time. It also makes my marketing teams life easier because they already know that they have four weeks to create the content in the social media posts in the little video snippets and all these things that go out for every single episode well in advance.
So when I do my job and makes it easier for everybody else to do their job, I will say that it is very hard to match record sometimes when things were going on with my life and my kids and when I’m doing a lot of traveling.
So this fall I did not do a great job match recording. There were a couple times where I was getting Britney and episode look right on the deadline for her to be able to produce it.
So it’s not always perfect, and I’m not always great at this. But when I am, my stress is much less in.
Everybody’s able to do their job much better, and that brings us to that last part, which is the last part of producing the show is really the impact on you guys.
I’m always asking myself, How can I make this show more impactful, more actionable, more usable, more simple for you to implement in your business?
So how can I help you? Our listeners take the tree means and actually apply them to your business or help you to think or strategize or help you to turn your thoughts into reality based on each one of the episodes.
And so a couple ways we’ve done this in the past, and we’re honestly, we’re always revisiting this to see what you guys are actually responding.
Thio. So we’ve done live streams on Facebook. We’ve done weekly live streams on instagram. We’ve done behind the scenes videos like I mentioned in YouTube.
We have published the full audio file in a video format to our Facebook page, and I also have hosted and still do.
I host a monthly live question and answer business training session for those vests that are in our podcast insiders community.
And so we try to make sure that we’re not just giving you the information, but we’re helping you implement it,
because in the end of the day, this is for you. I heard you know all this. I’m the one teaching it.
I’m not doing this for me to sit there and share a business training. It’s making sure that you,
our listeners or getting the help in the support you need that honestly will have other business coaches charged thousands and thousands of dollars for in a way that you can actually them in your business right away.
And that’s part of being a social entrepreneur. That’s part of our mission of the sweet life podcast is to give you guys trusted,
proven business training center free and that you can take to the bank and applying your business right away. And so I Oh,
the third part of this is just really asking ourselves, How do we help you implement it more? How do we help you actually use the content in the training that we have created?
So before we wrap up, I have a couple of things that I am just curious about even myself,
as someone who has seen you grow and this podcast grow over the past three years. And I’m sure your listeners a curious about this as well,
especially if they’re considering starting their own podcast. What have been some of the biggest struggles or some of the biggest growth moments and opportunities over the past three years with this podcast,
what have you really maybe learned the hard way and and now you know, you’re gonna take those lessons and move it forward to just make this podcast even better in 2020.
Definitely scheduling and having to stay on top of my schedule in batch recording. That has been very difficult for me to d’oh.
So that struggle number one, number two in the beginning. And I’m sure this before in the beginning,
I thought that I could do everything myself, and I learned very quickly that I couldn’t produce the show without you,
I didn’t get the first episode off the ground, so I identified very well that technology and April don’t get along that well,
and I needed to get that off my plate. But then the third thing, I would say we’re just for me.
Personally, I feel like I have grown as a leader in the fact that I have to be very clear about the injuries.
Old I’m giving people from each episode. So in the beginning, and I don’t no, that I was quite is clear.
And I still think that I have a lot of work to do to grow into this, but I’m trying to always share that in the beginning of every episode,
you know, this is what you’re gonna learn This is the end result of hanging out with me for the next 25 minutes if you are in this place than you need this.
So I’m trying to do a better job, actually communicating the expectations of listening to every single show and the better it outlining the show tree means I’m also trying to be a better speaker and not go on as many tensions.
And that’s a little hard, because I I just wanna hang out with my listeners. You know, like I’m just talking just to you right now,
and we’re just talking to one other person listening. It doesn’t matter who else is listening. We’re talking to the one person that is tuned into her computer or her phone listeningto us talk right now,
and I really am striving to make sure it’s like we’re sitting across the kitchen table from each other. But she’s getting a kick ass business training for free,
so I think I need to continue to work hard at being better at that, too. So you mentioned a little bit ago about outsourcing and figuring out what isn’t exactly your strong suit.
I am curious, and I think that this is going to apply to more than just podcasting. This can work for a social media manager,
a marketer via any of these things. We have had moments in the past to be, you know,
completely real and honest, where because I think of a lack of communication, things just weren’t clicking between us,
where we’ve had some tension in some moments of confusion. So what is that like? I mean, we have been working together for technically over three years at this point,
and there have been times where you’ve had to set some boundaries. I’ve had to set some boundaries, but I love that we do it in such a respectful way.
At least I feel so that it doesn’t really impact our working relationship. And even, you know, at this point,
I consider you a friend. So what is that like? How do you navigate that world of outsourcing and working with in other people’s boundaries while also still making sure that you set your own?
Mmm, That is a very hard question. And honestly, answer it. So I am not a great delegator.
I am an entrepreneur. My who I am and my strength that completely into that entrepreneur personality and that is creating and teaching and,
you know, mental rain. When it comes to stopping to think about what I need and then creating a system for it to delegate it,
it’s something that I’m really, really bad out. And so when I bring somebody on board my team,
I have Thio have a very healthy understanding that I’m bringing like you onboard this team because you know more about this than I do.
I don’t have to know everything about everything. And so when you say this is how this has to be and as long as I understand the why behind it,
then I submit to you in that because I’ve given you that place of authority and my company and on my like extended team because,
you know, and I don’t in. So although it pisses me off that I don’t know everything, and sometimes it really hurts and ruffles my feathers when you’re like April,
you have got to get this episode in right now or whatever, you know what I mean? I need that and that’s why I hired you.
And I think that all women, as they’re growing their team. They should have a healthy level of respect for the people that they bring in their team.
You need to take the time. If you identify like me that you’re not a great delegator. Understand that you’re not a great delegator because therefore,
you need to be a better communicator because you understand that you understand that you might not be a great delegator,
and there has to be this incredible level of trust and mutual respect. The other thing that I will say is that you know,
when you’re growing your team, a lot of people start out bringing people on their team, especially women as their best friends.
And you can’t be too nice, but they’re overly nice. Let’s have coffee. Let’s take our kids to the park or whatever,
right? You’re hiring somebody to do a job. And so I think that friendship develops after the establishment,
and that’s what I’ve found. Two. Because I used to do that all the time, and it was very hard to then draw find hard lines in the boundaries between Frank,
my team. So I used to want to be in everybody’s best friend and they could come over for dinner and you know all those things in a night In the last five years,
I haven’t grown my team that way. First, I hire somebody for their area of expertise, and then we develop mutually respectful,
you know, boundaries in a relationship. And then the friendship grows like you went and saw Jacob dancing on the dance with me.
I mean, the way we do stuff together, that’s a business relationship. And I will say this,
you guys, this is why you see men do a better job growing teams and women, cause we all just want to be already is friend.
But it comes down to the bottom line of getting a job done in finding the right person that believes in your mission that believes in what you’re doing.
The resonates with the purpose behind what you’re producing, whatever that may be, and that they have the right area of expertise.
If you do all those things, the friendship’s gonna come out of that. But that’s where I believe that it starts.
Okay, so as is the case when I normally interview someone, this is going on a little bit long.
So let’s wrap this up here and I am curious. What are your three favorite episodes from the podcasts over these last three years?
Okay, I’m so glad you asked me that. So I have to say, in year one, my favorite episode that we did is still the podcast trailer.
It’s episode number 00 if you guys haven’t listened to it before, I cried in that thing like I was so moved and I was so determined to get this podcast off the ground It totally start crying in it.
And I remember reaching out to Britney and being like, I can’t do this. This can’t be the trailer.
And you’re like, No, this is the trailer were producing this and this is in the beginning, we were producing this.
This is what we’re putting out there because this is who you really are. April. It’s just like six minutes long.
It’s my lifestyle entrepreneur manifesto because all of it is still so true. And it’s just everything this partner.
So I love that one. I would say in 2018 it was pretty awesome having Amy Porter field on the show,
and I really love that one. That’s episode number 87. If you guys haven’t heard that one yet.
I love that one because I had known Amy for a few years before we recorded that episode, and I was able to get her on the show and talk not about online courses or marketing until was a really cool show for her to share some vulnerability.
That show is about being brave and bold and being authentic to communicate with your TRIBE. And I loved the opportunity also for Amy,
but then for us to see and hear her talk about things she doesn’t always talk about on her own podcast.
And so I really liked that one. And then for 2019 this shows that I’m a business modeling geek.
It’s definitely number 122. How to choose the best business model for your life because I think that’s way where it needs to start.
For all of you guys, if you don’t choose the right business model the build you’re gonna be totally miserable.
You could even make all the tea in China, and you’d still be miserable if your business model isn’t right.
So it would be episode number 122 from this year. Awesome. Well, I know that you have some incredible listeners,
and you have an audience that absolutely adores you. And I don’t know why they wouldn’t. So is there anybody that you want,
Thio particularly give a shadow too? Yes, In here something. It’s so hard just to pick a couple.
And so I’m just gonna read some reviews for those you guys that have taken a chance. I’m to leave us some reviews on iTunes,
and I would just appreciate you guys being listeners. So much. So the domestic diva said this podcast is informational,
interesting and educational. Thank you so much for posting this violet. And I really, really appreciate that.
We’re going back, like, a couple of years, too. And, uh, see, Nam Lee said this is just what everybody who needs a business who’s starting a business needs step by step all the tools at your fingertips making it clear and easy.
I absolutely love this. Jay said Creative, informative, very enlightening. You totally have to check this out.
And then Caroline Cole said April is terrific. Tune into your strategies you can use immediately to move the needle on your life in your business.
Well done, April. I do appreciate you guys so much. There are so many reviews on here.
It was really hard, really hard to pick. I will say one more from Lila Davidson. She says she loves his podcast for its practical on actionable advice,
and she finds a pro to be more personal than some personable than some other podcast does with the Miller content is probably because I tell why let all my dirty laundry behind the scenes,
I could relate to her mom, entrepreneur and sensibility and reminders on keeping things real as we work hard and build our businesses.
And so, Lila, thank you so much for taking the time to write that review and all the guys,
if you haven’t reviewed us yet on Apple, we would totally love it. And thank you so much,
Britney. We have to give, like, clap my golf club behind the scenes. You guys wouldn’t have this show without Britney.
And so for our third podcast birthday, stay tuned here after we wrap up and we we say goodbye to Britney and I’ll be giving you a bunch of information.
That, and gifts and cool things that you guys can take with you after today’s show. So thank you,
Brittany. I appreciate it. Of course. Thank you. April. Thank you so much for sticking around at the end of this episode.
I know it was longer than most far our episodes. I appreciate you so much more than me sitting here can say in this Mike.
But when I record this show, I don’t imagine myself speaking to hundreds of thousands of people that have downloaded this show.
I just imagine sitting here like me and you with a glass of wine woman to woman talking about business,
talking shop and me pouring into you every time you connect with me on instagram or you share this show with your friends.
I see that on on the other side, too. And I just fully appreciate it so much. Your support for the sweet Life entrepreneur a podcast.
I am some massively awesome episodes plan for you guys in 2020 who? Just wait where I really get your business to the next level.
I’m so excited to pour into you in 2020 and beyond. So as we talked about your birthday present,
the sweet life podcast is giving you a birthday present. I’m giving you completely free access to my ideal client Avatar Master Class.
This is an hour long training and a complete workbook to help you hone in on your ideal clients really decide on your niche and actually write the copy that could go on your website and in all of your marketing,
so that you can make a ton of money. That’s the thing. When you get your messaging right,
that’s when your business is just catapulted to the next level. And so I’m giving you completely free access to my eye.
I see a master class, and one person is also going to receive a free to our deep dive business strategy session with me,
which is $700 value. So in order to get the free master class and have an opportunity to work with me totally free in the deep of strategy session,
here’s a recap. This is the three short steps you need to do Number one share this episode and number two take a screenshot of what you’ve done sharing this episode.
Then number three email s your screen shot to podcast at sweet life co dot com. But the rule is you have to do that this week,
so this is only valid. January 13th through January 1920 20. So that’s rule. So I appreciate you guys.
Thanks for tuning in to the show. All of the show notes can be found by visiting Suite Life co dot com and again email your screen shot of your share to podcast at Sweet life co dot com.
How entrepreneurship has affected our marriage, intimacy, and communication.
How we teach our boys to brand themselves and chase their dreams.
The family meeting and mastermind schedule we use to take control.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
I often get asked how we manage such a chaotic life with business and kids. The truth is, it’s not glamorous. Aaron and I struggled a lot in the beginning.
When you’re growing multiple businesses with three boys and facing the reality of living with medical needs, marriage challenges, lifestyle changes and the desire to control your future… it’s never easy, but that’s okay because what you’re fighting for is worth it.
If you’re concerned about how entrepreneurship is affecting your kids, you feel like your marriage is struggling, or you want to hear family systems you can use in your life, this is the episode for you.
You love hard. You work hard. And you want to do great things. And you shall.
Take a screenshot of this episode in your favorite app, tag me on Instagram (@sweetlife_entrepreneur), and let me know what part you resonated with the most.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, SweetLife Launch.
[Tweet “I often get asked how we manage such a chaotic life with business and kids. The truth is, it’s not glamorous.“]
How to set a vision and boundaries for the month of December.
How to outsource and delegate specifically in the month of December.
How to micro-plan your last two weeks of December.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
December is a chaotic time of year for most people even if they’re not running their own business like you are. If you’re feeling especially overwhelmed you can’t miss this episode with Joy Wilder.
Joy is the founder of the Brilliant Life™ Business and Micro-Planning™ Systems where she helps women design insanely successful businesses around a life they love without sacrificing their family or themselves.
Joy’s a certified business coach and specializes in Micro-Planning™, helping others turn their passion into profit and optimizing existing businesses’ profitability. She’s the mom of four children under the age of eight, owner of three small businesses, and former Location Pastor.
She has a passion for coaching others to live their Brilliant Life™ while impacting their communities for good.
When not raising her businesses and babies, Joy loves date nights with her husband, is a spinning junkie and a Settlers groupie.
Take a screenshot of the episode, tag @joywilder2 and @sweetlife_entrepreneur, and put in your post what you’re going to do to rest this December.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, SweetLife Launch.
[Tweet “December is a chaotic time of year for most people even if they’re not running their own business like you are. If you’re feeling especially overwhelmed you can’t miss this episode with Joy Wilder.“]
Why you absolutely need to install a Facebook pixel.
The types of posts you should use for your ads and how to determine which ones work best for your audience.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
There’s a gap between entrepreneurs who don’t have a ton of money to invest in ads and others who’re ready to invest thousands of dollars into ads each month.
Luckily, our guest this week is fully aware of this gap and can help people on both sides.
Sarah Tomes is a certified digital marketer, the founder of Tomes Social Media, and our in-house Facebook and Instagram marketing expert who’s back on the show to help you get started with Facebook ads before we head into 2020.
So, if you’re wanting to get started with Facebook or Instagram ads but you don’t have thousands to invest in hiring a digital marketer and running ads, this is the episode for you.
Implement Sarah’s advice over the next 6 weeks to see which type of ads will work best for you in 2020.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, SweetLife Launch.
[Tweet “There’s a gap between entrepreneurs who don’t have a ton of money to invest in ads and others who’re ready to invest thousands of dollars into ads each month.”]
Pete’s four tips for overcoming your fear of speaking on stages.
Pete’s four-part framework for using stages to grow your business.
The power of sharing your message in relation to your overall purpose with your business and life.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
According to our guest this week, speaking is 20x more powerful for growing your business than online marketing.
So, if you’ve ever imagined yourself standing on stage speaking to a room full of people, but you have no idea how to make that happen, this episode is for you.
Pete Vargas teaches people how to grow their business and spread their message through stages. In 2003, his life was deeply impacted by one man who was speaking on-stage and he’s been dedicating his life to the power of stages ever since.
Pete and his team have booked over 47,000 stages worldwide and generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue through those stages. In 2016, Pete founded Advance Your Reach; a company with a mission to impact one billion lives through one million stages across seven spheres of influence.
Pete believes your signature talk is the most powerful marketing tool you have and that stages are the fastest way to grow your business.
I’ve personally utilized Pete’s strategies to grow my own business through speaking and I’m thrilled to have him on the show to share his wisdom with you as well.
The three components of rolling out your new brand.
The importance of making sure your brand experience matches your brand’s visuals and messages.
What it looks like to evolve your brand over time.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
As long as your business’ doors are open, you need to be mindful of your brand.
If you’ve found yourself in a place where you don’t know what to post on social media, you think your company looks like everyone else’s, or you’re not getting noticed, it’s likely because you either haven’t been through a branding process or it’s time for you to rebrand.
In this final episode of my three-part series with Elizabeth McFadden, we’re breaking down exactly what to do after you put together the brand strategy we discussed in episodes 143 and 144.
A breakdown of the components of a brand strategy.
The exact steps to take yourself through the branding template and process.
How to know when to be clear and when to be clever with your messaging and branding.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Before you can move on to fun, visual parts of your branding, you need to really learn your market and your people.
That’s why we’re continuing our three-part branding conversation with Elizabeth McFadden.
Not only has Elizabeth been such an important asset to the development and growth of my own businesses, but she’s single-handedly responsible for the messaging behind the entire new industry of baby planning and parent coaching that I helped create back in the mid-2000’s.
In last week’s episode, Elizabeth taught us all about what branding is and who it’s for. This week, she’s teaching us the next section of the fundamentals of how to develop your brand so that you can make money, become known, and attract the perfect clients to your business like a magnet.
How Elizabeth grew her company from a home-based, online business to where it is today with a team based out of Kansas City while raising three young boys.
A breakdown of the different components of a brand.
The fundamentals of big business branding for smaller entrepreneurs.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Branding is so much more than just having a cute logo.
Our guest for the next three episodes taught me everything I know about branding.
With over twenty years of experience, Elizabeth McFadden has successfully positioned small-to-mid-sized businesses in the marketplace by developing brand strategies, engaging copy, and executing marketing and media plans.
Elizabeth’s current role at Novella Brand House involves leading the entire branding process and the marketing strategy side of what they do and overseeing their day-to-day operations.
Elizabeth is also the mom of three boys, like me, and we’ve even taken our families on hikes together here in the mountains of Colorado. See throwback pics below.
The five steps of Nikki Rausch’s Selling Staircase.
What to say when you get on a sales call.
Whether or not you should provide any free coaching during your discovery calls.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
If you’re uncomfortable selling to your people, you literally can’t afford to miss this episode.
Nikki Rausch is a seasoned sales guru with decades of experience behind her who has a passion for the art of authentic selling.
After 25 years selling to companies and organizations like The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett Packard, and Nasa, Nikki decided to trade-in her road warrior status so that she could help entrepreneurs sell in a way that builds relationships and creates more connections, closed deals, and long-term clients.
As a sales coach, trainer, author, and speaker, Nikki transforms the misunderstood process of selling into techniques, tools, and tips that can be successfully incorporated into a process that you can replicate.
How to Take Action:
Take the SweetLife Assessment to find out if this episode is meant for you and where you’re at with your business.
Why you need to train your brain to think like an entrepreneur.
Christine’s three “P”’s for designing work you love.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
I’ve never worked for anyone else a day in my life. I have no idea what it’s actually like to work a nine-to-five job.
However, I know that’s not likely to be the case for you. So, if you’re feeling stuck in your nine-to-five and you’re looking for a way out, I’ve brought you the perfect guest this week to help start creating your escape plan.
Christine McAlister is a business coach, the founder of Life with Passion, and the bestselling author of The Income Replacement Formula.
Christine helps high achievers all over the world replace their incomes, and then some, and quit their nine-to-five jobs.
Take a listen to this episode to find out the seven steps you need to take in order to leave the corporate world behind!
Download Stefanie Gass’ 10 Steps to Starting a Podcast
Episode Highlights:
How to identify it podcasting is right for you and your business.
The first three steps to launching your own podcast to help grow your business.
How to use your podcast to grow your list.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
When I started this podcast, I already had a large list and a loyal following, but I realize that’s not everyone else’s situation when they’re ready to start their own podcast. That’s why I’m thrilled to bring you the exact right person to help me out this week.
Stephanie Gass went from being a jet-setting corporate mogul who was working 60 hours a week to a wife, mother of two, and an entrepreneur who now helps other entrepreneurs grow their business through podcasting with no list.
So, if you’re interested in starting a podcast, or have already started one, and you need help using that podcast to grow your business without already having a large following or email list, this is your episode!
How to Take Action:
Download Stefanie Gass’ 10 Steps to Starting a Podcast
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “When I started this podcast, I already had a large list and a loyal following, but I realize that’s not everyone else’s situation when they’re ready to start their own podcast.”]
How we’re physically affected by the situations we’re in every single day.
Solving the disconnect between your business and your body so they’re both growing together.
Five investments you can make to align with your body.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
As entrepreneurs, we place incredibly high demands on our body and often give it very little in return.
Earlier this year, my body decided it had had enough. For the first time ever, my body couldn’t keep up with what I was demanding of it.
That’s why I’m so excited to bring you my guests for this week!
Tah and Kole Woody have a combined 25 years in emergency medicine, 17 years in educating professionals about addictions, and 14 years in personal training and body alignment.
They’ve also worked with New York City’s high-stressed entrepreneurs to help them identify what’s going on inside their body to relieve stress and help them have different modalities they can do in order to understand their own bodies cues of when disease is coming and start to heal themselves before that happens.
This isn’t the typical self-care, make sure you get good sleep, and go to the gym advice. This is bio integration. Take a listen to find out exactly what that means.
How to Take Action:
Begin making the five investments discussed in this episode.
Reach out to me on Instagram (@sweetlife_entrepreneur) and let me know what you thought of this topic and episode.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “As entrepreneurs, we place incredibly high demands on our body and often give it very little in return.“]
The difference between homeschooling and unschooling.
The business model of homeschooling or unschooling and whether it might be a good fit for your family.
How both Otakara and I are navigating these disruptive waters with our own children.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
There’s a lifestyle entrepreneur movement happening and each year more and more families are pulling their kids from traditional schools for two reasons:
1) The system isn’t preparing their children to be entrepreneurial independent thinkers.
2) The traditional school system is cramping their family’s desire for time and location freedom.
In this disruptive episode, we dive into the difference of homeschooling, unschooling and traditional education, how each is affecting our kids and if it’s time for you make a change for your lifestyle, kids and future.
I also share behind the scenes of how we’re navigating these questions in our family and how we handle three kids who thrive in three separate structures.
How to Take Action:
Follow my family’s disruptive journey with our behind-the-scence vlog, Burn The Picket Fence™
How the face of online marketing is going back to a grassroots relationship-building model.
The four levels of Pat Flynn’s superfans pyramid.
The struggle I’ve personally experienced with making connections recently in my own business and why Pat’s message resonates with me so deeply.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Online business is rapidly changing, and authentic relationship building is taking the lead.
That’s why I’ve brought the incredible Pat Flynn on the show to talk about how to create a deep connection with your audience and have people follow you faithfully.
Pat is a father, husband, and entrepreneur who lives and works in San Diego. He owns several successful online businesses and is a professional blogger, keynote speaker, Wall Street Journal Best-Selling author and host of the Smart Passive Income and Ask Pat podcasts; which have earned a combined total of over 60 million downloads!
Pat has won multiple awards and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times and Forbes. He’s also an adviser for ConvertKit, Leadpages, Teachable, and other companies in the digital marketing arena.
If you’ve been trying to build your followers, but the connection just isn’t there or if you’ve been trying to apply automation and funnels to your relationship building, this is an episode you can’t afford to miss.
How to find the balance of sharing personal things on your business accounts.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
We know fake when we see it. We’ve all come across those Instagram accounts that immediately scream, “Fake!”
Brian Fanzo is a millennial keynote speaker and podcaster who helps global brands and events leverage emerging technology, digital marketing, and social media to connect with digital natives.
I first approached Brian a year ago about being on the podcast because he is really powerful at inspiring others to be authentic and share what actually needs to be shared in order to grow your business and allow people to have access to your life on social media.
If you’ve been struggling to create content and you don’t why or you’ve had difficulty connecting with your audience or if you feel the need to make things seem better than they really are, this is the episode for you.
How to Take Action:
Brainstorm how you can provide your social media followers with access to new areas of your life and business and begin to implement some of those ideas.
Remove the people who aren’t a positive influence from your social media feeds.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
The type of content you should be creating in order to attract the right people.
How to find out what content is resonating with your audience.
How often you should post to each platform within Instagram.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
This week we’re continuing our conversation all about Instagram with Jenn Herman. If you have listened to the first part of our conversation, I definitely encourage you to do that and you can do so here.
Jenn is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She’s the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a top ten social media blog for multiple years.
Through her blog, consulting, and speaking, Jenn provides tips, training, and resources for organizations of all sizes that need to structure their social media strategies.
Last week, Jenn talked about getting your Instagram profile set-up the right way and this week she’s giving us some amazing advice about the content we post on the platform because, let’s face it, there’s no sense wasting time posting content that’s going to attract the wrong people to your business.
Setting up your Instagram profile and content in a way that gets you attention from the right people.
The five areas of your Instagram profile you need to focus on.
Jenn’s top Instagram hashtag strategy.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
To be brutally honest with you, my Instagram following is kind of terrible. We’ve been trying to grow it for a while now and our efforts are just not paying off.
I personally love Instagram and love being super active on the app, but it’s very clear to me that I’m not the best person to give advice about this platform. That’s why I’ve brought you our special guest this week.
Jenn Herman is a social media consultant, speaker, and globally recognized Instagram expert. She’s the forefront blogger on Instagram marketing and her blog, Jenn’s Trends, has won the title of a top ten social media blog for multiple years.
Through her blog, consulting, and speaking, Jenn provides tips, training, and resources for organizations of all sizes that need to structure their social media strategies.
Jenn had so much amazing advice that we had to split the conversation into two separate episodes so, enjoy part one and make sure you’re subscribed to the podcast so you don’t miss part two next week.
An explanation of who should be utilizing LinkedIn and their ads.
A breakdown of the cost of running ads on LinkedIn and how to get started.
Tips for using LinkedIn organically, including what you should and shouldn’t post and how often you should be posting.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
A lot of people still see LinkedIn as an outdated platform for online resumes, but it really is the place to build genuine business relationships.
AJ Wilcox is a LinkedIn ads pro who founded b2linked.com; a LinkedIn ad-specific ad agency. As the official partners of LinkedIn, they manage some of the most sophisticated advertising accounts worldwide.
With most of its users logging in only once or twice a month, LinkedIn is a platform that can provide big rewards for minimal effort.
Four simple steps to utilizing a Facebook Messenger bot in your business.
Why Facebook Messenger bots shouldn’t be the only marketing tool you use.
Chrys’ tips for how you should be using a Facebook Messenger bot depending on whether you’re new in business or a little more established.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
This week we’re continuing our Facebook ad strategy training by diving into Facebook Messenger bots.
Facebook Messenger bots are perfect if you’re intentionally trying to grow your list with authentic relationships.
Chrys Tan is the host of the Hack Your Online Business podcast and the founder of Chrys Media; a messenger marketing agency for online businesses.
Chrys has been featured in places like Buffer and Our Social Times and has spoken at events and conferences around the world.
If you’ve never used bot before or if you’ve been using one and you’re pretty sure you’re not using it to it’s fullest potential or as strategically as you could be, this is one episode you don’t want to miss.
An explanation of exactly what the heck is going on with automated funnels.
Why you need to connect with the right people instead of trying to appeal to the masses.
The importance of video and how to utilize it across Facebook and Instagram.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Is the automated funnel dead?!
Facebook and Instagram marketing expert, Sarah Tomes, is back on the show for the second half of a two-part series and she’s going to answer this question for us.
This is an episode you don’t want to miss if you want to know what you can do to continue to grow your list with ideal people for your business; even if you don’t have an established business or audience yet.
An explanation of what a sales funnel is and why the traditional funnel is no longer working.
The factors to consider when assessing your current funnel to determine if it’s time to change it more of a relationship marketing approach.
The importance of curating specific content so you attract the right audience.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Online marking is ever-changing and we need to regularly update our strategies accordingly.
That’s exactly why our in-house Facebook and Instagram marketing expert, Sarah Tomes, is back on the show for the first episode in a two-part series.
In this episode, Sarah explains exactly what you can do right now to make sure your Facebook and Instagram funnels are growing your list with the right people.
How to Take Action:
Evaluate your current funnel to see if it’s converting at an appropriate rate or if it’s time to switch to a relationship marketing approach.
Create specific content and begin providing it to your ideal audience without asking for anything in return.
Join us in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “Online marking is ever-changing and we need to regularly update our strategies accordingly.”]
Why you need to take the emotions out of difficult conversations with your clients.
The five steps that will help you appropriately manage critical conversations with your clients.
The importance of keeping everything in writing and having all your legal ducks in a row when it comes to navigating these unpleasant situations.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
It can be gutting to learn a client is unhappy with your work, but it’s unrealistic to think it will never happen. So, while this might be an unpleasant topic, it’s one we have to talk about.
Helping us tackle this topic is Dr. Cortney Baker. Cortney is an award-winning entrepreneur, podcast host, research, author, Tedx speaker, and a nationally-recognized authority on women’s leadership. She has been featured by Fox News, Forbes, iHeartRadio, Huffington Post, and more.
As a leadership expert, mentor, and business coach to female entrepreneurs and mother of three, Cortney is passionate about inspiring and empowering women to lead with greatness.
Connect with me on Instagram, @sweetlife_entrepreneur, and let me know if you’ve ever had a critical conversation with your client and what you learned from it.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “It can be gutting to learn a client is unhappy with your work, but it’s unrealistic to think it will never happen.”]
What to do at community events to maximize your time and efforts.
How to follow-up after community events.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Community truly is the new currency.
However, most of us don’t have the time to sit around and start new relationships. So, we have to be very strategic with our time and how we build a bond with our clients.
Jennifer Kroiss is a business strategist and networking enthusiast who says relationships have influenced every aspect of her 20-year career. She’s now become so great at connecting with others that she left her corporate job three years ago and has a successful business based entirely on referrals.
If you’re a new entrepreneur or an established one who feels you’re not fully connected to a community the way you want to be, you don’t want to miss Jennifer’s tips in this episode.
How practicing healthy receiving in your relationship will carry over into your business.
Examples of how you can starting practicing healthy receiving right now.
How online dating is just like online marketing (and how being good at one can improve the other).
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Andi Forness is an online dating coach who’s been published in Mind Body Green, Greatest, Austin Woman Magazine, Thrive Global and has been quoted in Forbes, Bravo TV, Men’s Health, and more!
Andi helps single, high-achieving, analytical women use online dating as a personal development program so they can finally find Mr. Right and feel fulfilled in all areas of their life.
One of the ones Andi relates dating to entrepreneurship is by pointing out that online dating is just like online marketing.
Whether you’re single or have been married for 20+ years as I have, this episode has something for everyone. So, take a listen now to find out the other ways dating (even your spouse) can help improve your business!
Below is a list of items Andi mentioned in the episode as examples of things that might be on your daily list of activities:
Using the list above as a guide, write out your list of typical daily activities in order of how you typical prioritize them. Then, evaluate the list to see if it aligns with what you really want your day to look like.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “One of the ones Andi relates dating to entrepreneurship is by pointing out that online dating is just like online marketing.”]
The powerful connection between intimacy and business development that can boost your business and brand.
The three keys to passion.
Tips help you find your passion again.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
“Falling in love is easy. Staying in love takes mindfulness.” – Dr. Cheryl Fraser
Sharp, frank, and fearless, that’s Buddhist psychologist, sex therapist, author, and speaker Dr. Cheryl Fraser.
Dr. Cheryl is a sought-after media psychologist and relationship expert who combines cutting edge love and sex therapy with mindfulness to help couples cut through resistance and ignite the connection and sizzle they think they’ve lost.
Speaking from the wisdom of others and my own personal experiences, I truly believe there is a connection between our intimate relationship with our spouse or partner and the success of our business.
So, whether you’re married, planning to be married, or seeking a more intimate and passionate relationship with your partner, this is one episode you do not want to miss!
From “Best-Kept Secret” to Industry Leader:
3 Publicity Secrets to Multiply Your Revenue, Reach More People, and Change the World
Episode Highlights:
What publicity does for your business, no matter what phase you’re in.
The struggles I experienced getting press during the beginning phase of my company.
The importance of relationships and connecting with other people when it comes to getting publicity and growing your business.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
In order to become the go-to expert or influencer in your space, you need publicity.
That’s where Selena Soo comes in …
Selena is a publicity and marketing strategist for visionary entrepreneurs, experts, and authors who want to reach millions with their message.
Selena has helped clients and students get featured in places like O, The Oprah Magazine, Forbes, and INC. and land interviews on popular podcasts and national TV.
Selena’s signature approach comes down to building powerful and long-lasting relationships with influencers in the media in a thoughtful, authentic way.
Many of Selena’s clients have become industry leaders with seven-figure businesses, raving fans, and hundreds of thousands of followers.
Share this episode with someone who would benefit from having publicity for their business as well. Bonus points if you tag me and Selena on Instagram when you share it!
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “In order to become the go-to expert or influencer in your space, you need publicity.”]
How to create margin in four different areas of your life; your health, home, finances, and time.
Five different ways to simplify your life.
The connection between mental, physical, and spiritual health and the success of your business.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
If you want to start or grow a business, you need to make room in your life for entrepreneurship.
That’s where this week’s guest comes in …
Corie Clark is a business educator, creator of the Purposeful Planner, author of The Simplicity Project, and host of the Purpose with Corie Clark podcast.
Corie loves not only helping others find their purpose but equipping them to live it out and turn it into a profitable business.
Today, Corie and I will be discussing all about how you can create the margins and space in your life so you can grow your business.
An explanation of how your business and your brand are not the same thing.
Why your business is at a greater risk of failing if you jump into the branding phase too quickly.
The steps you need to take when developing the soul of your brand.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
One of the most important strategies in business development is doing a great job branding your company. And, since we’re spending this entire month talking all things business development, I couldn’t think of a better way to start off than by speaking with a branding expert like our guest this week.
Sashka Hanna-Rappl is also a leadership coach, business strategist, entertainer, author, and speaker who helps visionaries go from unknown underdog to brand leader using creativity, humor, imagination, and wisdom.
Before you take another step in starting your business, take a listen to this episode to begin finding the soul of your brand.
Five simple, yet effective steps to create systems that build efficiency and profitability in your business.
The three options you have for making the completion of a task more efficient.
The importance of actually outlining the process for completing tasks.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Kate Erickson is a creator, engager, and implementer at Entrepreneurs On Fire, which is an award-winning podcast where John Lee Dumas interviews inspiring entrepreneurs every Monday and drops value bombs every Thursday. She is also the host of the podcast, Kate’s Take, and co-author of The Podcast Journal.
Kate is passionate about helping entrepreneurs create freedom in their business and life through developing systems and processes that can help their business scale and grow.
I’ve personally been learning from Kate for years and one of the things I love about her is her ability to break things down in a way that’s easy to understand and implement.
If you’ve been trying to build a business but you don’t have the systems in place to gain traction, Kate’s simple strategies are sure to help.
Complete the five steps Kate listed in this episode and let me know on Instagram how they’ve helped you become more efficient and profitable.
Join me in my business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
[Tweet “If you’ve been trying to build a business but you don’t have the systems in place to gain traction, Kate’s simple strategies are sure to help.“]
A discussion of how the way you’re supposed to be productive might not work for you and why that’s okay.
How to use what does work for you already when it comes to your productivity.
The four productivity buckets you must fill in order to be profitable.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
You can’t expect to be profitable in your business if you’re not productive first.
Amber De La Garza is The Productivity Specialist. She’s a sought-after coach, trainer, speaker, writer, and host of the Productivity Straight Talk podcast.
Amber helps driven entrepreneurs execute actionable solutions to maximize your profit, reduce your stress, and make time for what matters most.
In my conversation with Amber today, she’s breaking down the four “buckets” you need to fill in order to be productive and profitable.
How to conquer mental blocks that are likely sabotaging your success.
The impact your thoughts have on your productivity in your business.
Why you need to focus on how your business serves your clients rather than how it serves you.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Steve Hultquist has been an engineer, founder, senior executive, ski instructor, industry analyst, and more. He’s currently a coach for people who want to get past their mental blocks.
In fact, Steve was my very first business coach almost fifteen years ago.
I was making some excuses for myself and Steve helped me shift my thought processes so that I could remove my blocks and stop playing small.
If you think you might be getting in your own way, this is one episode you can’t afford to miss.
Join me in my brand new business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
Episode Highlights:
The importance of setting boundaries for consumption time and creation time.
The biggest problems that result from not setting proper boundaries.
Kendra tips for setting boundaries in your work and life and how for sticking to them.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Kendra Hennessy is a mother of two, a home management expert, the Founder of Mother Like a Boss, and the Host of the Mother Like a Boss podcast.
Kendra’s mission is to redefine homemaking in the 21st century and make the difficult and tedious parts of running a home smoother through systems, routines, and mindset shifts.
In this episode, Kendra and I take a deep dive into the importance of having boundaries both at home and in your business. This is especially important when it comes to being specific about when you’re going to consume information and when you’re actually going to create things for your business because, as Kendra says …
“If you’re in consumption mode, you can’t be in creative mode.”
How to Take Action:
Join me in my brand new business mentorship and mastermind, The Committed.
Why Ashley means when she says, “the vision is the puzzle and the goals are the pieces.”
An explanation of the eight dimensions of wellness.
Examples of how creating intentions around these eight dimensions have helped shifted both Ashely’s and my perspective about certain areas where we felt like we were failing.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
It’s officially 2019 and now is the time most of us are setting New Year’s Resolutions or our goals for the year. However, I challenge you to instead focus on your intentions for the year.
Ashley Matejka is a passionate holistic wellness consultant and the creator of Wellevance; whose approach helps professional women struggling to prioritize self-care as they juggle all of life’s pieces to create healthy habits and align their lives.
In this episode, Ashley is going to show us how to set intentions in the eight different aspects of life wellness and she’ll explain how doing so will help you reach your intentional and purposeful goals faster.
Start creating your vision and intentions for 2019 using Ashley’s advice.
Post a screenshot of this episode, or of you listening to it, on Instagram, tag @wellevance8 and @sweetlife_entrepreneur, and let us know your 2019 intentions so we can cheer you on!
[Tweet “Now is the time most of us are setting New Year’s Resolutions or our goals for the year. However, I challenge you to focus on your intentions for the year instead.”]
How Alex sees the Bible as a book on how to run a business.
The importance of discovering your calling and then shaping your business around it.
The 3 steps you can take right now to incorporate your spiritual life into your business operations.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
I don’t hide the fact that I’m a Christian but I also don’t regularly talk about it on the podcast.
However, I do strongly believe in being transparent about your core beliefs when you’re in a place of leadership and, seeing that it’s Easter week, I felt the need to address the often-confusing dilemma of mixing your faith with your business.
Alex Miranda is a former Miami nightclub promoter who, after having a “come to Jesus” moment, left the nightclubs behind to start the Daily Godpreneur; a personal development brand for Christian entrepreneurs.
One topic that’s always been of interest to me as a Christian entrepreneur, is the balance between needing money but not worshiping it.
During part of our conversation, Alex summed it beautifully when he said, “The profits are a byproduct of me doing what I’m born to do.”
My appreciation for you, my incredible audience, for helping me reach the milestone of 100 podcast episodes.
Four mini-interviews with amazing women who’re in the trenches building their businesses.
The program of mine that one guest said she wished she would’ve gone through before spending 15K on various coaches and programs over the past several years.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
The first thing I need to say is thank you. Thank you for continuing to tune in. For sharing the show with others. For connecting with me on other platforms. And, for sharing how much this show means to you.
I thought long and hard about how I wanted to celebrate this incredible milestone and then I realized, it had be about you.
This show wouldn’t have reached 100 episodes if it weren’t for you, my amazing listeners, and the only way I can celebrate that is by sharing some of your stories.
The four women featured in this special episode are your sisters. They’re in the trenches building their business just like you.
You’ll hear from Kelly Bond; who talks about “rewilding” herself. As a former extreme athlete turned mother and entrepreneur, she’s finding her way back to her wild side and creating a business that will help other women do the same.
You’ll also hear from Monica Miller. Monica has been in business for a few years but is choosing to completely pivot her ideal client avatar and utilize a local market to grow her online business.
You’ll also hear from Paty Mariposa. The last year has seen Paty turn a hobby into a business, epically fail at her first big launch, and then have her most profitable week-to-date.
Lastly, you’ll also hear from Ali Zabel. While in business school, Ali never dreamed having children would become a priority over her career … until she held her baby in her arms for the first time and realized she needed to design a business that would fit her newly aligned priorities.
Check out each of these amazing ladies’ websites and share their business with anyone you feel would benefit from their services.
Follow these incredible women on social media using the links below and let them know how much you enjoyed hearing their honest accounts of building their businesses.
[Tweet “The four women featured in this special episode are your sisters. They’re in the trenches building their business just like you.“]
Visit SweetLifeCo.com to learn more about our giving initiatives.
Episode Highlights:
An explanation of what it means to be a social entrepreneur.
Sitinee’s journey of selling her home and moving her family of seven to three different cities in 15 months so they can collectively decide where they want to live life on their terms.
The two opportunities Sitinee has for entrepreneurs and their children to become more involved in service projects.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
The holiday season is upon us and that means now is the perfect time to finally become a social entrepreneur!
Not only is our guest this week, Sitinee Sheffert, a social entrepreneur, but she is also a blogger and speaker with a passion for empowering kids to make a difference.
She is also the founder of Giving Artfully, a platform that connects crafters with volunteer opportunities, and Giving Artfully Kids; which is a program that inspires kids to spread kindness through crafting-based service projects.
Together with her husband, who is also an entrepreneur, Sitinee is raising five children and homeschooling them so they grow up learning they have the opportunity to design the life they want and can live it on their terms.
If you’re a parent entrepreneur who’s looking to defy the status quo, if you’re looking for opportunities to make an impact outside of your business, or if you’re looking for simple opportunities to help your children make an impact and be part of giving initiative that you don’t have time to create or figure out on your own, this episode is for you!
An explanation of what a keyless life is and why it’s so important for entrepreneurs.
Specific incidences and examples of different ways you can start developing a keyless life.
The importance of not overcomplicating your business.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
As a money mindset mentor for a new wave online female entrepreneurs, Denise Duffield-Thomas helps women release their fear of money, set premium prices for their services, and take control over their finances.
Like most entrepreneurs, Denise found herself bogged down with the minute tasks, daily frustrations, and shiny object distractions … until she realized she was going about it all the wrong way.
When it comes to business, perfection isn’t the goal.
Take a listen to this episode to hear how Denise came to this realization and how the concept of a keyless life changed everything for Denise and her family.
Tom and Ariana’s entrepreneurial journey that led from having college degrees they weren’t fully utilizing to now running three successful businesses while raising kids.
The process they use to determine who handles what roles in each business and how it can easily apply to those who run their business without a partner.
A breakdown of their Lifestyle Builders framework and how they use it to help others.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Are you getting ready to start a business and want to make sure it’s aligned with your dream lifestyle?
Do you already have a business and are concerned it’s not leading you to the lifestyle you’ve been working for?
Well, this week’s guests, Tom and Ariana Sylvester, have been and done that … multiple times!
Tom is a serial entrepreneur, husband, father, and occasional Call of Duty player. Ariana is a reality-checker, wife, mother, and chai latter-lover.
Together, Tom and Ariana own and operate three very different businesses; including one as business coaches and strategists.
As business coaches, their big-picture goal is to help entrepreneurs achieve fulfillment in both their business and life.
The three stages of entrepreneurial consciousness and how to identify which one you’re in at any given moment.
Marian’s 3-minute technique to help you shift your mindset.
How to get past feeling like an imposter.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Marian Bacol-Uba is a transformation coach, author, speaker, meditation coach, and holistic health and wellness expert.
Even though Marian’s marketing business was thriving, she found herself depressed and with alcohol and substance abuse problems that eventually led to an overdose and out of body experience that changed her life.
Now, Marian helps other women overcome trauma and empower them to heal themselves from the inside out and create the life they desire.
As Tony Robbins says, “Success in life is 80% psychology and 20% mechanics — what you do doesn’t matter if you aren’t in the right mindset.”
Basically … your mindset can make or break your business.
That’s why Marian’s here to help you recognize your current mindset and provide you with some techniques to shift your mindset to a more positive and productive one.
The difference between a copyright and a trademark (and how to go about researching, filing, and protecting yourself).
The grey area around the use of “free” images that could cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.
How to protect the work you’re paying to have created for you and make sure you have the ownership rights to it.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Rachel Brenke is an attorney with an MBA who survived cancer while raising five children. She is also the Founder of the Business Bites Podcast, has launched several successful brands, authored five books, and is Team USA athlete.
Most topics in this episode are going to be uncomfortable, but they’re critical so you need to pull up your big-girl britches.
No matter if you’re just starting out, have been in business for a while, or you think you’ve already got your legal bases covered, you need to listen to Rachel’s wisdom and expert advice in this episode.
How this expert life coach designs her own life; including her strict rating system for deciding which opportunities to pursue.
How Regan coaches her clients to take control and organize their life and business.
Regan’s mission to give away a million dollars by the time she’s fifty.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Regan Walsh is a mother of two, speaker, and an NYU certified Life Coach whose gift is helping women get from a point of total survival mode to walking into their purpose.
She is a contributor to Forbes and the Harvard Business Review and has also been featured by Elite Daily, Bustle, FabFitFun, Smart Business, and more.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed and like you’re doing 1,000 different things without any of them actually moving forward towards your goals and purpose, this is one you won’t want to miss.
Who LinkedIn is for. (YES, it actually is great for service-based entrepreneurs!)
A breakdown of the different types of content you, and should, upload to LinkedIn.
A few “deadly sins” that can kill your business on your LinkedIn.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
LinkedIn is a very misunderstood platform and, unfortunately, what you don’t know about it could be killing your business.
Viveka von Rosen is the Co-Founder of Vengreso; the largest provider for full-spectrum digital sales transformation solutions. Known as the @LinkedInExpert, Viveka is also a bestselling author who has been featured by Forbes, Buzzfeed, INC., Entrepreneur, Selling Power, and Social Media Examiner.
Viveka shares her expertise, and humor, with us in this jam-packed episode that will help you re-frame the way you think about and utilize LinkedIn.
How Amy develops her own content and how she teaches others to create content to build their first online course.
Amy’s advice on how long you should wait before creating your first online course.
Why being vulnerable and transparent helps you connect with your tribe, and how Amy practices this in her own business.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
Amy Porterfield has worked with mega-brands like Harley-Davidson motorcycles and peak performance coach, Tony Robbins; where she oversaw the content development team and collaborated on groundbreaking online marketing campaigns.
Amy inspires over 250,000 online entrepreneurs through her bestselling marketing courses, thriving social media community, and popular podcast; Online Marketing Made Easy.
Even though I’ve been creating online courses for a decade, it wasn’t until I connected with Amy two years ago that I finally streamlined my systems and lowered my “workload”.
Whether you’re just starting to launch your first online course, or you’re a course creation veteran like me, you’re going to learning from Amy.
Suzanne’s thoughts on why routines, especially at bedtime and in the morning, are critical for keeping your family organized.
Suzanne’s tips for staying focused and maintaining your new routines.
Why Suzanne’s advocates for outsourcing certain parts of your daily or weekly routines.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
It’s that time of year when our kids are getting a fresh start by heading back to school. It’s also the perfect time of year for our families to get a fresh start as well.
Implementing strategies and structures as a family as your kids head back to school can lead to less stress and more revenue.
If you’re finding your home to be a little chaotic with the start of a new school year, take a listen as Suzanne shares structural systems and formulas for ways we can capitalize on the current season we’re in and how we can leverage these systems, both for our business and our family.
Cindy’s system for clearing mental space and getting your business, and personal life, organized.
What to do with ideas that aren’t a priority now, but that you’ll want to explore further in the future.
Why you need to have something that allows you to walk away from your business for a little while and helps you come back recharged.
Why This Episode Is Awesome:
We’re approaching one of my favorite times of the year.
The kids are heading back to school (or three different schools in my case) and we can start shifting our focus back to our businesses.
However, sometimes coming back to a business after a hiatus can be chaotic or overwhelming.
As this week’s guest says, “Chaos is nothing but fear. That’s what overwhelm is.”
Cindy Van Arman is a highly sought-after accountability and kick-you-in-the-butt speaker who is super passionate about empowering solopreneurs to get stuff done and giving you the tools you need to conquer overwhelm.
In this episode, Cindy shares with us her proven system to help open the space needed to finally take control of your time and energy so you can have a business that you run instead of it being the other way around.
The great thing about Cindy’s system is that it can work no matter what phase of the SweetLife Entrepreneur System you’re in and it can also help you take control of your life outside of your business.
Are You Struggling to Build Your List or Following?
If the answer is yes, you might not have niched down enough in your business.
When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up helping no one.
Even though it might be scary, niching down when it comes to your target client or the products and services you offer, can sometimes be the best thing you can do for your business.
In This Episode:
Stephen Warley found himself a reluctant entrepreneur after being laid off in 2000.
Now, with over 18 years of entrepreneurial experience, Stephen can’t imagine working for anyone else and is driven to help others find work/life harmony by creating a niche tribe.
With only 50 leads for potential clients, Stephen was able to create a business that led him to generate over $600,000 in revenue in a single year; proving that you don’t need a giant list to make a significant amount of money.
[Tweet “When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up helping no one.“]
In this episode you’ll learn:
The four steps you need to go through to hone in on your niche tribe business model.
Why having a niche tribe is so important and who it will benefit most.
Multiple real-life examples of successful businesses utilizing the niche tribe model.
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