Episode 48: If I Were to Start Over Again...

As an entrepreneur, we are truly the problem solvers of the world. And if you have a business and your business is going to be successful, you need to be able to solve problems for your ideal clients. So first of all, identify what is the problem that you're solving? What value are you creating in the world and who are you solving that problem for? Who is your ideal person? Welcome to the Start Tiny podcast. I'm your host and Ali bjork and in 2019 I launched my first ever tiny offer for $27 and have since generated over $5 million in revenue after starting an industry wide low ticket revolution. I've been helping other entrepreneurs launch and scale their own tiny offers and on this podcast we pull back the curtain on exactly how they're doing it so that you can do it too. Hello. Hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the St Start Tiny show. Today I am going to be talking about one of the questions that I get asked the most frequently. I recently sent out an email that was kind of an ask me anything type email. And honestly the majority of the responses that I got were questions around how do I start? Where do I get started? How do I do this? It was all about starting, like, how do I start this new thing? How do I pivot? Like, how do I build the business that I want to build? So the topic that I want to cover inside of this podcast or what I want to do a little bit deeper dive into is how do you actually get started? If I were to start over again in my business, what are some of the things that I would do again? What are some of the things that I would do differently because I started, I mean, it was a totally different world online when I started. I really started my business back in 2012. I always have to do the math on how old my kids are and because they were kind of all born at the same time, the business and the babies and they grew up together. So when I was first starting, I did a lot of the, like the groundwork or the, you know, like boots on the ground type marketing for my business. I started with an in person marketing agency so I thought was what I was going to build. And I was, I was getting up at 6am and I was going to BNI meetings and I was shaking hands with insurance agents and chiropractors and landscapers and like all of the brick and mortar type businesses. And I really learned a lot from doing that. I learned a lot about marketing, I learned a lot about selling, I learned a lot about networking and meeting People and listening to what it was that they needed. And the first probably three, three years of my business, really before I discovered this online coaching world, I was doing marketing for local tourism agencies. Kind of was the niche that I fell into because I live in a touristy area of Minnesota and, and I learned a lot from having these clients and I definitely was not charging enough money. But at the same time, I was building relationships with them and I was learning how to run a business and how to, how to do the bookkeeping and how to pay attention to profit and loss and like, how expensive it was to have all the software that I needed. And maybe charging $250 a month wasn't enough. And I. So I learned a lot about pricing and packages and sales and client management and, you know, all the things that, I mean, I started my business pretty young. I think I was like maybe 20 when I started, and I didn't have a whole lot of corporate experience. I learned really quickly, as I'm sure a lot of you have too, that I wasn't, I wasn't cut out for the boss world. I wasn't cut out to have a boss. I was really unmotivated by having someone else set my schedule and having to report to work and realizing that that's not the lifestyle that I wanted to live. So I jumped into growing my own business really quickly. But some of the things that I think I did well and, well, there are many, many things that I did not do well. But something that I think I did well in the beginning is I, I really just was in it to serve the people. So when I was starting, I knew what my skill set was. So I guess the first piece of advice is get clear on, on what value you have to offer. What problems were you created to solve for people? As an entrepreneur, we are truly the problem solvers of the world. And if you have a business and your business is going to be successful, successful, you need to be able to solve problems for your ideal clients. So first of all, identify what is the problem that you're solving? What value are you creating in the world and who are you solving that problem for? Who is your ideal person? What kind of things did they think? Where do they hang out? This is not like your typical, you know, avatar exercise. Like, get clear on your ideal client. Like, we're going to speak broadly because I think when you're starting, some of those exercises are pointless. Like, you don't, you don't know if your ideal client shops at, at Target or on Amazon or I don't know some of those other. Wherever they shop. But you don't need to know those details necessarily. You just need to get clear on what problems you're solving and, and who might have those problems and then jump into places where those people are hanging out and start. Start having conversations with actual humans that are in those places. And I know that probably in the world of automation and I'm such a marketer that you're probably like, that's way too simple, Ali. But when I was starting, I joined a bunch of Facebook groups and I just slammed value all the time. I created these. I used to go sit in a coffee shop on Sunday afternoons. My kids were tiny, so I had to like leave the house and I'd go sit and I would write a week's worth of value posts that I was going to share in different Facebook groups. And this strategy would still work today as long as it was truly valuable. If it's, if it's just like a spray and you know, like run type strategy, it's not going to work if your energy is not in the right place. People can smell inauthenticity from a mile away. So if you really go in with the concept of I'm going to figure out what problem I can solve and how I can create value for the people that have that problem. And you just, you start posting, you start sharing content, and then you start offering to help people for free for a small period of time, a very small period of time, in exchange for learning what their problems are in getting on a call with them, hearing their words, documenting what they're saying. You cannot market until you have the words of your client. You can't create any piece of marketing material until you know how they think about things, what challenges they're facing, where they're stuck, what they think they need to be doing. None of your stuff's going to work if you don't actually talk to people first. So I would get into the groups and I would. When I was first starting, there's a story where I was. This is kind of a weird angle that I had to take because of where I was, mindset wise. But I was terrified of video. Like it. I'm probably surprising now cause I do webinars with like thousands of people on them. But I was so scared to get on video, I refused like flat out with my marketing agency. If someone was like, hey, let's get on a Skype call. Because it was Skype in those days. Zoom didn't exist yet. How long I'VE been doing this, they'd be like, let's get on Skype. And I was like, can't. Busy. Can't do Skype. Too many things going on. Like, let's just email. But it was truly, it was because I was afraid to get on Skype. I refused to get on Skype. So I kept losing clients. And I became really aware that until I could get over my fear of video, if I can get over myself of, like, being awkward on camera or being just an awkward person in general, which is what I thought, I was never going to be able to grow my business online. And I knew that I wanted to go from these, you know, like, the BNI world of working with chiropractors and tourism agencies. I knew I wanted to grow my business on the Internet, and I knew I wanted to work with coaches. And I knew. I knew, like, this whole freelancer gig economy thing was starting. It was being, you know, it was like, growing. And I knew there was a ton of opportunity there, but I. I had to get over my fear of video. So I was in these groups, and I'm posting my. My value posts, and I needed to take it further, and I needed to get over myself. So I offered to get on coffee chats with people. And I said, you know, I. I'm an extrovert. I work in my basement. I don't know if I'm actually an extrovert anymore. This. That's up for debate. But anyway, so I said, I. I missed being working in an office and having people around, and I would love to get on coffee chats with any of you. I. I have nothing to sell you. Like, I just want to talk to you. I just want to get to know you. I just want to make some friends. So what ended up happening is that, like, 30 different people booked these coffee chats with me. And we got on the coffee chats, and every single one of them, I wanted to cancel every single one. I was like, nope, can't do it. My kids being, you know, like, not napping like they're supposed to be, or it's not going to work out. Like, I'm busy today. I need to cancel this coffee chat. But something inside was like, no, Ali, you committed to this. You're gonna show up and you're gonna. You're gonna talk to them. Like, you're just gonna ask questions. It doesn't have to be scary. Like, just get on there and have a conversation. So all 30 coffee chats I ended up doing, and I showed up and I Was like, yeah, I'm Ally. Like, I do Facebook ads and I, you know, some social media. But tell me about you. Like, what do you do? What's your family? Like, where are you from? What's your business? What are your hopes and dreams? And like, I just, I didn't have to talk about myself purely because I felt so awkward. But what ended up happening is that these 30 coffee chats that I did, I built relationships with those 30 people, and they became a ridiculous referral engine for me. Even though all I said was like, yeah, I do Facebook ads. Anyway, let's talk about you. So they knew I did Facebook ads. That was it. Like, I was too scared to talk about myself in any other way. I felt too awkward. And what ended up happening is that in these Facebook groups where there's communities, these people that I talked to became like a referral machine for me. So if someone was like, who do you know that runs Facebook ads? They're like, Ali Burick. Ali Burick. Ali Burick. And like, all of a sudden I'm being tagged in all of these posts, and I was like, wait a minute. They don't know if I do well at Facebook ads. Like, they don't know if I suck. And I didn't, I didn't show them, like, my results. But the fact that I had so many people vouching for me and tagging me and referring me, I ended up getting a full roster of these client management or Facebook ads management clients because of the relationships that I built. So first and foremost, figure out where can you go to offer free value, to have conversations with people, to build referrals. And sometimes if you're doing stuff for free, that those are some of the best ways to build referrals because you do a great job. You get to know, you get to listen to people, you get to hear from people. And then I would start working one on one first. So a lot of people are like, I, you know, I end up trying to sell a course or I'm trying to sell this group coaching program. And it's not scaling. Like, even if you feel like you're beyond that, it's always good, in my opinion, no matter how experienced you are in your business, to go back to serving people at the highest level that you can, even so you can stay up on what the challenges are. You can hear their, their language and their current, you know, pain points, and then you can translate that into all the other stuff that you're doing. Even though I have courses and I have a group coaching program and I have a mastermind. I still love doing intensives now and then with people where I'm there for a full day with them because I can hear what is really going on inside of businesses right now. What are the real challenges, like where are they currently stuck? And then I can trickle that down into all my other messaging and my other programs and it just lets me serve at a higher level. So don't think you're ever above working one on one with people because I think it's always good to refresh that piece of yourself. And I will find, and maybe this is unique to me, but I've talked to other people who feel the same way, that when you work deeply with someone, it almost renews your passion for what you do and renews your expertise and brings you back to your why of why you started. So I encourage working one on one. If you, you know, if you can charge, if you're not afraid of charging, do it, charge high ticket. But if you're not ready for that, start, start with where you can start with where you're comfortable. Start with the price point that you can still say out loud without your voice shaking and then just increase your price from there. Right? Like I encourage people to increase their price every single sales call that have until they start hearing no more frequently so they can figure out where the market is. Like, what can they sell, where can they, you know, get paid, what they're, you know, quote unquote, what they're worth or whatever. So that's where I would start. I would start with working deeply with people until I had the messaging down, until I knew exactly what my audience needed and I was able to identify a, a repeatable framework that worked over and over and over again to get the result that I wanted to get people based on my expertise and based on what their pain work. When you can identify your framework and you can identify steps A through Z that you can achieve for people, that's when you can automate and that's when you can create something that is passive. If you're guessing and you don't know your audience and if you're like, I think they need this thing and you have, you've never talked to them, your products are probably not going to sell because you don't actually really know what people need. You don't know where their heads are at. You don't know if they think they need what it is that you're selling and you're jumping ahead a few different steps because someone online told you that, you know, let's you just start with courses, it's super easy, it'll sell itself, build it and they will come. I don't necessarily believe that. And I think you'll save yourself a ton of heartache and a ton of trouble if you start by working closely with people. The other thing that I, I heard a quote this week that I wanted to share. I heard the quote where someone said forcing your growth or your healing won't make it go faster, but it sure will make it go slower. And I think the same is true for marketing where if you are trying to force your growth or you're trying to, you know, hit your goals faster than you're, you're like not willing to do the work, you're trying to take the easiest path to your goals, it's going to make it go so much slower than just digging in and doing what you need to do and being in that, that hustle for some period of time. I work my tail off and I still do, but I have a lot of freedom built into my day. But I don't want people to think that I don't ever work harder. I'm not ever doing things because I do work really, really hard. And anyone who tells you that you don't have to work hard is probably lying or trying to sell you something. That being said, I would. So I'd go from high ticket one on one, working closely with people, identifying patterns, identifying pain points, identifying my own framework and a repeatable process that always gets people the result that I desire. And then I would start packaging that up into different pieces of minimum viable product products. So I would look at what can I sell on autopilot, what can I sell from an email where it doesn't take any of my time to deliver it? How do I start removing myself and my words and my expertise being delivered one on one into pulling myself out of it so the person can still get the same result without my actual involvement. How do I productize what I've learned, what I teach, what I do, what the steps are, Turn it into either a training or maybe it's a workshop or maybe it's a like a tiny done for you service where you just implement a little bit and then give them the templates and they can run. And I teach all of that inside of my courses is like, how do you, how can you create tiny services, tiny products, tiny workshops so that you are almost getting paid to create your passive income products at the same time? So you're launching it minimum viable product and then the product improves itself as you get feedback. And you're not spending a ton of time in this creation process because that's where most people get stuck. Honestly, most people never launch. They just create it and the idea lives in their head and they overcomplicate the process and they overbuild the products and they never get to the part where they're selling the products. I would rather have you launch something that's super simple and then improve it as you get feedback over time than to live in your own head and try to create this product in a vacuum. Ask me how I know, because I did that for years inside of my business where I just created stuff that I never actually sold. And, and I would rather flip it where you spend all of your effort on the marketing of the thing and then the, the actual delivery side of it is second nature. Not second nature, but it's an, not an afterthought either that makes it sound like it's going to be garbage. So something in between. So you put all your effort, all your energy that you have, all your excitement into the marketing of the product and then you figure it out how to create what it is that you said you're going to sell after it's already selling. And you can do that by having more one on one involvement in the beginning of what you're selling and then taking, taking the assets that you create while you're working with people one on one and start pulling yourself out of that experience, if that makes sense. So by the end of it, you've gone from working high ticket, one on one, direct involvement, you know, heavily committed to the relationship you're building with your client to being able to sell to people. This is the end result is being able to sell to people that give you testimonials with never even talking to you. They're like, oh, Allie changed my life. Like this product and this framework, I've never seen anything like it. Like my business has blown up. Like my brand is gigantic. And if I were to meet them in person, I would, I wouldn't necessarily know that was the person that gave me the testimony because they were able to get that result without me ever meeting them face to face to face. The first time somebody told me that was even possible, I was like, that's weird. Like that doesn't, that doesn't feel authentic. It doesn't feel like I am building a good business. And then I was like, wait a minute, if I can impact, like why am I thinking about it that way? Why does my time have to be involved to change someone's life? Why is it inauthentic for me to sell a product that is changing someone's life without me, without using my time right? Like, think about the level of impact and the level of legacy that I can create if I can master that, like, that's way bigger than me. That's way more people that I can help. Because I do have a finite amount of energy and a finite amount of hours in my day and a finite amount of bandwidth when I'm doing all of the other things that I want to fill my life up with. Why wouldn't I want to figure out how I can help as many people as possible in the time that I have available on this earth? Right? And that's where it comes in with the passive products. And, and I think some people, it's a really hard transition to make when you're used to working with one on one clients and you're used to having that, a deeper relationship and involvement. It can feel really uncomfortable to start opening it up to the world and start running ads and strangers are seeing your face and strangers are buying your product. Like it's a, it's a whole transition when you start reaching some of that volume or even, even when you get to the point where like people are having conversations about you and your products in Facebook groups and you're like, oh, weird. Like, I've reached that level where people are talking about me like I'm not in the room and I am in the room. So the level of impact that you can make is probably beyond your wildest imagination at this point. But when you figure out the systems and you figure out the messaging and you've done the work to get to know your audience and you've done the work to, to show up for them and then you earn the right to be able to create passive income products that are going to convert at crazy, crazy rates. Because it's almost serendipitous at that point. Because they, you know your people so well that they see the ad, they're like, oh my gosh, how did she know? Like, how does she know this about me? I can't believe that. And, and those are the types of responses that I want you to be able to get from people when you've started the way that I started. So if I were to start over, I would probably do some of those things very similar now. Maybe I'll do a different episod about all the mistakes I make. Probably like a series of Episodes about all the mistakes that I made, because there are a lot of them. But I know one thing that I've always done well is build relationships with people and use that to inform my copy that I write and used it to help me create the products that I create. So if I were to start over, I would think about people first and I would think about how do I serve at my deepest level and how do I serve them at their deepest level and how can I use that to make a crap ton of money at the same time? Like, in being of service does not mean working for free forever. There's a finite period that once you start building your confidence and once you start, you know, like, being able to charge higher ticket prices and knowing that you can command that because of the return on investment that you create for people, it's a totally different ballgame. So I hope that gives you some insight into what you can start working on. If you haven't started working passively, or if you're not there yet, or, you know, if you're wondering, like, how do I get started with this new thing that I want? It's about the people. Find your people, love on your people, Serve your people. And that's going to help you understand so much more about what you want to create and understand. It's going to make it so much easier. Like, all the things are going to be easier. You can just get over yourself like I had to, and get on one on one with people and not be afraid to put yourself out there and not be afraid to offer value in groups and do it with a very genuine heart of knowing that you're there to serve people. You don't have an ulterior motive because people can smell that a mile away. All right, I hope that's helpful. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. If you have other things that you want me to talk about, send me a message, Send me a request. I love getting inspiration from you guys. It honestly, like, makes it way easier for me. So send me, send me anything that you want me to talk about or questions you want me to answer on the podcast. You can send me a voice note on Instagram and I'll include it in the episode and answer your question because I'm sure if you're thinking it, lots of other people are thinking the same thing. So if you've resonated with any of this, if you are ready to turn on your client engine, you know, if you're ready to accelerate everything that you've been working on, we can help you do that inside of my group coaching programs. If you're ready for the automated marketing and you're ready for the ads and you're ready for that next level. If you're at like 2500 to $5000 a month and you're ready to scale to 20, 25,000 and $50,000 months, my group coaching program would be perfect for you. So go ahead and head to the link that I'll include in the Show Notes to book a call with my team to see if we can help you get to that next level. We do have calls available to see if we can help you acquire more clients and just see if we're able to help. Go ahead and book that call and we'll look at what you're currently doing and be able to give you some suggestions on what your next steps could be. I would love to chat with you and see how we might be able to help you hit those goals. So go ahead and book a call with my team and other than that, I hope you have a fantastic rest of your day and I'll see you on the next episode. Thanks guys. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the Start Tiny podcast. I hope you enjoyed it and you can check out our Show Notes, which will have links to all of the things we discussed. And of course, if you have any questions for me or you want to tell me what you loved about the episode, episode or anything that stood out, I would love if you'd send me an Instagram message over at Ali Bjork. That's where I hang out the most. And if you're interested in learning more about implementing tiny offers inside of your business, make sure to check out the Start Tiny Society, our membership for tiny Offers and all things digital marketing. Don't be a stranger. I'll see you inside of the Start Tiny Society or over on Instagram.