In today's episode, we’ll talk about what to do when your offer isn't selling.

We’ll look at it through three different lenses, and will get quite practical.

Grab a pen and paper, or listen along and bookmark this one to come back to.  Let's dive on in!

It can be really heartbreaking and challenging when you feel like you have something that is going to change people's lives - it's an amazing offer at a really juicy price – but you just cannot seem to convince anyone to invest in the outcome.

We can be so challenged by a lack of sales.  It can feel like you just hear those resounding crickets when you talk about your paid products or services.

But there is no such thing as failure. There's only feedback.

If your offer isn't selling, that is a form of feedback!  You can use a very structured review process and look at this through three specific angles.

I'm going to help you understand why your offer isn't selling and how to take action to ensure you’re selling.

If you've been listening to me for more than 10 minutes, I have a “not so secret” 3-part marketing plan:

1. Reach: How many people are you actually getting in front of?
2. Conversion: How many of those people are becoming paying clients?
3. Mindset: What energy are you bringing to it, including thought processes and feelings?

We can look at your offer through these three lenses to see where you need to be focusing your attention, and where you may need to make changes so your offer starts to sell.

Sexy, right?

1. Reach.

So let's talk about reach first and foremost. The biggest piece of feedback I have for most people is this: You haven't shared your offer enough.

People will come to me freaking out, saying, “I had this amazing offer. I spent the last two months putting this package together.  I've worked on my messaging, I've hired a copywriter, I've created the most amazing sales page, I've got all these brilliant photos. It is so juicy. And I haven't made any sales.”

And when I ask how many times they’ve shared it? The answer is…drumroll… ONCE.

Listen.  Even if you put it out there to a mailing list of 5000 people, you cannot guarantee that it will sell the first time that you talk about it!

I've been guilty of this myself.  Even recently!

When we had to move the Heart-Centred Business Conference to 2021 because of Coronavirus and the pandemic, we made the decision to put the Heart-Centred Business Conference as a virtual conference on the existing dates in June.

We put the sales page together and I said to everyone, “My gosh, great news. The Heart-Centred Business Conference is going online, you can buy tickets to the virtual event.”

And we had a super early bird launch, and I talked about it maybe four times.

Annnnnnd we sold 12 tickets.

I was so disappointed in that. I wonder, how many people heard me talking during one of those four times and had an interest, but then never saw anything from me again, and completely forgot to buy their ticket?  I’ll never know!

So we need to reach as many people as we can, particularly those that are ideal for this product or service.  And not just reach them once - we need to reach the same people over and over again.

Marketing studies have shown that people need to see something six times to take action on it. Whaaat?

In this day of superfast scrolling through the internet, and being overwhelmed with all the white noise out there, it's looking like we might want to say things more like 10 to 12 times in order for people to take action on them. So we need to get better at stopping the scroll, we need to get better at reaching people.

Yes, we want to reach more and new audiences. But we also need to remember to reach the same people over and over again.

If you haven't got a strategy that gets your offer in front of your hottest leads and clients more than six times, maybe it's time to review your promotional strategy and address the reach.

Let's say that you have a new VIP offer you want to share with people. And your call to action is for people to book in a free conversation with you about whether this is the right fit.

If your goal is to get three to five people to have a conversation with you about this VIP offer, you want to be sharing that VIP offer at least 10 times.

So think about all of the spaces where you could share it more than once. I'm not saying copy and paste those same words 10 times and throw them all over Facebook – that’s not going to work for you either!  Actually, the more duplicate content that you have on Facebook, the lower the rate of that content anyway.

Instead, write out 10 different promo posts for that VIP through 10 different angles, or focusing on 10 different features, or 10 different benefits, and then go and share those consistently for the next four weeks.

If you were to do that and share it 10 times over the next four weeks, the odds of you having someone book in a sales conversation with you are wayyy higher than if you just copy and paste the same offer once a week for the next four weeks. Make sure that you are doing the right things to get the reach that you need to give this offer a chance.

2. Conversion.

Now, if you feel like you've got the reach part nailed, then the next step is focusing on conversion.

And if you have reach but are not converting, chances are it’s because of the value proposition.

While value proposition can mean a bunch of different things, ultimately it means how valuable is that thing to the prospective client? And how aligned is it to their priorities?

Whilst you might think it's really valuable for me to look after my health and assess the mineral content of my bloodstream and take supplements to boost my minerals, if that's not attached to a specific goal that is a priority for me, the chances of you convincing me to do that are actually pretty slim.

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking they can convince their ideal client to change their priorities. But the easiest way to get conversion and sell your products and services is to attach to their existing priorities.

As a small business owner, one of my priorities is business growth. So if you can convince me that having this mineral mix in my in my drink each day is going to help me be sharp and more vibrant, and therefore make more sales in my business, you'll have a much better chance of making a sale to me. (By the way I just made this example up. Please don't send me angry letters saying I told people that minerals would grow their business!)

So get really clear on who your ideal client is and what your niche is. What is her priority or his priority? What are the top three things that this person is focused on making sure they nail every single day?

If you can link your product or service to those existing priorities, you will have a much better chance of converting than if you don't.  Trying to convince people to change their priorities before they are ready, willing and able to buy will only stretch out your conversion process and purchase time, and will make it more difficult for you.

Now, I actually have an entire previous podcast episode dedicated to conversion and profit, but for most people, their offer is not selling because they haven't gone deep with that value proposition.

Often, the reason why they haven't gone deep with the value proposition is because they haven't niched specifically enough.  Or it could come down to not being very clear with messaging and having deeply resonant messaging for your ideal client that speaks to what's going on for them right now.

Ultimately, having that value proposition really clear is going to be the best way to improve the conversion of the service or product you are offering.

And, a final little shout out to connection as well!  We are more likely to buy from someone that we know versus someone who is a stranger.

One of the first things I do to help people increase conversion is make sure they use their name and photo consistently. That is a quick and easy shift that really does have an impact on conversion.

For example, if you are running a webinar and you don't have your photo in some of the slides, please add your photo, because people buy from people and they want to know who you are.  They need to connect your voice and your face. And that creates more connection for them, and therefore they are more likely to convert.

If you're in Facebook communities, and you only ever share those perfectly manicured photos of you that you got taken three years ago, and you're not sharing real photos of who you are right now, that can create disconnect for people. That can often reduce your conversion rates because people have this sense of distance from you.

Connection is the number one way to maximize conversion.

3. Mindset.

The third part of our three-part marketing plan is mindset.  I know a lot of people that just copy and paste their offers into Facebook groups each week, and they get someone else to write their copy for them.  They're not particularly excited about what they're doing.

That energy is palpable when we read what you're putting out there - whether it's an email, your sales page, or in your offers.  Are you actually coming at this with a positive, high vibe mindset?  Or are you coming at this like, “Oh my gosh, no one's ever going to buy from me, I can't be bothered today, but I'm desperate for the sale. So here's my offer.”

When it comes to mindset, I also think that desperation is palpable, and with all of the recent events in the world, (I'm not going to talk about it in detail), I didn't just see panic buying around the world. I also saw panic selling.

People were worried if they didn't make the sale now they were going to have a cash flow crisis in the coming months. And that desperation and panic came through in their offers and emails, regardless of whether their words specifically said it or not.

I truly believe your audience can pick up on your vibe regardless of whether you're convincing yourself everything's fine or not.  So I would highly recommend that if you don't have a consistent daily mindset practice, that you build one now.

Having the tools to feel you are coming from a space of abundance and trust and belief rather than a space of fear or limitations or poverty makes a real difference. It also makes a difference in your messaging and whether your offer is selling or not.

Take a moment to really tune into whether you truly believe in this offer.

Do you truly believe in the value proposition of this offer? Do you truly feel like you are high vibe, feeling great, everything's cool?  Are you coming from a space of abundance and bringing joy to your work right now? Or is there something that's kind of a niggling, not-so-awesome feeling for you right now?

It’s worth investing 15 to 20 minutes to tune into what that is, and use your mindset practices to clear it. You can package it up and tie it in a bow and put it aside for later if you don't want to work on it right now. But there are so many amazing tools and modalities and practices out there. Experiment with some and find the one that works for you to do consistently.

I share all the time that I journal every day. I tap every day, most days. Each day as I start to work, I write down my income goal.

Those things really do help me to tune into how I'm feeling right now, so that any of those niggling thoughts coming up can be cleared before I start my workday.  I know this contributes to the effectiveness of my offers and my posts.

Alright, so you've got three layers that you can review your offer through and decide if there's an area you need to improve on to get it selling.

If reach and conversion are areas you'd like to focus more on, and you do a lot of selling on Facebook, (or if you'd like to), I actually have a free resource for you.

It's my Zero Dollar Facebook Marketing Plan.

This is a free training that helps you to make more money from Facebook by getting better rates and better conversion.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.

Now for this special 200th episode, I've got a juicy episode for you today.

I'm going to be giving you my 10 biggest lessons from having a podcast that is now 200 episodes strong. So let's jump on in - I've got a lot of stuff to share with you today.

For those of you who don't know, the Heart-Centred Business podcast actually started as a podcast called #ladyposse on the 7th of May 2016.

So the podcast bit has been running for almost four years now and was started whilst I was actually living in Bali.  I started the Heart-Centred Business podcast because I really loved listening to podcasts myself. And I really felt like it was a beautiful, intimate way to connect with my audience as well as provide great business advice.

We use the podcasts not only for solo shows, but also to do interviews called "Spotlight Series" interviews. And you will be pleased to know we've got lots of extra juicy Spotlight Series interviews coming back onto the podcast in the coming months as well.

The Heart-Centred Business podcast has been around for almost four years now. And over that time, I've learned some really big lessons about podcasting, content creation and even business growth as it relates to my podcast as well.

So I've compiled my 10 biggest lessons for you and I want to share them with you today. So let's get started, shall we?

1. Consistency.

Consistency will beat “flash and crash” strategies so many times.  I cannot stress enough that consistency is a critical thing when it comes to creating a podcast.

I know for myself, there have been times where I have taken a break from podcasting altogether - there have been times where we've had five or six episodes all come out at once and then nothing for a few months.

And they have been times when the podcast is coming out every single week, without fail, on time. And those times have probably been less often than the inconsistent times.

But I know that when it comes out every week and I am consistent with it, that is when the podcast does best. Now, there are a number of different reasons for this, but the biggest reason is that if people are subscribing to this podcast, and they don't get a fresh podcast in their feed over the course of 30 days, then that podcast actually sinks down on their list, and when a new podcast episode comes out, a lot of people may have unsubscribed.

I saw this in my most recent period away from podcasting, when we were overhauling everything behind the scenes in my business in May 2019.  I made a conscious decision to not release any podcast episodes until we'd gotten the entire system working, my new website was up, and we knew that the podcast episodes I created would actually get released.

So I ended up taking about six to seven months off from podcasting. And I think we actually ended up with nine months of no podcast episodes released, and when we came back, whereas we would normally have over 300 instant downloads of every podcast episode because of the subscribers, that dropped down to about 150.

Because of this, over the last few months, I've needed to really rebuild the podcast listener audience and the subscribers. Being consistent is of course going to be a priority moving forward.

Now the great news is that for you as a listener, you will be able to predictably know that on every Monday you will receive a new episode of the Heart-Centred Business podcast in your feed. And if we need to release more than one episode a week, we will do that. But the Monday one stands.

The consistency part of creating and releasing podcasts has been really critical for the growth of this podcast.

And I have no hesitation in saying that if those 200 episodes had actually come out on the same day, every week, over the last 200 weeks, I would have way more followers and subscribers to this podcast, I would have way more reviews on this podcast and I would have way more business coming from this podcast as well.

So hand on heart, I know that I have not nailed the consistency part of this podcast.  For the short periods that I have, I've definitely seen that it's had a bigger impact on my business and in particular, the growth of my mailing list in my business as well.

All of that being said, I would love if you have a moment to jump on over into the iTunes podcast app, and give this podcast a review.  I haven't had a review on the podcast, I think for over 18 months now. So if you do listen to the Heart-Centred Business podcast if you love it, and even if you don't, I would love to get your review.

It's always great to get real, meaningful feedback from people. And I do go and read those reviews. So please make sure that you go and review it if you haven't done so yet.

And if you haven't subscribed, make sure you subscribe, because now you can know and trust that you're going to get a new podcast episode into your feed every Monday.

2. Practice, not Perfect.

I really do think I completely embrace this.  When I first started releasing this podcast, and even to this day, it's still practice. It's not perfect.

I knew that there were certain standards of quality of podcasts that you would want to be aiming for, certain standards of equipment that everyone else was using, and I felt a lot of worry - What if my sound quality isn't good enough? What if my podcast quality isn't good enough? What if my editing isn't good enough?

When I first started this podcast back in 2016, it was actually standard practice that you would take out all of the “ums” and “uhs,” and all of the “whitespace” in the podcast.  You would cut it so that it was a completely clean, uninterrupted conversation, and it was completely and perfectly polished.

You would have the perfect sound, and you would tweak the sound and make sure every single background noise was reduced, and you would have the highest quality of microphones, and you'd have the highest quality of everything, and you would use a third party person to do all the editing.

And I made the decision to go ahead with the podcast without all of that stuff.

I just decided I wanted to get started. And when I first started recording my podcast, I recorded it using my apple headphones that I got for free with my iPhone. And I was using the voice memos app on my iPhone and just recording it as audio files.

That's how #ladyposse started as a podcast. Over the years, I have made some changes - Now we have the video version of the podcast, and then it gets turned into an audio version, and it also now gets transcribed so people can read the podcast.

But honestly, if I hadn't started back when I started, then my commitment to consistency that I now have wouldn't be as strong, and I would have waited and waited and waited.  It's about “practice not perfect.”

To this day I still don't edit my podcast episodes for anything around sound quality or background noise or any of those sorts of things. I literally just do it as a one take using the photo booth on my computer.

And I only just got that if you're watching on video, you will see me pointing to it, if you're listening on the audio, I'm pointing to a new microphone.

I only just got this microphone – and this is the first podcast episode in which I'm using this microphone. It's not even that fancy of a microphone, it cost me under $200. And I actually bought it because I wanted the pop filter in the foamy thing more than I wanted anything else, to ensure that the sound quality of the podcast was getting better as we went along.

So don't worry about getting it perfect. Just treat this as an opportunity to practice. Treat this as an opportunity to show up and share with your audience. And I wouldn't be worrying about any of the editing or anything like that.

One of the things that people say about why they love this podcast so much is that they hear me taking a breath and there are pauses in it. And it feels like we're actually having a conversation, not listening to a robot reading a perfectly manicured script.

I don't use a script for my podcast, I talk from the heart, from my brain - I just talk naturally.  And I think people really appreciate that.

Most people who subscribe definitely appreciate that. And the people who would prefer that more scripted and structured, no “ums” and “uhs” and all those things, they listen to other podcasts and that is totally okay. I'm not for everyone. And I totally understand that.

3. Finding my voice.

This has been a huge lesson for me from this podcast. Over the years, I have felt more and more comfortable talking about the way I do business, talking about my beliefs about online business, teaching my tools, my strategies, and coming up with my own models and ways of explaining things.

It has been such an amazing practice and it has been such an amazing opportunity for me to clarify my thoughts.  I am an extrovert. So I think with my mouth, not with my brain, and this podcast has allowed me to think with an audience and create things in a way that other people can understand it.

And it's through the podcast episodes that I have refined and created some of my greatest models and practices that I teach, both here and also for my clients.

In putting together a podcast episode, I need to think, "okay, if I was going to teach someone who isn't working with me VIP, logically how to do this, what would be the steps?"  I have to map it out, do my research, and get really clear on the way that I'm going to be sharing it. And then I record the podcast episode.

For me, this has actually been an amazing opportunity to find my voice, to get really clear on what I do stand for and what I'm not going to stand for. And I've absolutely loved and adored it.

It's been really interesting to me, because the more I create great podcast content, the more feedback and engagement I get from you, the listeners. And that has been an amazing opportunity for me to refine what I'm talking about.

People ask questions or they ask me to clarify something, or they come into the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group and share their “hashtag podcast Aha.” And sometimes that podcast “aha” is really surprising for me because it wasn't exactly what I was saying, but I totally see where they got it from, and it’s amazing, and I totally agree with them.

So it's been a really amazing time for me to find my voice. I would encourage you if you are listening along, if you are not in the habit of creating consistent content, even if you're not an extrovert like me, creating some form of consistent content really does help you to find your voice and find where you stand on the matter.

For a lot of people, their biggest resistance is “I don't know what to say.” The best way to work out what to say is to start putting something out there, and practice just speaking to your audience.

Speak for your audience, teach people something that you would teach them in a one to one conversation, and you will be surprised at how quickly you can find your voice and the thing that you want to speak up for in your niche as well.

4. Numbers do not lie.

If you are creating consistent content, make sure you are consistently reviewing what numbers you are getting on each of your episodes. So whether you're doing things on YouTube or you share a Facebook Live once a week, and that is your meaty piece of content for each week, go back and look at what gets the most reach.

Keep track of those numbers. Because of all podcast episodes of mine, podcast episode number 147 on how to increase your prices has been consistently viewed and is still getting the most clicks on my website of anything else.

It is so interesting to see which things get the most clicks and the most interest from my followers, and even the most interest from non-followers i.e. cold traffic.  It has been absolutely fascinating to see.

Over the last few months we've been reviewing this in depth, and the two biggest things that people want from me are sales (sales advice, sales structure, sales conversations - anything with the word sales in it), and things that are “How To’s,” like how to increase your prices, how to conduct a sales conversation (that was a really big one), how to start a podcast, how to grow your reach, and how to build an audience.

I am going to be very clear in the future to ensure that I'm talking about those things more consistently on this podcast, because the numbers are telling me that's what my listeners are looking for.

So numbers don't lie. Make sure that you are keeping track of those things and reviewing them consistently. Because your audience will tell you what they want from you.

5. Start with what you have.

This hearkens back to the equipment thing - just use the equipment that you have to get started.

Don't go out and buy eleventy billion things. You can get started with your headphones with a microphone in them.  I always say there are millions of dollars of research that goes into those Apple headphones.  The microphone has really good background noise reduction, it has really good pop filtering.  You just want to keep it a little bit away from your face so that you're not like this close and speaking really closely. But it is a really good quality microphone.

Just start with that - start with the voice memos app on your phone.  If that's all you have, just start with it.

You're better off to get started now with what you have, and keep building and being consistent, rather than waiting to be able to afford all of the crazy amazing setups that you see that other people might have.

You don't need to have all of that in order to get started.

6. Simplify the content.

This lesson came in a big way for me in 2017. After the Heart-Centred Business Conference in September 2017 I was doing a review of my business and I decided to merge my blog with my podcast.

Up until then, I actually released a video blog AND a podcast episode every week, but I did them separately. The podcast was audio only, and it was one topic. And then the video blog, which was on YouTube and my website, was a different topic - every single week.

I had two tabs on my website - one was blog and one was podcast. And I was completely inconsistent with it because it was really hard to keep up creating two really big, long-form pieces of content every week.

Also, I felt like it was really confusing that in order for people to get all of the things I was sharing each week, they needed to watch a video blog, listen to a podcast episode, and watch the five or six live videos I was doing every single week.

Back then, I was doing periscope videos, as well as Facebook Lives.  I was also doing some video content that was on YouTube, but it wasn't a blog because it wasn't as long.  There were “quick tips with Tash” and all sorts of things.

There was just so much content going out everywhere.

The biggest shift I made that was so powerful for me was to simplify down to ONE thing a week, and that was my podcast episode.  I record it as a video, and the audio goes onto iTunes, the video goes on to YouTube, and then everything goes on to my website with a transcript so that people can read it if they want.

So there's one piece of content each week, but that one piece of content is really juicy. It's well produced. It's well thought out. It's in response to what people are looking for from me, and I do a much better job of it.

The biggest surprise for me when I when I did that was the feedback that I got from my audience.  It was “oh my goodness, thank goodness you're doing this.”

I didn't realize my audience was finding it overwhelming to chase me around the internet to get access to all of the different things that I was speaking about.

Actually, for a lot of people, it was the reason that they hadn't signed up to do the TakeOff program, or signed up to work with me - because they still had a backlog of hundreds of pieces of content they had been studiously saving to go back and watch later.

So it was such a smart decision for my business, and for my energy, but it was also really well received by my audience.

Having a podcast is a great way to just focus on one thing - one piece of juicy content that you're releasing every single week.

7. Distribution.

This is probably the one where I feel most like I've robbed myself of growth in my business, of really building my audience, and also really growing what I'm doing here.

For a lot of my podcast episodes, they were never ever shared publicly.  They were put onto iTunes, they were put up as podcast episodes, but they were never distributed. So for those people who subscribed to the podcast, they got it. But if people weren't subscribed, they never knew that podcast episode ever existed.

Out of the 200 episodes of this podcast, at least 50 of them have never been shared with my mailing list. At least 50 of them have never been shared on Facebook. And I really feel like I let my podcast down by not having that all taken care of.

It's a big lesson for me moving forward in making sure that all pieces of that process are working really effectively.

If you do follow me on Facebook or in the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, you will see that more and more I'll be sharing podcast episodes from earlier in my podcast journey, because I really feel like I've robbed my audience of seeing those episodes and knowing that they existed.

From here, the distribution of my podcast will be something that I'm paying very close attention to.

To be honest with you, sometimes the distribution didn't happen because I thought I had outsourced it and it just wasn't being done.

Sometimes the distribution of my podcast didn't happen because the communication links with my team were down, and I wasn't actually proactively letting them know – “This podcast episode is ready to be shared. Please make sure it gets scheduled up.”

There were lots of different broken cogs in the wheel of things that were not working in the process and they have been fixed. We're working on it even more consistently now. And we will be sharing some of the backlog of those podcast episodes with my audience.

But as a minimum, every podcast episode will be shared with the people who are subscribed to my mailing list, and every podcast episode will make it to Facebook as well.  Even just getting those tiny pieces working is a really critical part of the podcast process.

So if you're going to go to the effort of creating a podcast and creating consistent content, please, please make sure that you also then close the loop on that and consistently distribute it to your audience, whether that be sending it out to your mailing list, or posting on Facebook, or scheduling it out to be re-shared on Facebook, or best case scenario, all three of those things.

Please do make sure that you take care of the distribution of your content, not just the creation.

8. Freebie mania.

This lesson came from me seeing other podcasters create a new content upgrade for every single podcast episode and feeling like I needed to do the same.

I think this really first started with the thriving of Amy Porterfield’s. podcast. I think she still to this day has a new freebie for every single podcast episode.

However, she has a huge team. She doesn't create the freebies herself. And she doesn't do any of the other parts of her podcast process. All she does is record the podcast episodes. And most of the time, what podcast episode she creates is dictated by her marketing team.

This was a big lesson for me. I thought that I needed to follow that model. I had seen a lot of different podcasters - not just Amy - do this and have lots and lots of different freebies. A freebie for every single podcast episode.

But to be honest with you, that's why a lot of the time my podcast episodes were so slow to come out, because creating a podcast episode wasn't as simple as sitting down and recording the podcast (which is my zone of genius and the thing that I'm really good at), but then I also needed to create a freebie to go with it, and then it needed to have an opt-in form, and an email sequence.

It needed to have all of these other pieces of the puzzle to go together. And it was all the other pieces of the puzzle that was slowing down the process.

So in May 2019, when I completely wiped my website and started again from scratch, I wiped all of the freebies away as well.

On all podcast episodes, you'll see a note that says the freebies or resources mentioned in this podcast may no longer be available. But that was a decision that I needed to make in order to just give myself some breathing space, and free myself from this rod for my own back that I had created of this expectation that every podcast episode would have a freebie with it.

And again, lots of people actually said to me that the reason why they didn't buy anything from me was they had this bank of freebies that they'd saved up and downloaded and they still hadn't done those. So why would they join my program if they still hadn't used the free resources that I had made available.

These days my freebie repertoire is much, much smaller. There is no freebie attached to this particular podcast episode, although I do have a super juicy little challenge that I'm going to set for you, and you can win yourself a prize - super fun.

But I have taken the pressure off myself to create a whole new freebie for every single episode. And in fact, I have been able to whittle it down to the freebies that are the most valuable for my audience, as well as most likely for my audience to move to the point where they are ready, willing and able to invest in joining one of my programs or working with me.

That is the job of the freebies, after all. Freebies are actually better for my audience and better for my business now that I've focused down on just a select handful.

So if you feel like in order to create a podcast, you need to have eleventy billion freebies that go with every single thing, just chill out, relax. You definitely don't need to do that.  In fact, it's probably better if you don’t.

9. Asking for the sale.

I cannot believe that I'm still learning this lesson, even though it's something that I teach other people over and over again.  (#coachesneedcoaches).

Whilst I am quite consistent in talking about my specific freebies that I have on the podcast, I don't often talk about my programs and courses.

I don't often talk about how people can pay to work with me - it's very rare that I will promote the TakeOff program on my podcast, for example.  It's very rare that I'll go into the details of outcomes that people have achieved in the programs or those deliverables that people are able to access by joining my programs.

I don't often talk about the benefits of the TakeOff program consistently on the podcast. Now that has it’s benefits, but it also does have its downsides.

Over the last few months and coming into the future, I will talk a little bit more about what my programs involve and what they include and who they are for.  It won't necessarily be doing the hardcore pitching on the podcast because I think the value of the podcast is the free resources and information that I share, but for some people, they are curious about how they can keep working with me.

So you'll hear a little bit more about the TakeOff program, you'll hear a little bit more about the Academy, and you'll definitely be hearing more about the Heart-Centred Business Conference as we go forward with this podcast as well.

Don't be afraid to ask for the sale on your own podcast.

And please don't use me as your role model of how often to talk about your paid products and services. Because I think that I err on the side of too little and I'm going to be talking about it a bit more moving forward.

10. Get specific.

This is a big one for me, and it actually is something that has happened as a result of creating the podcast and being more consistent with it.

Whenever you go to create a new piece of content - whether that's your first ever webinar, or your first ever podcast episode, or your first ever video blog, or your first ever Facebook Live - there is so much pressure on that first episode to really hit the mark on all of the things that you need to say with the world.

But honestly, I don't think anyone is equipped to hear all that I have to say, all at once. I don't think it's in anyone's best interest for me to try and jam everything that I believe and every piece of advice that I have and every single thought that I have about online marketing into one thing.

By being consistent with my podcast, it allows me to get down into the detail and get hyper specific about certain things that I want to teach or I want to say on this podcast.

It's a really great way for me to niche more effectively, be of more service, get really practical, and get specific about the things that I think people can be doing more effectively in their business to get more money, to get more clients, to make more sales.

If you have been holding back in your content because you believe if you talk about A but don't talk about B, C, D and E that you’re not really serving your audience fully because you’re only sharing part of the story, I want this to be a permission slip for you.

Just because in some podcast episodes, I don't talk about feminine business, or feminist business, or stepping away from fear-based marketing, or pain-point marketing, or those sorts of things, that doesn't mean I'm not being of service in all of my podcast episodes.

In my “How to raise your prices” podcast episode number 147,  I am talking about very practical, specific tangible steps that you can take to raise your prices in your business, when to do it, and how to make it a win-win for your audience.

And I don't get ranty about feminist business in that, but because I'm talking about how to raise your prices, people are more likely to be raising their prices and doing it in a way that grows their business.

It is actually a brilliant opportunity for me to be of service. And so what happens is that the collective of all of these podcast episodes is actually a perfect expression of the Tash Corbin business model of heart-centred, soul-driven business - of what the ladyposse is all about.

It's the combination of all of these things that creates that overarching message. So don't be afraid if you are putting out content, if you're thinking of putting a podcast together, don't be afraid to just tell little parts of the story, piece by piece, by being really practical, specific and tangible.  Again, you're probably going to be of more service to your audience if you do it that way. How cool is that?

So don't feel this pressure to say all the things every single time - sometimes you can just solve one really minor, really practical challenge that someone has for today. That is totally cool.

And in fact, they'll love you for it, because if they are experiencing that problem, you've just solved it. And we didn't have to get a lecture from you on all the eleventy billion other things that you've been meaning to say.

Those are my 10 best lessons from 200 episodes of the Heart-Centred Business podcast /#ladyposse when it first started, and I'm going to recap those 10 for you again.  I'll also have them in the show notes of this episode, which you can find at tashcorbin.com/200.

But before I do a little recap, I also want to invite you to come into the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, using the #200pods.

I would love to hear from you: What's the number one thing that you've learned from these podcasts?

I'm going to be going and reviewing and listening and reading all of your reviews and all of the things that you've learned from the podcast.

And I am going to pick one of you to win a free VIP intensive with me as my thank you!

So all you need to do is go into the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, use #200pods and share with me what has been your number one lesson that you've learned from listening to the Heart-Centred Business podcast.

Now if you can refer to the podcast episode number when you do - extra bonus points to you.

And you can of course then give everyone the link to that podcast episode by using tashcorbin.com/podcast number because that's always going to be the podcast episode number. So do if you can share the link to that podcast episode (youdon't have to in order to be in the running).

I'm going to read through all of your lessons. If I see any patterns, I will make sure that I do future podcast episodes to continue the conversation on that topic as well.

In order to be in the running, you just need to share your #200pods biggest lesson before the 15th of May 2020.  So if you're listening along to this after the 15th of May, it's closed, but you can still come and let me know what your #200pods biggest lesson has been.

If you do share before the 15th of May, you will be in the running to win a VIP intensive with me. And I will be doing a Facebook Live and announcing the winner on my Facebook page after the 15th of May.

Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business podcast.  In review, here are the 10 biggest lessons from 200 podcast episodes:

1. Consistency.
2. Practice not perfect.
3. Finding my voice.
4. The numbers don't lie.
5. Start with what you have.
6. Simplify, especially when it comes to content.
7. Distribute.
8. Freebie mania. Let's not go there.
9. Ask for the sale
10. Get specific.

If you have any other insights and “aha’s” from this episode, make sure that you use #podcastaha, when talking about it in the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs group, and I always love seeing any questions or aha that come up from each episode.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.

Today we're going to be talking about the four big considerations you need to think about before creating and launching a membership.

So if you've been thinking about putting a membership out there, this is going to be a really juicy episode for you.

What is a membership?

It is where you have people in a group program and they need to make a recurring payment in order to stay in the program.

For example, you might have a course where people make a payment and then they’re in the course until it's finished, and then they're done, or they’re in the course evergreen so they can stay in the course for as long as it exists.

A membership requires that people pay a membership fee in order to stay inside that program.

So in my business, the Heart-Centred Business Academy is a membership. It has a monthly fee people can pay by the year or pay by the month. But when they stop paying and their membership expires, they then leave that membership.

Creating a membership can be a really sexy way to get into leverage and add more leverage in your business. It's a way where you can be paid on a recurring payment, and you don't have to re-market to the existing members in order for them to decide they want to stay in.

Now, that isn't always 100% true, because you do want to ensure that you are encouraging people to stay in the membership as much as possible. But you don't have to go out and sell membership spots every month to be making money every month from your business, because if there's a value proposition for people to stay and keep paying membership, they will.

So it can be a really juicy model, and it can sound very appealing to create and launch a membership program. But as with any business strategy and model, you know that I like you to go in with your eyes open, knowing exactly what you're getting yourself in for.

I think memberships are sexy, I have one. I'm not saying don't create a membership.

But I do want to give you four things to consider before you just jump straight in, so that you can keep your eyes open and know that you're making the right decision for your business, for you, and for your clients.

1. It’s the right fit.

First and foremost, make sure that it is the right business fit for you. And don't assume that because it has recurring income that it's going to fix all recurring income problems that you have in your business.

It's not the only solution to good baseline income in your business. I have a number of clients who thought the only way they would be able to fix their recurring income issues and their cash flow issue issues in their business was to create a membership, when instead what we've done is put their existing course or program on evergreen and created evergreen sales funnels.

For example, with the Heart-Centred Business Academy, the current rate is $196 a month. But the current price of the TakeOff program is $2,000, or thereabouts. So if I want to create $2,000 in recurring monthly income in my business, I can sell one spot of the TakeOff program every month, or I can sell 10 spaces in the Heart-Centred Business Academy and have those 10 members stay in.

And that's where the sexy part is for a lot of people.  They think, “Well, once I get someone in, they're definitely going to keep paying me and so therefore that's going to be way better for the long term baseline income of my business.”

But I tell you, it is easier for me to sell one spot on TakeOff than it is to sell 10 spots in the Heart-Centred Business Academy. And also, for me in particular, selling 10 spots in the Academy takes a lot more work because there are certain things that people need to have ticked off before they're really ready for the Heart Centred Business Academy.

Additionally, the workload that's required to keep people in the Academy at $196 a month means that when they join, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to be with me for a long time.

So for some people, the cash flow solution that they're looking for is to put their course on evergreen and create funnels for it.

For other people, the cash flow solution that they're looking for is actually to get a couple of VIP clients on monthly payment plans that are going for the next 10 to 12 months.

The delivery model, and the work that's involved, and the marketing that’s involved in them getting a couple more VIP clients is way less than the workload, marketing, and delivery required for holding space for 50 people in a membership at $50, $100, or even $200 a month.

So just make sure that when you are looking at bringing a membership into your business model, you are making it for the right reasons and you're not making assumptions about it being the best or only way to fix the issues that you're currently facing.

2. You’re ready for it.

Number two is to make sure that you're ready for it and that your business is ready for it as well.

I actually have already done an entire podcast episode on this - it was episode number 189. Here is a link to episode number 189 so that you can go and watch that one in detail.

What I will say about readiness for selling a membership is, first and foremost: Do you actually have a solid audience that you can launch to?

Secondly, do you have clarity around your value proposition? Are you good at messaging to the outcomes that you deliver already?

And thirdly, can you cope with the loss in cash flow? Now this third thing is actually my point for today as well. So I'll be talking about that one in a bit more detail.

3. You’re clear on the membership type and value proposition.

Number three is being clear on what type of membership that you are selling, and also the value proposition of that particular model.

There are two main types of membership. (There are actually three but the third one is a really bad one and I'll tell you about what that one is so that you can avoid it!)

The two main types of membership that I recommend to people are: Plug and play memberships and Process driven memberships.

Plug and Play Memberships

The Heart-Centred Business Academy is a plug and play membership. It has modules in it that people can grab and implement when they feel ready for that thing or they're looking for that particular piece of advice.

Because it is a business strategy membership, there are modules on how to create great welcoming onboarding sequences for your business, how to grow your list, strategies on running webinars about how to scale up the rates of those webinars, how to run a five day challenge, and how to launch an online course or program. People grab the modules that they need when they are ready to use them.

So it's a plug and play, not a sequenced process that you need to go through.  And even though we've got different stages of business, it's plug and play.

If you're already creating automated funnels, you can jump into the Heart-Centred Business Academy and there are modules on creating funnels, so you don't have to go through the Academy modules in any particular order.

A plug and play style membership fits where what you're teaching is something where people can grab and choose bits that they need. Other examples might be if you're doing meal planning, people can grab certain meal plans for certain seasons, or certain meal plans based on the types of foods that they like, or dietary requirements, or what they've got in their cupboards at that point in time, whatever it might be.

If it's really valuable for people, they'll pay to continually have access to this plug and play library, and then that could be a good model for you.

Now with my membership, it also includes live access to one on one conversations with me through our group coaching calls, because often people don't know which module they need to plug and play at that point in time.

That's a huge value proposition of the Heart-Centred Business Academy.  It’s not just the information that they have access to, but it's actually the transformation it will facilitate in their business because we're talking about where they're at in their business, what the right strategy move is for them, and then there's modules that they can go and watch to implement that particular strategy.

They also then get to come back and have conversations with me about what they've made decisions about and whether they've got questions on things and where they've got stuck on things.

So the value proposition isn't just the modules, it's actually making sure they're accessing the right information at the right time for their particular needs.

Process Driven Membership

The other style of membership is a process driven membership, in which people come in to learn a specific process of yours, but the value proposition of staying in the membership is continuously improving and refining that implementation.

So let's say you have a six step manifesting process where people can manifest an income goal. Why would people continue to pay to be part of that membership? Well, it's not just to learn the six steps and then they leave and get on with their lives.

It's because when you're implementing those six steps, you usually have self sabotage, barriers, questions, all sorts of things that come up for you. So you're paying to stay and practice that process.

It also works really well for things like productivity or where people are learning to embed habits or skills that they may not necessarily have learned before. But it's not just the learning that they're there for - they are there to continuously practice in a supported environment.

Information Driven Membership

Now, the third type of membership, which I do not recommend, is an information driven membership, one where you jump in and you're drip-fed different pieces of information as you go, and there's no direction for a plug and play, nor support for a process driven membership.

Memberships that are driven only by information generally are the ones that have high dropout rates and low conversion rates.  This is because information is available to us freely, and the value proposition of joining your membership is not the information you get access to - it's the transformation that it facilitates.

Yes, that curated information may assist with the transformation process, but if it's only information driven, then chances are you will fall into the industry averages, which are three month dropout rates and less than 1% conversion.

So that model of membership is low profitability, it requires a high level of marketing because you've got a lot of churn, and in a lot of cases it doesn't have the ongoing loyalty that other styles of memberships will deliver.

It also isn't necessarily the right fit for your ideal clients, and it's not particularly valuable to them, because information is freely available everywhere.

What they want is to achieve some kind of change, some kind of outcome. And if you're not facilitating that change in your membership, are you really serving your customers and clients effectively? So you need to be clear on what type of membership it is that you are facilitating.

4. Are you ready for launching?

Launching a membership can sometimes result in a significant drop in your income in the short term.

When you're launching a course or program or membership for an extended period of time, you're focused on promoting your lead magnet, which is free. And in most launches, you have two periods of lead magnet promotion.

So there are two extended periods of time where you're focused on promoting free things. Then you have your cart open and cart close, your early bird, your full price, whatever it is that you're doing, but if you're selling a membership, and most people are buying by the month, then the return and the influx of income that you would normally get when you're launching a course, for example, may not be there because it's actually growing your ongoing income.

If you're launching a membership program for a month, and you normally charge $2,000 for your VIP services and $1,000 for a course, and you're charging $100 a month for your membership, and you get 400 people signed up to your webinar with a good conversion rate - let's say a 5% conversion rate, which means five people for every hundred - so that's 20 people who join your membership, and you make $2,000 for the month.

Now, think about your likelihood of having that high conversion rate on your first launch, of having that many people sign up to a webinar on your first launch. Are you really going to make enough money to get through that launch process?

That's not even taking into consideration the ad-spend. Whereas if you were able to launch your course, and you got 20 people converting at 5% - 400 people - that's $20,000, if they're paying you $1,000 for your course.

So you can see that the short term cash results from launching a membership can sometimes be a dip.  There are strategies to overcome this and dampen the impact on your cash flow when you're launching a membership.

Something that I do recommend to my clients is - when you first launch your membership, have your first lead magnet sell people into buying a year upfront only. Do it at a lovely no brainer price, but in a way that's going to give you the cash flow that you need in the short term from your early bird.

And then in your second lead magnet, open up paying by the month.  That way, you're going to have the best of both worlds - you're going to have an income injection, and you're going to have that ongoing income coming in through the people who are paying by the month as well.

So yes, there are some ways that you can get around it, but you just want to go in with your eyes open.

Ok?  Aunty Tash wants to make sure that you aren't going to completely derail your business and get into the huge mindset wobbles and downward spirals because you didn't think about these things going in, and you were sold this idea of an information product.

It's not about your knowledge. It's about facilitating transformations.

If you are ready to jump into launching a membership, I have a juicy free resource for you as well.

It's almost two hours long, but it's a free training and it is very valuable. It's called Create And Launch Your Online Course.

Now, I know it says "online course." But most of the lessons in this particular training also apply for memberships, so long as you bring together the information I just gave you in this podcast episode with that free training.

Where I talk about courses in the training, you just slot in memberships, you have a think about those particular considerations that I've posed to you today.

You have everything that you need to know, and exactly what you need to do, to not only create but also launch your online course or membership.

Questions about this episode? Comments? Continue the conversation in the Facebook Group using the hashtag #podcastaha and the episode number.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.

In today's episode, we're going to talk about how to make a profit quickly when you are starting a business.  It comes down to finding a sexy strategy that works for you. So let's jump right into it.

Ultimately, every business strategy can be boiled down into three core elements:

• Reach a bunch of people who are potential clients.
• Convert the appropriate ones into paying clients.
• Continuously support and nurture your mindset and energetic well-being.

A lot of the time our results come down to the fact that we are sabotaging ourselves. Maybe we're not doing the things that we need to do, we may be procrastinating and all of those sorts of things.

I truly believe that mindset and energetic well-being need to form part of your core business strategy.

If we are talking about the key strategic decisions that you need to make, about how you're going to grow your business and where your profit comes from, most people starting a business think their number one job is to get reach, to get in front of as many people as possible. The more people you get in front of, the more sales you will make, right?

But that's actually not where profitability comes from, because reach is actually the biggest expense in your business.

Reach is the biggest expense in your business.

If you need to reach thousands and thousands of people in order to make the sales that you want to make in your business, then you're going to need to find those people, you're going to need to reach those people.

And you will either need to do it through ads or organic strategies. That will either take money or time.

Even if you keep doing it purely through organic strategies, you are either investing your own time, which is an opportunity cost, or you are paying for someone else's time, which is also a cost.

So if you think about a business that's starting up, and you get in front of 100 people, and you get one sale from those 100 people, would it be smarter to go out and find another 100 people to make one more sale? Or would it be smarter to focus on your conversion strategies and make a sale with the people you already have access to?

Now, this might sound counterintuitive, and it might sound like it goes against the grain of what a lot of other experts and marketers out there are telling you.

But ultimately, the higher your conversion rate, the less people you need to reach, and therefore, the more profitable your business will be. Because you’re not needing to invest as strongly in that most expensive expense - reach.

When people are working with me in startup, a lot of the time they find this really disconcerting. They're like, “No, no, no, no, no. I need to reach more people with my Facebook page. No, I need to reach more people. I need to get more people watching my blogs, I need to have more people visit my website.”

Ultimately, yes, for scalable growth in your business that is something that you want, but when you're first starting out and you’re looking to get to profit quickly, you are much, much, much more likely to do so if you focus on your conversion strategies over your reach strategies.

So high conversion - how do we get this?

How do we improve our conversion? How do we make more sales?  Well, the number one factor in contributing to your conversion is connection.

And this is why I think women are so much better at online business and can be so much more successful just by tapping into our innate strengths, because no one connects like the ladies connect.

And we don't connect over perfection, or the sexy tools we have, or perfect photoshoots and all of those sorts of things.

For most women, we connect over the things that make us human - our periods, nipple chafing from breastfeeding children, feeling frumpy in a dress, whatever it might be.

Those things actually make us connect with each other more deeply than any perfect Prada handbag ever will.  And even when we do connect over the Prada handbag, we are very quick to reassure everyone that we're still human. We're still just like everyone else.

There's a whole other conversation about needing to be relatable, but ultimately, what this means is that by tapping into your capacity to connect, you will be able to improve the level that you convert in your business.

So instead of trying to focus on ways that you can reach hundreds and thousands of people, and then sell to those hundreds of thousands of people and convert them in “one to many” models - for example, running Facebook ads to thousands of people, sending emails to your entire mailing list, selling online courses, group programs memberships, passive income products, all of those sorts of things...

If you want to get to profit quickly, you will be more likely to do so by selling one to one and delivering one to one.

That is where early profitability shines through, particularly for service-based businesses. By focusing on ways that you can create one to one connection with people, and ways that you can deliver one to one VIP services, (and charge appropriately for those VIP services), you will maximize your profit in startup and get you to profitability faster than any of these high reach, low-cost product strategies.

Think about it - in order to get one lead these days with Facebook ads, you're looking at least $5 in Facebook ad spend, if not $10, $15 - I've even seen $20 and $30 being thrown around.

So in order to reach one lead, you need to be investing at least $5. And in order to get that one lead, you probably have to reach 100 to 200 people.

If you do the math on all of that, you need to get that lead, then you need 100 leads to make a sale using the rule of 1%. So you need to spend $500 on your reach in order to make one sale.

Even if your VIP service is $1,000, having that 1% conversion rule means that you would need to spend $500 in ads to make that thousand dollar sale, so you've instantly halved your potential profit.

Instead, what if you focused on getting out in front of 10 people, doing it organically, and having conversations with those 10 people?  What are the odds that you're going to convert one of them into being a paying client with you?

By having that one to one connection, you get to understand them deeply, you get to understand what their challenges are, you get to understand what it is that they're looking for.

You can present a compelling message and a compelling offer that will help them achieve what is important to them, and also help you make great money.

It's a no brainer to me, and yet still hundreds of people starting businesses fail to see that this could be the smartest strategy for them.

But that doesn’t have to be you, right?  Promise me!

If this sounds really good for you, and you would like to start exploring low-cost reach strategies that are high connection and high conversion, I actually have a free training called The Zero Dollar Facebook Marketing Plan.

In this free training, I show you how you can use free strategies on Facebook to get highly connected leads and have highly converting sales conversations with them.

The resource is completely free. It takes you about an hour and a bit - I call it an hour and a smidge - to go through it.

In this training I'll be showing you how you can create highly connected reach through Facebook strategies that cost nothing.

Wouldn't it be worthwhile trying that out?  I think it would be worth investing a little bit of your time in order to get that outcome.

You'll be able to find the link to sign up and register for free with the show notes for today at tashcorbin.com/198.

Questions about this episode? Comments? Continue the conversation in the Facebook Group using the hashtag #podcastaha and the episode number.

Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.