Pure Potentials Mini Edition

FUNNEL MAGAZINE The Authority Funnel to End All Authority Funnels

Supercharge Your Funnels

By Leveraging the Power of Branding and Visual

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Design

The Myth of the Magic Bullet

If You Want to Catch Bigger Fish, You Need to Use Bigger Bait

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Speakers Retreat 20

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Article by HAWK MIKADO

WELCOME FROM OUR PUBLISHER

Jacki McLenaghan, founder of Pure Potentials, has been providing education and opportunities for business owners, and speakers to become leaders in their industries, for over 20 years.

Her vast knowledge base has created an enormous amount of invaluable and transferable skills that she loves sharing with her clients.

It is her personal mission to shine Jacki has been a theater producer the spotlight on transformational and performer. She has extensively leaders and get their message out studied both marketing and there IN A BIG WAY! technology…AND she is the author Jacki has created several Programs; of the fun and cheeky marketing Events and an International book “From Here To Clear.”

Speaking Organization to execute Some actives that Jacki personally this mission and to help YOU step enjoys are yoga, travel and into that spotlight, leave a legacy making AWESOME marketing and be the LEADER you are videos. meant to be!

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Supercharge Your Funnels By Leveraging the Power of Branding and Visual Design ARTICLE BY Parisa Vassei

Amongst the FunnelHacker™ community, the consensus is that ugly funnels convert. While I won’t disagree that ugly funnels can convert, my goal is to convince you that branding and visual design play a vital role in the success of your funnels, and business as a whole.

“8 seconds is the average amount of time before a person gets distracted.” (Source: Microsoft) “Posts that include images produce 650% higher engagement than regular text posts.” (Source: Adobe)

Consider the following statistics: “B2B brands that connect with their buyers on an emotional level earn twice the impact over marketers who are still trying to sell business or functional value.”

“Color increases brand recognition by up to 80%.”

Branding and visual design have the power to enhance (Source: University of Loyola) your funnels and skyrocket your conversions. A striking “Versus traditional messaging, “professional, social, brand and intuitive design can attract your user, and emotional benefits” marketing has a 42% lift in keep them engaged, and ensure that they’re able to perceived brand benefits.” ( successfully complete your desired action: whether it “B2B decision makers consider the brand a central be opting into a list, purchasing product(s), signing up (rather than marginal) element of a supplier’s value for a service or completing an application for a high ticket offer. Here’s are 5 reasons why you should never proposition.” ( overlook design: “More than 84% of communication will be visual by 1. Increased Brand Recognition. Brand recognition helps 2018.” (Source: Reuters, Cisco Report) you establish trust which is essential for your funnel’s “Visual IQ is rising faster than any other form of IQ.” success. It also helps create customer loyalty making (Source: BBC) future sales and conversions far simpler to achieve and less expensive.

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2. Emotional Marketing. Through the use of colors, typography, animations, and more, visual design and branding can help tell a powerful story and create a lasting emotional connection with the end user.

Marketing is all about relevancy and context, so it’s not 1. Typography. difficult to see how these elements can have a positive Your funnels should not use more than 2-3 fonts. Why impact on these metrics. not? Having too many variations in your typography 3. Competitive Edge. Powerful branding and can make your funnel look cluttered and your messaging visual design can help you stand out in a crowded appear hazy. marketplace. Unless you’re operating in a true “blue • Make sure your fonts are legible! Flowery, ocean” (a concept from “Blue Ocean Strategy” by ornate fonts can be beautiful and have their W. Chan Kim), you’ll likely have many competitors, place, but use them sparingly if you choose likely ones with that are more competitively equipped. to use them at all. As a rule of thumb, I’d Branding allows your funnels to shine in a crowded recommend avoiding cursive fonts unless they marketplace. really fit your branding (if it’s playful, whimsical, 4. User Experience. Strong visual design spans quite a or luxurious for example) and even then, bit more than typography, colors, and graphics. A wellprioritizing legibility over flair because it doesn’t designed funnel that provides a stellar user experience matter how gorgeous your typography is if your will make the conversion process simpler and lead to users can’t read your copy easily. Use these fonts increased sales and conversions. for headings (and generally in larger sizes) so they remain legible.

5. Investment. Businesses often wait until they’re • Use “reasonable” font sizes. While your somewhat established to pursue branding and design audience and design goals may influence what due to the notion that it’s cost-prohibitive, yet neglecting reasonable font sizes are, make sure your fonts these aspects is, in fact, more costly. Think about your aren’t too small for your end user to read, or overall traffic strategy. Driving traffic is either expensive too large that they take up excessive space or a long, arduous process and at times, both. Once and become distracting. Also, never forget to you’ve filled your funnels, you’ll want to engage with optimize your fonts for mobile. You can set them and create a lasting impression so you can reap mobile-specific font sizes for some elements, so the benefits well into the future. be sure to use these settings whenever possible.

What looks awesome on desktop may be an Still not convinced? eyesore on mobile and vice versa. Not sure what Despite their reputation for less than stunning, but your audience resonates with? Create a split highly-converting funnels, ClickFunnels decided to focus test. on visual design and branding by hosting their first- • Gain inspiration from font pairing resources. ever Design-A-Thon that I had the fortune of attended ClickFunnels uses Google Fonts and there in Boise. Along with 29 other talented designers handare several font pairing resources such as: selected by Russell Brunson and his team, we spent Typo.io, FontPair.co, and Canva.com/fonttwo full days (and by full, I mean jam-packed, up to combinations. Finding font pairings can be 14 hour days) designing premium templates that are tedious and not all fonts in these resources showcased in the top spots along with the Cookbook are supported fonts, so I’ve created a free funnels and in the Marketplace. ClickFunnels is one of typography share funnel. the most profitable, rapidly-growing SaaS companies of our time and it was clearly worth their time to 2. Colors focus on design as evidenced by the Design-A-Thon, featuring of our premium design templates, and many • Use colors to invoke an emotional response. Blue is often used to establish trust. Yellow is often of the recent updates made to their platform. used for attention or warnings (think of signs Convinced, but not sure where to begin? that may have used yellow), red can be used to convey a sense of power or passion. Orange can Let’s start with the basics. I know that design isn’t be “fun” and be used for creating an energetic everyone’s strength or passion, so here are some experience. Green often works well for quick ways you can really improve your funnel designs natural elements. Black quickly. While professional design services will provide the greatest return on your investment, many people are surprised to find that a few key improvement can drastically enhance their funnels. Here are 10 elements you can focus on to level up your design skills:

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• is used often in luxury brands and can be used to convey value, prestige or exclusivity. There are many resources for color psychology that you can access through a quick Google search (sources: colorpsychology.org and https:// blog.kissmetrics.com/psychology-of-color-andconversions/).

• Apply color theory when creating palettes. This one sounds complex but it absolutely doesn’t have to be. There are a wide variety of tools online that assist with color palette generation.

They apply the concepts so that you don’t have to. A few of my favorite resources are: Coolors. co (which also lets you upload an image and derive color palettes from it), Color.adobe.com, and Klart.co/colors (data-driven color palettes).

• Use 3-5 colors in your funnels. Your images can absolutely have more colors, but keep a consistent palette throughout your funnels to create a more polished and professional aesthetic. Too many colors can create distraction and dilute your message the same way excessive use of fonts and font styles can.

Generally speaking, less is more when it comes to design.

3. Gradients Gradients can add a unique touch and create dimension when used as backgrounds for sections, buttons or other elements. With that said, gradients should be used sparingly as they can make a design look sloppy or cluttered when used in excess. You can find gradients at: grabient.com, webgradients.com, and uigradients.com. You can create gradients using a graphics program or you can use custom CSS. Here, I’m going to focus on using gradients as section backgrounds. First and foremost, make sure your desired section doesn’t have an image background as that may conflict with the gradient style. Next, you’ll want to select a gradient from one of the resources above.

While many modern browsers support gradients, using one of the resources that provide a “prefixes” option will have the absolute best cross-browser compatibility. I’ll take a sample gradient from Grabient for this example.

Next, you’ll want to go to the Custom CSS area and enter the following code:

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#section-1234 { background-color: #FFFFFF; background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(180deg, #FFFFFF 0%, #6284FF 33%, #FF0000 66%, #ffffff 100%); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(180deg, #FFFFFF 0%, #6284FF 33%, #FF0000 66%, #ffffff 100%); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(180deg, #FFFFFF 0%, #6284FF 33%, #FF0000 66%, #ffffff 100%); background-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #FFFFFF 0%, #6284FF 33%, #FF0000 66%, #ffffff 100%); } Where you’ll replace #section-1234 with your section ID which you can get by going into your section settings and clicking on the hashtag symbol in the bottom panel (#) to get the CSS selector ID. 4. Textures & Patterns Like gradients, textures and patterns can make sections or elements in your funnel stand out. Unfortunately, when used incorrectly, they can also make your design look a bit amateur. My suggestion here is to use them sparingly and use textures and patterns that are modern and clean. Simplicity is often better unless you’re targeting an audience that would truly connect with a more “busy” aesthetic. You can find textures and patterns at: Subtle Patterns (https://www. toptal.com/designers/subtlepatterns), CreativeMarket (creativemarket.com), and DesignCuts (designcuts. com).

5. Animations ClickFunnels has built-in animations, but l these often get overlooked. How can you use these successfully?

Let’s say your funnel displays testimonials as social proof. You can use animations to have a stack of testimonials fade in, one by one as the user scrolls. This creates a unique effect and also serves as a pattern interrupt. If your funnel has a lot of images, you could try animated a few key images as your user scrolls.

• Use animation to draw attention to your buttons. ClickFunnels features built-in button effects. My favorite button animations are glow and bounce.

• Use animation to educate. Let’s say your funnel outlines various steps in your process or the benefits of your product or service. You could

animate these so they come in, one by one, capturing more of your user’s attention and keeping them focused.

• Use animations to highlight an important feature, product or service. When most elements are static, an animated element will stand out. You can use this to really draw attention to a particular product, service or feature.

• Using a single animation or a few key animations can enhance your funnel without making it seizure-inducing!

6. Shape Dividers Standard funnels can look a bit “blocky” and a great way to break that up is by introducing shape dividers into your sections. This can be done by creating a background with a shape divider in Photoshop or any graphics program or programmatically (if you’re feeling inspired to conquer custom CSS) using a tool such as Clippy (https://bennettfeely.com/clippy/).

You’ll need to grab a section ID (say, #section-1234) and use the following code in the Custom CSS:

#section-1234 { -webkit-clip-path: polygon(0 0, 100% 0, 100% 85%, 50% 100%, 0 85%); clip-path: polygon(0 0, 100% 0, 100% 85%, 50% 100%, 0 85%); } This code creates a triangular section divider. This works pretty well, but I’d recommend testing it on mobile to make sure you have adequate spacing so that your content doesn’t get cut off when viewing from a mobile device. You can add additional padding or empty rows to prevent text from being cut off.

With more complex shapes or steeper angles, I’d recommend using the shape dividers on desktop only and creating separate sections for your content on mobile so the text doesn’t get cut off.

7. Graphics & Images.

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trust, increase brand recognition, create a polished, professional appearance and much more. Here are my top tips regarding graphics + images: Unique/custom is always ideal, but not essential for success. In terms of images, it’s great to have professional images taken because they’re uniquely yours and tend to be the most relatable. Since they’ve been created for your brand, they won’t be used by your competitors.

You’ll notice that a lot of popular stock photography images are used across many sites meaning that the likelihood that your competitor will use the same image can be high in some niches. The same concept applies to graphics and branded elements.

10. Inspiration When custom isn’t an option, consider affordable Feeling stuck? Get inspiration from a variety of sources. but tailored solutions. Examples are graphics from Dribbble.com and OnePageLove.com are fantastic CreativeMarket.com, DesignCuts.com, Envato sites for design inspiration. Pinterest and Instagram can Elements (elements.envato.com), or stock photography be immensely helpful as well. Tired of online sources? from resources such as Shutterstock.com, GettyImages. Get out in nature, travel, explore, and draw inspiration com (though this tends to be more expensive), Stocksy. from museums, galleries, art, music, etc. Inspiration is com, or DepositPhotos.com to name a few. Paid all around you if you keep your eyes and mind open. resources can have greater selection than free resources and a lower likelihood that your competitor will be using My recommendation? Implement a few of the strategies listed above and focus on improving your designs. You the same elements. don’t need to apply all of these concepts at once, and When paid options are not an option, consider free in fact, in many cases, you shouldn’t. With design, less graphics or image resources. I’d recommend looking is often more. Keep it simple and focus on your content at: Pixabay.com, Unsplash.com, and Pexels.com. With and conversions and leverage the power of branding these resources, you’ll want to be extra cautious to and visual design to enhance these elements. Not sure read the terms to ensure that the content you obtain is how your audience will respond? Never forget to split acceptable for commercial use. test…

8. Emojis.

Parisa Vassei is an entrepreneur, designer This one is simple but awesome. Emojis can increase and digital strategist conversions by invoking an emotional response and who focuses on building creating a pattern interrupt, making your content modern, conversionstand out. Neil Patel swears by them (Source: https:// focused websites and neilpatel.com/blog/emoji-marketing-how-to-usefunnels. She runs Funnel emoticons-to-increase-your-conversions/) and if they’re Design Club, a Facebook good enough for Neil Patel, they’re certainly good group covering ClickFunnels enough for me.

9. Responsiveness.

Pay close attention to how your designs translate across devices, and don’t forget mobile. A significant percentage of your users will be coming from mobile, so be sure to test your funnels on mobile. In addition to ClickFunnels’ built-in mobile view, here’s a tool that’s awesome for testing your design

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design and user experience. She’s has been selected by Russell Brunson and his team as one of the Top 30 ClickFunnels designers worldwide and she’s also done web design work for the renowned Stefan Sagmeister of the Sagmeister & Walsh design firm. Ironically, at the time of this writing, she’s undergoing her own rebrand but you can explore her premium templates at: http://www.funneldesign.shop or join her Facebook community to learn more about funnel design. She looks forward to sharing her design knowledge and helping you build more effective funnels.

Article by Adam King

If You Want to Catch Bigger Fish, You Need to Use Bigger Bait.

If you ever find yourself fishing in a lake full of hungry So I use a fishing analogy to simplify things.

“Big” fish, but all you’re catching is small fry, you’ve As a super quick summary of my marketing “fishing” really got to ask yourself… analogy…

“Am I using big enough bait?”

Every fisherman needs the following equipment Even though bigger bait costs more, it is much more (marketing assets) before they try to catch a fish likely to land you a bigger fish. This makes a lot of sense (customer): because bigger fish will normally eat bigger things, making them interested in bigger baits.

Hold on, hold on!!!

What on earth are you talking about fishing for? This is a magazine about sales funnels!

Whilst I may be a little odd, I promise you I’m not mad!

All will become clear by the end, so stick with me here…

In keeping with the theme of the issue this month, I’m going to tell you how you can build a simple membership site in Clickfunnels, add some content, and use this as your lead magnet.

Ok, But Why All The Talk About Fishing?

A lot of the time, people like me (who eat, drink and sleep all things marketing and sales funnels) tend to have a habit of using too much ‘technobabble’ when trying to explain ideas.

(This misses off the crucial piece about finding somewhere to fish where the fish actually are, but that’s for another day…)

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If you go fishing without one of the above pieces of

equipment, you’ll find it much harder, if not impossible, The beauty of using a membership site as a lead magnet is that they can take multiple different forms, to catch anything. be used in multiple different ways and can work for The same applies to your marketing. You need each pretty much any kind of industry. piece in place or you’ll find it hard to make sales online.

Don’t think you only have to be selling online courses to Just like fishing, you can’t just throw together any old take advantage of them. set up and expect to catch a Whale. So your marketing needs to be planned out and each piece of equipment For example, you could use this lead magnet as: carefully selected to catch the specific type of customer • A free mini course you’re after.

• A Place to host content upgrades If you use the wrong bait, you’ll never make up for it • A way to mirror your blog in a different format (e.g. audio version, video version) with a fancy line and reel as you can’t change the fish • A free trial to your full course attached to your hook…

• A 7, 14 or 30 day Challenge Hopefully you have at least a small idea of what I’m on • A lead magnet “upgrade” on your opt in thank about… the rest of this will make perfect sense! you page. (Like a traditional “Tripwire” offer) Why Your Bait Isn’t Working It’s not enough today to simply throw together another free report that you give someone in exchange for their email address, then send it to them as a PDF, hoping that they read it.

Your customers are getting more savvy and more demanding. They’re swimming in a lake full of other fishermen dangling the same bait in front of them, and they’re sick of the same old worms...

The Bigger Bait, Bigger Fish Strategy.

A key thing here… The content should give people a “quick win” related the the bigger problem you’re promising to help them solve with your core offer.

This is so important. People stop paying attention or give up on something when it seems too complicated, or they don’t see results.

A quick win helps to remove a person’s internal resistance of “this won’t work for me”, or that they don’t believe in themselves to get a result.

Like any good Funnel Hacker, this is not an original You dispel myths. You say, “Here’s what people think idea. It builds on one of Russell Brunson’s Funnel Friday and here’s reality. Here’s exactly what you need to do to get results” episodes (#22 - Membership List Hacks).

Simply, this is where you create a membership site that By doing it this way you’re overcoming these objections you give away “Backdoor Access” for free. Then you by giving them a result, fast. Which makes them more receptive to you when you do make an offer to buy deliver a huge amount of value to them inside. something.

One big difference between this and Russell’s example is that you’re creating your own content, not using other So make sure that the first thing you do in your peoples (though you may decide to use a combination membership site is show someone how to do something that is simple to do, yet helps them make progress. of the two…).

The idea behind this strategy to use something more juicy (such as a free course or challenge) as the “Bait” (lead magnet) and a membership site as the “Hook” (lead capture).

What you are really doing here is leading your potential clients and customers through a process that changes their belief about what’s possible.

You then deliver that content in a way that it doesn’t break your “Line & Reel” (Funnel), so your customer swims head first into your “Fishing Net” (Offer) without a fight.

Word of Warning...

A process that solves a specific problem, but is part of Once they’ve taken your Bait, and are on your Hook, a larger one. Which you happen to solve with your core you make sure your “Fishing Rod” (content) is strong offer… Then provide a link to your sales page and make your offer. enough to hold it all together.

What Do You Put Inside Your Membership Site?

Whatever you do, don’t cut corners. The more you give away, and the better it is, FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

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the more attractive the Bait, and more importantly, the stronger the Hook.

Step 3

Add your sales funnel that includes a sales page, order Yes, these types of lead magnets will take more time to form and order confirmation page. If you’re including create, so will put a lot of people off. Please don’t let up and/ or downsells you can add them here too. that be you! It’s this very reason why they can have such Step 4 a huge pay off if done well.

Set up your autoresponder email sequence.

Your competition can’t be bothered.

The Mechanics So how do you build this?

You’re going offer access to your membership site in exchange for a simple opt-in.

So you’ll need an opt in page and a membership site.

You’re also going to want to have emails set up to automatically follow up each time there’s new content available.

Finally, you’re going to want to have a sales funnel with a sales page, order form and order confirmation page.

Here you can also include upsell and downsell pages if you wish.

If you want to get super advanced, you can also set up retargeting ads in Facebook which add people to What Happens When You Get A Bite? custom audiences that display ads to remind them to log back into the membership site to view the new The moment someone opts in, two things will happen. content.

First they will be sent straight to the Membership Access I won’t go into the details of how to set up a membership page where they’ll be able to create their account and site in Clickfunnels as I don’t have the space. Plus you access your Membership straight away. can get a free template that has this whole process Second, an automated email is sent with a welcome already set up for you! You can get this by visiting the message and a reminder of their unique login URL in my bio below. information for your membership site.

Here are the 4 steps you’ll need to take: Then you send an automated email every time there’s new content for them to view.

Step 1 Create a membership site with both a Member Access Let’s say that you’re running a 14 day “Build Your Funnel” Challenge. page and a Membership Area page.

Just remember, your Membership Access page is to be This means that you only want your members to see used for styling your login and the Membership Area each piece of content as the 14 days progress. For this page is where you’re actually going to be adding all of you’ll need to “drip” access to this content. your content for your membership site.

This is specified in the number of days from which they signed up.

Step 2 It’s pretty simple to do. Click the edit icon to open the Add a new Opt In page. lesson settings.

You can use the Member Access page as the opt in, but I prefer this way because your priority is to get the opt in.

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Article by Linda Cain

7 Quick Industry Secrets

7 Quick Industry Hacks that CAN Save You Thousands!

For example, in Arizona during the summer months (July & August) the hotel venue rates drop considerably Whether you are hosting a small intimate gathering of as well as Food & Beverage minimums required.

10 people, or holding a larger scale 300+ person live 2. TICKETS. Paid tickets, refund tickets or FREE tickets event, these industry secrets can save you thousands of – how to choose. There are a variety of ways to price dollars! tickets and drive traffic to your live event. The most 1. VENUE. Choosing your event date and location can profitable, of course, is to charge “something” for each be a tricky process. Best if you find your location FIRST, ticket. For small intimate events, it is crucial to your then choose the date. However, some clients are so bottom line that attendees pay something to attend anxious to promote and get the date out there that they the event. For larger programs where there might be choose the date first. When this happens it is best for sponsor’s, booth sponsors or pay to play speakers, you them to use a well-seasoned event manager to help have a bit more flexibility in offering free or refundable find the location to save time and money. Consider tickets. when selecting the date (and location) the different 3. REWARD PROGRAMS. Hotel Points. If you haven’t seasons, travel costs and other factors that might be a done so yet, sign up for hotel reward programs. In barrier to entry for attendees. many cases you can apply your rewards to your event.

These points can be 10,000 - 50,000 with most hotel chains. You also receive points for rooms booked under your master account. The beauty of building up these points is that they can be used for your future travel or even used for booking rooms at your next event for yourself and team.

4. SECRET POINTS aka Meeting Planner Points.

Consider negotiating with your meeting manager to also obtain the “meeting planner points” which are points awarded to the planner for bringing business to the hotel. These points can be 3% - 10% of the overall value of your program. They are not always awarded, but when they are, this is an additional savings to you as the host.

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5. NEGOTIATE - Negotiate away hidden costs. As the hotel industry has become more savvy and “tricky” in some cases, buyer beware. Watch out for hidden fees and negotiate them away.

7. ATTENDANCE. Making sure your attendees show up! Consider having a true “engagement” marketing plan that keeps the attendees informed, educated and engaged from the moment they sign up to attend your event! Build that excitement and anticipation for them a.Drop or electrical fees. These are additional fees so your event is #1 on their calendar. the hotel’s in house audio/visual team or banquets department will charge for plugging into their electrical outlets. If you need power strips and extension cords consider purchasing them at a local hardware or Remember that the size of the room isn’t what is most important – it is the quality of the attendee, their Target-type store and bringing them with you. connection to you and whether or not they are your b. Flip Chart, Projector & Screen – just about every ideal client – those are the ones that will purchase your event needs them. If you are holding smaller intimate program and continue to be with you year after year! events (under 40 people), consider purchasing these items - it will save you thousands in the long run. If you For additional tips, insider secrets and consideration to are doing larger events (over 50 people) consider using work with our professional event strategist and fabulous an outside audio/visual company to save additional event management team, please contact Linda Cain, President, Blu Diamond Event Management at 626dollars.

252-2834, LindaCainOffice@gmail.com or visit us at 6. FOOD & BEVERAGE MINIMUMS. Consider www.eventsbyBluDiamond.com. negotiating guest rooms along with a food and beverage spend to waive meeting room rental fees.

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Then set the number of days to open access to the Whatever you decide, this link takes people to the content according to the order you want it to become sales page you’ve set up and makes an offer to buy available. something.

Then you’ll set up your emails to go out every day to your new member, telling them that there’s new content Another way to monetise this membership site is to show available, with a link to the site. a “Restricted Content - Paid Members Only” section.

Important Note About Email Follow Up Offer instructions on how they can get access, then give Resist the temptation to put anyone who signs up them the link to your sales page. straight onto your main email list, or any other list until someone has gone through your course or challenge. Once someone has made the purchase, it will automatically open this section as you’ll have set it up You don’t want to overwhelm and bombard people. according to the product purchase it relates to (which You will need the following emails: you select from the drop down menu when you click Welcome Email - Outlines the content coming their ‘RESTRICT ACCESS’ on the sections you hold your way, restates the benefits and reminds them of their paid content in) so it can be accessed only those by people that have bought this product. log in details.

Daily Content Announcement Emails - Letting people The great thing here is that once this has happened, you know there’s a new section open, a teaser about what’s can use “Sticky Upsells” directly inside your membership area that will allow your customer to make additional inside and the link. purchases with a single click!

Offer Sequence - To be delivered once the course or challenge has finished. Keep it to 3 emails, making sure But that’s another strategy for another day. the offer has some urgency and/or scarcity to it, such as So remember, if you ever find yourself fishing in a lake a discount or bonuses that goes away. full of hungry “Big” fish, but all you’re catching is small After this, you can add them to your main list and if fry, you’ve really got to ask yourself…

they haven’t bought, try to hook them with a different “Am I using big enough bait?” offer in the future.

If the answer is no, try giving this strategy a go. Don’t Making Sales be the sad drunk fisherman at the bar talking about Now you have your membership site set up, members “the one that got away…“ coming in and consuming your content. Now you want to be able to monetise this right? Your first opportunity to make a sale should be a prominent “Upgrade” button/image on the dashboard.This could be a traditional “tripwire” or low priced item, such as a bonus module, or it could be to your core offer. If you’re selling higher ticket items, this could be a link to schedule a free strategy session. There’s loads of options, and will depend on your business.

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About The Author Adam King is “The Captain” at Think Like a Fish Digital. He is a Certified Clickfunnels and Infusionsoft Partner, with over 13 years of experience “fishing in the marketing waters”. Today his passion is helping businesses to grow and free up time and resources by building online sales automation systems that produce a quantifiable ROI.

LIVELAUNCHWEBINAR.COM

Speakers Retreat

It’s no secret that getting on stage and speaking in front of a group is the greatest fear of all time... followed by death. So when Jacki Mclenaghan created the Speaker’s Retreat, it’s no wonder that people flock to the event from across Canada and the United States.

What started from small beginnings has grown into a multi day event with over 100 attendees (next year’s event is likely to double that). And in this rare case it was primarily organic. So how do you get hundreds of speakers working on their talks, presentations skills and much more?

Well, look no further than Jacki. She is the type of person that you enjoy being around, and is extremely supportive in creating an environment that serves speakers at the highest level. While building her 3 day event, Jacki also has grown an international network for speakers in their local cities.

From San Diego, to Calgary, to even the UK, there is a safe space for speakers to practice their 1 minute, 2 minute, and 5 minute talk with an incredible caliber of like minded individuals. And Jacki is just getting started.

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“Hit the mics often to take advantage of the opportunity.” This is was a strong theme throughout the event. Everyone was encouraged to speak when given the opportunity, and to take this into their lives when they returned home. Because you can do a lot even with just a minute to speak.

During the event Jacki laid the framework for the Speakers Success Roadmap.

To be clear this is not a checklist of things to do to create your speaking business. But rather options for what could work and an ongoing process to ensure success.

“It’s the laundry.” Jacki states firmly. It’s important to unify all the strategies in each of the boxes to create your overarching strategy.

For Jacki, getting this concept alone is crucial for her attendees. Most of them want to create a to do list and be done. However, when it comes to speaking and frankly any strategy it’s an ever changing and evolving process. “I don’t believe any ONE thing will work, so I do everything.”

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As people were at different points in their business and there were enough questions around speaking that it could have been an event of it’s own, there was an opportunity to sign up for spotlight coaching. Now I have seen offers for coaching at events before. There is a lot of things that will come up when shifting to new paradigms in your business. This was the first time I had seen a line to sign up for coaching and it was as long as the wait for a ride at Disneyland.

“Every time you get on stage is a learning opportunity.”

These words are powerful for any speaker, novice to expert. It means that no matter what happens on As kid Jacki was a self proclaimed drama nerd. And stage you can learn from it and get better. Something while many of us can remember back to a time when that speakers also need to keep in mind is that you are we were bullied, she does so with grace and humor. always on stage.

She was very fortunate to have four generations living Many speakers ascend the stage and feel that it is their in her household: her mother, grandmother, great mission to get their message to the world. And while grandmother and herself. Though that network of this is true when it comes to speaking, when you are on support she was able to overcome the bullying and stage it isn’t about you. It’s about your audience and saw the real truth, that people oppress other people to how what you have to share will impact them, not you. elevate themselves. In that moment when you stand for Looking Good On Stage something you in effect put a target on your back.

Jacki describes these people as toxic, “it’s someone that • Align your appearance to your message doesn’t care about other people.” And she encourages • Make sure that what you wear on stage makes you feel powerful her tribe to learn from others and use story to elevate • Use bold lips to draw attention to your mouth others. => where your message is coming from How to Find Your Core Message • Smile Your Message + Your Vision + Your Why = Core • Leaning forward will give you presence Message It’s a simple formula but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. When sharing you message one of the things that people take for granted is who is sitting in the audience.

There is a lot to each piece of this equation.

Everyone has a different communication style and this is true in the speaking world as well. So what motivational speaker are you? Maybe Tony Robbins?

Perhaps Oprah? You might be a Deepak Chopra. Or a Jack Canfield.

And if you are missing any of the pieces it is impossible for your speaking business to be successful.

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Once you know your type it’s important to incorporate fear, passion and message. It shows the easy of creating all 4 types in your talk to better reach the whole something in the moment when you ask good questions audience. of people that are experienced and have insight on that particular topic.

“Be more impactful by saying less.”

Jacki also had a panel dedicated to discussing improv, “You can change a life in 5 minutes.” as it’s important to be able to work on the fly when As you share your story on stage it’s not the place for speaking. Panelists included Rick Olson, Jimbo you to “deal” with it. You must first own your story before Marshall, and Suzanne Evans. While this panel was you share that story publically. “Let the steam off the worth watching for the joy of the comedy itself, a lot of pot.” says Jacki. “Don’t be in your story.” It’s important to key ideas about improv were also shared. use your personal story to connect with the audience, • Tell funny stories, not jokes especially when making an offer. But you cannot put • Comedy comes in 3 laughs it on them, you must hold the reins if you are to be • Talk about tragedy and how you messed that up successful in being vulnerable.

• It’s important to accept the situation with a “yes and” attitude While Jacki spent most of the time teaching, she brought in other speakers for breakout sessions to do • Ask good questions deep dives on enrollment and using webinars as a • You are always the supporting character platform. Alex Moscow is incredible when it comes to • Don’t force funny having conversations of value and what you charge • Don’t be condescending to the audience clients for your services. He is adamant that you ensure • Release judgement that you are paid your value and are able to deliver • Listen, listen, listen and that value. Too often coaches, speakers, and others • Relinquish need for approval in the industry significantly under cut what they charge, • Trust yourself and the audience • A talk should be stories connected together undermining the very work they are doing.

• Your path to speaking is not about healing Iman shared about webinars and offers massive value yourself when it comes to being successful when speaking online. • Your story establishes value Through experience, Iman provides the blueprint for The only question you should really be asking an what you need in a webinar when it comes to the audience is “Visa or Mastercard?” It is imperative to powerpoints, landing pages, emails and templates. understand that to be on stage you also must have a And his conversions comparatively in the industry are drive to be adored. “Humor is like a jolly rancher, a little staggering. goes a long way.” Often for speakers they try to hard to Shawn Shewchuk was the next main stage presentation be funny or get the laugh and it ends up taking away on the importance of influence when it comes to from, rather than adding to their talk. speaking.

Influence Blueprint Influence = High Trust Relationships To be an influencer you must be a catalyst for change.

The bigger the problem you solve the more you are worth.

Relationship capital = the value of the network that you can cash in on Positive Impact = Positive Cash Flow

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The first night concluded with an impromptu panel that was incredible insightful. Just 5 questions were asked of 6 people pulled from the audience.

The topics discussed were on FUNNEL MAGAZINE

conversation with the audience after the fact.

Paid speaking is also a tentpole in the professional speakers wheelhouse. Keynotes can be very lucrative and pay up to $250,000 or more when you are an established celebrity or expert in your industry. Keynotes do range in budget and the important part is to ensure that you get paid for your value and your time when doing a keynote.

Suzanne Evans made a clear distinction between being liked and being agreed with. “Not everyone should agree with you.” The takeaway was that you can be liked by everyone, or most everyone one by being genuine, authentic, and real. Even if you are all those things people may or may not agree with your ideas.

Suzanne does an excellent job doing this, creating a balance of likeability with making people make a decision of whether or not they want to be a part of her tribe. “There’s never any money in the middle.” she says.

There are also stages in which you can pay the host for a speaking spot. Typically pay to play gigs are part of a sponsorship deal but they can come in other forms as well. The important thing to know before paying for a stage is knowing how much that stage is worth to you.

If you pay $5,000 or $10,000 to speak and make no conversions, that was a waste of your marketing dollars.

However, I have known speakers that knew the value of one of their dream stages to be over 6 figures. Now that is something worth investing in, whether it’s time, money or energy.

Finally you can also create a platform for speaking by hosting your own event. This probably the last stage that you want to pursue as it is the most time intensive and expensive stage to speak on. It is not uncommon for the price of hosting a 3 day at an event to run $50,000 To differentiate yourself from the crowd, how you make just on the venue, rooms, and food. your entrance on stage makes a big difference. Lazy Homework: What 3 organizations will you approach? speakers use questions as a hook. They aren’t actually Get their contact info, the best person to connect with finding out who is in the room, they are more focused (typically the event manager), and call. Have your on getting the audience in a yes set pattern. What you speaker one sheet ready. really need is a show stopper. Pat Flynn did just this as a keynote. He created a movie that referenced back How to Maximize Speaking Events to the future, and then drove down the audience in a • Research, research, research Delorean. You want to be memorable, not mediocre. • Appropriate speech for the audience How to Get More Speaking Opportunities

• Research • Don’t be all things to all people • Don’t be a square peg in a round hole • Develop Relationships • Attend Events • Use marketing materials • Join associations • Understand the different types of events There are 4 types of events that you can speak at. When you have a great strategy in place they should all make you money. There are the free speaking gigs, many of which are available in your local area on a monthly or even weekly basis. Free talks can range from just one minute up to 90 minutes or more. The key to a free talk is that you typically are not able to sell from stage. So having a great lead magnet is key to continuing the

• Offer a quiz/SMS for opt-ins • Have a Call to Action

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• Follow Up • Get testimonials • Ask for referrals Here is an example for a 1 minute speech (~150 words): As a kid I was skinny, freckled face, and kinda looked like a boy. I used to deliver newspapers and people used to say “the paper boy is here!” I also had the tragic misfortune to be a raging drama nerd. I was, however, very fortunate in that I lived with 3 moms. My mom, grandmother and great grandmother. Luckily, they really adored me.

Yes I’ve had challenges, we all have, but everyday I count my blessings for who I am, because I had love tragic misfortune to be a raging drama nerd. I loved performing and directing performances. My mother and support to balance it out. would take me to the playground and when I was in Unconditional love is why people excel and are free the presence of real life children vs. the ones that lied to pursue their dreams. This realization allowed me to in my creative mind...I would “organize them.” I like to open an international speaking organization where say organize...not boss them around. “I don’t care if you other people can get on stage and in a supportive don’t like public speaking kid...put that pacifier down environment, and share their passions and purpose. We and tell us your life story.” This is where I developed the need leaders for these clubs. Talk to me after the event format for the one-minute speech. Not a lot of life story to find out if that leader is you! for these kids to share.

Here is the same speech put into a 5 minute format I was, however, very fortunate in the sense that I lived (~500 words): with 3 moms growing up. My mother, my grandmother I have a question for you...If your kid is crazy should you and my great grandmother and they really adored me. get them professional help? Imagine you are having (Cause they had to...I kid). Do you know what it means a friend over for coffee and there are several voices to live with that many mothers? I was pretty much coming out of your child’s bedroom. Your friend asks, guaranteed that I could convince someone to make me “How many kids are in there?” Your only response can cookies at any given time. “3am...I don’t care I needs be...just Jacki. Ok if your child’s name it is not going to me some cookies G.” work but for my mom it did.

Those poor kids in the playground didn’t stand a chance. Yes there was dysfunction in my early life as is true with most everyone but a day doesn’t go by that I don’t count my lucky stars for all that I have and who I am because I had a lot of love to balance it out.

As a child people found me odd...I wasn’t always this cool specimen you see before you. I was a freckle faced, bucktooth kid that looked like a boy. I used to deliver newspapers and when I went to collect the money they would often announce me as “Grab your As I grew older I came to realize a couple very important wallet the paper boy is here!” “I’m a girl.” I also had the things…

1. Not everyone is as lucky as I am to have unconditional love surrounding them on a daily basis.

2. Having that unconditional love is why people excel and are free to pursue their dreams.

3. We all want to heard and we all have a message to share.

4. If you don’t share that message you run the risk of not fulfilling your true purpose.

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5. There is, quite often not enough stages to share our FUNNEL MAGAZINE

messages on.

leverage is.

6. I had love and support in my life and it is my mission There are three types of videos that you can use in your to share that with others. business: Quite by accident, I have launched an international speaking organization called the Public Speakers Club.

When I say by accident, I don’t actually believe in accidents, I lust mean that I launched something that I was not aware would have such a profound effect on me and the people attending the club events.

1. Positioning

This has become both my passion and my privilege, but we need leaders to grow the organization. Step up and lead, come and talk to me after the event to find out how.

To position yourself well your video must have:

2. Personality 3. Promotional Positioning

• Great copy • Be professional and high quality • A great first impression The last day of the event Suzanne Evans and Jimbo • Strong Call to Action Marshall spoke about the importance of video and • Share your movement speaking. There is a lot of competition in the speaking Personality industry. If you are serious about being a speaker To successfully produce a personality video: it’s important to understand that the doesn’t want to change. Most speakers want to change the world but • Be your authentic self only 20% are willing to change their world. Like Ghandi • Be the “Expert on the go” • Make it feel warm and homey said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

• Create a mix of professional and DIY Suzanne also had a blunt message for the room. Note on the DIY: How you say it matters, know when “STOP COACHING EACH OTHER!” Stop taking to stop talking to a person advice from people that are not qualified to give it.

And don’t confuse blessings with being blessed. While Promotional Suzanne isn’t afraid to ruffle feathers what she says has When it comes to promotional videos: merit. When she went into coaching in her first year she • Marketing HOT had a six figure business...on the side.

• High Quality = High Sales After building up her business coaching practice, so • Must hold engagement many people came to ask for support in video in their • NO Distractions strategy that Hell Yeah Studios was added to their With video one is not enough. You must have all three model. Jimbo Marshall is the Creative Director at Hell types of videos in your business to really leverage the Yeah Studios and works with Suzanne to help clients medium. create professional video.

Position + Promotion = Professional “Video is an equalizer.” she says. And the numbers don’t lie. One Facebook Live they did received 10,000 views, Personality = Both DIY and Professional and 180 shares in 3 hours. The revenue from that video Homework: totaled $278,000.

Do 8-12 monthly videos It’s obvious that our world has become a noisy one and we are now in a war for attention. “Your competition is This will allow you to transform your ideas faster and is distraction.” And the keys to getting people to watch a KEY marketing tool. your video: best produced, easiest to watch and the If you are shy about being on camera or even speaking most entertaining. This is the new wave of marketing. for that matter say the following to yourself.

Storytelling.

“I cannot be a success and be a secret.”

There are really two places that you can share stories, stage and video. By telling stories you take your audience on a transformational journey. It’s a high touch experience (hidden behind high tech). The high touch is where the money is, the high tech is where the

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Article by Josh Ellis

The Authority Funnel to End All Authority Funnels

I slowly peeled my eyes open, one sleep-filled eyelid The First Block Of Building The Ultimate Authority at a time. My head was pounding and, even though I Funnel couldn’t believe it, it was already morning.

When it comes to building authority, regardless of My back and shoulders ached and I felt like I had niche or expertise, there’s one thing that you can do to just been ran over by a dump truck loaded down with command the precipice of “Expert Mountain”. The one rocks. I had just spent 18 hours a day, for the past 9 thing that will make you the “Absolute Authority”. days straight, strategizing, fleshing out, and building It reminds me of growing up with two older brothers the funnel to end all funnels. Or at least that’s how it in our small, suburban home in Texas. We seemed felt. to always find ourselves in the same position every I slowly rolled over and grabbed my phone and hit the weekend: attempting to one-up the others with feats of “lock” button so I could see my notifications without physical strength (and mental weakness). The winner, accidentally unlocking my phone. who was nearly always my middle brother, was the one who could climb the tree the highest, or jump the I had 92 alerts since 1am (it was now 6am). furthest over the creek, or scale up the side of a random building next to the baseball field (don’t ask).

I couldn’t believe my eyes!

Cha-ching! Someone just bought my product - for $8.20!

It. Finally. Worked.

The hours and weeks of hard work had finally paid off…

But before I go into details, let me back up a little bit.

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Want to craft a funnel of Ultimate Authority?

Write a book teaching people in your niche how to do something you are good at.

But there were times when he didn’t win. There were times when I won. And those were the times when I beat my two older brothers at their own games, and it made me feel unstoppable. I felt like I was Superman, Batman, and Wolverine all wrapped up in one godlike badass. I felt like I had just slayed the dragon that had been terrorizing the world for eons. Ok, I was an excessive dramatic child. You get the point though…

Option #1. Repurposing Content To Book Strategy If you’ve been in your niche or industry for a little while, chances are you’ve spent some time writing content for your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, or some other social network.

And, if you’ve been following Russell Brunson for as long as I have, then you’ve probably tried your hand at making a video (or a few hundred), have spent some But! That is exactly what you are trying to do when you time in front of your phone staring down that tiny lens are building an authority funnel. Your goal is to take out as you do Facebook Live videos. all of your competitors in one swing. You want to make everyone in your niche completely irrelevant and seem That is KILLER content that you can be, and should like white noise when compared to you. be repurposing in more ways than one. If you don’t already have a process for turning videos into podcasts How do you do that? Well, it’s simple! You have to be and blog posts, here’s your wake up call. the person who wrote “the book” about your “thing”, in your niche or subject. Think about it! How many times While I’m not giving you the process to create blog have you heard “he/she know so much about *insert posts and podcasts, the process that I am going to give topic here* that they wrote a book on it!” I would venture you, the step by step process for is turning your current to say a lot. And it makes your opinion and projected content into an authority building book, can be altered value/authority of that person go way up! just slightly to accomplish pretty much anything with repurposed content.

That needs to be you! You have to be that guy/girl, you have to leverage the general population’s perceived Step 1: Identify the best of the best, cream of the crop value/authority of printed media to become an instant articles, videos, podcasts, and/or Facebook Live videos expert. that you’ve created for your niche.

Long story short, what I’m saying is… you need to write a book – more specifically, a book teaching people in your niche how to do something you are good at, and that you have a product around. That is, if you want to craft a funnel of Ultimate Authority…

Step 2: Collate your best content into one place; even if that’s just you putting the links to your content into a Google Doc.

The Three Ways To Write A Killer Book – With Little To No Work

- Job #1: This is going to be for someone who is fluent in the language you want the book to be written in, and someone who can take videos, blogs, posts, etc. and turn them into a single coherent book. More than likely you’re going to want to post the job for someone who would consider themselves a “copywriter”. – They are going to write your book.

Step 3: Leverage the power of delegation. You’re going to need to log into Upwork (or similar service) and post Why? Because a book does just that… Brings authority. two jobs. (Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what they are).

For some of us, the thought of sitting down behind the faint glow of a laptop, or computer monitor, staring at the blank pages of a Word document, is extremely intimidating. For others, not so much, and they’re able to whip up thousands of polished words per hour.

Everyone is different, but that doesn’t change the fact - Job #2: Is for an editor, also fluent in the language that a book needs to be written! you want the book to be written in. This person’s sole job is to take the finished work your copywriter provides, If you’re more like me, and less like the literary freaks and edit it for grammar, punctuation, and flow. In my that could write a book fast enough to make George R. opinion, a good editor is worth their weight in gold. – R. Martin squirm with jealousy, then I have a few, easyThey are going to edit your book. breezy, alternatives to putting together an effective, authoritative, book that you can start leveraging Step 4: Start funneling all of your best content, relatively quickly in all of your marketing. and any new pieces of content you create, directly to your copywriter.

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Step 5: Work with your 2 new book creators. Yes, you will have to work at this. You are the one in charge of determining how the book flows, the content, the chapters, the overall message, and approving several rough drafts. Be proactive and involved. Yes, it is going to take work (and time). But, when it is all finished, you’ll have your book! And in the end – that’s all that matters.

Overall Project Completion Time: 3-8 weeks.

Option 2. Have Someone Else Do It To Book Strategy

the time to sit behind your laptop, then sit down and rock out! This is by far the most authentic, yet I would still highly recommend hiring an editor. (Yes, it is that important, and no matter how hard you try to perfect it, having a second set of eyes for grammar and editing is crucial.)

I’ve found three helpful tips that always help me finish writing projects that I’ve started.

Tip #1: Schedule Time to Write – and Stick To It

The number one excuse that my friends, colleagues, A more expensive, but typically better quality, way to and clients tell me about why they didn’t finish a blog obtain a well-written book is by hiring someone who post, social media post, or book they have supposedly already has book writing experience, to write your book started is that they just didn’t have time. for you.

But they found time to go shopping, they spent time Typically, this person is called a ghostwriter, and is watching movies, and, even worse, they actively spent someone who has written books for other people, and time trying to figure out something to do other than doesn’t require, or even want, any authorship credit write. toward the book. While some people may consider this Don’t be that person. Set aside a specific amount of “cheating”, there are a wide range of people who don’t time to write each day, even if it’s just 20 minutes. Then have the ability or time to sit down and write a book. stick to it, and write.

Some examples of authors who have done this include: Donald Trump, George Takei, Pamela Anderson, and Tip #2: Map Out Your Idea Beyonce, just to name a few.

There are many tips on writing a book, but one of the Using a ghostwriter is definitely a time and effort most crucial is plotting out your book. You don’t need a saver, but again, you’re still expected to do some work. full outline, but it’s best to prepare (at minimum) a short Providing the content and knowledge can only be done timeline of the biggest events (plot points) you want to by you, as it is your book. Especially if you don’t have cover. You can always change it, but by having a plan any previous content to provide to your ghostwriter. in place from the beginning you know where you are They interview you, pick your brain with very detail heading, making it less likely you’ll get stuck. questions, and then craft/write a book in a way that Tip #3: Never Stop Writing At The End Of a Chapter reflects your styles and beliefs.

You’ll also be expected to review things such as the One of the hardest parts of writing is starting with a Table of Contents, your chapter names, the chapters blank page. If you stop writing mid-chapter, you’ll themselves, and the overall book. Again, I would highly always have a lead-in to get you going the next time suggest that your ghostwriter uses an editor. If they you sit down to write. If you’re someone who needs the don’t have one they use or have a relationship with, it is closure of a chapter or are in a writing groove and can’t stop, that’s OK—just write the first paragraph of the your job to provide one you trust. next chapter before calling it a night. This will increase Remember, even though you are not the technical your chances of avoiding writer’s block and help you writer, you are responsible for the overall quality of the more easily dive into book writing the next day. You’re book. It’s a direct reflection on you. If you don’t take the welcome. reins and direct the project in the way you want it to be Overall Project Completion Time: 8-52 weeks – the only one to blame is yourself.

(TIP: One of the best tips that I’ve ever found about Overall Project Completion Time: 8-12 weeks leveraging the authority of a book involves building Do It Yourself To Book Strategy anticipation for the book. By simply saying that you’re the author of the upcoming book “Title of Book” in your If you truly are the subject matter expert bio online, email signature, or blog posts, starts to build in your niche or industry, and authority without a single page of your book ever being you have, or can make, written.)

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You’ve Got Your Book – Now What?

Alright! So you’ve crushed your first book, sent it to the editor, received a copy back from the editor, and you’re ready to do something with it. What now?

If you have a list, or a group of people in your niche and industry that you trust, I would float it by them first. Let them take a read and give you their opinion.

Now, if you’ve followed this guide to the letter, you will have produced a “how to” book that teaches the reader a little bit about you, your business, and have provided the reader with the confidence that they need to execute the plan.

Kind of like this article…

How Do You Eat An Elephant? One Bite At A Time I couldn’t believe my eyes.

The fact of the matter is, we actually gave the book away for free… Well, kinda. See, there’s a common misconception when it comes to writing a book. That being that the author is going to be able to sell the book and actually make money from it. Deals where you use an agent and a publishing house to write and publish a book, and make a profit from it, are typically few and far between.

Because most people can’t find someone to publish their book AND pay them money for it, they typically give and don’t do anything. It’s human psychology.

Things get hard – people give up. It’s that simple.

Now, I am not saying it is impossible to make money with a book. BUT, for with the book we are writing, our goal is NOT to make a profit with the book itself… Let me explain.

Utilizing the book in a funnel has authority in and of We had 92 people buy our book in 5 hours. Even in itself. Most people don’t understand, or know how to my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have believed that it accomplish, self-publishing. So if you have a book - a was possible. But that’s what happens when you build tangible, bound book, which people can hold in their hands – you’ve skyrocketed in perceived value and funnels – they work while you sleep! expertise.

Ding! Cha-ching! Someone bought something for So, doing just that – utilizing your book in an authority $8.20! funnel - becomes your goal. That is where you make I sat up in bed and tried to rub my eyes open. I was your money. So, if your cost to print and ship the book so excited! However, what I didn’t know at the time is $8.20, and you make $8.20 per book, you are was that it was going to go on like this for the next two winning, and set up for success. weeks.

The era of the “millionaire” author is gone and long But, what I did know then, was that I was going to have forgotten. Unless you’re Stephen King or Tom Clancy, to go into the office and figure out the toughest part or you’ve built a following of hundreds of thousands, it’s of this entire equation – how the heck were we going to getting harder and harder to get published. fulfill these orders?

That’s why we give our books away for “free”. The book There are several options for fulfilling on a self- itself isn’t what we’re after. It’s just the first step in our published book. Believe me, I’ve tried most of them. funnel.

Finally, I found Create Space from Amazon. It made fulfillment simple. We hired a VA to go through and Let me explain… complete the orders for the books using a stored credit The $140 PROFIT Per “Free” Book Sold Funnel card and then ship them to our customers as the orders came in. By charging $8.20, we were able to cover the Traffic -> Sales Page for “Strategy” Book (this is your full cost of printing the book AND shipping the book to book) -> OTO -> Webinar Registration -> Webinar -> our customers. I think we even made $0.10-$0.25 per Application book… which is a lot better than losing money!

Now I can’t take credit for the entirety of this funnel.

I’ve had some amazing teachers, mentors, and (Over 2500 books shipped in about 6-7 weeks) collaborators that have definitely helped me along the Defining the Free + Shipping Book Strategy path of becoming a fully-fledged “Digital Marketer”.

So you may have noticed that I said we And by now you’ve probably read more books and charged $8.20 for the book, (including articles than I could ever hope to write about the proper shipping!?) and thought, “oh, way to setup a funnel. What I’m going to ask you to do that must be their cost or is a little counterintuitive. But bare with me… something”.

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I need you to forget everything you know about funnels, And it did – it actually covered an average of 98% of and dive into this funnel with me. our ad spend. So we were able to grow our list AND put people into an extremely profitable funnel nearly Funnel Step #1: Driving Traffic for free.

Most of our traffic was driven from either our list via Funnel Step #4: Webinar Registration Page email, or from a custom audience we created on Facebook. The messaging was all very similar, and we We modified this funnel for a few weeks before we used images that would help us catch their attention started main-lining traffic into it. We discovered that (such as a picture of someone holding our book in their it was possible for us to tack-on a high-ticket offer to hand). the back end of a “free + shipping” offer with immense success.

Our goal was to get them to the page. Then, if they didn’t purchase the book outright, we retargeted them The best way for us to indoctrinate luke warm or cold on Facebook with advancing degrees of urgency and prospects on the offer was to create a webinar. scarcity.

The webinar page was in constant flux as we ran Funnel Step #2: The “Free Offer” Page prospects through to it, but it’s job was to have the traffic self-segment into one of three segments based Instead of having them opt in for a step one (with their on where they were in their business. email address and first name only), we drove traffic directly to a sales page.

We knew the bottom two segments (segments 1 and 2) couldn’t afford the high ticket offer, so we ran them Why? Because over 50% of the traffic to our free offer through a separate webinar and funnel to pick up a page came from our list anyway. There was no reason few more of our lower ticket offers. to capture their email address again if they weren’t interested in purchasing the book.

Funnel Step #5: The Webinar The page had images of the book, testimonials, and compelling copy as to why they would want to purchase the book, the benefits the strategies in the book we were offering would have their business, and how it had produced stellar results for other businesses just like theirs.

The top segment, (segments 3) are the ones that we knew could afford our high-ticket offer. So we ran them through an evergreen webinar to indoctrinate them even further on the strategy outlined in the book – showing them the results that we hadn’t included in the book – and offering to teach them 1-on-1.

Looking back, I think we could have had a much higher initial conversion to our “luke warm” list if we would have added a video from our author on the page. You live, you learn.

If they were interested in attending a live, hands on event, they could apply for 1 of 5 spots available. They had to qualify themselves in order to purchase our highticket offer.

Funnel Step #3: The One Time Offer

Funnel Step #6: The Follow Up

As discussed, the book is used to introduce the idea of a specific strategy to the audience. It gives a step-by-step detailing of how it was implemented in our business, and how the reader can implement this same strategy in their business as well, and why it will work.

Something I learned along time ago was that only a portion of the people who ever go through a webinar will purchase… regardless of if they actually want to purchase the product or service. Some people are just not buyers. Don’t stress it.

Our one time offer, which was also a one-click upsell, is a $297 course with ad templates for hiring the best type of person to fill the role that would execute the strategy in your business so the business owner wasn’t doing the job himself or herself.

We focused a lot of our time on perfecting the email sequence, Facebook, and phone follow-ups with those people in the top segment (Segment 3) as they are most likely to purchase.

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By staying focused and committing to our process, we We also tend to call this type of offer a were able to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars “liquidator offer”. It’s entire job is to make worth of revenue out of a “free + shipping” offer. enough revenue to cover the ad Why Building Authority Matters spend that we’re using to generate the traffic.

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If you’ve made it this far in this article, chances are you are serious about building and leveraging authority.

You also now know one of the strategies I use to help my clients leverage authority and become perceived as experts in their industry.

conversation and ask tough questions, it’s easy to see why human resource departments all over the country would favor the one with the master’s degree. The reason? That person has set himself or herself apart.

Putting Yourself In Your Audience’s Shoes However, one thing we haven’t touched on is why Think about it – your audience doesn’t have time to sit authority matters. down and get to know everyone that is grabbing for If you’re anything like me, and I would assume that their attention. On top of that, you, and everyone else, most of us in the funnel building industry are similar, is trying to get them to spend their hard earned money then you’ve probably spent an exorbitant amount of on something. They have to make snap judgments time learning about human psychology and marketing. based solely on what information they have.

I’m also guessing you’ve probably watched a ton of What better way to help you stand out from the crowd Russell Brunson videos or listened to his podcast a time then becoming the author of a book? Automatic or two. authority.

I firmly believe that it’s exactly as he says. Everyone is Not only does it help elevate you above your an expert at something. competition, but a well-written book also builds rapport between you and the reader, lengthening and But therein lies the dilemma – if everyone is the expert strengthening your relationship with them. at something, then we all have to do something to be able to stand out to our audience.

That’s all marketing is about. Building a relationship with your prospective customers, and leveraging that If your audience is subscribed to your list, and four of rapport in ever increasing value. your competitors’ lists, that means that they’re getting emails from 5 (or more) people about the same thing... So go, write a book. Leverage it for authority. Create a about the same problem… and about the same solution. community and culture around it, and sell your products and services to customers that already know who you YOU NEED TO RENDER YOUR COMPETITION are, and appreciate you. People buy people… people IRRELEVANT don’t buy products.

(By Standing Out From The Crowd) You have to find the thing that makes you, you! That “something” that makes you stand out from the noise.

Think about it, regardless of your view on our current educational system and whether or not it’s worth going to school right now, if you take 5 people and compare them side-by-side.

If everything is the same…

They all have blue eyes, blonde hair, all are women, all are 26 years old, all are wearing the exact same grey dress and black heels.

All of them drive the same type of car, live in the same subdivision, in the same house, married to the same type of guy, and have the same aged children…

But one of them has an MBA and the others only have a high school diploma. At first blush – who would you hire?

If you didn’t have the opportunity to dive into a

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The Myth of the Magic Bullet Article by Andrew Wallist

SPOILER ALERT: The Myth of the Magic Bullet

Perhaps for the same reasons our clients buy fast food, enjoy instant gratification, and think they can lose I’ve lost count of small business owners who look for the weight without exercising.

Magic Bullet - that one thing they need to do to ensure Add to that the continual barrage of advertisers on their success. social media who are willing to sell you their secret to There have been times when someone has contacted success – grrr!! me in a blind panic asking “what’s that ONE thing” That REALLY annoys me. they need to do, to generate funds.

Please don’t fall foul of these claims, no matter how I’m sorry to be the one that breaks it to you, but the tempting they sound.

Magic Bullet doesn’t exist.

If it was as easy as they say it is, then we would all be Small business owners who spend time looking for that doing it already. one magic bullet waste their resources and always end So, what should you do instead? up frustrated and disappointed.

The truth is that there’s no one single pathway to First off, give up the search for that one perfect solution, success, but I do offer hope and an insight into the one and get down to creating a plan of action that has at least several pieces to it.

SKILL that ALL successful people have.

Stop wasting your time wishing for what’s not out there More on that in a bit. and start working on a tangible, reasonable plan that Your products and services are multi-dimensional, as will get you to where you want to go. are your clients. One approach couldn’t possibly fit all.

Commit to TAKING ACTION. And different tactics work differently for your company CAN YOU GUESS THE SKILL THAT THE as it grows and changes.

WORLD’S So why do we continually seek the magic bullet MOST SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE HAVE IN of success?

COMMON?

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Ask a selection of business owners what they believe the highest paid skill-set is and you’re bound to hear answers such as…

...selling, networking, leadership, and more.

negotiation,

All of the above are important key skills.

innovation, produces a better meal.

2. HAVE A CLEARLY WRITTEN PLAN THAT YOU REFER TO ON A DAILY BASIS

But none of these skills are valuable if you can only do If consistency is a priority, having a written plan with them once or even now-and-then. the most important activities will help.

The difference between a NFL player with a multi- You’ll create a plan for keeping you on track and focused million dollar contract and one who makes the league on critical behaviours. The plan can be simple, but it minimum is also a result of this one thing… serves as a reminder of what must be done to sustain consistent efforts which lead to consistent performance.

And that ONE THING is…

I rely on a SELF Journal, and make a commitment to CONSISTENCY complete it every day and to block time to review the Consistency in your results creates confidence in your week I have just completed on a Sunday and then plan reliability, which brings assurance and removes risk for ahead for the upcoming week. the clients who pay you.

3. CREATE RULES FOR YOURSELF Sports men and women who can be consistently Create rules to hold yourself accountable or hire a counted on to score a match-winning point, make a business coach or mentor to do that for you. catch or perform under pressure, time and again, reap the lion’s share of the rewards.

The rules that help keep me consistent are simple, such as…

As a business owner, you know the importance of consistency for your clients to achieve their desired “I work out when I wake up.” results.

That’s a rule.

The same holds true for you in your business.

Another rule I’ve set is that, “I write something, a blog Look no further than the biggest reason for the success post, social media post or an article, every morning of major franchises and companies such as McDonald’s before working with my clients or on my own business.” and Starbucks.

When it’s a rule, you’re more likely to follow it.

Do they have the best product on the market?

4. COMMIT TO HABITS, NOT GOALS. Absolutely not.

The surest way to achieve your goals isn’t to chase But their customers can rely on getting a “consistent them, but to create the right habits that automatically experience” every single time. move you toward your goals almost effortlessly.

Your Market Will Reward Consistency Much More than The best part about habits is that they don’t require Quality willpower. They are automatic behaviours and either work for you or against you.

If, however, you can combine both consistency and quality, then you can create an extremely successful 5. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS. business and a strong brand.

A famous Peter Drucker quote is “What gets measured, The examples are endless, but you can see that it’s gets managed” and it is a principle I strongly believe in. consistency that is rewarded more than any real skill.

Even if you get off track and slip up, if you track your So how do you create consistency in your business? progress, it will remind you how far you’ve come and it will keep you going even when you feel like quitting.

First off, show up and do the work, even when you don’t feel like it—especially when you don’t feel like it.

6. FALL IN LOVE WITH THE PROCESS, NOT THE PROGRESS. I have compiled a list of 7 Steps to help you ensure that Consistency becomes a habit in your life and business… We are wired for instant gratification and results and this can be difficult.

1. STOP FOCUSING ON SHORT-TERM RESULTS But it’s easier when you Life is not a microwave. It’s a slow cooker. If you’ve celebrate small tried a winter casserole from both, you’ll know which

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wins and take pride in the path you’re on, regardless of Next time you’re stuck in your business and are feeling where it gets you. stagnant or you’re not achieving your goals, simply ask yourself where you’re failing to be consistent and how Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? The you can change course. tortoise was slow but consistent and ended up winning the race. Life is a marathon, not a sprint!

ANDREW WALLIS 7. REMEMBER: CONSISTENCY IS A MUSCLE Andrew is a business consultant whose primary focus AND MUSCLES NEED TO BE EXERCISED. is helping fitness business owners see the wood for the trees. Prior to running his own PT business in the UK The most highly paid and in-demand skill in life isn’t and Australia, he spent 20 years in the offshore finance something you can learn in a book or school. industry managing property and investment portfolios It must be practiced and put into action “consistently.” of the rich and famous. When he’s not at work, he enjoys traveling the globe.

It’s a never-ending pursuit with never-ending rewards.

As a business owner, clients and customers will reward you with their loyalty and repeat purchases if they can count on a consistently good experience.

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