10 Years of Business Lessons–Final Chapter: Building a Lasting Brand

February 26, 2017 By Leave a Comment

This is it! The final piece of a 7-post series in which I share the secrets behind building and growing my business over the last ten years. Please take advantage of the free assessment mentioned in the text. Read chapters one here, two, three, four, five, and six here.

In the last chapter, I shared the decision I made to structure my business not to scale my services (though scaling via small-item intellectual products was fine with me) but to consider the “consumption capacity” of my market: how they would best (and most likely) consume brand and message development. I knew they would never do so in a class or mastermind with others and certainly not with any do-it-yourself program. I knew from experience teaching classes, that they needed private attention, where they would get feedback every step of the way, avoiding the very real danger of stepping on explosives when just starting out. I knew that with me right there, they wouldn’t.

 

My Last Stand, Final Brand

 

This was mid-2012 and by then—10 years in business over all, five years with Inspired Leaders’ Academy—I knew the exact sequence service entrepreneurs needed to take and so crafted the proprietary process that has been my signature program ever since: The Powerhouse Method. It is a far more creative version of 12 Sentences (earlier described), in that I am literally inventing their unique brands, but is similar in that they think and articulate in single sentences, which forces the cogency required in successfully conveying value.

Branding is just the beginning of all they need to do, however, so I developed the Immersion Program, where we design their portal program (remember my 2-hour free live teaser event? Now, it is typically a webinar), that sells their signature program. We design both using the brain-based learning techniques I taught in my public speaking training, I write much of their marketing copy—and, crucially, we strategize their marketing and sales funnels.

I want to return to the “proprietary process” of The Powerhouse Method for a moment because it provides some important lessons. For nearly two years, I promised clients that they would leave with a one-of-a-kind brand—but one day, about three years ago, a long-time client of mine gave me language around what I was doing that I hadn’t had myself! In session, she exclaimed that I was a “thought leader.” It’s funny; I didn’t even digest the compliment, I just slapped a proverbial hand to my head and said, “That’s what I’m doing for my clients! I’m not just getting them an original business; I’m developing with them an original thought/idea that their business pivots on.” I immediately began using the term “thought leader marketing.”

So, what made my work different from everyone else using those keywords? A lot of things that I can’t cover in this last chapter, but in the end, it’s my blend of inspirational and thought leadership. You can have a great visionary idea as a thought leader but not compel anyone to adopt it. It is the inspirational leader who has the lion’s share of the influence. No one else is saying this, and I have the proprietary process to “prove” this thesis.

And that is what is always going to separate you from others.

A “thesis” and then a sequence of steps to prove it that are unique. That sequence is your “special sauce”; no one can have your configuration of steps. But to be truly special, some of the ingredients in your sauce must be unusual. For The Powerhouse Method, five ingredients are ones I’ve cultivated and grown myself—and that’s a pretty high percentage.

However, you want to go one step further and have one truly unique-to-you, even “rare,” ingredient. For me, it is the sentence my clients craft that births the thought leader within them and brings into form their TED-talk worthy idea. You see it in the graphic here as “Breaking their Schema.”

Positioning yourself in the marketplace is job number one of a business; you must know how to tell everyone why and how you are different. Zeroing in on your rare ingredient—within your special sauce–is the way to do it.

Key take-away so far? Make sure you have a special sauce (proprietary sequence of steps that deliver a measurable outcome) and work hard to develop one ingredient within it–one step–that is all yours and the core reason it is so special.

I cannot stress enough that you will not find the fulfillment in your business that you deserve, nor the success, if you are not different from everyone in your field (and preferably, everyone out there, period). We are here on this earth to burn brightly, and if we want to do that through our work,  we must stand far, far apart. If you remember nothing else from this series, remember that–and do not go one more day promoting something less than exceptional. It will have untold rewards. Because of my “inspired thought leader” curriculum, many doors open–my most precious is teaching at a prestigious private university here in New Jersey. 

Let me take a breath. You, too.

There’s so much to cover when looking back over ten years! I want to make sure I end this series with some key final lessons. Let’s look at marketing and selling.

 

Marketing and Selling Private Consulting

 

Selling private creative services is in some wayseasier than selling group events and in some ways harder. How do I market it? And how do I sell (because they’re different.) As has been the case for my entire 15-year run in business, I market primarily through speaking. I have a signature talk, “Is There an Inspired Thought Leader Inside of You?” at the end of which, I invite a handful (only) of listeners to speak with me privately. I also have online funnels where someone downloads one of my free ebooks, videos, assessments, etc. and the call-to-action within those products is to speak to me privately. I use social media and Facebook Ads to send people to these landing pages.

These are my marketing strategies and note that everything is brand consistent. As noted, I have
my signature talk, but then I also have the Inspired Thought Leader’s Assessment  (go take it!) and a new business fable about the hero’s journey of an entrepreneurial wolf turned thought leader. I don’t put anything out now that is not specific to inspired thought leadership. 

I sell via several online funnels that offer one of the above free gifts, then on the next page, upsells a $10-$12 next-step product. And I sell on my free consultation calls. There is no other way to sell private programs in my experience. It can be time consuming, but if you plan your promotional year well, you concentrate those calls within a certain period so it’s not overwhelming (or fraught with dry spells).
And if you’ve got your ascension model in place, your front-end buyer becomes a middle- and back-end buyer, so you’re not continually fishing.

Final Message


I’m having a tough time knowing how to close out this chapter; there’s so much more I can say. Let me get philosophical. I have learned, if nothing else, that having a business is not really about business; it’s about rapid, crazy-accelerated personal growth. It is akin to throwing yourself into the fire of everything you, uniquely, fear; the fire of your most self-destructive thoughts and beliefs; your invisible patterns of self-sabotage and the loudest choir that ever existed raising opinions about your judgment. What allows for the growth, of course, is what you do in that fire. You must, must, must meet it with fire: the fire of your core values, the fire of your purpose–clear understanding of the change you want to effect, the fire of belief that you can make it all work–and most of all, the fire of courage. My favorite quote from Ambrose Moon is, “Courage is not the absence of fear; it is the judgment that something else is more important than fear.”

Know, always, what is more important than the blistering heat hot enough to scorch your dreams and meaning—and choose it. Every day, choose it.

Business is about profit, of course; you can never forget that. But I have found that it’s true value is its relentless push toward your self-actualization. .

I hope you got value from this series!! Come talk with me! We have so much to do!

Filed Under: marketing

10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 6: Scale or Integrity–That Was the Question

February 23, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of excerpts that tells the story of these ten years to help you navigate these same waters more easily and faster! Read chapters one here, two, three, four, five here.

And be sure to take advantage of the free resources I provide at the bottom of this post.

When we last left our now-5-years-into-her-second-business protagonist, she was whipping into shape the strategic business plans, brand concepts, signature programs and marketing language of solopreneurs: coaches, consultants and speakers. And she was doing it in her second proprietary program, 12 Sentences, where participants in her online class answered the 12 most challenging questions prospects ask (or at least think)—and did so in single sentences.

The question none answered to Lizabeth’s high standard was, “How is your business different from everyone else’s in your field?” (She preferred, “…everyone else’s, period?” but no one came close to satisfying her criteria with that one, though she knew it was possible.)

So, one day, she sat down for a reckoning, pondering deeply an idea she calls, “consumption capacity.” It examines the capacity of a targeted client base to consume material and it’s an essential question for those wanting to do their best by their clients.

The questions are, What form of learning will my market realistically consume, given their lifestyle? What form of learning will yield them the best results? Do we even care that they consume? To what degree do we want them to consume?

For instance, a prospect once spoke with Lizabeth on a free consultation about the new 6-week online course she had created in Marie Forleo’s B-School. It was on “engaging employees” for C-suite level executives. Instantly, Lizabeth saw three glaring problems:

1. No C-suite level executive is going to watch videos and fill out PDF worksheets. (Consumption capacity failure)

2. There would be inadequate results from this format (Consumption capacity failure)

3. There was absolutely nothing original in what she was teaching. Employee engagement?? (Marketability failure)

She hired me (we’re returning to first person now :-)) and I cleaned up the mess made from the course with consumption capacity issues she took (which is generally what I do now, clean up those messes) and we created a truly one-of-a-kind brand and signature program for her that she is rocking right now. It is for executives in a form they will consume.

I am a teacher and transformation artist at my core, and so I absolutely cared that my clients consumed my material and got results. I had no issue with students consuming my public speaking material in a training because that was actually the best form for learning it: they could watch me do what I was teaching, and they could practice. I have, in fact, never disseminated that material any other way because it is not consumed best any other way.

But brand development? Crafting a truly one-of-a-kind signature program with a proprietary process? Articulating the message with influential wording? Eh…cannot be done in a class format. Not to my standards anyway, and they are exceptionally high; I’m about as exacting as they come.

And that was a defining moment for my business. I could become a Home Depot of Original Brand Development with online products and classes that I know No. One. Consumes—and if they miraculously did, would yield them mediocre results because the conceptualization phase of a business cannot be done right with do-it-yourself programs or masterminds.

Or I could be a fine, master-carpenter, working with meticulous detail on the carving of an original work of art.

There was no question: a client would consume this, and do so easily because I’m handling the expertise he doesn’t have, and a client would have get results, the most crucial result for success: an original, highly marketable business that sells.

“Your integrity is going to cost you in the long run,” a colleague told me, who was developing a Home Depot business model for herself.

I nodded and said, “It all depends on the yardstick you decide to use to measure your success.”

For me, it wasn’t a choice. I must do right by people or I fail. Period. No, I don’t have the fame and seven figures that others have in this field, but if I had, I wouldn’t have my integrity. That’s a cost I could not abide.

Instead, I have clients whose hands I never let go of, and the mama bear in me succeeds each day because of that. I give them results, and the entrepreneur in me succeeds each day because of that. I am at my creative best, and the artist in me succeeds every day because of that.

And I offer what I truly believe is the best fine craftsmanship available in branding and creative communication—and my soul succeeds every single day because of that.

I asked myself the question years ago, “What is my market’s consumption capacity?” And it gave me the business model best for me because it’s best for them.

It’s a question I offer to you.

I hope your story is as gratifying as mine.

**

Only one chapter left: How did I structure my boutique business, what was is its signature program, and how have I marketed it? That’s posting Saturday. Tune in then also for a once-in-my-business’s-lifetime opportunity to work in my carpenter’s shop with me.

Here are free resources for today! You’ll get a great deal out of each one:

Unleash the Brilliance of Your Next Big Thing Workbook 
http://inspiredleadersacademy.com/inspired/unleashnbtworkbooktoaudiofb/

One of a Kind 
http://inspiredleadersacademy.com/inspired/one-of-a-kind/

The Sequence Secret 
http://inspiredleadersacademy.com/inspired/sequence-secret-fb-2pg-swap/

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10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 5: Oops! Did I Sell the Wrong Program?

February 21, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of excerpts that tells the story of these ten years to help you navigate these same waters more easily and faster! Read chapters one here, two, three, four.

I did a lot of things right as I launched my second business (unlike my first coaching practice, where I did most things wrong). One of the things I did correctly was give my target audience a single focus for my business: my public speaking training.

They knew what I did and had just one potential action: to learn this methodology. I didn’t have an array of options. I had one. I cannot underscore how key this is! Your business “store front” must indicate just what you do, very clearly, no confusion. And the best way to do that is with a “signature program”; this is, at the start, the identity of your brand.

It bears repeating that being crystal clear with one offering is key to being successful early on. That one offering must be a program that has shape and form: with a name, a specified duration, a process (another key: a proprietary process) and very specific deliverables.

I could go on for an entire book about this, but sometimes less is more, so let me repeat this: early service businesses must guide a targeted market to just one main offering that teaches a proprietary methodology.

But eventually, a solo practice wants to develop an “ascension” business model. This means that you
create a second program (with name, duration, proprietary process and deliverables) that your clients/students from your initial signature program “ascend into.” In this new program, they are learning the next set of skills, or moving to the next level of transformation.

This is something Harv Eker taught us, though he called it having a “progressive line up of services.” Long ago, I began calling it the “ascensions model.” Same thing. To grow (vs. launch) your business, this is a must. Why? Because rather than always searching for a new client, you want to me smart and keep a client as long as possible. This reduces your marketing costs and the headaches that come with it, for one thing, but is another stream of income.

About three years into my business, I began to see a glaring need in those who were attending my public speaking training. Many would hire me to help develop their “experiences” (I taught them to use this word in place of ‘presentation,’ ‘workshop,’ ‘seminar,’ etc.) and the problem was revealed when I asked where the experience fit in the strategy of their business.

“I don’t know what you mean,” they would say. Essentially, they just wanted to give any old workshop or talk; they wanted to get out there with something.

I asked them what they hoped the talk would accomplish, what would folks do as a result of attending? To answer that, though, they had to know who would be attending. Most of them didn’t know. They thought in terms of “people,” not a targeted group. Then, when we discussed content, it had no theme consistent with their business; they really had no brand identity. Their “experience” was not going to clarify who they were.

Oh, boy, I thought. Have I been selling the wrong program? They’re not ready for the material in my public speaking training—their businesses aren’t strategically developed!

And so, I created my second program, which while logically should have preceded the public speaking content, was offered to those who had attended that training. My ascension model had begun.

I was smart enough, though, to offer this new program to those on my list who had never attended Secrets of Impact and Influence and soon I was teaching “12 Sentences” to new as well as familiar folks.

“12 Sentences” was unique. As a communication strategist, I knew that only good thinking can produce good articulation. And I knew that good articulation (what the business achieves and how it is different from all others) was job number one for any business owner. But for some reason, few understand how inadequate their articulation is.

So, this virtual group class rolled up their sleeves and dove into some seriously tough thinking, using my Nine Strategic Inquiries Manual as a guide.  Then, the course required them to take all of that good thinking and cogently answer 12 questions in single sentences.

These were the questions prospects wanted to hear the most. I knew that when a business owner can articulate in single sentences, s/he knows the business cold. This program was aimed at getting people to know, and then describe powerfully, the value and distinction of their business…cold.

For one year, I led both Secrets of Impact & Influence and 12 Sentences, and then phased out SII as a live training in 2012. This is when I was learning a few very important things about the needs of my market. The most important was that of all of the 12 sentences they had to craft, one stood out as the hardest. It was nearly impossible for them to answer: How are you different from everyone else?

I have exceptionally high standards for that answer and very few in the class were meeting them. I was not okay with this. They were; they thought they had a unique differentiation because what they had was so much improved over what they’d had. But I knew they could have something much, much better.

But how to get it for them? It took a while for me to make a pivotal decision for my business. I remember telling a colleague what it was, who responded, “Your integrity is going to cost you.”

I’ll tell you what it is next chapter. This is a question you may face, too.


So, what are you taking away from this chapter? Here is a summary. Be sure...

  1. your business has a single focus
  2. and that it is a program–with a name, duration, deliverables and…
  3. …a proprietary process.
  4. Be sure to develop an ascension business model
  5. that your business is strategically developed!
  6. that it is different from everything else offered in your field!
  7. that you have done rigorous thinking before you articulate your value!
  8. that you never forget this: Articulating your value is job #1!!! You need to be able to do it in single cogent and concise sentences. And never assume you are doing it well unless you get conversions.

“The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has been accomplished.”
–-George Bernard Shaw

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10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 4: How I Got an International Audience

February 17, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of excerpts that tells the story of these ten years to help you navigate these same waters more easily and faster!

If you’ve been following this series, you know that on February 27, 2007, I launched my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy, with a public speaking training. I got business owners into that room by getting them first into a free, 2-hour live event that educated them on cutting-edge material that introduced the content of the paid training. After teaching unique concepts for over an hour, I “sold” the training. This is called “platform selling,” or “selling from stage.” If you have qualms about this—or disdain—be sure to read chapter two of this series.

For about two years, I used this precise strategy. Here’s what’s so great about it and why I still have my clients use it, whether they’re doing an in-person or virtual free teaser event: it keeps you focused on the only thing you have to do—fill your teaser event. So many solopreneurs (and big business, too!) get distracted or try to mar

ket too many different things at a time. With this model, there are not countless things for you to do each day, there is one: market your free event.

In 2009, I went to a small seminar led by Michael Port, whose Book Yourself Solid 6-week program I had taken. This was a workshop related to his new book, Beyond Booked Solid. Michael is awesome; I love him to death. However, he didn

’t use the brain-based learning techniques I knew and taught and I had a challenging time over those two days. At the conclusion, I walked up to him, thanked him, and asked, “Would you like me to make this program 85% better?”

Because he was so influential, with such a large reach, I chose to do this gratis. This is where many new business owners trip up: they aren’t willing to do things for free because everyone is telling them to “own their value.” Doing things for free up front is known as a “loss leader” and every new entrepreneur should be savvy enough to recognize that—if done right—a free project can land you a whole bunch more business down the line than something you’d get paid for.

I went to Michael’s house and we pored over his workbook and content and rearranged it, using the two brain-based sequences I was teaching back then. He loved it, autographed one of his books with, “Lizabeth, you’re a genius!” and then proceeded to invite me to teach my 2-hour free event content at his subsequent live events. That is the beauty of a loss leader, my friends.

And that is the beauty of aligning with someone with influence. But the change for my business, from local to international, came when Michael interviewed me on one of his weekly telecalls. He had an international audience, of course, and that gave me one. However, it was up to me to maximize that opportunity, which I did by inviting everyone at the end of that interview to attend my free 90-minute teleclass (the 2-hour reconstructed for the web.) They gave me their email addresses to register and were now on my list.

Let me finish with a comment about tailoring my 2-hour live event into a 90-minute teleclass. Let me tell you, that was not easy! The brain-based learning techniques that I taught were, of course, ones I demonstrated, and they were highly experiential. They involved people’s vocal and physical participation. It was so tactile. How could I transfer all of that to a conference call?

It took two or three test tries, but I was able to innovate some of the techniques and make the telecall almost as exciting as the live event.

For instance, a key, key component of a great audience experience is having the audience vocalize. It is critical to their learning that they not sit passively, but it’s also essential to their having a great time and desiring more. Yet opening the lines of a telecall so everyone could be heard and vocalize was, I discovered immediately, chaotic.

So, instead, I asked 10-12 folks, prior to the call, to be my “cheerleading squad.” They were off-mute throughout and answered all of my rhetorical and problem solving questions, and repeated key words that I wanted them to retain. They acted as representatives of the whole, and it worked beautifully. Those who were muted told me that they got great value out of the participation of the core group, even though they themselves could only listen.

As a teacher, I was never (and am still not) happy with the online education model for the very reason that the entire group can’t vocalize (and why I really hate webinars because everyone is silent), but I found a way to make it work on teleclasses that no one else was doing (or has done since, I think, except my clients.)

So, on February 27, when I have my Q and A call for you, it will be a telecall I want to hear you!

Michael Port and I are still in one another’s circles, however, in 2011, my focus turned slightly from “on stage messaging” to “off stage messaging” and my new program competed too closely with Book Yourself Solid, so we stopped doing joint ventures. But I am grateful to this day to him for putting me on the map. To be successful, make sure you find your influencer (and many more!)

See below for 3 relevant books that I wrote on public speaking. (Another tip: make sure you are creating products.)

And reach out to me to help you with your next webinar, presentation or signature talk! Fill out this form and we’ll talk. Let’s see how you can speak for profit–a must-do for all entrepreneurs.

Next chapter, I’ll share how I grew my business by starting to use the “ascension model.”

Speak Free and Profit usually $24 now $12
Before the Stage usually $17 now $9.
Find them both here:
http://www.inspiredleadersacademy.com/book-store/

Free:
Teaching to the Brain: The Must-Have Skill for the 21st Century Leader
http://inspiredleadersacademy.com/inspired/teaching-to-brain/

Filed Under: marketing

10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 3: How I Got People to My Live Events

February 13, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of excerpts that tells the story of these ten years to help you navigate these same waters more easily and faster!

*

In the last chapter, I told you that my marketing strategy for launching my new business, which then centered around a proprietary public speaking signature program, was to lead a free live “teaser” event. This was educational and highly engaging, but also the opportunity for me to sell my public speaking training. Back then, this was a new strategy; now, of course, you see it online everywhere in webinars.

So, how did I get folks to attend the free teaser—and how is this relevant in today’s world, when so much of this is going on online?

Let me answer that question first. The world of online marketing is so saturated with free webinars, in many ways, they’re becoming invisible, wouldn’t you agree? Smart business owners are seeing the need to get back to basics and meet with people in person again—thus the rise of the MeetUp. In the ten years since I was doing free live events, I’ve seen the progression away from them, beginning in 2009 to back again in 2015. I encourage all new solopreneurs to lead live events, and MeetUp is helpful in that it promotes for you (on a very limited scale!), but my strategy from ten years ago is more valid today than it has been in years.

Essentially, I filled my teaser (i.e. “portal” event) by going to local networking events. My market was business owners and my thesis was that public speaking was–hands down–the best strategy for getting business, and my call to action was, come see how to be better than virtually all other speakers so you stand apart and get sales.

The most important key was providing them with a “ticket” to the event in the form of a colorful postcard with compelling copy.

I can’t find the February 2007 version, but here’s one from 2009.

On the back, I shared the value of the event in dollar terms ($49) and then said that “with this ticket, you attend for free.” I went to networking events constantly, but by May 2009, word of mouth was working for me.

Getting them in the room is 70% of the challenge—but the rest is what happens in the room. It has to be great or you will lose the sale. You and I have seen many, many, many really bad free talks (whether online or in person) and what’s sad is that the leader doesn’t understand that the content and delivery cost them dearly. Don’t make that mistake: thinking you’re delivery and material are compelling when they’re not!

In my event, I used the very brain-based-learning technology I was “teaching and teasing” and of course, this worked (because these techniques are highly experiential and compelling.) I asked lots of questions; invited people onto stage to be scribes, or to demonstrate. I had everyone verbalizing throughout the event because twice as much brain circuitry is activated when we talk versus just listen. It was fun and it was memorable.

But it was also new. I was teaching things no one had heard of before. This is the “thought leadership” I now focus on so precisely in my work: you need to illuminate what is wrong with current conditions (in this case, how most people give talks) and how an entirely new methodology (talking to the brains in their audiences) would get them far greater results.

And it called them into action in a very concrete way, as I described in detail in Chapter Two. This is a critical distinction, though, and worth repeating. If the rest of the challenge is what “happens in the room,” then it stands to reason that what happens must be effective. Making an offer in no uncertain terms is effective. Harv Eker said often to us, “Never, ever let warm bodies out of the room [without telling them what you have for them because it’s human nature that they will get distracted by the next day].”

When you host your own event, you can do this. I spent 20 minutes on the offer–after over an hour of teaching. And I gave them a heck of a deal. Remember, you are offering something extremely valuable (hopefully!) at a discounted rate that they couldn’t get if they weren’t in the room with you. This is a gift for them. They can choose to take it or not, but you are helping them by giving them a choice to improve their lives. Many don’t see it that way, but that’s only because they have internal conflicts around selling. (I know about this! As I said, I refused to sell for years and consequently hated anyone who tried to sell to me. The two are inextricably linked.) But the truth is, giving an opportunity for someone to achieve a better standard of living is always a gift.

So, there’s how I filled my free portal events and how I made them work for me by giving a high-value, stand-apart experience with an explicit offer.

This is a strategy you want to duplicate.(In subsequent chapters, I’ll tell you how I transitioned to doing this online.) But remember, people want to meet in person more and more now, so be sure that a live talk/seminar is part of your marketing strategy.

   *

To conceptualize and structure your next talk/event, download my proprietary design template, The Easy Plugin Design Model. Click here for it.

And today, I am offering 2, 90-minute sessions to help you duplicate my marketing strategy (free live event/talk) as well as conceptualize the content. Because this is my 10th year anniversary celebration, I’m offering my expertise at a discount, which I never do. Just fill out this form now that gets us on a quick free call to ensure you’re ready for this.Go ahead! I promise there’s nothing to lose!

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10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 2: How I Marketed My New Business

February 9, 2017 By Leave a Comment

On February 27, 2017, I will celebrate the 10th-year anniversary of the launch of my second business, Inspired Leaders’ Academy. This is a series of posts that tell the story of these ten years to help any service-based solopreneur navigate these same waters easier and faster.

As reported in my first chapter, I changed the direction of my business/career in 2007 from coaching to training and developed a proprietary formula for a signature program, Secrets of Impact & Influence—a public speaking training based on the science of learning and the brain. But how was I going to build awareness for this new training and sell it?

As I also mentioned, I had learned from Harv Eker–one of (if not the) most successful seminar creators and marketers in the world–and I decided to do what he did: offer a teaser event for free. His teaser was 3 days; mine would be 2 hours.

Its purpose? To be so valuable that attendees would want to experience my full public speaking training. In other words, it had to sell.

A year before, this would have been anathema to me: the idea of selling had, for the entire duration of my coaching practice, provoked extreme resistance in me. I would speak in public, but I would not sell; clearly, this had presented problems for me, but nothing anyone said, nor any book, could convince me to become a pushy sales person.

But in a stunning 45-minute exercise at the certification course I mentioned in chapter one, using the sequence Harv himself had taught us for “selling from stage,” my fears ended. I followed his script and in 45-minutes scratched onto a legal pad an educational presentation—that ended with a sales offer. It was, I felt, some of the best material I’d fashioned to date—and every qualm I’d ever had about selling vanished! Just like that. Seriously.

What made the difference?

Two things: the fact that I was teaching for most of the presentation (I’m a teacher at heart), and then articulating/emphasizing a genuine problem the audience has and offering my solution (I am a helper at heart.)

This was not pushing, not bothering, not looking desperate; I did not feel sleazy or insecure or shy. I was doing what I love best and do best: educating and solving a problem.

Needless to say, I used Harv’s selling-from-stage sequence when I sat down to create my free 2-hour event. The first 20 minutes was an introduction; I then taught for just over an hour, then the final 20 minutes were devoted to emphasizing the problem they faced (for them, it was using extremely outdated speaking techniques) and telling them about my (at the time) 1-day training.

What I taught for over an hour was “meaty,” unique, educational and also inspiring. It proved my argument that all speakers were unwittingly perpetuating old-school techniques and alienating audiences. I clearly presented the “old paradigm” they existed in and then, as the truth of that reality was sinking in and making them uncomfortable, I presented the picture of the “new paradigm” speaker. These were broad strokes (the details were offered in the full training), but the strokes were evocative: everyone wanted to be in the new paradigm—especially as I was demonstrating it before their eyes.

So, when it came to the so-called “selling” phase, there wasn’t much I had to do—they didn’t want to be ineffective, or outdated; they wanted the competitive advantage a new-paradigm speaking methodology would give them. I just had to tell them how, where and when to get it.

Of course, there is a sequence to unfurl in that phase of things, including reiterating the problem they face, painting a clear picture of what would change for them as a new-paradigm speaker, and, at the very end, creative pricing.

This is one of the keys to an effective sale:

Framing the price in an attractive way. Marketing guru Dan Kennedy has said, “You want them to feel that the investment is inconsequential.” And you do that in many ways, one of which is by offering a comparison price, another is to ask them to consider the cost of continuing old patterns.

This is where some of my clients can get uneasy. It can feel like manipulation to those who are still unsure of the value of their offering. But when you know you have something that will legitimately and dramatically change their life or business; is truly unique, highly valuable and not available anywhere else in as good a package—it is incumbent upon you to invite them to move out of the very habits and strategies that weaken them.

Most of my clients are coaches; they are hired to inspire clients to do what they won’t do on their own, to end destructive or life-depleting patterns. They would not be doing their jobs if they did not make this their priority.

I believe very, very strongly that the same is true of anyone who has a solution. If that solution will catapult someone into a considerably better situation, you are not doing your job if you don’t inspire them to do what they wouldn’t do on their own: i.e. what you are offering. And to do this, you must incentivize them. You’re not offering time limitations or presenting comparison pricing to manipulate so you get money in your pocket; you’re using creative pricing and other incentives to make the investment inconsequential so they do what is best for them. Humans do not usually do what it is best for them. You must help them do it!

Not all marketers and brands in the world come from this position, Lord knows! Selling has many dark ambassadors. But you are not one of them. You are educating, and then solving a problem that truly harms or depresses your prospect’s full potential. If you’re great at what you do, they will thank you for helping them do what they would not normally have done. Trust me. For ten years, this has been the case for me.

In conclusion: speaking is by far the best marketing strategy for any business. Chet Holmes, a brilliant mind, heart and sales person who passed away a few years ago, brought ‘education-based marketing seminars’ into Fortune 500 companies with huge, huge success. If it works for giant brands, it will work for you.

People love to learn. You love to teach. And you love to help. When you have a sequence to follow, you can love to sell, too!

If you are considering offering (or even just about to offer) an upcoming webinar, live event or local talk, I’d love to help you. You may know how to teach, but I can help you shape the talk or event into something that sells, too. Just click here to speak to me about it privately today.

Stay tuned for chapter 3, when I reveal how I marketed the 2-hour event and what made the live event most successful. 

Lessons:

  • If you sell services, it is imperative that you give prospects a taste of what you do. You can do this in 1-1 free consulting calls, but it is far, far more lucrative to get many folks in a room and educate them. I call this a “portal” event. Speaking is the most effective marketing strategy for businesses!
  • You never need to hate selling again!! If I overcame the disdain, you can (and must), too. In fact, you can love it. And you will as long as you are teaching and solving a legitimate, painful problem. Most likely, you are wired to alleviate pain. If you have something that really does that, it’s incumbent upon you to share it!
  • Your educational event must have single thesis and prove your argument. Consider the “old paradigm” your audience is stuck in and the “new paradigm” you move them to.
  • Creative pricing is part of what makes selling effective. You want them to feel that the investment is “inconsequential” and this is often achieved by comparing the investment to other options: a higher price, staying in outdated patterns, etc.
  • If your solution will catapult someone into a considerably better situation, you are not doing your job if you don’t inspire them to do what they wouldn’t do on their own. 
Filed Under: marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10 Years of Business Lessons–Chapter 1: When It’s Time to Change Direction

February 7, 2017 By Leave a Comment

Over the next 3 weeks, I will be commemorating my 10 years as an influential communication strategist in my second business–in the hopes that doing so will help you make more strategic decisions, avoid ditches and dead ends, move along much faster--and, overall, keep you inspired as you, too, traverse the winding and unpredictable road of self-employment.

It all began on February 27, 2007, when I launched Inspired Leadership Training with a 2-hour, free live event.

Well, no, I should back up.

It really began about 18 months earlier, when I attended The Millionaire Mind Intensive, then run by marketing and live event genius, T. Harv Eker. Over those 3 days, I fell in love with how I felt as an audience member, with how powerfully and effectively they engaged me and I wanted to learn how they did it!

That weekend, I enrolled in Eker’s Train the Trainer program—and once there, lost my heart to how they worked with audiences, through something called “accelerated learning.” A teacher deep down, I soaked up the many, many techniques educational science had developed on enthralling an audience and ensuring deep learning, then I registered for their higher-level certification course on the subject.

After five years of it, I was feeling uninspired working 1-1 as an empowerment coach, and tired of inconsistent sales, too, and so, it was right there at the certification course that I decided to change the trajectory of my career completely. Never mind that a non-fiction book I’d written was being considered by a trade publisher—I wanted nothing more now than to teach these techniques. I was done coaching. I wanted to educate and invoke the spirit of my minister father, a passionate and powerful orator.

As I considered my target market—something I’d failed to do with my coaching business—I considered the fact that the success I’d had as a coach had been due almost entirely to my public speaking. I knew that speaking was the most successful marketing strategy for any entrepreneur, and I decided that I wanted to help my fellow pack-leavers succeed at it.

I also knew that the accelerated learning techniques I was learning would set them apart from every other speaker out there. Not only were they effective, they were inspiring and empowering, something most presentations lack completely!

I quickly conceived the name of my new business: Inspired Leadership Training. Ten years later, it has only shifted slightly to Inspired Leaders’ Academy. I teach my clients now to choose a name that will last for years; mine has always stayed on-target, true to its purpose, and the tag line is as true today as ever: Revolutionizing the Way We Succeed.

So, I completed the certification course but I had a problem: I didn’t know why these accelerated learning techniques worked. Yes, K-12 educators had been implementing them successfully since the early 1970’s, but why? I went in search of answers and soon discovered “brain-based learning” and spent well over a year studying everything I could get my hands on about learning, memory and emotion in the brain.

By late 2006, I had developed my own curriculum for a live public speaking training centered around how the brain learns. The techniques were very similar to accelerated learning’s, but I was pleased to be able to call on hard neuroscience to explain why, for instance, an audience leader should ask constant questions, even rhetorical ones; have audiences verbalize rather than just listen—and why information must be delivered in a very particular sequence.

I named my proprietary formula—i.e. signature program--Secrets of Impact and Influence, and, modeling the way T. Harv Eker sold his trainings, I designed a free ‘teaser’ 2-hour live event to sell the for-sale, signature program.

Back then, this was a rare strategy, believe it or not! I had no idea when I began that within three years, free teleclasses would be all the rage on the internet, and a few years beyond that, free webinars. In February, 2007, this was a novel and successful strategy that I used for the next two years.

In the next installment, I’ll reveal how I marketed the 2-hour event and how the content was designed. Remember, it had to sell my (at the time) 1-day public speaking event. I had learned a lot from T. Harv Eker about selling from stage, and I brought those lessons to bear as I conceptualized my teaser event—the portal to my brand new business.

LESSONS: 

  1. Follow your intuition. If you fall in love with a new direction, follow it!
  2. Be smart: Choose a target audience and make sure there is a strong market for what you want to sell.
  3. Be creative: Make sure what you’re offering is unique in the marketplace! That it has a unique and proprietary ‘formula.’
  4. Be strategic: Conceive of a strategy for selling your proprietary formula (i.e. signature program)
  5. Choose a business name that suggests a theme or purpose and that you could be happy with for years. My work, though it has morphed over 10 years, is all about inspirational leadership. Another lesson: Don’t let an expert talk you out of your intuitive sense of your business name: I was told entrepreneurs don’t want to be leaders. Within 5years, everyone selling to entrepreneurs was encouraging them to be leaders. You may just be ahead of your time; trust your gut!
Filed Under: Business Development Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
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