Latest / Ambitious Podcast / EP. 31: Unlocking Business Growth Secrets with Ashley Bennington: Navigating Sales, Strategy, and High-Ticket Offerings

Transcript

EP. 31: Unlocking Business Growth Secrets with Ashley Bennington: Navigating Sales, Strategy, and High-Ticket Offerings · Ambitious Podcast

• 0:08
  Hello friends, and welcome back to Ambitious.
• 0:10
  I am so excited for you to listen to today's episode
• 0:13
  because I am joined by one of my dear friends, client, sister,
• 0:19
  all of the things in my life on today's episode and we dive into
• 0:23
  a series that you really enjoyed the last time that we did it.
• 0:27
  And I was trying to think of the perfect person that I was going
• 0:30
  to have to come back to do this series with me.
• 0:32
  And there was nobody better than Ashley Bennington.
• 0:35
  So Ashley Bennington is an absolute powerhouse when it
• 0:39
  comes to business. She is also just like myself, a
• 0:42
  business consultant and she has created multiple different
• 0:46
  brands and business. Ashley's the.
• 0:48
  Founder and CEO of By the Blazer and she is definitely known for
• 0:52
  her creative consulting and business strategy when it comes
• 0:54
  to brands, taking them anywhere from between 10K.
• 0:57
  All the way up to. $3,000,000 in annual revenue.
• 1:00
  I will say in knowing Ashley and all the things that she has done
• 1:04
  in her life and all the different brands she's been
• 1:05
  associated with. This girl is a through and
• 1:07
  through serial entrepreneur and she started at a young age when
• 1:10
  she actually hustled her way into managing and consulting
• 1:14
  roles in Fortune 500 companies all throughout her 20s and is an
• 1:18
  absolute sales ninja. She is honestly an absolute
• 1:23
  visionary and she really knows how to take anyones idea or
• 1:27
  concept and help to build that into a multiple 6 or A7 figure
• 1:30
  business. And I have seen her absolutely
• 1:34
  massively expand and grow within her business, within her brand,
• 1:38
  her mindset, her leadership. And I so deeply value her
• 1:41
  opinion and her perspective. And together we very much do
• 1:44
  have similar perspectives about business operations and values
• 1:49
  and the things that really help people to take them to the next
• 1:52
  level. Not to mention her delivery is
• 1:54
  absolutely hilarious and the most direct you're probably ever
• 1:57
  going to hear from a female business consultant.
• 2:00
  So with all that being. Said today we are going.
• 2:02
  Into a this or that episode, which is really where we're
• 2:06
  going to present you with a bunch of different concepts and
• 2:10
  perspectives and decisions that people often make in business
• 2:12
  and give you our perspective as to which one we choose and most
• 2:16
  importantly, why. So without further ado, let's
• 2:18
  get into today's episode. All righty guys.
• 2:20
  Welcome to Ambitious. I'm so psyched for today's
• 2:23
  guest. As I told you in the intro, this
• 2:26
  is somebody that happens to be one of my best friends, but also
• 2:29
  is an absolute comedian when it comes to her delivery and the
• 2:33
  ways that she talks about business and life, and also is
• 2:35
  an absolute genius who's been able to scale her business
• 2:38
  rapidly. And so, Ashley, welcome to
• 2:40
  Ambitious. Welcome to the show.
• 2:42
  It's about getting time. OK?
• 2:43
  I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me.
• 2:48
  Guys, when I messed, when I messaged Ashley, I said hey, I'd
• 2:52
  love to have you on a business. She's like, it's about damn time
• 2:55
  already. It's about damn time.
• 2:57
  Obviously so long I was like maybe Kate just pretends to like
• 3:01
  me. I was like would she ask me?
• 3:03
  Although she actually likes me. So our friendship has been
• 3:06
  mended once she I got deeper connected.
• 3:08
  We went to the next level, next level of commitment.
• 3:10
  Well, you guys as a concept in a series for Ambitious, really
• 3:14
  loved that this or that episode that we just recently did with
• 3:17
  Lacey Madison and you guys were like, we need another one of
• 3:20
  this. This was so fun and so
• 3:21
  entertaining and also just like really helpful to see the
• 3:23
  opposing sides on anything when it comes to business, online
• 3:26
  business, marketing, sales, all those good things.
• 3:28
  And so really, if I'm going to be totally transparent with you,
• 3:30
  these are the conversations that Ashley and I have behind the
• 3:33
  scenes anyways, via text message, Slack message, or when
• 3:37
  we're in person ripping together.
• 3:38
  And so frankly, today is basically going to be what we
• 3:41
  already talked about with just two microphones in front of us.
• 3:44
  But this or that episode, Ashley, just because we, I will
• 3:47
  be totally honest with you guys, we didn't prime Ashley in any
• 3:49
  way. She can attest.
• 3:50
  We gave her no questions, no context.
• 3:52
  She knows nothing. And so I said, listen, I'm gonna
• 3:55
  put together a bunch of things that are this or that, and
• 3:58
  you're gonna pick which one you feel that you most resonate with
• 4:01
  and then most importantly, why you believe that to be true.
• 4:04
  And so we're gonna get right into the meat of it, if you
• 4:07
  will. And we're gonna start off with
• 4:09
  one that I think is gonna be kind of like, you know, very
• 4:11
  complimentary to both of us and for our businesses, which is do
• 4:15
  you think that it is women's business and men's business, IE
• 4:19
  that there are two totally different ways of doing business
• 4:21
  or do you believe it to be true that there really only is
• 4:25
  business? No, I think there's totally a
• 4:28
  difference. I think that men and women
• 4:30
  approach business completely different.
• 4:32
  However, I think my belief around this has shifted a lot
• 4:36
  about what that actually means in the last year, mostly due to
• 4:40
  you, because I think that I leaned into what I thought
• 4:43
  business should be so much of like I molded myself to be what
• 4:47
  I thought business should be. And then I realized that I
• 4:49
  really needed to embrace the way that I naturally do business
• 4:52
  because that feminine piece of the way that I do business is
• 4:55
  actually one of my greatest gifts.
• 4:56
  So I think a year ago I would have been like, it's just like
• 5:00
  one way of doing business. And it's shifted so much this
• 5:02
  year and I actually feel like I can speak to it, whereas a year
• 5:04
  ago I've been like, I have no fucking clue.
• 5:06
  So it's definitely shifted this year, definitely.
• 5:09
  Yeah, I mean, I, I feel like torn on this one because I think
• 5:14
  definitely women's business is different in the sense of women
• 5:17
  have to consider different things when they're doing
• 5:19
  business. So like obviously if you're a
• 5:21
  mom and you have to go on mat leave, it's not the same as the
• 5:23
  man who may not have to do that. So I do think in that regard, I
• 5:28
  recognize that business has to be done differently as a woman.
• 5:31
  But I would also curious to hear your standpoint on I also feel,
• 5:36
  at least in my perspective, which was some of my
• 5:38
  frustrations actually when coming into the online world was
• 5:42
  that so many people were marketing women's business as
• 5:45
  fluff. And like, I know you're like a
• 5:48
  strategy nerd like I am. And so for me, I got really
• 5:52
  annoyed at like the like, have your sisterhood and like come to
• 5:55
  the retreat and have the wine night and like hang with your
• 5:58
  girlfriends. And I was like, listen, like we
• 6:00
  do that. Like we're literally seeing each
• 6:01
  other this weekend to do that exact thing.
• 6:03
  But on the flip side, we're also like, hey, like, teach me how to
• 6:07
  build the funnel, teach me how to lead A-Team, teach me how to
• 6:09
  do these things. So I think that part to me is
• 6:11
  where I get frustrated with like the quote UN quote, women's
• 6:13
  business. I think there's a different way
• 6:15
  that women need to consider doing business because they have
• 6:17
  different realities. But I get so frustrated when
• 6:20
  it's like women want to invest in other women and you can't
• 6:23
  find somebody. Like it's so difficult to feels
• 6:25
  like to find someone who's like really tapped into like the
• 6:28
  masculine strategy. Yeah.
• 6:30
  I think that the way that people look at teaching business, we
• 6:33
  separate it, but not in a healthy way.
• 6:35
  We separate it based on like traditional kind of gender
• 6:38
  roles. But what I found in coaching is
• 6:41
  that men and women, I think just approach business different.
• 6:44
  I think that we approach relationships different.
• 6:47
  I think that we approach the way that we support and mentor and
• 6:50
  guide different. So I think that there are
• 6:52
  natural differences, but I think the way that people try to
• 6:56
  create the divide is really not what people need.
• 7:00
  And I think that even when I came into the online space,
• 7:03
  because I came from very sales heavy masculine businesses, when
• 7:08
  I came into the space, I was like, what the fuck is this
• 7:10
  kumbaya thing that keeps happening here?
• 7:14
  Like, I mean, I definitely think there needs to be a little bit
• 7:16
  of that. It wasn't until this year, I
• 7:18
  think I appreciated the like sitting down and having a little
• 7:20
  bit more of that little girl chat women energy that I think
• 7:24
  people put too much around. But I think there is a
• 7:28
  difference. I think the way that people try
• 7:30
  to create the difference to conform to gender roles is not
• 7:33
  the way of approaching business. There is kind of that one way of
• 7:37
  like looking at business, but us as women or or men, the way that
• 7:41
  we look at business, the way that we approach business, I
• 7:43
  think the priorities we have in business just naturally, because
• 7:46
  unfortunately the world is divided in a lot of ways.
• 7:48
  I think there are differences there.
• 7:49
  So I'm sticking with my answer, but I definitely, I think you
• 7:52
  and I are very much on the same page, John.
• 7:54
  I mean, you're right on this one, Kate, like you're not wrong
• 7:56
  on this one. So I'll do.
• 7:58
  This one, yeah. So basically we're saying the
• 7:59
  same thing. Yeah, I love it.
• 8:00
  OK, Basically we're like, agreed, OK #2 do you believe?
• 8:09
  I mean, I, I feel like I already know your answer, but I want to
• 8:12
  give this context afterwards. Well, this is the best part.
• 8:16
  This is the best part. As a guest, you're like, what is
• 8:18
  this question and what do I want to say?
• 8:20
  And the fact you have to go first is even added layer of
• 8:23
  pressure. Yeah, she's in the hot seat, you
• 8:24
  guys. Objection handling.
• 8:26
  So when you hear an objection pushing and getting and, and
• 8:30
  kind of going through it. So objection handling people or
• 8:33
  are you from the thought of if they have an objection, leave
• 8:35
  them alone And if they want to invest, they will invest?
• 8:39
  Oh, no objection handling. I love handling objections.
• 8:42
  I'm like a fucking, it's like a game or something.
• 8:45
  I'm all about it. The thing I do want to say here,
• 8:47
  though, I feel like there's a disclaimer for everyone.
• 8:49
  So just please put in. Ashley adds disclaimer to every
• 8:51
  answer that she put. But I think that there's a way
• 8:54
  to handle objections to coach them through a buying decision
• 8:59
  versus like a, oh, I know that I'm going to get the sale every
• 9:02
  time and regardless of what they say, like I know that I'm going
• 9:05
  to push them to buy. I think it's very different.
• 9:08
  So I very much handle objections, but one of my
• 9:10
  favorite things to hear from a client after a sales process is
• 9:13
  they're like, I feel like I came in with no like desire to buy,
• 9:17
  but you and I approach this from such a collaborative lens that I
• 9:21
  didn't even feel like you were selling me.
• 9:22
  And I think that's when you can handle objections.
• 9:25
  I always call it like you come on the same side of the table as
• 9:28
  the client and you guys come to how you work together to make
• 9:31
  the decision or to buy the whatever it is.
• 9:33
  When you do it that way, it doesn't feel like objection
• 9:35
  handling. So it still is, but it's not
• 9:38
  necessarily the I do not have the the moment that they have
• 9:41
  any concern. I'll just like trust the guides,
• 9:43
  the gods above to bring them to me when they're like self led
• 9:46
  and ready. Like that's not my problem.
• 9:48
  So yeah, they're like structures strong the.
• 9:52
  Gods above will guide them. Well, there is a there is a lot
• 9:55
  of messaging around that right, which like we, we've seen people
• 9:57
  who are like listen like if someone has objections, just
• 10:00
  take that as a sign that they're not ready or that I've seen like
• 10:03
  on the very like for any of these, we really think about
• 10:05
  these as a spectrum, right And thinking about the extreme of
• 10:07
  the one side of like I'm not going to to objection handle.
• 10:11
  I've seen people who are like listen like as soon as someone
• 10:14
  has an objection, they'll say, well, I'm here.
• 10:16
  So let me know when you're ready.
• 10:18
  And I think like objections get it kind of like a bad rap in a
• 10:23
  way, because I think that they're associated with the fact
• 10:25
  of like pressure and persuasion and taking away agency and all
• 10:29
  of this stuff from the person that you're talking to.
• 10:31
  Frankly, for me, I don't think I've had a single investment.
• 10:35
  That I've made. In my life, in my business that
• 10:39
  I haven't had some kind of like is now the time, do I have
• 10:42
  money? Like, should I do this?
• 10:44
  Is this safe? Is this smart?
• 10:45
  Like I've, I've had that moment continuously.
• 10:47
  And I think, you know, even when my first investments was like a
• 10:50
  $20,000 mastermind for my first coach.
• 10:53
  And so like, I was terrified. I was like pooping my pants
• 10:56
  because I was at the time like a server and I didn't have that
• 10:59
  kind of money to be spending frivolously like that.
• 11:02
  And he, I remember like I said, like I was so nervous and I'm
• 11:05
  like, I just don't know if I have the money.
• 11:06
  I don't know if this is the move.
• 11:07
  And I remember him saying, like, you know, entrepreneurs see fear
• 11:10
  and they run toward it, and they don't let that be the thing that
• 11:14
  blocks them from what they want. And truthfully, if you're
• 11:16
  telling me you want this different life, this is an
• 11:18
  opportunity for you to operate differently.
• 11:20
  And only you can decide if you're ready for that challenge
• 11:22
  to really step into the identity of what you're telling me you
• 11:25
  want. And if you hadn't said that to
• 11:27
  me, I wouldn't be here, which means I wouldn't have done the
• 11:30
  mastermind, which was I wouldn't have had the steps in the kind
• 11:33
  of evolution that I had. And there's been so many
• 11:35
  instances where I was terrified in my body of like, is this the
• 11:39
  right move? Should I do this?
• 11:41
  And even frankly, and I'm sure even for you, you can speak to
• 11:44
  this with clients. Like I've had clients who were
• 11:46
  like, you know, oh, like, I'm moving my house this year and
• 11:49
  I'm getting married. So because of that, like, I
• 11:51
  don't know if now's the time. And I'm like, listen, Sarah,
• 11:54
  your business is not going to stop just because you're getting
• 11:57
  married or moving your house. Like if are you still, is the
• 11:59
  business still open for business?
• 12:01
  And she was like, yes, I'm like, great.
• 12:02
  So then all the problems still persist.
• 12:04
  All the realities still exist. And so if you need to stop your
• 12:07
  entire life to build your business, that's a problem in
• 12:09
  itself in the sense of like, you have to have nothing going on in
• 12:12
  order to be able to scale. And so there's just been so many
• 12:15
  instances where the objection handling was the catalyst for
• 12:19
  someone's massive transformation.
• 12:20
  But I think exactly to what you said, I think it's about how you
• 12:23
  do it because I think the classical bro sales approach of
• 12:26
  just like hammering people until they like basically like
• 12:29
  controlling them on the call until they buy.
• 12:30
  Obviously no. But I think the thing that I
• 12:34
  associate with objection handling is a curiosity, like
• 12:36
  seeking to understand and also providing reframes for people of
• 12:40
  their thought process because they're only thinking about an
• 12:42
  investment or thinking about a decision in the lens of their
• 12:45
  awareness. And so if you as a coach or as a
• 12:47
  a service provider or whatever it may be, have a level of
• 12:50
  awareness that they don't have, I feel like it's your
• 12:52
  responsibility to just provide that with them with that
• 12:54
  information. What they decide to do with it
• 12:56
  is up to them. But I think to not even try to
• 12:59
  help them to see things in a different context is like, like,
• 13:05
  I can't imagine that. I can't fathom just not even
• 13:07
  like offering that opportunity. No, I mean, it's the same thing
• 13:11
  with like when you would go in back to corporate life, like
• 13:13
  when you go in for an interview. I was thinking about this
• 13:16
  because I was talking to a client who was kind of in a
• 13:18
  similar situation where she's like, I feel really frustrated
• 13:20
  when every single person comes through with an injection.
• 13:22
  You always preach, Ashley, if you make really good content,
• 13:25
  the people come to you ready to buy.
• 13:26
  I'm like, well, yes, there's an element of that for sure.
• 13:30
  But that doesn't mean that people are like, I don't care
• 13:32
  your price .50 K, let me sign a check today.
• 13:34
  Like that's just not what happens.
• 13:36
  It's the same thing when you go into an interview, when people
• 13:39
  are asking you questions. It's not just about the fact
• 13:41
  that you can't answer them. It's the way that you process
• 13:43
  through information. It's the way that you navigate
• 13:45
  problems. And I think when you are in a
• 13:47
  sales process with someone and you take the time to understand
• 13:51
  them, which a lot of people don't do, and then you also can
• 13:54
  navigate them on why this is the right fit and how you're going
• 13:57
  to solve their problem. It creates so much more trust in
• 14:00
  the beginning. And I had someone who was
• 14:02
  talking to me the other day and said, when I used to buy,
• 14:05
  someone would say, hey, like, are you interested?
• 14:07
  Awesome. Here's the link.
• 14:08
  Here's the not when you come into a situation where someone
• 14:11
  actually understands like what you're helping them with, how
• 14:13
  you're going to help them, what their biggest priorities are and
• 14:16
  you do that in the sales process, the actual experience
• 14:18
  of working with them is totally amplified.
• 14:21
  And when people, and one of my big things in business right now
• 14:23
  is retention over acquisition. And so if the sales process is
• 14:28
  not strong, if you don't have that relationship of hey, things
• 14:32
  aren't always going to be right. You're not always going to be
• 14:33
  coming to me totally confident. If you don't create that
• 14:36
  relationship in the sales process, your actual experience
• 14:39
  of working with them is going to be fucked.
• 14:40
  And then on top of that, the ability to ever retain that
• 14:43
  client long term when you can't spend those first 20-30 minutes
• 14:48
  really making sure that they're a right fit and that you've
• 14:50
  established that you guys can tackle like decisions or
• 14:54
  questions or hesitations together.
• 14:56
  Like I don't, I just don't feel like that's the right way to
• 14:59
  approach business. So I am very much an objection
• 15:01
  handling person. I do think there is a spectrum.
• 15:04
  I do think that it can be done in a very effective way or a
• 15:07
  very kind of gross way. But if you can learn that it's a
• 15:11
  skill that will not only impact the relationship with the client
• 15:14
  and actually will completely elevate your ability to scale
• 15:17
  your business. Like you and I come from sales
• 15:19
  and I think we would both agree that a lot of the reason to be
• 15:21
  scaled as quickly as we did is because we have sales skills
• 15:24
  like. 1000% I think it was the, the number one scale that
• 15:27
  allowed me in the first like 12 months to, to see anything.
• 15:30
  Cuz other than that I was just like throwing stuff out a wall.
• 15:32
  There's the fact that if I got someone on the phone or in the
• 15:35
  DMS, I was like, OK, cool. Like here we go.
• 15:36
  Because I knew that as soon as like someone would team me up, I
• 15:40
  would be set to go. And I think just something I was
• 15:42
  thinking of, as you were saying that is like, I think of
• 15:44
  objection handling as like the first opportunity to fight for
• 15:47
  your client. Because like when they come to
• 15:49
  you, they're telling you what they want and they're telling
• 15:52
  you, I want this outcome. And you're like, OK, I hear you.
• 15:55
  You're telling me this is your goal.
• 15:56
  And then they're like, oh, hey, coach, I'm facing resistance and
• 15:59
  I'm like, Oh well, have fun. Let me know when you're done
• 16:03
  with it. Like this is the first
• 16:04
  opportunity that I have as someone that I'm going to
• 16:08
  support to challenge them to their next level of growth.
• 16:11
  And at the first opportunity that I have it, I'm saying, no,
• 16:14
  I'm going to let you fall into your old mindset, your old
• 16:16
  patterns, your own behaviors. And my whole thing too is I
• 16:19
  don't even care if it's with me. Like even if I'm going to
• 16:20
  objection handle you and you go to somebody else, just make the
• 16:24
  it's not about it being with me. It's about the fact that people
• 16:27
  are overcoming whatever the resistance is of like, I don't
• 16:30
  have time right now is not the time.
• 16:31
  I'm going to wait. You know, all of all of the
• 16:33
  resistances that they have. OK, this one, this, this one's
• 16:37
  going to be this is going to be good.
• 16:39
  OK, I know, I know. This is I'm excited to get my
• 16:42
  hands into this one. OK, High ticket or low ticket?
• 16:48
  I took it easy, but I want to explain why there's a disclaimer
• 16:52
  for every answer we have, just like.
• 16:54
  At the bottom of the episode just notes after every question.
• 16:58
  Disclaimer, we're going to put Ashleys question and then she'll
• 17:01
  talk for 20 minutes. But no, I am actually very
• 17:04
  adamant about this one. Now I will say, and I'm more
• 17:08
  adamant about starting high ticket than necessarily you have
• 17:10
  to maintain high ticket because when you start, you just
• 17:13
  typically do not have an audience.
• 17:15
  You typically are needing to trade more time for money like
• 17:18
  with one-on-one or something else.
• 17:20
  So if you can start with high ticket, that builds the most
• 17:22
  momentum in the earlier stages of business.
• 17:24
  I'm like so adamant about this. God, I'm like Jack now about
• 17:27
  this topic, but it builds you that momentum like if you can
• 17:30
  start with something high ticket and you can really have that
• 17:33
  relationship with someone, you're going to learn your
• 17:35
  frameworks quicker, you're going to learn your processes quicker.
• 17:37
  You're going to be able to be more agile because you're
• 17:39
  working one-on-one. You can pivot the service at any
• 17:42
  time. You can pivot like what you're
• 17:43
  doing at any time. You kind of have the most
• 17:45
  control and the beginning part of business.
• 17:47
  One of my biggest frustrations with online business owners is
• 17:50
  that they try to add structure before momentum.
• 17:53
  So they add in the website, they add in all the offers, they add
• 17:56
  in all the different platforms and then they have no momentum.
• 17:59
  And then they have this whole garden.
• 18:00
  I always use this like garden example of all these trees of
• 18:03
  all these things in their business that they have to water
• 18:05
  every day and take care of it, make sure the sunlight's on it.
• 18:07
  It creates exhaustion and burnout from the business owner
• 18:10
  from day one. So if you can keep everything
• 18:12
  really simple to high ticket kind of one-on-one offer in the
• 18:15
  beginning, get the momentum there, then you can expand.
• 18:20
  And then at that point you probably have more of an
• 18:22
  audience and we're more clarity on round.
• 18:24
  Low ticket offers are typically typically a lot of times more
• 18:27
  passive or they solve more micro problems.
• 18:30
  You have so much more clarity then you can really, I think
• 18:33
  take off from a like low ticket perspective.
• 18:35
  I don't think that's 100% always the case, but I think 95% or
• 18:39
  more you don't start off with an audience.
• 18:41
  You don't always start off with clarity about exactly what
• 18:43
  you're doing or how you're doing it.
• 18:45
  So the more like agility, the more ability to just create new
• 18:49
  processes or pivot when you need to.
• 18:51
  I think high ticket, 1 to one is usually the easiest way to
• 18:54
  start. So I'm team high ticket.
• 18:56
  I also think it's easier to sell.
• 18:58
  And personally, I like working with clients.
• 19:01
  Shocker to everyone out there. I like working with clients.
• 19:04
  And so I would rather have something high ticket where I
• 19:06
  can really invest my time with someone than just be like, yeah,
• 19:10
  I have 20 like low ticket sales every day.
• 19:11
  That just doesn't excite me the same way.
• 19:13
  Maybe that's crazy, but I'm like I'm team high ticket.
• 19:17
  Whatever you're into, girl, whatever you're into, whatever
• 19:19
  floats your boat. I mean, I, I mean you, you know
• 19:22
  my answer. I am definitely.
• 19:24
  I live, sleep and breathe high ticket.
• 19:26
  Like I think for me, there's this I, I like what you said,
• 19:30
  which is kind of what I was thinking as you were noting it
• 19:32
  is like, I think low ticket is width and I think high ticket is
• 19:34
  depth. Like I think for me, that's why
• 19:37
  I like playing in the high ticket bucket 'cause I think
• 19:38
  some people associate the fact that I do high ticket because
• 19:41
  like, oh, she just wants to make lots of money.
• 19:43
  Which like, I mean, not, not entirely wrong, not entirely
• 19:46
  wrong. But I also will say when it
• 19:48
  comes to high ticket, to me, the high ticket is about the fact
• 19:53
  that like I know when someone invests big, I get to go big and
• 19:56
  deep into what we're doing together and our work together.
• 19:59
  And I've always struggled with low ticket, not because I don't
• 20:03
  enjoy selling it or let me any of the things associated with
• 20:05
  it. Like it's fine.
• 20:07
  I just always struggle with like I would get if I had a, a
• 20:09
  course, for example, I would struggle because I would get on
• 20:13
  a hot seat and I'd be like, OK, let's get behind the scenes of
• 20:15
  your business. Like Ashley and I, you guys were
• 20:17
  behind the scenes riff about this all the time.
• 20:18
  Like I remember Ashley being like, I just want to get in
• 20:20
  these people's businesses. I just want to go and just go
• 20:23
  behind the curtain and fix things because we're so like
• 20:25
  invested and deep into wanting to get into into the weeds with
• 20:29
  people because we know that that's where the biggest change
• 20:31
  or transformation happens. And so I think for myself,
• 20:35
  that's why I really resonate with high ticket because I know
• 20:37
  as soon as someone invests high ticket, I have almost like this
• 20:39
  permission slip to be able to go and do that.
• 20:42
  But I also think that, you know, I agree 100%.
• 20:45
  I think everyone should be starting with high ticket in
• 20:46
  some way, shape or form. I see people all the time right
• 20:49
  now trying to start with a course or start with membership.
• 20:51
  And you can, but it's extremely difficult because you don't have
• 20:54
  enough cash flow coming into the business to really sustain you
• 20:57
  and kind of get you up and running.
• 20:58
  And I think that, you know, when it comes to low ticket, whether
• 21:02
  it be membership far as low ticket passive offers, I think
• 21:06
  it's also really asking yourself like, is it what the space is
• 21:09
  doing or is it what you want? And if it's something that you
• 21:11
  want, then like absolutely go and pursue it.
• 21:13
  Like I have peers that their entire business is passive.
• 21:15
  They've never done a high ticket thing ever.
• 21:17
  But. I think it's because it's their
• 21:20
  vision, like they don't desire to talk to a soul.
• 21:23
  They don't want to have a single Slack message come in.
• 21:25
  They don't want to have a single Zoom call.
• 21:26
  Like they have built the vision and the business around the fact
• 21:30
  that that's what they value. And so I think also too, if
• 21:33
  you're going into low ticket and you're going to, you know, do
• 21:36
  more of a passive type structure, I think it should
• 21:39
  also be not just from like, oh, this is going to bring me in
• 21:41
  cash or this is going to bring me in money passively in my
• 21:44
  sleep. Yes, OK.
• 21:45
  But like, is that the kind of business you want to build?
• 21:47
  Because you obviously know building passive and you know,
• 21:52
  I'm sure people are thinking how is it easier to sell high ticket
• 21:55
  than it is low ticket, which it's so much easier for me to
• 21:59
  sell $90.00 offerings, like literally $90.00 versus 90,000.
• 22:05
  It is easier for me to sell a $90,000 package than it is for a
• 22:07
  $90.00 offer. Yeah, yeah, all the time, all
• 22:12
  the time. People, I think when people do
• 22:14
  low ticket it, I mean, I hear it a lot, but they're like, oh, if
• 22:18
  I just it's no, I I swear to God, this is my pet peeve.
• 22:21
  Please document this in the notes below this.
• 22:23
  Like I'm going to create the no brainer offer.
• 22:26
  I think everyone out there right now is like I'm desperate for
• 22:28
  sales or like I want sales. So like I'm just going to create
• 22:30
  a no brainer. And their immediate thing is
• 22:32
  super low ticket with like obnoxious amount of value and
• 22:36
  then no one buys it. They're like they don't
• 22:37
  understand. They're like, because the
• 22:38
  pricing and the value don't make sense.
• 22:40
  There was a perceived belief around certain pricing and when
• 22:45
  you charge a very low amount for something but try to over
• 22:48
  deliver in IT, people either think that you don't know how to
• 22:51
  price, they think that it's actually not that valuable.
• 22:53
  They think that you're in 1/2 asset.
• 22:55
  They think it can't really create a lot of momentum or
• 22:57
  impact in their business or life or whatever you're supporting
• 23:00
  them on. There's just that perception.
• 23:02
  And so when I talk about high ticket, there's just that belief
• 23:06
  and hopefully obviously the execution of my end, that
• 23:08
  there's going to be a massive amount of impact that's created
• 23:11
  from that offer. So I think a lot of times people
• 23:13
  are like, I'm just going to create a no brainer low ticket
• 23:16
  offer and I'm like, good fucking luck.
• 23:18
  There is, I think that no brainer offering, but that
• 23:21
  doesn't mean it has to be low ticket.
• 23:22
  And so I think people are defaulting to low ticket and
• 23:25
  passive because they're like, it's the easiest way to make
• 23:28
  money. I'm just going to get people to
• 23:29
  want to spend money with me. And it's, it's a lot harder to
• 23:34
  do it that way. You can do it, but you have to
• 23:36
  have a massive audience and a lot of trust with your audience
• 23:38
  or there's just going to be a lot of resistance.
• 23:40
  And you're also usually going to be calling in because you're
• 23:42
  trying to promote this like easy, it's only 97 if this is
• 23:46
  energy is around the price. And it feels like a very
• 23:49
  transactional relationship. And it is much harder to sell
• 23:53
  any transactional relationship than a real like relationship
• 23:56
  built with trust where someone's willing to invest in you and
• 23:58
  they're also willing to invest in you long term versus like a
• 24:01
  master class or a course or something low ticket.
• 24:03
  So it can be done, but it has to be done with intention and also
• 24:06
  has to be done usually with some type of audience and with a
• 24:09
  really good understanding of what your transformations are
• 24:13
  within your offers or they're just going to fall flat.
• 24:16
  Well, this is actually a good segue to the next one, which is
• 24:19
  course or membership and why? Well, it depends on what the
• 24:24
  solution is. I don't think that there's
• 24:26
  always a, you know, one-size-fits-all.
• 24:28
  What's nice about a course is you can sell higher tickets.
• 24:31
  So as being in high ticket, I think that there is a win with a
• 24:34
  course. And I think if the course is
• 24:37
  designed to take you from point A to point B, that that's the
• 24:39
  right fit. I will say as someone who's
• 24:42
  launched a membership this year after last year being like
• 24:44
  memberships are the devil. I hated memberships because I
• 24:48
  think you and I've talked about this, they've just become this
• 24:50
  graveyard of bullshit. It's like, let the coaches take
• 24:54
  their best trainings and random ass shit and puts it into a
• 24:57
  membership and they're like so much value.
• 24:59
  And then there's no way to navigate the information.
• 25:01
  People come in, four months later, they cancel.
• 25:04
  For me, the reason that we created a membership was because
• 25:07
  my plan was to basically teach it or train in it as if it was
• 25:12
  kind of a mini mastermind. I mean, I mean, they're coaching
• 25:15
  every single day. It's all around a very specific
• 25:17
  problem. And the reason it works as a
• 25:19
  membership because it's all around social media and content
• 25:22
  is because it's an evolving problem.
• 25:24
  So if you have an area of your business where people are
• 25:27
  looking for consistent support, but you're not necessarily in a
• 25:30
  position to be in the weeds of the business or again, if it's
• 25:32
  not a business related membership, their personal life
• 25:35
  or their relationship, whatever kind of transformation you're
• 25:37
  supporting, then membership I think overall I would say is the
• 25:41
  solution. But I think that there is a
• 25:43
  place for courses if it works well into your product suite and
• 25:47
  maybe there needs to be kind of that passive offering that the
• 25:50
  client can experience. I'll give you an example is like
• 25:53
  a new business program. When people are starting a
• 25:55
  business, they don't always have the time to be on mastermind
• 25:58
  calls or on, you know, coaching calls or in Slack every single
• 26:02
  day. And so a lot of my revenue in my
• 26:05
  first year of business was from a new business course, which
• 26:07
  allowed the client to come in experience what they need to out
• 26:10
  of pace. That made sense for them get
• 26:12
  kind of their like bearings, if you will, to then move into
• 26:16
  something. And that worked exceptionally
• 26:17
  well. That would have never worked as
• 26:18
  a membership because two months and people be like, I don't have
• 26:21
  the time and they need that commitment of like I already
• 26:23
  invested in this. So I think it really does
• 26:25
  depend. But if you're looking for
• 26:27
  longevity in your business and you already are selling a lot of
• 26:30
  high ticket, I think a low ticket membership or a mid
• 26:33
  ticket membership long term, I think could be like a game
• 26:37
  changer. So we'll go with membership.
• 26:39
  Although disclaimer, as always, it depends.
• 26:41
  Technically she accepts both you guys technically, she said so I
• 26:45
  think, you know, I think courses.
• 26:48
  I mean, I have a whole, I feel like it's a whole other episode
• 26:50
  between us, but I feel like I have a like a bone to pick with
• 26:52
  passive typically like, like you said, like when it comes like
• 26:55
  the graveyard of videos, because I think a course made well, in a
• 26:59
  sense of like a course that's created effectively.
• 27:01
  And I've seen this from some peers.
• 27:03
  I've been behind the curtain of their businesses and I'm like,
• 27:04
  OK, wow, look, I this if you pay $2000.00 for this, this probably
• 27:07
  should have been $20,000 because the course was so well built
• 27:09
  out. And so I think courses that are
• 27:12
  really intentional, that really give you in the way they're
• 27:15
  structured, like tactical step by step of how to get the
• 27:17
  outcome because you don't have support in them, I think is
• 27:20
  great because that's certain things that you're doing.
• 27:22
  Let's just say like, I'm someone who's like new to YouTube and I
• 27:25
  want to learn YouTube. Well, maybe I don't want to hire
• 27:27
  a YouTube coach, but I do want to learn YouTube in some way.
• 27:29
  And so it's like great, like from start to finish, if you
• 27:31
  don't know YouTube, by the end of this, you'll have it mastered
• 27:34
  and you'll be able to do XYZ. Great.
• 27:35
  Like that makes sense as a course.
• 27:37
  I think the thing with a membership is that a lot of
• 27:39
  people, I think, which is where they miss the mark is they think
• 27:42
  it's a set it and forget it, which is like, I made these
• 27:44
  videos. I have this community and it
• 27:47
  just sits there. People buy each month and videos
• 27:49
  sit there and basically like they, they show their face for a
• 27:53
  moment and that's that. And I was talking to another
• 27:55
  peer about this because we were saying, like, you know,
• 27:57
  memberships, it's unfortunate, are getting a bad rap because
• 28:00
  it's just so many of them are facilitated so poorly.
• 28:03
  And so then basically people think when they're investing
• 28:05
  into them that they're all facilitated that way when really
• 28:08
  there's so a dime a dozen that people have this bad taste in
• 28:11
  their mouth when really there's so many.
• 28:13
  I even know like yours and I have other clients that I've
• 28:16
  been in the membership and I'm like, whoa, like as you said,
• 28:18
  like this is 10X the value of what you're charging, no
• 28:20
  question. And yet people are like, oh, I
• 28:23
  don't know if I should. So I think when it comes to
• 28:26
  memberships, I think memberships are smarter model because I do
• 28:30
  think that it builds monthly recurring revenue for you.
• 28:33
  It's not necessarily a one time sale in the sense of like you're
• 28:36
  selling it for a one time 997. The thing with memberships as
• 28:39
  well is that they are kind of like an evolving thing.
• 28:42
  Like if you're tuning in with your audience and you're seeing
• 28:44
  if they need something or you're seeing something happen, the
• 28:46
  questions they're asking, like that's an opportunity for you to
• 28:48
  evolve the offer around that. And I also think the aspect of
• 28:52
  community is such much more of an emphasis, which I think
• 28:55
  especially right now, I think courses had their moment because
• 28:57
  it was so information heavy in the sense of like it was all
• 29:00
  just about who can teach me, who can teach me.
• 29:03
  But then with AI and what there's just being frankly so
• 29:05
  much good high quality content that's available for free.
• 29:08
  The leverage point when you're creating something no longer
• 29:11
  became about the information only.
• 29:13
  And so I think a membership to me is a great model that allows
• 29:17
  people to blend information, which they're still technically
• 29:19
  looking for, but also paired with the community aspects.
• 29:22
  So like look like, I'll be really honest, I have clients
• 29:25
  that have courses and like courses still sell.
• 29:27
  Like there's nothing wrong with a course.
• 29:29
  I just think that the membership model has a lot of benefits to
• 29:35
  it that I think long term really lend themselves nicely to a
• 29:39
  business. Because the other thing I'm also
• 29:41
  conscious of is if you create a course, does the course have
• 29:43
  longevity? So for example, if I'm going to
• 29:46
  create, let's just say someone made like a like an Instagram
• 29:49
  course, well, guess what, that Instagram course is definitely
• 29:51
  outdated basically every single six months because it means that
• 29:54
  it's very niche specific and it's also trend specific.
• 29:56
  So I think also if you are making a course, being very
• 29:59
  conscious of what that topic is, because depending on if that has
• 30:02
  longevity, it's going to mean it basically gets becomes like, you
• 30:05
  know, removed in two to five years and becomes relevant.
• 30:09
  And I do think, you know, I was talking to a peer about this.
• 30:12
  The. Passive area is going to take a
• 30:14
  little bit, I would say of a hit or a little bit of more work
• 30:18
  from people to stand out because there's so much of it available
• 30:22
  that the real difference maker, frankly.
• 30:25
  And which is why I love like the support that you offer inside of
• 30:27
  yours and like the way that it's not just a graveyard of
• 30:29
  resources. The thing that's going to
• 30:31
  differentiate any passive offer course or membership is really
• 30:34
  the results that happen inside and the community and the
• 30:36
  connection that's created, IE do people feel like it fills them
• 30:39
  up once they leave that container?
• 30:41
  And I think that that's the difference maker, because
• 30:42
  otherwise it's just another login that ends up sitting in
• 30:44
  their e-mail. One 1000% my best tips for
• 30:48
  membership and my best tips for course membership, treat it like
• 30:51
  a mastermind. It's not because it's probably
• 30:53
  on like a micro part of your business, but like I am in my
• 30:56
  membership as much as my mastermind, but also because I
• 30:58
  see this as a long term solution for my business.
• 31:01
  Like I know that that's not going to be our biggest income
• 31:03
  generator or revenue generator this year, but my vision is what
• 31:08
  that is going to be in two years.
• 31:09
  So I'm focused on the two year vision for that program.
• 31:12
  And then my best tip for courses, I've done this for
• 31:14
  every course I've ever done is I typically run them live like a
• 31:18
  program live. Now some people are going to be
• 31:19
  like, I don't want to do that. That's the whole point.
• 31:21
  I'm doing a course, but I run them live.
• 31:22
  I work through the like the tweaks with the clients live.
• 31:25
  Then I just package up the live calls.
• 31:27
  And then the other thing I do is when I am running the course,
• 31:30
  it's set up by week by week. So even though they can spend as
• 31:33
  much time in the courses they want, when I used to run
• 31:35
  courses, it was a six week course.
• 31:38
  So they had specific expectations every week of what
• 31:41
  they need is completed versus like I just have 50, you know,
• 31:44
  different trainings that I need to navigate through.
• 31:47
  And our completion rate for our course was over 85%, which most
• 31:50
  people know the average course has like a 1015% completion
• 31:55
  rate. So the fact that we had nearly
• 31:57
  90% completion on a passive offer where there was no
• 32:02
  support, there was no guidance, there's no anything else was
• 32:04
  really impressive. And one of the biggest pieces of
• 32:06
  feedback is when the clients came in, they knew what their
• 32:09
  goals were that week and then they basically scheduled six
• 32:12
  weeks of like 2 hours of time and then they completed it.
• 32:15
  So make sure that the completion portion or the way that the
• 32:19
  setup is for the course is really intentional.
• 32:21
  And then your memberships, yeah, you have to treat them kind of
• 32:23
  like they're a high ticket offering.
• 32:25
  Because when people are experiencing that, the way that
• 32:28
  they then move up to your high ticket offers, the way that then
• 32:30
  they stay within that program, that's going to be amplified
• 32:33
  too. So if you do those things
• 32:34
  exceptionally well, they can both work, just kind of
• 32:36
  depending on what your goal is for the business.
• 32:38
  Well, you just hit on it, which is gonna naturally lead into,
• 32:41
  it's just so beautifully leading into each other.
• 32:43
  It's actually quite awesome. I'm just like, look at she,
• 32:45
  she's on fire, you guys. She's on fire.
• 32:48
  Delegating delivery. So should someone delegate and
• 32:52
  remove themselves from delivery, or do you feel that as people
• 32:55
  scale, they should always in some way, shape or form be
• 32:57
  inside their delivery? And by the way, just.
• 33:02
  For context for anyone listening, what I mean by
• 33:03
  delivery is basically like if you have a service, if you have
• 33:08
  a coaching offer, if you have a program that you should be
• 33:12
  involved in it in some way that you shouldn't basically be
• 33:15
  entirely removed and only seen in videos.
• 33:17
  So curiosity being, should you as you scale be in delivery or
• 33:21
  do you feel that as you scale it's required to delegate
• 33:24
  delivery? I think there is an element of
• 33:26
  delegation. I think people delegate way too
• 33:28
  early, which I know is probably, you might actually disagree with
• 33:31
  me on this one, But I think people again, they had so much
• 33:34
  structure when they're in momentum mode that they're like,
• 33:37
  let me add so much structure. I actually did this at the
• 33:39
  beginning of the year. Kate knows all about this.
• 33:41
  I felt like I needed a lot of pieces on like my little chess
• 33:45
  board in order to like really be able to succeed in scale.
• 33:49
  And for me, I actually felt like the things that I love most
• 33:53
  about the business, I was trying to delegate, which was not fun.
• 33:57
  And two, the number one feedback we got for my clients is like
• 34:00
  when we hire you, we want you. So for me, I was like, OK, the
• 34:03
  only things I want to focus on then is marketing and sales,
• 34:06
  which eventually maybe will outsource marketing because we
• 34:09
  are growing. But sales, I was like, I'm
• 34:11
  working with the client, I want to be in the sales process.
• 34:13
  And I had a lot of coaches tell me like, that's not the right
• 34:16
  way to do it. And the moment I listened to
• 34:17
  them, my business felt like I was going to fall flat.
• 34:19
  I was not Kate, by the way. But I think one of the things I
• 34:22
  really appreciate about Kate, she's like, you can do it if you
• 34:25
  want to on your own. There's going to be hurdles,
• 34:27
  there's going to be bottlenecks. And I think I'm finding some of
• 34:30
  those. But the best thing I ever did
• 34:32
  was stay in the delivery and really like optimize that.
• 34:36
  Again, I've been able to pivot quickly.
• 34:38
  I know my clients better, my relationships with my clients.
• 34:41
  So for me like I am very much like stay in the delivery.
• 34:44
  Now I think there are businesses though where the coaches in the
• 34:48
  delivery aspects that they shine in and as their business needs
• 34:53
  for the clients expand AK like team or maybe agency style or
• 34:58
  maybe they are looking to expand in the finance realm where maybe
• 35:01
  like you as the coach or again this is not just coaching, but
• 35:04
  any business where your kind of elements where you shine in are
• 35:08
  kind of like dried out and you need kind of that expansion
• 35:10
  piece that makes sense. Then I think to bring in
• 35:12
  additional pieces for delivery, which is, I know something you
• 35:15
  do and I know a lot of people do very well.
• 35:17
  So for me, that might be like our next phase of business.
• 35:21
  But we've done over 7 figures and we'll do over 7 figures this
• 35:23
  year on me being like marketing sales support for the business.
• 35:29
  And then I have a client relations specialist who handle
• 35:31
  like, you know, admin pieces or moving around calls or anything
• 35:34
  else. And we do it and I think we do
• 35:37
  it really well. So it can be done.
• 35:39
  You don't need to outsource. You don't need to basically take
• 35:41
  away all of your revenue in order to scale.
• 35:43
  I think people do that too quickly because they think
• 35:45
  that's the only way to do it when they just really need to
• 35:47
  change their delivery model. So that's my, that's my belief
• 35:51
  around that. That's like my I think.
• 35:54
  Like I think. Actually, like I think like
• 36:00
  being in delivery or delegating it, I kind of feel like I'm
• 36:04
  mixed bag on this because I do think it depends.
• 36:07
  I think it depends on the business too.
• 36:10
  I think for example, with service providers or to your
• 36:12
  note of agencies, I think a lot of agency owners stay in the
• 36:16
  weeds of the client delivery way too long.
• 36:18
  And they're like, I'm serving clients like I'm the one writing
• 36:21
  their captions or I'm the one overseeing and doing revisions
• 36:23
  for our team. And you know, I was just
• 36:25
  talking, talking to somebody last week and who has an agency
• 36:27
  and she was like, I'm the one who's doing feedback on
• 36:29
  everything. And I was like, OK, well, like
• 36:31
  you can't grow the agency if you're the one in all the
• 36:33
  accounts. Like especially as a service
• 36:35
  provider, I think it's super tricky.
• 36:39
  To. Have you in the delivery like I
• 36:41
  think that's something that it's just it becomes so non scalable
• 36:45
  so quickly in something more like a consulting type of frame.
• 36:48
  And I think this is also kind of going to brand too, because if
• 36:51
  you're selling yourself, you have to recognize that like
• 36:54
  you're putting yourself as the product.
• 36:56
  So then you basically need to ask yourself, well, how am I
• 36:58
  integrated as the product throughout it?
• 37:00
  And so the number one thing that I advise people is if you're not
• 37:04
  in the delivery, you need to market that.
• 37:06
  So like, I hate when I have people come to me and like, I
• 37:09
  felt like it was like a bait and switch.
• 37:10
  It's like, oh, go, you know, work with so and so.
• 37:13
  And then like you get in the offer and then you're like, I've
• 37:14
  never seen her before and I've never talked to her and she has
• 37:17
  no idea who I am. And so I think also there's that
• 37:19
  aspect of like brand, there's an aspect of marketing
• 37:22
  responsibility to make sure that if you are gonna be delegating
• 37:25
  to somebody on your team and you are gonna be having someone else
• 37:28
  manage the accounts that like that's something that you're
• 37:31
  also openly talking about and you're kind of like pre handling
• 37:34
  for people coming in. But I think it's inevitable to
• 37:37
  be able to scale a business like you're going to have to take
• 37:39
  things off of your plate. And I think to Ashley's point,
• 37:43
  something that we talk about is also recognizing is there
• 37:46
  certain parts of the business that you're wanting to stay into
• 37:50
  in a sense of like you're choosing because it actually
• 37:52
  fills you up as a CEO that you're choosing to stay in that
• 37:57
  area. Not because you're like, oh, I
• 37:59
  have to because the business needs it to scale, but because
• 38:01
  you're like, I genuinely enjoy it.
• 38:03
  And so I think that there is a way to leverage team in a way
• 38:09
  that allows you to also feel like the clients are being taken
• 38:11
  care of. They feel excited about it.
• 38:13
  You feel like you have a scalable role for yourself.
• 38:15
  Like I do think there's the best of both worlds.
• 38:17
  I do think it's less about if you delegate it, more a matter
• 38:20
  of how you delegate it. Because, for example, I had a
• 38:23
  peer who was talking about bringing in coaches into their
• 38:26
  program. And these were coaches, frankly,
• 38:29
  that should have never been working with clients.
• 38:30
  Like they had no, like they had no training in my opinion.
• 38:33
  Like there was really no credentials on their part.
• 38:36
  Like they were just like, take someone who's willing to sit in
• 38:38
  a seat on Zoom for 8 hours a day and we'll like hire somebody for
• 38:41
  that. And as long as they're willing
• 38:42
  to do that, we're good to go. And so I was saying, you know,
• 38:45
  when you're building at a team or when you're building out
• 38:46
  coaches, it's not something that you can do overnight.
• 38:50
  Like it's something that requires actually quite a bit,
• 38:52
  especially the coaching business side.
• 38:54
  And frankly, in an agency or service provider, it takes a lot
• 38:57
  of back end delivery structuring, IE like brain
• 39:00
  dumping, your principles and how you coach people brain dumping.
• 39:03
  SO PS of if this situation comes up, here's how we handle it.
• 39:06
  Like all of all of the things that you do to facilitate right
• 39:10
  now to effectively delegate your delivery, we basically have to
• 39:13
  start with documenting your brain and then taking that
• 39:16
  documentation, taking a Guinea pig, which is like your first
• 39:19
  hire and training them on your processes and your what you've
• 39:22
  documented and seeing does that work and you're kind of in it
• 39:25
  with them. Before you ever.
• 39:27
  Let them go out on their own. And that's what I think I see
• 39:29
  too much, which is why people have a bad rap about, you know,
• 39:32
  an agency. And I never got to talk to the
• 39:33
  person or a coaching program. I never got to talk to the
• 39:36
  person. The reason we have this have bad
• 39:38
  taste in our mouth is not because the model doesn't work,
• 39:40
  because I've seen people where they do put that time in and it
• 39:42
  works exceptionally well. It's because people are so quick
• 39:46
  to scale, like get it off my plate, get it off my plate, but
• 39:49
  they don't actually take the time to really look at what is
• 39:53
  the process that they're creating.
• 39:55
  And so the thing that I, I kind of use as an example when it
• 39:58
  comes to deliveries, like, you know, a scalable business can
• 40:00
  get to a place where it's like. Literally like a Starbucks, like
• 40:03
  every place and every Starbucks you go to, the drink is made the
• 40:05
  same way. And that's because it's really
• 40:06
  been baked down into a formula. It's been made into a step by
• 40:10
  step processor framework, But you have to have that framework.
• 40:14
  Otherwise what ends up happening, which is what many
• 40:16
  people experience, is you go to one location and it tastes
• 40:18
  different and you go to another location and it tastes
• 40:20
  different. And that's because they're
• 40:21
  making it differently every time you go.
• 40:23
  And so if you want to scale with delegating it and having the
• 40:26
  delegation not be something that impacts the business, I think it
• 40:29
  actually comes from documentation before you
• 40:31
  delegate it. And then again asking yourself
• 40:34
  what really fills your bucket. And for both of us, we would
• 40:36
  love to be in delivery because like it excites us in the sense
• 40:39
  of working with clients and getting into, as we said, the
• 40:41
  depth with people. So it's then asking yourself,
• 40:44
  OK, well, for the goals that I have and then what I have time
• 40:48
  wise, what can I allocate to kind of like get the best of
• 40:51
  both worlds. And obviously it's business to
• 40:52
  business, but I do think regardless, it all comes down to
• 40:56
  documentation and being able to really understand like what you
• 40:59
  want your role to be as ACEO within the business.
• 41:03
  Well, I've seen the documentation in your business.
• 41:06
  Why you do it very well, Kate, because it's very true.
• 41:08
  I remember one of the first times Kate and I ever like we're
• 41:10
  talking about like click up and her organization, like literally
• 41:13
  like Kate's brain. Every single piece of her brain
• 41:16
  is documented, every single piece of her brain, which is why
• 41:18
  her team knows every single thing that you're thinking,
• 41:21
  doing, working on. And again, I think it just goes
• 41:24
  back to the idea that a lot of people when they're getting to
• 41:26
  their business, to a certain place, they immediately think
• 41:29
  like, I'm burnt out, so I need support.
• 41:31
  But sometimes that's not necessarily what you need.
• 41:34
  You sometimes need to look at the delivery and figure out the
• 41:36
  gaps in the delivery for yourself before we're bringing
• 41:39
  someone in. And again, I think there are
• 41:42
  ways to bring in a team intentionally very early on, but
• 41:46
  I think so many people just think like eventually my
• 41:48
  business I have to have like an entire team running things.
• 41:50
  And outside of I think like typically an agency if you are
• 41:54
  all courses, if you are all coaching, I really personally
• 41:58
  believe you can be a one woman show and sail to $1,000,000.
• 42:00
  I've done it. It's possible.
• 42:02
  It's hard, but I do not think I would be the business owner I am
• 42:05
  today without doing that and really being in the weeds of my
• 42:08
  business. Like I know my business.
• 42:09
  I mean, I literally built my website 18 times.
• 42:11
  Like I know my business very well.
• 42:14
  And I'm really. Did that now bring in a team?
• 42:17
  I'm still equipped to do that the correct way.
• 42:19
  So it's all about the approach. I think like anything, there's
• 42:22
  no like one way or the other, but I think it can be done.
• 42:24
  And I want people to know that if you want to make $1,000,000
• 42:28
  and take home a majority of that because you're a one woman
• 42:30
  person, like you can absolutely do that if you want to.
• 42:32
  It's hard, but it's possible. I was gonna say it definitely is
• 42:36
  possible. I would say hitting my hitting
• 42:38
  my first million was not really any large aspect of like
• 42:42
  massive, massive team. Like I had Kelsey on our team,
• 42:45
  which shadow Kelis was a massive part of me hitting seven
• 42:48
  figures. But I think other than like the
• 42:50
  two of us, we were basically just like a dynamic duo and
• 42:52
  hitting seven figures. And then after that it then
• 42:54
  started to integrate team. So IA 1000% agree.
• 42:56
  I actually do think, I also want to preface just as Ashley did,
• 42:59
  like it's not easy, it's not easy.
• 43:00
  It's actually quite difficult in the sense of like not difficult,
• 43:03
  it's hard work. It's simple, but it's hard work.
• 43:06
  But it definitely is possible with a, with a smaller or a more
• 43:09
  lean team. And that actually again
• 43:12
  beautifully leads into our next one, which is.
• 43:15
  Not so good. Do you believe that someone
• 43:18
  needs a big team or a lean team in order to scale?
• 43:24
  Lean baby, lean, lean, lean. I'm a big personal.
• 43:28
  I'm a big personal and lean business.
• 43:30
  Like if you if you go to like anything by the blazer, I was
• 43:34
  just funny because we were talking about like, if you're
• 43:35
  going to scale, you have to make sure you're from a marketing
• 43:37
  standpoint. It's so funny that I'm like by
• 43:39
  the blazer, but I really am just me, but I'm very much like lean
• 43:42
  everything. I like to move quick and I go
• 43:46
  back to the silly example. I said it once on a coaching
• 43:48
  call and now it's like my entire business is this one fucking
• 43:51
  marketing thing where I'm like, if you have a big freaking, you
• 43:54
  know, outside you have this big garden, it's all these trees
• 43:57
  are, all these plants. Like the more you have to water,
• 43:59
  the more you have to like make sure the sunlight's perfectly
• 44:01
  hitting every plant. Like the more you have going on,
• 44:03
  the more gaps that can happen. The more plants are going to
• 44:06
  die. The more movement that you have
• 44:08
  to have every single morning you have to go here and here and
• 44:09
  here. I like to move quickly and the
• 44:13
  more shit that is in my way to move quickly I have found has
• 44:17
  just slowed me down in the business, made me more stressed.
• 44:20
  I feel like I've worked more. It's just not been the right
• 44:23
  path for me. And again, I think there's ways
• 44:26
  that you can do it, but I think especially even though
• 44:29
  $1,000,000 or 2 million or 3 million seems like a lot when
• 44:33
  you're thinking about big, big, big companies that are at 20-30
• 44:37
  million a year, it's like $1,000,000 isn't crazy,
• 44:40
  $2,000,000 isn't crazy. And if you can do that
• 44:43
  exceptionally well as a team of one or two with one or two
• 44:47
  signature offers, with one or two signature platforms, your
• 44:50
  ability to scale will be so much more intentional.
• 44:52
  So I'm always a very like one woman show.
• 44:56
  As long as you can keep things really lean, keep your offer
• 44:58
  sweet lean, keep your marketing platforms lean.
• 45:01
  I'm like lean girl all the way. Like all the way.
• 45:04
  I like these cake, but outside that we like.
• 45:08
  Lean. I'm very much that way.
• 45:11
  Like we're running a program next week called $1,000,000
• 45:13
  signature offer. Our signature like Mastermind
• 45:16
  has crossed over $1,000,000 of revenue and we'll do over
• 45:20
  $1,000,000 of revenue in the next 12 months on its own.
• 45:22
  And I personally believe that the more offers you have, the
• 45:25
  more marketing platforms that you have, the more team members
• 45:28
  you have. Again, when it's not intentional
• 45:30
  or not necessary, it just creates more bottlenecks early
• 45:33
  on. So the more you can keep things
• 45:35
  simplified and layer your approach to business, usually
• 45:38
  the more effectively you'll scale without wanting to burn
• 45:40
  your business to the ground every six months, which is
• 45:42
  usually a big issue with a lot of business owners.
• 45:44
  So yeah. Yeah.
• 45:46
  I, I think with the, the team side, like I, I do think an
• 45:48
  aspect of it for sure is vision like, which is why I think like
• 45:51
  understanding the vision of your business is so important.
• 45:53
  Because if you're somebody that is not excited by having a team,
• 45:57
  then like you need to build your business around the idea of
• 46:00
  having a lean team, which means you make decisions in accordance
• 46:02
  with that. And I think, you know, when it
• 46:04
  comes to team, and I know, I know you can even speak to this
• 46:07
  probably in your experience with clients and with your own
• 46:09
  business too. And and even for myself, I was
• 46:11
  here as well. I had this aspect I felt before
• 46:14
  team that I felt like I wasn't like legit if I was doing it on
• 46:18
  my own, like I had this like insecurity in a way of like
• 46:23
  feeling like I wasn't, I wasn't enough or I wasn't doing enough
• 46:27
  or something along that line, like I wasn't big enough if I
• 46:30
  was, if it was just me. And so I had this aspect of
• 46:33
  like, I've got to build this team because the team makes me
• 46:35
  or having people that like I pay connected to the business means
• 46:38
  like we're bigger and we're legit or whatever way you want
• 46:41
  to frame it. And, you know, I, I realized
• 46:44
  that there was times where I was kind of just like hiring, as you
• 46:47
  said even earlier with delegation, right?
• 46:49
  I was just hiring to be like, OK, like delegate this and
• 46:51
  delegate that and delegate this. But I wasn't really thinking
• 46:53
  about who the players were on the team.
• 46:56
  And then also what were the outcomes that those players were
• 46:58
  responsible for? And so one of the things that I
• 47:01
  realized was because I was just like delegate, delegate,
• 47:03
  delegate. I kept getting people on the
• 47:06
  team who were just really assigned to do a task.
• 47:09
  Like I was like, you do this and you do this and you do this.
• 47:12
  And so I think when I started to then change the perspective to
• 47:14
  say, OK, well, how do I have like a little NBA team, if you
• 47:18
  will, of people behind the scenes that have the ability to
• 47:21
  really be outcome driven, which means they have the ability to
• 47:24
  have fluidity and tasks. Like they can do a variety of
• 47:27
  tasks, but they really are somebody that can take
• 47:28
  responsibility for an outcome. How do I have that?
• 47:32
  How do I start to build around that so I'm able to then have
• 47:34
  less people, but actually able to achieve more?
• 47:37
  And IA 1000% agree with you that I think people really
• 47:41
  underestimate how many team members you need to get to a
• 47:44
  certain mark. If you want to get to a three or
• 47:45
  a $5,000,000 business, you don't need to have a team of 15 in
• 47:48
  order to do that. The only instance where I could
• 47:51
  see that somebody is going to need more team, which again, is
• 47:55
  why I think it's important for us to understand vision is
• 47:57
  something like an agency. Because if someone has a done
• 48:00
  for you service and let's just say that you're a social media
• 48:02
  agency and you have to write captions for people and you have
• 48:04
  to do the design for people and the video editing for people.
• 48:07
  There is a general like one O 1 of an aspect of X amount of
• 48:10
  hours that's needed to execute. And so you're like, OK, well, we
• 48:13
  have this many hours. It needs to be fulfilled by
• 48:14
  somebody, which is true. But there's also other offers
• 48:17
  that you can add to an agency that are not connected to hiring
• 48:22
  more people and not connected to having to build an even bigger
• 48:25
  team, which again, always goes back to vision.
• 48:27
  And so I think, you know, the idea that you can just never
• 48:32
  have a team is an option. But all of this still comes down
• 48:36
  to big or small team is totally dependent on vision and what
• 48:38
  you're creating. And so I think asking yourself,
• 48:41
  even when you're making a vision, do you like to manage
• 48:44
  people? Do you like to lead and, and
• 48:46
  guide and motivate people? Like is that something that you
• 48:50
  feel excited about? Is that something that you're
• 48:52
  like, if I had 10 people on your team meeting every week, is that
• 48:55
  something that like gets you excited?
• 48:57
  Are you like, Oh my God, I'm pulling my hair out and I will,
• 48:59
  you know, I'm sure Ashley can speak to this as well.
• 49:00
  I've had many clients and peers who've gone through this thing
• 49:05
  where they didn't have a team and then they brought on teams
• 49:08
  like this is we're ready. Part of my language, we're ready
• 49:10
  to fucking scale, right? So like, OK, like I'm gonna
• 49:12
  bring on a team. Let's hit the ground fucking
• 49:13
  running. And then they go and then
• 49:16
  they're like, Nope. And they go back.
• 49:18
  And so even for myself, I had this like, I had a lot more
• 49:21
  people on team than I do now. I basically went super wide.
• 49:25
  And then I was like, Nope. And I went back and I made it
• 49:27
  even more lean because truth at least.
• 49:29
  And I feel like we're basically the same wired personality.
• 49:32
  I had to try it. I had to to try it and I had to
• 49:35
  taste it and I had to be able to know in my brain that I went for
• 49:39
  it. I didn't like it.
• 49:40
  And therefore I'm going back to making it lean because people
• 49:43
  being like, no, you can do it lean, you can do it lean.
• 49:45
  I'm like, but I want to see what it's like.
• 49:47
  Like it feels fun. It feels like it could be like
• 49:48
  that's the vision I want. And it was only once I tasted it
• 49:51
  that I can close that chapter now and be like, no lean team,
• 49:54
  less people, but more high outcomes, more high performing
• 49:57
  of the players that we have. Yeah, it sounds fun.
• 50:00
  And then you want to cry every single day, which was me about a
• 50:03
  year ago. Kate's talking about me, you
• 50:05
  guys. She's being really nice.
• 50:06
  I've had. No, I have other It's not just
• 50:09
  Ashley. I have other peeps.
• 50:10
  I have other peeps. It's not it's definitely not me
• 50:12
  because I've had clients the same way.
• 50:13
  I know you and I've talked about that because I think one of the
• 50:16
  things you said that really like resonated me with it was one of
• 50:18
  those like call out moments was like, fuck, I did.
• 50:20
  That was when you talked about like this legitimacy of when you
• 50:23
  have a team. Like I remember going to my
• 50:25
  website and it was like the about me page.
• 50:27
  I was like, I wanted to say about us, I want there to be
• 50:30
  some people underneath me. I want it to look like I'm this
• 50:34
  business because especially in this like online world, I came
• 50:37
  from big companies. I worked for Target, I've worked
• 50:39
  for Amazon, I've worked for Disney.
• 50:41
  I don't know if any of those sound familiar, but like big,
• 50:43
  big, big companies. And then I'm starting this
• 50:46
  online business and people kind of did this.
• 50:48
  Oh, that's cool. You're like making money online
• 50:50
  or influencer or whatever. And I think I got to this point
• 50:53
  where I was like, no, if I like have by the blazer with like
• 50:56
  this team and all these pieces like I, I look like I'm
• 51:00
  important. I look like I have a legitimate
• 51:02
  business. And I realized that a lot of my
• 51:04
  actions, and I think we all fall victim to this.
• 51:06
  A lot of my actions of decisions in the business last year, once
• 51:10
  I was like hitting seven figures.
• 51:12
  I mean, like I want people to take me seriously or want to
• 51:15
  start competing at this new level.
• 51:16
  A lot of that was what I thought other people would validate me
• 51:20
  with. Like you have a team now or you
• 51:21
  have these other pieces or you have more offers or I literally
• 51:25
  changed from more coaching to being like I'm going to be a
• 51:28
  firm. And I was like I'm going to do
• 51:29
  done for you stuff. And Kate's like OK, she might be
• 51:34
  a little crazy. And I hired like 5 people now.
• 51:37
  I didn't hire them all full time, but I hired my best friend
• 51:39
  in an OPS team at the time and I was like, hey, many Co coaches
• 51:42
  and like four months and I'm like this, it isn't fun anymore.
• 51:46
  I don't even like what my business is doing.
• 51:48
  And I literally pivoted massively my business three
• 51:51
  times this year. We went to a massive firm, then
• 51:53
  we changed all of our offerings and then I literally got rid of
• 51:55
  half of my offerings about four weeks ago.
• 51:57
  And for the first time I'm like, I don't care if anyone thinks
• 52:00
  I'm legitimate or not. Like I'm staying tried and true
• 52:04
  to the things that I want. And for me until I hit this
• 52:07
  point of like, I'm feeling like I'm burned out and I want other
• 52:09
  people like hands in the pot. I'm really happy with how I'm
• 52:12
  doing it. I like that I have one massive
• 52:15
  signature mastermind. I like that I you know, I'm in
• 52:18
  the weeds with my clients. I like that I don't feel so
• 52:20
  stiff on like these client deliverables of like this is
• 52:23
  what this offer has in this offer.
• 52:24
  And I can't put like I just felt so restricted and when I added a
• 52:28
  team earlier than I needed or because I thought other people
• 52:31
  wanted that of me, it made me feel like I was in this box and
• 52:35
  I genuinely like hated my business.
• 52:36
  I overthought everything. I was exhausted.
• 52:38
  I was tracking shit that I didn't need to be.
• 52:40
  It was just like a mess. And so I think we put value on
• 52:45
  our businesses based on how other people perceive them at
• 52:49
  the end of the day, like if my business falls to the wayside
• 52:52
  and it fails, I want to be like, I got there, not other people's
• 52:55
  belief of what my worthy wist was because I had a team or not
• 52:58
  was the reason I got there. And so I think there was a
• 53:00
  little bit of the imposter syndrome and also just a piece
• 53:03
  of, yeah, like I wanted to test it.
• 53:04
  I wanted to feel like I was putting things in place because
• 53:07
  that made me feel like I had the structure that I wanted when
• 53:11
  really actually not having structure and having a little
• 53:13
  bit of for that flexibility to kind of pivot what I wanted.
• 53:16
  That was my gift all along. So I kind of got rid of what my
• 53:18
  special sauce was to validate what I thought people wanted of
• 53:22
  me or what was like the next step.
• 53:24
  And I was not, I was not even like remotely wanting that.
• 53:27
  So sometimes you have to test it to realize like what you really
• 53:29
  want. But if your gut is not leaning
• 53:31
  in that direction, don't feel like that's like a step you have
• 53:33
  to take, because a lot of times you're going to probably pull
• 53:36
  back from that if it's not something that you're actually
• 53:39
  really wanting to implement. Well, and I think it just goes
• 53:41
  back to the whole principle, right, of the idea that like
• 53:43
  scaling can be simple. I think a lot of the times
• 53:45
  people complicate it because things being complicated makes
• 53:49
  us feel this aspect of achievement.
• 53:52
  Like when we make the business really complicated and tracking
• 53:55
  and data and systems and team and offerings, we're like, look
• 53:58
  at how complicated my business is and I'm growing it like good
• 54:01
  for me. And I'm like, but what if you
• 54:03
  could also have like one offer and one VA and you could go to
• 54:06
  like $2,000,000? Like what about that?
• 54:08
  Would that excite you? And so I think sometimes there's
• 54:11
  like almost this indirect like dopamine hit that comes with
• 54:15
  making the business so complicated.
• 54:17
  This aspect of like the badge of honor of like, I made it so
• 54:20
  difficult. Look at all the hard things I'm
• 54:22
  doing. And I'm like, OK, like what's
• 54:25
  That's a separate mindset call. But other than that, it's really
• 54:27
  looking at how can we rewrite what it looks like to scale.
• 54:31
  And I don't think that necessarily making it more
• 54:33
  complicated or frankly, when I see team, it's not always a sign
• 54:36
  now of achievement to me. I'm like, OK, so great.
• 54:39
  What I see is you have a lot of cost.
• 54:41
  Let's talk about what the business looks like.
• 54:43
  That's what I see now because people think like, as you were
• 54:45
  talking with the about me page, right?
• 54:47
  I've heard that so many times people say like, I want to have
• 54:49
  my team featured on there, my team in my videos, my team in
• 54:52
  my, my marketing, because there's this aspect of like, I
• 54:55
  wanna be quote UN quote legit. And I'm like, great.
• 54:57
  What I see is I want my cost. I want my cost.
• 54:59
  I want my cost. And so I'm like, OK, well.
• 55:02
  If we're gonna increase. Cost, which I'm fine to do like
• 55:04
  I love team it's you can't like it's very difficult to run
• 55:06
  entirely on your own forever teams meeting and they're a
• 55:09
  massive part of it. But just simply having people
• 55:13
  there doesn't necessarily mean that the people are leverage
• 55:15
  able in your growth. And so I absolutely love the
• 55:17
  idea of keeping it super, super simple.
• 55:20
  We're gonna change pathways here for a bit in a sense of more
• 55:23
  into the marketing bucket. So personal brand or business
• 55:27
  brand? Well, OK, I I think I want to
• 55:35
  give a little context here back to my disclaimer of I had a
• 55:41
  conversation with Kate, I think beginning me.
• 55:43
  I don't even know what it was because honestly, this year has
• 55:45
  felt like 15 years long because of how many times I've pivoted
• 55:48
  because I went to this whole team and did this whole thing at
• 55:50
  the beginning of the year. But I had this conversation with
• 55:52
  Kate where I felt like I finally realized that, like my belief is
• 55:56
  not that by the Blazers forever. Like I don't have to be running
• 56:00
  by the blazer for five years, 10 years.
• 56:01
  There is no like this is my end all be all.
• 56:05
  And so for that I want to say personal brand, because your
• 56:08
  personal brand can exist beyond the business.
• 56:11
  And right now our biggest currency out there is media and
• 56:16
  your brand like your brand can exist far beyond what a business
• 56:19
  can. And so I think now if you create
• 56:22
  a business around the business brand, you can create something
• 56:25
  that has massive longevity. But a lot of the times a lot of
• 56:28
  business owners I see they are the face of their brand.
• 56:31
  So therefore, if you have the personal brand, it can fuel the
• 56:34
  business, but also it allows you to pivot if you decide that the
• 56:38
  business is not what you want. When I started working with
• 56:41
  Kate, I had two businesses. I now have one, not because it
• 56:44
  was not successful, it was incredibly successful.
• 56:46
  And that's revenue that sometimes like, damn, I really
• 56:48
  missed that. But my vision was by the Blazer
• 56:52
  and a personal brand element or something else beyond that,
• 56:55
  which became a podcast this year.
• 56:57
  And like now, my vision is by the Blazer might be around 3
• 57:00
  years, five years, 10 years. Maybe I eventually do outsource
• 57:03
  to a team and actually use the brand name and not use myself.
• 57:07
  But it also might be that I do five more years of immense,
• 57:12
  incredible coaching and I dominate the space and I do what
• 57:14
  I want to do there. And then I move on to podcast
• 57:17
  and I do in person events and I completely pivot.
• 57:20
  So for me, my personal brand is always going to be the primary
• 57:23
  focus with the idea that it bleeds into the business brand
• 57:27
  and that I can, you know, use that in whatever way that I see
• 57:30
  fit. But I think people are so afraid
• 57:32
  to say, like, my vision is not my business forever because it
• 57:35
  means like, it doesn't means like we're not invested in it
• 57:38
  when like I give my heart and soul to my business right now.
• 57:41
  But that doesn't mean that at 40, I still want to be a
• 57:43
  business consultant running by the Blazer.
• 57:45
  It might be, but I don't know. So for me, my personal brand is
• 57:49
  at the forefront of everything I do, knowing that like my goals
• 57:52
  and my beliefs and my priorities are going to change, but who I
• 57:56
  am, the community and building around myself, like that's
• 57:58
  something I can take with me regardless of the direction I
• 58:00
  go. So I would definitely say
• 58:02
  personal brand. And if you aren't prioritizing
• 58:04
  that right now as a business owner, I definitely would
• 58:06
  because the amount of revenue that I've come from my personal
• 58:10
  TikTok, my other businesses, everything else, my podcast is
• 58:13
  insane. So if you aren't focusing on
• 58:16
  that, I definitely would make that a priority.
• 58:18
  Yeah, I mean, I I do IA 1000% agree with the personal brand
• 58:21
  side because I think that the personal brand is something that
• 58:24
  has the fluidity to just develop in such a massive way.
• 58:26
  And like if you think about anybody, like if you even think
• 58:28
  about for example, like Oprah of anybody, she has a massive
• 58:32
  personal brand. She can do Martha Stewart, like
• 58:35
  could do anything. Like she could have a cookbook
• 58:38
  and she could be in prison. She could do anything.
• 58:39
  She could be literally doing anything because her business is
• 58:44
  built around her identity, which then in turn allows her to have
• 58:47
  fluidity to basically take that trust of her audience and of the
• 58:52
  people who follow her and shift into any bucket.
• 58:54
  And so it could be home and lifestyle and it could be
• 58:56
  cooking, and then it could shift into relationships.
• 58:58
  Then it could shift into health. And you would be like, OK, here
• 59:00
  we go. Because you're bought into her.
• 59:03
  So it's always just in connection to what it is that
• 59:05
  she's doing. Whereas typically when you have
• 59:07
  a business brand, when you fall as a business brand to a
• 59:11
  specific type of bucket, you can't have as much fluidity to
• 59:14
  shift into something else. So like, for example, one of
• 59:16
  the, the, you know, examples that I often give is like a Tony
• 59:20
  Robbins or a Jenna Kutcher. Like both of them are going to
• 59:23
  be brands that have gone into a variety of different buckets in
• 59:26
  the sense of like have been able to impact people in a lot of
• 59:28
  different sectors. But that's not where they
• 59:30
  started. And that's because it's really
• 59:31
  that people are bought into them as a person.
• 59:33
  So they follow the path that they take because they're bought
• 59:35
  into the person, not the problem that that person was associated
• 59:38
  with solving. Whereas when you're a business
• 59:40
  brand, they're associated with the problem that you're solving.
• 59:42
  And so the downside I think. To personal brand.
• 59:45
  Obviously is the fact that it it is your face, like you are the
• 59:48
  quote UN quote talent, which means that should you at some
• 59:51
  point to your note, change your mind.
• 59:53
  And we even often see this like we're not talking about the
• 59:55
  online business world. We can also see this, for
• 59:57
  example, like musicians, right? Like if you're a musician and
• 59:59
  like you're the face and you decide you don't want to do
• 1:00:01
  music anymore, Well then guess what?
• 1:00:03
  That's that, right? Like the the brand has
• 1:00:05
  basically. Died off because you've decided
• 1:00:08
  to leave. So like you were the energy
• 1:00:10
  around it. And so even for me, it's similar
• 1:00:11
  to yourself. The reason I started to do like,
• 1:00:14
  you know, ambitious retreats and ambitious events and ambitious
• 1:00:16
  the podcast and like starting to create something that wasn't
• 1:00:18
  connected to me. And the sense of the fact that
• 1:00:21
  it had the ability to take on a life of its own because it
• 1:00:23
  wasn't named like the Kate Perkovic show.
• 1:00:25
  It was because it allowed me this pathway to develop that
• 1:00:29
  right. And even when we were creating
• 1:00:30
  the offerings, it wasn't like for me, I've always been really
• 1:00:34
  conscious of making it us and we and, you know, talking about iti
• 1:00:38
  being the, the, the pillar or the umbrella over top of it.
• 1:00:41
  And that was because if people understood that there was an
• 1:00:44
  umbrella, it meant down the road I have the opportunity to sell
• 1:00:47
  the intellectual property of how the coaching and the
• 1:00:50
  facilitation is being run and basically hand that off to
• 1:00:52
  somebody if they want to step in and put their coaches inside of
• 1:00:55
  it. And so all of it is really
• 1:00:57
  considered with a long term vision at play.
• 1:00:59
  But I think when you're looking at personal versus business
• 1:01:01
  brand, there is obviously what's gonna serve you today, which is
• 1:01:05
  fine. Even if something you're doing
• 1:01:06
  right now serves you just for the next two to five to 10 to 20
• 1:01:11
  years and you're like, I know this is not what I'm gonna be
• 1:01:12
  doing at 60. That's OK as long as you have a
• 1:01:14
  conscious awareness of it. I think it's when people are
• 1:01:17
  just kind of like, I'm going to build, build, build.
• 1:01:18
  And like whatever happens, happens.
• 1:01:20
  That's where it gets a little bit sticky.
• 1:01:22
  Because then you end up building this massive empire in a way
• 1:01:25
  that potentially doesn't allow you to exit it or doesn't allow
• 1:01:28
  you to shift it in the way that you want for your vision for
• 1:01:30
  your life. And then you're kind of like,
• 1:01:32
  well, what do I do now? Because I've basically built
• 1:01:34
  this whole cage around myself and now I want out.
• 1:01:37
  And so I think really being conscious of what you're
• 1:01:39
  building when it comes to brand and why you're building it is
• 1:01:41
  important. But I do think that, you know,
• 1:01:44
  we've seen this in any in any industry across the board,
• 1:01:47
  personal brand is so highly leveraged and it is what allows
• 1:01:51
  people who were relevant like 30 years ago to still remain
• 1:01:54
  relevant today. All righty, do you think that
• 1:02:00
  video or copy is higher or better and why?
• 1:02:07
  That's a really good question. I'm going to stick with my
• 1:02:10
  initial gut. It's so funny as you're talking,
• 1:02:11
  I'm like, yeah, that's what it is.
• 1:02:13
  Like, I literally like gravitate towards the answer.
• 1:02:16
  I personally believe video. I mean, if you really think
• 1:02:20
  about even just like the trends of where things are going, like
• 1:02:22
  TikTok is not popping off just because it's like addictive as
• 1:02:26
  far as, you know, just the way that the algorithm works like
• 1:02:28
  people want, I think feel, connection.
• 1:02:31
  And I think that just as people are absorbing so much more
• 1:02:36
  media, we just do not want to sit and absorb copy the way that
• 1:02:40
  we used to, right? Like you think about people used
• 1:02:42
  to sit and read more people used to sit and like read out sales
• 1:02:45
  pages. People are selling $100,000
• 1:02:48
  offers from a video now. And so the relationship that you
• 1:02:53
  can have or feel when you're watching someone talk or teach
• 1:02:57
  or communicate or walk you through a day in their life
• 1:03:00
  wherever, I just think there's so much more power in that that
• 1:03:03
  you can't absorb that from just copy.
• 1:03:06
  So I would say like video at first, $1,000,000 was literally
• 1:03:09
  made from TikTok. I didn't use Instagram hardly at
• 1:03:11
  all. I stand by that.
• 1:03:13
  And I really think it's because I can create a relationship that
• 1:03:17
  could not have been created from a sales page.
• 1:03:19
  And yet I didn't have those pages, didn't have a website,
• 1:03:20
  didn't have a lot of those things.
• 1:03:22
  So I would lean into video so heavily, especially the way you
• 1:03:25
  can like produce this in so many ways.
• 1:03:27
  You can repurpose it in so many ways.
• 1:03:29
  You could pull the copy from it if you really needed to.
• 1:03:32
  But video, I think, in my opinion, is king right now.
• 1:03:35
  So that's what I'm that's what we're sick into.
• 1:03:37
  I'm ready. I'm like every one of these.
• 1:03:39
  I'm like, what's Kate going to say?
• 1:03:40
  Like, is Kate going to try to like close this now right now?
• 1:03:42
  Like, I don't know. But video like.
• 1:03:46
  OK, so video copy, something I would say as a preface is that I
• 1:03:50
  think there is this aspect for multimedia.
• 1:03:53
  I think that I agree, by the way, with video, but I think
• 1:03:56
  that people need to be aware that there still are very much a
• 1:03:59
  massive community of people who read in a sense of people who
• 1:04:03
  read books, people who read blogs, people who read the
• 1:04:06
  newspaper, read magazines. Like there's still a lot of
• 1:04:09
  people who will read at length. They will read your captions.
• 1:04:12
  Like when someone says to me, like I had somebody yesterday
• 1:04:14
  was like, I'm not going to write long captions.
• 1:04:15
  Nobody reads them. I'm like says who?
• 1:04:17
  Because you don't read them doesn't mean that people in
• 1:04:20
  general don't read captions. So I think understanding when it
• 1:04:23
  comes to marketing specifically that multi medium is needed.
• 1:04:27
  And what I mean by that is I think that if someone's too
• 1:04:30
  heavy on one or the other, it actually is a risk to them and
• 1:04:32
  to their business in the sense of if you're only about copy and
• 1:04:35
  you're like, I'm not doing video.
• 1:04:37
  If you're only about video and you have no copy, I think that
• 1:04:39
  that either way you go, there is a risk there because there is a
• 1:04:43
  community and a a subsection of people that are always going to
• 1:04:46
  be people who read or who listen.
• 1:04:48
  The reason I say video is I think that we've seen, you know,
• 1:04:52
  our culture in general, even if we think about the off the
• 1:04:55
  online world, I think our our culture in general has been that
• 1:04:58
  we are consuming video and audio non-stop.
• 1:05:00
  We are listening to podcasts in the car or we're listening to
• 1:05:03
  music. We are watching Netflix at night
• 1:05:05
  to wind down. We are watching YouTube to
• 1:05:08
  potentially watch our favorite vlogger or watch information
• 1:05:11
  that we're learning. We're watching, you know, like
• 1:05:14
  anything really, a lot of it right now to get our attention
• 1:05:18
  is coming from audio and video. And so I think because we
• 1:05:22
  obviously know that when it comes to marketing is the the
• 1:05:24
  fastest way to grow with it is to capture attention.
• 1:05:27
  I really look at, OK, well, what is currently getting people's
• 1:05:30
  attention? And you don't often see people
• 1:05:33
  stop in their tracks to read something, right?
• 1:05:35
  Like right now, the main behavior that we see is that
• 1:05:39
  people are stopping in their tracks to listen to something or
• 1:05:41
  to watch something. And so I would probably say
• 1:05:44
  video because I also do think. That there's.
• 1:05:47
  An aspect of video where you can really translate emotion and
• 1:05:51
  tone and all of these things. And it's not that that can't be
• 1:05:54
  done. Like obviously we see that with
• 1:05:56
  copy. It can be done through books,
• 1:05:58
  for example, like you can, you can read a book and feel like
• 1:06:00
  you're watching it as a movie because it's in such great
• 1:06:02
  detail. But again, I think when it comes
• 1:06:04
  to marketing, not enough people go to that depth to really get
• 1:06:09
  the detail in the copy that they need to make the person feel
• 1:06:12
  like they're watching it and experiencing it.
• 1:06:13
  And so because of that, it often lands flat.
• 1:06:15
  And so I would say for the path of least resistance for most
• 1:06:18
  businesses and brands, I do think if you can go audio and
• 1:06:21
  video, it also makes it the most accessible to people to be able,
• 1:06:25
  as I said, to like listen at any moment or, you know, watch at
• 1:06:27
  any moment. And TuneIn and I think the best.
• 1:06:31
  So if I was to think about like the the ideal situation would be
• 1:06:34
  a hybrid and even kind of, you know, to Ashley's point, like in
• 1:06:37
  the fact that she blew up her business when she was starting
• 1:06:40
  from TikTok, I think, you know, even for TikTok, when I see
• 1:06:42
  people doing only talking videos.
• 1:06:44
  And like you could also, again, to play to Multimedium, leverage
• 1:06:47
  TikTok to have a video going with a ton of text over top of
• 1:06:50
  it and having people saving the text for whatever the text says,
• 1:06:54
  right? So you're playing to the copy,
• 1:06:55
  which is the readers. And then obviously you've got
• 1:06:57
  the talking videos to the people who are a little bit more
• 1:06:59
  auditory. So I think if you can play to
• 1:07:01
  Multimedium, that's always going to be your best bet.
• 1:07:03
  But I do think in general, just from what we're seeing like as a
• 1:07:06
  culture, both business and non business, I do think there's a
• 1:07:09
  lot of emphasis when it comes to both audio and video.
• 1:07:13
  Yeah, well, it goes back to like momentum too.
• 1:07:15
  Like my whole thing, especially for newer business owners, and I
• 1:07:18
  think you would agree, is like you kind of have to follow the
• 1:07:19
  momentum. So what's the easiest to
• 1:07:21
  produce? Typically it's a lot easier to
• 1:07:23
  go and film yourself for two minutes then to like type out,
• 1:07:26
  copy and edit copy and do that. So when I was newer in business,
• 1:07:29
  I only did TikTok mostly because that's the only thing I had time
• 1:07:32
  for, right? Like I was working 50-60 hours a
• 1:07:35
  week. So if I could do two or three,
• 1:07:37
  you know, videos in the 10 minute time that I had before in
• 1:07:39
  my new meeting, like I could produce that a lot quicker than
• 1:07:42
  type. I got an Instagram caption and
• 1:07:44
  selling there. So I followed the momentum and
• 1:07:46
  then as my business grew, I realized that there was still
• 1:07:49
  that gap. So I had the momentum in place
• 1:07:51
  and I added more structure with Instagram and emails and
• 1:07:54
  everything else. So you kind of have to think
• 1:07:56
  about, I always say approaching business in layers for me, like
• 1:07:59
  video is like that layer one of can I grab people's attention?
• 1:08:03
  Can I get them activated in a way where they're at least
• 1:08:05
  pursuing me? Then I have an easy sales
• 1:08:07
  process in place. I keep things simple there.
• 1:08:09
  Then you add more structure once you have the ability to do that.
• 1:08:12
  But I will always say if you can figure out how to articulate
• 1:08:15
  value and entice someone to listen to you to the point where
• 1:08:19
  they say I'm interested enough that I'm going to like figure
• 1:08:21
  something out here. Like I'm going to look into this
• 1:08:23
  person. I'm going to like apply, I'm
• 1:08:24
  going to like, you know, follow them or whatever that kind of
• 1:08:26
  next step for you is in your sales process.
• 1:08:28
  If you can do that exceptionally well, then that will build
• 1:08:31
  enough momentum where then you can start to, you know, add in
• 1:08:34
  the copy, add in e-mail, add in sales pages, add in whatever
• 1:08:37
  else you need that amplify your business to the next level.
• 1:08:40
  But if you can figure out video content, especially on a
• 1:08:45
  platform like a TikTok where it's so easy to get in front of
• 1:08:47
  so many new people in a matter of like 5-10 minutes, like, man,
• 1:08:51
  that can just completely change your business.
• 1:08:53
  I am living proof of that. I have a lot of clients and I
• 1:08:55
  knew you as well. Living proof of that.
• 1:08:57
  Like that is power that I think some people have really
• 1:09:00
  overlooked. And also, I was going to say to
• 1:09:03
  add to that too, I think it's also a massive skill that needs
• 1:09:05
  to be developed. Like, just like people can
• 1:09:06
  develop the skill of writing, I do think developing the ability
• 1:09:09
  to be able to verbally speak to your mission, your impact, the
• 1:09:13
  problem that you solve, I think is massive.
• 1:09:14
  It is a massive skill. All right, so this is our last
• 1:09:18
  and final one for today, which is and you've you've hosted and
• 1:09:23
  you've also attended. So you can speak to both sides
• 1:09:26
  of these conference or retreat. And I would say retreat as
• 1:09:32
  someone who's hosted a conference, not because our
• 1:09:34
  conference was not amazing, but I, I feel like in the last
• 1:09:40
  couple years being a business owner, I have never experienced
• 1:09:44
  like loneliness the way that I have.
• 1:09:45
  I think as an entrepreneur, and I'm not saying you cannot
• 1:09:49
  achieve massive connection at a conference because again, I
• 1:09:53
  think there's a place for both. And I definitely think
• 1:09:55
  conferences can be incredible. I know you've attended both.
• 1:09:57
  So I'm so curious about your answer, but there is nothing
• 1:10:01
  like sitting in that kumbaya circle with like a couple women
• 1:10:06
  or just people who are, you know, similar to you or
• 1:10:08
  experiencing similar things where you don't necessarily have
• 1:10:11
  to have the suit on or you have to be sitting in a chair or you
• 1:10:14
  have to feel like you're personal.
• 1:10:15
  When you can really just break down those walls and be into
• 1:10:19
  like into some type of group with individuals who can really
• 1:10:23
  see you and you can go really deep with them.
• 1:10:26
  I think that that's a space right now that I hope, I mean,
• 1:10:31
  I'm hoping to get into that in the next couple months, next
• 1:10:33
  couple years. I know that that's something
• 1:10:34
  that you're in as well, Kate, But when you can create that and
• 1:10:38
  make that a space that like leaves people with so much
• 1:10:41
  emotion and connection to other. I just I just think there's
• 1:10:45
  nothing like that. I really honestly think that any
• 1:10:48
  individual that's listening to this right now with a heart to
• 1:10:51
  like lead a group of, again, women or just individuals,
• 1:10:54
  whatever it is, I think you should like lean into that
• 1:10:57
  because so many people are telling me that they're desiring
• 1:10:59
  that right now. And I think conferences, again,
• 1:11:02
  I'm like, this is my whole theme of life right now.
• 1:11:03
  It's like structure, momentum. You can make a retreat
• 1:11:07
  exceptional with very little resources.
• 1:11:09
  You can bring people together and have them sit in A room,
• 1:11:13
  part of park or whatever and create an immense space.
• 1:11:16
  I think conferences, there's a lot more moving parts that as
• 1:11:19
  someone who ran a conference and ran it in the negative because
• 1:11:22
  I'm not perfect and I've had financial mistakes in my
• 1:11:24
  business, for sure. I kind of wish that maybe I
• 1:11:27
  would have done a retreat first, maybe done a conference second.
• 1:11:30
  But like my heart is in retreats right now.
• 1:11:32
  I think people need to feel connection.
• 1:11:34
  I think people want to be in person and they want to like
• 1:11:37
  really go deep with people. And I think that if you don't
• 1:11:39
  set up a conference to be able to do that, you can kind of
• 1:11:42
  create more of a static, you know, structured energy that
• 1:11:45
  doesn't leave with the same impression that a retreat can.
• 1:11:48
  So I think small mid sized retreats with people where they
• 1:11:52
  can stay together, they can eat breakfast together, they can
• 1:11:54
  have their hair up in a nasty bun with pimple patches on.
• 1:11:58
  Like I just, there's something about that that just creates
• 1:12:01
  connection beyond what I think sometimes conferences can.
• 1:12:04
  So I am team retreat right now. Excited to see you at yours this
• 1:12:07
  weekend. It's going to be amazing.
• 1:12:08
  I'm going to leave just crying my eyes out.
• 1:12:10
  I'm so ready for it. But I'm I'm team retreat.
• 1:12:13
  They're both amazing, but team retreat.
• 1:12:15
  Yeah. I mean, I think conferences to
• 1:12:17
  me are content retreats, our connection.
• 1:12:21
  And so I think the question then becomes what are you looking
• 1:12:24
  for? Because at least like for me,
• 1:12:26
  when I've gone to conferences and I've been to a lot of just
• 1:12:28
  different events and different ways that they've been
• 1:12:30
  facilitated. I think because again, like
• 1:12:33
  there's such a mass amount of people, it can be facilitated
• 1:12:35
  like in sense of like you can usually connect to people at
• 1:12:37
  your table or connect to people you're in exercises with.
• 1:12:40
  But I think generally speaking, conferences allow you, which is
• 1:12:44
  why I think they're not as great for connection.
• 1:12:47
  They allow you to hide. Like if they're doing an
• 1:12:49
  exercise, you can just go to the washroom because it's 120 people
• 1:12:51
  in that room and nobody's going to notice.
• 1:12:53
  Like if you are somebody who's on your phone and you're texting
• 1:12:56
  and you're not paying attention to whatever's happening,
• 1:12:58
  nobody's going to notice. Like there really are just so
• 1:13:00
  many ways that you can hide. And I think that, you know, the
• 1:13:05
  power of a retreat space, like is the fact that people see you,
• 1:13:10
  like you. There's no hiding in those
• 1:13:13
  rooms. So like, once you're in, you're
• 1:13:15
  in. And then it's like, OK, well, if
• 1:13:16
  everyone's open and they're laying it all on the table, you
• 1:13:18
  can't just like, sneakily be like, I'm not into this.
• 1:13:21
  Somebody run to the washroom, right?
• 1:13:23
  Like the transformation happens from being witnessed in it.
• 1:13:27
  And it happens from the chairs and it happens from being seen.
• 1:13:29
  And as you said, it happens from also, which is kind of what
• 1:13:32
  Ashley was insinuating as well. Like the aspect of like letting
• 1:13:34
  your walls down, not this, this the aspect of like performance
• 1:13:38
  really of being in that room and, and kind of having the
• 1:13:42
  facade up. Because really when you're in a
• 1:13:44
  conference, in a way, some instances people are sizing each
• 1:13:47
  other up of like, who are you and where'd you come from and
• 1:13:49
  all of these things. Whereas with a retreat, one of
• 1:13:52
  the first things, at least with typically a well facilitated
• 1:13:54
  retreat is getting people to get their walls down as fast as
• 1:13:57
  possible. IE, how do we get people as
• 1:13:59
  uncomfortable as we possibly can as fast as possible so that the
• 1:14:02
  rest of the retreat, everyone's as open and kind of like, you
• 1:14:06
  know, unfiltered and surrendered as much as possible that they
• 1:14:09
  could be. And so if it was me, I would say
• 1:14:11
  for the most personal development, most I think about
• 1:14:14
  yourself as ACEO and your mindset and what you're going
• 1:14:17
  through, I definitely would say retreat is going to be the
• 1:14:19
  suggestion for me. But I think if you're somebody
• 1:14:22
  who is looking for like, just teach me tactics, like I just
• 1:14:25
  want to know a strategy about this and a strategy about that.
• 1:14:27
  I think conferences are great. I think it's a great way to
• 1:14:28
  network. You get a lot of more people,
• 1:14:30
  obviously, in the sense of the volume of people that you can go
• 1:14:33
  and meet and connect with. But I think a question you want
• 1:14:36
  to know which one you want to do even in your own business is
• 1:14:40
  also asking what's the outcome you're looking for?
• 1:14:42
  So like is the matter of impact again, width or is it depth?
• 1:14:45
  And I think that there really is that kind of width and depth
• 1:14:47
  conversation and anything, right?
• 1:14:49
  We can see that in sales, we can see it in conferences, we can
• 1:14:51
  see it in marketing, you know, like we were talking about with
• 1:14:53
  offers even, right, passive high ticket.
• 1:14:55
  And so I think it's constantly coming back to that question of
• 1:14:57
  like, what is the intention whether you're putting in your
• 1:14:59
  business or even if you're going to be somebody who's attending
• 1:15:02
  it. And so, you know, even to
• 1:15:03
  Ashley's point, like where we're hosting retreat this weekend and
• 1:15:06
  we were asking the women like, what's your #1 intention?
• 1:15:09
  And yes, of course, like we're going to be teaching strategy.
• 1:15:11
  And it's like part of the, the main meat of what we're doing.
• 1:15:14
  But there's also this aspect where people are just like, I
• 1:15:15
  just need to tap into like each other.
• 1:15:18
  I need to tap into the community.
• 1:15:19
  I need to tap into like thinking differently and feeling
• 1:15:21
  differently, Like I want to state change by the time I leave
• 1:15:24
  this. And so you can even hear when
• 1:15:26
  people talk about the reason that they're attending it, their
• 1:15:28
  goals are often described differently than that of a
• 1:15:30
  conference, which is like, I want to learn this funnel.
• 1:15:32
  I want to learn, you know, and network with people.
• 1:15:35
  The intention around it is different, so therefore the
• 1:15:36
  leverage of why we do it is also different.
• 1:15:39
  So I would say to me, I think about even for myself, attending
• 1:15:41
  it conference is all about content and networking at mass
• 1:15:46
  scale. Retreat is about connection and
• 1:15:48
  going deep and basically personal transformation and
• 1:15:50
  unlocking that paired with a little bit of content.
• 1:15:53
  Yeah, and I even remember when we were planning our conference,
• 1:15:56
  the reason I did a conference at the time is that I had a mass
• 1:15:59
  network and I was in the finance space and a lot of women are
• 1:16:03
  like, I just want to be around like minded women.
• 1:16:05
  And so I was like conference made sense for me at the time.
• 1:16:08
  But one of my favorite parts about the conference and still
• 1:16:10
  to this day, everyone's favorite thing is at the end we did this
• 1:16:13
  like, well, the later part of the night we did like a pajama
• 1:16:16
  Fuji pajama party, which I think Kate was very confused about at
• 1:16:19
  first. Like I was showing her my pajama
• 1:16:21
  collection. She's like, I'm sorry, how much
• 1:16:23
  money did you spend on this? Like, first of all, washroom
• 1:16:26
  girl. She's over here like the
• 1:16:27
  washroom and I'm like pajamas sparkly clutch.
• 1:16:30
  Let's do it. So.
• 1:16:31
  I I have to just like peel back the curtain here for a second.
• 1:16:34
  She told me she was having a luxury pajama party for her
• 1:16:37
  event. And I was like, I love that.
• 1:16:38
  But like, also like, what does that mean?
• 1:16:39
  Because she was like, I have these like bougie pajamas.
• 1:16:41
  I was like, can I see them? She's like, absolutely.
• 1:16:43
  They have like fur. They're stunning.
• 1:16:44
  And now I have a pair and I'm very blessed.
• 1:16:46
  But I need to give contacts because I sleep.
• 1:16:50
  I'm going to be very transparent with you guys.
• 1:16:52
  I sleep in a men's like triple XL Walmart T-shirt because I
• 1:16:56
  don't know why. I literally wore it once and I
• 1:17:00
  was like, why would I sleep in anything else?
• 1:17:02
  And so now that's what I sleep in.
• 1:17:03
  And so then seeing how the other half lives, which is that Ashley
• 1:17:07
  sleeps in fur. I was like, wait a second.
• 1:17:09
  So that I went to her event and it was so much fun.
• 1:17:12
  And everyone was like, they're super cutesy pajamas.
• 1:17:14
  But yeah, it was definitely the moment that I realized that I
• 1:17:16
  needed to upgrade my my Walmart T-shirt, which don't knock until
• 1:17:20
  you try it. No, no.
• 1:17:21
  She's like the washroom and I'm like, oh, where you're like
• 1:17:25
  she's like in this big T-shirt being all preppy and perfect.
• 1:17:28
  No, I do not sleep in those, but they are they're like the
• 1:17:30
  sleeper pajamas Shout out sleeper.
• 1:17:31
  I swear to God I better get a brand deal with them one day
• 1:17:33
  because I'm like 15 pairs now. But no, they like RIP and not
• 1:17:37
  sleep in those, but they are very cute for events.
• 1:17:39
  So we wore this, but we all sat up.
• 1:17:40
  The whole point of this was not the pajama, but we all sat up on
• 1:17:43
  the state. I've done this actually with one
• 1:17:45
  of my corporate jobs. They brought up like the 10 best
• 1:17:47
  sales Rep and people could ask questions.
• 1:17:48
  They go to like a fireside chat was really like cool event and I
• 1:17:51
  was like, what if we did that with the speakers?
• 1:17:53
  And so I was very blessed that Kate flew all the way from
• 1:17:57
  Canada to St. Louis, MO.
• 1:17:59
  She is the greatest human of all time.
• 1:18:01
  And she flew there. And I had a couple other
• 1:18:04
  speakers from Saint Louis. And we all basically sat on
• 1:18:06
  stage and we were in pajamas. We're just like drinking.
• 1:18:10
  We just eaten like we're, you know, eating ice cream.
• 1:18:12
  Like, I was just sitting and chilling.
• 1:18:13
  It felt very comfortable and casual.
• 1:18:15
  And people were asking you about, like, my relationship
• 1:18:17
  with my parents. And they were asking Kate about
• 1:18:20
  a lot of personal stuff with her life.
• 1:18:21
  And people's, like, walls broke a little bit.
• 1:18:24
  And I think that it was cool to integrate a retreat energy in
• 1:18:27
  the midst of a conference, which kind of left the impression that
• 1:18:30
  I wanted of connection community.
• 1:18:33
  But that reason that that was I think so powerful, especially I
• 1:18:37
  think in women because yes, I do think that women have different
• 1:18:39
  needs than men sometimes. But the thing that I think was
• 1:18:42
  so powerful is even my friend Casey was on stage who was
• 1:18:46
  starting a business. She's like, all these women have
• 1:18:47
  had 100K months and I'm sitting here and I don't have a business
• 1:18:50
  yet. And she's like, I have so much
• 1:18:51
  imposter syndrome there. But she's sitting there and
• 1:18:54
  people are still recognizing her as a leader and her experience
• 1:18:57
  was still valued. And it didn't matter the amount
• 1:18:59
  of money we had made or how much success we had had.
• 1:19:03
  You know, I had imposter syndrome sitting next to Kate.
• 1:19:05
  And I was like, what the fuck? Like Kate, you know, like up
• 1:19:07
  here and I'm like little puny baby owner, business owner at
• 1:19:10
  the time. But we just got to sit and
• 1:19:12
  connect and, and be authentic to each other in a way that I think
• 1:19:16
  can't happen sometimes again at that conference level.
• 1:19:18
  And so it definitely can be a hybrid.
• 1:19:20
  You can create that environment within a bigger environment, but
• 1:19:24
  there was a reason that that was such a lasting experience for so
• 1:19:28
  many women because they felt like they really could like get
• 1:19:31
  inside our heads and pick our brains in a way that didn't feel
• 1:19:34
  like we were on stage and they were not because they weren't as
• 1:19:36
  valuable or they didn't have the experience to share.
• 1:19:39
  I think everyone had something to share.
• 1:19:40
  So if you can create that environment, like again, going
• 1:19:43
  back to the personal brand, there's so much power in being
• 1:19:47
  able to facilitate a space where people leave.
• 1:19:49
  And they haven't just been expanded from a business
• 1:19:52
  perspective or personal standpoint, but they've really
• 1:19:54
  felt like they've been able to connect with someone that they
• 1:19:56
  can bring with them, you know, into their new chapter, new
• 1:19:58
  friends, new relationship, new perspective there.
• 1:20:00
  I think that that's just so much power.
• 1:20:02
  So I'm so excited for this weekend and anyone just feeling
• 1:20:06
  that like urge to run an event or run a retreat, like do it
• 1:20:09
  because it will change your life.
• 1:20:10
  But I think a lot of people like there's so much need for that
• 1:20:13
  space right now. So you can facilitate it.
• 1:20:14
  There's definitely people that want part of that.
• 1:20:17
  Yeah, and like we desire connection more than anything,
• 1:20:19
  right? Like all of us want that and
• 1:20:20
  it's just a matter of how who's gonna host the space.
• 1:20:24
  I think also like, again, knowing that you as the listener
• 1:20:27
  have the ability to host that, have that ability and host that
• 1:20:30
  party. And then again to Ashley, which
• 1:20:32
  I wanted to echo because you mentioned earlier, it doesn't
• 1:20:34
  take a lot to run a retreat. You need a space and you need
• 1:20:37
  people. Other than that, you don't need
• 1:20:40
  a lot of stuff. I would argue that a conference
• 1:20:42
  is much more tactical in the sense of the tech and the the
• 1:20:45
  schedule and there's a lot more planning and things that need to
• 1:20:47
  be done. But with a retreat, it really is
• 1:20:49
  such an intimate space. And because of that, you don't
• 1:20:51
  need a lot. So like when it comes to the
• 1:20:53
  cost of running a retreat, frankly, your biggest upfront
• 1:20:56
  cost is going to be food in an actual space.
• 1:20:58
  Which is also another reason why I feel like if anyone wants to
• 1:21:01
  get started with bringing people together in any type of
• 1:21:03
  business, even if you want to host one for your team, is also
• 1:21:06
  another way that you can also look at retreats and how to
• 1:21:08
  integrate them and sense of your your model.
• 1:21:10
  So look, I feel like we could go like this for probably 3 hours
• 1:21:13
  because we have all the opinions on all of the things.
• 1:21:16
  But if someone wants to tune into your podcast, your social,
• 1:21:20
  all the things, where can they find you?
• 1:21:22
  Yeah, OK. We have lots of social, so my
• 1:21:24
  personal accounts, Ashley and Bennington on Instagram and
• 1:21:27
  TikTok. I also have by the Blazer, which
• 1:21:29
  is my business, Instagram and TikTok as well.
• 1:21:31
  And then I have a podcast called Full Plate of Pasta because
• 1:21:34
  we're a little unconventional around here.
• 1:21:36
  So if you want to see some really low rise tops with pasta
• 1:21:39
  dripping out of my face, if you are interested in that type of
• 1:21:42
  content, then Full Plate of Pasta on TikTok and Instagram.
• 1:21:46
  We do business content, personal content, just like lots of
• 1:21:50
  different type of stuff. If you guys are looking to kind
• 1:21:52
  of shake it up a little bit. So just send me a message.
• 1:21:54
  Just say, hey, I got me from Kate's podcast.
• 1:21:56
  We'd love to connect with you and thanks for listening for
• 1:21:58
  anyone who got through that, whatever we've just been talking
• 1:22:03
  about. I was going to say we go on
• 1:22:06
  tangents, we go left, right and center and it just goes every
• 1:22:09
  which way and it's perfect. It's perfect that way.
• 1:22:10
  It's why I like it. Also, by the way, I will say
• 1:22:12
  guys, just to add a little, a little note because Ashley's too
• 1:22:15
  humble. Her content is something that
• 1:22:17
  truthfully, if you were to go to her TikTok, if you were to go to
• 1:22:20
  her Instagram, it has probably little master's degree of
• 1:22:23
  business stuff in her feed. So I highly recommend if you
• 1:22:26
  just want to take a second as you're finishing this up, go
• 1:22:28
  open Instagram, go to her socials and go just like take a
• 1:22:31
  little peek through those posts, go through the captions, go
• 1:22:33
  through the carousels. Because I can tell you as
• 1:22:35
  someone who consumes her content, who knows the behind
• 1:22:38
  the scenes of all the things that she teaches people, there's
• 1:22:40
  a lot of juicy gems in there. And so you're definitely going
• 1:22:43
  to want to go into her feed and kind of take a little peek
• 1:22:45
  because there's a lot of strategy pieces that if you
• 1:22:48
  actually executed them, you could probably see traction.
• 1:22:50
  Not even probably you would see traction on your business just
• 1:22:53
  by integrating what her marketing tells you to do, let
• 1:22:55
  alone what her coaching would tell you to do.
• 1:22:56
  So all that to be said, thank you Ashley so much for coming on
• 1:22:59
  today was so fun. And I definitely think at some
• 1:23:02
  point we'll have to have you back because there's just too
• 1:23:03
  much to dive into that. We I swear, guys, we literally
• 1:23:06
  had a question or had a list of questions about 10 more other
• 1:23:08
  things that I didn't even open. So we'll have to circle back.
• 1:23:11
  But thank you so much for coming on kind of thing and going into
• 1:23:14
  all the questions with us. And of course, as always, you
• 1:23:17
  guys, we'll see you next week on next week's.
• 1:23:19
  Show. And as always, stay ambitious.
• 1:23:21
  We'll see you soon.