When we think of sales funnels, we often think that all they're good for is automating your business and making you more money.
But the truth is, sales funnels are the best way to stay relevant and give your audience logical next step solutions to their problems, which in turn will help them get better results.
And isn't that what we all want?
So, instead of avoiding this concept because you don't care about automating or the thought of it feels salesy, I want you to listen to this episode and hear why you're doing your audience a disservice by NOT running them through a logical and relevant funnel.
Make sure to enter my Birthday Giveaway this month!
Dana Wilde is the best-selling author of Train Your Brain and CEO of The Mind Aware. She is a trusted authority in creating positive mindset for entrepreneurs, sales professionals and corporate leaders, helping them achieve results and success.
In addition, Dana is the host of her own radio show, The Mind Aware Show, where she interviews celebrity experts on positive mindset and cutting edge marketing strategies for entrepreneurs.
Dana knows how to stimulate brain power for personal and professional achievement in individuals and teams everywhere.
Find Dana here: www.DanaWilde.com and at www.facebook.com/themindaware
BIRTHDAY GIVEAWAY -- enter here to be eligible to win over $7k in business building prizes and an even a chance to retreat with me to Breckenridge, CO for 4 days of business growth!
Not all ideal clients are built the same, and the typical ideal client avatar just doesn't make sense. A lot of your ideal clients won't look, act or dress the same, but it doesn't really matter if they have the same pain points, aspirations, challenges, etc. and that's where you come in.
Your ideal clients aren't all going to be ready to work with you when you're ready to offer them something. There's a better way to approach your ideal clients, lead them through a process that helps get them better results and speaks to their needs at this specific moment in your relationship with them.
Yes, you're in a relationship with every single person in your audience. And all of those relationships are at different phases...are you nurturing them each in the way it needs to be nurtured to lead to the next step?
In this episode, I'll share the 3 dating phases of ideal clients so that you can make sure you're not moving too fast, too slow or proposing on the first date.
--------------
Have you entered my birthday giveaway yet? Enter here for your chance to win over $7k in business building prizes!
Tara Newman is a Success Coach and Business Strategist who has been developing top performers and business change makers for 15+ years.
She coaches ambitious business owners who are looking to reduce overload, step into their next level of success and lead extraordinary lives.
Tara and her clients are passionate about doing work that matters, making an impact, and living fulfilling lives.
Overcoming a serious health crisis has become a foundational part of her message. Tara lives by and teaches the philosophy that we can do big, purposeful things without losing our health, sanity or family.
Creating success, wealth, and impact with ease is an authentic and sustainable framework she embodies. Tara is passionate about leading wholeheartedly from a place of strength and transparency.
She is a mom to two crazy active kids and married to the love of her life John -- who is a competitive age group triathlete and entrepreneur. Tara is an avid reader, expert skier, and wannabe badass mountain biker.
She holds her Master’s Degree in Organizational Psychology from Hofstra University.
Tara and I talk about leadership, working with top performers and the specific challenges they face, and scaling up businesses by building teams.
You can connect more with Tara over in her Facebook community for Bold Leaders.
I recorded this story based on a question someone in my FREE FB community shared, but I'm sure many of you will find it beneficial and interesting.
This is the story of how my VP found out about my side business and how I felt during that time, how I decided to be super open & visible with my business while still working, and the things I'd do differently if I could go back in time!
If you want to get full access to the actual blog post that outed me, sign up here and we'll send it straight to your inbox --> adriennedorison.com/corporate
Tiffany Han is a business and branding coach and podcast host who helps highly-creative women raise their hands and say yes - to those businesses they’ve always wanted to start, to those ideas that feel crazy, and to themselves.
As the founder of 100 Rejection Letters program, Tiffany helps creative entrepreneurs move beyond their comfort zones to build businesses (and lives) that are based on bold, inspired action. Having been called a Professional Yoda and Mary Poppins for Creative Businesses by her clients, Tiffany regularly speaks and teaches about the power of branding, how to build a business that you love (and that loves you back!), and the magic of saying no so that you can find your bigger yes.
In this episode, Tiffany and I talk all things action, not knowing what the hell we're doing, but still doing it anyway, rejection and what it really means, fear and how to move past it, and lots of other essentials to growing a creative business and raising your hand to say YES to yourself and life!
Join Tiffany's FB group here: http://tiffanyhan.com/join and join my FREE FB community here: Society of Self-Mastery.
Want to overcome that fear that's holding you back? Get the Fear List here: www.adriennedorison.com/fearlist
Want to know the 3 essential ingredients that might be missing from your sales page?
This may be news to you, but people rarely just buy off a sales page. Your sales page isn’t going to necessarily be your conversion vehicle. Prospects turned buyers will usually happen on email sequences, webinars, discovery calls, etc.
I've even sold programs without a sales page at all. So don't super stress over it, but if you're going to create one, make sure it has these 3 essentials:
1. Disruptive & obvious payments buttons.
-- make sure the color pops so they stand out
-- make sure there are 3 of them throughout the page
-- put a count down timer next to your payment button to increase conversions {http://countdowndynamite.com/}
The second essential ingredient for a kick-ass sales page is…
2. High quality testimonials.
-- use images with testimonials
-- lead with outcomes/results that relate to what you're selling
For more details on how to get & structure your testimonial download my
'how to get a killer client testimonial cheatsheet': www.adriennedorison.com/testimonial
3. Bonuses
-- bonuses that compliment your offer
-- needs to be something of value to be effective
-- section should be clear on when bonuses start/stop
Download my 5 types of bonuses to include in your next program launch here.
That's it! Sure, you need to know the program, who you're selling it to, and the results you're going to get for people, but so often you forget these simple sales page boosters!
Make sure to grab my testimonial cheat sheet here!
FREEBIE DOWNLOAD: why you need a good testimonial and how to get it
The Stacey Harris is a powerhouse online entrepreneur helping her clients reach rock star status with communities full of raving fans who follow them anywhere. She has a passion for building and being active in communities and teaching folks to use networking to build relationships that grow businesses.
Her passion for rock stars goes back to her roots, she graduated with a degree in audio engineering ready to take the music scene by storm. She quickly started working with an up and coming record label finding bands to sign and feature on their web radio station. Now returning to her web radio roots Stacey is the host of her own show Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
In this episode we're covering the three pieces you need to get started with social media:
This is about WHO your client really is, not just their age and gender, but where are they spending their time, what do they actually care about, etc. This informs EVERYTHING else.
Get Stacey's FREE challenge here: thestaceyharris.com/socialmediachallenge
Find out the real truth about who your ideal client is {and who they're not!} with this guide: adriennedorison.com/idealclient
Mastering the 'social' part of social media is paramount to your success in the online business world.
You want to serve, right?
You want to do work you love and you want to be useful to other humans.
This means you have to be visible.
Think about it this way -- there are people out there who need you, they have a challenge, and you're the one with the tools and the personality they resonate with to be able to solve it.
Okay, so how to start putting yourself out into the marketplace in a way that feels good and true to you.
Here are 5 tips to get you started:
1. Be social on social media - it's like a cocktail party y'all!
2. Share what you stand for
3. Use the 80/20 rule
4. Engage with people!
5. Be experimental.
Grab my FREE social media eti-kit here!
How to Sell Out Your Program {even with a small email list} Cheat Sheet
Selling Eggs from his farm at 8 years old, working with Fortune 500 companies with much success in his teen years and now helping Entrepreneurs build 7-figure businesses, Scott Oldford has been an Entrepreneur for nearly 15 years.
Scott at 21 lost everything he built and found himself in almost $750k of debt, searching for the next step he found how important human connection truly is and how we can use who we are, six specific traits to succeed in business, relationships and life.
He currently works with Entrepreneurs that want to grow their business with more than luck, allowing them to generate a Sustainable Source of Qualified Leads through his company INFINITUS.
Entrepreneurs under $250k in revenue use mostly "luck" (referrals, networking, connections, proposals) to build their business, it's the #1 reason why businesses can't make it work, if you fix this problem you can go past $250k easily and start worrying on bigger problems.
In this episode, Scott and I discuss:
Learn about Scott's SSF method here: adriennedorison.com/ssf
Scott's Online Community - http://my.limitlessbusiness.com/apply/
FREE - How To Sell Out Your Next Program {even with a small list} cheatsheet & webinar
You need an opt-in {freebie} that is going to grow your list and get them engaged before you try to sell anything to them!
The best way to think about your freebie creation is to brainstorm all your ideal clients objections to buying this program/course.
Why won’t they buy?
Let me show you what I mean by this - because I’m not just talking about the typical “I can’t afford it” type of objections…I want you to get even more specific and intimate with their real objections to making this program work for them.
For example…
One of my first courses was called Corporate to Called…I knew that most of my target audience for this would still be working day jobs, so one of their biggest objections would be “I don’t have the time to build a business.”
I knew this was just an excuse that people make, because I built my business on the side of my corporate job…it’s about doing the most important things, not ALL the things. And I was really skilled at productivity and efficiency, so I created an optin called…
How to Build Your Business In 20 min/day — this was overcoming their objection that they didn’t have time to go through my program that I would later offer them.
Create a list of all their objections, things they need to know to be able to get results from your program, things they need to understand to feel it’s important.
So, if you’re selling them a course on public speaking and they’re afraid of public speaking, you need to sell them on both: 1. overcoming their fears, and 2. understanding the importance of speaking for growing their business BEFORE you can sell them into a program on public speaking. Make sense?
Then you want to decide what format to present that to your peeps in…
For example, you can create:
Get access to my full "how to sell out your program, even with a small list" cheatsheet here!
Chantelle Adams is a Professional Speaker, Speech Stylist and Courage Igniter. She has delivered over 800 speeches in the last 5 years and created a 6-figure business in just 9 months, recently having a 100K launch. But the financial success is not her WHY, she has put her success to good use and helped build schools in Kenya, Nicaragua and Haiti and she is on a mission to help entrepreneurs find their voice, own their story and have the courage to share it so they can turn their message into a movement.
She knows what it takes to get booked and shine on stage and has been called a storytelling ninja and hears that her support is better than Spanx. She believes that together we can change the world with our voices.
In this episode, Chantelle shares with us:
Join Chantelle in her Online Celebrity Bootcamp here!
Naming your "thing" is a bigger deal than you might think. A good program/business/offer name can be everything.
Well sort of. It’s an important piece of the puzzle that helps people understand what you do and how you can help them.
Let’s face it though, naming your program (or product) is hard. Communicating the essence of your program or business in just a few words is part science, part art.
Your name needs to evoke emotion and make a promise about their results.
For example, Corporate to Called {purpose + profits group coaching program} was the name of one of my courses. One that I sold 15 spots @ a $997 price point, when I had a list of less than 200 people.
Now, I’m definitely not saying this was the best name ever, I know you can do better than me {I didn’t understand the importance at the time and have named things poorly since}!
But, people knew exactly who it was for and what results they were going to get {corporate peeps looking to go out on their own and make money via their purpose}.
Here’s a few things to get you started:
Your name needs umph.
Brainstorm at least 10 power words and their synonyms {use google} that are relevant to your offer -- https://blog.bufferapp.com/words-and-phrases-that-convert-ultimate-list
Next, continue brainstorming emotional and results/outcome oriented words.
So, what are the results that your course/program provides?
List at least 10 words that describe the emotions & results/outcome of your program. {consider using verbs as well {use google to help}.
Put this baby together now.
What combinations from these can you create?
Mix & match the different options and cross out the ones that are not exciting and keep working with the ones that have potential!
Sit on them for a few days and say it out loud, really FEEL what it’s like to have a program with that name. Think about how you’d introduce it to strangers and if they’d understand what the heck that means.
You can also use: http://www.leandomainsearch.com/ to get some additional ideas and even make sure you’re domain is available.
You can keep this list for future naming as well.
Make sure to download the cheatsheet here to get all 10 tips to sell out your program, even with a small list!
Alex Epstein is the author of the New York Times best-selling book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and an expert on energy and industrial policy. Called “most original thinker of the year” by political commentator John McLaughlin, he champions the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas and has changed the way thousands of people think about energy. He has risen to prominence as the nation’s leading free-market energy debater, promoting a philosophy that is “anti-pollution but pro-development.” He challenges many popularly held ideas about energy, industry, and the environment, including the big picture benefits (and costs) of fossil fuels and nuclear power. He draws on cutting-edge research and original insights to offer an alternate perspective on the energy debate and shares eye-opening thoughts into how fossil fuels and technology will improve the lives of people – safely, cleanly, and effectively – for years to come.
Today we focus on his journey as an entrepreneur, how he made his work stand out & captured attention, and how he has become one of the most productive people on the planet.
Resources:
Alex's Productivity Secrets & Resolution Revolution
Interviewing is a learned skill and art form. There are some insanely powerful and insightful interviewers out there, and then there are those who fall flat and maybe need a little more practice.
I think we're all refining our skills along the way, but here are some tips to help you become a better interviewer in any capacity - whether it's formally with a podcast or interview show, with mentors to get the best information and guidance, or even with clients/customers. Interviewing is not a skill that is specific to traditional reporters.
Here's 6 tips to get you started:
1. Let the person you are interviewing do most of the talking
2. Be genuinely interested in the human you are interviewing
3. Learn how to deal with different personality types
4. Become your audience
5. Focus on actionable takeaways whenever possible
6. Watch the time
Practice makes perfect and the more comfortable you are, the better you will become at the art of interviewing!
You can get access to my full interview tips for FREE in the episode 127 download.
Resources:
6 tips to fast track your success in 2016 - take these serious and the results will follow.
1. Let your vision, commitment, & drive guide you NOT your current circumstances or limitations or excuses.
2. To get energy you must do the work, and follow through on your word. When you hustle and get things done you create energy within to take even more action.
3. ALWAYS celebrate weekly progress over perfection. Being a perfectionist will cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars. Remember you want experiments, not perfection.
4. Make sure you are ONLY associating with those who hold you accountable, raise your standards, and challenge you to think bigger...NOT those people who let you off the hook.
5. Get rid of ALL negativity in your life. Toxic people love company and they have a problem for every solution. You must purposely surround yourself w/ top-notchthinkers.
6. Start your days feeling resourceful, accomplished and confident - Define your highest value activity (MIM - most important mission) and spend the first 90 minutes doing that and NOTHING else. - use your success sheet every morning & evening.
Habits will always trump inspiration. Inspiration is needed to create consistent action, but your habits are ultimately going to define your success or failure.
Which one of these will make the BIGGEST impact on your success and results this week and this year if you really focused on it?
Resources:
Kat Loterzo is a successful author, speaker and mentor to revolutionary leaders who want it all, on their terms, now if not sooner.
Kat lives location free with her husband and 2 children, is obsessed with great coffee, great wifi, great wine and great training of the mind and body, as well as creating as much content as humanly possible on the topic of alignment and taking MASSIVE action.
Read more from Kat and get her free Daily Asskickery at www.katloterzo.com, or visit www.booksforkickasswomen.com to read Kat's books.
Resources:
FREE book for any Multi-Passionate, Driven Woman Who Wants to Have it All!
Society of Self-Mastery - Free FB Community
Simplified Success Society - $1.00 trial
More businesses fail than succeed...so what sets those that succeed apart from those that don't?
In this episode I'm breaking down the two root causes of business failure and sharing a free workbook for you apply to your own business and make sure your foundations are nice and strong.
It's time to get clear, so you can get clients. Because the only way to stay in business is to get deeply intimate and honest with these two root causes of failure. {hint: they have nothing to do with advanced strategies.
Resources:
Get Clear, Get Clients Workbook
Guy Spier is a Zurich-based investor and author of a book on investing entitled The Education of a Value Investor. He is well known for bidding US $650,100 with Mohnish Pabrai for a charity lunch with Warren Buffett in June 2007. In 2009, he was featured in "the Checklist Manifesto", by Atul Gawande regarding his use of checklists as part of his investment process.
Spier manages the Aquamarine Fund, an investment partnership inspired by, and styled after Warren Buffett's 1950s investment partnerships. He is also an occasional financial commentator in the media.
What happens when a young Wall Street investment banker spends a small fortune to have lunch with Warren Buffett? He becomes a real value investor. In this fascinating inside story, Guy Spier details his career from Harvard MBA to hedge fund manager. But the path was not so straightforward. Spier reveals his transformation from a Gordon Gekko wannabe, driven by greed, to a sophisticated investor who enjoys success without selling his soul to the highest bidder.
Spier's journey is similar to the thousands that flock to Wall Street every year with their shiny new diplomas, aiming to be King of Wall Street. Yet what Guy realized just in the nick of time was that the King really lived 1,500 miles away in Omaha, Nebraska. Spier determinedly set out to create a new career in his own way.
Along the way he learned some powerful lessons which include: why the right mentors and partners are critical to long term success on Wall Street; why a topnotch education can sometimes get in the way of your success; that real learning doesn't begin until you are on your own; and how the best lessons from Warren Buffett have less to do with investing and more to do with being true to yourself.
Guy Spier shares the two ways the warren buffett made profound impacts on his life and in today's download you can get access to the exact questions you need to be asking yourself if you're looking for a top-notch mentor, plus example email messages of how to get connected to them.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Guy Spier's Nine Rules to Successful Investing
How To Identify & Connect with Top-Notch Mentors
I've been reflecting a lot over the past couple weeks as I close the books down for 2015, I've had a great year, and am ready to welcome in another one. Many thanks to all of you for listening, subscribing and sharing this podcast!
biggest 2015 mistakes
I’m sharing some free exercises to help you understand some of your biggest lessons {failures} - this is the reflection guide I use to create more success in my life. Go to adriennedorison.com/bigmistakes to download this free reflection guide.
Welcoming in 2016 success!
Resources
How To Turn Your Failures Into Wins: a reflection guide to create more success
Hal Elrod is today's guest and one of my personal heroes. He’s the #1 best-selling author of what is now being widely regarded as “one of the most life-changing books ever written” titled, The Miracle Morning: The Not So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed To Transform Your Life… Before 8AM.
It is also one of the highest rated books on Amazon with over 700 five-star reviews!
What’s even more incredible is that Hal actually died at age 20. He was hit head on by a drunk driver at 70 mph, broke 11 bones, died for 6 minutes, and spent 6 days in a coma only to wake up to face the news that he may never walk again… Well, not only did he walk, Hal went on to run a 52-mile ultra marathon, become a hall of fame business achiever, an international keynote speaker, one of the world’s top success coaches, he’s a hip-hop recording artist, has been featured in the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, writes for Entrepreneur.com, has appeared on radio and TV shows across the country, and the list just goes on and on. He’s also the host of one of the top personal development podcasts on iTunes, called “Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod.”
As the bestselling author of The Miracle Morning, I brought him on today to talk about how you can change any—or literally EVERY area of your life, by simply changing the way you wake up in the morning—even if you’ve never been a morning person.
You can find Hal Elrod @ www.halelrod.com
Hal’s Entrepreneur magazine article about affirmations here: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246869
You can purchase The Miracle Morning here – http://bit.ly/SSMmiracle