Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Treating Your Business Like a Private Club with Dawnna St. Louis

Transcript

Treating Your Business Like a Private Club with Dawnna St. Louis · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

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  We have a very smart funnel.
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  It's very simple, but it works.
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  People are doing too much too many They have 8,000,000 things at the top of their funnel for
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  free, and then they're wondering why their ads aren't working and people are confused Be very
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  specific about what you're offering your clients and then bring them in and be very
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  specific about who you're offering it to.
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  3, 2, 1, 0, ignition.
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  Lift off.
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  Ending small business failure.
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  Welcome to the small biz chat podcast with the number one small business expert, Melinda
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  Emerson.
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  Melinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you dream of.
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  Now here's your host, the small Biz chat lady herself, Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everyone.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, the small biz lady.
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  America's number one small business expert, and I'm so excited to welcome you to another
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  edition of the small bitch chat podcast.
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  And if you are tired of scrounging around for customers, I've got a sales expert here who's
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  gonna talk to you about how it might make more sense to treat your business like a private
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  club instead of a public part.
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  And if you think that your business could benefit from really focusing on a hyper niche,
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  my expert is gonna break down exactly how that's gonna work best for you in your
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  business.
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  Here at the small business chat podcast, our mission is to end small business failure.
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  This is a peer to peer mentoring show where we give you advice from multiple angles.
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  We want you to take your business to the next level, and that is why we do what we do.
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  The small biztat podcast can be seen on my small biz lady fan page and on my small
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  business YouTube channel.
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  Now listen, if you like what you see today, feel free to subscribe You wanna make sure that
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  you do not miss another episode.
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  And I am so excited to have my next guest here Her name is Donna St.
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  Louis.
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  And she is an in demand international speaker and sales and revenue acceleration code.
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  She is called the coach's coach when she works with subject matter experts to turn their
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  expertise into high profit coaching and speaking businesses.
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  Next year, she will launch her fire brand certified coaching program for those who wanna
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  be successful business coaches and have the expertise to do so.
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  Donna's success growing coaching businesses and entrepreneurial firm have earned her an
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  exclusive spot as the business coach for Goldman Sachs, minority entrepreneur.
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  For more information, check out her website firebrand.net.
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  Donna, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast.
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  Hey.
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  What's up?
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  Great to be here.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  I cannot wait to talk to you.
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  You are a serial entrepreneur and you throw your business, then you decide, oh, I'm gonna
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  coach other entrepreneurs so that they can be better.
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  So tell me, how did you become the coach's coach?
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  Yeah.
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  By failing.
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  Seriously.
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  I listen.
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  I was homeless when I was nineteen.
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  I sold my tech consultancy for $250,000,000 by the time I was 39.
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  I decided that I was gonna go out and be a speaker because someone told me should do that.
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  So, hey, I'm a go do that.
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  And, yeah, crickets, like, crickets.
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  So with all this expertise, with all this credential, with all the stuff that I knew, I
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  was doing what most people do when they wanna get on stage.
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  They were being somebody to everybody, which means they were nobody to anybody.
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  Right?
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  Like, it was just horrible.
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  And so I decided really to take the methodology that I had used to build a very successful tech
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  consultancy, a very successful hotel wireless company, and then move that over into coaching.
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  I'm gonna teach coach other people how to actually run successful businesses.
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  I applied my methodology to that business.
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  I had not applied it to my speaking business.
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  I had only applied it to my coaching business My coaching business took off, and then all of
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  a sudden, I was getting pulled onto stages The very first lesson that I learned was critical
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  was this.
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  Being a professional is required, but if you wanna get paid, you gotta be an expert.
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  Love it.
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  Love it.
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  I I I think that is so true.
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  Now turning that expertise, though, because most coaches are engaging people through online
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  marketing.
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  So what are the biggest challenges you see out here for people out here in this wild, wild
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  world of of of online marketing.
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  Being a jack on all trades, they think because they give their cousin their auntie and their
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  uncle good advice on Thursday that somebody's gonna pay them on Friday, and that is not how
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  it works.
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  They don't have a methodology.
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  They're not niched down.
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  They're not selecting the ideal clients that they wanna work with.
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  They keep treating their business like a public park and not like a private club.
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  They're letting everybody in.
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  Problem.
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  So how once you know who it is you wanna target, what are some very effective marketing
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  strategies?
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  Well, I would say the first thing is to we if we don't do the whole thing, like, you'll hear
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  a lot of these people say, you wanna get a thousand people on your master class for free.
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  We don't do free.
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  We don't do anything for free at my company.
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  Everything that we do is something that's going to be that's paid in some way, shape, or form.
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  People who are now willing to invest in my cell and themselves are not my ideal client.
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  So that that's number 1, 1st and foremost for us.
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  So I would say the first thing is Stop chasing free people who are trying to throw something
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  together like a Franken business.
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  They're just taking all these free pieces and sliding together and hope they have something.
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  You gotta stop doing that.
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  Your ideal client is willing to pay you.
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  But that would be number 1.
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  Stop doing free.
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  Alright.
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  So if you're not gonna do free, how do you get leads to pay you?
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  I mean, how are you driving leads into your business?
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  Well, for me, I'll tell you what we do specifically.
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  We do leverage Facebook as we are working with a very specific company that does help us We
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  lead those people into, we have a very smart funnel.
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  It is the best way for us to say it.
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  We have a very smart funnel We do pick up the phone.
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  I was gonna sound crazy.
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  Listen to me carefully.
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  There's this new thing.
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  It's called the cell phone, right?
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  And people have given you your phone, their phone number.
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  And you could call them and actually have a conversation.
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  Isn't that crazy?
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  And then you can turn that conversation to a sales call.
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  You don't need to have a thousand people.
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  We turned, eight people into $55,000 last week.
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  It wasn't there wasn't a thousand people on our program.
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  There were there were 8.
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  The 8.
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  Got it.
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  So pick up the phone.
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  Talk to people.
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  Stop expecting people to, you know, come to your site, click and buy.
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  People are smarter than that.
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  They wanna know that there's a human being on the other side of that product.
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  So if you're launching a new course or a new program, you're saying set up the ads, set up
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  your landing page, and then, and then have your and then download all that.
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  Yes.
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  Have a low ticket item.
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  So, also, I'll be very specific.
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  Don't mind giving away our deets.
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  We have a low ticket item, which is a workbook.
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  That workbook is 20 it's $77, but if you give us your, your cell phone number, it's $27.
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  So what do we have now?
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  A phone number?
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  And then we have a bump offer.
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  You want the videos that go along with this workbook because we can show you how to be an
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  in demand coach.
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  People buy the videos, somebody who's bought a workbook in a video and has left me their cell
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  phone number will get a phone call.
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  There you go.
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  It's right.
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  And then we'll and then we'll drop them into master classes.
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  We do 3 master classes a month that are 90 minutes that are open not only to our members,
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  our members, obviously, it's free, but to outside people.
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  So we have a very smart funnel.
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  It's very simple.
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  But it works.
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  People are doing too much too many.
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  They have 8,000,000 things at the top of their funnel for free.
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  And then they're wondering why their ads aren't working and people are confused.
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  Be very specific about what you're offering your clients and then bring them in and be very
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  specific about who you're offering it to.
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  Now what else are you using though?
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  So you're using the phone, but you use an email?
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  What other tools are you using to, you know, run your sort of like sales process?
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  Yeah.
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  So I I personally hate zombie emails, and I hate free groups.
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  Absolutely hate them.
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  If we're If listen.
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  If you're on my list and you don't click after a couple of months, you're probably not on my
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  list anymore.
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  So I don't like zombie email list, and I don't like sending out emails every day.
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  So one of the things that we do is we're very purposeful about what we send out and why we
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  send it out.
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  So when we send out an email, generally, there's some value, like real you, like, a did
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  you know?
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  Here's a tip and trick that we're sending out.
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  And then people reach back to us lots of times, like, oh my gosh.
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  That was valuable.
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  The other thing that we did that is honestly super smart is when people go and they sign up,
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  you know, they give us their phone number and they sign up even before they purchased
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  anything, we put them in a member's area that has a bunch of free stuff quote unquote that
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  they can look at, but that same member's area is a marketing tool for us.
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  So they see all the stuff they're not getting.
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  Interesting.
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  And if they wanna get that stuff, They generally have to have a phone call with one of
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  our people because we're not really trying to get people to go online and just buy.
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  Have a phone.
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  Have conversation with us.
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  Right.
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  So you're like, you get you can't even buy from us.
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  Did we know who you are with that you're really, like, a of our best type customer?
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  Because not everyone is our ideal client and not every not an and what we offer won't help
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  everyone.
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  So we wanna be crystal clear that if you're I've had people that say, well, I want to have
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  a big viral promise.
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  And I'm like, okay.
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  Cool.
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  Tell me what you do, but they're all over the place.
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  And I'll that workbook isn't gonna help you because you haven't identified your area of
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  expertise yet.
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  So I will slow people down.
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  I've refunded money because I'm like, this isn't really gonna help you, even after the
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  even after they've downloaded it.
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  Interesting.
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  So what do you think the biggest challenges that new coaches have versus experience
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  coaches.
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  New coaches are trying to serve everyone.
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  They're really scared to niche down in their market and they absolutely don't wanna and they
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  think, you know, I'm an expert so people should give me money and it just doesn't work that
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  way.
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  What about experienced coaches?
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  Experience coaches are having a really hard time defining exactly how they go from a level
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  1 coach to a level 2 coach to a level 3 coach.
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  They don't know how to level up.
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  So they think all they really have to do is keep doing more of the same.
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  And because they many of them lack of methodology, they don't have a duplication
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  process, which makes it impossible for them to scale.
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  You have to be able to scale.
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  If you are the only coach in your business, The only thing you really can do is sell more sell
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  more expensive stuff, sell more ever green, or sell more ever green stuff, or duplicate
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  yourself duplicating yourself is truly where you wanna get to.
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  Interesting.
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  So you
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  say that a lot of your information is contrary to what to what's out there.
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  Why do you think that?
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  Because quite honestly, you know, I've been fortunate enough to be in the rooms with people
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  who have a couple of commas and maybe in three commas in their in their bank account.
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  And what I've learned from them over the years is quite contrary to what most people are
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  saying.
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  Out in these streets.
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  So, again, I'll hear a lot of people go, you know, you wanna put on a webinar and you wanna
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  get a thousand people do it.
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  I'm like, you wanna get on a to put on a webinar and you wanna get, like, really 10 good
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  solid folks.
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  Right?
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  A lot of people say, you gotta do a bunch of free stuff, and I'm like, Don't do stuff for
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  free.
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  You know, so.
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  Right?
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  You you really, you know, you can't niche in that tight.
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  Niche in a little tighter.
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  A li just a little bit more.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, you don't really have a competitor.
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  You have a competitor.
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  You do.
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  And you should be doing a competitive analysis and recognizing what you're doing differently.
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  You're unique because you're you.
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  No.
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  What gives you a unique selling proposition is that you have a unique methodology.
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  So Got it.
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  Those are the things.
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  So listen, tell me, what is the best business advice you've ever gotten?
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  If you wanna have lunch with Benjamin, you gotta stop chasing Washington.
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  That's probably the best advice.
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  And the second best advice, I would say, it's one that honestly I give myself and I do give
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  other people.
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  If you wanna have more commas in your bank account, you gotta take it out of your
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  expertise.
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  What do you mean by what do you mean by that?
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  Because if I go to someone's LinkedIn profile and they do sales, marketing, social, me to
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  strategy makeup, toenails, hair, and then they will come in on a Wednesday and they'll wash
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  your car.
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  I probably have no idea what they're selling.
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  But when I listen to someone like a Catherine Brown and say, hey.
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  You know what?
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  I do sales.
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  I know.
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  I mean, and it's and it's that.
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  Right?
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  Then I know specifically what she does.
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  I know exactly how to drive business to her.
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  When I hear someone like a Paul getter say, what he does?
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  I know how to drive business to him because he does one thing.
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  Doesn't mean that he can only do one thing?
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  Oh, he's a brilliant person.
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  He can do lots of things.
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  Katherine can do tons of things.
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  Right?
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  Listen.
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  I I write cold y'all.
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  I mean, you know, PMP, 6 Sigma Black Boat, ran a $250,000,000 tech consultancy.
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  Know more about data than I should.
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  However, I don't put all those comments behind my expertise.
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  I do one thing.
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  I'm a revenue acceleration coach.
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  I help people who are entrepreneurs.
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  And in the sales side of the business, make more money faster.
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  Alright.
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  Good.
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  I love it.
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  Thank you for drilling that down because I think that was so powerful.
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  That was so, so powerful for people.
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  Thank you so much.
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  You have been such an amazing guest And absolutely, if you are a coach in need of
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  direction, you need Donna St.
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  Louis, check out her coaching programs at firebrand.net and Fire is spelled with a y.
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  Alright.
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  If you are interested in learning about what kind of boss you might be, I want you to head
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  over to boss quiz.com.
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  And get your complete business profile so that you can figure out the right business
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  opportunity for you.
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  Thank you all for joining me for another edition of the small podcast.
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  You know, our mission here is to end a small business failure.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, a small business lady, and I wanna leave you with this.
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  You never lose in business.
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  Either you win or you learn.
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  God bless everybody.
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  Thanks for listening to the small biz chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
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  Subscribe to this podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us next Wednesday for
• 15:56
  more fantastic information and interviews.
• 15:59
  You can find more sources and small business success strategies by visiting Melinda's
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  website succeed as your own boss dotcom.
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  Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next week.