[Transcript starts at 0:40]
Hello, hello, hello. My podcast people and thank you for joining me for your day, another episode of My favorite Online Business podcast. If you are listening, tuning in watching on the day that it drops. It is Monday, October, France. It's fucking October, October 6th. Welcome to October May, the pumpkins and gourds, those are interchangeable there.
And Candy corn treat you. Yes. I like candy corn. If you don't like it, don't eat it. Also weird to me, people are like, it tastes like candle wax. And I'm like, why are you eating a candle? Or When did you eat a candle? How do you have this frame of reference? Hmm. Okay, so today we are talking about late.
Signups, late signups, late registrations for any of the programs you run, the offers you have and how I personally handle them. I am recording this episode after having just closed registration for the final ever last, ever round of my Instagram intensive. Uh, we sold that bitch out by the way. Woo, woo woo.
And as is the case, uh, every single round. I had some folks asking after the fact if they could get in. Um, so I figured I'd record an episode about my approach to this and what I do, right? But as always you do, you boo. This is just soft suggestions. It's me saying what I do. Um, but the spoiler here is that I do not accept late signups.
I say no. It's closed. Uh, why not? We will get to that in a moment. But first, speaking of no late signups, I talked about this extensively in last week's episode. Um, but if you are wanting to start your own podcast and you want help, registration opens next week. That's gonna be October 13th for round It to you of Press Publish, which is my super small group coaching program that comes with a 100% guarantee.
You will launch your podcast in eight weeks. Enrollment will be October 13th through the 17th, um, with a big push to the folks on the interest list. I'm not even a hundred percent sure if I'm gonna do it public yet. I haven't decided. Um, but I will definitely launch the people in the interest list. Um, I'm only looking for eight people, uh, max.
We did, I ran it last time with three. Um, I'd run it again with three. So I don't need to do, I'm not going to do a huge public launch. Um, so get on the list if, uh, you don't wanna miss out because I do not accept late. Signups. So that's a perfect segue, um, about how I handle late signups and, and attempts.
Um, I I literally, I just say no, it doesn't need to be any more complicated than that. I have a full episode for you and you know, it's outlined, but as, as I'm seeing like, is the case right now, just in general, right? Not everything needs to be a big fucking discussion. I don't have to like cerebral everything and try to justify both sides.
Sometimes I could just be like, no, it's 'cause I don't. Um, but. This is obviously not the only way to handle it. Right. If you want to let people in, go ahead. There's a good chance if you're listening to this, it's because you do let people in and you're like, do I have to, should, can I change it? Uh, I actually had a discussion with, with Molly, uh, from Girls Gone Strong, Molly Galbrath, and she lets folks in after the fact, and she actually figures it into the, to her like predictions and or calculations or metrics for things.
And I'm like, yeah, 'cause I, I know that there will be between one in five people, one to five people that will after the fact. Ask if they can sign up. Um, and I just say no. Right. Is it the only way to handle it again? No. Right. You can do whatever you, whatever feels good for you. Um, I. Don't the re the number one reason that I say no is because anything that I launch that has an open and closed cart to it, you know it has a deadline.
It's because it has a live component. And I'll move the mic real quick. It has a live component to it and I'm gonna be directly interacting with and engaging with and teaching the enrollees. And it has been my personal experience that any person that I've ever had a quote unquote issue with. Which honestly I can like count on one hand, but any PE of all those people that I can count on one hand, those people have always been someone that I let in after the fact against my better judgment that I was like, you know what, I'll do it.
And then I'm like, motherfucker, why? You're annoying me. You're asking, you're trying to do exceptions for this, and it's just like annoying. And then this thing didn't wor it's annoying, right? The big caveat here though, folks, is that, in my opinion, in order to just, you know, say, not in order to say no, but like the, the way that you can feel the best about saying no is that you have to have given folks ample time and notice about the deadlines.
Very simple. Like if you said it one time in one email, like one time, one sentence, one email, like probably it's not enough, right? But if you've been emailing for the duration of the launch. If you've been posting on social media, I'm email every day. I'm posting multiple times on social media. I'm in the stories.
They know that it's here. They know that it's going away. Right? And if you like, I strongly recommend if you did a wait list launch, right? So you launched first two people that are on a wait list. Then ideally, you have told everyone on this wait list leading up to the actual wait list launch when the enrollment period is.
So if they miss the deadline and you've given them all of this information, all these opportunities to write it down, to know about it, then that's on them. You will always, without fail, without fail, have people who want to sign up after the fact. And 99.9% of them will be folks who simply just waited until the last minute because they really need that external pressure, that extrinsic pressure in order to do the thing.
And I personally, I don't. Working with those kinds of people, there is that very small percentage that will have just found your thing, your like Instagram post. That's a very, like, we know Instagram doesn't be showing your shit to new people. Uh, so like it's a very small percentage like, ah, I just found you today and like, your thing closed yesterday.
Right? Like very, very small percentage. The rest of the people that are trying to get in after the fact, they've known, they've seen it and they were just dragging their feet. And they really oftentimes need to have that extrinsic pressure. Right. And I'm not here to say those are bad people, it's just I don't want it.
That's fine. That's my choice, right? This is not of, no, this is not to be confused with what I consider to be a true last minute Lucy. So I had a good discussion with my good friend Mads the other day. Uh, she reads my emails and we play volleyball together and she knows that I'd be talking to these last minute loosies.
I send emails out. If you're on email list, you know, you're talking to last minute loosies. I'm like, it's your time to shine. I'm calling 'em out lovingly. It's for the last day. It is your time to, to shine. To me, a last minute, Lucy is someone who waits until the last minute to sign up, but they sign up, right?
The last day is their day. And they do it. She was saying that she considers herself a, considers herself to be a last minute Lucy. Uh, and she does that and she is that way because she has learned that she really likes to have time to sit and think about the purchase because she has made too many of what she considers to be impulse purchases for courses and things like that, that she then doesn't use.
And I was like, I totally get that. My counterpoint to this, and like I said earlier, is that I give people weeks to months, and in many cases, realistically years because I've been running the same shit over and over again to consider the purchase. All right. They know the price, they know the dates, right?
The dates for the registration, the dates for the actual course. They know all this information. They know all the details. My, the, the, the page that folks use to get on the wait list or the interest, whatever you wanna fucking call it, is the exact same page as the registration page. I just duplicate it. I don't hide things.
I don't put less information on it. I'm like, I don't wanna answer fucking questions. So it's all there. I literally make the sales page first. I duplicate it, I change the buttons out. So instead of it being a button to a, uh, a checkout. It's a button that takes 'em to, you know, a place where they can enter their, their email address, because I, I want them to know all the things.
So people have months, weeks, years to consider the purchase. Nothing is a surprise. And she was like, yeah, that's very fair. I personally am a first day Fran, right? I buy the thing, I look, I know when it, it's coming. I buy it, I use it, and then I'm done. All right? And this is because if I'm buying something, it's, 'cause I've been thinking about it for a long time.
I've done all the research. I am a researcher. I'm gonna be fucking all up in the computer doing the things and I've already made my decision. Right? But if someone is, I know that not everyone's like me and I'm fine with that. Right? Which is why I said if someone is a last minute Lucy, like Mads all good, right?
The issue I take. It's the day after Danielle's, and I feel bad with that name. 'cause Danielle Enti is a good friend of mine, fucking love her. But the day after Danielle's man. No, that's, for me, it's about protecting my peace, right? Again, with these offers that I have that are true open and closed cart, I'm gonna be working directly with these people and having direct interaction with them.
Right? And this. This concern that I have about like projecting my music. This isn't unique to me. If you're watching this, you're listening to this, there's a good chance you this the same way it's been. It's been my experience though that people do not do a good enough job at addressing the things that are in their control and controlling the controllables as it relates to who they're gonna work with.
Right. When I ask folks to describe their ideal client. Right who they wanna work with. Everyone says some version of quote unquote, people who are motivated. You gotta be more specific here, right? You gotta be more specific here. What we actually want are people who are intrinsically motivated, they wanna do the thing, right?
You just get to give them guidance. You don't have to convince them of the value of something or overcome all the, you know, the activation energy and all the objections, right? Folks who have known all along about an offer and the dates and everything, and they only want to register after the door's closed.
They are motivated by urgency, by scarcity, by something called psychological reactants, which is kind of. You know, don't tell me I can't do this thing or have this thing. Right. People want it more like when you see people going to buy houses and they're like, okay, I kind of like it. And then suddenly someone else is bidding on it and they're like, oh, I might lose it.
Uh, and they're like, I want it. I really want it now. That's psychological reactance. Right? It's giving, I want to know plum now. Right. That's what it's giving. These are not, you know, objectively they're not bad things to me. Right. They're, and they're not bad things in general. But to me, if you need that, that is the motivation that you need.
Scarcity, urgency, psychological reactance. If you need it in that situation, there's a good chance that it will extend to other situations, and I'm not trying to be dealing with that. Similarly, you know, in this idea with this idea of, um, how we do anything is how we do everything, which I know some people take issue with, but I don't.
I like that phrase. How we do anything is how we do everything. If people are asking for exceptions now, there's a good chance that they will ask for exceptions leader, pain in the ass. If you wanna deal with it, go ahead. I don't wanna deal with it. So I don't, I just say no. Alright, if you're listening to this and you're feeling some kind of way, uh, or you're feeling called out, no, please know that I am not saying these things are bad characteristics or they are characteristics of a bad person.
To me, this is controlling the controllables in an effort to create the work environment that I most enjoy. And this, I know that I've been saying this, that this ties into, uh, the fact that. If I have open and closed carts, 'cause I'm gonna be working directly with people. But even if I'm not, even if it's for a DIY, like after a sale's done, you don't like go to the store and be like, Hey, I missed the sale.
Like, can I have it? I mean, I guess maybe some people do. I don't do that. Right. So it's, I view it the same way. Like for someone to be like, oh, I missed it. Like, can I have it? No. 'cause it's done. Like it's done. And what I find is that carryovers, if you do say yes. It's gonna happen again. It happens down the road.
It happens in some other circumstance, right? Where then they're like, okay, they're in the course and then they're like, realize that. They're like, actually like I real, I like started it and then I realized like, I actually don't have time for this. Like, can I get a refund? It just becomes, because how you do anything is how you do everything, right?
And so this is me controlling the controllables. In an effort to create the work environment that I most enjoy. So tactically, I know that I give out a 30,000, 30,000 foot view, you know, approach to things. But tactically, like what do I actually do when someone's like, they reach out and they're like, Hey, I see this.
I just say, thank you so much for your interest, but registration is closed. It wouldn't be fair to the other folks. Again, thank you so much for the interest. Get on the wait list for the next round. I had people reach out this time and they were like, Hey, like I, I just, I saw it. I didn't sign up, was wondering, and I can't even say it on the wait list.
I'm like, it's done. You've missed it forever. Like it's fine. It wasn't meant to be, and you'll do something else and it will be great, right? Like you can just say that it's okay. You don't have to say yes to everyone. To everything all the time. Um, so a, a quick little business lesson here, um, just to kind of, I dunno, tie other things in, tie it all together.
I also don't take late signups because I have a specific process that I do after closing registration, um, which is largely automated, or I should say I have specific processes that, that I do after I close registration. So, um, they're largely automated, but like emails going out, things getting closed, communication with people saying thank you, giving out.
Uh, so again, sending out emails about like, Hey, here's what's coming, what to look for, making sure people are in Facebook groups, whatever, all these steps, right? I don't wanna mess with that shit afterwards and have to do it manually. Like, that's annoying. That's fucking annoying. So I don't do it. Uh, when I'm scheduling my launches, I always think about, I also always think about how much time I want between cart close, the door closed, registration close, and the start of the program, right?
Jill will like run it, write it up until I don't like doing that. I always like to give it at least a weekend, so I will close cart on Friday and I will not start with those people until Tuesday. I don't run anything on Mondays, right? Monday's never client facing, so I always have at least three days, right?
I have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, and then I will start the program and be client facing on Tuesday, never before then. Um. The only thing that I don't do this with is with like webinars and I will just leave the card open, like even through the webinar, the start of the webinar, because it's fine that in that case it's fine.
There's no, there's no like logistical stuff. Everything is automated and it's fine. It'd just be like, here's the link for the web, the webinar, and it's like that, that gets sent out automatically. But for big programs and ongoing things, like my ongoing programs in six weeks, eight weeks, the, the ones that I have that are six months, eight months.
No, it, the things, it's closed and there's a time period before, um, we start. So you always wanna think about that as well. When you are, are planning out your launches and, you know, registration, closing and things like that, it's like you get to choose, right? You get to choose how you run your business. Do whatever you want.
So you don't feel the need to, to, to say yes to everyone. Like I know that as I'm saying that people will be like, but it's less money. And I'm like, yeah, it's fine. You can make it next time. Because what tends to happen is you let people in and then you make a little bit more money and you get a lot more headaches and you're like, this is not fucking.
Worth it. It's not fucking worth it. Maybe it's worth it to you. It's not fucking worth it to me. So I would rather make less money, but have less headaches, have a more fun time running it, and then they can get in the next time. It's totally fine. I, so again, there is no right or wrong way to do this. Um, I am simply sharing my approach because I have learned that some of the ways that I think or, you know, think about things and some of the ways that I do things, they're not commonly said in the online business space.
And then folks like don't think that they can do them that way. 'cause like people aren't saying it. Remember like I just said a few minutes ago, you can do whatever you want. Always, it's your business. You can literally do whatever you want. I, Dr. Ellie, I actually should reach out to her. I haven't talked to her in years at this point, but she, she came on the podcast a million years ago and she said, run your business, however the fuck you wanna run your business.
And I was like, yes. Oh my God. Yes. So these episodes, they are me just sharing how I do things and giving you the permission that you don't need. Right so late signups, I don't allow them. Whether or not you do is up to you. I'm gonna wrap it up there. Don't forget, get on the interest list for press publish round two if you are thinking you want some help.
Starting that podcast. Registration will be October 13th through 17th and no late signups allowed. All right. That's all I got for you for today. As always, endlessly, endlessly. One more time, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next conference, Maestro. Ow.
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