How I Use ZOOM To Make Money In My Online Business

I am a big, big believer in back to basics. I think entrepreneurs now are so overwhelmed with all of the things that you are told that you need to do to build the perfect funnel when none of that is really necessary. Sheryl Plouffe, your video strategist, and in this video I want to really break down one of the key, key tools that I use in my business to make money. It's called Zoom. I've created a multitude of videos all over the place on the topic, so you can go check those out later as well. Zoom, as I sat back and thought about it, is one of the key, key tools in my business that I use in a multitude of ways. And it wasn't until I sat down and actually wrote out how many ways I use Zoom that I thought, I better make a video about this. So even though I'm going to be speaking about me in this video and kind of breaking some of my own rules, I want you to be listening for some ways that you might integrate this amazing platform into your own business. So if you're a coach, a consultant, an entrepreneur, small business owner, speaker, or author, you know, you're gonna want to pay close attention. Anyone who really wants to utilize Zoom in a coaching or consultancy, this would be really great for. I'm going to share with you how I use Zoom to make money in my online business. And like I said, coming from the standpoint of using as few tools as possible to run a profitable business, you'll see this video here, which is about the 5— only the 5 resources that you truly need to to monetize your expertise, and Zoom is one of those 5. So in no particular order, I'm just going to go through the different ways that I use the platform, and hopefully you'll gain something from this. Make some notes, and if you have any questions at all, please of course let me know in the comments. I look at every single one of them. So the first category is lead generation. Of course, lead generation is key to a successful business. You have to continue to bring in new people into your world, uh, on a consistent basis. And so a few things come to mind in terms of using Zoom for lead generation. When COVID-19 happened, I really had to examine what I was doing. I mean, I think we all as entrepreneurs had to do some type of pivot, right? And so I looked at it and I thought, what could I do and how could I serve on a, on a bigger scale? And I thought, you know what, the best way for me to serve on a higher level is to actually just really get on the line and help people with some quick wins. The very best way to do that, in my opinion, is through Zoom. And so Zoom has become a key component of what I call now the Video Strategy Hotline. And I launched that not as a sales call but as a 15-minute connection on Zoom through video conferencing to understand what the problem is and then give a solution, a quick win for an entrepreneur who may be struggling in a certain area. And that has been an amazing development that's happened in my company and in my business, and something that you could even think to emulate maybe for yourself. It's a great way to build relationships. You get to know them, they get to know you, and now you're really able to help them with a tactic or advice or strategy that's going to move them in the right direction. Another way that we use it for lead generation is if a company finds me on YouTube, let's say, they contact me and say, hey Cheryl, we really like that concept. Would you be able to come and teach that to our group? If we determine that that training will be conducted for free, okay, because sometimes I get paid for it, sometimes it's free, it depends on what we determine is the best course of action. If it's free, then that's a lead generation tactic. I will do that training on Zoom because it's the easiest platform, in my opinion, to use, and it's accessible to everyone, whether they're on their laptop or whether they're on their smartphone. And so it's just been an amazing tool in that regard. It's for free private trainings that's getting in front of those audiences, and that is really expanding my reach into new territories and in front of new people. So that's a lead generation tactic as well. Now, as far as meetings are concerned, of course, the backbone of what Zoom really is, we like to do our team meetings on Zoom as much as possible because so much can be said nonverbally. And also, we want to be able to share screens. If I need to share my screen or a team member needs to share their screen with me, it's so much better to conduct those team meetings on Zoom. Collaborations. If I'm at a networking event, I meet someone, we find that there's some type of connection. Say, hey, why don't you come on my Facebook Live and you come on my podcast? Let's get online and figure and hash that out. I prefer to do that on Zoom because now again, we can be screen sharing. We can be looking at each other's platforms. We can really be hashing out some ideas, some concrete ideas to move forward with that collaboration. And then the third way is through affiliates. I have an affiliate program for my online course and affiliates, you want to support them. I want to support them the very best way that I can. And Zoom is just a great way to keep that relationship built, to be able to really continue to support them as they go out and share my course as a solution to problems in their audience. Then, you know, that's a relationship that I really want to keep fresh, right? And good. So trainings— with trainings, it's either going to be for my own existing audience or trainings for organizations. Now, with trainings, in this particular case, I'm speaking more from the standpoint of paid, uh, trainings that I might conduct for a company organization. Those trainings are typically long form and they're typically conducted on Zoom. So what I'll do often is if it's for my own audience, I'll create a Keynote deck and I will walk through that deck and share that deck on screen in the Zoom meeting. And it's really become the foundation of the visual that we're following along, you know, along the course of that particular meeting. In terms of organizations, same thing. I often will tailor a presentation and training to a specific audience or company. And the same thing, I'll share that keynote deck on the Zoom call and everyone follows along. And of course, I can stop the share and restart the share if I wanna bring it back to me or do Q&A. And it's a really great way to conduct trainings. Consultation calls. Well, we have a system in my company where you apply to work with me. And so those applications come through and those that are accepted receive a 45-minute private consultation call conducted through Zoom. I used to do them on the phone. What I have found is that conducting it on Zoom as much as possible. It's not always possible, so I can't say that 100% of those calls are on Zoom, but more and more as people are becoming more comfortable with the platform too, it's, it's a much better process because we can see each other, right? I can again share screens. I can take a look and do a digital audit on that person, really find out what's going on and find out if indeed we are a great fit to work together. Paid consultations. You know, I've been paid sometimes, you know, $300 an hour, $600 an hour to do paid consultations. And those I like to do, it's a premium service. And so I do like to conduct that on Zoom rather than on the phone as much as possible. So consultation calls is a great way to use Zoom as well. Client fulfillment. Depending on the program that a client is a part of, there may be private coaching calls included. So I like to do what's called laser coaching calls. These are 30-minute one-on-one calls that are just between me and the client that where we can talk about anything. And those private coaching calls, again, I really like to conduct on Zoom. If you can do it on, on the phone, and sometimes that isn't, uh, that, that is the only option we have, and that's fine. But I prefer to be able to see the client because typically these laser coaching calls is where there's more— how should we say— emotion, right? Sometimes there's— it's, it's things that they don't want to bring up in a group environment and more so in a private environment. And so that emotion, I like to be more connected to a person visually on video when they're going through something tough or when they have something to celebrate. Doesn't matter which emotion it is, but emotion, of course, is something that I really want to be able to help people through. If they're feeling challenged or overwhelmed or happy or sad, I want to be able to support them. And it's just easier to do through Zoom. Group training calls. If the client is in a program where it's a group coaching call type of scenario, I conduct those on Zoom. Why? Because I can record them, and that's one of the big tips I have for you, right? Make sure you record your group training calls because not only is that advantageous to the person who may want to review or watch the replay, it's also advantageous to maybe a client who wasn't able to make it for that week's call. Now you can send them the recording and they can still follow along and not fall behind.. It's also a great way to maximize that call and potentially turn it around and make a product from it. You could create another product from those recordings, and that's just a really great way to use it. Another thing we do is we use Zoom as a really in creating products and services. At Cheryl Plouffe Media Inc., we have what's called a virtual video production service. And what we do is we use Zoom. We record, we actually conduct an interview. I conduct an expert interview with a client, and through that expert interview, I will ask specific questions based on another Zoom call that we had prior where we did the reverse engineering and the keyword research and found that low-hanging fruit and dug into YouTube and searched for the gold, and we found it. Now I'm asking the questions to extract out the best answers, most natural and authentic answers from that client. And then from there, we create videos from that. So it's an amazing service. And we use Zoom, obviously, as the foundation for how we do that because it's virtual video production. Now the client doesn't have to get on a plane and come here and, you know, and it's, it's just more cost effective and lots of different reasons why that's awesome. So virtual video production is a way that we've created a product or service around that. The other thing is I've created a free masterclass which essentially is really— it's a product that is based on creating content videos from Zoom recordings. So I guess you could put that in the product or service category or possibly even in the lead generation category. But Zoom has been instrumental in helping me create this masterclass. And all the links for these resources will be below this video, by the way. And the last way that we use Zoom here is as a topic of discussion on this YouTube channel. Let's not forget that content is the foundation to having the online business in the first place. It is really, really challenging to build a profitable, money-making online business if you don't have a digital presence, if you don't have content. I know for me, Zoom has been a wonderful topic to discuss, and you have been watching those videos. You've been sharing them. You've been commenting on them. And thank you so much for doing that. So Zoom has really been a blessing and a joy in my business in so many different ways. And like I I said, it wasn't until I wrote it down that I realized just how key this platform truly is to me making money in my online business. I hope this has opened up some new ideas for you and that you might even look to Zoom to integrate some of the platform and the different features that it offers into your own business. And if that's the case, please let me know in the comments. I would love to know how you're using it too. Thank you so much for watching. Be sure to check out these Zoom-related videos on my channel. Subscribe and hit the notification bell. New videos every Thursday. We'll let you know instead of you having to chase us. We'll help you stay on top of all the content here on this channel. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you next time.