When The World Feels Shaky, This Is The Strategy I Trust Most

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there.

Hey everyone, this is Julie. Welcome back to Million Dollar Grit. It has been a crazy couple weeks. You know, I left off this podcast with, "Hey, these are some cool things I learned this summer, and I'm really looking forward to the fall and getting back into a routine," and I feel like September was like, "Hold my beer." I have a podcast episode in mind today, but I feel that it would be disingenuous to just dive right into my marketing strategy of the hour without first acknowledging all the stuff that's going on in our world. And I have been pretty vocal about some of my concerns, fears, frustrations, and I've seen a lot of people either get louder or get quieter because we are swirling in an information war, and there are a lot of tragic things that are happening, and it's very difficult to tell what is up and what is down. We're also seeing people losing their jobs and shows getting taken off the air for speaking up. And so if you are a business owner and you are trying to find some semblance of normalcy, it may feel impossible, and I have been on that struggle bus. I did see the video of both Irena, I think is how you say her name, the Ukrainian refugee, as well as Charlie Kirk. I saw those murders both involuntarily on social media, and I was not prepared for the violence that that I had to process. I spent probably 5 days walking around kind of in shock. I have a tendency towards OCD, so I couldn't get the images out of my brain. And trying to function and do business while also managing trauma from seeing something I didn't want to see was very difficult. Then there's also all the narratives around both of those murders and the fallout and the political fallout and the geopolitical fallout And so it's been difficult. It's been difficult to concentrate. And if you are feeling that way, I, I just wanted to say that you're not alone. And my best advice is to make sure that you are anchored to values that you will live and die by. If there are things in the world that you're unsure about, I would take some time to get sure about them. Because I think we're going into a season where the separation of business and politics and, you know, free speech and religion and all of this stuff is starting to get really muddied together. And make sure whatever values you have as a business owner and as a person, you're willing to live and die by those values. And if you're not, that's probably your cue to do some hard searching. Okay. Moving on now to marketing. I, I feel like, you know, someone asked me the other day, they said, if you were gonna start a business in 2025 right now in the funnel and marketing space, what would you do? And they were asking me just because they wanted to know how I would try to stand out from the competition because it's very competitive. And so I gave my answer and I, I, I focused on being super specific, but then I realized that I am now, as a coach, you know, I, I have people who do application funnels and I have people who do PLM funnels and lead funnels and webinar funnels and summit funnels and all of those things. But after the summer of doing a webinar and after watching at least 20 of my clients do webinars, I'm starting to think that this is the most solid strategy that you can deploy on the internet right now in 2025. And someone might be like, well, 'Those are old school. Like, they've been around forever.' And they have, but I think that given the unique period of time that we find ourselves in, if you're not showing up live in person, I mean, as in person as Zoom can be, people aren't going to believe you. They're not going to think that you're— they're not going to know that you're human. They're not going to know that you're trustworthy. And the number one attribute in the successful webinars that I am seeing is safety, is that the person who is on the webinar, who is giving the class, who is teaching, who is pitching, is projecting safety, reassurance, an energy of warmth, an energy of, I've got you, I'm going to help you. I am not here to steal from you. I'm going to support you and here's how I'm going to do that. And I feel like the webinar is the best place to do that. I would say having your own podcast or your own YouTube channel, something where people can hear your voice and see your face, it's really, really, really important right now. And so as a business owner, if you're not doing a webinar, then you are not regularly selling. And offering your services to people in a way that they can reach out to you. And I am just convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that for most coaches, consultants, and course creators, there's of course exceptions, a weekly webinar is going to be the best thing that you could ever instill in your business that teaches you how to sell and how to connect. Does that mean that weekly webinars are easy? No, it does not mean they're easy. They are not easy. And you know, it's very interesting as I watch my clients, uh, try to, you know, figure out these webinars. There are a lot of people who are doing really well and they're making thousands of dollars a week just by showing up for that 1 hour every week. And then I have other people who are on the struggle bus, who are really struggling. And sometimes it's the offer, sometimes it's the price point, sometimes it's the positioning, sometimes it's safety. And so it does take a fair amount of patience. And commitment to that model. Today, what I want to do is just give you a quick little overview and how I tackle addressing webinars that aren't quite working as intended. And it's top of funnel, middle funnel, bottom funnel. And I apologize if I've shared this already in some fashion. My memory is shot. I'm going to be 45 in February and I just forget who I say what to, but I'm going to explain to you today. When I'm looking at a webinar that doesn't work, how do I begin to diagnose what is not working with it and fixing it? So in a webinar funnel, let's just talk about a weekly webinar funnel. You have the top, the middle, and the bottom. So the top of funnel are things like the ads, right? The ads that are going to that registration page, the registration page itself, what is being offered as the free class. You have the thank you registration page. That is all the details about the upcoming class, how to encourage them to show up. You know, we often recommend that you put a video on that page so they can get to know you. A video ask allows people to respond to you. A little add event, uh, like little widget thing that can like add the calendar event. And then you have reminders. So that's email reminders, text reminders to show up. That's the top of the funnel. And the most important key performance indicators of the top of funnel are your ad spend and your click-through rates. It's your conversion rate on the opt-in page itself. And then it's your show-up rate. And your show-up rate is determined by how good that thank you confirmation page was and how good your reminders were. That's the top of the funnel. The middle of the funnel is the presentation itself, the actual webinar presentation, the slide deck, as well as how, how you sell. It's also that replay page. So that page that people go to when they're watching it on the replay, what's on that page, the button that leads to either just an order form. Some people have just an order form. Other people have a sales page and an order form. That is all the middle of the funnel. Um, and that is, you know, honestly, huh, that is the hardest part to fix is the presentation itself. I mean, by far. And then we have the bottom of the funnel and the bottom of the funnel are a couple things. Number one, it's all of the emails that fire after The webinar is done. So some people would say that the replay page could be bottom of the funnel. I mean, I think you could put them in middle of the funnel or bottom of the funnel. Either way. I, sometimes I think of it as the middle. Sometimes I think of it as the bottom, but it's really the replay emails. And if you have any retargeting ads that are reminding people that the timer is going to run out, that is the bottom of the funnel. But here's another part of the bottom. Of the funnel. It's how well those people upgrade to anything further. So if you have them joining a $497 program, are they jumping on a call to sign up for your higher ticket coaching, right? So that's all that bottom funnel work. In order to get a, a weekly webinar funnel working, you need to address which, which part of the funnel is not working. And if your top of funnel is not working, Your middle funnel and bottom funnel work doesn't really matter yet. You absolutely have to start with the top of funnel. You have to get people to register and you have to get people to show up. If you get that top of funnel correct, the middle of the funnel really is primarily focused on how well you present and that presentation, and that is where the bulk of the work is. And if you're getting a decent conversion rate live, meaning, you know, you're getting more than 10% of people, 10% or more of people that are live on the call are purchasing whatever it is or applying for whatever it is, but then you're not getting any more sales. You're not getting sales on the replay. Maybe you're not getting people to upgrade to a higher ticket product. That would be bottom of the funnel. Okay. Replay emails, replay ads, and getting people to upgrade. If your webinar is going to an application, the middle of the funnel really is about How many people are applying to your offer when they watch that webinar? And then the bottom of the funnel for that would be how many people show up to the call and how many people close on the call. So as you're doing a webinar, uh, a weekly webinar, you'll notice that people will try to change things about the offer itself when their top of funnel isn't even working. And you just are chasing your tail when you do that. So make sure that you're identifying where the funnel is broken. Because if the top of the funnel is broken, you really actually don't have a good metric for whether the middle or the bottom of the funnel will even work. So that's really where you need to start. So it's very logical and a lot of people give up on funnels like this 3, 4, 5 times in, and they do that because, you know, it takes a lot of work. Sometimes they're running ads, it costs money, their nervous system can't handle it. And what I have found is that the people who have the stability, both emotionally as well as financially, will make these funnels work because it usually takes a couple months to dial it in. So if you're listening and you're like, well, I don't have a couple months and I don't have extra income, oftentimes you have to do some sort of door-to-door marketing and coaching or done-for-you work while you're building out this funnel so that you can have the patience that you need. To get it to work. So that's my PSA for today. A little bit personal, a little bit like, hang in there if you're feeling really rattled. Also just reminding people that being a real human, showing up online, showing your face, being trustworthy— these are things that are going to take you far further than any random tactic that you have in your back pocket. I hope you guys have a great day. Talk to you soon.

And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve.

Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie Chenell, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.