How to Start a Coaching Business Q&A with Terry Rice | 1/21/2021

Cool. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Q and A. I'm going to answer all your coaching and consulting questions in regards to the course. Anything that's coming up in life in general as it pertains to your career. We can get personal too, if you want. Go for it. But looking forward to grabbing some of those questions today. And I see we have some already that I'll grab. But just to reiterate, this is your opportunity to get any bespoke question that you have answered in regards to launching or scaling your consulting business. So anything regards to the course, anything's happening in your day to day. You know, how much do I charge? How do I get more clients? How do I get rid of a client? How do I keep clients happy? You know, whatever comes to mind, just feel free to ask it. And I'm happy to help you out because one thing I talked about previously is I actually prefer Q and A as opposed to delivering content because I always know what I'm going to talk about. Like, okay, let me go through my progression here, but. But I never know what you're gonna ask me. So that randomness is actually pretty fun for me. And it's something I built up as an educator here in New York City, teaching at NYU as well as General Assembly. So I actually enjoy just seeing where it's gonna go. So I'm gonna go ahead and look at the first question here. And this is from Xavier. He's saying, I just got a soft yes for a speaking opportunity with a software partner. They don't ever have webinars, signup forms, formats, etc. Etc. Thoughts on tactics of doing this? This will be your first time. So first of all, congrats on that. That's huge. Because that's one way that I like to grow my brand is by doing a webinar through a third party who's going to promote that to their audience. Or it sounds like you're actually just getting paid directly for them, so that's cool too. So they don't ever have webinars and you want to make sure they're doing it correctly. Well, the most comfortable platform for a lot of people is Zoom. You know, that's. That's how it goes there. And the reason being I want to recommend it initially is because there's always going to be a technology hiccup. You know, you can use GoToWebinar, you can use Webinar Jam, Those are both great platforms. But if people can actually get into them to use them, you can be in trouble. So I think Using Zoom would be my first choice. But let's talk about Webinar Jam, which is a tool that I started using recently. The cool thing about that is if you do have some kind of offer, like you know, you're selling a course or whatever, you can have a pop up that appears just in the chat window as you're talking and people can go ahead and buy right from the platform. So it's pretty cool because it can increase your conversion rate. But right now, if they've never done this before, I would say just use Zoom Zoom Webinar, most likely, depending on how many attendees will be there, because you can capture all their contact information. You have a nice landing page which is made by Zoom and you can still have your logo on there. It's gonna look great, but that way you'll just kind of reduce some of the friction and technology. But Xavier, another thing that I really wanna bring up is this. Make sure that these attendees have a reason to follow up with you afterwards. So you wanna have like some kind of lead magnet. So maybe it's like five ways to do this or a checklist to do that, whatever it is. But as you're speaking, keep on bringing it up over and over again. Hey, if you want this guide, go to my website. It's going to be amazing and it's going to help you do whatever. So front load yourself for success by having that ready in advance. So having on your website having, you know, whatever makes sense prepared because that's how you continue the conversation after the talk. So that's what I would do. And let me know if there's more questions on that. Yeah, yeah, no problem. There's another question here from Rick who joined last week. He's saying, what do you say? Last week you talked about a book by Dave. Oh, Dan Sullivan. Yeah, Dan Sullivan. So Dan Sullivan, he, he's been coaching for years and I don't know, I mean he has, he probably like a billion books. So I'm not sure which one to recommend because I never read any of them. But he has a podcast with one of my mentors, this guy Mike Koenigs. K O E N I G S I would listen to that. I believe it's called the Capability Amplifier. I would check that out. I can't recommend any specific books. I don't really read books, to be honest. I read audiobooks, but I have not read any of Dan's books so I couldn't recommend any of those, unfortunately.

Cool.

Another question, how do you balance your time between recording and Taping your course versus finding beta clients for more one on one services. Oh, I'm so glad you asked this. So you know, this summer I, you know, I have three young kids, you know, that were at home. My oldest is now 5. And I was like, it's not going to be sustainable for me to do one on one coaching for the next however long. We're probably, we probably like another eight months of this left. So it's like what I need to do was create some way where I can generate revenue and provide value when I'm not there live. So that's why I created my course. But where it got interesting is I had to turn down a lot of work. So I actually turned down work and just said, no, I can't do this because I want to build the course that all of you are in. So is there a balance? Yeah, I mean, for me it was just kind of just greatly reducing my live workload. And it's funny because if you look at the best months of the year for me, revenue wise, it was March and then May and then December was the best. But in, was it April? I didn't take any work. And then in June I didn't take any work either. Like, I just totally didn't sign any, anyone to work with me because I knew how important it was just to have the space to create this, this, this course. Now when you're in, you know, you might have a different situation where, you know, you can still work and you know, create content. But I would say you really want to focus on the vision you have for your business and, you know, your family, your personal life. So you might have to sacrifice things in the short term, such as revenue so you can work on your long term goals.

Right.

And that's why you have to have a minimum amount of money that you need per month to feel okay. And maybe it's $5,000, maybe it's $10,000, whatever it is. But once you're at that number, you can kind of just stop taking on more work until you accomplish that thing. In this case building that course. So it's not necessarily, you know, the balance, it's like the sacrifice is what I would really think about. And it was not easy, by the way, especially when like you're in the middle of this pandemic and you're turning down work, right? So you're like, hey, can you please take some money? No. And by the way, I don't know when I'm gonna have more, but I can't do this. Right now. And that's why if you, you know, you know, you have a family, you want to, you know, communicate with anyone, any other decision makers or stakeholders in your family, like, hey, I'm doing this because of this and I, and I, it seems crazy, but I need your support. And you know, if I stick with this, I know it's going to work because I've seen other people do the same thing and that's what it was. I know the process that I have works because I've seen so many other people do it right. You obviously want to make it your own. But I was like, look, I'm looking at everyone else in this, this, this industry, this field and this is how it works based on my skill set. And I just leaned into it. So that's how you find the time. It's the, it's the mindset and the sacrifice. Another question here. Any tips on reaching a middle market business owners? I found professional organizations like Vistage and YPO, etc. I mean my go to channel often is just LinkedIn because you have more of an opportunity to have like this one on one interaction with them. So when you know who your target audience is, what I would say is like make a top 40 list. Like back in the days when people listen to music, made CDs or whatever, make your top 40 list and say, these are the 40 organizations or individuals that I want to engage with and you would aim to check in on their social media activity. Like let's say four of them per day. So if there's 40 of them and you check on four a day, you'll never go more than 10 business days without checking in on all of them. See what they're posting, see what their company's posting and finding a reason to engage with them. That's one way I've found success. Because you're not pitching them, you're not saying, hey, I see you work in this industry, I'm going to try to sell you something. You're like, hey, cool post or hey, I saw you shared this, so on, so forth and creating a more, I guess, organic experience with them. But Xavier, going back to what you just said, hell, what I would say is this what organizations do they belong to and can you create some kind of content that would be great for them? You know, let's say they're small business owners who own restaurants and I'm just making this up. You would reach out to the Small Business Owner association of Brooklyn or the Restaurant association of Brooklyn and say, can I do this talk for your audience. So what I like doing is again, seeing where, you know, where my audience hangs out and then from there providing value to that organization. So it kind of trickles down, more or less. So those are the two ways I would think about it. If there are opportunities to go on other channels, like maybe Quora and answer some of their questions, or even Reddit, you can do that too. But that's what I would do is I would look on those channels. But that's why you have to always have something of value to offer. So again, that's where that lead magnet comes along. If someone says, oh, I'm really struggling with increasing my conversion rate for my SaaS company, you have like this, this guide. Oh, here's five tips on increasing your conversion rate, whatever it is, Right? So you need to give first and also be patient because if you project lack and scarcity, people smell that a mile away, and you're not going to have the same success. You might like. The other day I was on LinkedIn and this random guy sends me a request and I'm like, okay, whatever. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. He reaches out, he said, hey. He says, hey, what do you. What do you do? And I'm like, would you like clarification beyond what my bio and my title say? You know, like, why are you asking me this random question, dude? Like, so he's like, oh, yeah, right. He's like, so what are your goals? I'm like, why would I talk to you about that? Like, why was like this random person like, hey, dude, like, let's, let's see. Sure, let me just spill everything. So I was like, how does this work for anybody? You don't want to be that guy.

Right?

Because my personal philosophy is to be purpose driven, prepared, patient.

Right?

So purpose driven. I love what I do prepared. That's us all putting in the work to learn what webinar platform to use to have our. Our speaking topics ready, so on and so forth. Patient. That means not projecting lack and scarcity and just trying to, you know, make money from someone, actually trying to build a real relationship. And it might take months, it might take years for all you know.

Right?

But that's, that's the way that you want to build your brand. But if you can accelerate it by using what's called authority marketing and speaking on behalf of organizations that already have access to those individuals. So that's what I would do. Follow up question. You're having a baby in another month. Okay, cool. In a Month. So I do want to make a passive product, but I'll be on parental leave for four months. Yeah. So that's. First of all, congrats. Sorry. I want to acknowledge that first. Congrats on that. But, yeah, I mean, what I would do if you just want to kind of get started is maybe don't make. This is going to be the perfect solution.

Right.

Maybe don't make a full, like, on demand course right now through, like, teachable. Maybe start by doing some kind of on demand webinar where it's just like, 45 minutes of you providing value to your target audience. And you can still use that as a lead magnet because you can have it hosted on your website. You can say, oh, I have this really great information. You know, enter your information to get it. Once they fill out that form, the. The thank you page can just open up to another part of your website where there's the video embedded, and you can just host the video on YouTube and then embed it on your website. So you're still gating it and getting their contact information, but you're not building out a full online course if you don't want to. So that's one way you can do it. Just to kind of get in the habit of creating this content and then say, okay, well, that wasn't so bad. Now I'm gonna expand on this, break it out into modules, and yes, I will put it on a platform like Teachable, where there's some kind of exercises behind it, too. But that could be a good way just to kind of get your feet wet in regards to building this type of content. Yeah. Congrats on the baby. That's awesome. All right, let's get some more questions coming in here. And, Rick, you're saying you have this survey. If you want to give us an idea of the survey questions you have can definitely take a look at that. And while you're doing that, I'm going to answer a question that came in earlier. How do I set up my website? Should I do this myself? That. That depends. So I'll tell you what I did. I didn't want to build my website myself because the first time I tried, it was horrible. It looked like a. It looked like a combination of various puzzles that were trying to kind of mush together, and they didn't fit whatsoever. So I decided I want to have someone else build it, but I wanted them to build it on Squarespace so I could maintain it myself. And I paid this woman. I think it was like $2,000 to do it. So I think it makes sense, if you can afford it, to just have someone else do it. Because if it takes you, like, 10 or 15 hours to build your website, there's so many other things you could have been doing during that time to build your business, right? Maybe it was prospecting places to speak at, or building up your lead magnet or, you know, your webinar, your course, whatever it is. That's my approach towards it. In the long run, sure, maybe learn how to do it, but in the short term, just. Just get it done and don't feel like it has to be perfect. Just, you know, landing page services, contact, just start there. Just have something up and then build out as you see fit. So that. That's. That's my initial recommendation. All right, we got one from Dennis here saying I'm still in the product market. Fit Research. Would you agree to the fact that a service offer needs to be tied to a dollar return? So make sure I have this, right? Does it have to. Okay, so there has to be some kind of value provided based on whatever service you offer. It doesn't have to be monetary, though. It could be time, right? So for me, I mean, like someone doing your laundry, they're giving you time, right? That's the service. And then you have freedom to do whatever you want with that time. You can work if you want, you can nap, you can go do CrossFit. It's up to you. Now, I think you need to point that out, though, saying, like, here's what you'll get. Because too often we talk about the process, right? I will do this, I will do this, I will do that. Not the transformation. So what I normally like to do when I'm describing a service is I'll ask a few questions. Do you have this challenge? Maybe this one, or maybe it's this one. How about this? Well, imagine if that could all go away. And here's a service I have for you. Another. Another framework is pain agitation solution. So your pain for the laundry might be like, is it challenging for you to get your laundry done? That's the pain agitation. You know, you know what needs to get done, but you have a thousand other things to do instead. And you know, it's. It's a constant worry, even though it's a simple thing to do. Solution. I'll do your laundry for you. So pain agitation solution. That's a good framework to think about. But the solution doesn't have to be tied to a monetary amount, just some kind of transformation. They'll get. So that, that's, that's what I would do. Because it can be hard to quantify because I know your service is about virtual assistants. It can be hard to quantify how much money you'll make from. But heck, how much time will you get back?

Right?

That's really what you want to think about. That's the value that you're offering. All right, got another one here. You are super efficient and effective on social. I did not write that myself by the way. On average, how much time do spend on content creation and commenting on posts? Okay, so the process that I use for content creation, it's combination of two things. One is having pre established content pillars, meaning what themes am I going to write about constantly and consistently. And that's more or less your personal brand. So my buckets are the first ones talking about coaching and consulting, right? Obviously. So the first one has to be your craft and then you can have more that are just aligned with your personality or your interests. So one of mine is mental health, another one's physical health. And the last ones is like my personality. So like my kids, me being sarcastic, stuff like that. And then from there you'll just come up with content that would fit those themes. So the other day I was, I was working out and it was like snowing outside and I purposely like stopped to take pictures cause it was snowing. But even that can be, you know, something I would post on social. Like, you know, are you being, or seeming, you know, it seems like I'm someone right now who's, you know, like, you know, working out and you know, no matter what. But like really I'm being someone who's doing it for the gram, so on and so forth. So I don't spend too much time because what happens is I just pay attention to what's going on and how it might turn out to be a story eventually. And that's how I'll come up with my posts. So each post maybe takes me 15 minutes or so and that's it. Like the other day I was reminded this time when a client that I signed on Upwork signed me on a Friday afternoon. And that Saturday he emailed me complaining about work not being done. He's like, what's going on? You haven't done anything. I'm like, dude, it's Saturday. And I ended up not working with him anymore. But that became a post just because I was triggered for some reason to remember that. Not an angry way. But I was like, you know, you should never work with someone who's not respect you or your time. That became a post just because I remembered it while I was washing the dishes or something. So not much to your point about commenting on posts. Probably another 30 minutes a day when I can. It would be more in a perfect world. Well, I shouldn't say perfect because it sounds like I don't like my life. If I had more time, I would spend like an hour a day. But I can't because the earlier point, I have three young kids here and they're all under five years old. I can't just be on my phone all day. But to be honest, Xavier, that's where you get a lot of good ideas for content, is by commenting and engaging. Because if you're just in your own head the whole time, that's when you're like, oh, I'm not sure you know what to talk about. But if you're becoming a student and engaged with the industry, that's when you're like, oh, here's what people are talking about. Oh, I have thoughts on this too. So, you know, on average, any day, maybe 30 minutes or so that I'm actively on there and I'll try to chime in when I can, but just with the kids it's, it's, it's hard and I want to be that guy who's always on his phone. So yeah, that's it. Another thing though is I'm not concerned if my post bomb meaning like, you know, no one engages with them because it is what it is. So I don't over analyze it to the point where I don't post as often because I'm like, okay, let's see what happens. You know, like, it's not like I'm paying for it and, and I think that as a function of that I produce more content. And the more content you produce, the better you get. And that's how you can grow your following as well. So yeah, that's about it. All right, another question here. Talking about gym and in the snow. How do you recommend Romwa? All their gyms are closed and I'm losing it. So let me just talk about Romwa. So Romwa stands for range of motion, workout of the day. And it's very popular in the CrossFit community because it helps with your mobility and your flexibility. But it's all based on yin yoga, which is a form of yoga where you're in positions for much longer. So you might do a pigeon stretch which are in it for like four minutes. And you can just do a lot of deep breath work while you're in it and get a deeper stretch. For me it's a form of meditation as well. So for me, I mean I just use the app. I think it's like 13 bucks a month for you to get access to it. And there's new programs every day. And I credit that going back to the earlier point with me being able to come up with creative ideas for my content, but also just making more thoughtful decisions in my business in general. And it's, it's one of my non negotiables because I know if I'm just like revving all the time and I don't stop to set, just slow down, do some breath work and do romwad that I just, it's almost like rust developing in my brain. The best way to say it, like I'm also crankier. So my wife notices. But you, you, you have to have a system of recovery. And there's this guy, Dr. Michael Gervais, he's a high performance psychologist. He mentions the fact that there's four pillars of recovery. Eating well and drinking well is one. Right now I'm kind of dehydrated. You see me grabbing water. Sleeping well is another. So I normally get up around 4:30, but I try to be in bed by 10, which is still kind of short on hours. The other one's moving well. So moving your body and just getting oxygen flowing. Another thing about moving well is like you tell yourself I can do difficult things, right? I can lift this up, I can do another push up, I can run another lap around the block, whatever it is, moving well. And the other one's thinking well. So thinking well is just being mindful, right? Just keeping your mind from drifting from one part to another, just staying in the current moment. And if you do drift away, that's fine because really the principle of mindfulness is noticing that you're drifting away and being able to pull yourself back to the current moment, right? And that's so important when you're on like sales calls or even, you know, coaching calls. Because if you're daydreaming about what you're going to say next or what you're going to do next and you're not paying attention to your client, you're not going to reveal mastery or wisdom in that moment. So that mindfulness is very important. And then meditation can be part of your routine as well. Just by. Again, sometimes just breathing is beneficial. So I'll repeat it. Eat well, drink well, move well, think well and sleep well. So those are the four pillars of recovery. And with Romwad, I couple that with moving well and thinking well because it's like meditation as well as obviously the physical aspect of it. So you're losing it. Yeah. Dennis, you got to do something, man. Like get some kettlebells if you can. I actually bought a C2 rower the other day and those aren't cheap, but it's like an investment in my sanity, so I'm glad to have it. All right, let's get some more questions here. All right, Rick's going to have his survey ready by next week. Awesome. Grab another question that came up in advance. What's the best way to use Clubhouse for leads? Clubhouse. So for those of you that don't know, it's this newer audio only app, which is pretty cool because none of your content lives on the platform. So you have a profile. You can say, I do this and that, but like you don't have posts that live on the platform whatsoever. And I recently got on it about a month ago. It's pretty cool because there's different rooms that have themes. Like it could be like stay at home, dads or you know, how do you feel about Harry Potter? You know, whatever, whatever it is. And obviously there are business applications for it too. So in regards to getting leads, I would say if you're on any platform like that with the goal of getting leads initially, you're not going to do well because you're not going to be focused on value. So what I would say is for a coach or a consultant, you might as well do a Q and A. You know, if you're like a sustainability consultant, say, hey, it's Q and A and sustainability. Do it every Tuesday at 7pm consistently. And then make sure you promote it on other channels and say, I'll be there answering your questions every day, every Tuesday at 7:00pm that's probably the best way to do it because you're giving value first and saying, hey, yeah, of course if you want to work with me, you can do it. Here's how. But the benefit of Clubhouse is unlike other platforms, you're not like doing a presentation necessarily or even if you are, you're like, you're just reading off your screen. You know, it's like, it's like whatever. You also don't have to worry about your wearing or you know, how your lighting is because it's all audio only and it's okay to. And ah, a bit because again, it's not getting recorded. So it's a lot of fun. And if you're not on it. I think it's a good idea to at least explore it and see if it's a good fit for you. But I think a lot of people are going to find success on that, on that platform just because of the opportunity and the lack of constraints in regards to being able to communicate value. So definitely check that out. I just realized I have my Compete to Create mug here and this is from Dr. Michael Gervais company. I went to Seattle for a high performance mindset workshop in Seattle and that's where I got this from. So quoting him as I'm drinking out of his water bottle.

Cool.

Alright, so another question here. Thoughts on joining a peer group? I'm applying to be a mentor for this group based in South Florida that helps founders of new ventures that will double as a peer group. Are you part of a peer group? I think it's a really good idea because here's the thing, right? You're an expert, right? You're a coach, you're a consultant. You're always supposed to be the smartest person in the room. You're leading the conversations, but you're not absorbing new knowledge often because you're just kind of recycling. Not recycling. You're just communicating what you know, right? So I think it's beneficial to be in a peer group because you can learn from other people's experiences. You can also feel more comforted by some of their challenges, right? Oh, you're going through that too. Good. That was the only one, you know. So I think it's great to have that support group and even little things like you're going to ask me, hey Terry, how much should I charge? Can give you advice on that. But if you have peers that can tell you what their rate is, especially if you have the same industry, that's going to help you too. So I think it's beneficial. Do I have a peer group? Not a dedicated one. I have peers that I check in with on a regular basis as recently as last night, which is so beneficial. But I do want to do that. And it's going to be more or less an issue around scheduling to be honest, because I can't do too much. I keep on making these excuses. I can't do too much during the day because I got to watch my kids. But I think after Covid or once they're back in school, I should say that way I'll have more time to. Right now I'm just relying on like more one on one check ins as opposed to a group. So that's probably the best way I can answer that. But tell you what, I also have a group coaching program where I coach other coaches. And sometimes so this is more intense than what we're doing right now. Both beneficial. Sometimes just like the way they talk to each other is a good way for me to check in because someone will say they're going through imposter syndrome or, you know, whatever. So it's good just being in those conversations. But again, I'm like, leading the group so I can't like, say like, oh, I feel bad today too. You know, it's like, dude, like, we don't pay for that stuff. But yeah, I think it's a really good idea. And the only thing I would say is, like, you have to pay for it. Because if you have to pay for it, then you want to see what you're getting out of it. You might be better off if that is the case, just starting your own group and having structure around it. And that's all. That's actually how I came up with my group coaching program was by running peer groups before and realizing how to manage multiple people with the same outcome. Create structure around it, too. So long answer. But, yes, I recommend doing that.

Well.

See what else we got going on here. Question is, how do I keep from getting overwhelmed? I mean, I don't know what you have going on now. I think one thing is, what are you worried about? Because there's this study, I think it's out of Stanford, where they found that 85% of the things that you worry about never actually come, never actually happen. In this group, at least. And of the times that it did happen, 50% of the times it did happen, 79% of people said it either wasn't as bad as they thought or they learned something from it. So when I think of being overwhelmed, you're like, oh, I have all this work to do. And like, you're concerned about it. But just, first of all, don't worry as much because these dreaded outcomes you might be thinking of probably aren't going to happen. But overwhelm for me is a symptom of not having your priorities straight. And that's why there's this focusing question that I love to reference from this book called the One Thing. And the focusing question is this. What's the one thing I can do that by doing so, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary.

Right?

I'll say it again. What's the one thing I can do that by doing that, everything else becomes easier or unnecessary? So when you have your one thing. You're not gonna get overwhelmed because you're like, all this other stuff is just a distraction right now until I get this one thing done. So it's really just having that priority. And you know, the other day, like, this person reached out to me on LinkedIn. I don't know why it's always LinkedIn, but they had this really great opportunity. They're like, oh, the founder of this consulting firm is leaving. He's looking for someone to take over and like, do all this cool stuff. What do you think? And like, I think that was nowhere near the plans I had for my life. So I'm just like, no, dude. Like, no, keep it.

Right?

I'm sure, like, it was good money and all this stuff. Like, that's not even close to what I plan on doing the next two to five years. So it's so easy for you to say no and not have that energy going to even making a decision. So that clarity just helps you prevent overwhelm. Because you would not program yourself to be overwhelmed, right? You would sit down and say, okay, what makes sense? This, this, this, this, and this. You wouldn't say, and it's other stuff, right? So when you're overwhelmed, it's because you're not focused and you're not clear. So that's what I would say. Best way to avoid it is to plan around it or not plan for it. Another question here. What software did you use to record and edit your videos for the course? I'll answer that one for us first. Okay, so to record it, I just use my camera. So I had a higher. A good enough end cameras, like, cost like 500 bucks or so, so I could shoot in 4000k or 4k. And I didn't do the editing myself. One of my. Actually one of my former clients edited. So he owns a film production company. He did all the editing for it. So he actually probably made more money off of me than I made off of him. But that's one of those things again, like, I'm like, I don't want to touch this. I would love to learn how to do so one day that's gonna be a hobby of mine. But in this case, I was like, this needs to get done. It needs to get done well, so I outsourced it to someone else. But the software, it was just my camera recording to, you know, like a drive. And then I bought like a external hard drive to store all the videos on it, and I used Dropbox to upload them to him. But let me answer your question in a way that would help more. Imovie is probably the best tool you can use if you have a Mac to edit your videos. It's very easy to learn from what I understand. And it's, it's free if you have a Mac. So I would say that. And if you're ever recording your screen, I use a tool called Screen Flow. Screen S C R E E N Flow. That's also free. You can do that. If you want to do like Talking Head, where you see your head and the slides, you can use Loom L O O M. That's also free. So I would use those. Question is, what system do you use to take videos and record your screen at the same time? Okay, that was it. Okay. So yeah, loom. Go to loom.com I would use that tool. It's pretty cool. And let's, let's go deeper on Loom while we're talking about it. Another benefit of Loom is let's say you asked me a question, like a client asked me a question. Hey, Terry, how do you set up Zapier to integrate with ConvertKit? I could actually record my answer me showing them like, hey, here's how you do it, like on my screen as opposed to me just sending them some kind of like, you know, help section link or whatever and then giving them a link to that video. Or here's another thing, what I've done before, this is when I focus more on digital marketing is I would audit someone's website. I would say, hey, I see you're trying to get people to sign up for this, this course, but your, you know, your call to action is way too low and it's unclear about what you do, but you can actually record yourself doing all these things and then from there give them a link for them to watch the video. You can actually see when they watch the video too. And if you want, you can put comments at the bottom as well. So I think you should use that tool regardless, just to. For prospecting reasons and to, you know, record this course. You can also do this. You can also just like say, going back to the question we had before, how do I reach these marketing managers? Make them a video, right? Make them a video. Say, hey, I know you probably get a lot of requests and, you know, people reaching out to you. But first of all, here's why I'm doing so. I saw you posted this last week and I thought it was amazing. So I did some research and I found out this. Now here's one thing, you might not know this, so I'd love to chat with you about it if you have time. The link to schedule a call with me is right down here in the. In the section or whatever. Either way, great chatting with you. And I just, you know, think you're awesome. Don't say that. That's corny. But what I'm saying is, like, they can tell it's not just you throwing stuff at the wall because you're saying. I know. I'm saying your name. I'm talking about things you did. And this is me, right? So I know people that do very well prospecting like that by making personalized videos, because you're doing what other people won't do, first of all, and you're putting in work. So you're better off most likely making 10 of those videos a week as opposed to sending out 100, you know, cold emails. So I would strongly consider doing that. Another question here. I never realized you took work on upwork. Previously, you mentioned it was a race to the bottom in terms of rates, and clients can be fickle. At what point in your business did you pivot away from online marketing places? I'm in the process of transitioning away from upwork. After that one guy, I was done. I only used it once. I don't think it's horrible. I think you just have to not undervalue yourself. So if you bail out at 400 bucks an hour on Upwork, say 400 bucks an hour, if you never get hired, you never get hired. But don't lower your rate to match what the competition on there is offering. That's my only thing. Like, I'm sure it does work for some people and who are making money, and that's fine so long as you don't, you know, devalue yourself when you're on a platform like that, that's fine. But for me, like, I don't know, it just seemed. Here's my problem with upwork, actually. It puts all the pressure on the service provider to deliver excellent service, or else you get a crappy rating from whoever you deliver it to. So someone could be having a bad day. They're like, oh, three. And they're like, great. You just hurt my ability to feed my family. You know, like. Like, that's the problem. You know, it's like Yelp, where it's like, one person has a bad day, they give you a crap, a rating. It's like, great. You know, like, it's not fair. Whereas someone who's buying services they're not penalized as much for being rude, but someone's providing them, you know, like, one run, wrong review can, you know, just really tank your livelihood. That's another problem I have with it. I don't like people who are just mean to vendors because they think they can beat them down. Because I've worked at an agency before, and I know what that's like. I had a very large client whose name rhymed with hell, and they made computers who was just mean all the time. So I'm sure those people are gone now. But anyways, like, I never want to treat anybody like that, and I don't want anyone to be treated like that either. So that's why. That's why upwork. I just think if you're respected, cool. Go for it. If you're not, then you should probably not be on the platform. So that's why. Question about screen flow. It's just the word. Screen. S, C, R, E, E, N. And then flow. If you. If you Google that, it'll. It'll come up. S, C R, E, E, N. Flow.

Yep.

Dennis, you gotta take off. All good. Thanks for coming. And let me know if you have more questions about creating that content. I'll. I'll give you some of my background on it. If you mess up while you're talking, don't stop. Like, if you. First of all, okay, but first minute, I'll give you some of my background on it. If you mess up while you're talking, don't stop. Like, if you. First of all, okay, if it's the first minute, yeah, sure, rerecord. But it's gonna take you forever to get through your content if you want to be perfect. So if you misspeak, just correct yourself and keep going. It is what it is. Otherwise, gonna take you forever to get done. And also script what you're gonna say. Because it seems like it's gonna be more time consuming. It's actually not. Because when you have it written down, you're not oming and ahhing as much when you're talking. You know, you're just kind of going through your script. If you want to get a teleprompter, you can do that too. Something I did, it helped. And. But when you have a teleprompter, just realize there's gonna be, like, a little line that goes to the middle of it that's supposed to line up with the camera. And if your eyes are not looking at that, you're, like, looking up here while you're reading. And it looks very bad. So just kind of get used to how to use a teleprompter before you do that. Otherwise it's not going to work out too well. But don't feel like pressured for it to be perfect no matter what you do.

All right.

Another question. How long should I wait before following up on a proposal? All right, so this one came in earlier. That one depends and I'll tell you why. If someone literally says, I'll get back to you next quarter, or let's talk next quarter, then wait till next quarter.

Right.

Why wouldn't you respect that? So normally what I do is I wait about a week or so because I think it's enough time. And like, unless there's a holiday or something. Right. You know, if you know something, some other circumstances coming up, acknowledge that and be aware of it. But I'll normally wait about a week or so. And I used to. Well, I still do sometimes. But what I'll say is like, hey, just want to check in to see if you have any questions about the proposal. I know there's a lot of information there. If you want to hop on another call, let me know. But it's real basic the way I do it. But one of my buddies, this guy, Jake Savage, he's a persuasive communication coach, he told me what you can also experiment with is having just like a one line email where instead of going that deep, you just have a question they can easily answer, such as, have you ever worked with a consultant before? Like just that, have you ever worked with a consultant before? Because no matter how busy they are, they can answer that question, right? It wasn't a bunch of stuff like, oh, point one, why you should care, 2.3.4, just like straight up, have you ever done this before? And another buddy told me, like, just say, ask another question like, you know, is this project still live? Is this still something you want to do? But just being very, not blunt, but just being very succinct, I guess is the best word to use. And if you don't hear back, you know, what you can do is just, you know, try one more time maybe. But then after that, just move them to your regular newsletter. Um, and you know, just do more lead nurturing. But you shouldn't want to chase anyone. It should be a, hell yes. It shouldn't be like, oh, we'll think about it, right? I don't want to ever convince someone they want to work with me. I want them to be like, oh, well, I'm really Excited and you know, I'll, I'll get back to this person. But another thing you can do is if you're sending it through email, you can use a tool called Mixmax. I'll spell it M I X. And you can track your opens of your email. So you'll see do they open it? If you want, you can track clicks too. Did they click to download the, you know, the contract or the proposal so you'll have more information about, you know, what they're doing? And one of my clients, she realized that the person, she sent an email to you, like they opened it, but they opened it on their cell phone and they're like somewhere like in the southeast and they're from New York City, so they're probably traveling and they're on their phone, they're not gonna reply on their phone. So you can use a tool like that to kind of, you know, reduce some of the uncertainty. But end of the day someone should be fired up, you know, to work with you. Not like you have to convince them too much. That's maybe that's my approach. If you want to be super salesy, go for it. You know, that's not me because I never want someone to feel hesitant. Like I don't know if I should or not. Like, no, you should be a hell yes. You know, because I'm a hell yes. Are you? If not, then let's not do it because you're not going to be fully present in our interactions if you keep on thinking, oh, is this a mistake or not? So that's why I don't chase like.

That.

Question is, what did you use for your online teleprompter? The name I can't remember. But literally if you go to Amazon right now and like Google Teleprompter is like the Amazon recommended one. So I'm guessing it was good, but. Oh no, I was guessing it was legit. It costs like maybe 150 bucks or so. And I know like as of like three or four months ago, a lot of stuff was sold out. But I would try again. But if you just go on Amazon just like type in like teleprompter, whatever one that Amazon recommends, I think it's like around a buck fifty. That's the one that I, that I used. I can try to find it too. But yeah, it's, I think it's, it's worth it and it's something that I still actually know what I'll do. This, I can actually put in a link to my Amazon store So I'm not trying to like sell you guys a bunch of stuff, but the question came up. So this is a link to my Amazon store, which you can. Okay, so let's unpack this. I gave you a link to my Amazon influencer store.

Okay.

So with that I can put a bunch of products, books, services that I like and sell them to people and I get an affiliate fee. You should all think about doing something similar.

Right.

Because I named a lot of tools today too. I talked about ConvertKit, I talked about MixMax, I talked about what else is paid. I think just those two you actually have to pay for. But if I put in affiliate links for these things and you bought it, I would make money. So realize that, you know, when you're giving these talks or people are like asking you questions on social media or whatever, you can monetize your knowledge just through affiliate marketing. And that's something I can usually make a few thousand dollars a month through. Just passively so strongly consider doing that. Whatever makes sense for you. So if you're consulting them and you're like, oh, here's a great tool you should use, hell give them your link, which is an affiliate link, and you make, you can make a lot of money doing that. So keep that in mind. But you always have to disclose that it is an affiliate link because first of all, it's the right thing to do. Second of all, the FTC regulates that, so you can't, can't get around that. And I'll put the link in again. I think someone's asking for it.

Yeah.

Question here is I don't plan to take too many clients per year. Any cost effective or streamlined alternatives to HoneyBook for proposals, contracts and signatures. Yeah, so I think HoneyBook costs around 400 bucks a year. There's like a, there's a promo shoot. It's going on right now actually. So email me. There's a promo. You can get it for a dollar for eight months. Eight dollars? No, a dollar a month for eight months. So if you want to do that, you can just email me. But after all that's said and done, I think it's like around $400 a year. You could use something like QuickBooks because when QuickBooks will probably cost you around 30 bucks a year or 30 bucks a month, I think. But you can also use that for your taxes too and give that to your accountant. HoneyBook connects to QuickBooks should you choose to do that. There's an API connection, but it's, it's not going to be as like, you know, pretty as it would through Honeybook. And I think another benefit of Honeybook is you can use it as your CRM if you want. But that's what I would, that's what I would consider just looking at QuickBooks. But let's kind of take a step back. Like you're going to have to spend money on stuff and that's, that's kind of how it goes. Like, I spent 500 bucks on ever Webinar last week. It's that platform, I told you, where you can have like these webinars where like a call to action will pop up. That was 500 bucks. Right now we're on Zoom Webinar, not the free version of Zoom. This cost me 500 bucks a year doing this. Someone, the woman who works on my website, I gave her, I think it's like a thousand dollars last month to do some stuff. So like you're always spending money on something. You do want to invest wisely, obviously. So it's a good question to ask. But I think with Honeybook there's a lot of advantages to it that for me justify the cost. But again, there are always other options to look into.

So. Yeah. All right.

Can I talk about how to use Honeybook? Well, if you go to Was it module 5 in the course? So there's a video where I walk through the whole thing. But what you, what you would do is the strength of the platform is the templates that you have set up. So there could be a template for. As soon as someone goes to your website and fills out a form, they want to learn more about your services, you would get an alert and if you approve of them based on whatever criteria you set up in that form, you could push a button and they would automatically get a link to schedule a call with you.

Right.

So you can do that. And that's all tracked in the same CRM. So from there you can send a series of emails to them to do lead nurturing. Once they say yes, you can send your contract to them too. That's also a template. So your contract is a template. Everything's filled out in advance by you. You can set up the payment terms too. Like let's say it's $10,000. You can say, okay, the first payment is going to be due today. And then every three months you would pay another X thousand dollars towards it. That all gets tracked within Honeybook. If they're late, you can push a button to gently remind them to go ahead and do that. You can keep track of how much money you're making every month, how much your revenue is expected to come in every month as well. So that's beneficial. And the more that you set up automations in it, I think the better it is. So you have to build out these flows is the name of the actual process where from end to end, from someone's first point of contact to someone, eventually become a client. You can manage everything within the tool. So that's the benefit of it, it just makes everything more streamlined. And I'm not saying QuickBooks, it can do some of this stuff, but QuickBooks was not made for like necessarily creators, like creative entrepreneurs. That's what HoneyBook's really made for. So that's where some of the bells and whistles come from. Whereas QuickBooks is more like this workhorse platform that your CPA is going to know how to use easily. Right. That's why they make it so you can export that stuff to QuickBooks because your CPA is gonna say what the hell is this? Like I don't know how to export my charts and everything. So that's the benefit of having that integration with it. Yeah, but again, I mean it's gonna cost you a dollar to figure it out. But even that, like, let's go deeper. So with HoneyBook you can now do scheduling through that tool. You can also do scheduling through Acuity, that's what I use. But what's another platform with Squarespace, you can also do scheduling through that now too, which might go through Acuity as well. So there's always gonna be some kind of overlap between platforms because I use HubSpot as my main CRM. So on my website if you fill out a lead form for my coaching program, I'll get an email saying so and so did this. It'll also get populated in a Google sheet and then it also going to HubSpot as a deal that I can work. So HubSpot is my main CRM up until the point where someone becomes a client. And there's overlap between HubSpot and HoneyBook. Now I'm using the free version of HubSpot and that's what I walk through in the course as well. But there's overlap between so many platforms sometimes like what's your preference? Oh, I like the way this button looks. Or hey, I just don't want to feel like, I don't feel like changing it right now because I'm, you know, I have other stuff going on. Just make sure you have a good tech stack but just realize there's Always. There's also going to be some kind of redundancy. That's kind of how it goes. Last thing I'll say, though, Xavier, is like, whenever possible, try to get paid through bank transfer, because you'll pay less in fees. And with you, you're going to be charging high fees, right? So 100 bucks, if you lose three bucks, you're like, whatever, 10,000 if you lose 300, that's a lot of money. So be aware, because let's break this down. You could easily pay more in fees than you would have for some of these tools we're talking about if you don't try to go bank transfer first, as opposed to them paying with a credit card. So pay attention to how the fees break down from one platform to another as well, because when you're. You're making six figures, if you're paying 3% of that in fees, that's a lot of money. So, you know, be aware of what that looks like, too. It hurts when you see that.

All right.

Grab one more of the questions that came up in advance, and then right at the top of the call, I can grab another one before we do. What else was there? How can I determine which lead magnet to use? So, again, your lead magnet is some kind of valuable piece of content that you exchange with your audience for their email address. What you want to do is just solve a problem that's hard to do. Like, they can't just quickly Google it. So, you know, best ways to plan your personal finances in 2021, this checklist or whatever. Or it can also be some kind of valuable information, like an online course or even like a webinar, like we talked about earlier. But it should be something that proves provides a lot of value and gives you the opportunity to express your expertise.

Right?

So you can say, okay, I know you have this problem. I can answer it for you. And by the way, if you want more help, here you go. But what I always say is, like, don't worry about initially what you should do. See what your competitors are doing too, because you might get some kind of inspiration from that as well. So don't try to, like, reinvent the wheel. You know, see what other people have out there and what you can improve upon or, you know, kind of get ideas from, because otherwise it's like you're exhausting yourself. Like, what should I do? What should I do? Well, what's everybody else doing? Like, that's at least a starting place and then build out from there. So that would be my advice. But that lead magnet is a non negotiable because then you have an excuse to reach out to people with value, right? You can say, I know you have this challenge based on your social media content, whatever it is, but I don't want to give you this thing. And sometimes like they don't want it, but like they appreciate the fact that you're trying to give them something. So I like having a shorter lead magnet, like a PDF that leads into a longer lead magnet, like a free webinar or something like that. Because if you don't know someone and you're just like, oh, I'm coming out of the blue here, but do you want to spend an hour with me watching this video? They say no dude. Or they might say no dude. Maybe they will say yes. But if you're like, oh, here's this quick checklist, by the way, if you still want some more information, here's this webinar on demand. That's often a better way to get some kind of, you know, interaction from them. So that would be my thought. But you have to have a lead magnet. Super important. All right, so we are right at 8:30 ish. So I'll go ahead and close this out. But this has been great. Thanks for the questions. Because what I would recommend is find an opportunity for you to be in this same spot where you're answering questions from people because you get stronger and stronger and stronger every time. And actually that's how you can develop a lead magnet. Well, I keep on asking, getting the same question, I'm going to answer it. Right, so maybe you're volunteering to, you know, teach something at your chamber of commerce or whatever it is, but just find a reason to be in front of your target audience. You'll get stronger and stronger and stronger every time you do. So thanks for your time. See you back here next week, but appreciate it and enjoy the rest of your week.

Take care.