How to Strategically Give Away Free Content and Charge for the Rest

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 237. Today we're breaking down what to put in your free accessible content and what to put behind a paywall. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position, position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

What's up, coach? Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson. If this is the first time that you're hanging out with me today, welcome. Thank you so much for pushing play. If you're watching this in YouTube, some other form of video, then you probably would have realized that we are officially inside of our new space, which I literally cannot be more excited about. Now, if you've been following me over on Instagram, then you would probably already know by now that I'm feeling a little apprehensive about the echo, about the sound. And of course, we're behind the scenes making sure that the audio is 100% on point for you, for the user experience. But if you are not new to this space, then you also know that I am a huge advocate for 70% is perfect, 70% is done. And if you're trying to get above that, well, then we're waiting too late. Because the truth of the matter is that it does not matter how perfect, how awesome, how everything sounds, what it looks like. What really matters is that your message gets out to more people so that you can help more people. And that's what we're here doing inside of be Sims and Fitness. So in today's episode of the podcast, we are diving into how to decide what to give away for free and what to put behind a paywall. It's the number one question that comes through my accelerators when they join, when they sign up, when we're putting together permission based pressure, free sales systems that are specifically designed to take someone through a messaging process so that it takes what it takes, until it takes. How do you decide what to give away for free, what to put behind a paywall? And it can feel really overwhelming, especially when you're new or maybe you've been at it for a while, so really make those decisions. What is for free? What goes behind the paywall? So today's episode is for you. Because the truth, people have all different varying opinions on give your best stuff away for free and then that's going to be enough to make a case for coming into your world world and buying your program. And I probably don't have to tell you that doesn't work or you've heard, don't tell them anything. Just give them the what and the why and then tell them and then the how is in your program. Right. We've all. If you're not new to the Internet space, if you're not new to the world of marketing, messaging and sales, we probably heard it all. Which is exactly my point. There are so many different ways to roam. And you see this inside of the fitness industry as well. Well, you've got people that have in different camps that are dogmatic about their approach and there are success stories behind every single approach. So it's just more evidence that information is abundant. And the truth of the matter is that if you are trying to separate your products and services and you're trying to make the differentiating factor information, that's one of the biggest mistakes that you can make because that is commodity. Information is commodity. And if you're trying to sell information, then yes, you are going to be able to find that Google on Google on Pinterest, on YouTube. Chances are if you're trying to sell the information and information only, then what we're really dealing with is a commodity piece and that's the fastest race to the bottom. So what we really want to look at is can we make our products and services more valuable by increasing the implementation component of your products and services? So what does that even mean? So let's just back it up a little bit. First we have to understand how your ideal client, how your person who is purchasing your products and services, how do they determine value? We hear this buzzword kicked around all over the space, which is just add value, add more value. But have you really stopped to fully consider what does that even mean? How do you fully know whether or not you have added value? Well, you need to understand the five main components of what makes your products and services valuable. So number one, what is the desired outcome? Now most people battle with this because they are thinking about, well, I don't know, because there's intangible and there is tangible and there's a level of responsibility that is required from your client and not from you. You cannot eat, you cannot do the work for your client. And I get that. And so depending on where you are in the messaging process, we have to look at? Well, let's assume that our client is going to do all the right things. They're going to do everything that they're told. They're going to do everything right. Their metabolism's on fire and they don't have any underlying and they're going to. Or any underlying symptoms and they're going to nail it. So if that is the case, what is the desired outcome that they, your client, can anticipate? And there are things that you can do in your messaging to ensure that that's going to happen. Are there qualifying words? I'm going to give you all the support and tools that you need to get up to or create ranges or we'll work with you until you do outcome and get specific. What is the outcome that they want? And then what is possible for them? What is the value? What is the underlying reason that they want this outcome? You need to know this for your ideal client so that you can communicate that your offer, whatever that is, is the best, fastest, most efficient way to get to the desired outcome. Nobody is googling what's the second best way to get into the best shape of my life to get stronger. They're not looking for that. They're looking for the best way. So you need to know what's the outcome that they want? And just for exercise purpose, this, we're not even going to say this or speak this out into the world just for just as an exercise, what is it that your client actually wants? No one's going to see this except you and maybe me if you're an accelerator client. But no one's going to see this. No one's going to judge this. Because the good news is that when you know what this is, we can always pull back and add qualifying words and we can always just get clear on that. Number two, what is the belief in themselves required? So if you've been around my space, you've heard me say a million times that people don't make buying decisions on know like and trust. What they're really making a buying decision on is the ladder of believability. Do they believe in you so you can't be invisible? This is going to require a level of visibility. That is true. But that type of authority, that type of experience can be borrowed. Good news. So when someone makes a recommendation that is going to up your level of believability in you, they need to believe in your offer, that your offer is the best, fastest, most efficient way to get to the desired outcome. That is true. They need to believe in themselves that they can do it. And this is going to require messaging, communication around removing resistance to the process, resistance to resources, time, energy, effort and money that will increase the believability in themselves. And then they need to believe that they need it now. Okay, that's what I'm talking about. When we're talking about the level of believability in themselves, that's how they are evaluating, determining value. And then what is the level of effort and sacrifice required on their part? Which is number three and then number four, which is your most valuable lever to pull is the speed. What is the speed of implementation to get to the desired outcome? Can you get your ideal client a result faster? Now this doesn't mean quick fixes. We're not here, we're not in the business of, of quick fixes. So if you've got a long journey, then what is the first milestone buy in that's going to deepen the sense of trust, but not trust in you as person. Trust in your offer as the best, fastest way to get to the desired outcome. And then the fifth level or the fifth component of evaluating value or determining value is the experience of the process. Now most people get this wrong because what they do when they're trying to create an accessible option, something that is to the masses, is that they end up create getting into a different market. And it's not that the market spaces that you decide to be in are wrong. There is a reason and there isn't and there is a, a reason for specific market spaces. For Walmart, it's, there's, there's nothing bad about that market space. It's just about being clear on what market you want to serve. The people that are hanging out at Walmart most likely are not also shopping for the same thing at Neiman Marcus. The Ritz Carlton experience is a very different experience than a hotel or a motel or a hostel. And it's neither that, neither of those experiences are bad, but they serve different markets and it's just about being clear on where you are. Now the other thing I want to say is that just because something is a lower investment doesn't mean that low value, low investment does not mean low value. Remember the other main components, I'm a mom and I Disney plus Netflix, these are all really high level of really high valuable to me, even though it's not a million dollars. So what people are thinking about is whether consciously or unconsciously is, is the value of what I am receiving 10 times worth the asking investment of time, energy, effort and money measured against the cost of not getting started. That's what they're thinking about. That's how they're deciding. Okay, so in order for you to make, to really know how to make something more valuable, we must first understand how your people are determining it. Okay, so now that we know that, now we get to look at the ways that we can increase the value. Because like I said earlier when I first started this show, this episode is that if you are selling only information that is a baseline value, information is abundant. And number one, who said that? Oh man, my favorite book is the encyclopedia. No one. Well, I, I can't say no one because I don't, I haven't asked everyone on the planet, but the majority of people are not going to point to the encyclopedia as their favorite book, number one. Number two, information is abundant. We're not selling information. You want to increase the value of your products and services. We need to increase the speed of implementation to get to the desired outcome. This requires that you know how your people are determining value, which we've already talked about earlier in this episode. So now we get to look at the ways that we can increase the speed. And it's not just information, it's the implementation. So now people also get this wrong because they think it's their coaching. Oh, well, now we're going to just add coaching. But people are actually not investing in your time. That is a broken business model. Trading your time for money, broken. What we want to do is we want to increase the level of implementation that's going to increase the speed. Oftentimes coaching is part of that, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes it is accessibility to the, to being accountable and not being accountable to you as the coach. People also get that wrong because we're all grown adults. It's helping your people be accountable to themselves. And there's so many different ways that you can do that inside of your program. Maybe it is coaching sessions, maybe it's group coaching sessions, maybe it is input. They have to put in their, their progress, their process to implement the information that they are receiving and then get some actual feedback so that you can course correct or you, you both or you all can make a data driven decision to increase performance to increase the results. So it's, you put together this amazing program, people take action on the program. You look at the outcomes of what happened and then course correct depending on, or increase performance depending on those outcomes. That is super valuable. That is a way that you can increase the value because now you're increasing the speed of implementation to get to the outcome. You're helping your people get an outcome faster. So let's just look at the ways people can get the outcome faster now that you know how people determine the value. So first think about do it yourself, right? If they were to do the amount of education, the amount of clinical hours that you have done in order to acquire the skill to become the expert that you are, no matter what level you're at, how much time and money would they have to invest in order to have the skill that you have? So now when they invest in a do it yourself program, you are speeding up implementation. Why? Because now it's organized and you've made something more convenient, more automated, more systematic. So now they just follow the process. Process. They're going to get the outcome faster. Therefore the investment is more. And then now you've got a done with you component. So now this is where people will layer in some coaching to speed up implementation. And when you speed up implementation, it therefore becomes more valuable. And so people ask, well, what goes in the done with you? Well, let's just for funsies. And this is, this is one of the experience. One of the things I will have my accelerators do, the exercises that I'll have my accelerators do is I will have them. If you were to eat, exercise, do the work for your client, what would you do? You probably fly to their house, you cook, you do all these things right for them. And if that's the case, then how can you take those components and put it into your offer that's more done with you. That's how you can start to begin to increase the value and therefore make it more of an asking investment. And here's the other component, is that when you, if you want to make more money, if you want to switch markets, if you want to go to a premium market, we want to position your process, your offer as the best, most fastest, most efficient way to solve a really big urgent problem. And when you do that, you will take someone who has never heard of you before and turn them into a customer faster than it takes you to say I eat tacos on Tuesday. And so just to surmise, when you're deciding what's free and what goes behind a paywall, remember that when people pay, they pay attention. And when you value what it is that you bring to the market, space, and the faster, you can solve a bigger problem, this is where you can start to put those behind a paywall. And a paywall can be your email, you know, a space in your inbox hours of time. Money. All of these are resources that are in exchange for value. The bigger the problem, the faster the speed of implementation. The higher the investment of resources is required in order for your client to pay attention because transformation happens after the transaction. If you need help with that, be sure to reach out inside of the DMS on Instagram. We can talk about it. I can give you clarity on what your best next steps will be for free. Thank you so much for hanging out with me today. I'll catch you on the next episode.

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