The Art of Encore Living - Alisa Conner

They're at the speed of bytes, and we're waiting for a fix on our Facebook profile. Looks like we are everywhere we are supposed to be, and probably a few places we're not supposed to be, because that's just the way we roll here. Welcome to The Art of Encore Living, a show for encorepreneurs, people in midlife building a part-time online lifestyle business that's fun, fulfilling, and Funds Your Retirement. I'm Scott Perry, Encore Life Coach and your guide at Creative On Purpose. Visit CreativeOnPurpose.com to get started with the Art of Encore Living Quick Start Guide. Don't die with the difference only you can make still inside. It's time to live your legacy. Let's meet today's guest, Elisa Connor. Welcome to the broadcast. Please tell our viewers who you are, what you're up to these days, and where can they go to learn more about you and the difference you're making?

Hey, Scott, thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm Elisa Connor. I own a company called Elisa Connor Consulting, and I I help second act entrepreneurs harness the power of email marketing to grow relationships, stay top of mind with their customers, and turn more people into long-term clients and sales. People can find me all over the interwebs, um, starting at my website, elisaconner.com. I've got a podcast over there that has a link called the Second Act Entrepreneurs Podcast. And then most other social media is either Elisa Connor or Elisa M. Connor. So that's where you can find me.

Fantastic. And Elisa has a fabulous podcast, I will say. I mean, there are some upcoming guests that I would not recommend tuning in to hear, but—

One that's coming up that's going to be awesome, his name's Scott Perry. I'm really excited about the interview.

Yes. So Elisa and I are doing back-to-back discussions with each other. My appearance on her podcast will be upcoming. This is obviously live and I'm just really thrilled to be connecting with Alisa because we, we share a demographic and we just help them in two slightly different ways. And I would love to just start with, you know, I, I'm guessing that little 9-year-old Alisa didn't wake up one day and say, you know what I want to do when I grow up? I want to help people in their second act., make more money by leveraging their email. Um, so give us a sense of the journey, like what brought you to doing the work that you're doing now.

So I have a very interesting story. When I was 9, I actually wanted to be a lawyer, um, and I wanted to be a lawyer all the way through about my third year of college. And when I was studying for my, um, final exams So it was May of my junior year. I found a walnut-sized lump in my neck that ended up being stage 3, stage 3 Hodgkin's lymphoma. And I ended up going through chemotherapy through the good portion of my junior year and part of my senior year. In fact, when I graduated, I still didn't have any hair. So it was my little, my little cap that you wear on my bald head. But in that time, when you were hit with a diagnosis like that at, you know, 21, everybody's out partying and having a good time and you're going through chemo. It makes a monumental impact on your life. And about— you figure out real quick, like, what's important. And so I ended up not going to law school. I tell people I met a lot of lawyers and I didn't really like them. So that's why I decided not to go into law school. And I double majored in criminal justice and communication. But the communication part was really always interesting to me. And so I sort of just followed, you know, step after step on my path. And I ended up working at a marketing startup as one of my very first career places. And I, I was really lucky because I still have really great friends from that. And this has been over 20 years ago. That connected. We were the same age and it was just such a cool culture and environment. And I really loved working there and I loved all the things I was learning. I was in tech. And so we were doing a lot of things. If you— I don't know if you can go back to the Wayback Machine. I worked for a company that was a subsidiary of Sun Microsystems and we did all of the marketing for their partners. Long story short, we got purchased by GE, and at that time GE was known for gobbling up and spitting out companies. And I knew the moment that that was going to change. I remember the exact moment of sitting in the auditorium when they made the announcement. I was like, I'm done. I can't do this. I won't. I can't work this way. And I think, you know, even as a young child, I was probably the square peg in the round hole and knew that I probably couldn't work for other people for a long part, a long piece of my time. But that evolved into me having multiple entrepreneur businesses I started out as a personal chef. I cooked for a lot of the wealthier families in Boulder, Colorado. And then I had a surprise, my first son. I got pregnant with my first son. And so that caused me to shift again. And then I was doing some other marketing activities in there, you know, as the CMO of an engineering company and a couple of other things. And then got that will. She needs a little bit something else to keep her busy. So I got pregnant with twins. So at that time I had 3 kids under 3, and I was like, okay, something's got to give. And so, um, I took a little bit of time to acclimate to that. And then in 2009, so the twins were 8— no, they were 5 at that time— um, I started my marketing business. And I always tell people, I started online marketing at the time of MySpace. So if you remember clear back, Tom— Tom and I were friends, everyone was friends with Tom. But that's when I started to see the power of what you could do with online marketing. And that has evolved, you know, all through all of the different experiences to me really focusing on helping people get their online marketing automated and also how to build relationships, because that was really the key to any online marketing. And I really focus on the second act entrepreneurs, which I look at as mostly Gen X and then maybe some older millennials who know enough about technology to get in there and get their feet wet, but they don't know how to powerfully use it to grow and expand their businesses. And email marketing kind of gets the shaft as like, no, email sucks. I don't want— I hate getting email. But what people don't realize is that it is actually the most profitable tactic you can take in your business. That is, that can be automated. And so when you invest in email, you are most likely to get the averages of 4,200% return on investment. So that means for every dollar you put in, you're going to get $42 back. But what isn't calculated into that, and why it's so, um, exciting for me, is that if somebody buys from you one time the likelihood that they're going to continue to purchase other products from you is significantly higher, which means you don't have to go out and get clients all the time. You don't have to go out and constantly bring new people into the funnel. If you're nurturing them with emailing or staying in front of them— and you don't always have to be selling— but if you're sharing who you are, what you do, your daily life, and you're staying in front of them and keeping yourself top of mind, when you have that new offer They'll go, uh, yes please. And then you've got a built-in audience to not only test new products and offers on, but also to sell to. Um, so that was a long, long spiel of my story, and it started out very rocky, but that, that's how I got excited about second act entrepreneurs, is that they've had a full-on experience, um, in some capacity, whether it was corporate or a— I have a lot of people that have had just, um, different careers, full careers, and they're like, but I'm not done yet. And I just, I want to be able to, to get in front of the right people and share my skill set so that I can leave an impact and a legacy before, you know, I take a dirt nap.

I love it. Well, your story is really powerful, just the resilience of overcoming a serious diagnosis like that. And then the even more serious diagnosis of having twins. I mean, come on. That's, again, really powerful. And, you know, what's fast— I've not read the book, but, you know, Cal Newport evidently has come down against email. A coach that I'm working with has given up on email. And, you know, like you, I share an affection for and I consider my email list an asset, and I try to work with my clients to build and nurture and leverage that asset. And all those things that you shared are really powerful, and yet a lot of people really struggle with how do I— everybody's telling me that I have to grow my list, get a list, that my list is an asset, but I don't know what to do with it. Just what are some, some just practical, pragmatic, uh, things that you could share with people that, you know, have a list but maybe just don't know exactly how to leverage that as being part of their, um, revenue-generating strategy?

So a couple of things. One is that I want to address the list, like growing your list, because there seems to be this I don't know, fallacy out in the world that you have to have a giant email list in order to make money from it, you know, 15,000 people on your email list. But there are multiple people that I have worked with that have less than 500 people on their email list and they're making $250,000 or more a year. And so you don't have to have a ginormous list to make it work for you. What you do have to have is people skills and you have to know who you're talking to specifically and not try to address everyone and every problem. People are smart. The typical consumer is 10 times more aware of marketing tactics and practices than they were 10 years ago. And that has to do with social media. And so they're getting smarter and they're also being exposed to a lot more on social media, via email, via, you know, text messaging, all of the different things that we have available as tactics. So they will see through something that is inauthentic. And so the first thing I would say is that, um, building a rapport in your email list and building your email list as an asset requires you to put in the work to build relationships. And most people don't want to do this. They just want the one and done. They want people to buy right away. And the most interesting statistic I have come across this year is that 97% of people that you interact or interact with your brand are not ready to buy. 97%. And most people will go after the 3%, the 3% of people that are ready to make a decision and buy. I'm not saying don't go after those people, but I'm saying you have this plethora of people that you can convert into customers. It just might take a little bit more time. And that's, you know, we live in an instant gratification society. So the majority of people don't want to, don't want to spend the time to develop a relationship with that other 97%. But I created, um, an example the other day. I was on a call with a client and I said, you know, you have 3%. So if you have 100 people on your list and 3% of those people buy, that's 3 people. But if you give it another 4, 5, 6 emails and you converted even another 10% of that 97%, That's another 10 people. 3 versus 10. And the likelihood that people will buy from your list as they get to know you is actually higher than the 10% that is normally a conversion rate. And so what I tell people is take the time to get to know the people on your list and get really specific about the content that you give them. So if somebody likes green ice cream and somebody likes blue ice cream and somebody likes red ice cream, these should probably be flavors, but they're not because green, red, and blue are easier to understand. But you start sending a bunch of things to the person that likes green ice cream about blueberries and Blue Lagoon ice cream and all these different things, they're gonna be like, I don't care, I only like green, I like the green ice cream, I don't want to know about blue. And you start sending instead, you know, the blue and the red people are kind of like, yeah, I like blue and I like green, then you have the opportunity to say, okay, well, we have this blue flavor on special this month and also a green. They're gonna be like, oh, well, I might try both. But if you dedicate your content specifically to the green person, you're like, oh yeah, we have green bean, we have green pea, we have pistachio. They're gonna be like, oh, these people are all so on it. And that takes some forethought.. And it also takes some time to get to know those people well enough to be able to give them the content that they want. But what happens with that tactic is that they start to say in their heads, hey, Scott Perry really knows me. He knows that I like green bean ice cream. Like, who likes green bean ice cream? But Scott Perry knows. And if he knows me, I should know more about him. And if he has spent the time to get to know me— and then something magical happens, is you start to know them so well that they see that you are coming up with the thoughts that are in their head. And when you have the power of knowing what they're thinking and you say it back to them, that's when people magically convert. They're just like, okay, yeah, not only does he know the things that I like and he's spent the time to get to know me, but he actually knows what's going on in my head and He's the person that can help me. And what's powerful about that is that not only will they buy from you, but they become your best advocates in promoting you to other people.

Yeah, I love that. I just, I want to amplify what you said a little bit because one of the things that I adopted and learned and adopted from Seth Godin during my tenure as a head coach in his programs, one of which was the marketing, seminar is this idea of the smallest viable audience. You don't need 10,000 people on the list to make a very good living online. I myself have a list of about 800, but one of the things that I'm super proud of is my open rate is 50% of every email. So I have the right people on a list. They are eager. I've earned their permission and their trust and their enrollment. And so they're opening my emails. And when I have something for them to invest in, I am going to get a very high open rate and a very high click rate. And that's the real name of the game. You don't need— I also love Kevin Kelly's 1000 True Fan concept, which is, you know, if you can find 1000 people that'll give you $100 a year, you're making a good living. And you can reverse engineer that any way you want. If you get 10 people that give you $1,000 a year, what, you know, or whatever. So I think I totally am resonating with, with what you're saying and how important it is to treat the people on your list as if they are your, your friends, that they're people that you care about, because you should they should be your friends and you should care about them. That's the whole point of, you know, people that are involved in some sort of lifestyle business. If, um, the other thing that I'm wondering about, at least, so that, that's been working for me, and I'm just curious about your take on it, is, you know, when we're communicating with our list, um, you know, we should, we should deliver value, of course, but There's also one of the things that I found really helpful in both my social media posts and my email list is providing a clear call to action, a reason for them to write me back or to ask a provocative question that they'll comment on. And so then I can actually begin a one-on-one conversation that might lead somewhere, you know, to a phone call that might lead to a higher ticket sale or something like that. So any tips about how people might do that if that's something that you advocate.

It absolutely is. And there's a couple things that people do both in their email and on social media that don't work well. So sometimes giving you an example of what doesn't work well will help you understand what does work well. And I'm sure you have seen this, especially in emails, is that your brain can only focus on one thing at a time. There's an illusion that we can multitask, but your brain physically cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. And so when you inundate your subscribers, the people that are reading your emails with multiple calls to action, they just won't choose any of them. And I, I always use the example of if you go to the grocery store and you are, you didn't bring your grocery bags and you have to use the plastic ones and, or even the paper ones, you get the paper ones because you're earth-friendly and you want to be able to recycle them. If they hand you one bag of groceries, you're probably good. You can probably walk out, saunter out the store and you're doing good. If they hand you two, well, you might have a little bit more that you've got to balance. But if they hand you three, you're in trouble. Like the chances that you're going to drop one of those grocery bags is exponentially higher and you just, you physically can't do it. Well, if you look at that in comparison to the way your brain works, if you hand them one item, they're going to be sought, they're going to click on it, they're going to be moving forward, they're ready to go. If you hand— if you give them 2 choices, they might tune in and pick one of those 2 choices, but it exponentially decreases the chance that they're going to click on that call to action or take that call to action. If you give them 3, forget it, they're overwhelmed, they're not going to— they're not going to choose anything. And so then all of the work and the effort you've put into your social media post, your email, It's for nothing because you have then stopped them from taking action and moving forward to the next step in your sales funnel. And you've basically kicked yourself in the butt because they're not going to choose. So I say choose one call to action. It is okay to repeat that call to action multiple times because the other thing that happens with email marketing is they— people, I love you people so much, but you think people read your whole email. And they don't. That everybody's a skimmer. Like, 90% of people are skimmers because they're busy, they're distracted, and they have other things to think about. And so calling out that call to action multiple times within your email and using a heading that, you know, has that call to action associated with it will increase the likelihood that someone is going to click on it and move forward. And calls to action, people get really kind of freaked out about, like, I don't know what that should be, I don't want to promote something every time. Well, you don't have to. One of the things that I love to do with my email audience more than anything is to get feedback. And so very often, if you're on my email list, you will get an email from me that says, hey, I've been thinking about this, what do you think? Hit reply and let me know. Now the key to that is that if you're going to say hit reply, let me know, is that somebody, whether that's you or somebody on your team, replies to every single email. Because if you don't, then you've broken their trust. And if you can do it yourself as the business owner, it's much more powerful. But, um, that's a simple call to action that doesn't take a lot of work. You don't have to have a lot of things set up, but it's a great way to get feedback from your audience and also build trust.

I couldn't agree more. I, I, I learned about that, uh, technique through when I was actually, uh, taking a, an online course on how to market without social media. And what brought me into that program was the two women that headed the program were fantastic. They sent the best emails and they all had a reason to hit reply. And, um, and, and that would start a dialogue that was, that felt sincere and authentic and genuine. Um, and you know, I just wanted to, to spend more time with these two people because they were doing such a fantastic job. Of reeling me in in a way that made me eager to continue the conversation as opposed to feeling like I was just getting hit over the head with that false urgency and buy now or before it's too late or buy now before I come steal your firstborn or whatever you're experiencing these days. So all really, really great advice. 2 last questions as we're coming to the end of our time here. One is, you know, just for, you know, as someone that I consider to be an encorepreneur, someone that's, you know, finding fulfillment and making a difference in their life in a career that leverages their wisdom and experience, what are routines and relationships that you know, you, you have in your day-to-day life that really helps support and encourage you in your journey to continue to do the great work that you're doing?

So one thing that has really immensely helped me is I meditate every morning. Some days I am successful, some days I am not. But I do it. And I use an app called Insight Timer. I don't know if you're familiar with Insight Timer, but it's such a marvelous free app. You— they do have a paid upgrade, but I've always used the free one. But it does a couple of things. One, it connects you with community around you. Two, it provides you, um, the opportunity to really get some guided meditations from some of the people that are top in the industry, so you don't feel so overwhelmed with like, what should I be doing with my brain? Um, and then three is it gives you the stats of what your personal practice is. And it breaks it down not only by how many days in a row you've done it, but also what types of meditation you're doing. And so it keeps you accountable in a way. And I think a lot of times when we start a habit, staying consistent with that habit and having accountability in some way is a struggle for people. So every day I meditate first thing in the morning and then I do some journaling. I think getting your thoughts out of your head and using an actual pen and paper does something magical with your brain. As a person that focuses on writing, of course I love writing, but I just think that journaling, even just asking yourself basic questions like, what do I, you know, what do I love about my life? What do I love about where I'm going? What do I not love? And just asking yourself those internal questions really gets you back to, like you said, the 9-year-old you, because that person, that 5-year-old, 7-year-old, 9-year-old version of yourself is still here. It's still part of who you are. But they often have a perspective that we lose track of in today's world of who should we be being, who should we be being right now. Um, and so, you know, focusing in on those two things. And then I, um, became a yoga junkie probably in 2013. Um, between 2013 and 2015, I lost three significant people in my life. Boom, boom, boom. And, um, the first was my cousin who was, uh, about 3 weeks younger than me, and she died of breast cancer. And that was very, very hard on me. She was like a sister to me. And then the next year I lost my dad, and the next year I lost a really, really close friend. And so yoga was my stability during that time. And what yoga does for your body is it's never about the movements. It's about connecting your body to your breath, which is something that we don't do. And so yoga is a daily practice for me. It was a little bit harder. I used to go to a studio and then of course COVID changed all that. So now I do online yoga, but it really makes a big difference and it's really the only thing that I have found that centers me and keeps me grounded so that I can focus on the things that are a priority as I go through my day. So those are my top 3. It's, you know, meditating in the morning, getting my thoughts out of my brain, and then somehow grounding and centering myself so that I can move forward throughout the day and help the world in the way that I'm supposed to be here helping.

Fantastic. Well, you've kind of provided some answers to the last question already. But the last question for every guest is always, if there was just one piece piece of advice, one quote, one maxim, one idea that, you know, someone that like you aspires to make a bigger difference by leveraging their experience and wisdom in some sort of entrepreneurial or entrepreneurial endeavor. What last encouragement would you give someone? Or what piece of advice would you give someone that's ready to level up in The Difference Only They Can Make?

So, um, there's two, and then they'll be short. The first is it's never too late. It's never too late until the gig is up and you're taking a dirt nap. Like, that's really what it amounts to. You have every opportunity, every single minute of the day to make a different choice and make an impact. And the second is that I don't believe in failure. Everything that you do, every step that you take, even the mistakes that you make, even if they're gargantuan mistakes is giving you the opportunity to learn. And so when you look at something and you're like, oh, it didn't turn out the way I wanted, if you shift that perspective and instead say, what can I learn from this, your growth will be exponential. Because everybody else will be wallowing in the, oh, poor me, why did it, why did it turn out that way, boohoo. But the people that can look at that from the different perspective of there's a lesson here. There's something I'm supposed to learn, and that lesson is going to take me forward. And so instead of focusing on failure, focus on the lessons, and then see how your life changes and see, um, where you end up going next.

That is really hilarious because the email that's going out to my list tomorrow sends that very same message. I don't know, there's, there's some strangeness going on with the, the, the, the brainwaves between you and I. Um, thanks everyone for tuning in. Elisa and I really appreciate you lending us your valuable time and attention. We hope today's broadcast motivates you to take a bolder step into possibility, living your legacy. You can learn more about Elisa and the difference that she's making over here at elisaconner.com. And of course, it's always great to see you at Creative On Purpose .com as well. If you're watching where there's a place to leave a comment, please share a question, a lesson, or a takeaway from this conversation. And if you're listening to this as a podcast, please consider leaving, leaving us a 5-star review. Now take the insight and inspiration from this conversation and start flying higher in the difference only you can make. Elisa Connor, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today.

Thank you so much for having me. You're, you're a blessing and I'm so grateful to be here.