{Focus2Finish Session} How Debra Butterfield Will Use Webinars to Grow Her Business in the Next 90 Days

Welcome to the Author Audience show, the podcast that helps you reach more people with your message. Create a book, connect with your audience, change lives. Here's your host, Shelly Hitz.

Have you set up your 90 day goal for third quarter? Hi, my name is Shelly Hitz. I'm the creator of Author Audience Academy and I'm on a mission to help you reach more people with your message. It's time to let your light shine. One thing I just opening up, this is my very first one is focus to finish sessions with my Author Audience Academy members. In these sessions, we will go through their 90 day breakthrough goal and really start to develop a plan. So Deborah, thank you for being the very first one.

You're welcome.

I'm here in Colorado Springs and Deborah, that's where you're from too, aren't you?

Actually, I used to live in Colorado Springs, but I live in Missouri now.

Oh, yeah, we met at a conference in Colorado Springs, right? Yes. Awesome. This is the first time I'm using obs in this way too. Always something new, right? All right, so we're gonna dive in. I have my mind map up here because I love mind mapping. It really helps me as a visual learner to really visualize and help my clients. So what we're going to do, Debra, is I'm going to open in prayer and then we're going to dive in to your 90 day goal and a plan for the next 90 days for you to achieve that goal. Does that sound good?

That sounds great.

Awesome. So I'm just going to pray and then we'll dive in. So, God, I thank you for this time. I thank you for this focus to finish session. I thank you for Deborah and all the gifts and abilities you've given her. I thank you for the technology where we can actually share this with many people. And I just pray that Deborah would get a breakthrough, that she would get a clear plan, she would have clarity as a result of this session and that those watching would also learn and be able to apply from our conversation, from this coaching session. They could apply it to their own situation. So Lord, I thank you for this and I pray, pray this in Jesus name, amen.

All right, so you went through Planet Day, correct, Inside Author Audience Academy and you set your 90 day breakthrough goal. So share with me what your breakthrough goal is.

My breakthrough goal is to be earning $2,500 a month through my business.

And tell me what your business is.

I'm an editor and a writing coach.

Awesome. So what kind of services do you offer as an Editor.

Editing their manuscript. Manuscript critique, which just involves looking at the first 50 pages and letting them know what issues I see and what they've got, whether they have a viable story.

Okay, is that mostly fiction or nonfiction too?

Either one. I do mostly specialize in, in fiction, but I'm working. I am doing nonfiction as well.

Okay, good to know. And then do you have any other editing services or those are your primary editing services?

Those are the primary ones.

Okay, cool. Now what about writing? You're a writing coach, you said yes. Okay, so tell me a little bit about that.

Well, that involves working pretty much one on one, much like we're doing right now with a writer. I spend time prior to our meeting meeting, reading through a portion of their story, making edits, making comments, and then we Skype for an hour. We talk about the edits that I've made, any questions that they have, how they can apply those edits to further down in the manuscript, and talk about questions. Why did I do this, why did I do that, why didn't I do this? That kind of stuff. And provide motivation. Provide. Okay, here's what you should be doing when you're not writing. Building your platform, that kind of stuff. And we do that as many times as necessary to work our way through the manuscript. We can meet as often as they want, or once a month, once a quarter, whatever they need. I'm pretty flexible on how often we we meet.

Okay, awesome. Yeah. Like I have people that will, you know, email me and say, will you read my manuscript and do all this? Now I'm a different type of author coach in that I more give you strategy and ideas, but I love how you really dial in, you read their manuscript because people are actually looking for that kind of a coach. And that's not me. We all have our gifts. I'm not an editor. People keep asking me, will you edit my book? I'm like, no, you don't want me to edit your book.

So are those your main sources of income?

Yes.

Okay. And I'll close those up. And you had told me that you're currently at around 500amonth, correct?

Yeah, that's what I'm averaging.

Yeah. Okay, so tell me, like, what is your plan from going through plan it day you set that breakthrough goal. What is your plan now that you initially set to get there?

Well, I haven't laid out a complete plan. I wanted to wait until we met. I did mind map several channels that I can use to accomplish this. I just wasn't really sure where the best place was to start.

And that's what I hoped to gain from today's meeting. Okay. You know where we could start? I'm gonna. I'm trying to open up my. My mind map stuff here. I hope that doesn't mess anything up.

No, it shouldn't on your end. All right, so let's start with that. What are you currently doing to market your business?

That's a problem. I'm not doing a whole lot to market my business.

Okay. Anything?

Well, I have the author page on Facebook. And of course, I post. Whenever I have a new blog, I post that on Facebook. I also put that out on Twitter. I do have a landing page, but I'm not utilizing it nearly the way I need to. I know that. And that's part of what I need to begin doing. I do have a couple of books, and I. I do promote the books every now and then, but.

That'S not gaining me business, but it just gains me book sales.

Okay. Is your landing page for your email subscriber list? Yes. Okay. And how many subscribers do you have right now?

Somewhere around 77 to 80, something like that.

Okay. We'll just say 80 right now. Okay. Have you been emailing them?

No. Okay.

I mean, I get an email whenever I post a blog, but I am not. I'm not doing a newsletter. And there, again, that's something I know I need to be doing and working out.

Okay, no problem. That's what these sessions are for. And you know what? I have a lot of holes in my own business. And when I work one on one with my business coach, there are times I'm like, no, I'm not doing that.

And I know.

I know how that goes. So they do get notified of the blog posts?

Yes.

All right. And are you getting traffic to your site? Are you monitoring that?

Yes, Actually, the traffic to my website is mostly through organic search because I post quite often. I've posted publishers that are accepting submissions, and I post agents and stuff like that. So people who are doing a search on Google for that kind of information end up coming to my website. And that's the majority of my traffic right now, which is. That's nice. But at the same time, not enough of them are signing up for my email list.

Okay. Yeah. Do you have a related offer or lead magnet on those pages that they come to?

No.

Okay.

No related.

Because that. You're already getting traffic there and if. Would those be some of your ideal clients?

I would imagine so, Yeah.

I was kind of typing when you were saying. So just repeat to Me again, what they're coming for.

They're coming to find out the information about publishers who are accepting submissions, which means that they've written something.

Yes. Okay, so.

Yeah, so that's that. That would be your ideal audience. Now could you put together something like the top 10 things you need to do before you submit your manuscript to these publishers or something like that, or the top 10 mistakes authors make or some sort of checklist or you know, something that you can like go through. Like would something like that be.

That wouldn't be hard at all. When I was doing some brainstorming on lead magnets earlier this week, that was one of the topics that I came up with and that was probably, I think, the first one that I'll do.

Yeah. And then.

They call this a content upgrade. What is your website URL again?

Debra lbutterfield.com Deborah lbutterfield.com okay, I'm going.

To go on my other browser. I don't think you can see it on obs, but I'm just going to go on there to look. And basically what you can do then on that page is add like either like a graphic button or even just a link to say, you know, make sure you, you are prepared for this submission. Let's see, where would I find that blog post?

Well, what are you looking for exactly?

Where the, the search traffic lands when they come from Google?

Well, I guess it would depend on, you know, what search came up. But I mean that very first topic that's on the top of the page is one of them. That's my most recent one. So I was looking at the author leads and author links plugins that I downloaded and so yeah, that's something I need to do. And put that link on every one of those blog posts.

Yes, that's something because you're already getting traffic, you're already getting people. That's something you're already doing. So the plan would be create lead magnet for Google traffic. You're already getting that traffic and then that's the top 10 things or whatever you don't know. And then what I would do is have like a follow up email sequence and do you have like a session that they meet with you one on one to see if you're the right fit as an editor? Like how do you, how is your process then if, if they come to your site they say, yes, I have a manuscript I want to submit to these places. I want to make sure I'm not making these mistakes, that I do these things. So they get your lead Magnet. Then what would be the next step for them to work with you?

Well, I guess to contact me via email. Normally what I do offer with the coaching and even with the editing is a free edit of their first chapter. And that way they see how I work and you know, we get, I get acquainted with their writing and know kind of basically what kind of mistakes they're making, if any, within that first chapter.

Okay, so would that be something you could offer in an email follow up series and say, you know, if you're looking for an editor right now I have, you know, spots open and you know, this is how you, you know, we can see for a good fit. I edit your first chapter or something. Like is that kind of the next step or.

Yeah, that would be perfect.

Okay. What I like to do is I like to have forms on my site that they fill out and they submit if they're interested. You know, you submitted a form to do this Focus to Finish session. So I mean you could just have them reply on email. But I like to automate as much as I can so I have everything I need. So you could have some sort of form that, you know, it says like what genre it is, how many words their manuscript is, if they have any deadlines, what they need and you know, a place to upload their first chapter. And you know, you could have all of that automated. You get that, you screen them, you let them know if you're a good fit. If not, I know you're part of the Christian pen and there's other people that you know, you could maybe refer them to. That's what I would recommend. Would that work for you or do you have another idea for that?

Well, no, that would work with. So that would just mean creating what, Creating that form how though? As a page on my website.

Yeah. Do you remember when you went to the Focus to Finish application form for this session? Yeah, I just created a page and you can go back. The link is in Author Audience Academy. You can go back and look at that again. I use Formidable forms. It was a paid thing, but there's lot of other just regular forms that you can look at too. And if you need help brainstorming that, just post that in the private Facebook group and we can do that. But it's Formidable Pro is what I use. So there's a lot of, like I said, there's a lot of free options. You can check it out there. That's just personally what I've used and just set up a form and then what they normally do is they give you a short code to just put that on your page of your website. So that's just a little tip on automating the process so you're not sitting like if maybe they don't give you all the information you need. And so you go back and forth in five emails. Has that ever happened to you? No, no, they always submit everything you need.

It's pretty. Yeah, I mean I do have a form, a submit form on one of my pages that's pretty basic that says, okay, here's the give me this information. And usually that comes through through in the first email and we go from there. It's rarely, you know, back and forth that many times.

Okay, so maybe you don't need a form. But anyways that's just what you can do for that lead magnet. Okay, so that's just with that traffic. Now with your current subscribers, have you ever asked them or offered your editing services? Have you ever offered the free chapter edit to your 80s email subscribers?

No.

Okay, so I would just go ahead and when you write up that email for your follow up series, make sure you have it as a template. I am able to save and get response my emails as templates. That way I can reuse them and then I can just edit it a little bit or you can write it in word or whatever and then just copy and paste. But the same email. So the same email you write for the follow up series you can also send as a broadcast to your current subscribers. Does that make sense?

Yes.

So that way if there's somebody that's already on your list, that's right now they're hot. You know, they need an editor, they're looking for a writing coach or actually this is for the editor. They need an editor. Then they can reply back to you and you can start the process with them. So I would do that those two things immediately. Now as far as then anything new I mentioned to you in the private Facebook group Author Audience Academy, possibly doing webinars, Tell me what you think about that.

Well, I've been wanting to do them for a long time. I mean for years. It's like I need to do webinars, paid webinars.

Yeah.

You know, teach the stuff I teach at conferences. But it's the whole technology thing, I think that's kind of kept me from doing it and you know, just some personal fear in the whole issue. It's just me. It's not like I can reach out to somebody and say, hey can you help me with, you know, with such and Such I don't have friends that are involved in that kind of stuff.

Deborah, that, that's been the number one thing that's grown my business. I now make a full time income just from my author coaching stuff. Plus, you know, I'm still getting my book royalties and it's allowed me now to have extra. So now I'm hiring staff. So now I'm not as stressed. I'm not doing the stuff I don't like to do. And because I have the extra income, I'm able to, you know, have the staff and do the things that I need. I mean, we're still on a, on a fairly tight cash flow because we're hiring staff. But how would that feel to you to have a consistent flow of income?

Oh, that'd be awesome.

Yeah. And you know, I think I'm a speaker, like you said. You're a conference speaker.

Yes.

And so even if you're a speaker, I think there is an intimidation factor to webinars. There can be because of the technology, because of just all the moving pieces. But we talked a little bit about it before we started this because this is the first time I'm doing obs with a Skype interview and I'm just jumping in and you're like, wow, you just kind of do it.

So I think my personal challenge to you, besides the two things I just told you is in this next 90 days is to really plan, plan your webinar strategy and just dive in. Just say it's do or die. You know, you already have content, you already do a ton of speaking. That's really. And it's well received, correct? Yeah, it's well received. How many years have you been an editor and or writing coach? Six. Six years. You've helped many authors with their manuscripts. You know, you've done the speaking. And so what would you say is the main thing holding you back at.

This time as far as doing the webinars? I think it's really just the technology and being comfortable with looking at myself on the screen.

Okay, so you're on the screen today. You did it.

And I think you look great. I think we are our worst critics. And people don't want perfect. They don't like perfect. Makes them feel like they're not good enough. And so. But you can just do PowerPoint and do slides if that's holding you back. So the first goal would be to decide on a platform and we can brainstorm this inside author audience academy. And then you need to do a test webinar, maybe Have a friend or a family member or somebody just go on and do a test run with it. And then you need to schedule, you know, your first webinar. Will this be a free webinar to get clients or a paid webinar that people will be paying for to get the content?

I think for my. Excuse me. I think for my first one, I think it'll just be free.

Simply because.

I don't know what might go wrong.

Yeah, I feel more comfortable doing something free before I dive into something paid.

Yeah. Great. Do you think that it would be realistic for you to schedule your first webinar in the next month?

In the next month? Yeah. Probably, because I'm preparing to go to a conference down in Atlanta and I've got PowerPoints to prep for that. But, you know, I could probably have one ready by the end of August.

Yeah, so that would be in a month. And you could reuse something you've already given in the past that was well received. I like to say, you know, find what is your signature speech? That's trademarked by my speaking coach, Felicia Slattery. But what is your core message? What is your core speech? What is some of your best information? For me, it's the book writing formulas. Three proven book writing formulas every nonfiction author needs to know. That's my core signature speech. When it comes to the marketing side, I have another one. It's called amplify your message and five ways to sell more books without being pushy yourself for promotional. So I really want you to narrow down, like, what is so the technology. Then schedule a webinar. I'm gonna separate this so that it's in different steps. So technology, I like to put the little numbers in here sometimes schedule webinar and then decide what is your signature speech. I'll just put three in there.

So you just have to look at all of the things that you've given or the information you have and what you think would really solve a pain point would really give a lot of value and make people think, wow, I want to work with her. Does that make sense?

It does. It's not a topic that I currently speak on, but it wouldn't be hard to put something together.

Okay, what are you thinking the topic would be?

The steps to follow through to.

Make sure that your submission is a good one. I mean, just this morning I got an email from somebody with a submission because I do edit. I'm an editor for a publishing company, and there was nothing there. It was like, here's a few pages from My book. And that was it. Well, I mean that's not gonna get a viewing.

So would it be like book proposal or is that more. Not really writing the book proposal, but more of just preparing your manuscript?

Yeah, preparing your manuscript and what to do in order to increase your chances of having that submission actually looked at.

Okay, so I recommend going into Author Writing Success Academy. Use the Title Wave tool, it's in the bonuses and post your title for the webinar in our private Facebook group or some suggestions and then let us like talk through that once you get a title. Does that sound good?

Sure.

Okay. And then this, the, the last step I think is going to be giving it on a regular basis. And.

One of the things you can do is find JV partners. So do you know what JV Partners means?

Yes. Yeah.

So I think for your type of a topic, it might be good for certain types of people. So you want to have someone that's non competitive to you. So maybe the publishing company you work for, maybe they would allow you to do a webinar for them. And maybe it's not that you're, you're gonna get extra paid clients. We get to practice, you know, and you get to work with them. Maybe there's other, other small publishers, maybe there's other people in the author realm or even maybe another editor would want to come on and you do a joint thing together, I don't know. But I want you to brainstorm ideas of people who might be able, might be willing to do host you on a webinar. For instance, if you would approach someone like me, you need to make it a win win. Maybe anyone who signs up for editing as a result of that webinar, you give a referral fee. You know, maybe it's 10% or maybe it's something. That's what happens a lot of times with affiliate or JV type webinars is you have to try to find what's going to be the win win for them. You know, why would they host you on their stage? But because you have such a small audience right now, it's either going to be through JV Partners or Facebook ads. You know, that's going to be the best way to fill your webinars. And we can brainstorm and I can give you a lot more information on that in the private Facebook group. But those would probably be the two easiest ways to start filling your webinars. And I started off giving my webinar once a month. Month. So I would just. And I've gotten really Good at it. Now I have it automated because I'm really focusing on my book project the next few months. But I gave it live once a month, then I went to twice a month. And every single live webinar I've done, I have had a new client or new members sign up for Author Audience Academy. Every single one.

Wow, that's great.

If you got one new client, you know, I mean, your situation might be different. I don't know. But, you know, it's. I haven't had one yet where I haven't had at least one person sign up. So we're running out of time. But what do you think about this plan?

I think it looks great.

Okay.

I mean, it's kind of a lot of. It is exactly what I had already brainstormed.

All right, so are you committed to following through and. And taking the action that you need to do these next steps?

Oh, yeah, I have to be. Otherwise I have to go back to the nine to five world, and I.

Don'T want to do that. Okay, so you have a strong, strong. Why? I kind of had the same one. Whenever I resigned my position in 2011, things didn't turn out the way we thought it was going to turn out for us. And so I was like, okay, what am I going to do? And God can give you wisdom and he can continue to lead and guide you, but I think these three steps, you know, optimizing the traffic you're already getting from Google, they're already coming to your site. They're already wanting the information. Capture their information, get them on a list and offer them a free edit. You know, your email subscribers, see who is ready for an edit or a writing coach or whatever. I mean, you can do two different emails, one for the editing and one for the writing. Maybe like two weeks apart. You know, you could do that this first month. Just send them information right away. And then your webinars, that's going to be your bread and butter. It really is. I mean, I can't emphasize it enough. If you don't want to do any other video, if you never want to go live on Facebook, if you never want to do any other video. Webinars are the number one video format I recommend to sell products, sell services, to build your platform. And I mean, it builds your email list at the same time. It's just such a great way. And so we can keep brainstorming the different things for these steps in the webinars Inside Author Audience Academy. And I think it's a good plan. So awesome. Well, where can people find you if they are interested in contacting you? Getting a free edit, just a sample edit to see if you're a good fit or if talk about being a, you know, working with you as a writing coach.

My email is debra l. Butterfield.com and.

It'S D E B R A Debra L. Butterfield.

Yeah, it's just Deb though. You have Deborah at what?

See, I was listening. So Deborah L. Butterfield.com and then your website is DeborahLbutterfield.com as well. And if you are wanting to submit your manuscript to different publishing houses, you know, definitely check out her site, check out the blog post that she has on the different things and email her, Email her and get connected with her and get her advice because that is not something that I specialize in. I specialize in the other side, the independent publishing and self publishing. All right, well, thank you so much, Deborah for being brave, for coming on here and for being my first live Facebook in this way. And I'm excited to see what you do over these next 90 days. I'm excited for your first, first webinar in 30 days, right?

Yep.

And we will be brainstorming more in the Facebook group. So thank you guys so much for joining us on this edition of the Focus to Finish. And I would love to nothing more than to serve you as an author coach inside authoraudienceacademy.com if you ever have questions on whether it's the right fit for you, just reach out to me. I'm available@shelley shelleyhits.com you can email me and I'll see you next time. Bye Bye.

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Author Audience Show. Connect with us online@authoraudience.com where you'll find all the resources mentioned in today's episode. While you're there, grab Shelley's free video training on how to write and publish your book using her Six Step Ascent method. Join us again next week to learn how to reach your audience with your message.