Scott Perry and Laurel Portie show coaches how to build a coaching offer in three steps: pick a hyper-specific audience, define your unique mechanism (Laurel's $5-ad strategy grew Scott's business from $3-5K to $10K monthly), and write a single-sentence promise. They cover pricing, a 30-minute daily sales routine, and a lean systems approach.
Chapters
What we are here to do today is to— Laurel, I'm so pleased to have Laurel here with us. We're going to introduce her properly in a minute, but we're here to talk about how and why you need to create an irresistible coaching offer. I'm going to give a quick introduction of Laurel and then I'm going to let her tell me all the things I forgot. But just from a personal relationship with Laurel, I worked with Laurel for 6 or 7 months last year. And through her Lean on Laurel program, which is about leveraging low-cost Facebook ads to build audiences that you can retarget and create more ease for filling your programs, meeting your monthly revenue goals. The reason why I worked with Laurel is I was about to give up on Facebook altogether, and Laurel showed me that not only was there a way to show up on social media with integrity and intention and to behave in a way that was ethical and aligned with my values and leveraged my talents. But she also helped me transform my business from a $3,000 to $5,000 a month business to a $10,000 a month business while reducing the amount of time that I was spending on social media in my business in general. So I couldn't be more grateful for Laurel and her experience and the gifts that, you know, that she shares so generously for free on her YouTube channel, $7 program, which if you're not in that program, that's the most ridiculous deal on the planet. And then, and then lean on Laurel. And Laurel and I had— she's, she remains my mentor, and I'm proud to call her my friend. Laurel, what did I miss in the introduction that you'd like people to know about?
Yeah, no, definitely. Um, one of the things that I think is important and understanding like where I come from, a lot of the things that I teach is not something that a lot of other ad experts teach, and that freaks a lot of people out because they're like, well, why is she doing things this way when everyone else is doing things the other way? Um, I have a television background, almost 2 decades. I started working in television in 2002 And so the way that I look at advertising is completely different than an internet marketer. Most internet marketers look at it a dollar in and $2 out, right? Like you've heard that saying over and over again. I come from the advertising space before there was that $1, $2 out. Like think about this, like when I worked in television, think about how ridiculous this sounds. Do you think that if I'm sitting at my desk, as a matter of fact, in TV we don't have desks. I had an editing, an edit bay, right? Let's say a car dealership busts into my edit bay and demands to know which commercial brought in that client to buy that car. How ridiculous does that sound, right? Does that mean TV ads don't work? It's freaking ridiculous. But yet we put all of this pressure on a platform that essentially does the same thing, puts a piece of content that we've produced in front of a targeted audience. Like, in TV, you can't even really target other than putting specific content on a certain show. That's the best targeting there is, right? And so we have to think about advertising as not so like dollar in, $2 out. As a matter of fact, if you look at my ads manager right now, you would see the return on investment is probably it'll say like 0.52. As a matter of fact, whenever I hit my first million dollars, I'd only spent $36,800, $36,800 to make my first million, right? And then I looked in the Ads Manager, I actually took a screenshot of it. It said 0.52. What's the story that that tells you? That I actually lost money, which isn't true because I made my first $200,000 all organic, which by the way was a slow way. I don't regret it, but I learned a lot. I would've used cheap ads like I show my students how to do to get there faster. But what's more important is that I made $800,000 from that $36,000. But the ads manager's not telling me that because it's not accounting for all of the inbound messages that I got from people who were seeing my content and my ads. And so you have to think like, so if we talk advertising or whatever, that's why my perspective is so different. Because I don't have that internet marketing impatient kind of attitude when it comes to advertising. I come from the space to know that the more that you put out— and we'll tie this up in a nice little bow today. I'm opening a loop right now, but we'll tie this up by the end of this call. But that's why I want you guys to, like, come today with, like, this open mind, because it is a lot easier than you think. You just have to be consistent with it.
Awesome. Yeah. And just so Laurel just spoke to the opener, like if you already had your irresistible offer dialed in, you would not be on this call. You would be out there making money. You would be connected. You would be with a client right now because your programs would be absolutely full. So, you know, what I have found is that as most of us here are independent contractors, independent operators, solopreneurs, whatever you want to call it, and we do all the things that we see the gurus and the experts doing, and we forget that the gurus and the experts have large advertising budgets. They have big teams that are helping them create all that content. They have someone build funnels for them, build webinars for them, do all these things. And so we get caught in the cycle of we keep adding another thing more tasks to our to-do list. And what I found myself doing when I came to Laurel was I was spending 10 hours a day in my business. And if I'm honest, working 7 days a week, and I was spending less than 2 hours a day doing the work I loved, coaching, and spending 8 hours a day doing work I hated, marketing, content creation, and all that sort of thing. So what we're here to do today is to— let's break it down first to first principles, right? So if you're going to create an irresistible offer, before you can even do that, Laurel and I both use this language, what's the step before the step I'm about to take, right? Before you can create an irresistible offer, you have to know who that offer's for and what about your perspective, talent, approach is going to make that an irresistible offer. So I'm just gonna first principles thinking for those of you that aren't familiar with that term, it's just like, what are the essential elements that are, have to be in place for me to get the thing that I want to get, to get the result that I want to get, that if I get these 3 things right will help me get closer to what, what I want. And so when I was putting together my plan for how I'm going to achieve my revenue goal and how I was gonna fill my programs, The first thing I did was I had to, like, define what coaching is. I don't know what other people's experiences, but I kind of backed into coaching. It was one of those things that everybody told me I was good at, and I finally gave in and just started doing it because I needed to make money. But it wasn't until I really thought about, like, what coaching is that I could start to dial in what's unique about the— what's the unique edge, what's the unique perspective that I bring. So I'm just going to share what I normally hear from my clients. I'm a coach. I help people get from where they are to where they want to be. That's a seeing eye dog. What people? Who are they? Where are they? And where do they want to get to? What are the challenges that you're going to help them negotiate? You know, so, you know, a lot of coaches begin coaching for agreement. They just—
they—
I was one of these. I want to be— I'm a people pleaser. I want people to like me, and I want them to just keep working with me because I'm a nice guy. The next level, and this is where we see a lot of the gurus, is, you know, there's one in particular that I've, I've worked with that and found it a very disappointing experience, but his tagline is, I don't coach for agreement, I coach for insight. Like, that's a big deal. And so that's the people that just keep asking you questions. And the longer they can keep you answering questions, the longer you're going to stay in their program. And what I finally decided was distinct about my approach was I'm— I, I coach for insights that lead to intentional action. I call it empathetic antagonism. I want to get under your skin just enough to bother you to create that generous tension that's going to make you take the next micro step into, uh, to get you closer to what you want. And so specifically, I'm working with people that are midlife professionals thinking about what's next, want to create a part-time coaching business that will get them a full-time income. So that's the Coaching Business Prescription offer. Um, you need to get that granular, that dialed in. It's about specificity. What Why do you do what you do? And what, and what does success look like for you? And what are the essential things that you need to have in place to get you from where you are to where you want to be as a coach? I wanted to make $10,000 a month working 2 hours a day. I decided the 3 things I needed to dial in were a very specific, clearly described audience, a very specific, clearly defined offer,. And then I had to find, figure out how to do this 30-minute-a-day sales success strategy that Laurel helped me with. Any other first principle things that you can think of, Laurel?
You nailed it. And I want to take note, like, did you guys see how specific Scott Perry got? Like, he's not teaching just anyone to start a coaching business. Do you see like how like he went super narrow? Like he could You know, that's what a lot of people do. They're like, well, you know, my coaching program works for everybody, right? But he was very specific, and I love the way that he did it was because he's literally helping other people like him. That gives him authority because he's actually doing the thing that he's teaching other people to do, right? And notice, like, he's not just, like, you know, coaching, you know, you know, everyone into starting a part-time coaching business. He's looking for people who want to fund their retirement 'with a part-time coaching business.' That's super, super specific. And so many people are just scared to go super, super specific, but that's where the secret sauce is. That's where the clarity comes in. Like, because people will read that line, that one line. Remember the one line— the most important thing about your offer is people with that one sentence have to be so like enamored that they're gonna pull out their credit card and be like, Here you go with that one line with nothing else. If people will not be sold on that one line, nothing else that you write matters. That's how clear, that's how clear we have to be with who we're talking to and what are we, what is our promise.
Nice. Um, I, Isam, or Isam, I'm, and please give me the correct way to say your name. Go ahead. Hey, Scott, thank you. My name is Isam Longeye. Okay, I got it right the second time. Awesome. So ISAM, it's audience specific as you can get, offer specific outcome that you're going to give, and then sales success strategy. And you want your sales success strategy to be something you only have to, at least the way I teach it, 30 minutes a day. You know, Laurel teaches you to post 3 times a week on social media. You spend the rest of those other days, you're responding to comments and creating Messenger conversations. Yeah, you're very welcome. So there was a thread on social media, on my profiles on LinkedIn and Facebook, where I was talking about this idea of your coaching superpower, like, Yes, you have to have a very specific avatar, but you also have to, and you have to have a very specific outcome that you're going to deliver. But you need to give that. And I think Laurel calls it unique mechanism. I call it coaching superpower. It's your, you know, what distinct perspective, talent, or experience or process. I know Laurel sometimes calls it signature framework as well. But you have to be able to identify for yourself before you create an offer. How is it that you are the best in the world at what you do? How is it that you are the only choice for that right person to get the result that they want as effectively and efficiently as possible? And now on this thread on my social media profiles, and some of you here responded to that. And if I say something that sounds like what you said, I'm not throwing rocks or making fun of anybody. I'm just— this is like typical stuff that I have been very guilty of. I was a coach that wanted to coach everybody, and during that time I coached nobody. I was a coach that wanted to get people from where they are to where they wanted to be, and nobody knew what the hell that meant. I was a coach whose superpower was, I'm a good listener. I, I hold safe space. Those kind of things that we almost always begin our coaching practice building around, that's table stakes. Every great coach, every good coach, every mediocre coach knows how to be an active listener, knows how to hold space, knows how to ask probing questions. That's table stakes. I'm asking you to think about what What is the specific idiosyncratic talent perspective or approach that you possess that puts you in a category of one? There's lots of people that are coaching coaches like me, but there's not very many that are gonna not just ask you a great question, but are going to get under your skin and make you do the next best thing that you need to do to get to the result that you want to get. I call it empathetic antagonism. What does that mean? Well, there we go. We just started a conversation. So what is that thing? How about you, Laurel? What's— what do you think? How would you define your superpower?
$5 ads, honestly. Like, you know, we're talking about, you know, finding out people's superpower. I think like finding your superpower too is as important as also identifying the gap that's in the marketplace. And utilizing your superpower to fill that, right? Like $5 ads aren't really necessarily something new, but at the time that I came out with this strategy, everyone was telling everyone that they have to spend all of these thousands of dollars, right? But my superpower from television was launching these $5 ads. And so that's why a lot of— I believe. But you see how like I didn't just make myself known for Facebook ads. I would've been a dime a dozen as a Facebook ads expert, right? I went even deeper and I went all in on this $5 ads concept that I call power content, right? That's what you need. That's what you need to dig into is like, what is my superpower and what gap in the marketplace can I, can this like superpower really stand out? Beautiful. So think about that, right? Like, because there, there's a lot of competition out there right now. Lots of competition. So we have to not only know our superpower, but what is the gap?
Yeah. And one of the things that I love about the way Laurel shows up is she stands firmly in her superpower. It's, it's, and it, it can be a challenging thing to do at the beginning. But once you've defined what that superpower is, you have to see it, step into it, stay in it, and share it every single day. Nobody's going to pay you for the information that you're sharing. Information is free. They can GPT it right now. They will pay you for access to you. Because you're the only person that can walk alongside them and help them achieve that result in less time, with less effort, with less risk and more optionality going forward.
So I was negative when I first started. Like, I don't know if there's anyone here that, that was around whenever I first started. Like, I got made fun of. Like, no one thought I would succeed with this strategy. I was the butt of so many jokes. I was the person everyone laughed at and made fun of. I lost agency clients because my clients would go to Funnel Hacking Live and be like, oh, that girl's just wasting your money doing that. So don't think that I was— it was all unicorns and rainbows. The first year of me starting my business, I had to stand— I had to learn how to stand in the power because everyone was a naysayer. But you know what? I'm one of the last bitches standing. Whenever I came out, all of those gurus that were all over with the ads, there's— we don't see, we don't hear from them very often, do we, anymore? Well, and the ones that was being relentless and just standing in my power and being like, no, bitches, this works, right? I just want to know that most people give up. Like, I, like, I, you know, like Christine will tell you, there's a lot of blood, sweat, and tears on like that first year because everyone was making fun of me. Everyone didn't think that this was, you know, oh, that girl's not gonna last. It was hard, not gonna lie.
A lot of bottles of wine, I imagine.
Oh my God, yeah, there's still lots of bottles of wine.
But here's the thing. Some of those gurus that are still standing are now hiring Laurel to help.
As a matter of fact, that is very true.
Help them do what she's done. So there is, you know, I was just on a client call with Penny, and I hope she doesn't mind me calling her out, but we were talking about this very thing about how important it is to stand in that power and how challenging it is. And you have to have that commitment, that patience, that discipline, um, you know, which is why all of you are so important in this world, because most people cannot do this on their own. You know, I'm— I, I love poking fun at coaches that have— that don't hire coaches. What is that saying about your faith in the profession? You know, you have to find the person that is going to walk through the dark wood walk through the fire with you to get you to the other side. So we've talked a little bit about, you know, identifying that audience, identifying that superpower. You have to get as specific as possible. Just one more note on the audience. You know, one of the things I learned from Laurel and her copywriter Lucas is this idea of go for the lowest hanging fruit. In your domain, there are people that don't know the problem that they have. That's a very difficult sell. There are some people that know the problem they have, but they have no idea what the solutions are that are out there. Those are challenging people to reach. There are some people that know the problem they have, and know what the possible solutions are. And they are looking— they have their credit card ready and they're looking for the right solution for them right now. And that's why you have to get super specific about who you're talking to and what's on offer. Because if you can get into the conversation that's going on inside their head, it's not even about selling anymore. It's about help, just helping them make the decision that they know they have to make. So that they can get guided and going towards the change that they wanna make. So around that, let's talk a little bit about creating this irresistible offer. I'm gonna kick it over to you first, Laura. What are some of your thoughts about what goes into an irresistible offer?
Yeah, absolutely. Like I think like, you know, we kind of hit the nail on the head earlier, like, you know, leaning into your superpower, but being able to articulate the mechanism that makes that superpower work and the gap that that actually fills in the marketplace. Those, those two things right there, if you can perfect that, that's all you need. Like, you know, I'm a huge fan of Joel Erway's power offer, but here's the thing about that: the power offer is only built to reach 2 to 3% of an audience, right? Think about this, think about this, right? Power offer, super important. But you know, some of my students are struggling with that and they're putting a lot of pressure on it. I'm like, but think about this. As long as you are clear on your superpower and its mechanism and the gap that you fill in the marketplace, if you are— if you show up with content that proves those two things, Do you think nailing a power offer is gonna be all that important? Power offer is just language. But if you show up with content that proves those two things, you are still going to be able to sell and make money. I didn't have an offer, a power offer for like the first two years of my business. I just showed up with content showing people what I could do. I still sold things, you know, I didn't even know what a power offer was until I met Joel Erway. So that's how important, like, knowing what those two things are. Does everyone in this room— can, can you guys identify? Does anyone need help identifying that? Maybe we'll just kind of— Scott, work with one person just to kind of see how—
Lori.
Thank you. So I'm told often what my brilliance is, and I don't know how to put it into words, but people like— I'll be working with people and they're like, oh my God, Yeah, that's it. That's what you do. I'm like, but what is it? I don't know what it is. So what I help people do is people who have like an idea of the work that they want to do in the world, they're passionate about it. They have like a vague idea of the people and they don't know how to like narrow down and say, these are the ways that I'm going to help you and these are the tools that I'm going to use so that they can create those and actually have their program. So it's like having the resources, having the structure. It's like I help them kind of back into that so that we create like a content plan for them to create so that they have their offer. And I also help them with the wording and the messaging around it. But I don't know how—
So what type of people?
Service providers.
Okay. So that's one step there, right? Service providers. But you didn't say that, right? When you first described that. So service providers. What is it again that they're trying, that they're attempting to do?
So like, for example, I have one client right now. She is a collections, like, goddess. She works for corporations and like last month she helped this government agency collect $15 million of unpaid invoices that was due to them. And she wants to help small business owners understand what they need to do to collect the invoices that they're not being paid so that they don't have to worry so much about always getting more sales, that they're actually collecting the money on the sales that they're making. And she's like, I know I wanna do this. I don't, I don't know what I need to do with people. And so I, we walked through and I helped her see like, this is, this is why they think they can't get it now. Here's how you're gonna help them get that. You're gonna have this resource, you're gonna teach them this, you're gonna do this. And so we're like building her offer so that she's completely clear and has the resources she needs to serve her clients.
So are you pretty much like kind of helping them build like what they're going to sell and then the standard operating procedure to do that?
Yep.
But you see how we're getting a little bit clearer? Like, you, you literally help service providers, you know, put together, put together an offer and design SOPs so that their clients can you know, can get results. We're getting, we're starting to get kind of closer, but you see how like we're starting to put together some super clear language other than I help people who wanna make a difference in the world and do that, like, right? Like at the end of the day, what you're helping people do is like, you know, taking, taking their, their expertise as a service provider and putting it in, packaging it to something that they could sell along with all of the standard, you know, operating procedures to do it.
Yes, the resources to actually fulfill the promises they're making as they sell what they're doing.
Mm-hmm.
My, my, I think my biggest problem is that when I talk about helping people develop an offer in the SOPs, it sounds boring and like work that people don't wanna do. And the work that we do actually like lights up. They get so excited, it's so fun for them. And I don't know how to encapsulate that where I'm not talking about doing something that feels like such trudging not fun work.
You would be, you would be surprised. So, okay, it's funny, um, you say that. I was listening to, um, a podcast with, uh, Joel Irway and, um, the— what did he call himself? Um, I want to say it was called The Offer Kid. Um, and they were talking about this, this business putting together all of these different power offers, and the one that was the most successful was, um, we help— if a business sends us a video of a procedure, we will turn around in 24 hours and create an SOP within 24-hour turnaround. That was their most successful power offer. Like, sometimes, like, I think we think too much into what it is, and we try to— we try to make sexy words, buzzwords, we try to make things like a lot sexier, but at the end of the day That's what, that's what people were raising their hand for. We're like, we don't wanna take the time to create SOPs. Like we don't have time to do that. And so this business was like, cool, we'll just shoot a video of what you want it, want it to look like and we will turn it around in 24 hours. Right? Yeah. Like Brandon just says, it's so simple that it can't be misunderstood. So don't discount that literally all you're doing is helping service providers package a program with all of the resources. Like think about this, like if you literally, if all of your content was based upon over the shoulders showing people how you're saving this client by doing all of the SOPs. Like, hey, by the way, hey guys, today I'm actually gonna build an SOP that this client gave to me. This is something that most of you guys don't wanna do, but check this out. Check, this is my, this is my, but by the way, if you want me to do this for you, you know, drop me a line below this video and let's chat, right? Like you, you could literally, like all I do all day long when Scott Perry knows this is I literally leverage all of the daily tasks that I do for my clients. I turn on, Loom. I'm a huge fan. I could probably sell my Loom library for thousands of dollars, but I literally, every time I have a task to do, I turn on my Loom and I just talk people through it as if I'm going to use it for content. And most of the time that's how I do my content. So don't discount, but we have to, again, we, we need to identify.
So we did identify like what your superpower is, but what is the creating your content though? Like they're the ones creating it. So I'm just helping them see that they have all this knowledge that they can package.
Yeah, you're just helping them package an offer that they can sell, pretty much.
Well, I would say—
oh, go ahead.
I was just gonna say, you're— but also, Lori, think about what's in it for them. You're saving them time.
Oh, for sure.
Because you're saving them time, you're saving them money, and you're saving them effort. They, they spend less time doing the thing that they hate. Um, and so— and the other thing is, by using language like actually using SOP in your, in your in your offer, you're losing all the people that have no business paying any attention to you anyways. What you want to do with your content, with all of your content and your offer, is piss off the people that you don't want to work with anyways. The ones that do, like Brandon said, you should be so specific and clear that the people that need you right now know exactly who you're helping, what you're going to get them, and they will come take at least another step to learn more about what you're doing.
So we, so we got the part one, right? Right. What was the, does anyone remember now what's the, what's the bigger thing that we have to accomplish? Now we're, we've gotten clear on what our offer is, what our superpower is. The other part of our offer, what is it? The gap that it fills in the marketplace. What is, what, what's the mechanism that makes your offer unique and fill a gap? And you can— and think about this, like, people look at different currencies, right? There's time, there's money, you know, there's, you know, joy. Like, there's all of these different currencies that people value. Usually the gap is going to fill one of those. So like, you could do it cheaper, you could do it faster, you could do it in a different mechanism. What is that? What is the gap that you're filling? That, that can, that people can say, whoa, now that's something new.
It's definitely cheaper.
It's with time and cheaper because I'm, you know, I have templates that I can help them put the stuff that they're pulling together into so they don't have to come up with that and all, you know, and if they need help with the graphics, I can help them tweak and whatever, cuz I'm a web designer and a copywriter as well. So like pulling together all their brilliance and helping them package it in a way that's like, 100% professional and ready to sell like super fast and deliver.
But what, let's go one step further though. That's what, that's what most course creators, like people, like I, I probably have like 7 or 8 students that'll claim that same thing.
Okay.
So what is it? So let, let's dig a little bit deeper. What I, I like the fact that you said that you are a trained copywriter and a graphics designer. That's, that's part of like filling, you know, filling a gap that no one else you know, that it gives you more authority automatically than anyone else. But what's gonna make Lori stand out? Like this offer, like if people are looking at 8 different course creation packages from 7 other people who are just like you, we have them up on a screen kind of like on Zoom, right? And people are going, mm, what, what's the one thing that's gonna make them Oh, Lori, this is, this is the one I want.
I don't know if part of it is that I help them see their own brilliance much easier than they can see it themselves. So they're, they're kind of like thinking, I can do this, and I help broaden their horizons where I'm—
Every coach will tell you that, like, that I help people see their brilliance, right? And I'm not picking on you. I'm just like, I'm trying to, like, be Um, that, that's another kind of vague term, right? I help people like, you know, see their brilliance.
So is, is my process like my unique process that I walk people through? Is that one of them?
Yeah. Like what, what is it? What is the unique process that makes it a little like that'll, that'll make it faster?
So it's a 90-day program. We do a 1-day, 6-hour intensive the first week.
So, so let's, let's, let's take a look at this. How many of you guys like 90-day program? Like, that's not unique, right? But if most of the people are teaching it in 90 days, is there something that Lori can do that is going to do it in 60? You go, you get where I'm coming from. Like, almost every, every program is 90 days, right? How can you like either collapse time or deliver something that's a little bit different?
Just to weave in here, Laurie, that idea of first principles thinking is really helpful here. What— and I'm a big fan of 3. What are the 3 things that someone has to get right enough to do the thing that they want to do? And I'll just— a quick story. When I developed my offer, it was a 90-day offer, and I thought I was really brilliant when I turned it into a 30-day offer. I presented the offer and I had a group of coaches want to take all 9 spots and their caveat was, but we want to do it in 3 days. And that made— and so I was like, okay, how do I, how do I get someone to dial in an irresistible offer, an eager audience, and a 30-minute-a-day sales strategy in 3 days? And guess what it was? Well, some of the people in this room, Angie, Penny, they've been through that program. And so they can speak to like, it's actually because what you're, what you're actually doing is you're helping them cut down on the noise inside their head. You're helping eliminate the static. You're helping them take things off their to-do list and put them on their stop doing list. You're helping them increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their system. If they do these 3 things, They don't have to do anything else. Saving time, saving money, saving effort, saving stress, anxiety, overwhelm, all those things.
Okay.
Like, think about that. Like, your offer could be like simple as, you know, I help, you know, I'll, I help service providers, you know, turn out a course within 7 days.
That's a compelling—
I'm not saying that's like you're off, but you see how like quickly it's like, okay, cool, what can, what can we do? You know, have a course ready to sell in 7 days. Hmm.
Wheels turning.
Awesome. So, Lori, we're going to, we're going to just open it up for other folks, but I hope that that was helpful for you. So any— Laurel and I both have a hard stop at the top of the hour, so we have about 12 more minutes. To answer any other questions. So please keep the questions really tight and, uh, succinct.
But hopefully you guys are taking like the advice that we, you know, just did with Lori. Like, because ask yourself the same question: what makes me different, right? Like, again, how does my superpower fill the gap in the marketplace? Not only identifying a superpower, that's just one part of your offer, right? The second part is What is the gap that it's filling? That's how you make it irresistible, as Scott Perry would say.
If you go inside the Coaching Business Prescription, there's a, a lesson on system reliability, and that's what we're talking about here. If the more components you add to a system, the less effective and efficient it becomes because it's a multiplication problem. Every time you add something, it only has a certain percentage of effectiveness. So if you have something that's 90% effective and add another thing, it just became 81% effective. And if even if you add something that's 100% effective, which is impossible, all you've done is maintain an effectiveness rate of 81%. And so a lot of times it's more about subtraction than it— well, almost all the time it's about what can you take out of the system And then once you have the core components, you're helping people raise the efficiency of the least performing component, which automatically, which gives them an exponential increase in the effectiveness of their system. Any other questions for Laurel and I before we wrap up?
Actually, if I— Bina, Bina, go ahead, Bina. Yeah, so they asked any recommendations on getting granular into the superpower and finding the gap. Absolutely. You know, there are different— there are a couple of different ways that you could actually find that. One of the things that I did whenever I first started is I literally just got on the phone. Well, not the phone, Zoom, when I first started with as many people as possible. So I knew that I was helping people with ads, right? I didn't have an offer yet. I just got on the phone with 100 people. I keep saying phone, but it was Zoom for 20 minutes and I literally just helped them solve problems in their ads manager. I talked to them about— a lot of people started talking, well, this is, this is an ads program I was in. Here's what I didn't like about it. And I just took note of all of it. What are the things that people didn't like about ads programs? What are, what are the things that people didn't like about an agency? And then that's how I found my gap. I was like, well, cool, I'm gonna create an agency that's more like a partnership because of my television background. I could help people create the content. It wouldn't be all on, you know, the, the person that's hiring me to create videos and all that. I could give them scripts already written because I'm, you know, great at copywriting. That's how I was finding the gaps. One of my favorite examples is actually, um, Jeff Moore always talks about this. Jay Abraham, I think, is the one that came up with it, but he said to go into like reviews, don't look at the 1-star reviews and don't look at the 5-star reviews. Look at the 4-star and the 2-star reviews because those are going to be the most accurate. Because if someone gives someone a 5-star, then that person was probably already a fan of that person and they're just like, uh, look at the 4 stars and the 2 stars because the 1 stars, those are the people that are just probably didn't do the work or didn't whatever, right? So he always says look at the 4-star reviews and the 2-star reviews. You will find a lot of information, like even if you read podcast reviews, course reviews, great information on finding the gaps. You're going to see what people like about your competition and how you can actually fill the gap for that.
Just another, another perspective. So I love Laurel's story about when she was getting started, she just had 100 conversations because you got it. The first thing you have to do is get good at solving other people's problems, getting good at, you know, helping them see what they don't see and helping them define where they want to go and how to get there. If you have been coaching for a while and you have happy clients, go, go to them and ask them, you know, why did you choose me? How would things be if we hadn't worked together? What's life like for you since we've worked together? Because they will, they will tell you what your superpower is. That's exactly how I came to define mine. I thought I was a good listener. I thought I was this, that, and the other. But over and over and over again, people said, You helped me get results by getting under my skin and making me take the step, not— and while making myself take the step that I was afraid to take, but you didn't let me off the hook. That's a superpower. I wasn't trying, and I would tell my clients, my job is to coach myself out of a job. I don't want to work with you forever. I want to work with you for as long as necessary. And then I want you to go save the world in the way you save the world, and I can go work with the next person. Is that helpful, Bina?
Yeah, I, um, to some degree. Um, yeah, I mean, even just getting to talk to 100 people is really quite a conundrum. Um, perspective, you know, well, I— it's, it's process to even get to that that I don't get. I mean, I'm in a, a position that, um, yeah, anyway, I don't know how to—
so I literally just decided that I was gonna go live every day and just give value and then plug, hey, I'm willing to do a free 20-minute ad audit in your Ads Manager. So I— so it wasn't that I just went and found 100 random people. I put in the work to get them to trust me. Because how many of you guys have offered free strategy calls to people and no one's taken the bite—
the bait, or done stuff live, offered free stuff? I mean, it's been years. I'm so tired. Like, I'm here for inspiration because—
are you doing a lot? Are you doing a lot of content?
Uh, no, because I wasn't sure which area or way to do content because I fulfill different areas. So I'm trying to determine which avatar I want to really dig into.
So I'll, so I'll just say this. Whenever I first started, I had no idea. Like, I went to a Damon John workshop because my wife wanted to start a t-shirt company, and I was doing the ads. And they were like, who's doing the ads? And I'm like, oh yeah, me. I worked in television, and, um, I'm doing the ads, you know, like I do my TV show ads. And they were like, why the hell are we talking about t-shirts? You know how much money you could make if you did ads for other people?
People.
And I was like, oh, I'm a television producer. What? And so I did what I do. I— now video is my superpower because I was behind the camera for so many years. And so that— I did what I knew that I could do, and I just went live on Facebook and I just tried things. I didn't have a plan. As a matter of fact, like, if you guys have never done your Colby score, do it. I, I recently found out like that That has a lot to do with the type of content and implementation you're gonna, you're gonna wanna do. I'm high implementer, high quick start, and very low fact finder. What that tells you about me is that I don't wait for, for data. I just do things. I come up with things and I just throw things out there. That's literally like how my business came into fruition. I went live. It started all with a Facebook Live on April 18th, 2018. I went live every day over 100 days, offered strategy calls. Before the end of the summer, I had my agency booked out. In August, I went live twice and sold out the first 20 seats to my high-ticket program, all just by going live. I hadn't even done ads for myself yet, just all by going live. But, but we have to figure out how to, how to get more conversations. That's the, that's the thing. Most of us probably sitting in this room, that's our issue is we're not having enough conversations with people. We need to figure out, are podcasts the way to do that, or emails the way to do that? Shit, whenever I first started and I didn't know what I wanted to do, I would go to networking events. Like, I joined the Chamber of Commerce. Like, I would— I was very active. I needed to be around business owners. I was not a business owner. I needed to learn what they— what that gap was that I needed to fill with, you know, with doing ads. I'm just Talk to people. That's it. You know, you have to figure out a way, like most everyone in this room needs to talk to more people and you need to figure out a way to do it.
So I, if I can add to that, our mission has to be stronger than our introversion. Just putting it out there.
Yeah. I doubt that you're alone in being, you know, kind of, I mean, it is, it is, it does invoke fear, right? We're, we all have an amygdala that hijacks our prefrontal cortex. It's fight, flight, or fear all day, all the time, in almost everything we do. So two quick things, Bina. One is, one of the things that helped me was having a conversation with myself at the end of my life. And, you know, would I be grateful that I remained humble and hiding and not putting my brilliance out into work? And the answer was no. I would be— I would regret that. I would wish I had stepped into my power and my contribution. The other is what we started off with. What's the step before the step I'm about to take? So Laurel gave you a brilliant piece of advice. The fastest path to cash is conversation. I don't know if that's hers or that's Nick's or whoever's, but here's a Nickism. The process is the shortcut. And the thing about a process is it begins with the very first smallest viable step or what we sometimes call microsteps. And so Penny and I were on a call. I'm sorry to pick on you again, Penny. I feel so sorry for you. Actually, I don't feel sorry for you at all. So, you know, Penny was ready to launch this big program and I said, what's the step or the series of videos? What's the step before the step? Right? Well, before I launch a bunch of videos, I should probably launch one video and keep launching it and fix it and tweaking it until I get that one right enough, and then I can move on to the next video. So the first step, if the first step is just getting on camera, get on, do a Facebook Live and delete it immediately afterwards. Just get on camera and share your truth, share your process, share whatever it is you want to share, and then delete it and do that until it feels comfortable. See if you can leave it up for Half a day. When, when that feels good, leave it up all day. Here's the thing, we think that when we go live that the whole world is watching us. No one is watching you. No one. And the ones that are, are multitasking and largely ignoring you anyway. So you, I mean, we, I get it. We think we have a lot to be afraid of, but actually there's nothing to be afraid of other than the fact that we might not show up at and step into our power to make a difference for ourselves and for the people that we want to serve. All right. With that little riff rant out of the way, we've got to start to wrap this up so that Laurel and I can get on to our—
and I'll add one last thing. Like, so what a lot of people didn't like about my strategy was that they felt it was too slow, right? It was too slow. I like playing the slow game, right? Here I am, 5 years. I just got— I had my 5-year business anniversary. You know, I like where I'm at now. I never thought was possible as a solopreneur, honestly. But if everyone that started with me would have just came along for the ride on the slow game, they would be like— they would have gotten where they wanted to be so much faster. I know that sounds counterproductive, but like if all of my, my, my people that were watching those videos 5 years ago would've just taken the journey with me, we would all be sitting right here. Like think about how many times we restart courses or we restart, we restart, like just push through it. Just keep going. You're a lot of times people stop, like I'll end it with this. This was something that I talked about at my, at my CCA graduation speech that I did about a month ago. Was most people say, you know, people stop 2 feet away from hitting that breakthrough. I believe that most people stop 2 feet away from the starting line, not 2 feet away from the finish line, because it— the, the 2 feet away just— it just seems too— it's moving too slow. But to me, like, the last 5 years went by so fast, and I didn't do anything by pushing the gas.
Slow is smooth, smooth is fast, and slow is simple. Yeah, and slow is simple. And just to end on that note, I had been working for 6 years to try to grow my business to where it is now, and I did it in about 6 months working with Laurel. Now maybe that feels like it's not fast enough, but 6 months compared to 6 years That's supersonic. So begin. That's, that's all we can say. Begin. All right, everyone, thank you so much for the gift of your time and attention. Laurel, I am so grateful to you for doing this with me. I always— every moment I get to spend with you is just always amazing. Appreciate the difference you're making in the world. Appreciate the difference you all are making. Replay will be available in the Coaching Business Prescription. Later today. And I dropped links to both of our communities in there. Please join both and take advantage of all the free resources. Any last parting words, Laurel?
Just go out there and do it. Whatever, whatever, like you're hesitating on, just get off this call and just go do it. Just seriously, just go do it and go to, go to my community. Everything we talked about is laid out on that. Like if you want to know how to do the videos and all that fun stuff in my Success Finder community. It's all there.
And I'm going to steal Laurel's two ideas, week, one piece of weekly content and weekly Q&A. So thank you for that.
Wait till you see the conversion multiplier.
Oh, I've already watched it.
Oh, you've already watched it.
I stalk you all over the internet. All right, gang, take care. Thanks very much.
Bye, guys.
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