Taking It Back to Day 1 | People Magic Summit with Giselle Ugarte
Giselle Ugarte talks with Gina Bianchini about preparing creators for the year ahead through product design and community strategy. She shares how a health crisis led her to coaching, why she sold her first course before building it, and her tiered model: a $1,000 six-week bootcamp, high-ticket intensives, and monthly memberships for retention and scale.
Chapters
Foreign.
As much as I really want to be able to pretend like you've just snuck up on me, I just can't do it. I be in part because I'm just like too excited. But if I were to have somebody sneak up on me, I would basically be like, well, hello. Well, hello there. Welcome to this session that I could not be more excited about. I met Giselle, who is our next great fireside chat at a conference back in. I think it was March or April. I think it was April, actually. And we were on a panel together. And I have never fallen in love with another panelist as quickly as I fell in love with Giselle. So let me bring her on to our stage.
It's.
There's a fire.
Oh, it's so good to see. See you. We're bringing the energy. I'm gonna your visual coffee for the next.
We have coffee. It's, you know, we're sitting there now. You are coming to us from a place where like I believe there is. There's some energy in the chat. There's some energy in the chat. But anyways, Giselle, thank you so much for joining. I was so excited and am so excited about this conversation. So as I previewed, this entire summit is all about intention and action leading into being ready for January. So being able to take full advantage of January for your life, for your business, for your community, for your courses, challenges, memberships and events. And the reason January is the super bowl for these kinds of amazing and important programs is because people are ready to have intention and do something really different, do the thing that they want to do, accomplish what they want to accomplish and have that transition. And what I love about you is watching the intention that you have even in the post it notes behind you and the intention and structure that you bring to other people. So maybe with that, I'm going to figure out about the best way for me to ask just this question, which is how did you get to this moment? But please make it include a moment where you are a USC song girl, because I think that that's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me.
Oh, my goodness. I'll potentially touch on that. But one thing that I want to discuss, first of all, I popped into your chat with Lovey before this, and one of the things that you were talking about at the end was imposter syndrome. And I want to put a pin in that for just a moment because I'm putting myself into the shoes of going to some of my very first, if not my first Conference of any kind. And I remember feeling that to my core, where you would take pages and pages and pages and pages of notes and feel so good and feel so high. And then the moment that the last day ended, you are just overwhelmed and you are frozen and you are stuck in that place of indecision. And I want to take a moment to just acknowledge that imposter syndrome is something that never really goes away. And instead, I want to challenge and invite you to reframe what that even means to you, because I believe that either you have imposter syndrome or you're lying. You either have imposter syndrome or you are not growing. Because when you have that imposter syndrome creep up, it means that you're either doing something that you've never done before or that has never been done with before, or that is bigger than just you. And so instead, it kind of is something that can serve us because it's letting us know that, hey, you're growing. You're having those growing pains. And. And it could be a different chapter of your business. It could be a different chapter of your life or your team. And so I just want to give, like, a little twinkle wave to your imposter syndrome. Yeah, yeah.
What I hear you saying is that that growth, facing your fears, growth, doing something you haven't done before. Think about it as, like, it's the. You know, like, when you go to the gym and you've done something and your muscle isn't used to doing that, and then you, like, walk around for three days and you're like, oh, my God, what did I just do?
Like, you know, the.
The thing that's so interesting to me about taking, you know, taking. I'm going to call it workshopping. I'm not going to call it taking risks. I really don't think that there's a lot of risk in workshopping, trying things, experimenting. Sometimes we're just like, yeah, I'm not going to. I'm not going to the gym. And I. I said this on day one, and just even thinking about this being. Being our first summit that we've done, I had a moment where I was like, are we gonna do this? That it was. And then, by the way, I'm like, oh, I've actually already done, like, thousands of hours of, like, doing this kind of thing, so it's great. But I realized that I would rather be embarrassed than afraid. I'd rather be embarrassed than afraid. And I didn't. I don't know where, like, I just saw those two Options. It's like. It was like, what is the worst thing that can happen if we fail? Like, literally, if none of you all showed up and it was just me and Giselle and she's like, gina, I. I got other. I got.
I got things to do because there's.
Nobody here like you and me having a conversation.
And by the way, we probably would.
Have just had a conversation. It would have been really fun.
Right?
But playing that out, I realized that there have been times where I've been guided by fear, and that does not serve me.
No, it doesn't. And. And it's checking in with yourself and having that awareness. And let's go ahead. Since that's your favorite little element of me, the USC song girl thing, let's just. Let's. Let's have our starting point be there, which, if you're not familiar with the USC song girls, no big deal. But I was a dancer for my entire life. That was all I ever knew. That for me was a label that I wore proudly. And then I went to this college that had this incredible team, and my freshman year, I made that team. And I was someone who. I didn't even realize it, but I allowed for my identity to get wrapped up in that, both in the routine, in the sweater, in the uniform, in the colors. And so then when it came around to my second year of auditioning, again, I didn't even pay attention to, is this something that I actually want to do? My blood, my sweat, my tears, my loyalty? Or am I just doing it because I'm afraid of anything else? And so maybe you can't relate to being a dancer or a cheerleader, but you might have a label that you've been wearing or a routine that you've gotten really, really comfortable in, or a job title or a parent title, or maybe it's a partner title that you have. And so what ended up happening was I went to that audition and I absolutely embarrassed myself because I wasn't prepared because my subconscious really didn't want to make the team, let's be honest. And I got cut. And that was one of the greatest lessons that I could have ever received. It was also one of the most gut wrenching because it was something that was such a part of my life. If you've ever been an athlete of any kind, and I have sympathy towards, say, the athletes that have to retire early or get injured once they actually do make it and go pro. Because if you think about it like, I did not know my life without dance. I didn't know how to dress myself because I had been constantly, even given certain things to wear when we weren't in practice or when we weren't performing. I was so tied to that. And so what ended up happening was I absolutely fell into a very deep depression. I felt like I was not worthy of being in any of my social circles because I didn't have that title anymore. But I.
Very public. That's a very public role.
Yeah, very, very public. Very.
That's like national television on Saturday kind.
Of totally where, where, you know, she's going for it and then she doesn't make it. And so, you know, but what was so beautiful in that moment was I got to make that decision of, okay, so if this isn't my life anymore, then what? What is it? And I could have allowed for myself to stay tied in the has beens of that, but instead I took it as a moment of I get to really decide and meet who I am going forward. And a lot of you are in that place of transition right now. Whether you've been doing this for a really long time and, and maybe you don't feel super aligned with what you've been doing, or maybe you want to get to that next level or maybe you want to start charging more. And so what's so beautiful about these moments though, of transition is this. This is really when you get to decide who the fuck you are. And I think the F is necessary in that one, I believe so. I really do believe that it's a technical term, like it is legal, technical, you know, And I really believe that that's when you get to decide who you are and who you want to be going forward. And it seems silly, but sometimes it is even changing the name of your community or creating a new space, or announcing to people that you have this new business, that first step of even just typing it out and making it real or saying it out loud in your notes that you're taking at this conference. That's the first step in really deciding that, you know what, we're not going back. We're ready for something new, we're ready for something bigger. We're done playing small and even checking in with yourself, asking. I loved how you mentioned the you allowed for your life to be led by fear. One of my moments, even graduating from college, was someone who came up to me and said, oh, you know, what are you going to do after graduation? And at the time I had kind of abandoned my dreams of. I wanted to be a broadcaster, I wanted to go into TV reporting. Like, that was the dream. That. That's why I even went to USC in the first place. And all of a sudden, I found myself wrapped up in final interviews for a great organization called Teach for America, which, again, that's great. But all of a sudden, I'm going from someone who wants to be in the spotlight and telling stories and creating news. Yeah. Instead, going into a classroom and going to live in a tiny little town that I had already worked so hard to leave. You get out of. Yeah. And. And so he goes, what do you want to do after college? And I was like, well, I think I'm going to be a teacher. I want to be a teacher. And he just laughed. And he goes, you don't want to be a teacher. And I go, of course. Of course I do. Like, I have my final interview next week. And he was like, you don't want to be a teacher. You're just afraid of what you really want to do.
Ooh.
And so I want to ask you, is what you're currently doing right now, take a look at your life. Take a look at your life emotionally. Take a look at your life professionally. Are you doing what you really want to do, or are you afraid of it?
Giselle, what did you realize in that moment? I was say, like, I want to be a teacher or actually, I want to be a broadcaster.
In that moment, I ran to the bathroom and cried because I knew that he was right. Like, I knew he was right. And I really feel like it was the universe sending this person who barely knew me to tell me that message. I mean, you guys barely know me. And here I am trying to preach the good word to your future. And. And I ended up canceling that final interview, and I decided to do the hard thing, where I had so many friends, and even you right now, wherever you are in your journey of life, you probably have friends who are at different stages where maybe they have families or they're driving the car that you want, or they're moving into the house that you want. And you feel like by pursuing this next level thing, you might have to take a few steps back, not realizing that that's what you need to do to take steps, steps forward. And so it is one thing if you're doing what you're doing because that's what you love to do. And the reality is, is that teaching is a passion of mine. I'm a coach now, but I just wanted to do it in a different way, and I was doing it in a place of fear. And there's And I salute anyone who's in that position and is genuinely passionate about it and loves it. But it's one thing to do something that you're good at, because you're just good at it and you're afraid of doing what you actually want to do, which might be something that you're not that great at. And so, um. And so I did the hard thing and I. I didn't. I didn't take the benefits. I didn't take the stable job. I didn't take the stable housing. I instead went. Went after what I really wanted to do. And. And that was something that years from now, transitioning into and out of so many jobs and multiple hats, I go back to that girl who, at 20, 21 year old, 2021 years old, had nothing. And yet she. She took that big leap and she took that big chance.
So was the journey to this moment what. What you do today? Because I think it's a really fascinating journey that so many of us are, as we think about different chapters of our lives especially. It sounds like there's a number of people in this chat who maybe raise your hand or give us, like, some kind of emoji around. Like, I know I'm creating a community for people who are in a transition. And as part of showing up here today, thinking about the next three months being ready for January, I'm in a transition, and I'm starting to see those moments and those folks in. In the chat right now, but while they are giving us some emoji. Giselle, how did you get to this moment? And. And how do you define your identity? How do you define yourself today?
Well, it didn't happen overnight, that's for sure. Not. Not even a little bit. I went from being a TV host and a producer and a writer and taking basically any job that I could. I then went into radio and also took every single job within that particular realm. And then from there, I decided, you know what? I think I'm done being behind the camera and behind the microphone. I want to see, I want to understand the business side of everything in and around this particular craft. And what's important to recognize there is that in every single one of those situations, at some point, those were my dream jobs. And I walked away from dream jobs, dream opportunities, jobs that, oh, my gosh, you know, so many people would be so lucky to have that position that I then walked away from. And there was just this hunger, this curiosity for learning. And when I got to the point of becoming a coach, it wasn't Because I wanted to be a coach. I was an advertising executive, and I was hungry for learning. I loved going to conferences. I loved taking courses. I loved reading and listening to personal development books. I was on that. That journey. I had a coach that changed my life. But what had happened was I had an autoimmune condition that just fell on me out of nowhere. One beautiful May morning, I woke up and my whole body was covered in hives. My whole body from the top of my scalp to the bottoms of my feet, covered in welts and hives. And I had no allergies. Previously. I did the thing that you think you're supposed to do where I'm like, okay, should I wash all my sheets? Is it something that I ate? I went to the doctor. They didn't know. They gave me medication. It didn't work. They gave me more medication. It didn't work. They had to give me absurd amounts of medication where in less than 30 days, I gained about 30, 40, maybe 50 pounds. Because after a certain point, I stopped weighing myself and. And friends. The hives would not let up. And so I was anxiously eating and numbing.
Process of elimination like that.
They.
They just had no idea.
They never figured it out. And we still. I mean, I'm fine. I'm in remission right now, but it was something where I had to take control of my life because nobody was helping me or giving me answers. I began to eliminate certain foods. I began to really pay attention to my sleep, my stress levels. I definitely really learned who my real friends were in that moment because of who was willing to help and also, in some cases, pull me out of the house. And also who maybe stopped calling or didn't check in with me in that moment. And so that was really when I began to enter a new level of personal development because I was allowing for myself to dwindle away in this condition. I was allowing for myself to become a victim. And. And then all of a sudden, I had to take control of my life and figure out, okay, how can I pull myself out of this? If this is something that is going to be all consuming for me, is this what I'm going to allow to be the thing that diminishes my dreams of doing something bigger, of making an impact, of taking that next big step? And so what ended up happening was I went to a coaching summit, not because I wanted to be a coach, but because I had another leader say, this is a summit for me that changed my life. Perhaps this one is for you. And this for me was the best leadership training that I've ever had. And so I went to a whole week of this intense summit mastermind, spent tens of thousands of dollars to be there. And it was during that coaching training where I had a veteran of the coaching space who said, are you sure you don't want to be a coach? And I was like, yeah, I'm positive. I'm just here to be a good leader. I'm happy where I'm at. And he was like, I don't. I don't think that's true. I really don't think that's true. I think that there's more to it. And. And I'm so grateful because there have been people along this journey who absolutely have rejected me, have told me no. And there have been a couple of flickers, either from people who I didn't know. A lot of times it was people who I didn't know or people who I looked up to, or podcasts that I felt were speaking to my soul, or lessons in books where I felt it as if it was written for me, and it was something calling on me that was bigger, where I felt, you know what? I think I'm made for more in this moment. And that was just a little tiny energy where I thought, huh, maybe. Maybe I could do this. Maybe I do want to do this. I don't know how. I don't know how it would work. I have this really comfortable job right now. I'm really happy where I'm at. But is there. Is there something. Is there something after this? Or is this truly where I see myself five or ten years from now? It was also in that. That. That group of humans where I really started to think of, what do I want my life to look like five or ten years from now? I never really thought about that.
What do you want your future story to be, exactly?
What. What. And think about that. Like, it's October 17th, five years from now. So what is that, 2029 or 2034? Like, think about how old you're going to be in that moment. And.
And.
And. And here was kind of the gutter. I. I do.
I do often.
Yeah, I do often. Good. You're. You're a CEO, and so it's. It's, you know, are the habits and the actions and the behaviors that you're working on today taking you towards that dream, that goal, that person who you want to be? Or is it keeping you stuck? Or is it keeping you from achieving those dreams as quickly as you would like?
So I. I want to I want to pause on this because this is one of the most profound practices that I have seen for people who are building businesses, but not just building businesses. Building a life and building impact. And we. We talk about it here as your future story. So it is exactly that exercise. Get in a time machine a year from now, three years from now, five years from now, and with the same level of vivid detail that you would have if you were writing a science fiction novel. What does your level said that so in. In ineffectively. Please don't keep that in the replay, Tanisha. No, I'm just kidding.
So what does the world. It's authentic.
Yeah. What does the world look like? What does your life look like? Who have you impacted? How have they impacted other people? What is different? What's the same? So you really get to see that difference between what. Where do you. Where do you want to be able to do something that you can't do today? And then where and how do you work backwards? So it's. It's about working backwards from a future story. And it sounds like that's something in a version of that that you really found really helpful.
It was something where I looked at my life and one of the questions that was also asked of me during that season of my life, I heard it over and again in different ways from books and podcasts in that summit, which is, what does your A game look like? What does it look like when you are at 100? And we can get really easily caught into this place of perfection when we think about what it looks like, which it might be a number on the scale for you, for example, but when we're really thinking about you and the way that you produce and when you're most effective and most energetic and most clear and most confident, what does that actually look like? And also, what are the elements in your life that are keeping you from achieving your dreams? Wait for it. As quickly as you would like. Yeah, as quickly as you would like. And that really made me think about, huh? What. What is that? And a big piece of it was I kept on coming back to this place of Mondays, where if I felt strong and clear on Monday, chances are I would have a really productive week. But then when I went back to it, I realized that in order for me to have a good Monday, I have to have a stronger Sunday. And what was slowing me down was the Friday, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, where maybe I was going out with friends, I was drinking a little too much, I was sleeping in, I was eating greasy foods, I wasn't going to the gym. And so I was, I was really taking a look at. Because oftentimes when it comes to building a business and building a community, and a lot of you are creative visionaries, you are probably night owls, you will work until the job is done. But I didn't realize how much those late nights would actually have a domino effect of how little I was taking care of myself. And so that's when I realized, especially because I was sick, that what I was drinking and eating and how I was sleeping and who I was hanging out with and where my time was going, it was not serving me in any way. And so I know that a lot of you are here for the technical, but I also want to ask you about the physical and the mental, because if you really think that you're going to be able to be as successful, if you're not good up here, and if you're not taking care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of your people, and your people are going to be able to see it. And especially if you're someone who people look to you for being confident and energetic and productive, how are you able to show up as your best self? And that's so, so, so important to, to really take some time and think about what are some of those behaviors and actions and habits that I need to change? And no, don't wait until January 1st, because we say to all of our community, we don't do New Year's resolutions at Action Forward because why would you wait until January 1st when you could start being your best self? Today you can channel that Sunday stronger. Today.
I love the Sunday stronger, especially on Sundays. Okay, so let's talk. I want to cover two. I'm going to preview this. I want to cover two kind of critical inflection points.
Yeah.
Number one is who is your first client? And then number two, just to kind of make sure we're, we're setting this journey, how you moved from that first client into Action Forward and what Action Forward is and what your business looks like today. Because one of our goals here in this summit is to go behind the scenes so that as people are building their businesses, their communities, their courses, challenges, memberships and events, that they see how other people are structuring and thinking about their business. So maybe we can, we can start with. So you go on this journey.
Yeah.
You go to the, the, the High Ticket Leadership Seminar workshop.
Who was your first client? Well, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about the fact that My, the very first course, what I thought was going to be a community that I built, had zero customers and zero clients. And it was the thing where I thought, oh my gosh, everybody needs this. This is going to be the best. There's nothing out there like this. There's nobody who delivers it like me. I have all of the training and blades.
What was the, what was the, what was the topic?
What was. I was showing business owners how they could use social media in their business and be more comfortable being forward facing in their organic social media strategy. And that was something that I believed. No one understands it like I do. I've been creating and studying content for more than 10, 15 years. I became a TV host right when media was becoming digital and also traditional broadcast. I've worked in advert like all the things and then the course went live. I sent out one email and it was crickets, it was fully crickets. And then I remember an hour into it getting the notification from stripe of you just got your first sale. And I was like, oh my gosh, who, who's our first sale? And then it was actually another girl on my team. Her name was Holly and she was. Oh, that was actually just me. I just wanted to make sure that it was working because I was thinking, she was thinking there had to have been like a glitch, like how are we not getting any sales at all? And what I didn't realize the irony of it all was here I am talking about social media and using it to grow your business and being forward facing. And yet my product, when it was my product, when it was my face, I was most afraid of promoting that. I was most afraid of promoting that.
And I really thought that record, record scratch moment.
Right, right, like where it was like, oh, wait a minute, why? Because it changed where I was so used to talking about everybody else and some of you, you maybe had a sales background, you might have been the top sales salesperson and it was so easy to sell everyone else. And all of a sudden you have to talk about yourself. And I also, I was so caught up in the features rather than solving the symptoms and the pain points. And so as those of you are trying to figure out and improve your sales and your marketing, a phrase that really, really helped me give them what they want, sell them what they need. But you need to know what your audience wants. You need to know what their pain points are. You also need to make sure that they know that you are a need and not a want, need to have, not a. That would be Cute to have, or that would be nice to have.
So how did you evolve that then?
And so then finally, when I had to have that good hard look of I'm not promoting myself, I'm not doing it, I then had to be willing to share with the world what I was doing, who this was for, what problems it was solving. But the other big thing that I encourage you to do, especially on social media, is proof of concept. Proof of concept. So what does that mean? A lot of times we get stuck into our heads wondering, well, what do I make for free and what do I make paid for? Really, truly pretty much everything that I coach, it's out there in the universe. It's on this call, it's on my LinkedIn, it's on my Instagram. But what you're paying for is something that you can't get on those platforms, which is organization and also community and the real time support and in a really structured way. And so what you're doing when you watch me online and when people are watching you, you want them to feel like, oh, okay, so this is what Heather, it would be like to work with her, or, oh, this is what it would be like to work with JT or oh, my gosh, I. You need to make sure that they either see themselves in you and, or see themselves in your results. So perhaps that's other people who you have helped. You have to give them so much value that they feel 100% confident of. Yeah, absolutely. If I just got one sale or if I just did one thing, that this is going to be the value of the entire course right here. And that's when you can have fun with the pricing. That's when you can charge whatever you want, but you need to put your audience first. And a lot of times what we run into is, okay, but who am I selling to? I don't, I don't know who I'm selling to. In which case I can say, yeah, I can tell.
And that is where, that is where people magic profit comes in. Because little, little commercial break your ideal member, it is picking someone who is in a transition. So what I hear you do is work with people who might not actually fully understand or are comfortable with building out their organic Instagram account just to even get it more specific than social media. And what does that look like? And what does that mean? And so it's going from not having an Instagram account, I don't know anybody like that. Certainly not me not having an Instagram account, to having a foundation of confidence, a Foundation of clarity, a foundation of this is what I am doing. A foundation of intention for Instagram. The other thing that I think is really, really important, just to put a finer point on understanding the value you are creating and somebody was asking for, hey, wait a second, are we talking about offers? Are you talking about pricing? So I want to talk about pricing for a second and then you tell me how you've, you know how this works for you and, and your reaction to it. But when we talk about pricing and people magic profit, we talk about three R's results. So I heard you say that what are the results that I am going to get somebody and how do I create an offer where if I only help them with even one thing, even one thing, they will have a profitable return on that investment. And it really is an investment. Oh, and can I just go off on one tangent for a second, which is, and wherever you think that it is about the same price as a Netflix subscription, it's not. Do not take Netflix off the table. That is not how you price a subscription. So first things first, your results, what is your member going to be able to do by being a member or taking your course or doing the challenge or coming to the event? And then how do you quantify those results? Second thing is replacement. What are they otherwise paying for to solve that need? Solve that meeting where you are meeting them where they are. Love that. And then you are selling them what they need. What else are they buying to be able to achieve those results? And then finally respect, respect. People pay attention to what they pay for. So the price has got to be something that you as the host or the creator or the entrepreneur are excited to invest in and that your members are excited to pay attention to. And so much of those three things come from starting with what are the results? What's the outcome? Not I have to pick a price. And I know Netflix and I know people pay for Netflix, so I'll just have the same price as Netflix. And so just kind of in that framework, Giselle, it, it sounds very similar to sort of where you got to for your own program.
And there are a few things that I, I feel are really important to touch on. One is we didn't build everything that we have right now in a day. In fact, I'm even taking a look at, we're starting to even have tangible products. Because when we look at our online relationships, one of our values is that we take all of our online relationships offline. We want to start doing in person events, we want to meet People in the cities that we go to, but also we want to have physical, tangible products. And so one of the things that we even have, I have one, it's right next to me. But it's a habit tracker. This habit tracker I started building five years ago. But five years ago it did not look as cute as this. Like, it was trash. It's embarrassing. Like, even take a look at what iPhones looked like 10, 11 years ago.
They looked different.
They looked very different. But can you imagine if Steve Jobs would have waited 11 years for it to be perfect? No. You are evolving. Your community is evolving. And there was a moment on a call actually with one of your teams recently where we wanted to make a change inside of our community and they were worried about disrupting the experience. And one of the things I said that I didn't realize how much gold there was in that was, oh my gosh, it's totally fine if we disrupt their experience. Our audience understands what we're going through. They're a part of this journey with us that when they see us make changes, I actually think it's important. Important for them to see us make mistakes as long as we're open and transparent about it. And so even this whole experience has been transitioning into mighty. Hey guys. We're so excited. We're growing and so we're actually adopting this brand new platform called Mighty Networks. And we want to hear your feedback. If there's a glitch that happens, you tell us because we're listening. We're making this experience and better for you. But also we've given our customers, our clients a journey where, remember I started out with a course that wasn't selling. Then from there I had to start. My starting point was I actually think this is one of the most valuable life lessons, which is that I was willing to work for free. A lot of my most valuable professional experiences came from when I was willing to work for people for free. I believe content is very similar when you're posting to social media. That is you willing to work for free to build that trust. Then from there it was building the opt in that was also free. Then from there it was building the course. And to this day, this is going to be a little controversial. But from that point forward, when I built that whole course that sold nothing, I. I actually now will sell before I build because I need to make sure.
I don't think that's controversial at, at all. I mean, we were just talking about this this morning where, you know, increasingly starting with a two week challenge and just validating that that two week challenge works or that 30 day challenge.
Yes.
Like you can find at PeopleMagic Admin co. Um, but starting with something that validates it before you build the first piece of content or the first, you know, the, the first fancy version of.
The look and feel. Exactly. And making sure that you really, who you think your customer is and who is actually your customer is the reality. And then making sure that you're giving them what they need. Because sometimes we lose sight of what day one looked like. And so when we have them there and fresh and giving the feedback, you can't please anyone. And that's also an important lesson right there. But knowing, okay, is this still in the direction of where I want to take them and also of where I want to go? And then we slowly add on and add on and add on. To think that you're going to do all of those things and overnight is crazy. And ultimately it's leaving here and this is my challenge that I want to invite all of you on is what is that singular focus? Because a lot of you are sparkly ball chasing visionaries just like me. You're a type A personality and a type B brain. What does that mean? You want what you want and right now. And also you're easily distracted. You wait until the last minute. Planning is not your love language. And so I invite you circle the big thing of what's going to be your focus through the end of the year or for that big challenge that you're going to do. Because if you try to do everything and all at once, you're going to get tired, you're going to get burnt out, you're going to get into that, that, that self esteem eating away of having all of these projects that you started, none of which that you finished. And let's break that pattern today.
Let me ask you this question which it. Well actually one thing I wanted to just, you know, highlight is that communities are forgiven. The power of a community is that it's forgiving so you can workshop new ideas really easily because you'll get feedback on them. You know, we talk about this and we talked about this this morning which is, you know, we're co creating mighty networks with our hosts, with people like you, Giselle, like, with like every chat that we have of every live session we are co creating where we go together. Not absolutely, oh my gosh, we have to do absolutely everything that folks want. But thinking about what it is that we're building through the lens of what we Hear. And then also our vision for people Magic. Because we know that as your members meet and build relationships with each other and are those, you know, shiny toy. How did you describe it? It was so beautiful.
It was like chasing visionaries.
Ball chasing visionaries. I love that squirrel. I obviously, I don't know anything about that. Those are people that, you know, I might meet on the street. They don't live in my brain or my house or my face. So what I think is so valuable is, you know, as, as you bring these people together. Where have you found the one on one coaching into the community and how you've even evolved, how you think about that first course all the way through to what you offer now. Because I do want to dive into what you're launching.
Yeah, absolutely. You know, for me, a question that, that changed. I mean, I've been giving you guys a lot of questions because I'm a coach. Can you tell? Like that's really what coaches do. You just have to ask the right questions. And part of where my inspiration comes from is was. And part of why I can talk to my visionaries, my sparkly ball chasing visionaries, is because I've had to be tamed myself, the rainbow tornado that I am every single day. And so someone really challenged me. Okay, well, are you actually running a business or are you just self employed? And I was like, wait, what do you mean? Oh, that's interesting. And she's like, are you really a business owner or are you self employed? And I go, tell me more. What does that mean? Well, if you're self employed, your business can't run without you. It needs your face and DNA and every single part of it. Versus if you're running a business, then God forbid you get hit by a bus or you want to have a baby or take a vacation. It can still run without you, at least for some or a very long period of time. And so that really made me look at my revenue a few years ago because I built, I built my business. And my highest streams of revenue are coaching and speaking. It will always be coaching because even as my speaking practice grows, my coaching grows as well. But at the time, my calendar was stacked with the one on ones because that's where I believed, okay, I could make the most amount of money. I don't have to leave my house, pants are optional. But then I also realized that people would buy a package and then what? Or people would have me and then what? Or if I'm sick, then what? What's the energy that I'm Bringing versus seeing what was happening in the group or having something that was monthly recurring revenue. Friends write that, that, that went down in all caps. Mrr, ARR. Monthly recurring revenue. How are you creating those opportunities? How are you finding ways to function with or without you or beyond you? Right. And if that's what you want, again, if you want to be self employed, that's great, that's totally fine. But some of you think that that's what you want and then you all of a sudden it flip flops and you think of it differently. So, and so it just made me realize, you know what, we need to put more emphasis into group coaching and specifically that word community. And that was a huge reason why we transitioned into mighty networks. Seeing what you were doing, seeing what others were failing to do. So seeing how you were making it as easy as possible to put faces to names and see the progress. Because even myself, you know, Gina and I are our unofficial accountability workout buddies via LinkedIn where I see you working out, you see me working out. But, but even thinking about, I love group fitness because sure I can do a squat by myself, but there's no way I'm going to do as many or with weights and as heavy if I don't have other people to look to or to have somebody to yell at me or really good music that would not be from my own playlist. Right. And what we started to notice was that our group coaching clients were creating their own communities. They were seeing themselves in each other and in their results there was able to be complimentary energy as well. Where typically I'm the one who's responsible for bringing all of the joy in one on one which I love and will never stop doing completely. But again, just thinking about it differently and just choreographing it in a way and managing my schedule in a way that actually makes sense for the 5 year, 10 year vision of where I want my personal life to go, not just my professional life. And so that's where we've also raised pricing with the one on ones and I heard Lovey talking about that as well. Where we've really raised pricing there so that we know that if they're going to have my one on one attention, they are the people who are really serious and about moving and they're not going to question the value. And we've also figured out a good price around our group coaching where it makes sense for what they want to do and also where they're at in terms of personal development.
Yeah, so, so, and hopefully you Heard my intention for 2025, which is that every group program gets 10x the amount of value as individual coaching.
Yeah.
Because you are able to take full advantage of the stories, the experiences, and the ideas of other people who are on the same path. So let me ask you a question. How, when you think about your group coaching and your group program, how do you think about the transition, the ideal member and the transition that they are going through and the people that want to meet each other who are on that same path? How do you define that?
Well, what we were really looking at is how it's really easy, I think, to pull a member into your community. What's hard is the retention, keeping them in, keeping them inspired, keeping them motivated, especially because we're not physically seeing them. And every single day, and we are going through changes and constantly. And so it is figuring out, how do we have more of those dynamics of participation? How are we creating a client experience? And that's really important to think about. Client experience. What is this experience? How can they feel safe, special, and loved? How are we creating some of those tangible experiences? Whether it's getting a thank you card in the mail or a gift that they weren't expecting, Keeping track of their birthday. So we can say happy birthday when someone has a baby, them getting a baby gift. Right. But we've thought about it almost like a flywheel experience, where no matter where you're at in the journey, it's not that you're graduating and then you're done. It's how do we let them know the importance of continuing to come back to the basics?
Right.
So for us, one of our entry points is something called boot camp for us on camera, Confidence Bootcamp for us. And we have people who've gone through bootcamp honestly, eight, nine, ten times, because we hold up.
This is an important point. So on camera, Boot camp. So the hook is people who want to feel really confident on camera, that is a powerful transition. And you're also telling me it's not that easy because somebody is also like, I want to do it multiple times.
Yeah, powerful.
Okay, so we got. Sorry, I had to slow you down for a second.
No, you're good.
Awesome.
Let's.
Let's double click on that. Even though as those words were coming out of my mouth, I vomited a little bit.
Yeah.
But I just wanted to slow us down because that's a super important point. So that's one entry point. Okay.
So one of our entry points is on camera, confidence Bootcamp. This also for me, was kind of like a core conflict. Because my thought was. But we do so much more than just on camera confidence for, for me.
I hear that so many times. I don't want to get stuck on one thing.
Yeah, I don't want to get stuck on one thing. I don't want to to niche down. Niche down. So I truly believe that when it comes to personal brand, you can't niche down because you're an evolving human being. But when it comes to your business, your business brand, when you were a face of that business, your business is where you should be concentrating at least to some extent because that's where you want to make it clear, not clever in what people are getting. And what I've noticed over time is that on camera and putting your face to a camera and without a filter and listening to your voice, it is a spiritual experience. Like in case you haven't even heard from my speaking style in this chat and my coaching style in this chat is that we go to church in a lot of different directions in a lot of different ways. But the thing is though is that if I were to tell someone off the bat that hey, we're about to have a super woo woo spiritual experience, they would be like, what in the what? What? No, that's again, give them what they want, sell them what they need. Right. And then can I ask one question?
So for the boot camp, that's your lead magnet or that's your intro offer?
That's our intro offer.
Okay. They are. Do you charge for that? Like give us the again the behind the scenes.
Yeah. So they are paying about $1,000 for a six week program. Once they get into the program, we're giving them all kinds of bonus calls like an office hours. We're also giving them at least one, sometimes a surprise. Two of actually. You can also hop into one of our ongoing calls. We're having a special guest. We want you to have a little taste of this. We're throughout the entire time. Hey, who on this call has done boot camp before? Give a little twinkle. We're creating fomo. We're creating little surprises. Hey, you know what, Holly, you were on, you were at bootcamp for the first time before. What do you remember from this call? What advice do you have for other people? We're making sure that our veterans and those who are in ongoing are doing the homework inside of the group. So I saw someone in the chat talk about how they have a lot of members but very little engagement. So that's where we are making our community feel like Almost like they're part of the leadership team, where it's, hey, who? Who? You know, you really love this. Do you want to be one of our cheerleaders? This. This cohort? Can we. Can we assign to you that you're going to go comment on. On people's posts and you're going to start conversations on Tuesday. Here are some sample questions. Make it as easy as possible for them to make it happen. And then also going around, hey, raise your hand if it's your first time going through, your third time going through, your fifth time going through and showing how. Listen, that's not because we're doing a bad job. That's because you should always be going back to the basics. Because during our boot camp, it's not just about getting on camera and then getting scared. It's. No, wait, what do you want this experience? What's your intention for this time? Going through Bootcamp, which might be different from the first time. Maybe the first time you joined us for bootcamp, you didn't even have a LinkedIn. You didn't even have an Instagram. Now you do. Or maybe at that point in time, you were going after a lower ticket customer. Now we're trying to elevate our presence. So what are we doing now? Maybe you didn't do any of the homework the first time that you were going through. All right, come on back. And we also offer it as a value incentive where. Okay, well, if you join our ongoing program, you can come back to bootcamp as many times as you want. Every single time that we have a bootcamp, you get to come back.
So the ongoing program, tell us about that. So the boot camp, a thousand dollars, six weeks, very much about you creating again, hosting it. The members are helping each other, and you've really found systems to put in place for those members to help each other and build those relationships. Tell us now about the ongoing program and what is the ongoing program called?
We're realigning now that we're going through a whole new journey with Mighty Networks, where it is going to be our visionary program. And that's, I think, really important too, is that we give our audience and our community names. It's a way that you can create FOMO without creating fomo. We've also created some custom badges for people's profile pictures. Oh, she has a pink ring. What does that mean? Oh, she has a green ring. What does that mean? Oh, to the purple. What does that mean? And so calling. Okay, who's. Who, who's our visionary here? We're also coming out with a lower ticket entry point which we're working with mighty to do. And those will be our track stars. So that's one of the other ways that we've named our community and our audience. And our entry level point will be our Habit Tracker that I twinkled to you earlier. It's not ready yet, but Habit Tracker, yeah.
Love that.
Yes.
And so absolutely intended. I love that.
And we. So I think what's important because some of you want technical, so I'm going to give you technical. We're teasing all of these things throughout the entire six weeks. Week three is when we tease our highest entry point, which is a $15,000 experience where someone flies out to Minneapolis. And if you feel like you're not hitting the record button or all good, we'll build you a personal brand. In 48 hours, come on out to Minneapolis. We'll do a half day photography session, a half day video session. We'll write your captions for you. You'll get hands on coaching with me. We'll eat food. You'll meet my dog, maybe you'll meet my mom. Anything and everything you need, we're going to build it for you in 48 hours. And then four to six weeks from now, you will get this folder. And also. But wait, there's more. As an added bonus, we will give you six months of ongoing group coaching that will then hopefully again keep them into our system. Week four is when we begin to present the monthly recurring revenue piece, that ongoing coaching. Okay, so $15,000 was a lot of money for you. All right, all good. So for thirty five hundred dollars, join us for our ongoing program where if you want to pay monthly, you can or annually, we'll give you an extra audit with one of our guest coaches. You'll get a 30 minute strategy session with me which we then later down the line give a bonus if it's actually two 30 minute strategy sessions. Because what that will be is kind of a sales call to make sure that they still want to stay with the program at the end, check in on their progress, make sure they're a good fit and, and that's how we've continued to allow for this flywheel program to kind of come in and out of. And we used to have a thing where alumni could just stay as long as they wanted. But now what we're going to start doing is, okay, well if you want to, if you want to stick around but you can't maybe afford or you don't feel ready, then you can get one call a month, which would be office hours. That's a lower ticket item. I can't remember what we're pricing that one at, but I think it's $97 a month. Or join us in Track Stars, which is going to be $43 a month, and you can choose. But if you don't want any of that, then. Love you, but I'll see you on Instagram. Love you. But you can keep subscribe to our newsletter. You can, you can keep doing it for free because we want to make sure that. That people are showing up when you. When you do something for free. You're not typically as invested. In fact, some of you probably know you probably have people who are paying a ton of money and that they're still not showing up to what they're doing.
This is so. I want to unpack pieces of this because there's. It's so good and we are. We are coming to time and I love this. Scott, you are doing something in the comments. I'll read the comment, but I. I just want to flag this. It is far too easy to say, but Giselle does. She can do this because. And because could be anything. It could be because she has charisma. It's because she has followers on Instagram because she was in broadcast television or entertainment.
And I want.
I want to really focus in on something. There was a reason why I flagged on camera presence. Giselle can teach on camera presence. Scott, you don't have to have any clout for the thing that you are helping someone achieve their goal. Get through that transition. Your power, your value, is not what you do outside of one thing, which is the person who is willing to bring other people who are on that same path, who are in that same transition, bring them together. So it's not about the clout. It's, by the way, Giselle, amazing clout. Like, nice job, awesome. But I just, I want. I want you to find. I want every single person to find. What is the thing that is your strength.
Yeah. And I actually have this on a few of my different sales pages where it even says at the headline, here's my fancy bio. But then the next section says, but this is why you actually want to hire me. So the fancy bio has the fun names and the clout of people who I've been associated with or stages that I've been on or the numbers of followers. But the real reason why people will want to work with you has nothing to do with that. It has to do with you being able to meet them where they're at. And so what you actually see is photos of me when I was 50, 60 pounds heavier. What you see of me is my body covered in hives. What you see of me is crying because I'm not afraid to talk about the hard stuff. Especially as a business owner who knows what it's like to start and from zero when no one believes in you, when we're in the middle of a global pandemic and you have everything to lose and maybe we're all gonna die tomorrow. That's, that's why you hire me as your coach. That's why someone wants to hire you as a coach. And, and even some of my clients, what I tell them, listen, it's not about having millions of followers. In fact, some of my clients who come to me have millions of followers and they cannot make a single dollar from their on camera presence because they can't connect, because they can't be authentic. So what I'm teaching you how to do is be comfortable in your own skin, be comfortable with your own story, be comfortable seeing your voice feeling accountable. And know that I'm not going to tell you what you want to hear. I'm going to tell you what you need to hear. And I have clients who have less than a thousand followers who are making millions of dollars, Dollars, even more money than me from their businesses or from their communities because they believe that in what they have to offer.
Yeah.
And they know that from their personal experience.
They're, and you're bringing these people together. That's the other thing. And I think one of the things we'll see more and more of is that people will continue to value, especially as it gets easier and easier for you to do this, the other people who are there. That's why my intention for 2025 to make group coaching more a higher return on the investment, no matter what that investment point is. Because the value you're getting isn't just from the host. It's from the host plus the group of people that are, are coming together. Giselle, this has been fantastic. Thank you so, so much. I don't know dj, how to say that. Dollars. Dollars. He's giving you credit.
The dollars.
Yeah, I, I, I like that. As somebody with like five followers on Instagram and like three photos, it's not.
About the followers, it's about the doll.
I like, I'm excited. I'm gonna like take it on at some point in time. So thank you so much for this time. I think all of us got a ton out of it. I know I certainly did. And I'm just so grateful for you for coming and taking your time. I think there's probably a couple of us and we will also do show notes for this. I just made up show notes for this. But we'll put it in the Countdown to January challenge that if you want online, sorry, on camera presence training, we will have a link to the boot camp which will be amazing. Thank you. I'm going to stay on for a hot minute and then talk a little bit about the next session. And just really grateful for you, Giselle.
Thank you so much. I'm so grateful for you. And the last line that I'll say to everyone is to create the community that you want to attract and that's within your mighty networks and especially off because there are a lot of you who are down on yourselves because you're not getting engagement, you're not getting the messages, you're not getting the followers. But also what are you putting out into the world? Are you leaving meaningful comments that you would want? Are you sending people messages? Checking in? Are you taking advantage of one to one experiences? Or are you only focused on the masses who they don't know who you are yet. Your first customers could be immediately in front of your face and so don't let go of that people magic that already exists immediately around you. But I'm so grateful for you, for this community, for this team and if you have any questions, feel free. My DMs are always open. Instagram and LinkedIn is where I play the most and I'm so grateful to be here and for all of you, thank you.
