Make Every Year Better Than the One Before: 2 Steps for Achieving Big Dreams When it comes to achieving our dreams, the small things matter. From my experience, the small details are the things that can lead to BIG results. And the good news is, it only takes a few steps in the right direction to make a huge difference in your business, in your relationships and ultimately your life. So the question is, what small things matter? Before I get into this, just know that internally, you’re probably going to have the knee jerk reaction of “oh I know this”. But knowing it and applying it to your life are two totally different things. So I encourage you to take it in and then ask yourself about how you could apply it to your business. Deal? Ok let’s go… 1) You need to know what you want to accomplish. Sounds obvious right? But if I asked you specifically what you want, would you be able to tell me? Unfortunately, most don’t. They may have a vague idea. But it’s “fuzzy” at best. Imagine if you jumped in your car and had no idea where you wanted to go? What would be the purpose of getting in the car? (for parents with young kids… you get a “pass” if you answered “to get my kids to sleep” LOL…. but that’s the only real reason you’d get in a car without knowing where you wanted to go). Unfortunately, too many of us live this way in our business and in our daily lives. At best we have rough targets of what we want to hit. Perhaps it’s sales or list growth or retention rates we want to aim for. But they’re too broad. It needs to be specific and clear. They should be so clear that if I asked, you’d be able to tell me right away. And if I asked 3 months from now, you’d say the exact same thing. So that’s the first priority – getting clear on what you want. Without that clarity, you’ll constantly flounder. The most important element I believe you and I need in place to achieve big things in our lives is a goal setting PROCESS. The second most important element you and I need in place is to develop a goal-achieving PROCESS. 2) Have a goal setting process in place. Many times we have clear and specific goals. But we don’t have a process for accomplishing them. As business owners, the goals are not enough. We also need a process for achieving them. For years, I used the same goal-setting process over and over. The problem was, the process was broken. And my goals were terrible. It’s why I used to get anxious towards the end of every year. In fact, I used to hate December, because it would send me into a total tailspin. I’d find myself reflecting on the year realizing that I hadn’t accomplished any of what I set out to do. Naturally, I’d be in a bad mood and would feel awful about things. Add to that the cold weather and grey skies of winter . . . it wasn’t fun. But here’s the “duh moment”… even though I kept getting terrible results, I didn’t make any change to my process. I kept doing the same thing I had always done. I just told myself that I had to try and be more disciplined this year. It was the same thing over and over again. I would start by writing down my goals. AND by doing this, I’d feel really good about them (and yes, my goals were SMART –you know, specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound). But that was never enough. Because fast forward to the end of the year and I’d look at the list and realize that I hadn’t accomplished anything that I had set out to do. Setting goals wasn’t the problem. It was the process of achieving them that was completely broken. One year it dawned on me… if I don’t fix this, I’ll continue to fall further and further behind where I want to be. So I started to work on my process for achieving the goals I would set. Today, my process is much different (and I’m getting far better results). It’s thanks to a process that I learned from Michael Hyatt. It’s designed to set you up for success each year, AND it helps give your goals more context and meaning. Doing this made all the difference for me. So here’s what my process looks like now . . . Every January first, my wife and I leave our home and get a hotel room in Toronto. Now, don’t get any funny ideas (you cheeky monkey!). We’re there to basically plan our entire year 🙂 Doing this away from home has been very important for us because it helped us “block the time”. We tried doing it at home one year and we ultimately got distracted and it wasn’t as effective. The whole process takes about six hours and we follow a specific set of steps guided by Michael. We watch his videos and then he walks us through his Best Year Ever process. Then after each video, he provides an exercise and a series of questions to answer. We reflect individually first. Then we share our answers and reflect together. The crazy thing is, it’s been amazing to see what this has done for our marriage as well. Reflecting and setting goals together has definitely deepened our relationship, because we’re having valuable discussions about our dreams, vision, and what we want to accomplish. And through it, I’ve gotten clear on how I can best support Amy and likewise, how she can best support me. Most importantly, it’s helped us get clear on where we were aligned with our family goals (and where we need further discussion! LOL). But it’s a far healthier way to come at it. But as it relates to my career, Michael’s process has also dramatically improved my “success rate”. Do I hit my goals every time? No. But do I have a higher success rate than before? Heck yeh! So what’s the takeaway with all this? If you and I aren’t satisfied with the results we’re getting, then we need to look at changing the process we’re currently using (just like my old process was not working for me). You’ve got to change it up. You’ve got to find a process that DOES move you forward. Otherwise . . . you guessed it. . . your results are never going to change. I look at that goal list now and it fires me up, because I realize we made so much progress this year. And if I really dig deep, what I’ve realized is that reaching the goal isn’t always the thing that feels the best. It’s making forward progress toward the goals. That’s what brings the greatest satisfaction. So even if I don’t accomplish the goals, I still feel good about them because I’ve made forward progress. These are two small ideas… but they produce big results. Know specifically what you want to accomplish Create a goal achieving process that gives meaning and purpose to your goals I’d love to know more about the processes that you use for achieving your goals. Let me know in the comments. If you have any questions about the process I use, let me know that in the comments too.
Marketing Forecast 2018 What if you could predict the future of marketing the way a weatherman predicts the weather? How much better could you plan for your business knowing the forecast ahead of time? I’ve been at this game for a long time and, along the way, I’ve developed some amazing friendships with people who are important to me. As a part of being in these great relationships, I periodically reach out and check-in with these friends. And, inevitably. . . we geek out on marketing. During these conversations, all kinds of magic happens. Because this is where we share the details on the things we’re doing and trying that aren’t “mainstream” yet. The experiments. The discoveries. The nuances that are making all the difference in our results. And through sharing with each other, we find out what’s working and what’s not. We celebrate each other’s wins, and we help one another overcome hurdles. Coming out of those discussions, I always end up with a few key ideas I use to build on top of the ideas that I already have. And when I look back at the progress I’ve made in my career, so many of the breakthroughs came from things that were discussed during these conversations. But here’s the problem… For a long time, I wasn’t privy to these kinds of discussions. It’s only come because I’ve spent nearly 15+ years pouring into my friends and taking the time to develop these relationships. And I know how frustrating it is if you don’t have this kind of opportunity. Things can feel slow. You can feel like you’re out of the loop. So it got me thinking… What if I could bring this kind of intimate conversation about marketing to you? Wouldn’t that be awesome? Imagine a discussion between friends. Geeking out on all things marketing. The good. The bad. And most importantly, the future. So that’s what I’m going to do. In just a few days, I will be getting together with some of my friends to bring you some of the top marketing strategies that they have been using during the last year. I’m going to jump start the discussion by asking them questions. “What was your #1 marketing strategy of 2017?”, and . . . “What are the big opportunities you’ll be focusing on in 2018?” It’s one thing to think about what worked in the past, but it’s also another thing to think about where your mindset should be moving into the future. AND . . . as entrepreneurs, we want to help you make more money so that you can make more impact. So, I’m asking my friends to forecast the future of online marketing and we’re going to bring you the best marketing advice for this year and the best marketing advice going into 2018. So why are we motivated to do this now? Well, there was a very serious incident that got the wheels in motion. As you’ve probably heard, there have been some devastating natural disasters that have taken place this year. We all know what it feels like to watch from afar. And to be honest, I felt a bit helpless as the lives of others were affected in such a negative way. I was so far from them. And there was so much damage… what could “I” do to really help? (limited thinking I know… but that’s what I was feeling) But when you see something devastating like that happen, it impacts you. And I think it impacts me more now as a husband and father of two young kids. I just kept thinking “what would I do if I was in this situation?” You can’t help but have compassion for those people. But that compassion goes to a totally different level, and those feelings of helplessness are magnified, when you know somebody you love and care about who is on the ground experiencing it. And Hurricane Irma, did that to us. Two of our team members live in Florida . They were experiencing everything in real time. And our team began living the hurricane through their updates on Facebook and in Slack… and as the days and hours of preparation passed, it became obvious that they would be directly in the storm’s path. As the storm began to bear down on them, the rest of us were thinking, “What can we do?” And our team began to experience this sense of helplessness. Two of our team members were in Florida but the rest of us were watching from here, in Canada and from other parts of the world. Then it happened. The hurricane hit. And the devastation was so crazy. Like I said, it can feel surreal when you see it on the news. But when you have people you care for in the middle of it, we felt compelled to do something. Anything. We had to find a way to help. As the slack conversations and Facebook updates came through, we wondered, “What can little ol’ us do?” At first I just reached out to Bree because her house had been destroyed and she and her family didn’t have anywhere to stay. Even though we are in Canada (a long ways from Florida), the first thing I thought of was to help her get a roof over her head. So it started with this message… Then our TRIBE community rallied behind them. But then, something even more surprising happened… Our two team members, in the midst of the devastation themselves, began to reach out and help those in need in their communities. THAT inspired us. It was like, despite all the craziness and chaos that they were dealing with, they were still thinking of others. There was so much need and they were doing whatever they could to help… even while dealing with their own situation. And that got us thinking… what could we do to help? How could we help Leslie and Bree in these efforts? Because the reality of it is, even this many weeks later, there are a lot of people who are still dealing with very real challenges. And challenges that I know I can’t even comprehend. Like… There are people who still do not have electricity. Can you imagine? Think for a minute about how much we take that for granted. How much we depend on it. And people went from “normal life” of having it available all the time to nothing… for weeks. People are still trying to live without it. There are those who have been displaced from their houses and are fighting with insurance companies to get their homes restored. And we know (because this is the exact situation Bree is in). Her home was completely destroyed and even though she had flood insurance and hurricane insurance both companies are trying to do everything they can to avoid fulfilling on the service that they’ve been paying for. Many small businesses were impacted, and the losses were so great that they had to close their doors, putting many out of work. The list goes on and on. So, we just brought it back down to… these are two people that we love. They’re on our team. There IS something that we can do. I’ve been blessed to own a business helping others achieve. Not only their business dreams, but also their dreams of earning more so that they can give more to the people and causes that matter most to them. And, at the end of the day, we believe that the more money you make the more impact you can have. I am so proud, that my team lives by this philosophy day in and day out. And I want to continue to be an example of that philosophy and demonstrate what that looks like. So . . . while we are streaming this live event to you totally free, we are also going to use it as a fundraiser to help improve the lives of some of the residents of Florida. The hope is that you’ll see the benefit of this, will improve your business, AND you’ll therefore have more resources to improve the lives of others too. Please join us
Locate the Pricing Sweet Spot : 2 Tips that Max Profits AND Boost Subscriber Numbers What’s the perfect price to maximize member registrations? I’m talking about the price at which you have the best conversions and the highest profitability. How do you find that sweet spot? The short answer is, the price doesn’t matter anywhere near as much as you think – at least it doesn’t if you follow what I’m about to share. Let me explain… In the beginning, It takes a willingness to test and try different price points. HOWEVER… You CAN mess this up. And that’s why it’s important to follow these best practices for pricing. It’s easiest to explain by using a real-life example. So, let’s take a look at Karen’s question and then I’ll break down how to approach the mystery of membership pricing. Karen asked, “Hey Stu, I opened my membership at $27 a month for founding members, and then raised it to $47. I’m doing a launch now, and I’m trying to decide if I should go up to $67 or $79. One pro told me I should be charging $297 for my program, but I don’t want to cut anyone out due to price. Can I get your advice? I feel like it’s worth more than I’m charging.” – Well, Karen, my friend, you are not alone with your pricing dilemma. So where do you start? Well, the first pricing lesson is: Start low and incrementally raise your prices Up to this point, Karen has nailed it. She started at $27. Then went to $47. Now, she is contemplating going up to $67 or $79. Before I tell you what I think she should do, what do you think? $67 or $79? My advice is to go to $67. Then you can go up from there. Why not make the jump all the way up to $79? It’s always easier to raise your price than reduce it. And going up to $79 is a pretty big jump from $47. And whenever you increase the price, you want to gauge the market to see how your audience is reacting (and buying). Because here’s the thing… You never want to go too high and then be forced to reduce your price. That stinks! Think about it… Everybody who paid the higher price is now going to feel like a schmuck because they paid the higher price. You may even have some people come back and ask for a refund for the difference. It’s a support nightmare. But, if you start low, and you raise your price high, guess what? All of your early adopters, feel like they got a good deal. Instead of complaining, they’ll be singing your praises. It’s a subtle difference. But it’s MASSIVE when it comes to the buying experience of your clients and customers. All it takes is the decision on your end to start low and go high, which Karen has done, and I want to commend her for that. The key is to be patient with each increase. BTW – If you have a membership site, lock your early members in at the lower price. The “grandfathered pricing” is an AWESOME retention strategy… because people don’t like letting go of a good deal 🙂 Ok, so here’s where I throw you a curveball. You ready? After a while, your price should become somewhat irrelevant. Whaaaaaattt? I know…. you’re thinking “Stu’s has hit his head one too many times”. Let me explain… Remember when Karen said she felt like it was “worth more than I’m charging”? Whenever we are creating our own products and programs, it’s almost inevitable that we feel like it is worth more than what we’re charging. Why? Because we know all the hard blood, sweat, and tears that go into creating and producing that program, right? But here’s what I want you to remember… People get the real value when they get results The truth is, the real value comes from the results that you’re able to help people get. For example, let’s pretend you gave me $100 and in exchange, I share with you a bunch of proven marketing strategies to help you maximize sales. And after applying those ideas, you get a return of $500 – which can be directly connected back to those ideas. What’s the true value from this exchange? It’s at least $400 right? ($500-$100). And some would say $500. But you could even make an argument that the value is even greater than both of those combined because now you have the knowledge to produce the same result over and over again. So the “return” continues long after the initial $500 gain. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving 🙂 That’s the real value. And that’s what makes the initial $100 feel almost insignificant. That’s why the $1,997 we charge for our TRIBE membership training course is a no brainer. When you compare it to the results that so many of our clients get with their membership, purchasing TRIBE becomes an easy decision. The majority of people who follow what we teach make the investment back within the first month of when their membership launches (we’ve even got examples of people generating 14X their initial investment within the first month). And the cool part is, because a membership site is recurring, that’s just the return on “month 1”. The real value begins to compound when you factor in the revenue from their membership each month thereafter. So the value calculation is pretty simple… Give me $1,997 and get that back (and likely more) after the first month of launching your membership site. It’s a no brainer. DISCLAIMER: Results will vary. Not everyone will get a return because not every does the work. Just because you bought it doesn’t mean that magic happens. You still have to implement 🙂 Here’s the key… The real (no brainer) value only comes if someone gets a result with what you provide. Let me say that again… The real (no brainer) value only comes if someone gets a result with what you provide. But the HUGE upside for you is that the more results you produce, the more valuable what you’re sharing becomes – and the easier it is to sell. This whole approach is something I call “The Circle of Awesomeness” and it looks like this: So the second lesson of pricing is: Help people get results, and your price almost becomes irrelevant We may always feel like what we are producing is worth a lot more, but I always like starting low and then I raise my prices over time. Then just stay hyper-focused on helping people get results. If your products, services or trainings produce the results people are after, it won’t be long before you’ll be able to quickly raise your prices (and will likely be able to exceed the initial price points you envisioned). And then selling at the higher price point becomes almost effortless. To price your site for maximum subscribers Start pricing on the low end and incrementally raise it higher over time. Smaller increments are better. Help your clients get results. The more results you get, the more you can raise your prices. Do you have a question that you need answered? I’d love to help you with that. Please be sure and leave your question in the comments below.
How to Stand Out in the Marketplace : 3 Tips for Becoming the Go-To Expert The fastest way to succeed in business, is to become known for solving a specific problem. Let that sink in, because this is SO important. The fastest way to succeed in business, is to become known for solving a specific problem. Becoming known as a specialist is the #1 way to create tremendous momentum in your business, even if you are a complete beginner. Because when you’re known for solving a specific problem, it becomes very easy for other people to spread the word about what it is you do. “Oh, you want to grow your YouTube subscribers? You need to talk to James Wedmore.” “Oh, you’re struggling with managing a business and balancing motherhood? You need to talk to Kate Northrup.” “Oh, you want to eat a plant based diet? You’ve got to check out Kris Carr.” The point is, people can’t spread the word about what you do if you try to help people with “everything”. This is especially important in a large market. Buyers are searching for answers and they are looking for someone who really knows a lot about that particular subject. So, you (or your company) want to be known for solving a particular problem. You want to be known as THE go-to expert (or resource) in a particular area. Let me give you an example: The goal with my business is to help all entrepreneurs. That’s my big “why?”. I want to help entrepreneurs build a business that is high profit and low in stress. Because, I believe when we as entrepreneurs have a business that’s high in profit and low in stress, we’ll be much more open to giving to the people and causes that we’re passionate about. And when we do that together, we have the power to make this world a better place. That’s my objective… but that’s a really big objective, right? So, I’m not starting there. I started in a particular niche that I’m knowledgeable about. I serve entrepreneurs by helping them develop a recurring stream of revenue using membership sites. By being known as the “go-to guy” for membership sites, I’m able to consistently help entrepreneurs gain high profit with low stress by using the recurring revenue model in their business. So, if you want to become known as a top specialist, here’s what you need to do: STEP #1: Start with a specific niche you want to serve If you want to gain the maximum amount of momentum, you need to first narrow down WHO you want to serve. And, I “get it”. You want to help everyone. That’s natural. But it’s VERY hard to build momentum trying to serve “everyone”. So, narrow it down. Do you help beginners in your market? Seasoned pros? Is there a group of people within your market that you serve? You narrow down your niche the same way you honed in on your specialty. For example, last night I had dinner with an entrepreneur that has seen her business grow like gangbusters over the last three years. And as I began talking to her, I could understand why. Her website is http://www.workingagainstgravity.ca. It’s a site that helps create customized nutrition plans for people looking to live a healthy lifestyle. They then have coaches that work with you to make sure the plan works and you get the results you’re after. Ok, sounds good, right? But then I started asking a few questions, and Adee (the founder), mentioned something that immediately grabbed my attention. I asked, “Who typically signs up for your site?” She responded, “We have a lot of CrossFit athletes who use our service. In fact, some of the top CrossFit athletes in the world use our service”. Stop right there. Customized nutrition plans for people looking to live a healthy life is broad. But, customized nutrition plans for CrossFit athletes, much more narrow. So, what’s happened is that word has spread amongst the CrossFit community that this is the service you need to use if you’re looking to improve your performance and recover faster from your CrossFit workouts. CrossFit athletes are driven people. They are always looking to better their performance. So, if these customized nutrition plans will give them an edge, they’re all ears. And now, she can’t onboard coaches fast enough to meet the demand that she’s facing. And, in three years they’ve grown the service to serve thousands and thousands of monthly, recurring members (gotta love that subscription revenue… yeh baby!). The point is, when you narrow down your market, the word will spread faster. Next, is to identify one to three major problems that your market is facing. Then, pick one of them where you can offer specific solutions that get results. STEP #2: Look for pain points One of the strategies that I highly recommend is once you know WHO you want to serve, now start looking for specific pain points. What are the external problems that your market is facing? What are they going to Google and seek a solution for? People are online everyday searching for answers. They are always looking for a way to solve their problems. One of the best questions you can ask yourself is, “What solution do I have for someone else’s pain?” One way to do this is to research Facebook groups, forums, or other places where people gather online. What are they struggling with? What kinds of questions are they asking? What frustrates them? What do they want to do faster? Easier? You want to make note of the struggles and challenges they are reporting to their peers. The more frustrated they are, the more likely it is that they will be willing to connect with someone who can help them. So identify the specific pain points that stand out. Here’s the key… DO THE RESEARCH. I know. It’s not sexy. It’s not fun. But this is the stuff that makes your marketing efforts 10X more effective. So do the research. Find the problems! STEP #3 – Become a specialist at solving a specific problem This is where it all comes together. It’s very valuable to you and your business when you can become the go-to guy or gal for solving a specific problem. You want to be top of mind when somebody has that problem or when they have a friend who has that problem so that they immediately think of you. So, for me, when anybody brings up the topic of membership sites or recurring revenue, it’s common that my name is mentioned. In fact, recently someone (Michael Lovitch) who hosts really high events for entrepreneurs, made a Facebook post and asked the following: Do you see what happened? Within minutes, I had LOTS of people referring my name. Sure there were a couple other people that were mentioned. But for a lot of people, my name was the first one that popped into their head. I am the person that comes to mind and that’s where I’ve been building my positioning and my particular platform. As a result, I get requests every single day for coaching, consulting and all that kind of stuff based on people who have referred me, and the reason is because I’m known for something specific. To sum it all up . . . The fastest way to become THE go-to guy or gal in your industry is to become a specialist. Select a particular niche that you want to work in. Then, search out and find the specific problems people in that niche are experiencing. Then, make it your mission to become a specialist at solving a particular problem. That’s how you become the go-to expert and that’s how you gain the most momentum.
