What I REALLY think about Black Friday Sales (Shh... I'm not doing one!)

Good morning. I'm just going to tell you, getting this Monday behind the scenes video to you was quite a journey. I tried three batteries in my camera and now we're down to just my cell phone. So you can literally see the difference between what a cell phone camera looks like and all my other videos shot with my camera, basically, to say there's no excuse to not do video. But that isn't what I wanted to talk about here in this Monday behind the scenes chat to you as I do this video. It is Monday, the week of Thanksgiving here in the United States. And with Thanksgiving comes a lot of sales, right? Black Friday Cyber Monday. These sales were starting last week. It's been insane. And I know we can start to feel the pressure like, oh, crap, should we have done this? Or how am I going to pull this off? Or, you know, what am I going to do to get a Black Friday sale out? Or anybody going to hear me? So I really wanted to talk in this video real quick to you to say you have permission to not even do a Black Friday sale. I gave myself that permission, I think at the end of maybe the middle of October. I had it on my yearly plan as an option. We had it as an option if we wanted to do it, depending on where we were at. Because I like to have a game plan at the end of every year. And so when we were planning 2022 in December of 2021, we were looking at the different launches that we were going to have and the option for a Black Friday Cyber Monday sale. But things had gone well for us this year, and Black Friday Cyber Monday stresses me out. So we put the kibosh basically on not doing a Black Friday Cyber Monday sale at all. So. So I really wanted to talk to you today about how to determine if you should be doing a Black Friday Cyber Monday sale, how you should decide if it's worth it and what to do if you haven't set one up yet. So I just want to briefly tell you a little bit about my experiences with Black Friday Cyber Monday sales. And I did, I think I did one last year, but only because I got nervous. Everybody was talking about them. Everybody was doing them. Why aren't you doing one? You need to do one, Trina. And at my mastermind last year, it freaked me out into trying to do a Black Friday sale. What that actually did was put so much freaking stress on me at an already stressful time of the year, right? Thanksgiving, the holidays. I mean, just this weekend we had a Christmas tree lighting. We had A Christmas parade, we had a play date and then we had a birthday party and then, and we decorated the house. So we already have so much stress added on ourselves as it is in life. I looked at, do I want to be that stress out again? And I didn't, I did not want to be stressed out. So what we did instead is we are actually promoting things that I love, other business owners that I love. We created an Amazon shop as well of things that I love, like my camera and boom books and, you know, all of these things that Amazon's already putting on sale. And I figured, why don't I just talk about things that I love, things I would recommend to you people that I love, their products that I've used and would recommend to you and they can do all the hard work. So instead of doing our own sale, we are doing an entire page, which you'll see, keep a lookout for our emails in the next couple of days. We're doing an entire page to list all the people we love and what sales that they are hosting. So if you want to get contracts and legalize your business, make sure people you know can't rip you off. If you're doing core sales, if you're doing coaching, if you have a refund on your website, how that needs to be. Also, if you're thinking about creating a course, I have created courses, but I know people that do it amazingly and break it down. So if you wanted to create a course and you want the best, best course on how to create a course, check out my email coming out. And if you want to make sure your email sequences are really top tier, like you have an onboarding sequence. So when somebody grabs a freebie or an offer from you, are you warming them up with sequential emails on the back? And so if you're thinking about, you really need a welcome sequence to get your audience really tied into you loving what you're doing and give them a little bit more information about you. I got you. Then we're gonna have a surprise drop on Cyber Monday. Now this is something that we'd already had on our books that we were doing and we just decided we were gonna drop it on Cyber Monday. So you know how I mentioned a little bit earlier about Black Friday was an option on our yearly plan that we did in December 21st. Well, if you are wanting to create a yearly planner, like even know how to do it or actually make the time to do it, because if you are a five figure business owner, you probably are struggling right now to figure out how to find time to plan because you're so busy with clients, you're so busy, like trying to keep your business running. So I would say spoiler alert, if you want to work through a plan for next year, put some goals into place, actually reach those goals, get my insight and my feedback on your plan. I would block December 14th. That's a Wednesday for some planning time. And on Cyber Monday, we're going to release what I'm talking about, actually. But if you have time right now to block some time on Wednesday, December 14, this is going to be your opportunity to plan your year with me. For me to show you how I do it, for me to give you the templates, for me to give you the process. So I just wanted to let you know that's coming up because so many of us catch the frenzy right now. We're freaking out. Did we do a Black Friday? Do we need to do a Black Friday? And this is just what I wanted to do today was give you permission, like you don't have to chase that you don't do what fits right in your business. And more importantly, have a plan to know if you don't want to do Black Friday, that's totally fine as well. With these videos, these behind the scene videos that are only going out to my email list. So if you're not on my email list, you're not seeing these videos at all. I really want to share the transparency about going from a five figure business owner to a six figure business owner. And this year we've gone over half a million dollars in revenue. And so we want to release a brand new series starting in the beginning of December. So not this first following week, but the week after that. I think it's like the fourth maybe in play with the whole Taylor Swift eras tour that nobody can get a ticket to. I want to host a Trina Little Airs tour and so I want to be sharing every single day that week, that first full week in December, the eras that I have gone through to get to where I am right now. So the era that I wasn't hitting six figures, the era that I did hit six figures the second year of six figures era. But what I really want to know from you is what do you want to know about this time? What would be super interesting for you to hear what it was like for me to go from, you know, five figure business to a six figure business to then a $200,000 business to then dealing with the pandemic and running a business. I want to create this five video series the Trina Little ERAS Tour if you can't make the Taylor Swift ERAS tour and really give you insight on what it's been like for me the past five years to grow this business. The real raw transparency journey of it all. But I need to know because I'm in the thick of it. I, you know, I can't read your mind and what you really want to know. So many of you in my last video commented hiring and you want to know more about hiring. So we're creating an entire series for the new year about hiring. And so I need to know what it is you want to hear about my journey. And if you did not fill out that form that I sent over last week, it's a feedback form on content and what you're really wanting to know. We are going to wrap that form up tonight, Monday, November Monday before Thanksgiving. What is the date? I'm not even sure my phone has the date on it. I don't even think my iPhone does. My calendar does. The 21st. Monday, the 21st. Tonight we're going to wrap up that form and anybody that has submitted and anybody that has filled out the form will be entered to win a couple Amazon gift cards. 100Amazon gift cards. Okay, so this is going to be just in time for Black Friday, just in time for holiday shopping. We will announce this winners tomorrow. But you need to pop on over to that form by the end of day today, Monday, November 21st to fill it out. So I'm gonna get my Monday started here. One thing that we're doing differently this week is I have shifted all of my meetings. So Monday mornings are usually my team meetings. I meet with my full team, my agency team, my marketing team. We have shifted them all to the afternoon so I can work on Sacred morning time to get things done. And again, if you're curious about why I did that and what sacred time is, December 14th is what you're going to want to be at and you're going to hear more about it next Monday. So I'm going to get to work and I will see you next Monday on these videos. And like I said, either reply to this email or send me a comment below this video to really let me know what you want to see in this new ERAS series that I'm doing. How I grew my business from five figures to now over half a million dollars. And if I don't see you before then, I hope you have a great day Thanksgiving and have some great time off with your family and friends.