096. [BONUS] Beyond the Obvious - Unveiling 5 Overlooked Revenue Boosters

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck, and this is the Doing Business Like a Woman podcast, where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Okay? All right, welcome. So excited to have you all here. Thank you for being here this morning. Happy Friday. TGI Friday, right? It's going to be snowing here where I am, so I don't know how I think about that. I don't know. We've been having such a beautiful fall here in Colorado that I'm kind of bummed that the snow is coming, but it's inevitable. So I hope you're having a great start to your day. Thank you for joining me for this part of it. I'm really excited to get to be with you. So just a couple housekeeping items. You should have received an email this morning with the workbook and I printed mine out and I'm going to be going through that with you if you if it's on PDF, so you're welcome to just refer to it and fill it out and work on it after this. But it's a really great way to kind of guide you through what we're going to be talking about today and gna put that there. So, yeah, let's get started. We're going to jump right in. Okay. Other housekeeping items, I will be watching the chat, so you're welcome to comment in the chat to ask questions in the chat. If you ask a question, I would love it if you would put the word question and then type your question so that if the chat gets busy then I can just kind of go back through there and find all of the questions pretty easily. So that would be helpful. Also, you're always welcome to raise your hand in the the reactions on the bottom of your zoom bar. You can raise hand and ask questions, you know, come off mute and come on screen. It's just us here today and so I would love to directly answer your questions as well. If you're, you know, I, I know typing questions in sometimes can get really arduous, so you're welcome to just come off mute, come on screen if you want and ask questions that way. Also, just raise your hand on the in the zoom reactions and I'll see that. And because this is a masterclass, I also think of this as a workshop for us today. I want us to be able to get some work done because we're in the fourth quarter My friends and I want to do everything I can today to help you to finish the fourth quarter strong to achieve your goals. And so that's what we are here for. So I want to make sure that when you leave this meeting with me today that you have everything that you need to be successful. So let's dive right in. I'm going to share my screen. So welcome to beyond the obvious. We're going to talk about the five overlooked revenue boosters right in front of you. And I have to turn off my heater under my desk. Hold on. All right. And I would love it if you're. If you would put in the chat where you are joining from and even a little introduction. You're welcome to. To offer a little introduction and we can have a little in the chat networking as well. Right. Because we've got some really amazing entrepreneurs on this call today, and I would love for you to get to know each other. And speaking of getting to know each other, I am Melissa Kellogg Luick. If we don't know each other yet. And I am a business coach and marketing coach for women entrepreneurs. And my superpower is really helping women to build a take their business from five figures to six figures, using really great marketing strategy as well as creating more confidence and courage to get all of that done. So I work with mindset and what we're thinking as well as lots of really great strategy. I started my business 18 years ago, and so I have seen a lot, experienced a lot. So it's super fun. All right. Hi, Tracy. Good morning. From Fort Collins. Yes. Michelle from for cones too. Yay. So great to see you. Okay, so let's dive right in. I have news for you today. There are 66 days left in 2023. Yes, 66 days left in this year. And so if you haven't reached your goal yet for 2023. Hi. Deb from Eagle. Yes. I saw you in the registration. I was so excited. That's so fun. So if you haven't reached your goal yet for 2023, what I'm teaching you today can create, help you create huge progress to your goal. Because I believe a hundred percent, whatever goal you set that you wanted to achieve in your business this year is still possible. So I just want to encourage you to just take a moment and just appreciate how far you've come this year. Whether you've reached your goal or not, you still have grown and changed. And I would guarantee, I would bet everything I have that you are much different now than you were when you started this year. So congratulations and just take a moment to just appreciate how far you have come. Right? And yes, you still have this goal that you want to achieve for 2023. And so think about what would need to happen. Like how many clients would you need to have, how many deals would you need to have, how many products would you need to sell? Like, just take a moment and think about what you would need in order to get to your goal for the year. Because what we're going to talk about today is going to help you get there. And I want to us also to really think about how it could still be possible for me. I have a certain number. I have eight more coaching spots that I am looking to fill before the end of the year. So that's my goal. So what's your goal? You're welcome to slip it in the chat if you want like number of clients or if you want to put revenue numbers, whatever. Let's just think about what it is that we're working towards because we're going to talk about the things that you can take with you today to boost your revenue over these next six, 66 days. Right? Okay. So we can do this. What I want you just to just ask you for a moment to think. What will you be thinking on December 31st as you're toasting the year that is ending and ringing in the new year that's starting? What will you be thinking on December 31st if you recommit to your goal today and implement what I'm going to teach you and actually reach your goal, what will you be thinking? How will you be feeling? Like, I. I know for me, when I think about that, it's like I'll be feeling so proud, like so proud that I committed, that I went for it and that I reached my goal. So just think about what will you be thinking at that moment? What will you be feeling right? And I can help you. It all starts to that right now, today. So just tell me in the comments, tell me how will you be thinking? How will you be feeling? What will you be feeling on December 31st when you actually get to that goal? Achieve that goal. I would love to hear share. I'm going to be feeling really proud because. All right, so today's work a workshop, right? We are gonna get to work. So if you have your workbook that you received on email, let me just. I'm gonna, I have the link right here. I'm gonna pop it in the chat. So if you didn't get it or misplaced, didn't get the email, whatever. You know, things happen. There's the link to the workbook. So that's a PDF. You can download it, you can pull, pull it up on your screen or you can save it for later. So this is what we're going to be working with. And I really want for you to walk away today with some concrete things that you can take with you that will start boosting your revenue beginning tomorrow, if you want. I mean, tomorrow's Saturday, but, you know, if you want to begin implementing these right away, you can. So much of what you're going to learn today might not be revolutionary and, but it's the little things that if we attend to these little things, they create big results if we do them consistently. And so I'm going to be teaching you what are the things that I see, the biggest mistakes that I see entrepreneurs, especially women entrepreneurs make in our businesses that are potential revenue creators that we're tripping over, that are right in front of us, that we might be tripping over, but we're not actually doing. And so I want to help you move from the knowing to the doing today. All right? And this, what I'm going to teach you today is applicable to any level of business, whether you're just starting out or whether you've been in business for 18 years. Like I have this, these are things that I attend to even now in my business. So you can implement them all across the board, no matter what age or style or type of business that you have. These are applicable to all of us. These are some of the basic fundamentals of building a business. And, but that I often see entrepreneurs are not attending to. And so we're consistently doing these things, attending to these at all levels in business. So, okay, so mistake number one that I see, the most common issue that I see that stunts the growth is not bringing in new connections to your network. You may have a great stable of clients, a consistent, you know, people, a loyal client base. You may be involved in networking, but you're not really bringing new people, new blood into your business at all times. And so this, for me, what I often see in, in women that I work with, women that I talk to, is it creates feast and famine cycles, right? Because we'll be not as busy as we want to be. So we go out and market and we bring people in, we bring people in, we bring people in and then we get really busy and we stop marketing, right? And we don't, we're stop bringing people in, and then the same cycle happens over again. Where those clients finish up or whatever, and they've bought everything that they could buy from us. And then the revenue starts to dip. We're like, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. So we gotta go out and, and market. And so we go out and then, you know, the business goes up again. So I want to help you to just level out these feast and famine cycles. If you can relate to this, give me a yes or a thumbs up or a raised hand emoji that can you relate to this feast and famine cycle. And so that's what I often see. So one of our, our opportunity, number one, to create revenue right now is to be consistently meeting and bringing new people into your audience, email list, network at all times, and make it so that it's consistent. And also I like to think about doing, yes, we do one on one. You know, where we go out, we network or we're on social media and we're meeting people one at a time. But I want you to also be thinking about one to many. Right? And so, okay, I'm getting the thumbs up. I see that. That, yes, we can relate to this. Right. So how to, how do we do that? Okay, and then I want you to get out your workbook if you're following along on there. And then in order to grow your business at any level, right, we always need to be bringing in new people into our network. So I want you to just take a moment and just assess where you're at right now. I think this is the power in moving from knowing stuff to actually doing it. Is, let's assess where we're at right now. So on the worksheet or in your notebook, in your notes that you have next to you, I just want you to rate yourself from 1 to 10. One is I'm not doing it at all. I'm not bringing any new people into my business. And 10 is I'm creating plenty of new connections. And you're welcome to, if you want to share with us what your number is as far as from 1 to 10, or just write it on your, your workbook. Just take a moment and I want you to think about what are the ways that you are currently adding to your network? Like, how are all the ways that you're bringing new people into your business, whether it's networking or, you know, speaking engagements or, you know, being a guest on podcasts, being present on social media, meeting people on social media, what are all the ways that you're currently bringing new people into business into your business? And just jot those down and are you tracking those items? Like, are you tracked tracking how many people that you are bringing in? I think that is very effective for us if we want to know if we're growing to be tracking how we're doing right and setting a goal for ourselves there. All right, so I want to think, want you to think about how you're adding people to your network in a one to one capacity, like networking and in a one to many capacity, which I think about like doing a workshop, like I'm doing right now. Right. You and I are getting to know each other, but we're not one on one. It's me, one of me and many of you. So, so just think about that. Jot it down. So here's some ideas for you. We talk, I mentioned networking in person and online. And, and when I talk about networking online, what I'm thinking about is going onto social media and actually meeting people and creating relationships. This is not, you know, cold dming people or a term I heard recently. It's pitch slapping where we've all had this happen on, you know, in social media where people will just start blasting us with offers and trying to sell us stuff and they have no idea who we, you know, we don't know them, they don't know us, but they just start, you know, trying to shove their services or products down our throat. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is starting is connecting with people that are your best fit client and then starting a conversation and a relationship with them. Not to sell them anything, but just to build relationships. And because business is created through relationships. So if you're not growing relationships with your people that you're bringing in, and that's what we're talking about next, I'm going to get ahead of myself. So that's what I mean when I'm talking about networking online. So in person, networking online networking is an idea. Having a freebie that you offer on social media or when you're out and about meeting people or speaking or being on podcasts, that sort of thing. Using hashtags on social media, especially like LinkedIn or Instagram, TikTok are big platforms, not so much Facebook. Right. But when you use hashtags in your posts, your posts will then get served up to people that are new to you, that are not your followers, not your audience. Right. Short form videos. We know that all of the social media platforms, their algorithms elevate short form videos. So if you're doing Instagram reels or reels on Facebook or TikTok videos or on YouTube, YouTube shorts. It's a great way to meet new people because those algorithms will automatically elevate your content. Speaking engagements or workshops are a great way. Podcast guesting and paid advertising, of course, are all. All great ideas for bringing new people in. So think about the ways that you're doing it. And then I want you to also make sure that you have a system to keep track of all these people, new people that are coming into your universe, to your orbit. Whether it's collecting a business card when you meet someone or inviting them to come and follow you on social media, just make sure that you have a way that you're collecting contact information that you can begin a relationship with these folks. Right? So it's an issue I see over and over is that we go out, we meet tons of people, were, you know, shaking hands, talking to a lot of people, but we're not creating any way to follow up with them. And so if that's the case, you're missing a huge opportunity. So just think now, what would one thing. What is one thing? So if you have your worksheet or your workbook, what's one thing that you would like to try, add or optimize in this area of bringing new people in? What I encourage my clients to do is have three ways that they're doing consistently to bring in new people into their network. Okay, so that is opportunity number one. And then mistake number two that I see is there's. There's people. I see this all the time. People are hoarding new contacts. They're meeting tons of people, you know, getting tons of new followers coming to them, but they're not growing relationships. So they have huge, you know, databases, huge followers, but they're not. Still not growing their business because they're not growing relationships with these folks. Right. I have a friend or a client, a student, student of mine, when I was teaching her this, she went into her bag and pulled out of her bag, her purse, huge baggie full of business cards. And so this was like a perfect picture of what I'm talking about. She'd been collect, going to networking events and trying to grow her business and collecting all these business cards. But she would take all the business cards and she would put them in the baggie and then put them in her purse. And then she wondered why she wasn't creating any clients from all of her networking efforts. It's because she never followed up with those people, created relationships with them. That's. People need to know you, like you and trust you before they're going to do business with you. And so the best way to do that is to build relationships all along the way. So I want you to just think, what if I told you right now that all the clients, all the customers that you need to get to that end of 2023 goal are already in your network, they're already in your sphere, they're already all around you. What would you do if you believed everyone, every client that you need right now is already around you, waiting to work with you, what would you be doing? Right? And I believe that this is completely possible for all of us, that all the clients we need are already around us. They're already either someone that is currently in our network, someone we currently know, or someone they know, right? So if you think about all the people that you have connection with, what if your actual network is 10 times that? Because each one of those people probably knows 10 people, right? So our goal is in this opportunity is to make sure that everyone around us knows how we help people, what we offer, what we do, who's our best fit client, so that when they need what we have to offer, they'll come to us. Or when they talk to someone that needs what we have to offer, they will refer us. And this doesn't mean going out and spamming people. That's not what this is. What this is is being present and showing up with the people that are already in our network and offering value and letting them know what we do and how we do it, right? And there's a lot of ways that we can do that that we're going to talk about. And so what if that people have a three year buying cycle, right? What if what you're doing now is what will have clients coming out of the woodwork for you in three years? What if someone that you meet now isn't going to work with you until, you know, three years from now, but they're there watching and learning and building trust all along the way, and then in three years they will be working with you. So I love thinking about that. And that's really what keeps me motivated a lot of times to keep showing up, because especially on social media, right? We can feel like we're out there doing all of these things and nothing's happening, or we don't feel like people are reaching out to us and asking to work with us all the time. And this is what's happening is like this three year buying cycle. You have early adopters, right? People that'll buy from you right away. And then you have late adopters, people that are going to get to need to get to know you and trust you and see that you're legit. And it might take them years. So I always say, don't stop. Your tomatoes are still ripening. I love growing tomatoes in my garden, and I always think about this as they're ripening is that they all ripen at different times, right? There'll be a tomato that's ripe that I can pick right now, and there's also 10 that are still green. And so we never know when our tomatoes are going to ripen. But that doesn't mean we stop watering our garden or stop fertilizing it or stop tending to it. We tend to our garden all along the way, and we have faith. We know that every single one of those tomatoes is going to ripen at some time. Right? And the same as with your business. And so we need to be nurturing these relationships. And so really think about optimizing the relationships that are already around you. And so some of the ways that we can do that is have like an email newsletter. And I don't like the word newsletter, but everybody knows what that means. And just don't call it a newsletter. Call it like a love letter or whatever would be consistent with your brand. Make it fun, right? And networking is a great way to nurture relationships. And what I mean by that is getting involved. There was a time when I was out networking. Like every networking group that was having something, I was there. But what I noticed after doing that for a long time is that I was like a mile wide and an inch deep. I didn't have relationships with anyone at any of those groups. So that's when I decided to pare down and get involved in just a very few and get really involved with where I can have relationships and be in leadership and those types of things. Having a YouTube channel where you're consistently posting trainings, videos is a great way to nurture an audience and grow an audience. A podcast. I have a podcast. It's a great way for me to nurture my audience for those that want to get to know me, to do it in a very informal, you know, low commitment way. Right? Phone calls, you can call people and actually talk to them, which is a novel concept to my children. That's like text. Or you could text them, right? But just keeping up with people. Coffee chats. You know, I know there is a very famous sales system that a lot of realtors use, and they have their clients pick like the top 50 relation people that they want to have relationships with and then the realtor will reach out, you know, every 10 days they have a touch point with those 50 people, a personal touch point, whether it's a phone call or a text or a coffee chat, right? That's building relationships. And in social media, it's going through your feed and commenting and, and having conversations with people on a daily basis. People get to know you and trust you, right? So what's working for you? Is this something, you know, what is working for you in building and strengthening those relationships with your network? So I want you to just go through and on your worksheet here, just assess how you're doing currently building relationships. And if you want to put your numbers in the chat, that would be fine too. Number one is I'm not doing it at all. Number 10 is I'm creating plenty of opportunities, new sales opportunities from my network. So think about how are you. That's a typo right there. Not adding to your network, but how are you nurturing your network on a one on one basis and then a one to many basis, which would be like an email newsletter, right? And then set a goal of, like I said earlier, I also recommend you have three strategies that you're using to nurture relationships, right? And then set goals for those three things. Whether it's okay, I'm going to send out an email newsletter twice a month or once a month or once a week, set a goal for that. I'm going to, you know, publish four videos on YouTube or four podcast episodes, one per week, set a goal and then track it and then you get to see what the results are that come from that. But the next mistake I see is that, okay, so, and I'm getting ahead of myself. So then think about before we move on, what's one thing that we you would like to try or add or optimize regarding nurturing the relationship, strengthening the relationships in your network. And then the third mistake that I often see is that is making passive or too few offers. So a lot of women I talk to will be out networking, writing email newsletters, posting every day, but they're never letting their audience, their people, their network know how to work with them. You need to be making offers all the time, always be offering. And we're going to talk about how you do that because I know there's always a lot of resistance when I say that, like, well, I don't want to be too salesy or I don't want to be too pushy or that. And so we're going to talk about how we do that. So your opportunity number three is to make more active, not passive, offers. So the goal here is to always be letting people know the next step in the relationship. And so what this takes is really understanding what your client journey is. Right? Like what are all the ways, what are all the steps that clients take in building that relationship where they know you, like you, trust you, and want to work with you? So I like to think about this as dating. So I haven't date. I've been married for a really long time. No, 17 years, something like that. But we've been together for 20 years. Over 20 years. And so I haven't dated in a long time, but I do remember it. So it's like dating. And you always want to be making offers. So, for example, if you meet someone and you are interested in them romantically, you might say, well, can we go have coffee together? Something that's easy, not, you know, real intense and not a big commitment, right? And so you go and have coffee together and you have a great time at coffee and you decide you want to take the next step. And so maybe we'll have lunch together. And so you meet for lunch and then you have a really great lunch and then you meet for dinner and then maybe you go and do an activity together. Like, there's all these little steps along the way. Whereas the contrast of that is if you went out to coffee and then the person, you had a really great time and you wanted to see them again, but then they said, let's go and have a ski weekend in Vail and share a condo. And I would be like, no, that's too much, too fast for me. Right. I, you know, I. That's not how I want to work. I want to take it a little bit slower. So thinking about what is the next step in the relationship and always having that next step in the relationship, that's your client journey. That's the journey that you take the client on. And they can jump off that at any point in time and say, I'm ready to work with you. Let's talk about how we can work together, right? So. So you're always making offers and active offers versus passive offers. So an active offer is what I think about when you're specifically and explicitly letting the client know what is the next step in the relationship and then asking them to take that with you. Right. So you have to know what your mo. What your client most wants know what is the result or the experience that they're seeking and how you help them get there. That's that client journey. Right. So we always want to be offering. So there's a lot of different types of offers. There's tiny offers. So tiny offers I think of as when you're first, someone first comes into your orbit, into your network and you ask them to follow you on social media or listen to your podcast or I would love for you to come to my free workshop. Right. It's something, it's a low commitment, easy offer. Easy, yes. For them. So a great offer is always a easy yes. So there's lots of tiny offers that you can be making. So when you first meet someone, maybe it's, you know, let's get to know each other, let's have coffee, let's meet for a coffee chat or let's follow each other on social media. Right. Those are tiny operas. And, and then we have free offers that we want to be using to build our email list. And I hope you all have an email list. If you don't, I would be happy to help you build one because the, as one of my mentors always says, your money is in your list. Right? That is in, it's basically saying our, the future of our business is in the size of our network and a great way to still the preferred. And I can show you statistics, scientific data shows that the best way to communicate with people on a consistent relationship building way is through email. So a free offer is like an irresistible gift. Free gift that you can give someone that is so juicy and so attractive that they want to give you their email list in order to get it. And so in different industries, in different types of businesses, obviously the freebies are different. And so if you want to workshop what some of the freebies could be for you, we can do that during this session. And so, so I, that's an offer that you can always be making, like always offering that on social media once a week or you know, once every couple weeks or whatever, you know, download my free ebook or my, you know, take my quiz or sign up to get a free sample, some of those things. And then you have your signature offers, which are the offers that people pay you money for. Right. And so we always want to be offering all of these things depending on where we are in the relationship. So, so what I often hear is that like I was saying earlier, I often get pushed back on always making offers because we're often thinking I don't want to be pushy or salesy, but what if your offer is the greatest part of the value, is the greatest value that you have when you make that offer? And I always like to think about a doctor. It's like if you went to the doctor and they, and you said, listen, I have, I think I broke my arm, I have a lot of pain. I had this accident and I think I broke my arm. And they said, okay, let's get you into the X ray and we'll take a look and see. And so you go through all of that, they diagnose, yes, you got a broken arm, but they don't offer to fix it. Right. If you're not making offers, you're not offering to fix the broken arm for your people. Right? So how could that be possible? How could your offer be your greatest value? Because people need what you have to offer. And so we always need to be offering to them to let them know how we can help them. So in your workbook, I want you to take a look at how many active offers are you making per day? And I'm talking about either whether you're speaking to someone one on one, or maybe it's a social media post that you write or a video that you record or email that you send out. You know, we want to. I always challenge my clients to be making five offers a day because at the end of a five day work week month, you will have made a hundred offers. And if you've made a hundred offers in a month, I can guarantee your revenue is going to be higher. So this is a really great opportunity to boost your revenue. If even if you just say, okay, I'm going to take it slow, I'm going to make one more offer a day than I'm currently making. I would challenge you to do that. And you'll see, see a difference, I promise. Because not only will you get better at making offers, because you're out there telling people how they can be in relationship with you and how they can buy from you, you will sell more things. So I want you to just rate yourself how many put on the scale here, how many offers a day that you're making and then write down what are your offers, what are your freebie offers that you're offering, what are the tiny offers that you have and what are your signature, your big offers that people pay you for. So think about and tiny offers could even be like a lowcost experience with you, or maybe you sell a, you know, $7 course or a, you know, $47, seven day challenge, or, you know, some of Those tiny offers, then. Then you have, like, your big offer. If that applies to your business. I know there's a lot of different kinds of businesses. On our call today, I would love to actually know what business is everybody in? Okay, how's everybody doing? Give me one word or an emoji in the chat. Are we awake? What are we doing? I've just been talking and I hope everyone's doing okay. I'm not seeing anything come through in the chat. Is anybody still there? Can you hear me soaking it all up, taking notes? Thank you. Doing great. All right. Thank you. Everybody's still there. Yay. Just dating. I love that. Thank you, Karen. Perfect. Yay. All right, so think about what's one thing that you would like to try or add or optimize regarding making offers? And remember, just small things, like even if you just said, I'm going to make one more offer than I'm currently making. And Michelle says she's contemplating how to send 5 offers and not be annoying. Yeah. And that's a great. That's a great contemplation. That's a great brain teaser to ask yourself. And it doesn't have to be where you're selling your big thing. It could be the tiny offers like, let's go have coffee or follow. Let's connect on social media. I'd love to get to know you better. Or, you know, those kinds of things are offers also. Right. So I always think about offers is not what can I get from you? But what can I give you, what can I offer you? Right. I want to offer to get to know you so I can support your business or welcome winter offers. Yes. So think about what can I offer to give you? Because whatever you're selling, you are offering your client, your customer, either an experience or a change or something pleasurable. Right. So how can you offer to give that to them? So, yeah. Oh, yes, Lisa, thank you. Okay, so mistake number four is that I see people trying to get lots more new clients. Yes. We all need new clients. I'm not saying you don't need new clients, but what I am saying is you don't always have to focus on. On only new clients. The easiest place to boost your revenue is with the people that you already are working with that already love you, that already are loyal to you. Right. So your opportunity, number four is to offer greater quality and value to the clients you already have. I love this one. Because money always follows value and quality. So love them or not, Amazon, this is how they've grown, Right? Because they have always kept their finger on the pulse of what we want, like all the stuff that we want and how we want it, right? They know that we want stuff at a low price and we want it to be delivered quickly. And in this, you know, nowadays, when, depending on where you are, you can get anything from Amazon either same day or the next day or maybe two days on the outside. Like if you think about five years, that was like an impossible concept. Like nobody thought they could get something in two days unless they went to the store and got it themselves. Well, Amazon has made it, has offered, you know, has really focused on getting their clients what they want, when they want it and for the price they want it. And not that I'm encouraging all of us to be Amazon, that's not it. But what, how could it be possible for you to over deliver like Amazon has for us, right, to our clients and, or our referral partners? And what this takes, this takes two things. First of all, you have to know your clients and what they want and how they want it, right? And you probably already know what they want, but all of what they want and how do they want it if they could have it better, faster, whatever, maybe not even cheaper. I really don't think that all of us want things cheaper. Like I don't want, if I needed brain surgery or cancer surgery, I wouldn't want it cheaper. I would want it really, really good, right? So think about how your clients want what you're offering. And then also it also takes knowing the wealth of what you do have to offer, right? Really looking at all of the value that you have from your own experience, your own education, your own way of doing business that can be much more valuable to the clients that you already have. And I know this is kind of a brain teaser, so we're going to work on it. So here's some questions to consider and I think this is in our. Yeah, these are in your workbook also, so you can really think about these going forward. What could you offer? Here's some ideas, right? What could you offer as an add on or an upgrade that would be super valuable for your current clients and what could you charge for it, right? Or could it be something that you just want to offer them just as VIP treatment and it increases that loyalty? You know, maybe they want to work with you longer. So think about that or think about, okay, so an offer. So an add on or an upgrade. So I have a friend that is a realtor and for every one of her new listings where people want to sell their house and she's going to sell that for them. She delivers as many moving boxes as they need. She delivers them to their house and just gives them to, gives them brand new moving boxes. So that just takes that whole, you know, thing of having to get moving boxes off their list. And it might cost her, what, $200 at the most to buy all new brand new moving boxes. For every one of her new listing clients. She delivers them personally. And so it's just an upgrade that she offers. But when she is in a, when she's networking or when she's telling clients about how she'll help them sell their house, she mentions that. Right? And so it's just that little teeny thing that they're like, wow, you know, she really is thinking about me and really thought about what could be super valuable to me because anyone that's moving needs a lot of boxes. Right? Okay, so that's an ideas. What could you cross sell that you haven't been. So my CPA that I've been working with for over a decade, she's been doing my taxes forever. And just this last year she told me, or I was saying that we're working with a financial planner and that, you know, we really want some help like planning more for taxes. And she's like, oh, I do that, like tax strategy planning. And she had never in the 10 years I've been working with her told me about that. And would I have paid her over those last 10 years for help to do that? Yes, I would. So think about what you might already be offering that your current clients don't know about. Or what is a service or a product that you could cross sell that you haven't been. So what is a product that you could add on to your service? Or what is a service that you could add on to your product? Right. Think about that. And so that's the additional services you can also think about that you offer, but might many might not know about. So that's my idea with my cpa. Okay. And so all those questions are here on the worksheet. So if you want to work through those, we can talk through them. Take a together here. Or we can work through, you can work through them after. Okay, so just think about what are some ideas that are coming to you as we go through this. What's one idea that you have? Just jot it down or something you might want to think about before or after. All right, and then mistake number five that I see so often and I myself am also guilty of this Sometimes too is effectively asking for referrals. Now you've probably seen people have in like their email signature lines, I have a dog hair or something, their email signature lines where they'll, you know, say something like referrals are my, your greatest compliment to me or whatever. That is not what I would consider effectively asking for referrals. So I want you to just think about how you are, how effective you are in asking for referrals. Because our opportunity number five is to incentivize referrals. And then I, so I have to, to give a caveat here is if this is legal in your industry, there are some industries, like heavily regulated industries, where you cannot incentivize referrals in certain ways. So you have to know for your industry if this is legal and acceptable. But for most of us it is. And so what I'm talking about here is really activating your current network. You have raving fans, your raving fans, raving fans of your business. And we want to activate them and incentivize them to let others know about our business, whether it's current clients, whether it's friends and family, whether it's referral partners. Who are your biggest cheerleaders and how can we incentivize or activate, encourage them to refer business to you. Some ideas might include a referral bonus, a gift card or a gift that you send them a physical item. Right. And think about right now, what's one step that you could take to activate them? So I want you to put in the chat right now, like, who is your biggest fan? Who are your biggest fans? Is it your family, your clients? I would love to hear who's our biggest fans? Where do you get referrals from? If you get referrals. So I want you to think about, so going back to our work book here, think about how many of your new clients are coming from referrals and put an X. Is it zero percent, a hundred percent or somewhere in between? Right. How many? What's the percentage of new clients that you're getting from referral? And if you don't know, it's something good to look up. And then think about what would you like your goal percentage to be like? If it's currently 10, would it be. It could change your business. Right. If you, you know, increased your referral business from 10% to 20%, like doubling the amount of people that come in through referrals. Right. And this is something you can do right away that will boost your revenue right away. So think about all the ways that you're currently inviting and incentivizing referrals. And what is an idea, and we're going to get to this in a little bit of how you could activate that more. And then I have another. This is kind of the 2.0 idea of incentivizing referrals, which is a, is trending now, is called a micro influencer strategy. And so what I'm seeing is that businesses, small businesses like ours are instead of maybe spending thousands of dollars on paid advertising, Facebook ads, Google, Google AdWords and all of that, they are experimenting with this micro influencer strategy. And so what this means is that you identify a local or an industry influencer because we all know influencers like Kim Kardashian love her hater. You know, if she gets hired by a brand of shoes, for example, and they say, and they, they might pay her a million dollars for her to, like, tell everybody that they should buy those shoes. We can do the same thing, but on a smaller scale, right? We can identify you. It could be a current client or someone in your business community or in your industry community that is well known, that has, whose reputation and opinion is valued and they already have a good opinion of you and your company. And they have an, they have to have an audience that respects them that's full of your potential clients. You can propose a collaboration with them. And I've heard of companies paying a stipend, whether it's 300 or $500, or you could, you know, work out something else that sounds great to you and great to them. And then you create a campaign together, right? And maybe they promote you and your business for a couple weeks or a month, or maybe it's just over the course of a weekend, who knows? And then you could even pay them like, bonuses based on, you know, the sales that come out of that. But I was, it's kind of a funny story. I've actually been hired as a micro influencer for hair care products, right? There's a, a line of hair care products called Better Not Younger. And they create products for women with, you know, middle age and older women and their hair. And so they reached out to me and asked me if I would be a micro influencer for them. For two weeks. They sent me product and they gave me a commission on all the sales that resulted in, based on my promoting their products. And I thought it worked out really, really well. And you could do the exact same thing, right, with people already around you in your sphere. So it's a really great way to bring in new business. And this is something that you could make super simple and implement it right away, right before the end of the year. So a lot of small businesses or a lot of, I guess, marketing experts that I follow, and small businesses like this strategy because it is very focused, whether it's on your industry or on your local area. Whereas if you're doing Google AdWords or Facebook ads, it usually is hitting a larger audience. So a lot of that might not be your best fit client. Right. So what do you guys think? What do you guys think of that strategy? I love that strategy and I think it's so fun. So what is one idea that you have to incentivize referrals? What have you seen that's worked well? And would you even consider this micro influencer strategy? And if you did, what's one step you could take towards that? So I'd love to hear, how do you all. Do you get much referral business? Do you like developing that? Okay. Oh, yeah. I want to also actually give you some examples. So an example that I want to offer for this micro influencer idea is. So I have a lot of clients that are educational consultants, meaning that they help. Oh, yeah, I can talk about affiliates. So I would kind of see this as like an affiliate. So I have a lot of clients that are educational consultants, meaning they help students get into college, into the colleges of their choice, or into the best colleges for them. So one of my clients made use of this strategy, and what she did is she works with a lot of high school students that are in a particular private school. And so one of her clients, mothers, is a very influential person in this private school. So what she did is she asked that mother, would you be willing to. Because this mother has already referred lots of business to her. She said, would you be willing to invite a few of your friends to lunch and we'll, you know, I'll take you out to lunch, to wherever you want to go. And I want to offer them advice about helping their students get into college and offer my services. And so that was a really great way of how she used this micro influencer strategy. Now she, I don't think she offered a financial benefit or commission or anything, but maybe she, I, I don't recall that part now, but maybe she gave, I don't know, you could give people gift cards, right? Or something like that. Okay, so Karen wants to talk about affiliates. So what I see, usually the affiliate relationships that I see are, which is also a great strategy, but I think it takes a little more I don't know organization and intention. So you basically want to be developing an affiliate program where you know exactly who your best type, you know, your best kind of profile of an affiliate is. And an affiliate is someone that will go out and sell your product or service for you and then they get a cut of the deal. And because their involvement is so deep and intense, it's almost, almost like taking on a temporary partner, like a sales partner. Right. Someone that will go out and sell your things for you. They usually get a large percentage, I know in the online business, online mar, online marketing, online course type world. Like I don't know if any of you know Amy Porterfield who sells courses, online courses. I know her affiliates well. I don't know exactly what her percentage is right now, today. But in the past they would get, I don't know, 40 or 50% of the sale. And I've heard that to be a standard in that industry, in that world. Now I know we all have different businesses, different industries, so you kind of have to find out what is like acceptable for your industry. But affiliates generally are. You think of them as like a sales force for you. So does that help? Karen, please let me know. Okay, so to wrap up our five opportunities, of the five ways that you could bring in and boost your revenue right now, number one is start bringing new people into your business with intention, setting goals, having, having those three strategies and be doing that consistently. Right. Number two is building and strengthening the relationships already in your network. Because I am willing to bet my friends, all the clients that you need to and all the projects or sales that you need to make your goal for the year, I would bet they're already in your network. And if you were to assume that or to think that, what would you be doing? I love that question. I ask myself that question all the time. And then number three is make more active offers. You want to think about what are my tiny offers, what are my free offers where I'm, you know, getting people on my email list where I can build a relationship with them and what is my signature, what are my big offers? And I want to be offering those all the time. And number four is creating greater quality and value, really leaning in to how can I give some upgrades, some, some upgrades, some add ons. That's the word I'm thinking of that my clients are already here, would be willing to pay for. And then finally incentivizing referrals. And that's really, I think just having some intention around asking others to refer you for business Right. Just asking. And even experimenting with that micro influencer strategy, I think it can be super effective and I have seen it to be super effective. So that's what I have for you as far as our five opportunities. And we're not done yet, but I want to thank you for coming and because I would, I am so appreciative for you coming today. I want to, I have a special offer for you. I want to help you implement all of these ideas. There's a difference between learning all this stuff and actually doing it right. And to help you get jump started, I'm offering a 60 minute strategy session for $99. And what this normally goes for is $250, but during the month of October and I'm actually extending it for you all for seven days during the month of October, I've been doing these strategy sessions with people to help them really get to their goal for the year to really jumpstart Q4. It's not too late. You have 66 days left in this year. And so I invite you to come on a strategy session with me. I can walk you through and create a specific plan for any or all of these strategies we talked about today to really help you get jump started. And so you can book that appointment you that these sessions are virtual? Yes, they're over Zoom. I record the session. I also have Zoom take notes for us and I can offer a full transcript as well so that you have that to take with you because we they're so juicy that it's almost impossible to, you know, not have the recording where you can go back. We come up with some really amazing ideas so that QR code will take you right to the the calendar and you can book it right there. Or I'm happy to talk it over with you as well if you have any questions. Definitely. We're not done yet. Let's stay connected. I want you to have all my contact information. That QR code to the calendar is right there. But take a picture of this and you're always welcome to reach out to me. We're going to have time now for question and answer and I know we covered a lot today. So please let's take the opportunity to discuss workshop together. We've got some brilliant minds on this call, so I'm always open to doing a little masterminding too. Let's see. Okay. So please feel free to put your questions in the chat. And Nelly, I'm a top leader in an international fragrance company. Your raving fans are your VIP customers. Yes. And Your referrals mo mostly happen through reward links and parties. Yeah. This affiliate perspective, I think could be really fun for you. That micro influencer strategy where you think about the communities, the groups, the spheres that you're already moving in and who are the leaders in those rooms that would be willing to, to really shine a light on the work that they do with you and that would, you know, we're always looking for that social proof. I think this is like taking testimonials and just like giving rocket fuel to testimonials. Right. That micro influencer strategy where you have like one of your best clients go out, literally go out and intentionally talk to their sphere of people about the work they do with you, I think can be, can be super effective and valuable and you can always offer, you know, to pay them for their time and their effort. Especially now as we're moving into the holiday shopping season, I'm sure there's people that would love to make a few hundred extra dollars to add to their Christmas budget. Right. So. So it might be a really great time to sign up some of those micro influencers. So what questions do you have for me as you're thinking about these five opportunities? I want us each to have three. At least let's just constrain ourselves because a lot of times we learn stuff and we want to do all the things and we want to do them all right now. And I don't know if that's necessarily realistic. So let's just think about three things. What are three things that you want to take action on right away? Maybe just jot those down and how can I support you in those three things? We've got some time here. We have plenty of time for Q A and for problem solving, for coaching. So raise your hand or. Okay, I'm gonna. Let's look at my participants. Anybody have. Let's see. We don't have any hands raised right at the moment, but feel free to raise your hand. We're all friends here. We can come off mute and ask a question or talk through some things. So maybe just put in the chat. What's one thing, one of these five opportunities that you want to focus on first? What's coming up for you, Karen? A client spotlight newsletter. Yes, that would be so good. You're such a great storyteller. I think that just would be wonderful. And you could actually do like a, a YouTube or a video newsletter. I don't know if you follow Mel Robbins at all. She's like a in or a motivational speaker, but Anyway, I just got invited the other day to her YouTube newsletter. Yeah. So your clients networks. Absolutely. Okay. So Lisa, educational workshops. I think that would be so helpful for you. I know that like you said earlier. Oh, I know you. But that you're in insurance and. Yeah, I think that would be. I think that's such a great opportunity for anyone in a trust based business like insurance that the more educated our audience is, the more they want to buy from us and the more they trust us too. So I think that's a great idea. Karen. Wondering how to leverage their networks to put it out there. Yeah, I mean I think because normally the videos that you're making are highlighting or, or yeah, ask them to share if they're featured. Yeah, that's a great idea. Or you could even host like a, a watch party on, you know, Facebook live or on YouTube live, something like that. Or LinkedIn live. Even have a little watch party where you can maybe even have like a. Where you're talking through the story and then show this the, you know, talking through it basically that might be fun and have people connect with you through that. So I don't know, lots of ideas. I would love to. I'm happy to work with you. That would be a great, a great subject for a 60 minute strategy session because we could have you walk away from that with like a full plan on how to do this client spotlight newsletter. And even I helped one of my clients come up with like a year's worth of ideas for her newsletter and we expect them all out and, and I get to help her write them too. So that's fun. Okay. What other questions do we have? Yeah, you bet. Karen, I'm so glad you're here. Any other. Okay, who else has an idea that they are. What of what's one thing that you would like to take from this that you want to try? Any other ideas? I always think about. I think for me it's like incentivizing referrals. I need to do more of that. And these are things that we're going to always be doing in our businesses. Right. And it's always just a matter of fine tuning and up, you know, up leveling or refreshing each one of these as we go go along in business. It's part of the journey. Part of the journey. Okay. Does anybody need any support or should we wrap it up and. Okay. Okay. Nellie. Yeah. Better follow up when attending and meeting new people. Yes, I see that so often. Girl, you are not alone. I swear of if I had a nickel for every person that has told me they have a stack of business cards on their desk of people they've never followed up with, I would be a rich woman. So yes, and I think that is also a really great idea or a really great subject for a strategy session is like creating your client journey and then kind of the process that you follow, like making it super simple. I had to do that in my own business because I was the same way. I would be out meeting tons and tons of people, collecting all this contact information, and then I would have a stack of business cards on my desk and I'd be like, all right, now what do I do with these? So I created a system for myself that I, I can actually do because that's the important part of having a system, right. Is you have to create something that you will actually do that's easy and simple. And so I had to fine tune that over time. But now I have a system where I, you know, if it's a business card, I scan in the business card and then it scans directly into my contacts and then I will email them a personal email and then, you know, if they, they can opt in to my newsletter from there or they can schedule a coffee date with me. So I like the system where it starts, kicks off the relationship, right? Yeah, you bet. Lisa, I'm so glad you're here. Yeah, I'm happy to help you with that, Nelly. I think it's a great idea, Deb. Pre selling winter services to add onto storage. Ooh, that's a great idea. Yeah. Pre selling. Yeah, I think that's, you know, anytime that we can pre sell or pre book or make booking or like turn it into a subscription thing where people get to our, our clients that want to, they want to make the decision once and then have everything kind of automated for them. I think it is a great way to create that loyalty. Right. Because if we have to have them redeciding and repaying all the time, then it becomes more friction. So you can always ask your clients, like, what would make this more simple and easier for you? Right. So to where you don't have to think about it as much. Karen, what are the top three ways to jumpstart creating an email list? Yes, that's a great question. So top three ways. Well, the top way is to create an irresistible freebie. So something that allow is like an appetizer, right. So it allows people to get to know you and the work you do in and your brilliance, but in a way, in a small bite sized way. So for you maybe it's like advice on. So Karen is a filmmaker and so maybe it's like you know how to create memorable video content or something that is super valuable from your head. You're not going to actually like create videos or films for people for free, but give them an insight of how you like, how you think and how you strategize and some of that wealth of knowledge that you have that would give them a taste of what it would be like to work with you. Right. Some of the kind of thinking that you do. And then so you have that as your freebie and then you offer that wherever you go, whether you're speaking or meeting people, networking or on social media, you're just offering that people opt in, they get the, the freebie and then they're on your email list. So that's the top way. Also inviting people to an experience with you, which also could be like a freebie. Like this workshop, right, Is a freebie and I offered it on my email and social media and so that would be a great way. Let's see. I, I can't really think of three, but I. What I always encourage my clients to do is create that freebie and then we can think of a lot of different ways to offer it to bring people in. Whether we're offering it on social media, we're offering it everywhere we go in person, we're offering it on our, on our website, on our, you know, web presence. So there's a lot of different ways that you can use it and you can create multiple freebies. I have multiple freebies. Some I like better than others, some I'll offer during. I'll offer them for different audiences. Right. So does that help? Do you have any follow up questions to that? Karen, I'm so glad you all are here. Any other questions? And then it's super important to have an email system, an email management system when you're building an email list because you can automate a lot of the email stuff. So, you know, like mailchimp is something that I, is a system that I, that I recommend is like an entry level email system. It's low cost, super easy to use. You can even create landing pages, which is basically just like a standalone web page that will, you can send people to where they can put in their name and email and it will send them the freebie. So that would also be a really great subject for a strategy session. I could help you get set up in mailchimp or any other email service provider, help you get that landing page set up. So, yes, I can do all of those tactical things as well. I have been in business for 18 years. Back in the day, I built my own website and I've kind of been doing my own stuff all along. I have a team that helps me. Me also, but I like to kind of keep my fingers in the technology so that I can help my clients when they need help. I'm definitely not an expert on all systems, but I. I know how to use some of the most popular ones. So mailchimp is a great email service provider a lot of people use. Oh, no, you lost all your contacts. That stinks. But that's okay. You can build them all back up again. That happens to a lot of people losing their contacts if they get banned on Facebook or if they get hacked on one of the social media platforms. So I. That's why I always suggest a email list. And I guess for Karen, maybe we would want to be backing up that email list occasionally. Right. Downloading it so that we don't lose that. Yeah, I don't know what happened. That's too bad. But constant contact is another one that I have used that has been a good one. They're actually, I think they're still here locally in Colorado. They're called Local Colorado business, but they're very well known and pretty easy to use. So, yeah. All right, Anybody have any final questions as we wrap up here? Brick and mortar stores. Yes, Michelle. I am familiar a little bit with square features. Deb. So, Michelle. Okay, Marketing recommendations for brick and mortar stores. So I would love to know from you, and you're welcome to take yourself off mute and we can talk through. What do you feel like, how you would like to improve the most? Like, do you want to improve bringing new people in? Do you want to improve the nurturing and the relationships? Because I think you need to have both of those. And I think a lot of the strategies that we talked about around bringing new people in and nurturing relationships would apply to brick and mortar stores. So social media, we know, is a huge. Is a great way for you to meet new people. Networking as well, being real involved in your community and paid advertising. You know, I might think about that for Google, Google AdWords. Those might be three that I would try for you for bringing in new people. As far as nurturing relationships, I see this so often with brick and mortar stores is that they're not nurturing relationships with the people that come into their store. Like, they have people coming in all the time and then they walk out and they never hear from them again. Like, I was, I was just at the hairdresser this morning. What do you think? And they had a poster up about a fall market that they did last week, and I never got notified. I've been going to this salon for a couple of years, and I would love to support them in their business. And I never knew about this market, fall market that they had. And it's because they have never collected my email address. They have never asked me to connect with them on social media. So I think that's a huge opportunity for a brick and mortar store to make sure you're collecting email addresses, sending out a newsletter, which, again, I hate the word newsletter. You know, even doing live videos on social media, that will help. And just really thinking about how can all the people that come into my brick and mortar store become part of my community, right? How can we create a community of people within this community that we're located in that love, you know, whatever your products are, right? Or that, you know, what is it that you all, all of your clients, your customers have in common? And how can you create a community about. Around that? And I think that's such a huge opportunity because people want to belong to something, right? We don't want to just buy stuff. We also, yes, we need to buy stuff. But there's a sense of belonging that we want to have. And so if you create that community, create that sense of belonging around your store, your products, I think it's a great opportunity and that a lot of local stores, local retailers are missing. So I hope that helps. All right. Thank you, Lisa. I do feel fabulous. Like I look fabulous. All right, any other questions? Anyone going to join me for a strategy session? You have your. Give me a thumbs up if you're going to join me for a strategy session. I would love to work with all of you. I would love to help every single one of you to achieve your goal for the 2023 and have that momentum starting into 2024. I think that that is Lisa's thumbs up. Thank you, Lisa. That is such a great. Really focusing for this next 66 days on creating that momentum is such a great way to go into 2024, right? And it's very, It's. It's an exciting time. It's an exciting place to be. A fourth quarter is often for many of us, our busiest and most, you know, highest revenue quarter. So I just encourage you to dive right in and create that momentum now. So as we wrap up, I want to just thank you all again. For being here. I'm going to stop my sharing so we can I can see you all hello and thank you all for being here. I'm so glad that you joined me today. If you have any follow up questions please feel free to reach out. Any email that you have received from me you can just hit reply and write me a note. It will come straight to me. You can call me, text me, email me. I am here to support you. I want every single one of you to create financial freedom with your business through entrepreneurship and if I can help you and be a part play a part in that, I am here for it 100%. So let me know how I can serve you. But I thank you for being here today. Let's make the rest of fourth quarter wonderful and successful and I will see you very soon. Thank you all. Bye ladies.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but we are nearing our 100th episode.

Woohoo.

I would love to hear from you. In celebration of our 100th episode, I am wondering if you would share with me a question you would love to.

Ask me or a topic you'd love.

To hear me cover on the podcast. And I'd love to hear how this podcast has impacted or served you over the last two years and 100 episodes.

So I have a really cool new.

App that I'm trying. It's called Speak Pipe and so there's a link to Speak Pipe in the episode description and show notes that you can just click on and it'll take you to Speak Pipe and you can ask a question or suggest a topic that you'd love to hear me cover on the podcast and share with us.

How this podcast has impacted or served you.

So you can visit www.speakpipe.com doing business like a Woman podcast and record your voice message and we may even feature you on the podcast.

Yay. Thank you.