Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/229
This is a very special episode of the podcast as I'm joined by Tammy Guest in this Spotlight interview.
In this interview, Tammy and I talk about the new opportunities that are arising in the online business world, particularly in the health practitioners space.
Tammy also shares her free checklist How To Pivot To Online Consults Checklist. You can access this freebie at tammyguest.com/online-consults-checklist
"I'm learning to fly helicopters and I really feel like there are so many lessons in things that you are most fearful about.
Whether it's tech, whether it's taking that next step, pulling away from the computer or the textbooks and actually doing the webinar that you want to do, or whether it's turning a helicopter into wind and flying up really high, or turning the engine off and hoping that it'll come back on at the bottom of an emergency landing.
You're not going to know until you do it.
You need to feel the fear. Because it's scary as. Even just signing up for a free program or something - it's kind of scary!
Do it anyway. Feel the fear. You're not going to know unless you cut the engine and see if it comes back on again.
The thing that gives you the jiggles, is the thing that is pushing you right up against the edge of your comfort zone. That's why you're jiggling so much because you haven't been there.
You can either contract back in and stay the same with the same old results, or you can jiggle your way through it, feel the fear do it anyway.
There will be something on the other side of it, and no one can tell you what that is until you go through it." – Tammy Guest
There's a massive shift in the online space for practitioners in particular.
If you're a practitioner who's reading along, Tammy has a checklist that's specific for you. It will go over the essentials you need to successfully transition to online consults and virtual practice
It's super easy and you can download it here: tammyguest.com/online-consults-checklist
Make sure you come and share your questions, comments and light-bulb moments over in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community using #podcastaha and the episode number (229).
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/228
In today's episode, we are going to be answering the question: Where do you go to get help when you're first starting a business? And how can you launch that business really successfully?
This is going to be really pertinent for those of you who are in the early stages of business, and who are really wanting to make sure you're getting to sustainability and profitability in your business quickly.
When it comes to starting a business - and especially one online - there are so many options. There are different options around:
You can often get into the space of not knowing what to do because you've got too many options in front of you.
Who do you turn to for help? How do you decide where you're going to get your startup advice from?
Especially if you're looking to hire a mentor, work with someone, buy a course, or have someone help you with this process. How do you choose someone that you are going to invest in working with?
What I wanted to do today was break it down into six pieces of the decision-making process, and why I think these are really important for startup especially.
Before I go through these six decision points, I also just want to start by saying that I think it's important when you're in startup to not have too many experts that you're following at once.
Yes, I think you should explore when you're first starting out, to look for all the possibilities of who might really resonate with you, who's a great mentor, and who could really help you who specialises in your industry. But then I think it's important to make a decision and really focus down rather than overwhelming yourself and spreading yourself thin.
I know a lot of women who followed fifteen to twenty different people in startup, and all that did was left them going round and round in circles because sometimes the advice they were getting was conflicting. Sometimes the priorities were conflicting too. All of the mentors said that you need to grow your list, but some said to do it early and some said to wait until you had your messaging clear. All of that confusion just winds up with you doing a lot of work but not making a lot of progress.
So yes, explore. But I think when you're in startup, it's important to just really focus down on working with one to three mentors maximum in a range of different ways if you want to, but really keeping it quite narrow.
I made this mistake. The first ever person that I discovered who helped people starting a business is the person I paid US$4,000 to because I didn't realise how many options there were out there.
At that point in time, I was working in corporate, I wasn't really on social media that much, and I had had limited exposure to the business coaching world, business mentoring, and particularly people who helped startups.
I came from a consulting background, so the types of business consultants and business coaches that I saw in my industry really worked with large scale organisations and mostly production-based organisations - factories, manufacturing and all of those sorts of things.
Take some time to explore at first, and don't just sign up with the first person that you like or the first person that says something that resonates with you.
I think it is important to have a period of exploration and just getting to know some people.
When you are listening to this person's podcast, how does it make you feel?
When you go through the email sequence of getting to know someone and signing up for something of theirs that's free, how does that email sequence feel?
What language do they use when they're speaking to you?
Do you feel empowered in that process? Or do you feel like you're so far behind, you're totally freaked out, and there's no way you're going to succeed unless you hire that person immediately?
If you don't like that experience or if that experience leaves you feeling a little bit uneasy or traumatised, then chances are, you're not going to implement what they teach you because you're not going to want to make other people feel that way.
Whenever I'm looking to work with a mentor, buy a new course, buy a membership program, or jump into a mastermind, the first thing that I do is observe their strategies. I go to someone's podcast, I go to their website, and I sign up for two or three different things.
Over the next few weeks, I observe what that email onboarding process is like, and how that person makes me feel. If I can go to a webinar or a challenge, or listen to a video training of their's, I will do that as well, to see how much they truly put into their content and how much they're just using it as a long-winded fear-inducing sales process.
If they do that to me, then I'm not going to buy from them.
Often, the success that those people have achieved is because they have wholeheartedly adopted a fear-based marketing practise - even if they don't realise that they have.
A lot of people have learned sales and marketing from other people who've built it on fear-based marketing, and those people have learned it from others.
I've seen marketing coaches and people who are mentoring in business, and they claim that they don't teach fear in the sales process and that they do it as an empowered and feminine sales process. But when you see what it is, it is completely using neuro-linguistic programming, and manipulative fear-based tactics to get you to buy what they want you to buy. They just don't realise it because they're not discerning as to what they're doing to people in their sales process.
Do you feel like you can do this and that you're so excited to be there? Or do you feel like you HAVE to buy something in order to be able to make it?
That's a big indicator of how they're going to teach you, and therefore the way you are going to make your audience feel as well.
This is a little bit controversial, but it's so important that you are working with business strategies, mentors, programs, and courses that are appropriate for where you are now, not where you want to be.
I understand that it would be magnificent for you to have a $25,000 ads budget, a team of ten people and to be able to have a 100K launch in the next couple of weeks - I totally understand how amazing that feels.
But if you still don't have clarity on what your business model is, your ideal marketing strategy or you don't have the budget for that, then signing up to work with someone who expects you to have that budget and who expects you to have that level of support, is actually going to create a big gap for you that you're not going to be able to fill.
I've even had it myself where I've facilitated some more intermediate and advanced programs and masterminds, and people have joined and said that they're not there yet but they're going to work really hard, catch up and do all of the things that I'm teaching. Most of the time, I'm able to say to them that it isn't appropriate for the stage of business that they're at and redirect them somewhere else.
But sometimes I haven't even known.
I once had someone join a mastermind of mine, and she lied about how much income she was bringing into her business because she thought she could make the big leap. When it came down to it with the strategies I was teaching and the things that we were trying to do, she didn't have the solid foundations to actually get the results. We ended up having a conversation and she moved into something else with me.
They WANT to be ready to sell, promote and launch courses, they WANT to be ready to invest thousands of dollars in Facebook ads, and they WANT to be ready to hire a team of six people, but they're not ready and they buy programs that are too far beyond their stage of business.
Jumping into advanced programs is going to really highlight the holes in your foundations if you are still in the early startup stages of business, and if you don't have:
I have people come to me about the Take Off program in particular. They say that they've been in business for 18 months, so they're not really in startup and don't need help starting a business. They say that the Take Off program isn't for them, but when I ask a few simple questions in regards to where their clients come from, how many followers they have, and how often they send out their newsletter, it's clear to me that they don't have any of those foundations in place.
I have to stop saying that the Take Off program is for startups. Instead, it's really about nailing your business foundations and getting you to the point where you're making that consistent 5K - 8K a month.
Many people want to believe that they're not in startup anymore, but really, they are in terms of building their online marketing system, building their presence online, and nailing the attraction and conversion strategies for their clients.
I want to encourage you as much as possible to work with mentors who specialise in helping you where you are. NOT pretending that you're miles ahead because you think that you can leap into that without having those foundations in place.
When I'm joining a program, I always ask:
Sometimes I've been sold things where they tell me that it's for every stage of business, and then I jump in and they're operating from the assumption that everyone can spend $4,000 a month on Facebook ads.
When I joined that particular program, I had no budget for Facebook ads.
I could maybe spare a couple of hundred dollars, but I didn't have consistent clients yet, so how was I supposed to find $4,000 a month? The program was only $1,000, and yet there was an expectation I was spending multiple thousands of dollars a month on Facebook ads.
When I asked the person before I joined the course what the prerequisites were and what I needed to know, there was no mention of the fact that I was going to be asked to spend $4,000 a month on Facebook ads. AND they had a 60-day refund window, but you had to show the receipt for Facebook ads that you'd spent over $5,000 on Facebook ads in the 60 days. How is that a refund window? Anyway, that's a whole other conversation.
Make sure to ask these questions first:
This point is a range of different things that you just want to consider depending on your specific situation.
For example, if you are a health practitioner, you might want to work with someone who specialises in helping health practitioners.
Especially in the world of psychology and other specific medical spaces, you need to have certain things in place. There are certain rules that apply to you in your marketing, such as not being able to use testimonials or not being able to advertise in certain ways.
If you are starting a network marketing business, find someone who's actually a specialist in helping people start a network marketing business, because usually you have regulations and rules to follow. You can't promote on social media or you can't talk about certain things on social media.
It's best to work with someone who is familiar with your industry as a minimum, but also if you can, someone who has success in your industry. This may make it more effective for you getting that help starting a business.
If you are starting a product-based business and you want to sell physical products, I'm not the right person to mentor you in your startup journey.
Of course I can help you with some of the social media stuff and you can listen to my podcast because most of this can be applied to service and product-based businesses. But I tell people not to join the Take Off program because it's specifically about selling your services as a coach, mentor, trainer, web developer, graphic designer, etc.. It's about selling services and moving into digital products eventually - like courses and memberships and those sorts of things - but not physical products.
You want to make sure that if you're going to work with someone, you understand what their specialisations are so that you have that information to decide whether they're going to be the right fit for you.
You can also look at things like their results in their own business, results of their clients, social proof, testimonials, and those sorts of things. Although I give about a 0.5% weighting to social proof results and testimonials these days because a lot of coaches are out there telling people to fake it.
It was very disappointing, but I even discovered that someone was saying that they'd made $100,000 in sales for the month, and when I reached out and congratulated her saying that she could buy that car she'd been wanting, she told me that it was actually that she got a free spot in a $50,000 program as a deal for letting someone into her program so it wasn't actually cash. I was shocked that she was out there saying on social media that she'd achieved something that she hadn't actually achieved.
I don't pay a lot of attention to results, social proof and those kinds of things.
If I can see someone that I know has done that program, I'll reach out to them privately and ask what their experience was, and I'll ask very specific questions. I won't just ask what they thought of it, I will ask questions like:
Especially if the person is an affiliate for it, I don't just ask them if they liked it because it's in their best interest to say that they loved it and it was amazing - but they don't actually tell you what they did.
I asked someone recently what they thought of a program, and they said that it was amazing and they loved it. Then I asked my more specific questions about how long it had taken this person, and they said that they only did the first two modules but they really loved being in the community and surrounded by amazing people. And for me, that wasn't what I was looking for.
I was actually looking for some step by step guidance.
If you're going to ask someone about it, ask the key questions so that you can get some really useful information about whether it's the right fit for you or not.
This is the final piece of advice that I have about getting help starting a business.
For example, I am a raging extrovert and quite happy on camera. Some people come work with me because they're the same and they know that they can work with me. They know that the strategies I teach them are closely aligned with who they are and what they can do.
But I also have a lot of people who come to me as a business mentor because they are the opposite. They are introverted, and they're not as confident on social media. They want to expand their comfort zone and experiment with some more forward-facing, video-based strategies.
I want you to just take some time to reflect: Are you looking for someone who's really similar to you so that you can model what they've done and design your business in the same way that they've designed theirs? Or are you looking for someone who's a little bit different?
This is where I think having one to three people that you follow closely in your startup journey and that maybe you work with, can be really helpful.
That can be really helpful to give you that balance and nudge you out of your comfort zone. But also, make sure you've got someone you can model from who is more aligned with who you are, and how you are going to show up as well.
As a little bonus on this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, I have a free resource for you - especially for those of you who perhaps need help starting a business or getting those foundations in place.
When I say starting out, I don't mean you've been in it for 10 minutes... I mean that you still don't have that consistency of your processes in terms of marketing online - you haven't got the results, and you don't have the scalability.
In this training, I take you through the key foundations that you want to actually get implementing as quickly as possible, so you can start making money quickly in your business.
By doing this and getting that money in quickly, you can then make some decisions about the model, the messaging and the niching, because you've got those solid foundations in place.
As always, come over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, and let me know that you've been listening to episode number 228. I'd love to know: What are your questions, lightbulb moments or decisions as a result of reading this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast?
Something I haven't done consistently on this podcast is asking you to review the podcast as well. If you can find the review section and give me a review (making sure you let me know who you are so I can give you a shout out), that would really help me to get this podcast in front of other people.
It's how people get to find the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, and of course, it always gives me some really good warm fuzzy vibes when I get people's review and feedback on the podcast as well.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/227
In today's episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, I'm going to be answering one of your questions. I have a fabulous question from Ali, who asked how to be more consistent on social media the easy and lazy way.
This question was submitted by the fabulous Ali Bengough.
Ali is the face behind Ali Jayne and you can find her at facebook.com/alijaynecoach.
Ali's question is:
"Hi Tash! Do you have any tips on how to create a social media ecosystem the easy and lazy way, such as with batching? I find the consistency difficult to maintain, particularly when I need substantial time to retreat and recover my energy when dealing with heavily emotional client work. Thanks so much!"
Thank you, Ali, for this question. It's something that I get asked quite regularly, and if you haven't already checked out my previous Q&A episode where I answer a question about social media for introverts, I think that that would be a great one to check out as well.
For you Ali, I have six specific tips on how you can be more consistent on social media in a way that feels easy and lazy, and allows you to really enjoy it as well.
If you absolutely adore being in Facebook groups and engaging with people, then make that the core part of your strategy. If you love doing little snippet videos, then do that. And if you love having deep and intense one-to-one conversations with people, you can do that on social media.
What we want to do is actually create a social media strategy that plays to your strengths and really lights you up so that you can be more consistent on social media.
Social media is social.
Whether what you love is:
You can totally do any of those.
Find the social media strategy that brings you the most joy.
Don't just come from a place of wondering how much this strategy will make your business. If you don't enjoy your social media strategy, we're going to pick up on that energy. If you're just dialling it in, thinking about how much hard work it is and that you don't want to be doing it, we're going to pick up on that in your language, in your tone and also in the energy behind your posts.
Enjoy your strategy.
High conversion strategies require you to be in front of fewer people because you don't need to reach as many in order to get the conversions that you need for business sustainability and success.
A high conversion strategy would be showing up in a couple of small groups where you can step up, be a leader, and be known for your business in that particular audience and get lots of referrals from that space.
That way there's a high level of people knowing, liking and trusting you, and there's a much higher conversion rate because people are feeling very connected to you.
Something like inviting people to send you a private message and taking the conversation one-to-one quickly, working with a few people and talking with a few people but doing it all one-to-one, is much higher conversion than just broadcasting onto social media over and over again.
By bringing together point 1 (find your joy) and point 2 (find a way to make it high conversion - and therefore you don't have to reach as many people) you'll be able to make it as easy as possible.
There are many people who can help you with batching your content and scheduling it up. You don't even need to do the scheduling part yourself.
But if you're doing it yourself for now, set aside a small portion of time once a week or once every two weeks or even once a month, where you schedule up one post on your Facebook page per day for that period of time.
If you're scheduling things up once a month, then schedule a post for each day for the next 30 days.
Something nice and simple that helps you to make it as easy as possible and allows you to be more consistent on social media.
Not all of your content has to be written exactly on that day and published organically on that day.
You can batch and schedule up some content.
I find this is really helpful for people who do intense work such as yourself, Ali. Sometimes it's three or four days in a row where you just cannot be on social media and you really need to retreat.
If you've scheduled things up and you know that at least your minimum posts are going onto social media, then you can do that without guilt or worry.
Your minimum posts are going up, you don't have to panic too much, and everything is taken care of.
Sure, it would be better if you could show up and be present with your audience more consistently. But if there are times when you need to retreat, you can do so with confidence and without feeling as though you're sabotaging your business by taking time off.
That's the last thing we want you to feel when you are looking after yourself.
I think this is where a lot of people get drained by social media. They are on social media eighteen times a day, scrolling randomly, replying to that one message from someone, looking through their notifications, and they don't have boundaries or structure around the way they are on social media.
I separate my business time on social media from my playtime on social media.
In my business time on social media, I usually dedicate about 25 minutes a day, where I have a set list of things that I do, and I don't divert from that plan.
I will check any messages and respond, I will reply to any notifications or comments I need to reply to, and then I will jump into my own Facebook page, see what's going on and see if I need to do anything organically. I'll jump into my own Facebook group and do something, and then if there's time in my 25 minutes (which there usually is) I can also jump into a couple of other Facebook groups, share some posts in there as well, cheer a few people on and do some commenting.
If I've done that 25 minutes - and I try and do it as early in the day as possible - the rest of my time on social media is joy time.
I'm consistent, I'm there for 25 minutes a day, five days a week - I'll usually have one day on the weekend that I skip and one day during the week that I skip - and I'm consistent, but I'm very boundaried with that time.
Whilst the kettle is boiling, if I choose to also scroll through social media, see what everyone's up to and message a few friends, that's my playtime. That's personal time. It may be that some of the things I do in that playtime overlap with my business, but it's extra, and it's not a minimum requirement. If I don't do it, I don't have a problem with that because I have met my minimum requirements for the day on social media.
Be consistent on social media, but be boundaried about it.
Outsource as soon as you can.
Especially when you are batching up content and someone else can do the scheduling for you.
My first ever Facebook scheduling hire was someone who I paid US$8 an hour through Upwork and I hired her for two hours per month.
It cost me US$16 per month to outsource my content scheduling onto my Facebook page to someone else.
I still made the content - I was in that stage of creating videos, making little boards in Canva and writing up all of my content. All I did was just send the person a spreadsheet with all of the information in it - dates, what they had to post, and where the link to the image or video was if they needed it - and they did the scheduling part.
At first, it took me longer to set up that system than if I had just kept scheduling it myself. But I knew if I created a little system and I got it working at least efficiently enough that I could hand it over to someone else quite quickly and easily, that that would pay dividends in saved time and energy over and over and over again.
Setting up the spreadsheet and filling in the content probably took me two or three hours the first time, and then it got quicker and quicker and quicker, but the whole time, my US$16 per month stayed stagnant.
I was putting less and less time into my social media, but putting the same amount of money and getting much better results from that consistency.
Make sure you outsource as quickly as you can, get into the habit of creating systems and processes for yourself because it's actually in that structure that you will find so much freedom.
I can jump on video and talk as much as I like. It doesn't drain me, in fact, it really energises me. So to me that feels way easier than writing out 100 posts for 100 days.
I would much prefer to show up on video more consistently, than show up with written stuff, writing long-form captions and all of those sorts of things.
90% of what I do on social media is whatever was easiest for me at the time.
It is allowed to be easy, and that's often a mindset issue more than a strategy issue.
You think in order for your social media to work well, you have to:
That is just not true.
20% of what you are doing is getting you 80% of your results. You just need to know what that 20% is, and make sure that that's not the part that you skip when you feel like just doing the minimum.
If you're just doing the minimum, do the 20% that gets you 80% of your results.
That's usually the high connection, high conversion strategies, and being very present with your audience.
There's absolutely no need to overcomplicate it.
I hope you found that helpful, Ali and everyone else reading as well.
To summarise, here are my six tips on how you can be more consistent on social media the easy and lazy way:
Please come on over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, and let me know you've been reading episode number 227. I'd love to know which of those six things you are going to try in the next few weeks to make your social media strategy easier, lazier, more fun, more joyful and more effective for your business because you're able to show up more consistently when you find the easy way.
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.
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.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/226
In today's episode, I'm going to be answering the question: Are you overcomplicating your marketing?
I have a really simple startup marketing plan that will help you to grow your business really quickly.
I'll be honest with you, when I ask women who are starting their business what they're doing in order to get their business growing, and growing their audiences, I feel tired just listening to all the different things that they're doing.
They are:
If this is resonating with you by just reading this, I just want to let you know that it doesn't have to be that hard.
Particularly when you're first starting out in business, you don't want to be spreading yourself thin amongst dozens of different strategies to market yourself.
You want to be focusing on the things that work and making the things that you've decided to focus on work as effectively as possible before you add anything else to the equation.
For so many people, I think the reason why we overcomplicate it is because there's so much advice out there in the online business world about what you must be doing in order to be successful online.
I just saw a post in a Facebook group that I'm in, and the opening line was, "If you are not on LinkedIn every day, you are losing money". This is just the same fear-based stuff that gets women so tied up in knots about what they should and shouldn't be doing in order to grow their business, and it leaves you confused.
First and foremost, people are telling you that you HAVE to do a specific strategy because they are going to sell you a course on how to do that strategy. They're going to sell you coaching on how to do that strategy.
Of course, everyone's got their opinions and their ideas about what it takes to grow a business and what the best strategy is. But at the end of the day, if they're trying to convince you that their one thing is the only way to do it, the either:
a. They have a vested interest in you believing that because they're going to sell something to you.
b. That's the only way that they know how to do it, so they'd prefer that you believe that that's the best way because that's the way that they specialise in.
I want to share with you my simple three-part marketing plan.
You can use this three-part marketing plan, regardless of whether you:
However you want to grow your business, this simple three-part marketing plan is a really beautiful way for you to keep your marketing strategy contained.
Focus on what works, and make the things you choose to focus on work more effectively. We want to get you to the point where you're making consistent, reliable, predictable, sustainable income from your marketing efforts in your business.
Sound good? I think it's really sexy and really simple.
The beautiful thing is, this three-part marketing plan can be tailored to your specific strengths, your specific niche, your specific market, and it can absolutely work for everyone.
1. Reach the right people
2. Convert the right people into paying clients
3. Nurture your mindset
That is my three-part startup marketing plan.
Until you are making $5,000 to $10,000 a month in your business, you don't need to do anything more complex than that.
With the simplicity of that marketing plan, you should be able to be having five to ten really high-quality lead conversations with people about whether working with you is the right fit, and converting a good chunk of those people into paying clients.
It's very reasonable to expect that you're making a good $5,000 to $10,000 a month out of that very simple marketing plan.
I have used this simple marketing plan to hit $25,000 a month in my business. I have helped women in startup use this marketing plan to hit $15,000 a month, $20,000 a month, $30,000 a month and I even had a client who had a $45,000 month with a very simple marketing plan based on this.
The key to keeping this simple is to pick one strategy per step.
For your reach, have one focus point - how are you going to get in front of the right people for your product or service?
You could:
So you have your one key way of achieving that outcome in your marketing strategy.
What is your strategy to reach the right people? Do you have ONE that is better than all the others? And are you dedicating the majority of your time on reach to the one that works?
Or have you been getting some traction in Facebook groups, some traction on Instagram, some traction on LinkedIn, some traction from networking events, some traction from doing guest posts and podcasts, some traction from Pinterest and visitors to your website, and you're doing none of them particularly well, you're just doing all of them pretty poorly.
That's the situation that I see so many people trapped in. They think they need to do everything, and in the end, they end up doing none of them particularly effectively.
Or they've got one strategy that's actually working really well for them, but they don't put any time or energy into that strategy because they're so busy chasing shiny objects that are gonna get them more reach, more high-quality clients and much better conversions. They've been convinced that they're missing out, and their FOMO (fear of missing out) has driven them away from the strategy that was actually working for them in the first place.
Of course, some of those strategies are scalable, and some of them are not.
For example, posting in other people's Facebook groups is not particularly scalable. If you want to go and reach more people, you're going to need to be in more groups and you're going to have to put more time in.
But when you are initially growing your business and marketing your business in Facebook communities, and you have done that consistently, you are testing your messaging, making sure you've got your niche sorted, practising your sales conversations, your conversions, and working out what the best product or service is for your ideal client.
It does not need to be completely scalable out of the gate. You don't need 4,000 leads to make a sale, you need one quality lead to make a sale - that is all it takes.
Instead of looking for strategies that get you thousands of reach and really low-quality leads, low-quality reach, low connection reach, and it's not actually working for you, focus on strategies that get you high connection, and therefore that makes your conversion strategy (part two of this) so much simpler and easier.
Again, the secret is to choose ONE conversion strategy.
You might choose Instagram to be your reach strategy, and your conversion strategy is to get people engaging in direct messages with you, and having lots and lots of direct message conversations with people.
I was just working with a VIP client a couple of weeks ago, and she told me that she doesn't really have a promo strategy for her VIP work, it's just that whenever she does Instagram stories, Facebook stories or Lives, she has three or four people private messaging her asking how they can work with her. And that's actually a strategy. It's a really beautiful strategy because it's high connection, high conversion and it's getting her lots of client inquiries who are then turning into paying clients.
It's a strategy, it's just that she didn't realise it was a strategy, and it's working really well.
When I was talking to this particular client, she was thinking that she needed to set up an automated funnel and automated webinars in order to get VIP clients in. She was really worried that she wasn't doing the right things to get VIP clients in the door. But her strategy was working really beautifully.
Your strategy for conversion could be as simple as direct message strategy.
It could be a little bit more complicated and you could run a live webinar each month.
I really love a live webinar because there are so many add-on benefits for the long term growth of your business with that as your conversion strategy.
My initial reach strategy when I first started my business was getting my offer out onto social media and into Facebook communities. My conversion strategy was then offering a two-hour low-cost introductory session with me. About 60% of the people who did an introductory session with me ended up working as a VIP in a longer-term one-to-one working relationship.
To be honest with you, I went to a bunch of webinars in about my sixth and seventh month of business because I'd hit a 20K month in month six, a 10-12K month in month seven, and I was worried that my strategies weren't scalable.
I was seeing all of these fear-based things about 'missing out on money', and 'not doing it right', blah, blah, blah.
So I was going to these webinars, and they were basically telling me that what I was doing wasn't scalable, it wasn't going to work so I shouldn't do that anymore because I have to sell courses, it has to be passive and it had to be leveraged.
I totally second-guessed my business and ended up sucking the income out of it because according to these people, I wasn't supposed to work one-to-one with people, it's trading dollars for hours so it's not scalable.
Meanwhile, I'd been making 20K a month and growing my business really organically with fun and easy things.
Yet here I was being led to believe I was doing it the wrong way.
When it comes to mindset, I always say the most powerful mindset practise is one in which you can notice, uncover and clear out any of the limiting beliefs and mindset blocks that come up for you as you go.
Your mindset practise might be that you:
I don't mind what your mindset strategy is, but I really do think that it's so valuable for you to find your one key thing in each of those three stages.
If you can just focus on making those work, you will simplify your marketing strategy, make your business so much more enjoyable, get to choose the one thing that you love and enjoy doing the most, and you get to easily create business growth and momentum.
It will allow you to easily learn how to get the right messaging, the right sales, ask the right questions and understand your ideal client really deeply in a way that helps you facilitate a big transformation for them. You will really create that connection and engagement so that your audience continues to snowball and grow.
How amazing is that?
The thing with this is that when you simplify your marketing strategy right down the way that I'm suggesting, what ends up happening is if it doesn't work, you can identify what's not working and why it's not working.
Let's say your reach strategy is Instagram. You're posting on Instagram consistently, using hashtags, learning all of the tips and tricks on how to reach new people on Instagram and get in front of all the right audiences, and yet you're not reaching anyone on Instagram. You're not getting any engagement and it's not working.
By having committed to that as your reach strategy, if it's not working, you know that it's not actually the strategy that's the problem, it's actually your messaging and niching.
Anyone can grow an audience on Instagram.
Every market has an Instagram based audience that you can grow.
If you're learning the Instagram tips, tricks, tools and strategies, you're implementing them and doing the right things, but it's not getting you the results, the issue is not Instagram.
It also helps you to be much more precise about what needs to be fixed if things aren't making progress and achieving results for you in your business.
Similarly, if your conversion strategy is to use webinars and you put together a webinar and don't get enough signups or you get lots of signups but no one converts into the sale, the issue is not the webinar.
The issue is not the strategy, it's not the vessel that you use to get the result, it's the niche and the messaging within that vessel that clearly isn't working.
By simplifying your strategy down, not only do you make it easier for yourself to implement that marketing strategy in your business, you also make it easier to work out what's not working and what needs to be improved.
It makes it MUCH easier for you to see when you change something, what the impact of that change is.
You don't have fifteen different things all going on at once and you change something here and you change something there and then all of a sudden you've got a little bit of extra momentum (but have no idea why so you just keep doing all fifteen things).
If that sounds really appealing to you and you would love to start growing your business with a very simple startup strategy, I have a great free resource for you.
It's an hour and a bit of video training in which I take you through how you can get from where you are to consistent income in your business the fast way. It’s all about building your business and getting money in the door quickly by building a business to your innate strengths.
I’d love for you to go and check that out
As always, come on over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let me know you've been listening to episode number 226, ask your questions, share your lightbulb moments, and tell me what you're going to simplify in your business.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/225
"Faith + action = belief." – Suzy Ashworth
This is a super special episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast because it is a Spotlight interview with the one and only Suzy Ashworth.
In this interview, Suzy and I discuss mindset, messaging and growing a business.
Suzy also shares her free masterclass How to Master Your Message. You can access this incredible freebie here: suzyashworth.com/masterclass
If you want to uplevel your business, the first thing that you need to do is go back to your message.
It doesn't matter whether you're looking to hit your first $5,000, $20,000 or $50,000 month... whenever you're wanting to uplevel, you start with your messaging.
That's why Suzy has created her free masterclass How to Master Your Message.
You can find it here: suzyashworth.com/masterclass
Make sure you come and share your questions, comments and light-bulb moments over in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community using #podcastaha and the episode number (225).
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/224
In today's episode, I'm going to be answering the question: Are webinars dead?
I've got some surprising stats that will tell a different story.
It's no secret that I love and adore webinars.
In the last episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, I answered Mel Gorry's questions about how I deal with webinar gremlins and mindset blocks, and I professed my undying love for them.
I also have another podcast episode where I talk about why I love webinars so much.
Before we jump into whether webinars are dead or not (they're totally not), I want to make sure that we're clear on what a webinar actually is.
A webinar is a web-based seminar. I want to be 100% clear that I don't care what you call it. You might call it a masterclass, seminar, online training, workshop or a webinar - whatever you like to call it is totally up to you.
The key things that make a webinar a webinar (in my opinion), are that it's free and it's live. Whether you present over slides or face-to-camera, or you do it Q&A style, I don't care. But it's live and people register beforehand with their email.
In the context of talking about whether webinars are dead or not, those are the things that make a webinar a webinar.
Hopefully, we're on the same page there. If you've got any questions about that, go into the Heart-Centred group, use #podcastaha, and say "Episode 224. What about this? Is that a webinar? What about if I do it this way? Is that still a webinar?"
Ask me your questions and I will keep an eye out for them.
They have many far-reaching impacts in your business, such as:
I wanted to talk through some specific statistics that helped me to realise and understand that even though there are lots of very facetious people out there saying that webinars are totally dead, webinars are NOT dead.
If you buy into that belief that webinars are dead without giving them a go for your own business, then you may just be missing out on one of the most effective tools to grow your audience, your list and your income in your business.
According to the Digital Marketing Organisation, a recent survey in March 2020 found that over 73% of marketers still rate webinars as the highest converting lead magnet. They rate it as one of the most powerful lead magnets for generating sales - whether that be VIP one-to-one sales or course-related sales.
Furthermore, when it comes to launching a course, membership, mastermind or group program, over 90% of people who launch still use webinars as one of their lead magnets in that launch process.
The fact that 90% of people are still using them doesn't necessarily mean that you have to and that it's the best strategy for you. But I think it does give an indication of the power of the webinar and how effective it is as a launch tool, lead magnet and way of getting in front of a large portion of your audience, helping them move forward and presenting the next logical step of working with you - whatever that may be.
This seems like a pretty good clue that webinars are not dead.
The second statistic I want to share is the conversion statistic.
These numbers come from a range of sources, including:
I've put some ranges because different places quote different conversion rates for different lead magnets and things like that. This will allow me to give you some ranges of conversion.
The conversion rate from a static lead magnet (ie. eBook, checklist, pre-recorded video), into people buying a group program, course, membership, or mastermind, the average industry conversion rate for a static lead magnet is between 0.5% and 1%.
The second group or cluster that I found was challenges. Whether it's a 5-day challenge, 7-day challenge or a 30-day challenge, the average conversion rate from a challenge into a paid product or service, with no ads supporting the conversion was 1% to 2%, and with ads was 2% to 3%.
The ads that I'm talking about there are when you use ads to make sure the people who signed up for your challenge are actually watching the challenge videos. When you're using those ads with that type of strategy, you can increase the conversion from a challenge into buying a group course, membership, mastermind, or any of those sorts of things.
The interesting information on all the challenge-based launching training that I've seen, is that most marketers and people who teach launching, recommend that if you run a challenge, you also run a webinar. Because a lot of people don't complete challenges.
That means under 5% of people who sign up for the challenge actually do all of the days.
This is why a lot of marketers recommend that you want to capture in all the people who signed up for the challenge and run a webinar so that they're at least moving forward in some way, shape or form - even if they don't finish that challenge.
People will readily sign up for a challenge, but they don't actually complete it to the extent that they complete a webinar.
This is where it gets really juicy, because if the completion rate of a challenge is less than 5%, what do you think the completion rate of a webinar is?
If we include people who come live as well as people who watch the recording, completion rates of webinars are still around 50%.
25% of people who sign up for a webinar show up live, and 25% of people who sign up for a webinar, watch the recording.
That's 50% of the people who sign up for that lead magnet actually watching and completing it.
It also really shows when it comes to conversion rates.
I've seen industry averages for webinars be between 3% to 7% being quoted in different spaces by different marketing gurus.
For myself, I've had webinars that have converted between 3% and I think my highest was about 14.5% conversion. That means that up to 14.5% of people who signed up for the webinar ended up buying the thing that I was promoting.
My 14% conversion rates have mostly been on products and services that are under $1,000. My best conversion rate for the Take Off program (which is $1,995) was 11%.
I'm still very pleased with an 11% conversion on a webinar. It says to me that webinars are still a really amazing strategy for bringing people in, educating them on what it's like to work with you and presenting an offer that may be the right fit for them.
I've seen women in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook community (particularly women that I've been working with through the Take Off program and VIP) who talk about webinar conversion rates up to 21%.
21% is the highest I've seen, and I'd love to hear from you if you've had a better conversion rate on a webinar. But for me, this is really powerful because what it says is that you don't need to get thousands of people registered for something in order for it to actually work and create a really big return on investment for your business.
That is some really juicy stats for you to think about when it comes to growing your audience, getting those sales in the door, and also the level of lead generation you need to do in order to get the sales that you want to get in your business.
This final stat is a little bit outside of the box. Maybe you think that it's a counterpoint to the fact that webinars aren't dead. This stat actually comes from Facebook ads, and that is that out of all of the gated styles of ads that you could run (where people click on a link and then they go and sign up for something), webinars are the most expensive leads.
It's cheaper to get a lead for a challenge, it's cheaper to get a lead for a static freebie, and it's cheaper to get a lead for someone to sign up for a free video series.
Webinar leads are the most expensive out of all of the freebie lead magnet type ads that you can do.
Yet, if we link back to the first step that I shared, 73% of digital marketers still use webinars, and 90% of launches still use them as well.
Even though they are the most expensive type of lead you can generate through ads, they are still being used by 90% of people launching.
I would really encourage you to experiment and play with webinars as part of your strategy before you decide you don't want to do them.
I say to the ladies in the Take Off program, that they are absolutely free to have a business model that doesn't include webinars... ONCE they've done a webinar.
The fear of doing webinars, the imposter syndrome and all of the mindset wobbles that come up, is often worse than the process of actually just doing the webinar.
I really do encourage you to give it a go, then you can decide if webinars are dead or not.
The final thought that I want to leave you with, is actually a thought that I discovered from a very well known (but I will leave unnamed) launch specialist.
Previously in his launch training, he has been very clear that running a three or four-part video series is what he thinks is the best way of launching courses, memberships and digital products.
Last year for the first time ever, I heard him say people really value connection, and that running your webinars live and having that as a lead magnet is probably something that's a bit non-negotiable these days because people need to feel a sense of connection to you.
This guy had previously been flogging software and launch strategies that said to just pre-record your webinar and pretend that it's live (I totally hate that strategy). Now even he is saying that it's worth it to show up live because if people are asking questions on your fake live webinar, and you're not answering their questions, then that's going to be a disconnecting thing for them and they may actually be convinced NOT to buy from you because they're not being seen by you. Whereas you're better off to just run it live, answer people's questions, help people to feel seen and create that connection with them.
To which I say hallelujah, welcome to the world of the ladyposse because that is what we do in the Heart-Centred Soul Diven Entrepreneurs community, and we know that connection maximises conversion.
It's a bit of an invitation for you to be a nosey parker and unpick my webinar strategy.
If you've been reading this and thinking that it's time for you to run a webinar and that you're going to really look into how to do it effectively, then at any time, you can go to tashcorbin.com/webinar and my next webinar will be on that page for you to register for.
What I want to invite you to do is not to register for it to get the content (although if it's interesting for you then that's a bonus), but to go and register for it so that you can look at the process.
Pay attention to the:
I love signing up to other people's webinars to see how they do it, how I'm treated through the sales process and how they make me feel.
Just take a little bit of a nosey parker, look around at the way that I facilitate webinars because you might be surprised.
If you've only ever been to those really salesy, aggressive webinars, you might be surprised at how amazingly connecting and effective webinars can be, and how little you need to resort to the trickery, spammy tactics, fear and the pressure and the "You have to buy before the end of the webinar" stuff.
I don't do any of that in my webinars.
Yet, I often exceed industry averages of conversion, and sometimes get 3-4 times the conversion rates that industry-standards say that you should get for webinars.
I really want to role model for you that you don't need to use those fear-based marketing strategies, and to tell and show you that you can absolutely run a really connecting, empowering, heart-centred webinar.
You don't have to dial up the fear and the pain points. You don't have to do any of those things for webinars to work as a strategy in your business. In fact, I'm finding by using empowering strategies, really heart-based strategies, and not using any of those fear and gross tactics, that my webinars are converting even better.
I would love for you to check out my webinar through the lens of:
As always, come on over to the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, and share if you've had a lightbulb moment, if you want to make a commitment to doing a webinar or if you've got any follow-up questions. Let me know you've been reading episode number 224, post your question or your comment and we will continue the conversation over in the group.
If you’re ready to “fast track” your business, get it off the ground, and build a business model around your strengths, I have a great free resource for you!
It’s all about building your business and getting money in the door quickly by building it to your innate strengths.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/223
We have another Q&A episode of the podcast today, and I've got a brilliant question from Mel about facing up to the mindset blocks and gremlins that might rear their head when you are creating and promoting a webinar.
This will be strongly focused on your webinar mindset and is going to be a really helpful one.
Before we jump into Mel's brilliant question today, a quick reminder that if you'd like me to answer your question on the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, and give you a lovely little shout out as well, you can submit your question HERE.
Today's question comes from the amazing Mel Gorry who you can find on Instagram at @melissa.gorry.
Melissa asked a great question about running a webinar, and I love this because I love Mel so much. If you don't follow her, please make sure you go and check her out. She is a business and marketing specialist who specifically works with women who have chronic conditions or other reasons why they have limited energy and therefore need to build their marketing and business strategies in a way that works with that limited energy.
Mel is absolutely brilliant at what she does, and I absolutely adore her so I'm super happy to be answering her question today.
Mel's question is:
"When launching and releasing my first webinar, sooo many mindset gremlins reared their head. I was so unprepared and didn't know how to combat it!
Why does this happen?
What are the best strategies to combat and build resilience to those mindset blocks?
And Tash, what came up for you in your first webinar?"
Great questions and I'm really excited to talk about this one today!
It's a great way to get in front of a lot of people at once, to talk about your services, and to help people move from where they are to where they want to be. It also does great things for growing your list, building your audience, and creating momentum on social media.
There are so many reasons to love webinars, and if you haven't watched my podcast episode previously that is about why I love webinars so much, then go check that out because I am a big webinars fan.
Think about the fact that when you start a business, it is one of the most powerful personal development journeys you can go on.
When you think about why it's such a strong personal development journey, it's because it brings up all your stuff.
If there's a self-sabotage or procrastination bone in your body, you're going to find it when you start a business.
You need to ask for money, you need to be seen and visible, talk yourself up, and talk about your services.
Knowing that starting and growing a business is the ultimate personal development journey and brings up all that mindset stuff for us to be able to pay attention to it and clear it, then when we think about a webinar, it's the one part of running a business and marketing strategy, where every single one of those things come into play.
It's no surprise that a webinar is something that can bring up a lot of those mindset blocks for us.
We want to be paying attention to those things so that we can clear them and move through them. This allows us to expand, receive more, work more effectively in our business, get more done and whatever else it is that we need to do.
Whilst it may be annoying that it brings up all of your mindset blocks, you really need to celebrate that it brings them up because that's exactly what we want to do.
Notice what those thoughts are, notice what those gremlins are, and then use the tools and strategies that we have in our toolkit to uncover, clear and release them.
It's actually a really beautiful opportunity to grow your mindset and undertake a leap in that personal development journey that comes with starting and growing a business.
The second part of your question that I'm going to answer is what came up for me when I ran my first webinar.
I ran my first webinar in 2013 when I was a couple of months into my business journey. The webinar was called 12 Steps to Creative Success and it was a webinar on how to grow a creative business, whether you are an artist or a crafter or any kind of maker.
That was my niche when I first started my business (well, my second niche).
I only had 13 people sign up for that webinar, despite the fact that I thought I had spewed up content about it onto the internet for two weeks solid.
I felt like everyone in my entire world must have known I was running this webinar and must have been sick of hearing me talk about it.
When I finished the webinar, due to the fact that I had only had 13 people sign up, I did a little review of my marketing and how I'd shared it.
I had shared the information about my webinar three times, and I thought I had told everyone about it and I was all over the internet.
It was really interesting that I thought I had done all the right things but in essence, I had been very quiet about this webinar and expected people to sign up for it the first time they ever saw it.
The only way that I was talking about it was just by copying and pasting the promo copy that I was going to be using. I sent the same promo to my list, as well as putting it in those two Facebook groups.
Really it's a miracle that those 13 people signed up, to be honest with you.
Only one of those 13 people showed up live because I didn't send out any reminder emails. It was only when they first signed up for the webinar that I shared the link of how they could join and watch it. There were no reminders sent to anyone, so only one person showed up.
It brought up a lot of the "Who am I" stuff because I hadn't had a successful artistic or creative business at that point in time. I had a lot of imposter syndrome stuff coming up, feeling like I knew how to do the business part but I wasn't someone who'd already done this before. I felt like I was still growing my business but I knew what worked on social media and what sorts of things I could encourage people to do.
At this point, I had already been working with two clients in creative businesses, but I still felt lots of stuff coming up of, 'Who am I to say I can help people with this? Who am I? There's no way that I am the right person to be teaching people this', and I got really freaked out before I ran that webinar.
BUT my desire to share the 12 step process I had developed and been working on with my VIP clients, outweighed my fear. I'm really grateful that it did because it meant that even though I was really worried about it, had the imposter syndrome and I only had 13 people sign up, I knew that even if just one person heard this 12 step process and it made their business growth journey easier, then my job was done and I would have been of service.
That was a really interesting thing to reflect back on so I did a lot of journaling and self-reflection on:
I really do encourage you to tune into that desire to serve and that desire to tell people what to do and help them.
Tap into your desire to really show up and make a difference in even just one person's life because that will help with a lot of the webinar mindset wobbles that can come up when you are creating and launching a webinar.
All of that being said, here are my top four tips on what to do about the mindset stuff when you are creating and launching a webinar.
Whenever you are freaking out about something that you are going to do, you are focusing on yourself instead of focusing on your audience.
Whenever you notice that, shift it.
Think to yourself: Okay, clearly I'm talking about myself and worrying about myself right now. But what about the people who are waiting for this information? What about the people who are sitting there thinking that no one understands them and that no one is going to be able to help them?
Specifically for you, Mel, think about all those beautiful women who think they can't be successful in business because they're not well. The women who think that they can't be successful and do all the things that they need to do because of a physical limitation with their energy. That makes me really teary thinking about it and about all those women we are depriving of the amazing Mel Gorry because you're a bit worried about your mindset wobbles. You've got your imposter syndrome happening or whatever is happening for you.
When you focus on them instead, it really does make a huge difference in how you feel and the energy that you bring to that webinar.
I talk about this a lot, but when I first started my business, I had a post-it note on my desk that said, "Do it for her". Those four words really drove a lot of what I did in the first six months of my business because it wasn't about me.
It's very easy to make it all about yourself when starting a business, but at the end of the day, it's about who you're here to serve.
"Do it for her" was what it took to get me into that service mindset whenever I was feeling wobbly.
This is a practise.
When I first ran my webinar, it was just the one person.
Your audience will never be as small as it is today.
The number of people who sign up for your webinars will never be as low as it is today.
Take the pressure down. You don't need to be perfect. Just see this as practise.
Even if you completely mess it up and the 25 people who signed up to webinar think that you don't know what you're talking about, that's only 25 people out of billions who are out there in the world that you can serve.
Nine times out of ten when you do mess it up, people don't think that you're terrible and that they'll never work with you again, it actually makes people realise that you're human, and it can be more engaging than if you get it perfect.
Take the pressure off yourself to get it perfect.
Embrace that feeling of it being a practise, and allow yourself to experiment and learn to get better at it.
I remember in my first YouTube videos, I was so breathy and weird on camera.
Whenever we get a big influx of Take Off students, I reshare one of my very early YouTube videos with them because I know how much it makes them feel better about what they're doing. I was terrible. I was sitting on my balcony and the wind kept blowing my hair up, you can hardly hear me, there's a truck that goes behind me, and I thought I was doing this amazing, super casual type thing on my video, and it was terrible.
So just know that it gets easier, and you get better at speaking to your audience.
With practise you'll get better at facilitating that webinar, moving people through the process, dealing with the chatbox, the screen, the slides and all of the things that are going on at once.
You will forget to record your webinar at some point along the way as well (it's usually a bit of a rite of passage), but it will get easier.
I think that's such a beautiful thing to remember.
It takes practise. It'll get easier. The way that it gets easier is by doing it more consistently. That's how you'll get better at it.
See this as an opportunity to uncover what those gremlins are, and then use the mindset tools in your toolkit to work through them.
If there's something showing up when you're in webinar mode, even if it's not showing up in other spaces in your business, it will be impacting your decision making in your business.
Bringing it to the surface is actually a good thing.
It will allow you to use those tools in your toolkit to work through that mindset block or whatever it is that's coming up for you.
Some mindset tools could be:
If you found a mindset practise that really helps you - especially one where you're paying attention to those blocks, what's coming up and having strategies to clear them - that's going to be really helpful.
A big thank you to the amazing Mel for her brilliant question about webinars, especially in relation to mindset blocks and the gremlins that come up.
If you've had a lightbulb moment, have any follow up questions from this podcast episode, or if you've got a tip on how to address the mindset stuff that comes up when you are running webinars please share it. I want you to come over to the Heart-Centred Soul Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, use #podcastaha, let us know that you've been listening to episode number 223, and share your comments, lightbulb moments, questions and your tips on how to overcome those mindset wobbles that can come up when we are running webinars.
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast.
If you want to ask a question and have me answer it here on the podcast, simply submit your question with all your details HERE.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/222
In today's episode, I'm going to share with you my copywriting tips to increase connection and conversion.
This is a really good one and I want you to listen closely because I have six EPIC tips for you, and they are all really meaty ones.
First and foremost I want to say that, yes you can:
BUT if those copywriters are any good, they're going to have a bunch of questions for you. Those questions are going to be really difficult for you to answer if you don't at least try to learn and practise how to write your copy yourself.
Doing your own copy is a really smart part of truly nailing your messaging, your value proposition and how you talk about your work, regardless of whether you can afford to pay thousands and thousands of dollars to copywriters or not.
I would recommend holding off in the early stages of business and just practising and learning how to write about your business in your own words first.
This is really critical, especially as your business starts to grow because you can't outsource every piece of writing that you'll ever have to do for your business. I know so many entrepreneurs who say that they're a terrible writer, that they aren't good with words and they just don't know how to talk about their work.
But instead of asking yourself if you should do your copywriting or not, ask yourself: How can I become just dangerous enough with my own copywriting so that I can get those results? So that I know how to speak to my audience, and therefore I know how to hire a great copywriter? So that I know how to answer their questions, and I know how to create pieces of content and copy that I need to without always having to ask someone else to do it for me?
It doesn't have to be that you write your own book yourself or you write everything yourself, but some kind of writing for your business is a non-negotiable skill.
Here are my six tips on how you can improve your copywriting to increase the connection that you create with your audience and increase the extent to which it converts people into paying clients with you.
This is a hyper-focused, hyper-effective copy for your business.
Expecting yourself to write the perfect sales page the first time around is like expecting yourself to be able to do a double toe-triple axel spin on the ice when you first get in a pair of ice skates.
It's not about doing it perfectly the first time around.
What you want to do is write it as best you can and practise and refine as you go.
The same goes for every offer that you write, every blog post, every tip that you share on social media, all of the posts where you're sharing your story, the emails that you send your newsletters, it all comes down to practise.
I know so many people who are still waiting to be good at writing before they put out their first newsletter. In reality, you would be way better if you had started back when you decided you needed to be better.
Allow yourself the opportunity to practise.
Don't just practise behind the scenes and refine behind the scenes, practise by actually speaking to your audience.
In most cases, the way that we think we need to write in order to connect and convert is very different from the way we actually need to write.
We often over formalise our language or think we have to write in these big broad general sweeping terms with shiny sparkly words, and that's actually quite disconnecting, but you won't know that for your audience until you start writing to them.
Whether it be practising with:
It's important that you start approaching this as writing practise as quickly and effectively as possible.
It's all a practise.
You have two ears and one mouth. You write with one hand (in most cases), and that is an important balance to have.
Many people are so busy trying to tell their audience what they need them to hear, that they're not actually listening to what their audience says in return.
I don't know how many times people come to me so frustrated saying that people need to work on A, B and C, and whenever I talk about it, they respond by saying that they need F and that these people just don't get it.
To them I say: You are focusing on the wrong thing. Your audience is telling you exactly what they think the problem is. They're telling you exactly what they think the need is, and what they think their priority should be. All you need to do is link F (the thing that they think they need) to what you know is the real thing going on for them.
Then all of a sudden, you're meeting your audience where they are, and you're helping them with what they need and what they think they need. You're also moving them forward and closer to understanding the deeper challenge and the deeper issue that's going on.
Listen to the replies. Read the replies. Listen to your audience.
Hands up if when you first started your business, you got out there and you didn't ask any questions.
That was me. When I first started my business, I thought that I had to be the expert.
I thought I had to tell, tell, tell, tell, tell.
All of my posts on social media were me giving great advice and sexy tips and "Look at how smart I am! I know how to do everything. Look at all these amazing tips I'm giving you!"
I would often do little question posts on my Facebook page because I was told that you want to get comments and engagement on your Facebook page. But if after three hours they didn't have an answer, I would delete them because I didn't want people to see I was asking questions and getting crickets in return.
What I really should have been doing is leaving those questions up there because you never know who's going to stumble across them.
Back in 2013, the lifespan of a post on Facebook was billions of times longer than one now anyway, but also it helps me when I go back and look over what I've shared, posted and asked in the last month, to see which questions get great answers and lots of engagement and which questions get crickets.
Ask your audience lots of questions (although don't always end with questions because we know you're doing it because you want engagement).
Just don't be afraid to ask questions. Asking questions doesn't say you don't know what you're doing, it says you're keen to understand how you can support others better.
Consistently ask your audience really helpful, meaningful questions that not only help you with looking at where you need to be meeting a need but also ask questions that help THEM as well.
Ask lots of yes/no questions, would you rather questions and open-ended questions.
Backtracking to point number two, make sure you LISTEN to the answer.
Particularly in the spiritual entrepreneur spaces, the healer spaces, and some of the more generalist business coaching spaces.
I see people struggle because their modality can help everyone.
Their modality is working at the highest of levels, and you can get caught in this trap of constantly speaking up in the clouds and talking about broad brush things that obviously everyone wants (ie. would you like to be more productive with your time? Do you want your business to go to the next level? Do you want your children to be happy?)
You need to get more tangible. Speak to my 3D reality:
Keep it conversational.
When I tell stories on social media, in emails or in my podcasts the way that I would tell them over dinner with a glass of wine, they are the ones that get the most engagement. They are the ones where people are relating and thanking me for my honesty and help.
That is where people really connect with my messaging and my copy.
Be tangible and conversational as much as you can.
This is a big one when it comes to copy.
The 'advert trap' is where everything you post and write looks like an advert.
You'll know what I'm talking about:
You're trying to make it look like it's sharp and polished and professional, and all you're doing is making it look like an ad.
Studies have shown that people distrust advertising more than any other form of written content. Yet, so many entrepreneurs try to make everything look like a polished ad.
This also happens with the photos and the images that go with those posts. Is it ALWAYS your professional photos that ALWAYS have your logo in the corner? ALWAYS has some perfect words around it and ALWAYS has your brand colours somewhere with a border or something?
I understand it's important to have visual synergy and for things to look like they're on-brand as consistently as possible, but there's a big difference between the perfectly polished advert version of you, and the real and raw and connecting conversational version of you.
If you're on Facebook where people share stories and personal insights and what happens to them, then speak in Facebook style language. Post it as though you were posting an update to your friends about that hilarious bus trip you went on. Post it with a selfie of you in the throes of whatever it is that you're talking about.
Don't be afraid to be HUMAN because social media is for humans.
It is a social platform.
Whether you are on Instagram or Facebook, doing videos, static, or written, as much as possible try and make it not look like an ad.
People don't trust ads. Make it look like content that is organic to that platform.
This is a big one that applies to all five of my previous tips.
I talk about niche a lot, and I understand you probably think I sound like a broken record by now, but too many people are trapped in trying to speak to everyone.
Instead what your copy does is resonates with no one.
So many people think that they've got their niche down because their niche is busy mums who have a business and want it to be more successful. But I've never met a mum that isn't busy, and I've never met an entrepreneur who doesn't want their business to be more successful.
An age range is not a niche.
We really need to get educated on what a niche is.
It is a specific subgroup of people that you focus on when you are marketing your business.
It's not:
Your niche is the specific group of people that you focus on when you are marketing your business.
There are five core niche decisions that you need to make that cover demographics, psychographics and sensor graphics.
It's not just about demographic decisions or writing a long-winded love note to your ideal client.
It's about making those five important decisions so that you can know exactly how to speak to your ideal client, the type of language you need to use, and the types of questions you're going to ask so that you can listen out for their answers and get out there and start practising talking to those people.
That is why I am so excited that my free resource for you today is my new Nail That Niche training you can access whenever you like.
Normally I reserve my niche training for live training only. However, I have run the live niche training five times already in 2020, and every single time we get hundreds and hundreds of new people signing up to this. There are always people asking questions and when I ask about their niche, they are unclear and they have not made those important decisions.
Make sure you go and check it out HERE.
If you are struggling with copywriting or messaging, or you're struggling to really create that connection and conversion with your clients, I always say start with niche and I highly recommend you go and check that one out.
Please head on over to the Heart-Centred, Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs Facebook group, let me know any insights and questions that you have using #podcastaha and the podcast episode number 222.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/221
"For you to have the impact and income that you deserve, you need to truly look within and find out what puts you in flow, and then focus on that and solely on that and success will be yours."
– Natalie Sisson
This episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast is a Spotlight interview with the amazing Natalie Sisson.
Natalie and I got down to business discussing what it really takes to have five-figure months.
In the interview, Natalie shared her free quick-start guide and audio - Get Paid to Be You: 10 steps to monetise you and do the work that matters. You can access this epic freebie here: nataliesisson.com.
And if you want a quick summary, I've even popped some key points below. ENJOY!!!
It's called Get paid to be you: 10 steps to monetise yourself and do the work that matters.
In this quick-start guide and workbook, Natalie covers how you can earn revenue by packaging your knowledge and skills, expertise and personality into it.
Get it here: nataliesisson.com
Make sure you come and share your questions, comments and light-bulb moments over in the Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs community, using #podcastaha and the episode number (221).
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/220
In today's episode, we're going to be talking about the fact that business is NOT just about having an epic strategy. We're also going to check in on your entrepreneurial mindset.
You probably know that I am a big lover of an EPIC business strategy.
I love talking about all the different parts of business strategy, marketing, sales, and all the different ways that we can reach new people and convert them into clients.
I adore business strategy and that is why it is the core focus of my business and why I love mentoring people about their business strategy and marketing in particular.
However, I also know that for a lot of people when it comes to putting a strategy in place, implementing it AND seeing the results from that strategy, the thing that often lets them down is themself.
I know how powerful a great strategy can be for business growth. But I also know that when I have clients in my programs and working with me one-to-one, those who have consistent mindset support - as well as working with me on their strategy - are the ones who get the best results.
I've got six tips and pieces of advice that you might be interested in exploring to see if you need to get some extra support with your mindset.
I also have a really epic resource for you at the end of today's episode, so make sure you stay tuned for that.
Being an entrepreneur is one of the biggest personal development journeys you could ever go on.
Simply by acknowledging this, we actually open ourselves up to a lot more lessons, and gain the ability to pay attention to what's going on between our ears when we are engaging in business activities and trying to grow our business.
Think about it: When you start your own business, you are the person with whom the buck stops.
If you set yourself a goal or a task and you don't do it, in most cases, there's no one else to blame. It is just you and your thoughts that you are left with at the end of the day.
It is something that really brings up a lot for us, and we need to pay attention to that, be mindful of it and have some strategies and processes to work through it.
Trust me, if you've got a gap in your personal development, if you've got some blocks around being seen, saying yes to money, asking for what you want, or any of the core activities that go hand in hand with having a business, they will show up.
Just by acknowledging that starting a business and growing a business is a very big personal development journey, I think it just ticks you off on the right track.
You just know that you are open to it and you're keeping an eye out for those things as they pop up.
For most people, they go from being in a standard job to being their own boss in their business.
When that happens, you instantly lose the person you normally revert to. You have no safety net of knowing that:
What this does when we start our businesses, is it often puts us in the space where we look for that role to be fulfilled by other people.
When I first started my business, I went to my partner and told him about all my strategies. Whenever I decided I was going to do something, I would talk it over with him. It was almost as though I was waiting for him to tick it off like a boss would, and approve my idea so that I could go and try it.
He had no idea about online business. He was not at all in the space where he could advise me on that, but I just needed someone to give me that permission slip, and he was very good at asking a few questions and then just telling me to do what I thought.
That was great that he played that role for me, but at some point, I needed to take responsibility and say that I no longer want my partner giving me advice on my business or asking for permission from him.
If you have a parent who has their own business, you can sometimes fall into the habit of asking for their advice on everything that you do and needing permission from them. It can be anyone really. You just look for someone to fill the role of a boss for you.
Sometimes you hire a coach and you don't do anything without their permission. You give them an undue sense of responsibility for your business and then start to divert responsibility into their hands.
This ends up leaving you in a dependent relationship with a business coach or a mentor.
This happens because you don't have that normal role to revert to, you decide that actually the clients are the bosses. You then become beholden to THEIR beliefs, THEIR decisions and THEIR opinions about what you should be doing in your business.
None of those situations are particularly healthy, so we want to make sure that we have that personal development journey and entrepreneurial mindset to be able to recognise where we are handing over that sense of power and control.
We want to take that authority and position of responsibility in our business. Don't try and look for a boss or create a boss in a place where you shouldn't.
Accept and acknowledge that you're the boss.
When I was working in jobs and had bosses, the roles where I was the most effective and where I did the best work, were not the ones where my boss was completely mean to me. They were the ones where my boss was really supportive and created the environment that I needed to thrive. They gave me great resources and were very encouraging to me.
Yet when I started my business, I was the worst boss in the world. I was mean, I was nitpicky, I was overly critical, I didn't allow myself breaks during the day, and I made myself work long hours. Even when things went right, I just moved on to the next thing, never stopping to celebrate my successes. When things went wrong, I blamed myself and went into a really bad spiral of negative thoughts, shaming myself and feeling guilty.
It took a lot of personal development and recognising my own thoughts about myself and how I was treating myself, for me to change that behaviour and my entrepreneurial mindset.
Part B of accepting that you're the boss with your entrepreneurial mindset, is recognising what makes a good boss for you.
What environment makes you thrive and be the good boss that you need? Because YOU are the boss of yourself in your business.
We can get away with a lot of unconscious patterns when we're working in a job because someone else sets our price, tells us what we're going to be paid, helps us work out our priorities, and calls us out when we haven't hit a deadline.
Whereas when we're working for ourselves, sometimes these unconscious patterns come to the surface because we need to be mindful of these things.
They show up big time when you have your own business.
It could be something like leaving tasks to the last minute. When you're working for someone else, you might have strategies and ways that you work to ensure that you don't leave things to the last minute or that if you do, you do it in a productive way. But if you haven't been conscious of that, when you start a business, become an entrepreneur and start working for yourself, those unconscious patterns all of a sudden come racing to the front of the screen and you can absolutely see them playing out when you stop and pay attention.
I had unconscious patterns of:
When I was growing my business, it was really challenging because I didn't want to put posts up on social media talking about the fact that I was starting a business and not having success stories yet. Yet that's what I needed to do in order to start building an audience and bringing people along on the journey with me.
It took a lot of mindset work for me to acknowledge that I was trying to go from starting a business quietly to being successful in business overnight (and only then was I allowed to share things on social media). I needed to embrace sharing the journey, sharing the mistakes and sharing starting my business even if it didn't quite go to plan.
Lots of unconscious patterns come to the surface when you are starting a business. It's our job as part of our entrepreneurial mindset work to pay attention to those patterns and to notice them without judgement.
This one is a big one for me. I didn't realise how many blocks I had to success. If you'd have asked me when I first started my business what the negative consequences of me having a successful business are, I would have been completely baffled that you thought there could possibly be any. I would have told you that I don't have any blocks to receiving or making money. That I don't have any blocks to being seen because I'm a total exhibitionist extrovert. I was made for the entrepreneurial journey.
My fear of asking for what I want, of being seen as failing at something, of being seen as a try-hard, of following up with people when they were late with a payment or had a default on their payments. I didn't want to make anyone uncomfortable. My fear of being seen as salesy or aggressive in my marketing strategies.
I had so many blocks - money blocks, visibility blocks, action taking blocks, results blocks. I had all the blocks. It was just that I had learned to adapt in the corporate environment so that I could thrive even with these blocks. But when I started my business, I needed to really uncover and clear them.
Understanding how many blocks come up for us and all the ways that we unconsciously and subconsciously sabotage ourselves was a big one for me. Not just in terms of sabotaging the results, but even sabotaging ourselves and stopping ourselves from even taking action.
I don't know how many times in the last seven years since starting my business I have known exactly what to do and yet just not done it, and I could not figure out WHY I wasn't doing it.
That is a huge clue that there are some blocks popping up.
It's not until we actually take the action of booking in a sales conversation and totally fudging up that sales conversation that we realise that we have blocks about asking for the sale.
It's not until we are about to do a Facebook Live or we set up a launch plan that includes lots of Facebook Lives and we go to click record that we realise that we're really blocked about being seen on video and being unscripted. Or there may be some visibility blocks popping up for you there.
It's not just about theoretically working out where you might be blocking yourself based on what's happened to you in the past, or just sitting meditating on it and working out what the blocks are and then healing them.
We need to actually (and this is point number 6) pair our entrepreneurial mindset work with our strategy work.
If you're not going out there and taking the action, then you're never stepping outside of that comfort zone, therefore, you never really see where those blocks might be showing up.
It's not until you do a launch and it's a flop that you realise you've got blocks around asking for the money because it was too easy.
It's not until you actually take that action and pair the strategy and entrepreneurial mindset work side by side, that you have those mindset growth areas revealed and therefore you know what to work on.
We want to make sure that these two pieces of work go side by side.
I know a lot of mindset specialists who would love to say that it's 80% mindset and 20% action/strategy, but I don't agree with that.
Typically what I like to do in my business is that I try to aim for a 50/50 balance.
50% of the money that I invest in learning is learning business strategy, and 50% is in learning mindset work or getting support from mindset practitioners.
50% of the time that I invest in my business is working on the strategy and implementing the strategy, ie. marketing, social media, delivery, client calls, and 50% of the time that I put in is working on my entrepreneurial mindset
That might seem a bit excessive to a lot of people and even the mindset practitioners that I hear saying it's 80% mindset, don't put 80% of their time working on their mindset. They're still putting 80% of their time working on the strategy and 20% of their time working on their mindset because they think that they're really fast and effective at it.
But I want to be really clear about this, for me going and doing yoga is a mindset practice, so I include that in my mindset time. When I'm waking up in the morning, going for a long walk, listening to great podcasts, pumping myself up, listening to great music, and getting myself in the right headspace for the day - that's all mindset work.
Working with a practitioner, doing my EFT in the mornings and tapping in the shower, that is mindset work.
Getting advice and support from someone who specialises in money blocks or visibility or some of the self-sabotage that's coming up, that is mindset work as well.
I aim for 50% of my time, my money and my energy to be dedicated to my business strategy and implementing strategy, and 50% of my time, my energy and my money goes into my mindset, and working on and implementing entrepreneurial mindset work.
It has really served me well as I've grown my business over the years.
There are my 6 points on growing your entrepreneurial mindset:
I did promise you at the end of this episode that I have a special resource for you.
If you are looking to pair mindset and strategy, it is the perfect balance because every second day is strategy work, and every other day is mindset work.
This program is one in which you set yourself a nice juicy stretch income goal (and I'm going to show you how to do that) for a 30 day period. Then over 30 days, you do one teensy module a day and it alternates between strategy and mindset over the course of the 30 days.
The strategy work includes:
The mindset work is about:
You can sign up for the Udemy waitlist, receive all the updates AND get the early bird discount HERE.
Go check that out and thank you so much for joining me for this episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast.
Until next time, I cannot WAIT to see you SHINE.
Show notes can be found at tashcorbin.com/219
This is a very special episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast because this is our first episode in our twice-weekly podcast.
In the second podcast of each week, we are going to be alternating between Q&A's (questions that you have submitted) and Spotlight Series episodes where we put another entrepreneur in the spotlight with a special interview.
Today we have a special Q&A episode for you, with a fabulous question from Anita Bronwyn Toi. Her question is in relation to social media for introverts, so if you would like some tips on how to navigate social media - even if you are very introverted and might find it a little bit draining - then this is going to be a great episode for you.
Our question comes from the fabulous Anita Bronwyn Toi who you can find at anitabronwyntoi.com or @anitabronwyntoi on Instagram.
Here's Anita's question:
"Hi Tash,
I'm an avid listener to your podcast but I don't enjoy hanging out in big groups on Facebook. I have no desire to have my own Facebook group either, yet I know both are proven ways to grow and connect with your audience. The thing is, I prefer 1:1 connections and small groups.
I don't feel like its a fear of being visible. It's simply knowing that interacting in large groups, whether in person or online, drains me more than it energises. I also prefer to limit my time on social media in general, as I find I'm much happier and calmer that way.
Do you have any suggestions for sensitive introverts like me who want to share their gifts and reach the right people, but in a way that feels aligned and supportive?
Thank you!"
To you Anita, I will say a big thank you as well, because this is a very common question that I get asked. So much so that I actually already have another podcast episode in which I specifically talk about growing a business and social media for introverts versus extroverts. It's episode number 210, so you'll be able to go along and read that previous episode of the Heart-Centred Business Podcast as well.
For today's Q&A episode, I thought what I would do is give you five little things that you might be able to work with to help you decide what your best strategy is moving forward. I'll also show you how you can navigate social media, even if you don't love being in large groups or facilitating large groups.
Engaging in Facebook groups on social media has lots and lots of different components. There is the energy of being in a group for hours and hours on end each day, which of course, you're going to find quite draining if you're just sitting in that energy of a lot of people. But there are lots of different parts about being in a Facebook community.
I know for myself, even facilitating the Heart-centred, soul-driven entrepreneurs Facebook group with 34,000 people, these days, I spend about 15 to 20 minutes a day in the group, and that's it.
The activities that I am doing in that community are commenting on people's posts and cheering them on - that's a one-to-one interaction with individuals - and sharing my posts for the community.
For me, that is actually not necessarily needing to hold space for 34,000 people and needing to be in the energy of 34,000 people at one time.
Really focus in on what it is about being in the groups that specifically drains you. You might find that the reason being in large groups particularly drains you is because you think that there are certain things you need to do to be successful in those groups.
Those aren't the actions that you need to be in there doing.
The other thing is with starting your own Facebook community, you don't need to be doing it all on your own. I don't do the administration of my Facebook group anymore, I have a team to do that for me.
It may be that holding off on having a Facebook group until you've got the capacity to have a team helping you with it is the right step for you.
I know lots of people who facilitate large groups as very highly sensitive people and introverts, and they use a combination of having really strong boundaries, spending limited time in those communities and also having team members to help them navigate that.
I would say that every single marketing strategy and every single option for social media has pieces that favour introverts versus pieces that favour extroverts. You just need to get really clear on what piece of it drains you, and how you may be able to:
If I paid you $10,000 a day to spend 30 minutes in a Facebook group each day, would you still find that activity draining?
The reason why I ask this question is that when we get down to brass tacks when it comes to any social media strategy, it can be very easy to say that it's the strategy that drains you. But for a lot of people, it's the strategy and continuously feeling like the strategy isn't working, that actually drains you.
It's a little bit of a tough-love kind of question, but I think that it's an important one.
I wouldn't be doing my job if I just said that the internet doesn't work for introverts so they should just run away and not worry about it.
There is so much opportunity that is available to us with social media and the free platforms that we can access.
If it was working, you would actually be energised by that, and therefore, you wouldn't be linking it to introversion versus extroversion.
Let's not forget, the internet was created BY introverts FOR introverts.
I don't know anything more introverted than being able to sit on your own in your home with your own energy, your own boundaries, with complete control over when you show up and when you don't show up, and with complete control over who you see posts from and who you don't see posts from.
I really find it interesting that so many introverts find social media draining or find online business draining, when if we're really honest, it's one of the group experiences in which you have the most control over your boundaries and whose energy you let in and how much time you invest in that particular experience.
The question of if I paid you $10,000 a day to do 30 minutes of it, would you find it draining is a real valid question. If you were making great money from this strategy and it was working really easily for you, I would challenge that perhaps you wouldn't find it so draining.
The question then is: How do you make it work in the strategies that really feel like they're aligned for you? Instead of just saying that being on Facebook or being in Facebook groups doesn't work for you because you're an introvert.
If you don't love being in Facebook communities or you don't love being on social media, why not use strategies such as:
For me, there's very little difference between writing an email to my mailing list and writing a post in my Facebook group that goes to largely the same group of people, but I understand for some people, they attach more energetic pressure on being in that group environment.
Bring the party back to your place where you do feel like it is a more intimate gathering or it's a more intimate group of people.
For many people, the reason why they find large scale strategies so difficult and draining is not that it's hard to get reach these days. It's actually because they're so focused on reach and so NOT focused on nurturing and conversion, that in order to get a baseline level of sales that feel sustainable, you have to be active, doing so much and reaching so many people.
If you are getting 10 people signing up to your mailing list each week, those 10 people should be treated as though they have walked into the most glamorous VIP event. They should be getting connection with you and an opportunity to really have a conversation with you.
Yet when I speak to most people about the strategies that they're using on social media and online, they're using these high reach, low touch, low conversion strategies that require them being in a space with hundreds and hundreds of people just to make one sale.
When I first started my business, I was in other people's Facebook groups, and there was one group in particular where I was very well known. I was doing 20 minutes a day in that Facebook group, and in that 20 minutes, I would do my posts for the day and I would look for three people whose questions I could answer. Then I'd do a bunch of liking and cheering people on with any time that was leftover.
In that time, I was getting five or six people every single day either reaching out to me on Messenger or signing up to my mailing list, and I sent a private personal reply to every single one of those people.
What that meant was, with a mailing list of only 150 people, I was still getting three to four sales conversations every single week.
It's not about needing ginormous reach, it's about being really mindful of how you nurture the relationship you have with the people you are reaching.
Bring the party back to your place, be an epic party host, and then you don't need to worry about going and pilfering everyone else's parties.
You can have an amazing, nurtured, curated space, and have an intimate conversation with people and not need to be in those groups every single day for five hours.
I think this ties all of this together really beautifully.
Don't jump straight to the reason that it's not working for you because you're an introvert if something isn't getting the traction that you were hoping to get.
Give it nurturing, tailor your experience and your strategy on that platform, and give it the time that it takes to get a little bit of traction.
Instead of asking: Does being in Facebook groups work for me or not work for me?
Ask the question: How can I make a Facebook group strategy that really works for my natural strengths, sensitivities and my introversion?
In that instance, you're going to be able to look for this solution instead of focusing on the problem.
You can build your marketing strategy to your strengths instead of trying to build it to someone else's specifications or suggestions.
There are business coaches and strategists out there who specialise in supporting highly sensitive people or introverts with their social media and their online marketing strategy.
If these suggestions and these ideas alone aren't enough for you to feel like you can find a social media or Facebook strategy that really works for you, then I would highly recommend that you find someone who specialises in working with people just like you.
Most of them have been there themselves and have grown their businesses with their introversion, and built it to their strengths as an introvert.
Don't be afraid to hire the support that you need to create that specialised unique strategy that's really going to work to your strengths.
I hope that's answered your question, Anita.
For all the other beautiful introverts out there, I know it seems really weird an extrovert giving you advice as an introvert, but I have worked with thousands and thousands of women over the years, the majority of whom are introverts. We're always able to find a solution that works out to be tailored to the strengths of the individual because there are parts of every strategy that favour introverts and there are parts of every strategy that favour extroverts.
If you haven't yet checked out podcast Episode 210: Is it really easier for extroverts to succeed at online business? make sure you go and do that.
If you've got a question that you'd like me to answer here on the Heart-Centred Business Podcast, simply GO HERE, pop your question in, make sure you give me all the details of how we can give you a shout out and answer your question here on the podcast.
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.
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.