Tag: business development

What are the paths to becoming a consultant

What are the paths to becoming a consultant?

Transcript

Um, because we’ve talked a little bit about, you know, like, the consultative sales approach and things here, I guess I’m what this is a bit of a vague question, but I just kinda wanted to bounce it off of you of, like, what are, like, someone like me or, like, the people in this room, if we wanted to move towards being more and more of a consultant who’s focused more on you paying me for my thinking, for my strategy, that kind of stuff, and less about deliverables and things like that. What are some of those paths, and what do they look like, I guess?

Do you have any guesses or assumptions or thoughts?

I mean, one thing that I’ve sort of thought about is kind of, like, the CRO angle where you kind of are helping them, kind of manage, like, you know, like, coming up with ideas to test, helping prioritize them, helping, so, you know, like, I I get a lot of clients who have issues where it’s kind of just like a cultural problem that the marketing team is aware of that all of their copy and things are just kind of, like, too academic. And they’re like, we wanna be fresher. We wanna, you know, be more conversational and things that tie together with conversion copy even if it’s not necessarily.

But just being able to, like, yeah, like, give companies feedback on, like, here’s here are the opportunities you’re missing on your website. Here are opportunities. I don’t know how that can then turn into, you know, hey. You’re gonna pay me five thousand dollars a month, let’s say, just to have me available on Slack or to hop on calls or to manage priorities.

But that that’s kind of what I that’s about as far as I’ve gotten.

So Yeah.

So I think that’s great, and it definitely depends.

My first thought is you’re gonna need a book.

Get a book out there. I know that might sound like, oh, easier said than done. But, like, okay. But if that’s the path you wanna go down, then everybody I know who’s a consultant for organizations has a book with the exception of Neil Patel, who Airbnb paid him ten, fifteen years ago, twenty thousand dollars for an afternoon.

Every month, he was on retainer, and they would fly him to their San Francisco location for him to consult for three hours with their team. What what was Airbnb from Neil Patel? What are you talking about? I don’t it didn’t even make sense to me at the time, and now it definitely doesn’t.

But he was a thought leader, and people wanted to say he was in there consulting with them on digital marketing.

So thought leadership takes a long time or takes very little time if you make really big swings. A book is a big swing, obviously, but so is having a really dramatic opinion that you just state boldly all the time, all over the place online.

And then that’s that’s one way to get in and get, like, invited in for workshops.

There’s also just starting to add to your website, Andrew, or just to talk about this, copy cheating and workshopping for teams that can start you down the I’ll consult with you path, where if you are an external copy chief coming in to help the team at Fidelity stands out because they’re very recent for us.

They have, you know, hundred people who need to meet with a copywriter.

Obviously, that wouldn’t work. So there has to be some level of group coaching, which then is, like, now you’re an internal group coach slash copy chief. They want copy reviews, etcetera. That is a good path toward consulting, and that could really quickly turn into consulting. So I would just start like, I’d open up a new section on your website that’s like Teams or I don’t know what else you would call it. We don’t put it on our website, and they just, like, find us.

Yeah.

But you’d put it on your website. And that way, they know, oh, wow. I could bring Andrew in house to help my team get better or help me figure out opportunities in my funnel, my on my website, whatever that might be.

Yeah.

Yeah. I know for a fact that people are always looking for someone to come in and teach their team in a more hands on way that includes copy reviews.

Yeah. So, basically, an external copy chief. Yeah. Which isn’t consulting, but it’s a good start.

Worksheet

Struggling with time management and setting boundaries

Transcript

One thing I discovered that that I’m really bad at as I was going through week three is, I’m, like, last, like, a couple years. I’m just, like, really good at, like, winging things.

Okay.

So, like, I think when I look at the time tracking and, like, all the data in the spreadsheets, it’s like, it’s just forcing me to, like, get into uncomfortable. Like, okay. I need to I really need to, like, keep track of my time because I I know I’m losing money.

So, yeah, I use this consequences.

So, like, I guess for, like, in your experience, like, how how does, like is it just best to, like, embrace it and just, like I don’t know. I’m trying to figure out how to, like, work my way into it, where, like, you know, have a more standardized, good way of time tracking myself.

Okay. So I’m hearing you prefer to wing it. It’s just the natural state for you, and it’s worked so far. So there’s a level of, like, I can just keep winging it.

But time tracking is the biggest challenge. Is that right? Or is it just all the systems including time tracking?

Yeah. I think all the systems I’m like, I’m I’m getting better, like, at SOPs and and creating those processes, but, like, I’m very forgiving of myself if I’m like, oh, I’ll spend an extra time on this.

Or, like, being like a I think maybe I’m a slight perfectionist in the sense of, like, writing landing pages. Like, I’m gonna work a little longer on it because I wanna make sure it’s when it’s like, okay. They’re not paying me to work extra time on it.

So those kind of things.

Yeah. I mean, there are lots of things you like, little things that, you can do that people do do and have done surefire way to do this. Right? It is like a matter of practice, like all habit building.

This is a habit.

Refusing to let yourself, waste time.

Do you find that you also allow yourself to spend money as you feel like it?

No. I I’m gonna say I’m pretty disciplined. Yeah.

Okay. Good. So what do you think what are your thoughts on, like why do you feel why do you think you feel disciplined around money?

Because I’ve, like, I’ve always tracked it. And I I guess I’ve I’ve always established that habit. And I think it’s like like, you know, like, for instance, like, my environment, I’m in, like, a very nice environment right now. And so, like, I just started doing this last six months.

So I think, like, learning about myself is, like, putting yourself in the right environment to work. Mhmm. And, like, I’m just like, as an example. But, like, setting up these triggers or in a way where it’s like, okay.

I know I’m gonna do that. And then, like, if something happens where I need to what like, get sick or whatever, then it’s like, I have to figure out, like, how to do that.

Right. Exactly. So I’m just wondering about the thing that you do have discipline around. Can you apply any of the systems and processes that you have there?

So you already feel comfortable there, let’s say. So, for example, if you’re like, I track every month at the end of the month, month, I go through my expenses for the month in a spreadsheet, and I categorize them. I’m thinking of what my husband does. He always wants me to be excited about it.

I’m like, cool. But, like, it’s really like, it’s a safe, good space for him. Do you do anything like that with the things that you’re disciplined with? Do you have a spreadsheet for money, or do you use QuickBooks, or do you, like, meet with your accountant regularly?

What are the mechanisms you have in place for money? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I do I do actually do both. I do have a spreadsheet, and I have QuickBooks. Yeah. So it’s like I can see both. I like spreadsheets just because, it’s more I can just do it myself, and it’s more detailed, I feel like, rather than, like, being in air in QuickBooks maybe.

Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. I think I think also, like, I need to be harder on the clients I work with instead of being, like I think sometimes, like, they’re I’m so used to, like, not them leading, but they are kind of leading where they’re like, hey, Ben.

Maybe they’re asking for more or, like, the call goes over five minutes, or even ten minutes because maybe it could be, like, I’m trying to close or could be whatever the case. And so I’m, like, I’m very, like, laid back in the sense of, like, you know, it’s not a big deal.

Yeah. I get you. Okay. So totally. Couple things there. One, when it comes to your own time tracking, if it is that, just try to use duplicates of existing mechanisms that you already like and reliably use.

So if you use spreadsheets for time tracking or for money tracking, can you do something like that with time tracking? If you are accountable to somebody with money, can you be accountable to somebody with time? If you always enter something in your spreadsheet at the end of the week, can you do, something where at the end of the day, you enter what you did with your time?

And that’s what I used to get people to do at the agency is, like, by in fifteen minute increments, they had to say what they had done with their time of day.

So just keep that in mind. When it comes to clients owning the time, one, if a call goes over and it’s a call where you’re closing, time well spent. So I say let those calls go over.

But a really good way to make sure that you are controlling things with your client is how did you start the call. So really good technique for starting a call, especially, like, that fifteen minute call that can turn into a forty five minute call if you don’t, like like, zoom in on it, is to say, to kind of behave like this meeting got put in your calendar. So a thing you can say as, like, part of that script right out of the gate. Start the call.

Hey. How’s it going? I’ve got this in my calendar for the next ten minutes.

Is that what you’ve got too? Great. Ten minutes I have that we’re gonna talk about this. Is that what you expect to talk about too?

Cool. I’ve got a hard stop at the end of it. Are you okay if we just dive right in? And just, like, dominate right out of the gate, but established.

It’s ten minutes. It’s I’ve got this in my calendar for ten minutes rather than I’ve got ten minutes, which sounds like you don’t have time for them. But, like, this way, it sounds like, no. No.

It’s my calendar. I’m in business. So does that are you doing anything like that yet then?

No. No. I I actually should start doing that. I try to, like, just open with, like, more rapport of, like, find, like, some sort of relatability, like and, like, we you know, I’m I’m a nice guy.

And, like, how how is where do you live? And, like, you know Yeah. And then, like, it’s usually I mean, it’s only a couple of minutes, then I’ll just jump into it. Like, oh, you know, the reason we’re on this call is blah blah blah.

Yeah.

I would just let you know you don’t come off as a not nice guy. So I don’t I wouldn’t go into the call, worry. Like, there’s the show. Right? And you are just showing. I I would say that. Unless you hear otherwise from clients, I don’t think that’s necessarily a thing you have to establish with any great amount of time.

Okay. Okay. So just don’t worry about the small talk so much.

Little small talk, if you know, like if you’re reading that they need it, then that can be good. I know it’s hard to, like, read, but there are some people who depend on it. Obviously, like, old cliche, Germans don’t want any small talk. They’ll get annoyed.

So if their last name is German, just, like, no small talk. But then, like, Southerners are supposed to love that kind of, like, rapport building stuff. I don’t know. Everybody’s different.

So that’s all just, like, cliched stuff. Point is, we know that people behave differently. What I would say is if you’re talking to somebody in business and you’re leading the call, they typically respect that. That you’re saying, my calendar controls my life.

I have this in here for ten minutes. It’s in my calendar for ten. I have that we’re going to talk about this. Does that match what you’re looking for?

Cool. And that’s really it. Right? Then move in. If there’s a reason to get into small talk, trust that, but don’t default to that.

Does that make sense?

Yeah. Yeah. No. That that makes yeah. Like, read the room. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Just know, like yeah. Sometimes you just need feedback. Like, I think you’ll be fine just being you leading the call. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. No. That makes sense. And I and I’m going back to, like, the time tracking thing. I also think, like, when things are always in the plus in terms of, like, I’m getting calls, I’m doing work, I tend to, like, more relaxed too rather than, like, being more strict with my time.

Yeah.

So you have, like, what does your day look like? Do you always work nine to five? How do you do that?

No. It’s it’s very it’s very very, like because having kids at home and all that and all and I’ll and I’ll take them to school and drop them off. But, but, like, I get up, like, five fifteen.

I’ll start I’ll, like, I usually try to start writing, if it’s an article.

Yeah. And then I’ll, like, sometimes, like, usually try to, like, check my inbox, follow-up with leads on LinkedIn, and then yeah. Yeah. It’s usually like that.

Okay. Okay. I’m just wondering.

And we’ll talk more about this as we go. Right? How to start putting boundaries around your time and, like, the payoff for that. So we’ll get into that. But how are you feeling right now?

No. I’m feeling great. I’m feeling great. I I I like the uncomfortableness of, like, doing something new because I know I need that rather than, like, I’ve already implemented that. It’s like, I’d rather, like, I need to do that. I need to implement it. I need to it’s all there it’s all good things.

I’m just trying to Okay.

It’s like that atomic habits.

You just have to, like Exactly.

Yourself in the right environment, set up great triggers Mhmm. Do all those things.

Yeah. And if you’re at a place where, like, as you were talking, you’re like, I tried to. I tried to. So it sounds like you’re not, like, super specific about how your day has to run, which to me is, like, you’ve identified that there are opportunities in how you use your time.

Cool. You don’t have any existing, like, rigid processes to break or undo. So it feels like, okay. Cool.

This is the beginning of the path forward where you set up your day to always function a certain way where you do have those, the systems around, like, every time I start a ten minute call, this is how it always runs, that sort of stuff. So I think that’s that’s, like, good. It’s it’s appropriate for where you are, and it is, I think, the next step, though, is to start building in those habits so that if you get sick, let’s as you just said, like, you get sick, you can hand the work off to somebody else or trust that your day is set up such that once you’re feeling better, you’re good to get back into it. Yeah. So more to come. More to come.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Cool.

Cool.

Worksheet

Should I have multiple channels in my agency?

Transcript

I guess my thinking is that maybe I should have two channels within in house marketers and then marketing agencies.

So two channels within in house being, like, project, coordinators or project managers and then marketing managers.

So the marketing managers, I guess, come in kind of at an influential level to influence them to then get their staff to use me. Does that kinda make sense? Yep.

And then, you know, otherwise, it, you know, could be yeah. I’m just not really sure whether I’m on the right thinking path. Is that right or not?

So in try so, we’re actually I think you’ll be fully in Coffee School Pro and out of the intensive by the time this starts.

June, our theme for Coffee School Pro, I think that’s ICP month.

I think Sarah’s looking. I know. So I’ll just move.

Or it’s the following month. And I know it’s like, well, it’s May right now, Joanna. Can we solve this now? Got it.

Totally get it. That’s it.

But what’s important is, like, identifying your ICP versus your, like, persona buyer. So two separate things, right, that we can dig more deeply into.

The person so you can have two personas inside an ICP. The ICP is like the business that’s buying you. The personas are the people at the business who are the buyers.

So in copy school pro, we’ll have you put together a buyer handbook so you know these people really, really well. And so people on your team know these people really, really well, which is so critical. Our team is doing an off-site together tomorrow because we, again, need to refine what what we’re talking about and thinking about with our own ICP and personas. It’s ongoing work is what I’m saying, and you can still be successful even if you haven’t got it nailed down perfectly. So it sounds like PMs and MMs or project managers and marketing managers are in the personas for you underneath property developers who have XRP going on for them.

Yep. That makes sense.

Yeah. I don’t know what marketing agencies are doing in there.

So, a lot of the property developers, go approach a marketing agency to do their whole campaign. Yeah. So my standardized offer is to offer sales landing pages, and then optimize them moving forward.

And I guess one of my biggest concerns so far that I am getting my head around is that why would they come to me as a freelancer for just one portion of it and then go to the marketing agency for the rest of the campaign? So I just thought that might be another avenue for me for income Mhmm. To do projects where their staff can’t do the sales pages. So I come in as an expert.

Okay.

So if you have two audiences, life I’m gonna come up with a rhyme. For this, there’s gotta be a rhyme.

Life gets harder.

Life gets worse. I’ll find a rhyme. It gets harder is what I’m saying. So it’d be it feels like, oh, that’ll make it easier.

What I would say would make it easier is when you put stuff out there for marketing for property developers, Agencies that do marketing for property developers will find it and go, holy shit. I didn’t sales pages. What’s what is she talking about sales pages? Do we have sales pages?

Panic amongst themselves and then start following you, listening to you, asking, like, hey.

We all live in Australia. We live over here. Can you help us, please?

And all of those sorts of things. So I would say focus.

Focus is always going to be the word.

Focus on property developers Okay.

Targeting PMs and MMs, and then let the others find you. But I wouldn’t I wouldn’t worry about agencies.

Category then, rather than three categories. Totally.

Yes. Then you can say, hey, property managers on your, like, Instagram live or property developers or whatever. Yeah. And out of the gate, they know who you’re talking to.

That is so much easier in my head.

I think so. It will be easier.

Take on taken half that page off.

That’s how that works.

Yay. Yes. That’s awesome. If you can keep it down, but there are some cases when people can’t, but I think you easily I easily can hear, I would say. Yeah.

Awesome. Thank you. Yeah.

Cool. Awesome. Thank you. Thanks, everyone.

Worksheet

The Distributable Brand

Transcript

Okay. This is the worksheet that you are working through today.

You’ll see on the front of all of the worksheets. There was a, I think, a problem with a couple of the worksheets that were sent out to you, but going forward, This part down at the bottom will help you understand what to use it for.

We’re going to talk through what not to start with when you’re thinking of your brand and what to start with when you’re thinking of your brand. And again, I have, worked with a lot of freelancers who struggle a good amount with their brand, and it’s really closely tied to your differentiators and to the audience that you want to target, And sometimes that can mean and feel like it’s not as tied to you as you might want it to be, but we’ll talk about that.

This is what people don’t understand about what I or we, if you’re talking about yourself as like an agency or something like that. Strong opinion we’re gonna get into who also openly shares this opinion. If somebody else does, then it’s like, should you go forward with that?

And then basically how you talk when you talk freely. Then a little bit of this, we’re not really going to touch too much on this in the training itself because it’s really straightforward. I mean, everybody here is in a pretty advanced state. So it’s quite simple to fill this stuff in, but this is the kind of thing that when you are working through talking when you’re at the next stage where you’re like, okay. I’m going to hire somebody to develop, like, a mood board for my brand, or I’m gonna put my own mood board for my brand together, then that’s where, you know, colors will come up and the personality is that are similar to your brand or what you want your brand to feel like those will come up too, and that can lead to brand voice guides and all sorts of stuff. So you’ve already seen Justin Blackman’s training on brand voice He has a great approach.

Excuse me. My approach is slightly different.

But it all works together. It’s all just like, catch the things that are helpful to you and use them to move forward not to get stuck. If anything I share today, makes you feel stuck, disregard it unless it’s a good stuck, unless it’s like that that crash that you have to feel like, oh, I can’t figure this out, and that’s actually a productive sort of stuck. And then, really at the end of this, we’re going to want you to write out that brand? Like what is the brand? How does it sound?

And specifically, how does it make you distributable? And that’s really key difference here in thinking through brand, if you are trying to build your authority, and this is true for every new brand that’s out there because brands now spread on social.

Obviously, that’s scalable word-of-mouth when we’re talking about social media. So distribution is a really big part of your brand. Can my brand be distributed?
And that really means when you think about the influencers out there that you want to distribute your brand, these may be wish list, or you may be like, one degree, like, separated from that person that you want to talk about you. So maybe there’s an easy way in.

We have to make it easy for those ideal people to distribute us to their audiences.
So will I easily distribute their distribute you really simple, clean question. And if you can’t answer, yes, not would I, not anything, but will I easily distribute you? And if it’s not a yes, then refine it.

Will Marie Forleo easily distribute you if that’s somebody that you want to. Well, I mean, the list goes on, but Lenny is another great example. A little difficult. It’s actually harder to get to distribute you than even these two are, which is, I think, pretty stunning.

But will these influential people who have access to the Mark you want to tap into easily distribute their distribute you, and there has to be, of course, a reason why there has to be something they’re worth sharing with other people. And the reality is, that if you think why would anybody wanna share my brand, then you’re probably not in a good place with your brand.

But there is this content beast that all the lenny’s and Marie’s and Tim’s of the world and everybody else that you wish would talk about you They are trying to feed this content beast. They are running up against what should I talk about next? Who should I share next? And that’s a really big opening.

Or your brand for anybody’s brand that there is so much need to keep feeding that beast. So you need to distribute other brands. You will need to distribute other brands. If you were to start a podcast, you’d be like, who am I gonna get on my podcast?

You are identifying brands for you to distribute to people that is this audience that you are creating. So podcast host need new and interesting guests. Instagram needs people to talk about stuff three times a day at least. So if I’m a brand, posting, I have to post three different things, and it can’t all be just about me, or it’s just gonna, like, no one’s going to carrots people inviting other brands into their ecosystem.

And YouTube rewards accounts with really great videos that are added a lot.
So knowing that, that’s an opening for you. This isn’t about you to worry about this. This is we need to recognize that brands out there, that influencers need all of this stuff. And you can be the one that they then distribute.
So I think this is kind of bananas.
To meet minimum standards on Instagram, you need to post a thousand times a year, a thousand times. How are you gonna keep coming up with content? This is, again, a huge opportunity for any brand, hear any brand that’s being developed.
Everybody who trying to build something on Instagram is thinking through shit. I have to post a lot.
You can be one or ten or twenty or two hundred of those posts if you are a brand that they want to distribute. So knowing that everyone needs not just content, but engaging content. There are those influencers out there who want to share the most engaging stuff, and that means things that are clickable, of course, which can often, of course, mean people with opinions.
So we’ve got all of these people on the left potential partners, affiliates influencers, as mentioned, hosts of podcasts newsletters, whatever that thing might be, publishers. This is traditional publishers, like book publishers, as well as everybody else who would call themselves a media company or a publisher of some kind. They’re off trying to seek out in all of the crap that’s out there. All the boring brands that have nothing to say that are saying the safest things all the time that have no new perspective, no new opinion, that’s all crap.
They want to avoid that crap and look or the good little bits inside of it. And we need to be those good little bits inside of it that then get ballooned. So When we’re talking about brands, everybody really quickly wants to jump to. How should I sound?
What should I say? Joe, should I talk about myself as I or we?
And I would love to back up because no matter what you do with photo shoots, with your logo, Should my domain be my name or a brand name? None of that matters. The thing that matters first is distribution. So that means identifying who those people are.
You want to share your brand. And that doesn’t just mean influencers. I showed those people because we’re talking about scale about getting out there and getting shared broadly and repeatedly by cool people who have awesome audiences that we want to tap into. But then there’s also the brand that your clients and customers share.
If you’re working on referrals a lot, what makes you distributable by referral across client that you have and three or five people that your client knows. Right? That’s also a matter of distribution.
How do we get people to share our brand and why aren’t they already sharing it? What’s getting in the way? Does Seth Gordon know why?
He should distribute you to his audience that believes strongly in everything that he says and shares.
Does he know, is there a why? Is there a why for him to reach out to you? So we we don’t wanna start with photoshoot, stylist, especially since so many photoshoots are bullshit and you know that when you look at them, right? Where there’s a smiling happy Instagram face, And that’s not even what your brand is necessarily.
And the problem is if you don’t go to a photographer with clear vision of your brand and who you’re going to distribute that to, you will end up with the smiling not true to who you are brand photos. We get those all the time, and I’m like, these are fucking pointless because that’s not who I am. People are gonna think of a smiling I don’t even know what the now would be, but it’s not who I am. And so these stylists come in with that same idea.
Oh, you just want to look friendly or look good or whatever it might be, and that’s gonna end up being stuff you throw out later because nobody gives a shit. Or the wrong people. Give a shit.
A logo. Don’t worry about that yet. A domain, whatever. You can buy another one later. A brand voice guide. That is the last thing to think about when you’re thinking about your brand right now.
We wanna make it an easy no brainer for the right people to talk about you. Now that might sound like Joe, you repeat the same thing. That’s because it will always come back to these things when you haven’t done the hard work of actually figuring out how to get people to talk about you. What’s the opinion you’re going to take that appears to be probably contrarian to what the world thinks. So Wait.
Hold on. Do start with. Where did my little checklist go? Sorry. They should all be check marks. These are all supposed to be check marks. So This is the check mark part of your worksheet.
What is a counter opinion that you can take? Where do you stand on a popular subject in your space? What should you own that you will love and that others will respond to. So we’ve been talking a bit about what you should own, right, when it comes to your red thread and where you’re going to build your authority. And we really need to dig into that counter opinion and what your stand is, where what your soapbox is that you would happily stand on for the rest of your life because once you identify that thing, you will be standing on that soap box for a very long time.
Then there’s the other note of and then lack of check mark is super throwing me. The other note of your attitude when you’re feeling most communicative. So a lot of people in the room, a lot of writers, if you’re watching this replay too, a lot of us feel different at different times, of course, but there’s a strong sense of introversion with a lot of writers and writer types creatives out there. But there are moments when you do feel like more alive let’s say or more, like, energetic and you’re willing to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk about something, kind of tap into what that attitude is when you’re feeling most communicative?
Like, are you do you get really passionate about a certain subject That’s when you’re like, you could talk without anybody ever stopping you. You would just keep going and going and going. You have to also think through that because When your most vocal, you’re going to have to continue to be vocal going forward. That’s how your brand is built.
What can you say and say again and again and again and again passionately in an interesting way to make people curious, to make people listen.
So we wanna be opinionated in a way that comes naturally to you when you’re at your most vocal. Are you at the pub with friends? And someone said some about how Jennifer Aniston treats herself to one potato chip when she’s feeling like snacking. And you, like, lose your mind over this stuff.
That doesn’t mean you’re gonna be opinionated about Jennifer Aniston or potato chips or anything. But really tap into what what do you need to be talking about that makes you feel alive and ready to talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, which is what your job is going to be. So me, for example, I’m naturally very shy, but when I feel like communicating, I can get a little spicy, a little snappy, I roll my eyes pretty hard when I disagree. I can disagree a lot, and that’s true for like everybody in my family.
It’s a very loud family.
I take sides, you know, the strong opinions loosely held idea.
Not often loosely held though, so that can be a problem.
I do not always need to have support of my opinion to stand behind it. I do love to have support of my opinion though, and I can stand behind it better than I can be exaggerated and animated. So it’s like the hard eye rolls and stuff like that. And sometimes I can be a little offensive.
I don’t mean to be. But I know that I can sometimes come off that way, and that’s when I’m activated. That’s when I’m, like, turned on, ready to talk about a thing. And I think it’s good for you to note those things for yourself as well.
Because if it’s if it’s likely that the time that I’m gonna talk the most, the loudest, and in potentially the most interest thing way is when I’m spicy or when I’ve been, like, I disagree with you, then that’s gonna be important as I’m figuring out my brand and how will I talk? I’m not gonna be this quiet smiling Instagram type. You know, I’m not going to. It wouldn’t it wouldn’t make any sense to because if I ever do a podcast, you’d be like, well, that doesn’t even sound like that person.
Completely different. Right? So it’s important for you to think about how you actually activate.
So my take, my opinion that I hold that I go out into the world with, is most of what we’ve been taught about messaging in particular is wrong. Most of what you’ve heard about copywriting is wrong, and I wanna fix that. I will frank I will frequently say things like, no. Don’t do it that way.
Do it this way. And we also see that people respond best when I say no. Don’t do it that way. It this way instead, and that is a good thing for our brand.
So think through that kind of stuff what activates you and how that comes to life. And then the question is do I know how to distribute you? So, obviously, we talk about things like videos, quotes, like there’s or Instagram, you’re putting videos out that are long, that are short, images with quotes on them. You can share photos and memes, obviously links to books, This is easy to distribute.
Right? You can have a book and what makes it so easy to distribute a book is that there is a link to it There’s a title for it. There’s a pre made image for it. That’s the cover of it, and it’s got natural built in authority.
It is easy for me to distribute. I don’t really have to get any buy in from anybody, but that you’re a good person to distribute if there’s a book there. Blog posts, depending. That can also be very easy.
At least it’s it’s physically easy to distribute it, and it’s physically easy to distribute a link to a podcast episode as well. But it’s not just about being easy. Right? That’s will I easily.
The will part is, is it worth it? Is it worth it to distribute use? That’s where we need to be opinion based and divisive with our videos.
Have short and pity videos that make it worth it as well. Like, okay, I can easily distribute you and my audience is going to understand you really quickly and take a side really quickly. Quotes that break with the norm that say something a little bit different, unexpected photos and memes. Maybe a quote image that looks different out of the blue. That’s not on but that better matches your tone, which is again, don’t worry about your brand and what it looks like as much as does it sound right? Does it sound like your opinion.
Books, everyone wants to promote a good book, clever deep blog posts. Those are easy links to share, as I mentioned before, and energetic podcast episode. So it’s not just easy, but is it worth me sharing your brand with the world?
Is it too risky to put you in front of my audience? Is the other question that we have to answer? So that means being consistent.
If I bring you on my podcast, am I what I’m going to get so that I can actually distribute it to my audience, and they’ll be like, cool. Dig it. Love it. That was a and your life for you, I knew it would be amazing because they’re always consistent with what they say. They’re always saying the same thing in the same energetic or bitchy or whatever that adjective might be that will define what your brand sounds like.
Finishing thought, and then we can talk a bit about this.
Tony Robbins. Tony Robbins said this. I am not necessarily a huge Tony Robbins fan. My sister and I had to sit through this horrible Tony Robbins Day. Someone gifted us tickets and we were like, oh my gosh. We were dying.
We didn’t even get to see him. Of course, as everybody who’s been to a twenty Robbins event knows, he, like, doesn’t come on until two in the morning or something. But an important thing is that the Tony Robbins brand is very different from who Tony Robbins says he is behind closed doors. So he says, I made this. Everything you’re seeing is something that he produced. So we’re talking right now about the early stages of figuring out what your brand is and how to make it distributable.
But we’re really working toward a place where potentially what your brand looks like and what you as the face of your brand look like. Are not what you think they are today, that every part of you may actually be constructed as you’re putting your brand together. And that that’s actually not only okay, but that’s kind of the point you are the product that you’re selling. And just like any product needs an interface that looks a certain way. It needs certain packaging.
That’s what we’re going to be putting together, as brands. Does this all make sense? Any questions?
Any thoughts?
No thoughts.
I like the concept, especially with, like, celebrities. When you look at celebrities, there’s this whole you know, what they want you to think on screen, but then you behind the scenes, right, that’s drug use, it’s all this other stuff, and you’re like, there’s the brand and then there’s real. Right?
Yeah. Yeah. This, like, intentionally selected, curated, and, like, watched over brand.
Yeah. That can feel like, well, I don’t have a team, or you can feel inauthentic as well. But I honestly, I don’t think Marie forleo is anything close to the person that she shows herself to be because she’s a bit of a caricature. She’s like an exaggerated version of Marie Forleo.
And that’s the kind of thing that we can either, like, roll our eyes about it or go, like, okay, that’s a really good lesson. That’s so if if these people out there are putting on a brand that’s different, but that makes it distributable. Obviously, Marie Forleo tapped into what a lot of women in business wanted to see how they wanted to feel, and she did that extremely successfully right out of the gate.
And yeah, that’s like a lesson for all of us.
So that’s kinda like your origin story when you think about it. That’s the whole point is really to create your brand ideally around who you’re you’re targeting. Right? So then they they feel like, hey, they get me.
They understand me, but is it is it really you? Yeah. It’s not. It’s your brand.
It’s, like, it’s mind numbing when you think about it. It’s like Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
And you can think about, like, people who really pull off their brand very well, like, you know, Taylor Swift as a kind of obvious example, where it’s so believable that maybe it really is real.
And that’s okay. And maybe she, like, grew into that Brent, or who knows? Parts of her are there and parts of her, she dials back. She’s not gonna be the same on stage as she is chilling, like, doing her friend’s nails.
I wonder if, you know, like, I know it’s pretty deep, but I wonder because it is about your brand and I know especially with celebrities and stuff. I wonder if there’s people who specialize in that where it’s like, okay, you’re this old, you’re fourteen years old. Here’s your your target audience. This is your brand. And as you get older, you notice the celebrities evolve because their their market is evolving.
Yeah.
It’s interesting.
Yeah. That is. It is.
Wow. But maybe that’s what’s happening. That’s why you see, like, what’s his name, the Canadian goof. Then no one likes him.
Justin Bieber. You know, he turned into this like bangs and then as he got older, he was edgy. Is that what’s happening? It’s crazy.
Yeah.
Yeah. Wow. Interesting.
Never thought of it that way.
Fun.
I know Johnson said, should we craft those facets with a customer in mind the same way we write copy?
It depends who your customer really is.
But I would say when you’re thinking of your brand and how to get that brand out there, a customer isn’t going to distribute you as well necessarily as a more influential person is. So and that person doesn’t have to be person either. It could be brand, x, that wants to put you on stage or whatever it might be.
So I wouldn’t craft with, like, the next ten thousand dollar client in mind, because that’s small, but let’s craft with who do those ten thousand dollar clients listen to. Where do they go to find what they need?
And that’s who that’s that’s who’s gonna distribute you. If they don’t get it, and they don’t distribute you, then you’re constantly working for every client that you get every single time.
And referrals are good. Referals will go a long way, and that can be, you know, solving for that client, but How can you be more distributable than that?
Abby?
Jason, there’s, like, a disadvantage to being kinda, like, a smiley friendly brand because that’s, like, the way I am, but then I do worry sometimes that because I’m quite like giggly and stuff. I’m like, oh, it is it affecting, like, people’s value perception of me? And I think because I I have like a baby face as well, like, don’t worry that people, like, like being smiley friendly, like, is that should I should I, like, change it? I don’t know.
Do you think it is holding you back from being distributed?
I don’t know. Like, I generally don’t know. So I’m asking.
I mean, and I’m not I’m not like boo to smiley happiness.
At all. I’m just not really like what’s funny is when I say that I’m not that my friends my little friend group over in our shine crew. They’re always, like, surprised because they do see me as, like, laughing and smiling a lot. But that’s when I’m not at work when I’m at work to get pretty bitchy about things. Like, I get a little opinionated, pretty quickly on things. And so so there’s different sides of who you are, obviously. Right?
But if you actually are that and you feel good about that, I think that’s wonderful.
You’re you don’t have to, like, have attitude or anything. Just like, do people know what they’re getting with you? Are they getting the same thing with you every time that consistency?
And is it something that I, like, think is interesting enough that I’m going to share it. And obviously, the things that you say are gonna be the most interesting thing, but people will go to your website, see a photo of you, go to your Instagram, see who you are there, and it’s like, so the two parts have to come together.
The opinion that you have and the way that you present yourself.
And they could be like juxtaposed. Right? It could be, like, you’re really happy.
And you come off as very, like, as you said giggly or cheerful or whatever, And then you have like these really sharp cutting opinions, that could be really like an interesting contrast.
Just depends. Right?
Yeah. Right.
But if you don’t feel it’s holding you back and you do see evidence that people distribute, happy brands, which they do, then no need to stop. Just make sure you know that your ideal audience distributes that. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
Yeah. Let me bug out.
How much did you say is, value versus, like, say, like, ability Like, yeah.
This person can offer a lot of value to my audience, but, I just don’t like them sort of thing.
That’s tough. What do you think?
I don’t know. I think they’re gonna choose. I just don’t like them. Unless they could show that there’s ROI, they’re gonna make a lot of money, then you can buy a lot of therapy, but it’s Personally. I don’t know.
Yeah. No. I think of of brands that I don’t like, and I would never ever even like when people in my audience mention them. I’m like, I if if I’m like mentioned in the same LinkedIn comment with somebody I find unlikable, then I’m I’m not even gonna, like, like, react well. I won’t react to that post at all because I don’t Yeah. I see.
It’s like that person is not distributable for me. I won’t help them get distributed.
Yeah.
Yeah. I’ve had people steal, like, I know what you mean. Like, you’re, like, there’s so much just, you know, this is not a good person sort of thing.
Not not so much likability, but But just, like, No.
I don’t want you to follow them. They’re gonna say crazy shit. Because I can’t be the one who led you there in any way.
Which but if if you say something really interesting, then, of course, people want to. And then just, like, keep your unlikable stuff to yourself, unless it’s like that’s part of your brand, which the person I’m thinking of, that’s part of his brand. He’d be very happy that people think he’s an asshole.
But I don’t even I don’t even mention him. It’s such an hassle.
Yeah.
Anybody else wanna talk about this, or do you wanna move on?
Other things that are on your mind today or business and money, stuff.
Where you at?
Question time, talk time?
I’ll can I ask a question?
Yeah.
A win. I sorry. I don’t know. It’s not directly a win for money, but I did have an online magazine reach out for feature interview or something like that. So. Nice.
And actually, yeah. I’m always thinking it’s spam. So I given the route back and forth, I was like, oh, okay. That’s anyway.
So Good job.
Nice.
Thanks.
I guess my question is It’s really basic but on all of this.
I’m kind of wondering, okay, so what do I do next? Like what’s my next step? And the only because the only thought I had is you all were talking was when you were saying you’re not smiley or related to that and all that. And I was like, how old my brand? Like me if I had to really sum it up and it was like, okay. If I could have the Bernee Brown stuff, have a baby with Harley Davidson.
That’s what I wanna feel like.
Okay.
I don’t know. And but like in terms of what do I do that’s kind of my question, I guess. I’m I’m struggling to figure that out with real clarity.
Okay. So you want to combine Brenae Brown and Harley Davidson. What does that mean to you? What are you putting together there? What’s the outcome?
Oh, oh, what’s the outcome?
I want a brand where you you feel like they they really genuinely care about the customer like customer first. Right? Bernae Brown. It’s like really being authentic but an empathy and all those things, but then the Harley Davidson part of it is if you look at their copy, it’s often very right to it short.
Like this this. You know, there’s a period between two very quick two word sentences or something, you know. And I like that very direct and to the point kind of feel and then also the the the way they I actually think both brands kind of lift you to this ideal freedom, you know, just in very different ways. Right?
Like Harley is about get on the road. You’re an American like be free. That’s their, you know, it’s like their vibe. But in the same way, I think Renee Brown also is trying to call you to freedom but getting rid of all the crap that we carry, you know, mentally and all the emotion kind of stuff like that.
So I don’t know. Did that answer your question?
I’m not sure what the outcome Exactly.
Yes. Yeah. No. I’m just curious to hear you talk a bit more about it in the hopes that that’ll also help you work through it. Abby, you had a thought I know you just chatted it, but you did because you were gonna come off mute, and now you chatted something over.
No.
I wasn’t gonna come off mute. I was just saying, like, the the grand, pillars as, like, the rubber and then, like, the idealist. It sounds like a merger of the two of those.
Yeah.
Okay.
That’s what I was gonna say. It’s kinda like, in the twelve archetypes, it’s like outlaw and caregiver.
Yeah.
But, yeah, what do you do with it? What, like, I I’m curious about what’s forming in your head when you think about that? How long have you been thinking about that, Jessica?
Yeah, where are you Like, it’s really a question of, like, it’s the first step, right, is figuring this sort of thing out and making sure that there’s, you know, a world out there that will share that brand. And what is the opinion? What’s the what’s the position that you’re taking that’s then supported by a mix of Renee Brown and Harley Davidson or this idealist meets rebel.
Caregiver versus outlaw.
Where are you at?
Well, okay. So the Harley Davidson thing, I’m from Milwaukee. So of course that’s always been a thing and so the marketing branding ended that is just fun to look look at think about, study their copy, look at their photo shoots, all the things they do. But the in terms of the opinions, that’s That’s harder for me. So I I think about things like the seasonal sales you all know. I’ve shared with you that I just think people are looking at it in a short term win when they’re really missing the long term possibilities.
But then also in email, like in e commerce, this heavy reliance on, image graphic graphic heavy and discount heavy offers when they really should be trying some other things not so Afakevy and and discount heavy.
So but I don’t know how those kind of merge into my branding or opinion that’s where I’m still trying to flush that out and figure that out.
Yeah. Yeah. And I don’t think that will necessarily get there right now. Because that’s like a big thing is to figure out your brand and all of it, everything that goes with it. But, I mean, think it’s great that you’re heading there.
And it’s just like, do the work of really figuring out, like, when we even look at the worksheet. Right? If you can write down what let me just go over to it.
Really working through because your thoughts on seasonal, unlike things in e commerce that are just kinda short term, think that’s a good start. Right? But it’s it’s really a question of how do you form that into a strong opinion? Like a single statement that you could say again and again that makes sense to people as soon as they hear it. And I don’t mean like a tagline or value prop or any even just your positioning line necessarily, but just state what that opinion is. Really, it’s what are you picking a fight with really?
Clearly, and, like, just do that on page one. Of the worksheet and then just make sure that, like, nobody else is really saying it that way, or if they are, they’re not as noisy as you are.
So if it’s something someone else is already saying, then it’s not really worth distributing you. Right? Because I probably can just distribute this other person and etcetera, etcetera.
So yeah, I would say that’s like the next step. Document it in repeatable way, and then just like share it in the slack group and see if it resonates. With people, and then just, like, keep refining it until it does.
Okay. Yeah. K. Thank you.
Yeah. Sure.
Anybody else? What else is going on? Katie, do you have a win to share first or are you building on what Jessica said?
I have a unrelated question. Yeah.
My win would be I have booked, last minute VIP day with one of my retainer clients.
Nice.
Thank you for last. So was fun.
Surprise. Nice.
I’m curious, like, When it comes to simplifying complex ideas to make them memorable, like, to make something feel like it’s easily distributable because I feel like my, like, profitable signature offers thing is really big. Like what the the problem that I want to The the thing I have an issue with is people not, like, a lack of alignment in people’s marketing so that their top of funnel content is not attracting the customers that they wanna be putting their high end offers in front of.
And so what that has meant is that I end up talking about a lot of different things. Like, I talk about your lead magnet and I talk about your welcome sequence and your, you know, your sales, like, I talk about all of the things. Yeah. And so I don’t like, lately, I’ve been focusing more on the sales page.
Because that I see that as like the source for, you know, finding that alignment throughout, but yeah, I feel like since my very first hot seat, in the first week of the program, that’s been the the red thread of, like, I have this big thing, but I don’t know how to make it small enough that I can ease, like, that it is that easily distributable idea.
To under so so it’s profitable signature offers.
Where signature offer has been a thing, and then profitable is your way of making it your own?
Or is that is that what you would call, like, your differentiator on the subject of I don’t know because I’m trying to, like, find all these different angles into it.
So, like, one of the things that I talk about is like golden opportunities. So it’s like different ways of adding, you know, upsells or systematizing referrals. So, like, that’s kind of one of the angles that I’ve taken on the signature offer is, like, finding these hidden opportunities to make your existing offers more profitable But ultimately, like, what I really enjoy is you have this one, you know, landmark offer, like, that’s what you’re getting known for, and then helping business owners refine everything else that they’re promoting and selling that they’re attracting an audience that is gonna be a good fit for that offer and then, you know, whatever they have on the back end. So It’s just broad. I mean, all of you said an answer, like, you know, a solution, but I love, like, a direction to look in for.
Yeah.
I think if we can even unpack what’s going on within what could be getting in the way of people really understanding it maybe because for me, Most marketers I talk to, don’t understand what an offer is. They don’t think offer.
People in information marketing think offer. They’re used to that.
Coaches maybe do more and more people who’ve read hundred million dollar offers.
Where that was a very distributable idea of hundred million dollar offers. That’s like a big idea. Like, tell me more, please.
And that’s picking a fight, indirectly picking a fight with your these shitty little nothing offers where you’re making a twenty bucks on something, you know, to a hundred million dollars. So But I wonder if there’s something that will be difficult for the average person who’s trying to figure out what you do when it comes to the word offer, that doesn’t mean that’s true. But I’d be like, let’s maybe think through that. And then profitable signature, profits good. Profitable is a big word. Signature is also a big word.
So it’s like kind of a lot of, you know, cognitive friction there in getting into what profitable signature.
Offers means. I understand all three words separately, but altogether, it’s a little bit trickier. And I would wonder, what are you really picking a fight with?
Do you know what you’re picking a fight with?
Yeah. So my to answer your question as Stacy is, like, I mean, I work with primarily, like coaches and experts who are, you know, were experts and now I’m moving into coach So I I would say, like, offers is just ubiquitous, like, the term using the word offers to describe what you’re selling is fairly ubiquitous, the concept of signature offer. You know, there’s maybe a handful of other terms that people use for it, but, like, that’s also There.
Yeah.
But I wrote about, like, what people don’t understand about we do, making it your oh, may be making your signature offer profitable goes beyond any one sales or launch strategy.
It’s about know, attracting the right audience. Like, and then I have this handful of things that I wanna say it’s about. And I think that’s where I lose the it takes so long to get to what it is.
So you’re saying your audience’s idea of an offer is broken. It’s too small. It’s too narrow. Are you picking a fight with the very concept of offers as far as these experts think.
I guess it’s in the sense that they almost, like, that the offer the concept of a signature offer like exists in a silo when really your signature offer shouldn’t form your full business strategy.
Yeah. Yes. I, do I align the entire funnel? I do Oh, I work like across the full funnel. Yeah. Exactly. And I help people, like, create that alignment from the top to the bottom of their funnel.
Yeah.
I’m wondering why or Shane. Do you have any thoughts on this at this point?
Especially where I given how you work with people just like this.
Yeah. So I think you touched on at the end. It’s a creating alignment. Right? You’re you’re sort of you’re aligning all our messaging towards this this signature offer and everything in between that sort of that leads to that. Correct?
Yeah.
And then it’s deciding, you know, what is what does success mean to them whether it’s more money or more leads or what is what what’s the outcome that they’re looking for, ultimately that the system would achieve. What is it?
More sales and easier launches is what my surveys always always say the same thing. And and then, you know, those sales coming in, like, the offers feeding into each other without having to do the launch every time.
That’s the problem, like, what’s the specific problem that they’re facing with the with the system or what currently is working with them right now?
Fish feeling like every sale is harder is too hard. Like, you know, the launch feels like a grind and or the launches aren’t working.
So working isn’t, like, defined just to break that down a bit more.
Like, if it’s not Leading expectations, making the money.
It’s not they’re not seeing ROI. They’re not it’s so it’s not like setting it up. It’s just it’s not they’re setting it up. They’re using this process. They have this high ticket item, but it’s just not selling. Is that sound about right?
So your solution goes in and and solves that problem, essentially, and then you you and by doing that, you align all of their messaging and all their marketing assets to their their high ticket item, which then helps correct me if I’m wrong, then make more money.
Right? In a sense?
Yeah.
I don’t that sounds good to me. Doesn’t it?
I mean, no. Because it’s too complicated. You know, like, doesn’t it feel like it’s not distributable, simply because it’s too complicated. I don’t know what a profitable signature offer is.
And if I think offer, it sounds like, like you said, Katie, it’s in a silo. An offer is a thing that I put out at this one time. It happens in a launch. So your audience hates launches, increasingly.
They’re stressful. They want an easier way.
To do this. Right? So it’s like it’s packed with tension because I don’t understand the words. And then I don’t know what my outcome is.
Like, I want money. You know, that’s what they that’s why they’re doing launches. That’s why they’re putting courses out there. They want easier access to the money that exists.
In the world for people with courses.
So to have a profitable signature offer, although it’s a really nice series of words, and you could see it beautifully printed in a really nice font.
I just worry that it’s too Nordstrom when it needs to be more Walmart. Like, it’s just a little highfalutin for the average person.
And I don’t mean the average Joe. I mean, the average person who has money to spend on what you’ve got.
It’s a bit up there. You know, it’s it’s not distributable simply because it’s complicated language.
Is it profitable, Joe?
Like, it’s the word, like, the how it’s all strung together, or is it It’s a thing that sounds good when you hear it and then you forget about it.
It’s like I like profit. I like signature. Cool. I wanna have like a signature offer.
But then you walk away. And if you didn’t act on it right away, to me, it feels like It was just it’s just pretty smart for busy people who were trying to make money. Are you public? Better what the fight is?
Like, What am I doing right now? What’s my problem that I have right now as your target audience that is tied like a rich person problem. Right? We wanna solve rich people problems.
So what do I have that’s that?
That you can then express, and maybe it still ends up being called profit signature offers, but it’s it’s help me.
The next I think the hint is the metaphor in the red thread book when she talks about, like, finding your tangible metaphor to Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Like, the hidden benefit sort of thing. Like, the where was the ad where it’s there was golfing. Oh, ideally, the CEO was wanting to get on the golf course. So that was the the sales letter focused on that. And then it just are you that angle sort of thing?
Like, are you saying that I guess the messaging is not as broad, you know, like the profitable, yeah, it makes sense, but to tailor that more. Specific to, like, the not just the outcome, but the a layer deeper, like, ultimately why.
You know, I wanna make more money. Why? Well, I wanna spend it with my Yeah.
And it and it’s making more across things. Right? So, Katie, you’re doing like all, like, sales pages right now, but it sounds like as was already mentioned, there’s this entire Stacy mentioned that there’s funnel and the offer happens across it.
But that’s kind of breaking with this so you have to sort of reeducate your audience on offer on all of it because if it spends every thing, and it’s not just focused on this one off campaign or launch, then now I need a new definition maybe for offer and that there’s friction there. So I I won’t understand it. I’m like, how can you make it?
How can you, like, bring it down? What if you had to throw out? What if you just weren’t allowed to use profitable signature offers anymore? It’s taken. You’re being sued for ten million dollars if you use it even one more time. That’s gone. What is it now instead?
Insistent, like maybe that’s more of an angle where you have a repeatable process that they can apply that you’re like secret sauce, you figured it out sort of thing.
How do you make it? Like, what to start?
What to start with? Yeah. Okay. I mean, This is good. I’m gonna run with this. Like, the questions that Joe’s been asking.
I don’t I don’t know now.
I know. I wanna work through this.
What is Walmart ready though? Like, what do you mean by that, Joe? Do you have an example?
I mean, like, it’s a simple word. It’s one syllable. There might be a number involved.
Like a numeral that I something I can see where I’m not actually reading anything. I’m just like looking and I get it.
You know?
Like hundred million offers, where he didn’t even spell out million. It’s just one a dollar sign. Woah, I get it. A hundred Oh, that’s a big number with an m on the end.
Shit. That’s a really big number. I don’t know what offers is, but tell me more about this hundred million thing. And I’m not saying b for Mosey at all.
But also why the shit not? Like, why not? If you could be, then why not go be the hundred million dollar guy.
But, yeah, what’s that, like, thing?
Which is so nebulous. Right? Like, to even say, what’s the thing? But, like, what’s how can you this is gonna sound mean, but how can you really dumb it down? To and in such a way, that it’s a clear flip or obvious opposite to what people think right now.
What does Amy Porterfield think right now about offers? What is she getting wrong right? Now about them, and can you then express that? And does profitable signature signature offers do that. Like, if there is something that she’s getting wrong, is your solution, the solution, and if it is cool, then you know you’re on the right track. Now we need to, like, say it in such a way that it’s low friction and easy to share around with everybody.
Does it is it food for thought there, Katie, for you?
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Interesting.
Reading of, sorry, the, a book on twenty five k sales funnels. That concept? Yeah. That’s what you’re thinking?
I’m think well, yeah, that’s good. Because you know what it is. I mean, it’s just just a small number. Yeah.
It’s gonna One hundred million dollar signature offers or hundred million.
That that sort of idea.
Yeah. It’s just I mean, the the ease with which you can talk about that book.
And I’m not saying make it a book title, obviously.
I feel like it’s more, like, start with why, like, because if I want them to reimagine like all of their business assets, then it has to be like we I get into their brains from the starting point rather than the ending point and then be like, oh, and by the way, if you want this ending point, you’re gonna have to go do all this work. So okay.
So let’s start with what would you say instead of y? So if he said start with y and you were allowed to say start with, what would you say start with?
Like either who or like the buyers, like the actual not the people who are gonna buy your thirty seven dollar SLO offer, but like the people who are gonna buy your ten k offer.
Yeah. And then it’s really just and that’s cool.
Are other people saying it? And they are? And that’s cool. But to me, it sounds like what it’s missing there is the cool part about offers is that they’re tied to revenue growth. Like, when you hear offer, you think, oh, that’s where there’s a buy now button involved. There’s, like, a credit card involved soon.
Versus starting with your customer, which is like, oh gosh. I have to do all the research. Then I have to synthesize it, and then I have to get buy in, and then I have to write the thing, get it approved.
And then we come up with an offer. So you’re saying so I think, yeah, roll with that, start with but can you bring that blank at the end of start with? Can you bring it closer to money or offer? I’m not saying that you have to, but I think it’s a worthwhile exercise in figuring out what it is that you’re saying that people can then distribute.
Okay.
Yeah. And then will you share it with us in Slack or next week?
Yep.
Okay. Awesome. Thanks. Thanks, Katie. Abby. Where are you at?
Hey. Yeah, I have a question.
So, yeah, when I already shared in Slack, I’ve hired six people in the last one.
I didn’t see that you’d hired six people.
I know. It’s not, like, full time, obviously, but I, like, I literally didn’t hire, like, a VA until, like, November last year. So the five to five six people is, like, madness.
Amazing. Well done. Thank you.
My question. So, I’m starting to, like, outpry some of the leads I’ve been bringing in, but I I don’t wanna lose them.
Like, for the time being. So my kind of, like, you can’t afford me offers in a VIP week, but I don’t think that’s working for any more partly because the price is too low, but also because just a week of my time, like, it’s not really up for grabs at the moment and that the same way. So I want to offer I’ve been thinking about offering a consulting package where they get access to me for, like, ninety days. Maybe they get my course, and they’re kind of implementing it with me, like, some copy audits and then, like, voxa access. And I was thinking of pricing it maybe, like, five thousand dollars, like, ninety days.
I just I haven’t done anything like that. So I wanted to get some feedback before I kind of ask my audience for feedback on like the pricing, the packaging, whether, it’s kind of a nice idea in theory, but more hassle than it’s worth in practice, just any thoughts, really.
So it’s the course plus box her access. Is that right?
Unlike copy audits, but like baby ones.
Was the baby copy of it? Yeah.
Well, like, ten, fifteen minutes. Yeah. Which, I mean, I love doing those anyway. They’re, like, my morning warm up.
So Really? Okay. Yeah. Like gets me in the zone.
Oh. That’s my bad move. That’s good. That’s good. Okay. So you’ve got Chorus and then these copy audits. And those are private one on one things where you, like, record a video and send it to them?
Yeah. So for each of the assets in the funnel, the day one evergreen funnel, and then, like, unlimited box access for ninety days, but like unlimited within kind of set. Set my voice.
What makes you think this is a good idea? Why do what’s what’s leading you here?
Because I have people coming to me that just can’t they’re not gonna pay twenty grand for a funnel.
I can’t just do one asset for them because they need a whole funnel. The DIY course, like, it’s not enough because they feel like they want the hand holding. So I wanna offer something in the middle to serve that audience because I am getting, like, the leads coming in from them.
And until I’m getting loads of, like, really the ones that can afford me, like, I I need to bridge that gap somehow. So and I like the idea of it. Like, I I I like the idea of doing self consulting. It seems like it would be fun for me, but yeah.
So Cool. The course is easy enough because it’s already made. It’s like anything that you make on that is profit. Almost, copy audits, five minutes of your day, and you like doing them. Okay. So that’s good. Vauxer access.
You’d have to put a lot of boundaries around that, I would think, because it really quickly feels like it could turn into one hour consults on demand whenever they feel like it.
Mhmm.
Here, I’m gonna throw fifty questions at you in Vauxer and then your Saturday night is spent on that. So this could be cool.
I would just you’d have to really figure out how to control that. And that could be, like, just in tiers. Right? You might just have two tiers. It’s like, hundred minutes of voxer access or unlimited voxer access or something like that so they can at least see and then unlimited’s like a dumb amount of money, versus the hundred minutes. And then they’re like, okay. Well, I paid for the hundred minutes, so I’m going to take my hundred minutes and know more than that.
Or whatever, but that’s, like, hearing you say this. I would say that’s course is easy. You already have it. Copy audits are easy. You like doing them. They energize you, they start your day. That’s cool.
Boxor access, you’d have to figure out how to control it. Some people might be cool, but it only takes, like, Imagine if two just keep filling your inbox. You’d be like, when are these ninety days going to end? Like, I need out of this. Did anybody else have thoughts on this?
I’ve heard somebody speak about how to do boxer and put boundaries around it, but I can’t think of what it is right now, but I’ll try to find it for you, Abby.
Thank you. I mean, what about, like, doing unlimited but within office hours. So it’s like I have set times that they can vox at me because then I could just be like, okay, for like five hours on a Tuesday.
And five hours on, like, a Friday, I’m gonna be, like, on boxer, and I can just I’ve I’ve seen it done successfully if you put a window on particular day of the week and you say unlimited boxer access between these hours on this day, that absolutely can work.
Yeah.
And and I’ve seen people do that also as well with the ben the added benefit if you structure it in a way that helps you uncover problems that your audience wants to solve. It can be a good way to do research for product development and, knowing things to offer. So you you’re kind of getting paid for doing customer research.
Mhmm.
Yeah. So I feel like if I say, like, a hundred minutes, whatever. People are gonna use a hundred minutes. If I say unlimited, then they’ll probably use my fifty minutes. They’ll use less. Right?
Oh, good.
Go ahead.
Yeah. Two two very clear boundaries. I’ve seen done well, and I’ve used at least one of them is the questions they ask can’t be covered in the course. Right? So, like, one morning on that. Right? Like, you’re not gonna refer them back to the course every time that’s their responsibility.
And the second one, which I really like, and I’ve used, is a question that has to be articulated in through seconds or less. Right? So they’re not rambling and figuring out their question on the fly and using your space to figure out what they wanna ask. They’ve already done the thinking, right, and they’ve, yeah, done them, used a mental bandwidth to get to the question that they need answered, then Yep. That usually limits a lot of the excessive three minute splurges of just people even figuring out what they wanna ask.
I love both of those. That’s great. Yeah.
Thank you. Okay. So do you think it’s an okay offer? Like, should I just try it? Like, Yeah.
Try it with, like, limited access.
Right? Like, limited seats, six seats, or whatever you Well, whatever it is that you want to do, obviously, to push people to buy it, all the usual stuff.
Yeah. And then ninety days.
Yeah.
You think that that would normally takes ninety days for people to do this?
I’d say, like, probably more realistically like sixty.
Okay.
Then do it sixty because then if you hit it, you can get out of it faster.
Yeah. And it’s not like people will be like, oh, extra value on that extra ninety days. Sixty days at five thousand and ninety days at five thousand or, like, basically the same. And then at least you’re out of it after sixty days. Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you for the feedback.
Yeah. Cool. Good. Okay. Thanks. Anybody else? We good?
I just have a quick win to share.
Nice. Share your win.
I ended my beta of my software, and which, you know, was at half of the regular subscription price. It was ninety nine a month versus the one ninety nine. So I ended it, went up to the regular price and have, added another thousand in, MRR with half the people it would have taken before.
Nice.
Amazing.
Well done. Very cool.
Awesome. Good. Well, hopefully everybody is having wins out there. If you wanna share them, you can share them now or throw them in the wins channel, obviously. Anytime.
If we’re wrapped up on questions, very cool.
Next Monday. I am on a flight when this happened. So as much as I want, every single Monday to always be honest, was already booked in advance this flight. My team is having an on site in Edmonton. Yay, cold.
And so I’ll be on the flight. Liana Patch will be in. I think we’ve shared that over in Slack. And she’ll be talking about largely about, copywriting techniques around infusing humor. Into your copy. It is her thing, and it’s great that she owns that thing, and it’ll be, I think, cool if everybody see not just the techniques, but also a person who’s committed to owning humor in copywriting, sticking with it and teaching it and, what it looks like to learn that from somebody who’s been practicing it for so long.
Awesome. Yeah. Great. Always over in, Slack, obviously, and Thursday, Shane. Do you wanna give a teaser for what’s coming on Thursday?
Putting you on the spot.
Yeah, so it’s, building your authority site. So I’m gonna It starts with your, ESP, sorry, your value prop on the home page, and then the structure we use, including templates, or suggested templates for each page based off of formula. So we’re gonna, start with, we call it an avatar, but it goes beyond your typical psychographics, demographics, it really focuses on, the core problem and then, your solution to solve that problem, and then we focus on point of different benefits, and, you’ll use that to craft your home page action, and then, I’ll share all the material after that as well. So
including the process from site map, to spit draft and wireframe following Joe’s process all the way to The process we use to convert, we use WordPress, but there’s other options as well that you can use. And, and sort of some tips we’ve learned. And then we also take this same system and we, sell these services to clients as well. So you can apply for your coaching, your service.
And we also use the same framework for Google Ads pages, and we see an average minimum around twelve percent conversion because you’re really focused on solving a specific problem and, and nailing that during the messaging. So That’s overarching idea of how it works.
Love it. Awesome. Yeah. And Shane has you showed that this to me months ago. Like, I think it was in the summer that we first started talking about this. So it’s gonna be really cool to see you walk everyone through it to get.
Yeah. Pretty cool.
Yeah. Alright. Awesome. Thanks, everybody. We will see you well, Thursday is the next one. And then I will be back in two weeks, but obviously on Slack otherwise.
Alright. Have a good week. Thanks, everyone. Bye. Thank you.

Worksheet

The Distributable Brand

Worksheet

The Distributable Brand

Transcript

Elect Your Decision Committee

Transcript

Good to see your faces, where you’re showing your faces. Jessica, I’m looking at you even though I can’t look at you, Jessica. On her on her hat. Oh, that’s right. That’s right. Forgiven.

Okay. So welcome walking, she says. Perfect. Good work.

Okay. So, today, as usual, for Coffee School Pro, we’re kicking it off with a lesson.

Twenty minutes, let’s say, might be ish.

Might be ish.

And then we’ll get into the ask me anything slash q and a time where as per use, you must share a win first, and then we can get into your question. Alright?

Cool beans. So today, I wanted to share with you something that so I go to a lot of, like, wellness retreats.

I find that I come back much better as a human after I do these things, and so they’re becoming more and more frequent. It’s like, it’s almost weekly at this point. It’s not, but that would be amazing.

But at the so one of the things that comes up is this idea of you’ve got this, like, board of decision makers in your head, and you didn’t consciously elect them. They all just exist in your head, and they make all these decisions for you.

Even though you would never let them make a decision for you in real life, but there they are making all these of these of these wellness resort, wellness retreat discussions is the concept of a decision committee. So I wanted to share this with you today where the objective my objective in sharing it is, I have said again and again that mindset is more important than anything, when you are trying to build your business. Then there’s other stuff, but mindset’s always gonna be important. But when you’re trying to get started, there are a lot of things you have to, like, push against and push through. So, mindset goes a long way there.

So I’m going to share mindset training today, not usually my jam, but so useful. I have found so useful for myself, that I really don’t want to keep it from you. Take what you will as always from this, but I do strongly believe that if you can apply what’s in today’s training, it will help you through a lot of the really difficult stuff around, should I even be doing this? Is this the right approach for me? Maybe Joe was wrong about that. Maybe so and so was wrong about that. I couldn’t possibly be able to achieve x, y, or z.

All of the crap that keeps you from making progress.

So, this is this is designed at least to help you get through the crap.

It is called electing your decision committee.

So hold on. Where did my go into play mode go? Present full screen. Okay. So you should see it in full. You also have a copy of this worksheet yourself.

We’re all very aware that voices make up all of like, that there are voices in our head. You’re just not supposed to talk back to them is what I understand.

Not allowed at least. No? Just me? Okay.

So, again, this is getting down to consciously choosing who gets to make your decisions and who doesn’t. There are a lot of times in our lives when we have very important voices in our head that are there to keep us safe.

And those ones are important, and we don’t want them to go away. But they might get in the way of some important decisions you have to make as a business owner. So this is for your business. This is a question of whether your dad gets to have a say in your business, whether that favorite prop of yours gets to have a say in your business, whether the person who kept you from, God forbid, almost drowning in a pool, who saved your life when you were a kid, and they became this, like, person to you who is a protector.

Do they get to have a say in your business decisions? So, we all have this board in our head. It’s filled with hundreds of people, and some of them sneak into your decision committee whenever they feel like it. And that’s typically not going to be that helpful unless they’re consciously chosen.

So that’s what we wanna do. So here’s an example of if you think of, like, a boardroom and you think of people around it, you’re at the center of the table. Now in a boardroom, I know we don’t sit on the table. And in this visual, you’re basically sitting on the table, but you’re at the table.

Right? So if you have this challenge, let’s say and this is an example. I’m gonna walk us through it so it’s, like, clear.

You’re in the middle there. You say, okay. So Joe is teaching us about this authoritative offer idea in the intensive freelancing and carrying that through Coffee School Pro.

It’s a nice idea.

I like it, but, like, should I really change my whole offer right now? It feels like my whole business might in turn change. So you have this moment, and you’re trying to come to a decision.

Who gets to have a say in that decision?

So I’ve got some people here who might be, you know, who might be on my board. Dad, my dad during my teen years who thought I was a disaster for some reason.

So he’s very different from dad the rest of the time. But dad has two board seats here. Like, he gets to say a lot of things in my decision committee. He didn’t get elected. He’s not an entrepreneur. He was very protective, very unlikely to want me to make risky decisions.

My business bestie might have a very different way of coaching me through a decision that creative writing professor, doctor Hollings had, that I looked up to and thought was so amazing and very attractive while we’re on the subject of doctor Hollings that he could have something else to say. Like, Joe, I thought you were gonna be a novelist. Right? And he’s like, well, hold on. Hold on. That’s not it right now.

A bro marketer, someone you’re suddenly following on Instagram who is, like, putting on a big show and makes you feel maybe like, oh, damn. I’m never gonna get there. Or you’re right. I don’t work out thirty times a day, so I probably can’t also run a business.

Or your best friend who’s always broke but who loves you so much. These people, if they sit on your decision committee, you are basically alone in making of that decision still. You are going to be balancing a whole bunch of crap. None of it is that useful.

Your business bestie might come through or dad ninety nine percent of the time might come through, but really up against a bunch of other people who don’t have a say in your business and yet somehow they do. So we want to get rid of the wrong choices and elect consciously the right choices. Now this may feel like not a scientific exercise because it’s not. This is about you just being like you as business owner, looking for the right voices to help you make a call.

So here’s what I want to call us to do today. For the next ten ish minutes, I want you to elect your own decision making committee nominees.

They go here on these lines, so you get about three of them, and then you choose one.

For these are going to be the people that you let help you make a call. Now you don’t have to actually call them up. You can, but you don’t have to. It’s really when you’re sitting there and you’re thinking, should I do this thing next?

Should I charge twenty thousand dollars? Joe said ten. Should I charge twenty thousand for this thing? I feel like it might be a twenty thousand dollar gig.

Who do you let in and who doesn’t get a say in what you do? So you’ve got ten minutes.

Does it first, is this clear to everybody? I think it’s clear. Right? Cool. So write in some of your nominees.

Who should go there under your trusted family members? Your ideal client should probably have a seat on your decision committee. Someone from finance should have a seat on your decision committee. An admired business contact definitely should. An existing client, so existing versus ideal because you will naturally have tension between both when you’re kind of trying to come up with the, right solution. And then someone dependent or a team member. So if you have a team member, it’s likely that one of them should sit on your decision committee.

If you have children, they likely will, or a spouse, they likely will sit on there. You can’t help it. You make decisions with that person for your business. They’re going to have a say.

They need to sit on your decision committee. How are they different from trusted family? This could be, again, like my dad. Trusted family member, not a dependent, not a team member, but someone I wanna have on my decision committee if I did if I did want to.

I don’t think my dad would make it on here, frankly, but someone else might. My nana, a protector type person who also thinks the best of you, that sort of thing. That’s for me. Whoever it is for you, that’s for you.

Okay? So we’re gonna do that for about nine minutes now, and then we’ll come back on at twenty after the hour. Cool beans?

Cool beans. Alright.

That is time.

Excellent. Does everybody have a decision committee?

Yeah? How do you feel about it?

Decent?

Okay. Okay.

Alright. Cool.

Okay. So if the idea here is that you intentionally elect a maximum of six board members for your decision committee. It should look a lot like this. Right?

You should put their names on here and actually say, like, so and so and put them in each of their seats. And then when it comes time to make a decision, use the worksheet. Print off a bunch of them and actively write in what your decision is that you’re trying to make and then what each of those board members would say. So that can be a really useful exercise.

I’ve got my own decision committee. Again, this is just for business. You’ll have different board members for different things. But for your business, do you have people sitting there?

Oh, yes, Jessica. That’s a really good point. I too need to fill my finance role. So it can be a useful exercise to see who doesn’t exist in those roles and where you have to go out and look for somebody.

I have an accountant. I have a bookkeeper.

I have multiple lawyers, but none of them sit there. My husband is the CFO, but I still don’t have anybody who I would put on my business finance, decision, like, decision money for that that finance role. So I think it’s a good thing to know, like, who if I don’t have that, then I probably don’t have that person helping me make decisions. So anyone you couldn’t fill in is, like, start going out, might be a time to buy a book on that subject or start following different people on Instagram, LinkedIn, whatever that could help you that could be the right voice in your head for that missing seat. That’s a great point, Jessica. Yes. Thank you.

Okay. So this is what we wanna do. This is a useful exercise. Thank you, Jessica.

And when it comes to actually making that call so the problem the problem with six people sitting around a table talking about your problem is, well, which one gets to say, though, which one really helps me make the final decision.

So if you use RACI, we talk about day c in ten x f c, which is decision making as well.

But RACI is a little different because instead of having driver, and approver, which is good for copywriting projects and, you know, other creative projects. Instead, we have responsible and accountable. And then these are also different too. Informed is the same, but this is contributor for the DAISY, and this is consulted for this for RACY. Again, a different way to make a decision. So what you can do here is you can then take those board members and say thank you all for all of your contributions to my decision.

Who is responsible and who is accountable? These are the two that should have the greatest say in the final decision. So if you’re gonna make a really hard financial call, chances are good that you’d wanna make, your finance person from your decision committee, put them on this line. It might be your client. It might be someone else, but, you wanna make sure that the right people are helping you make the right call. So, for example, if you are Elon Musk and your decision to make is to buy Twitter or ruin your leg or avoid ruining your legacy, responsible, you are responsible. The accountable person is someone who is, like, an existing customer, let’s say.

In this case, Elon Musk consulted himself, as his own admired business leader and his mom. And then the informed people were probably those who should have sat up on accountable instead and been more than just consulted, and then he might have made a better call. So you can have all the right people on your board, but you have to put them in the right spots for decision making. That’s what we wanna do.

Make copies of this. I recommend you do at least or have this if you just wrote it down as a work, like, in your workbook, or a notebook, just keep that present. Keep it visible. If you just do this one time and then walk away from it, it’s not gonna really help you get ahead.

So how can you start integrating this decision committee into your decision making process?

Andrew says That’s awesome, Abby. Andrew says, does this have to be one person from each group? I want my board to be mostly admired business contacts.

Feel free to. I would say no more than six people who are there to help you make decisions. Six is already a lot, but it’s kinda standard for most committees in life, four to six people depending on what you’re trying to do, of course.

So whatever you feel like, but just make sure, that you’ve got a good mix of people so that you can end up making a call that will stick. If it’s all, like, Warren Buffett and, like, all these great names, you’ll always be driven to a certain kind of call, and you might lose, like sometimes the reason I have a trusted family here is, there’s a lot of value in having a low or a risk averse person in the room, not always, and they don’t get to make the call. But because you are making so many decisions as a, as a solopreneur, as somebody who’s, like, running your own business, you have to make all these decisions alone.

You do need this help. It can be good also to have somebody in there who’s, like, tempering your ambition. If you find that you are really, like, do everything, go everywhere, make sure you’ve got finance in there. I would say don’t let finance off your decision committee.

And if you’ve identified that gap, make sure they’re there because you’re gonna have a lot of big business names going, yes. Do it. Do it. Take out that loan or whatever it might be, and it could be the perfect call.

You might wanna do that. But just make sure you consult with finance before you make that call. Cool.

Alright.

Did anybody find this a useful exercise?

Do you see how you might use it in life, in your business decision making? I find it so useful.

So hopefully okay. So Andrew said, immediately you see who is not on the list. Yeah. Exactly.

Who didn’t make the call? You thank them. They can help you make make other decisions in life, just not these ones. Yeah.

Love it. Cool.