Tim Frey and Steph show creators how to turn content into revenue by niching down, building trust instead of chasing viral hits, and using five content types: Philosophy, Problem, Plan, Proof, and Personal Stories. One example: a social-media agency made an extra $162,000 a year just by narrowing its focus.
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Foreign. Welcome to the Success School Podcast. Thanks for joining us today. How are you, Steph?
I am stoked. Happy to be here. Loving life.
We are super stoked with all the feedback we're getting on the podcast. So if you guys get some value from this, please let us know. Obviously we don't have any massive sponsors. We're not Tim Ferriss or Joe Rogan. So we do do it for the love. So please let us know. Steph, do you want to kick us off with your lesson of the week?
I would love to. So this week I had a really fun lesson, actually. It was a really good reminder for business in general for probably every single person listening. So I was sitting down with one of my one to one clients who came in saying she wanted to make her business more profitable. Now I we did a bit of a deep dive for about an hour and a half and eventually we came up with this one tiny thing that she needed to change in her business to be able to free up $162,000 of profit without changing anything in her act business. So without cutting costs, without increasing prices, without adding revenue streams, just simply by simplifying her business model, she was able to open up $162,000 a year in profit. So that specific example was to niche. And so when we looked at her business, she's a social media manager. When we looked at her business, you know, she was serving anybody and everybody and she has a team of place that help her do our social media management. And her team was struggling because some people were like nutrition coaches, some people were mindset coaches, some people were restaurants or cafes. And there were clients that were a lot easier and some that were a lot harder. And she was like, you know, I would ideally love my team to be able to take on, you know, 10 clients every single month, but at the moment they're sitting at 7. And I was like, yeah, because it's so frigging hard for them to create the content because you serve everybody and anybody and the amount of research and time and, you know, the stuff that they have to be able to put into that to be able to make that work, it's really, you know, it's not conducive. So in order for her to go to take her team from seven clients per month to 10 clients per month, all she had to do was niche. So all she had to do was pick one to two industries that were really easy for her team to complete, that she knew that there were heaps of that were really the best clients as well. The ones that were happy to pay, the ones that were, you know, not complaining, the ones that loved the service. Let's just niche down to those one or two industries and let's get rid of the rest. And in the next 12 months, you're going to free up, like, $13,000 a month in pure profit because there's not going to be any additional costs. There's not going to be any additional services. There's going to be nothing else we have to do except for just niche. And that is the power of niching, guys.
Epic. So if someone is in this situation now and they're working with a bunch of people, let's say they're a generalist. Like, how would they go about identifying the people to work with and who potentially to cut and what to niche in?
I think what I would say is, like, look at the volume of clients you've worked with in the past and probably categorize them. Like, if you could write down all of their, like, names, all of their industries, and then categorize them, like, who are the best clients to work with? And when we look at the best clients, we're talking about the people who paid on time, paid consistently, never complained, have stayed for a long time, were really easy to work with. We're always happy with the service. Like, we want more of those people. And it was interesting because all of the clients that she'd had trouble with were the clients that we wanted to get rid of, which was really, really interesting. And so. And they're the also the clients to get the most attention. They're the clients that are making you stay up at night. They're the ones that are waking up freaking out. So do a category, like categorization of your clients and figure out which of the actual ones that are causing you the most problems and which are the ones that are best. And then I just go after those niches. If it was me, awesome.
I love that. So my lesson of the week has actually been probably been a lesson of the year. I think Steph and I, after we got to a certain level of success, we were like, what is next? Like, what are our goals? Like, what do we want to do in the next 10 years? And a lot of that was about building a legacy. So we wanted to build a legacy of wealth. So we started chatting to our mentor about how that was possible. And then we got on to real estate, which seems like a better idea for building wealth for a lot of people. And I'll explain why a lot of people get into business. And they're like, yeah, cool, I want to make six figures. And then you made six figures. And then you're like, cool, I want to make multiple six figures. And then at some point, you realize that business doesn't really get you rich unless you have a massive exit, okay? And I mean. I mean, you sell your company for 20, 30 million, yeah, you're fucking rich, okay? But for a lot of people, that never happens. So how do you capitalize on your business to get wealthy? And for that, it's around property for us. Okay? So we read a book called the Debt Millionaire, and that was essentially on how to capitalize on inflation and raising property prices to get rich. So my lesson here is to view your business as a vehicle to create wealth instead of looking at your business as a vehicle to get you rich from an exit, because you want to be building your wealth and your financial security long term using the money you're generating from the business.
And I think where that goes wrong for a lot of people is that they often think that they're going to get rich off their business, and they're kind of like measuring the metrics that don't really matter. So, like, I'm going to hit a million dollars in revenue. I want to hit $200,000 months or $20,000 months, or insert whatever goal it is that they have. And it's like, okay, but what's it all for? Like, what? Why? Like, how much? Like, how much money is going to be enough money? Because that, that number will always move. So once you figure out what you want, then you can go after it. So for Tim and I was like, we want to be able to buy one investment property per year. And so that means that we need to have a certain amount of money in the account every year so that we can buy the, like, pay the deposit for the house. So, like, then that gave us a really realistic goal about what we were going after. So, guys, build your business so that you can build your life 100%. Love that, Tim.
So, Steph, what are we talking about today? I can see some notes here. It says content and cash.
Content and cash, which is two of our favorite things, I would say. We want to talk today about how to create content that makes cash. So in a world full of noise, how do you make content that cuts through? And we're looking at social media. There's so much noise on social media. How do you create content that cuts through and that stands out? In today's episode, we wanted to discuss the difference between Content that does. Okay. And content that crushes and even share a social media posting plan that is going to be easy and that actually works. So, Tim, when it comes to content, what mistakes are 90% of people online making when it comes to content?
I think, well, besides actually posting content, people don't post content. But the ones that are actually posting content, I think it's way too generic. So it's really common. And this is advice I've even given out in the past is like, go look at what everyone else is doing and everyone is crushing, and then do what they're doing. But the problem is, is you just blend in because you're doing the same shit as everyone else. And then it becomes too generic. And then when it's generic, your message is just lost. Okay, the second thing here is you're sharing too much information and not enough solutions. And the example for this is three steps to get more sales in your business. Step one, sell more, step to get more leads, and step three, get website leads. All of those things I've just said have actually not given you a solution. It's just fluff. There's no depth or there's no detail to that. People want details here. So you can't just give them, like, vague stuff anymore. It's gone past that. And the attention age is a little bit more deeper, and we want to focus on solutions. Now. The third one here is there is not enough storytelling. So a lot of people spout content, they spout information, but not many people actually know who is behind it. What the story is, what the backstory is, what you stand for, what's your philosophy. Philosophy. What are your principles? What are your values? And these are the things that draw people in and they build no like and trust. And on this podcast, we've talked about no luck and trust a lot of times. I see this all the time in coaching is people can't bridge the gap between no luck and trust. Therefore, people don't buy from them. And that is the big, big issue with content. They have no other way of finding out who you are besides your content and what you say about yourself.
And I love that. And I think when it comes to storytelling, guys like, you have to think about how we are as. As a. As a species, right? Like, as, you know, we have the entire time that we have been alive from, you know, when we were in Neanderthals, up until now, the one thing that has stayed is storytelling. The way that we create magic is through storytelling. Even like, if you think about what come up to Christmas, you think about Santa, like, Santa doesn't matter except for the story about Santa. He lives in a North Pole and he rewards good girls and bad girls and bad boys and things like that. And so bad boy, bad boys. And so we really like, we really. It's created through the magic of storytelling. If it was just some random dude from like, you know, Balcar that used to come through and just give you gifts, it's not as magical as someone who lives on the North Pole and he has reindeers and they fly through the night. And the magic of storytelling has been lost. And not even just that like, you know, falsified story, but like the story of you. If you go look at our own social media, we share a lot of like, personal stories, a lot of things that have happened to us. And whether that's in business or in life or in, you know, money or, you know, you know, generational upbringing, we're sharing a lot of stories. And that's why people are connecting. And I think that there magic art of storytelling has been lost.
Just a point on this guys, is I see this all the time in the biz baby world. I know we work with a lot of females, so this is very relevant for you guys. But I'll go and tell someone to go write a story and then they'll put it in a real. The problem with putting a story in a real is everyone else is doing reels, okay? So the magic is lost there. So you want to do not what everyone else is doing, you want to do the opposite to it. So if every biz baby is doing reels, do long form and put it on LinkedIn or put on Facebook or put it where they're not there and you're going to get far more traction for it. So stop doing what everyone else is doing and start doing stuff that they're not. And that's how you're going to stand out.
I want to touch on one thing before we move on from this point. One thing that I see like 90% of people doing wrong when it comes online is they're doing watered down content to go viral. And the reason that they do watered down content is because they see someone who's gone viral and they think, oh, I'll just do that and then I'll go viral. And the reason that people are trying to go viral is because they think that if they have a big audience, they'll make more money. But 99.9999% of the time, Tim and I have seen the big Audiences are the hardest to monetize. They are actually the hardest to monetize because they're not really that bought in. If they've come and followed you one viral reel, they're not bought in. They're probably not gonna see any more of your content for an extended period of time. And more often than not, you're losing your brand reputation, you're losing your strong key message, you're losing, you know, what it actually means to be you and how you're different because you're just trying to create these like viral reels and hopes of a big audience rather than actually just building an audience of people who love what you're about to.
And lastly here, guys, I know I said lastly a few times on this point, lastly. But lastly, I know people with half a million followers on social media platforms, they go viral, they have millions of people that have watched their videos and they can't sell shit because people don't trust them, okay? They have no leadership, they have no personality. They're just creating viral content. No one wants to buy it. They can't sell a nine dollar product. I have 6,000 followers on Instagram and I've sold millions of dollars worth of shit in my career opposite to them. And I have audiences 100 times less in terms of volume. It's not about the size of your audience, it's about the leadership, it's about the storytelling, it's about the trust that goes into it. So, Steph, I want to ask you, why is this content everywhere if it doesn't actually work?
So why is everyone doing it? I guess, right? Like why is everyone doing it if it doesn't work? Which makes perfect sense. I think the reason that people are just like, it's easy to copy someone else's stuff and basically make it your own. I'm not saying anyone here is copying, but like, even to replicate and model, I would say it feels easier to do that. It's easier to write about, like three ways to get rich than it is to say, like, hey man, this was a really personal experience that happened to me. It's easier to. Sorry. It's easier to focus on what everybody else is doing and thinking that everybody else has the answer except you. But the reason that you are going to blow up in this world, the reason that you are going to make a difference, the reason that you are going to make an impact is because of you. It's because of your experiences, it's because of your background, it's because of what you believe in. And so My biggest piece of advice to you guys is like, I know it feels easy to create content that other people are making. I know it feels easier to try and create viral reels. I know it feels easier to do the easy content, but it's really important that you bring the you into what you do. Now. The other thing I'm going to touch on really quickly here is that, yeah, it used to work. That's the thing. It did used to work. Like three tips to, you know, get more sales in your business. Used to work. It used to work when it was new, but now that everybody else is doing it, it's not working because it's become generic. That's what Tim was saying at the beginning. So it did used to work. It no longer works. What's working right now? Long, where to be right now if you want to build, know, like, and trust and get more sales. I do want to touch on one other thing. The state of the world right now. So I think that you need to factor this in when you're thinking about creating content. So the state of the world right now is like, it's a bit of a mess. You know, the economy's not great here in Australia. It's probably not great in many countries around the world. There are. There are wars going on. There is a lot of really hard stuff happening out there in the world right now. And a lot of people are using social media as an escape. And so if you're just pumping, like really deep, heavy, like, you know, content that's not particularly fun or not particularly if it's boring, that's not what they're there for. They're like, if you can find a way to be like, hey, three tips to make more sales in your business, and you can make that really heavily personality. But so, you know, without showing your ass on Instagram as an example, right? So it's like actually create some personality, it creates some interest, it creates something different, right? It's about really finding those ways to stand out and to make that content not boring and to make that content not heavy. Because they're looking to be entertained, they're coming on for a distraction. So make it interesting, make it maybe not fun, but make it at least entertaining or inspirational or upbeat. So they actually want to keep consuming your content. Tim, what kind of content is working right now?
So we've got four buckets here, guys, and the first one is philosophy. Okay? So philosophy about you, what you personally believe to be true, your beliefs, your values, your opinion on topics, and your thought leadership. Okay, so I've given you about five or six examples there of content you can write about. This has to be personal to you, and you have to believe in it and you have to stand by it. Okay? As soon as someone kicks up a shit because they don't agree with your post, and then you run away and delete it. That's not leadership, and that's not thought leadership. Okay? You need to stand up for what you believe in here. And that's how you're going to grow an audience of people that know, like, and trust you.
And, yeah, I love that. And last week I did a post around this sort of content which was like, you know, what do you personally believe to be true? And I personally believe that one of the examples that I'll give you is like, I personally believe that burnout has got nothing to do with overworking. Everything to do with your emotional state and the expectations that you put on yourself. Now, a heap of doctors and professionals and psychologists can tell me that's wrong, but it's what I believe at the end of the day. And so what I personally believe, like, that is the kind of content that's working, because the people who are going to resonate with that, I'm going to go, actually, that sounds really true for me and based. And that's based off my own experiences, but I think a lot of people are going to resonate with that. And a lot of people did resonate with that. And so it's like, how do you think differently about a common topic? So there's a common topic in your area, in your niche, how do you think differently about that to what everyone else is saying? And that's a really, really great way of, like, sharing your philosophy.
A really strong belief I have is that people that drink oat milk are weird. Okay? So that is a really good example of this, guys. If you want, like, a strong Steph, talk to us about number two. We got proof. What about proof? How does it work?
So I think, like, a lot of people are sharing social proof in terms of, like, client wins and testimonials, and that stuff's great. And you do need that as part of your strategy because people do want to know that what you do works. Okay, that's great. But I think if we're only doing it that way, if we're only sharing it, like, this is the win and this is the result that I was able to get my client. That's becoming overused, right? And again, if everything. If everyone's doing it, then it's going to stop working at some point. So we need to start looking at like how can we tweak that process. So one thing that we have been seeing work really well is to prove it by showing exactly how you got someone's results. So actually show the mechanism again. Last week if you go and look at my content, you will see that I wrote a post and I think Tim has written a couple as well where it's like we got a client this result and actually the person that I spoke about as my lesson of the week this week, it's about her. Here's how we're able to grow her company by $280,000 profit in the next 12 months. And I actually spoke to you guys, if you go and look at the post, I share exactly how we did it. I don't hide anything. I'm not keeping anything behind the scene. It's completely step by step and the reason and you guys might be thinking like, why would you share a step by step process? And it's because at the end of the day guys, like if most of the time they're not going to be able to do it by themselves and they're still going to want your hand to help them along the, along the journey. And that's where like what Tim and I share and what we know isn't particularly new. It's stuff that we've learned or adopted or you know, have heard from somebody else. There's no really new thoughts that often in the world anymore. But what people do need is help with implementation and personalization on that process. And so nothing can take that away. We can share the whole mechanism for you and most of the time you're just going to read it and go, oh, I need that. They can do it. And that's exactly why it works. CM number three.
Yeah. My only point to just touch on with that guys is there is literally with ChatGPT or Google, someone can find out anything in the click of their fingers. So you might as well show it. So imagine like as my gym, I just show up before and after and I'm like sweet, here's a before and after trainer, my gym, if you want this, it's not really giving away too much there and people are probably like what the fuck actually happened to get this result. But if you step by step training was the X, nutrition was X, sleep was X and it was in detail of what they actually did. It just creates a lot more trust with the consumer as well. So our third topic here guys is on what content is working and what, you know, what we're going to do is a problem. Okay, so you want to pick the common problems and openly share the solution. A little, little bit similar to the proof one. We want to go into detail on the solution here. You don't want to just like gloss it over. So I say if my problem is I can't get leads and you're like, cool, market more, write better copy and then send emails, that's not really going deep enough on it. So if you have those three points for that topic, you want to go deep into exactly when, what time, what you should be sending, what the, like how to create the copy. All that type of stuff should be very deep and detailed. That's how you get saves, that's how you get sends, that's how you get shares, that's how you get all the good stuff on social media.
And last but not least guys, the fourth one is the plan. So people like, they want to know first of all what you're doing and they want to know your plan to get there. Especially if you've got a personal brand or if you have any kind, if you're an owner operated business, all these sorts of things. So share your own plan to get a result or somebody else's plan for success. So hey, you know, I just had a one to one with a client. We sat down and we planned out exactly how we're going to make $290,000 of profit in the next 12 months. I'm going to show you exactly what we did to get there. Okay, again guys, and Tim and I are really big on this. I know that some of you are going to be sitting there going, it's too much value. I can't share that stuff. That's my own ip. And it's like cool. Well if you really think that they can't get that information elsewhere, you are probably lying to yourself. Okay. Because ultimately they can actually get the information elsewhere. They will find somebody else and they will pay somebody else who is showing them the plan. Okay. At the end of the day. And so for us at the end of the day it's like the more we give, we know that. And Hormones is a really beautiful example of this. And there are so many incredible examples of this around the world of people who just give and give and give and give. And because they give so much, eventually people are like, wow, I can't even imagine what their paid content is like. This is the way to win the game.
Yeah. My only thing to add here Guys, is if you want to grow on social media, you need to be a leader. How you get followers on social media is you are a leader and leaders have plans. And if you show people your plan, you will grow on social media. So I wrote a post which you can go back and look at by the time this airs. And it's how we are going to make $2.5 million in success. Cool. And I give it all away. I give you the strategy. I tell you everything in that post that's on my Instagram. So, Steph, break it down for us. What would this look like on a social media schedule?
So we've broken down the four different kinds of content that you might be able to use and I've added an additional one here. But if you wanted to post five times a week, this is what it could look like. So Monday would be that philosophy post. So what is it that you believe that other people don't? Or what do you believe about a common thing that is different to the way it's currently perceived? Tuesday will be a problem post. So, you know, really sharing about that problem and also giving away the solution. Wednesday you might do a plan post. So here's my plan to get to X. Or here's my, here's the plan I, you know, created with a client to get to X. Thursday would be that proof post. So that's really what we're sharing again, a little bit more about, you know, showing the exact results and how we got them so the exact way that we got the results. And then Friday I was, I've thrown this one in, but a personal story which is really similar to the philosophy post. So it's just like maybe something that happened that week, you can share a story about how it happened, how it affects you and what you learned from it.
Awesome. We're over to the listener questions and I'm just reading this before I'm reading it out to you. This is a loaded question. We're going to have a lot to talk about here. So question from Whitney J. Thanks for submitting, guys. If you have any questions, please let us know. It is how to know when to pivot. When you have launched and you have no leads or booked clients after three months. Steph, what do you think?
Oh, it's so hard. Like there's so many metrics that need to be deep dived here, Whitney. So when we look at this, you know, not knowing anything about your business or anything about what you do, it's like the first thing I'd be looking at is like, how's your offer? You know, like, what's the offer like? First of all, is the offer actually attractive? Is it going to convert and attract the clients? Does it actually solve the problems that the clients that you have or wanting are looking for? To how much have you marketed it and where have you marketed it? Because a lot of the time people think that like, oh my God, I created like, you know, a lot of the time in startup world especially, a lot of the time people think I created a website and I put it out there and you know, no one's bought anything. I'm so disappointed. And it's like, okay, well, unfortunately it's not that easy. Like we do. If you want to get clients, guys, you have to go. Especially in the startup phase when you have no, no, like, and trust. When you, no one's ever bought from you before. No one's talking about you, no one knows who you are. Like, you have to hustle. The startup phase is the, probably the part where you have to market the most, right? At some point it does get a little bit easier. You still have to market, but at least you have the trust. So it's a faster conversion. But at the very beginning you have to market a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot, right? So how's the offer? Where have you marketed, how much have you actually marketed it? Mostly usually it's one of those three things. Depending on if you, if you've had no leads, then it indicates to me that it's one of those two things. So if you had no leads, the offers wrong or the marketing is wrong, that's what it comes down to. If it was a sales issue, that could be a whole myriad of other things. But because you've had no leads after three months, it indicates to me that the offer or the, or the, the actual marketing of the offer is wrong. Tim?
Yeah, My take on this is pretty similar to yours. Like my advice for anyone doing a launch, this sounds like your first time is just do it super cheap and get people in the door so you can get runs on the board. Do you need testimonials? You need people through the program. You need to like shit test the program to see if it actually gets a result. And it should be a bit of a no brainer for people, especially the first time. I mean like Steph, talk about your first course. Like, how much was it? Like what they get? Like, just give, give us some context here.
Yeah, so my first ever group coaching program that I ran, which was pretty much my first Ever coaching program that I ran, I was so stoked to get people in the door just because I wanted to test it. Like I didn't, I didn't believe that I was the best coach in the world. Like I hadn't really done it. So I had no proof even for myself. And so I was like, if I can just get people in the door and I can test this, I just, I'm gonna go all in to see if I can help them. So I charged 800 for 12 weeks and I let payment plans go over six months. So for some people they were paying like $75 a week or even a lot less than that. For some people paying like $30 a week for that. And I was so okay. I was actually stoked. Was I the most thrilled? I was so thrilled. I was so thrilled that.
Happier than making seven figures now?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like five people said yes to my 800 product. I just made like whatever that is in math. $44,000 in 12 weeks. Except it wasn't in 12 weeks because some people paid on 6 month favorite plans. But I couldn't believe it. And we did one to ones. Like we had a one to one every fortnight. We did a group coaching calls three times, two times a week. They had content, they had templates, they had workbooks. They could message me anytime in that three month period. It was crazy, crazy, crazy value. Like of course I had five people sign up the next round, I had 20 people sign up and I put the price up to fifteen hundred dollars and everyone had to pay in the twelve weeks. So once you do the first one, you get raving fans, you get raving results. And then your, your next one and the one after that and one after that they get bigger and bigger. Like 20 people. Then I have 50 people and a hundred people and now we have 100 in success school. And that's how it builds. But if you're expecting to come in and charge what everyone else is charging with absolutely no proof, no name, you know, no, no one even knows who you are, it's going to be harder for you.
My first launch, I think I had one person that I signed up. It was quite an expensive launch, but I think I did three posts to it and I. There was probably nights I was in tears to Steph about. I was like, why is my launch not working? I suck. Like I'm the worst coach in the world. Insert X. And like the reality is that didn't show up. So that's probably what's gone on here.
Yeah. And the expense of the reason they launch was expensive because Tim actually hired a launch coach.
Yeah.
To. To do that launch shout out to Ellie.
And that wasn't her fault, by the way.
No, it was Tim. He didn't show up for it. Right. So it was expensive because he hired the launch coach but didn't do any of the work. So it doesn't matter if you hire the coach, guys. You have to do the work, otherwise it won't work. So, Whitney, our piece of advice would be, first of all, you're in our Facebook group, so please post your offer. We would love to see it. Show us what you're offering, tell us who it's supposed to be for, and we'll give you some tips on exactly where you can market to make a difference here. But guys like you do have to go really hard at the very beginning. We highly recommend going cheap just for the first couple of rounds, or first round even, and then you get to up your prices and within 612 months, you'll be flying.
All right, guys, that was an epic episode. If you got some value from it, please subscribe, give us a follow, and obviously share it with someone who could find this valuable. Lastly, guys, five star reviews only leave us a rating. I think we're up to 12. We're fucking bawling out online on the reviews, so please get us up there. We muchly appreciate it. There's way more people that listen to this than 12 people. So spare 10 seconds, give us a review, help us fly the charts and conquer entrepreneurship.
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