Hello, my podcast people. And thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my. Right off the bat, as always, thank you, but a special or particular thank you for the feedback I got from, feedback I got on, about, uh, this past Monday's episode.
So I had Dr. Sean Pastuch on, founder of ActiveLifeRx, and it was actually a really dope episode in my opinion, and I got a lot of great feedback about it, actually both episodes, both long episodes for this month. And so, uh, Amanda's. It's a podcast episode and Sean's episode, you folks seem to really enjoy both of them.
So thank you for that feedback. If you haven't checked out those episodes, go ahead, take some time, do that. Sean's is a little bit longer. It's like an hour and a half. We like to talk. And the thing that's so interesting and so cool, and I speak about this in the podcast episode is that. I've said 10 years and I started doing the math and I was probably not quite that far back, but when I first started doing Instagram stuff and Sean and active life were put into my radar, I was down with them initially and then the messaging got kind of.
Uh, polarizing, like intentionally polarizing. And I was just like, I'm not about this. Like, there's not enough nuance in the discussion here. It seems kind of angry. It wasn't for me. And I pulled back from, from them and just everything about it. I wasn't trying to like follow them or hate follow them. And like, it was like, this is, I just don't want to be doing this.
And I would kind of see what was going on just from other people, my friends. I had some people that were kind of going through some of their programs. But I, you know, largely pulled back and then lo and behold, Sean's back in my ecosystem this year. Yeah, I guess it was this year. And just, I, I'm a big fan of the dude.
There's really stellar conversation and he's passionate. And that seemed to be the theme of this year, of this year, excuse me, this month's long episode, uh, with Amanda and with Sean was just the passion and the drive. And it just, It's both of them. I found them very, I'll use the word nourishing, uh, for me.
And so, so yeah, if you haven't checked them out. Check them out if you have and give me feedback. Thank you. Today's episode, we are going to be talking about, I want to be talking about, I'm going to be talking about 10 things that I'd like for every new online business owner to know, and I'm wanting to get a little bit more specific slash.
Tactical and just not so abstract with things as time of nuts, where I love to live, not such a 30, 000 foot view of things, um, but just some of the nuts and bolts and the things I get asked about, uh, that I want to be able to speak about, go in depth a little bit more, share my opinion, my two pennies about, uh, in this way, if anyone asks me, I can be like, Hey, I get a podcast episode and send it to them.
So without further ado, 10 things that I wish, or excuse me, that I would like for every new online business. Owner to know. Number one, this shit takes a long time. Period. How long? As long as it takes. But realistically, you gotta be giving yourself 18 to 24 months before you start to be like, you know, questioning things.
This is 18 to 24 months of consistent, concerted effort where you're doing the thing, you're showing up, you know. In my case, people that are coming to me, we're using that organic growth strategy, an organic growth strategy that has a lot of content marketing within it. So I need someone to be showing up and doing the thing and putting their messaging out there and looking to give, give, give, give, give, and looking to build trust for a minimum of 18 to 24 months before they start to, you know, feel some traction.
And it's not even like, Oh, you're going to just blow up after that. It's like, Nope, you start to get traction. And then we start entering that slowly, slowly, suddenly phase and we get out of that like extremely slowly, nothing's happening at all phase. All right, so that's number one. Number two, let's get technical.
Let's get tactical here. Uh, let's talk about the tech stack, if you will. Do you need a website? Yes. Just get that shit done, right? Get it done in a weekend. Just people need to know that you're not like a serial killer or something, right? And I guess, yes, even serial killers, I cannot speak, serial killers can have websites.
I don't know. I don't, I don't listen to those, you know, shows or anything like that, but Because people want to know, they want to see like, do you have something there? And it's very nice for you personally to organize your shit. Organize your thoughts, just to be like, Hey, this is what I'm, you know, this is my service.
This is my about me. Just very simple things so you can start to get organized with that. Do you need a website in order to have a business? No, but are these things that, it's 2021 dude, like let's get it going. So as it relates to, to website, host that thing on. Squarespace. Build it on Squarespace. Very simple.
I personally have a WordPress website now, but when I first started, I had a Squarespace website. Uh, I did it myself. You can, it's very robust, you know, it will serve all of your needs. Um, it's largely drag and drop, very easy to use. So, first website, have it on Squarespace. Don't go and do the bullshit of like Wix or like other things that are out there.
Because you're gonna end up having to change. I know one person, and I'm thinking about it right now, and I think she knows that I'm talking about her, but it's okay, she has it. She's very tech savvy. She knows how to do the things and it's running fine. But everyone else Squarespace. Very simple. They're constantly updating things.
Everything that you're going to be looking to do, you will be able to do through that. Including as you start to grow and you want to be able to sell other things, you want to be able to create landing pages. It's really nice to be able to host that shit, that landing page, create it on your own website as opposed to using something like LeadPage or something like that.
Alright, so website, Squarespace. Email marketing system or email marketing platform, ConvertKit. You folks know I love ConvertKit, I talk about it all the time. Uh, I will drop my affiliate link for that in the show notes. Thank you, Courtney. Uh, if you want to check that out, that is the only email marketing software that I recommend.
Number one, it's designed for email marketing. So I also use something like Kajabi. I know I'm throwing a lot of words out here. Hopefully you don't get confused. I use Kajabi to host my online courses. But, uh, Kajabi is a phenomenal platform for that. It also includes emailing. You can also have a website on it.
That's why it's the most expensive if you look at any kind of, um, systems like that. But, I don't use their email marketing. Why? Because I started with ConvertKit a long ass time ago. And also ConvertKit is designed for Email. I really like using things that are designed for the things that they're doing.
So as it relates to email marketing software, ConvertKit is the way to go. It will grow with you. So there are features in the beginning that you may be like, I don't even need this. That's fine. It will grow with you. I promise. It integrates with a ton of things, which is one of the things you want to look for.
Whenever you're looking at any kind of anything tech wise, you want to see what it integrates with and how easily, easily, uh, it integrates. Uh, two or three, I don't even know what number I'm on as it relates to the benefits of ConvertKit, but it has, uh, the ability to make landing pages very easily. The number one, I guess, competitor out there is MailChimp, and that's the biggest problem that people come and tell me.
It's like they're trying to make a landing page so they can create an opt in form so people can join their email list, and they're like, but I can't tag people, and it's really hard to do this. And I'm like, throw the MailChimp in the trash. Literally take it. And throw it in the trash convert kit. You can make landing pages super easy.
They are super simple, which is why, again, I said, I want you to have a Squarespace website so that when you are selling something and you want like a bit more, uh, in depth or customized sales page, you will make that on Squarespace. You can sell things through convert kit. Uh, it's not the number one thing I'd recommend doing, but if you're just trying to like, you know, get things moving.
You can actually use ConvertKit to do that, but the two recommendations I have for a website and for an email marketing service, it's going to be Squarespace and ConvertKit. Uh, Courtney, if you could link the episode that I did with Lex, Lex is my left hand woman. She also has her own business that she does, uh, basically VA services.
virtual assistant services and, um, digital superhero services for people. Um, I brought her on the podcast to talk about all the stuff she did that she does, all the stuff that she does. Uh, so Courtney, if you could link Lex's website and also that episode, that would be awesome. Okay. Onto number three, one social media.
platform. Remember folks, when you chase all the rabbits, you go home hungry. I get it. The organic growth strategy is slow as shit. And it's just like, is this ever going to work? Maybe if I drop a line in another pond, if I go on TikTok. Pick one, double down, own it, refine it, become the best, blow up on it.
And then if you want to go into a different platform, you can. I will continue to say and firmly believe that Instagram is the best platform out there as it relates to looking to monetize. Whatever you're doing, your services, because people are on Instagram. I think also knowing that that's kind of what the platform has.
Something like TikTok, it's largely people are there for entertainment. So you have to build the trust. You're, they're looking at you for entertainment and then you have to break through that barrier of like, okay, also I have a service that you can pay for. It's not impossible by any means, but I will say that.
A lot of what I see is people, you know, growing a following on TikTok and then looking to push them over to Instagram, uh, to try and monetize that. So if you're looking to run like a traditional online business, not like just be a creator, I should not say just, not solely looking to be a creator, then Instagram is, in my opinion, the best way to go about that.
But this is going to depend on. What you like doing, how you like showing up, the kind of content you like creating, and where your people are at. If your people are on YouTube and that's the thing you want to be doing, go ahead. Just focus on that one thing, right? There's, each of these platforms has a different audience, a different user base.
Whether we're looking at something like, like Instagram, where the audience is largely an audio, excuse me, a visual learners, they like to look at things. That's why everyone has the sound off. Or we look at something like TikTok where it's more audio visual. The sound is on, people want to hear that.
That's going to be, that audience is likely very similar to the TikTok audience. It's just like a longer format for that. Right. So they, Both have that audio, large audio, video, visual component, just completely different users there. So think about what you like using, think about where your people are, and then go there.
I will say Facebook is dead in terms of like growing a page, but The groups are very much alive. So if that's the strategy you want to employ, you think your people are on, are on Facebook, maybe they're following your personal page. Go ahead. All right. I'm not here to say which one you have to use, just recommending that you pick one, double down on it.
And when I say double down, that also means that you're playing the game, right? So if you've decided that Instagram is what you want to be on right now, and you want to try and grow there, then. Reels is the way to go. That's the game right now. I don't like doing them, I'm not doing any, but I've also been on Instagram for years and have a super, super dedicated Instagram family.
If you're just starting out and you're looking to grow this, you're looking to get some eyes and some exposure, and you want to do it organically, well, Reels is what's going to get you the reach. So When I say pick a platform, double down, it's pick a platform and, you know, play the game. Uh, though the most important part of that is doing whatever is going to allow you to stay on the platform the longest, right?
Longevity reigns supreme. Tying back into the first thing of this taking time, we also have to be, you know, realistic with the effort we've been putting in. And take responsibility for, for our actions. And if we're like, Hey, I don't want to be doing reels in that capacity. Again, you don't have to dance or something like that.
But if you're like, I don't want to be doing reels at all. Cool. Do not compare your growth to somebody who has been doing reels every single day. And, and, you know, Instagram wants that. Okay. All right. Onto point number. Four, podcasts. We're staying with the tech side of things here. Podcasts are phenomenal.
I think that, uh, I don't want to say every single person who has an online business should have one, but it's, they are a great addition to your business. They are phenomenal for building relationships and speaking with people. who probably otherwise wouldn't speak with you because you can bring them on to your podcast.
The big thing to note here is I'm going to suggest that you wait to start one until you have the bandwidth and the ability to keep One going, everyone starts a podcast. Nobody keeps one going. They're just like, and it just trickled off and that shit got busy. I get it, but also let's get consistent with things.
So be realistic with your, uh, what is it? The word we are publishing schedule. If you're like, yo, I can't commit to. Twice a week. I can't commit to once a week. Cool. Then do it once a month, do it once, you know, once a week, or did I say you couldn't do it that way once every two weeks, do what is feasible for you.
Set that up and then look to be consistent with it. Yes, it is nicer for the audience, but it's also likely more helpful for you and keeping things going and keeping you on task, so podcasts are phenomenal. I love, you know, having one. I I'm so grateful that you folks listen to do it. I think that it is a great way to build relationships.
Uh, it's a great way to actually, um, if we're looking kind of, and this is a little bit further down the road, but that kind of like affiliate marketing kind of model where you're looking to promote a product, it's a great thing to do. I've brought, I've brought people on here, you know, with the. Brought on, you know, strong coffee co, uh, who else did we bring on?
I think we, uh, the boys from, I think it was just Isaac from anchor, uh, brought on, uh, the CEO of Norma tech. It's just a really cool way to. One, get to speak with people you otherwise wouldn't be able to speak with, get to share, you know, the companies that you believe in, and really you get to hear their message and then share their message with your people, uh, and you get to develop these relationships.
So it's a really cool thing to have. Uh, it's also kind of tying into what we were talking about, you know, a little bit before, different learning styles. So some people are hugely auditory in how they process and learn things. If all you're doing is social media, you know, Instagram and maybe email marketing or blogs.
They're not, you may not capture them. So this is a nice way to hit a different type of learning style and a different type of communication style. So I love speaking it. It's fun for me. It's easy. I'm clearly very verbose. So a little food for thought. That. Uh, if you're looking to start one, I have a free download.
Courtney, if you could link that as well. It's like an opt in form, but you'll get the free download. It's like 19 pages long. It talks about the, the tech side of things. In it, I talk about using Buzzsprout to host your podcasts of note. Since then, um, Squarespace has come up with the, the Ability to host podcasts.
So if that's how you want to run it, amazing. I personally use Blueberry because I have WordPress website and I use that plugin. And again, I like the things that are designed specifically for things. Uh, but to make it easy when you're first starting, you can get it all in one and, and host it on Squarespace.
Okay. But the big thing being, start a podcast when you're able to keep one going. Number five, hiring a coach does not guarantee sales. I think people hire these expensive ass coaches and I'm like, what are you doing? You're just starting out. You need those 18 to 24 months to just fricking rinse and repeat and figure out your messaging and refine your product.
Hiring a coach by, by no means am I anti hiring a coach, but understand that it is not going to guarantee that you get sales because sales, it's a two way street there, right? One is what you're doing. So perhaps that can help, you know, having a coach can help out with that side of things. But the other side is.
The customer and the autonomy there. And do they want your product? Do they like you? Do they need your product, your service? So it doesn't guarantee their sales. So don't think that, uh, and again, not by, by no means am I anti coaching Chloe, cause I do this, uh, but I just really wanted to put that out there.
Cause I, sometimes I see people just doing the most and I'm like, you also just need to give yourself time to rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat and rinse and repeat and refine. All right. Number six. I strongly believe that your first offer should be a one to one service. I, I firmly, strongly believe that your first offer should be a one to one service, where you are delivering a service for this person.
You're teaching them something, you're helping them, you're working with them, on them, whatever your profession, uh, vocation is. It will be the easiest thing for you to create. It will be the easiest way for you to build trust as well. And it will just plain, flat out be the easiest for you to do because you don't need a zillion people.
Folks really want to get excited about making courses and stuff. And I'm like, you don't have the eyes for it. Right. They want to make, they want to, excuse me. They want to make courses and also they want to make groups, coaching groups. And it's just like, you don't have the eyes for it unless you're willing to.
Work with a few people, maybe one or two, you know, two people, uh, and then you're okay with that financial return. So when people are like, you know, I'm looking to replace income, a group is not the way. A self paced program is not the way because you probably don't have the audience, the eyes yet, or the trust yet if you're just starting out.
So you do these one on one services, you get phenomenal results for those people, and then they will go and tell other people. All the while you are building, you know, your body of work, you're putting content out, you're building trust. So we have this kind of two pronged approach for growth. Uh, and then eventually.
You can go and do more of that leveraged coach model or leveraged coaching model, where it's one to many, where you're doing a DIY product or you're doing a group coaching model or something like that. But your first offer, your first service product should be. A one to one offer, and then just to get a little bit more technical with that, tactical with that, you want to productize that service.
So give it a name, outline what the specific process is that people go through. If you have like a proprietary system, which in the beginning, when you first start working with someone, you may not really. No, and then you work with a few people and you're like, oh, I do the same kind of things with everyone, right?
So you productize it, you give it a name, you give it, uh, you know, you determine your system that you take people through, put a price on that, establish a deliverable, so how many touch points that you, you know, is it a, is it a 10 package PT session that it has a specific name and you take people through this Specific, you know, system where the first, the beginning we're looking at assessing, seeing what's going on, and two, level two.
Step two, we're laying the foundation for things, addressing the specific deficits. Then step three, we're looking to build strength, and then step four is return to play. Return to all activity, but no. I'm just throwing something out there. You'll see. And I, and as you're listening to us, you're probably like, Oh yeah, I already have that, or especially those of you that are coming from some sort of in person brick and mortar model where perhaps you've treated in person and you've been treating, then you definitely have a system you may, you may need to just sit down and kind of, uh, iron that out and be like, Oh, actually I take people through this and this is what it looks like, right?
So that's number step. That's not step that's number six. All right. Number seven, keeping this idea of selling things. The two things that matter most regarding the success of a launch is, number one, what you were doing six months before you launched, and number two, or part two of that, what you continue to do until the time of the launch.
So, I said it before, I'll say it again, the most, uh, the number one thing that determines the success of any launch is, What you were doing when you're not launching or what you were doing when you weren't launching. So people get really caught up in the launch sequence. And they're like, Oh, I think it was just, I didn't have enough urgency, which you've already know how I feel about that.
I didn't just, the wording was wrong on this. No, you didn't have any trust. You weren't listening to your audience. They don't even want that thing. They don't have that problem. You built it because you wanted to sell it, but they don't actually have that problem. Remember we said, don't, uh, find people for your product.
Build a product for your people. That's a little bit of a, what's the word? Uh, a summary of a quote from Simon Sinek. All right. So two things that are going to matter most when it comes to launching is number one, what you're doing six months before the launch. And then number two, what you continue to do from those six months before, six months prior until the day, uh, of the launch.
Yes, there is strategy and there are tactical things that you can do within the launch, but that success is 100 percent dictated by the, the trust that you built beforehand, the perceived value on the part of the consumer, right? You set the price that customer consumer determines the value of something.
And that is largely, largely swayed by how you've been showing up. Have you been listening? What are you saying? What kind of content are you putting out there? What other things do you have out there? That people can hear, maybe it's a podcast or something like that, that they can get wins, and they can say, start to establish or understand your, your competency with this thing.
And then say, hey, yeah, I do want to buy for this person, and, and I have this problem, and they were listening, and I believe that they could help me, I believe that they want to help me, and I like them. I trust them, right? We're looking at three parts when it comes to, or three pillars, when it comes to building trust.
It's going to be integrity, benevolence, and competency. So, this is why it's very hard to just sell something right off the bat to a stranger, unless they really need that thing, and you've proven yourself to be competent. You're talking to them and you're, you know, answering some questions perhaps. And they can just get a sense that like, yeah, you are, you do have their best interest in mind, which is why when, whenever people feel some kind of way about sales, they go to the, uh, the used car salesman analogy.
Cause they're like, they do not have my best. They don't have my best, uh, in mind, uh, at all. So number seven regarding launch and launches. The two things that matter most about a launch and most contribute to the success of a launch is what you're doing at least six months before that launch. And then what you continue to do up until that launch number eight, we're going back to the more of the tech stack here.
Uh, before we talked about the website and email, and now if you're going to the, kind of the other platforms that are out there again, I really like to use. Products that are designed for that thing. So for those, you're looking to run a webinar, right? So that's for me, a webinar is when I cannot see you.
If I can see you, I'm going to start calling it a workshop, but that's, that's me. So if I can't see you, I'm calling it a webinar and my favorite platform for that. Is Crowdcast, uh, Courtney, if you could drop the affiliate link for that, that would be great. Mama didn't raise no fool. Uh, that is by far my favorite platform.
I've talked about it before, but that's my favorite one because it's designed for, uh, webinars. Number two, people can view the chat while they watch the replay. That is a huge thing. So if you're going to go with a different platform, make sure that people can watch and they can see the chat as they're watching the replay.
I do a ton in the chat. I like to get people very involved, uh, and engaged using the chat, asking a lot of questions, having discussions there. And if you can't see it in the replay, it can be annoying. Uh, number two, uh, favorite part about Crowdcast is their, uh, ask a question feature, where people can type in a question and then when you go to respond to that question, you can click a button and it will timestamp it, which is amazing because if someone wants to come back and watch it later, they can just click on that.
Uh, that little timestamp, it'll take them to that moment in time in the replay. And they go right to getting that question answered, which is phenomenal. Uh, the number three, my favorite thing, is that it has the paygate directly integrated. So one of the problems with Zoom is that you're like, how do I get someone to pay for it?
Like, I just sent them the Zoom link, but they haven't paid for anything. Like, where does this transaction occur? Is it occurring on your Squarespace website? Is it occurring on ConvertKit, which you could do, and then you send them the link later? Uh, but it's nice to have it all in one place. So Crowdcast will allow for that.
So if you're looking for a web, a webinar platform, Crowdcast is my favorite. As it relates to hosting online courses, which is a little bit down the road. Remember we said, first thing I'd love for you to create is going to be your one on one offer, not a DIY course, because people don't do DIY courses.
That's why. And if they don't do it, they don't get results. And if they don't get results, they don't go and talk you up to their friends. And keep that, uh, you know, that flow of customers coming in from that word of mouth. So I, I do like creating online courses, but it, I do not believe it should be your first thing that you focus on.
A nice thing to do is to run a webinar using something like Crowdcast and then just keep selling the replay. So that's the beautiful thing about Crowdcast again, is that. The paygate is integrated, so you can run it and then you can just keep selling the replay and that lives on the Crowdcast website, so you can link it, you know, through, I link it through my website.
Uh, you can put the picture up on there, a button underneath it, and talk about the, you know, describe the webinar, and then when they click the button, it takes them through to the actual Crowdcast page where they would pay. Uh, it integrates with Stripe, which is, maybe that should have been one of these points.
It integrates with Stripe, which I think is one of the, is the best, uh, payer, pay, I don't know what it's called. But there's Stripe, there's Square, there's PayPal. My favorite, hands down, is Stripe. So I should have said that, but we'll just have it linked in here now. So as it relates to webinars, We, uh, webinar platforms, Crowdcast, as it relates to paygate systems.
Stripe, uh, as it relates to hosting or creating online courses, I'm going to recommend Kajabi. The other ones out there are Teachable, Thinkific, um, Member Vault, uh, there's another one I always forget, Podia. Kajabi is the best. I will say it fricking through and through and people try to kind of cut corners and like, it's a new thing out.
It's half the price. You know what? It's going to deliver half the quality. I already know. Kajabi is the most expensive. I said earlier, because it has the other bells and whistles. It has the ability to have a website, to have email, also host the courses, also host memberships. Uh, it's an all in one. I personally only use it for the course side of things.
And I actually create some, uh, some sales pages on it. Cause it's just really nice. The sales pages look nicer than the ones I make on my website, I won't lie. Uh, so, I Because I don't have Squarespace, I got WordPress and I have to use plugins. So I've used page builder plugins. Uh, so, if you're gonna look for something to host your courses, Kajabi is it.
The sales pages that you can create are phenomenal. How the courses look, also phenomenal. Creating a course, just so you folks know, is incredibly easy. It's literally drag and drop. You record the The video on your computer, you can use something like, um, uh, any kind of like screen capture. Um, if you want the picture in picture, uh, I use Screencast O Matic.
I know that sounds kind of chaka chaka, but it's actually phenomenal. Uh, if you've ever watched any of my, my online, like my Breathing with the Maestro or my Instagramming with the Maestro, I use Screencast O Matic, it puts the picture in the picture so you can see the slide and then I'm in the corner. I like that one the best.
There's another one called Loom. I had used it once. I didn't have a very good experience with it. So my default, my recommendation rather, continues to be Screencast O Matic. I don't have a link or anything for that, but, or an affiliate. Or anything like that, but, I'm writing it down over here, but, uh, you can go check that out.
But as it relates to creating those courses online, super simple, you record the video and then it's really drag and drop. The video gets hosted through Kajabi. You don't have to have like an outside host site or anything like that. You can attach, uh, downloads if you want, PDFs, things like that. Uh, you can, you write up like what the, each module will be about.
It's just very, very, very technologically simple to create a course. Uh, another feature that's great with Kajabi is the payout structure. I know for a fact that Teachable will hold money and that sounds terrible. I want to get paid. So, Kajabi also uses Stripe, and you can get payouts the, this I think comes like the next day.
Um, if not that day. So, you'll see the transaction go through and then it'll pay out. Very, very great platform overall. Um, I will have Courtney, I don't know if I said it already. Courtney, if you could link the affiliate for that. Amazing! Uh, that one, actually that link should get you a 30 day free trial.
Um, I get it folks, there is a higher price point on it. You'll save money if you buy for the full year. But this is also why I don't want people to necessarily start off with a course because suddenly they're paying for software that they don't, they're not using. Well, I'm not selling anything. So like, should I get rid of this?
Once you start selling things, it makes sense to have this platform. Let's say, I think the lowest, I think the lowest tier for Kajabi is like 99 a month. And like that, if you pay for the year, if you have, you know, a 30, a 50, a 97, 99 course, suddenly, if you sell one of those a month, it. It pays for that subscription.
So once you're actually there and selling things, it makes sense. But, uh, the recommendations I have for webinars, Crowdcast, for payment systems, Stripe, for, uh, online courses, Kajabi, uh, and then if you're looking for something like a screen capture that you want picture in picture. So you can like have slides up and then have your little head in the corner.
I like Screencast O Matic and then as it relates to just regular calls. Um, or regular, um, regular calls or workshops where people can see you. Zoom, obviously. We all know and love that. Uh, and then, uh, I'll throw this in as a bonus. If you're looking for a way to stay in communication with your people, your, your clients outside of email.
Uh, I personally like using Voxer. So it is like a, it's kind of like a walkie talkie system. I think that's how they kind of market it, but it's a text and voice note, voice message platform. And this way for people that like speaking, they can do that. You can save the messages. If you want to text, they can do that.
But that's the one that I recommend. I don't do personal training or anything like that. So I can't recommend, um, specifically as the, as the. Um, what is it, what do I call it, as the coach side of things. But as the user side, I do love TrueCoach, um, as the user. So if you're looking for a platform to, you know, host your, your programming on and connect with your, your customers, your consumers, your clients, I do like that, but again, that's going to be specific to your needs and that's, that's not what I do.
All right, number nine, I've said it before, say it again, this is less technical, but still very, uh, very much something I wish all new business owners, especially online business owners would adhere to, I don't know, listen to, think about, it's going to be work towards niching down. I get it, it's scary, some people find it offensive, and they're like, but I'm more than this single thing, I get it.
But in a very loud, crowded, noisy space, such as social media, one of the best things you can do is not yell louder. It's to be more specific with what you're speaking about. It's automatically going to exclude some people. That's fine because it will automatically include people who are perfect. For whatever it is that you're doing.
So when I say this, you know, I specifically said work towards niching down, work towards identifying your no. Do the things, solve the problems, work with the people, and then say, you know what? That's, I'm not the best fit for that. That was one of my favorite parts about last week's episode with, I don't know, this week's episode, excuse me, with Dr.
Sean Pastuch, because he's such a proponent of this, right? We tend to see people that are like, Oh, you know, I could, I could help people like that. And I can kind of do that. I kind of do that. Focus on what you are the absolute best at and, you know, as, as he would say, don't do anything else. I love that.
It's a bold statement. It's a big statement, but it's where you're best served. I actually, you know, I had a discussion today with one of my, my Instagram friends. I've never met her and we're friends because of volleyball. I think that I actually don't know a hundred percent how she found me, but her name's Marta.
She probably pronounces it like Marta. Uh, I should ask her to send me a voice note on instagram. I'm gonna do that Uh, but she plays volleyball is professional volleyball player endure And she got asked to play the, the libero position. That's not her normal position, but I think the ty the typical one, or the main libero was injured or something like that.
Typical, what am I saying? The, the, um, first string, we'll say, their only libero was. It was injured. And so the coach asked her to do it and she was like, you know, I, I wish I would've liked to have played better. She's like, but honestly, I just want to go back to my position. She's like, it was fun. And I'm glad that the coach picked me and thought that I could help out, but I just want to my position.
And I was like, I love that. That is a business lesson. It's a life lesson, but let's make it a business lesson. Like some people, what they'll do is they'll, they'll stay with things so they can get a little bit of play time. All right, they get a little bit of a few customers and they're like, well, okay, I kind of keep doing this when in reality they'd be best served and their customers and clients would be, would be best served by them doubling down on their position, right?
Doubling down on the thing that they are the best at. So point number nine, work towards niching down. You folks know that I prefer to consider niching your niche. The problem you solve. It's not necessarily who you solve it for. It's more so the problem that you solve. So work towards identifying what is that thing that lights you up?
What is that thing that you're just fucking just so passionate about and so good at and do that. All right. A number 10 don't. Burn the ships now. Yes, there are caveats to this and if honestly if that's how you operate and you're like, I love it I love the fire the pressure Go ahead. That is not how I operate.
That is not how I coach people and I have yet to see someone do that and then Not have to act out of urgency and make questionable decisions because of that urgency That is the number one reason I don't want you to burn the ships is that as once that happens suddenly you're like My business has to work.
This, I can't eat otherwise. So I understand the value of, you know, putting yourself on the line, putting yourself on the hook a bit. But as it relates to being able to make decisions that aren't based in urgency, that you can really sit back and think that aren't just like purely money driven. Don't burn the ships.
Number one, and I'm going to kind of take this in two directions here. Number one, just be able to pay your, pay your bills. So that may be, you know, you get a different job or you go part time at a job, you cut back your hours at this job so that you can still pay the bills and you don't need your new baby, your new job, your new, you know, Passion project, the new side hustle that you're looking to ultimately go full time at.
You don't need it to work right now. You don't need to be the super lucrative thing. Because remember point number one was this shit takes a long time. So if you've quit your job and you're like, Oh my God, I'm barely seeing any traction, you're going to be so hyper vigilant about that. So hyper aware of like every, like every opening rates and every launch and how many people you got, and you won't be able to actually grow this thing and enjoy this thing that you are creating.
So. Do, make sure that you're able to pay your bills. And then the second part here is about outsourcing. I say, don't burn the ships. To me, this means do shit yourself. And especially if you're working with me, I know if you're working with Jill, she'll say the same thing. If you're going to have this kind of content marketing approach, you got to be making your content.
You can't be outsourcing that from day one. And it's being like, ah, no, I just don't do that. This is your job now. This is how you're going to connect with people. This is how you're going to interact with people, being you. So, do these things yourself, especially the content creation side of things.
Ultimately, at some point you start to say, you know, I got more money than I do time. And so you outsource parts of your business. Maybe it's, you know, you hire a dope ass, uh, podcast editor like Courtney. Uh, maybe you hire someone to create graphics for you. You write the content, but you have them like kind of lay out the graphics for certain things.
Um, it, it's going to depend on what your industry is. It's going to depend on what your service is. So this is, but starting out doing the things yourself. One, it's going to really allow you to know the understanding value of this. Uh, and then two, it's, it's, this is your business. This is your baby. This is your voice.
So especially as it relates to the, I cannot stress this highly enough as strongly enough, especially as it relates to the content side of things. That needs to be you. You need to know what the messaging is. You need to know, you know, be in the trenches so you can hear people and talk to them. Hear their problems, create the things for them, and then ultimately you can look to pull back with certain things.
As it relates to knowing when it's time to hire, Jill and I were actually just talking about this and I totally agree. Or rather, we were in total agreement. Often times you know that it's time to hire when you're like, I don't even care who does this. Anyone, anyone can do this. I will, anyone who wants to do it, raise your hand, you could do this.
That is usually the time that it's We were ready to hire. Uh, sometimes we hire beforehand and because you think you're supposed to, because you read something or you read a post and you know, you got shamed because you were doing the work yourself and everyone was like, what, you have a business and you actually do it yourself?
What? So in my opinion, it's nice to get to, that's where I got largely with the podcast, where I was just, I was still a bit hesitant, um, but I had a coach at the time trying to think. Which one was, I think coach last friend, um, that I think it was one of my friends actually, uh, who was just like, you have to outsource that.
You have to, you have to get your time back from that. It's been long enough, you've done, you know, a zillion episodes, it's time to hire an editor. And I was like, uuugh. But I was definitely getting to that point where I was like, okay, I just, you know, it'd be time to edit the longer episodes. And I was like, fuck, it'd be time to create the teaser for it.
And I'd be like, fuck, this is just So, there's nothing wrong, this is like the same advice I give about, uh, pricing. There's nothing wrong with waiting until you're salty about it and then, and then do something about it. Uh, so, let's go through these things once again. I'm looking at the time, it's supposed to be a shorty.
I know you said you liked the in betweeny, but you know, I've always said there's a shorty. So we'll say that because it's shorter than the long episodes. But this is supposed to be shorter than the long episodes and it's getting up there. So let's go back to the beginning, recap, and then I'll let you go on your merry merry way.
So number one, 10 of 10 things that I would like for every new business. New online business owner to know. Ten things. Number one, this shit takes a long ass time. How long? As long as it takes. But definitely give yourself at least 18 to 24 months of solid, concerted effort. Number two, as it relates to, uh, as it relates to website and email marketing system, website, Squarespace, email marketing, ConvertKit.
ConvertKit affiliate link will be in the show notes. Number three, one social media platform. You determine which one it's gonna be. But pick it, double down on it. To quote the great Dr. Erika Bonilla, you can't ride two horses with one ass. You wanna go a little further with that, when you chase all the rabbits, you go home hungry.
So pick one platform, dominate it, just crush, and then you can look to push into a different platform. Number four, podcasts are phenomenal, super dope. But wait until you have the bandwidth to keep one going. Everyone starts a podcast. Very few people keep one going. Number five, hiring a coach doesn't guarantee sales.
I am by no means anti hiring a coach, but understand that hiring a coach does not guarantee that you're going to make a million dollars by just. Listen to exactly what they say. That's not how it works because there's two parts, two parties involved in these transactions. You, which you can get coaching on, and then the other, the other customer, the consumer.
So there's always that, that part in there. Number six, I believe that a one to one offer should be your first offer. One to one coaching, one to one working with someone in one, one capacity should be your first offer. It will be the easiest thing to scale, to grow. It'd be the easiest thing to, uh, replace your income.
Do not get worried about, I don't know why I just said scale, but do not get worried about scaling and be like, Oh, it doesn't scale. Worry about making too much money and being too busy when you're making too much money and you're too busy. Okay, for right now, let's get the customers in the door. And then as you're growing, you can look to change things.
Promise. Don't, don't. Stop before you start. Uh, we talked about productizing that, right? So get a name for that thing, establish, determine, write out your system that you take people through, uh, talk about the deliverables, set the price point, and you productize that service. Number seven. The two things that matter the most about a launch is what you were doing six months prior to that launch, and what you continue to do from that Moment six months prior until the day of that launch.
How have you been showing up? How, what have you been delivering? How have you been establishing trust? Have you been building trust? Have you been talking about these things? I, this all matters. The number one thing that dictates determines the success of any launch is going to be what you're doing when you're not actually launching.
So I'm taking you back at least six months. And asking you, how were you showing up and how did you continue to show up? Number eight, we got technical tactical specific text stack. I almost wanted to say techstackical just because it would rhyme, but techstack, uh, again if we're looking for a webinar platform, Crowdcast is my go to.
As it relates to a paygate system, Stripe, a payment processor, Stripe is by far my favorite. Uh, if we're looking to host online courses, Kajabi is the dopeness. Looking for workshops, um, online meetings, things like that, we're all familiar with Zoom. Stick with it, and then if you're looking to do any kind of screen recordings and you want like your face in the corner You want to be able to have your slides up and like that or just record your screen Which can be really helpful when you do go to hire somebody and you want to just share your screen and record so they know What they're doing Screencast o matic Number nine got a little bit more abstract, but still super important here work towards niching down Work with people, look to identify your no, look to identify what you are the best at doing, the problem that you are the best at solving, and double down on that.
When you chase all the rabbits, once again, you go home hungry. You help your people the most by showing up and solving the problem that you're the best at solving. And then lastly, number ten, do not burn the ships. Unless you're like, fuck, that's how I live, okay. But everyone else? I'm going to recommend do not burn the ships Two parts to this, number one, just be able to pay your bills.
So maybe go part time, pull back or get a different job that just allows you the mental capacity to be able to work on your side hustle, but also you can pay your bills. And then the second part of that, doing things yourself, it really helps you identify, understand the value of it. And also you got to be able to determine, establish in your voice, especially with the comes to the content side of your business, that is you.
And then how will you know when you're ready to outsource? It's for me personally, it's like when you're salty, when you're like, anyone can do it. Anyone can help. I will hire anyone. That's when you start hiring. You go through the process, uh, and then you go from there, right? All right. I'm looking at the time that's got really, really long.
I'm passionate about this stuff though. So thank you for tuning in. Uh, do we have an announcements? Next week is going to be Thanksgiving flying home for that, uh, which means that cyber Monday will be. Arriving very shortly after, uh, so if. In listening to this episode, you were like, Hey, I'd love some help with some of these things, whether it's about, uh, how to create an online course or how to run a webinar, right?
I did a webinar about webinars. Very, very meta. Um, anything like that, I likely have a webinar about, uh, and. They're gonna be all on sale. So I have an Instagram for online business. I had a free marketing webinar. That's not going on sale It'll still be free. How to make webinars, how to price your shit, What what is what the fuck is email marketing, how to create online courses.
All of those are about two hour long webinars So if you haven't purchased already and you're like, hey, I actually would love to learn a little bit more Stay tuned for cyber Monday, the sales will be there. Alright, I do believe that is officially I continue to be endlessly grateful and appreciative for every single one of you.
I it's, they will never cease to blow my mind that you, you listen and you consume and then you, you comment and you share, and I see you pull quotes from the episodes and it's just, it's, it's remarkable to me. So please know that I am extremely grateful for the time, the energy, the effort, the attention that you spend.
Alright, officially wrapping it up. Until next time friends, Maestro out.
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