Funnel Magazine Volume 2: Edition 10 by Funnel Magazine™

FUNNEL MAGAZINE TRAFFIC & LEAD GEN

6 FUNNEL FEATURES

EXCLUSIVE CONTENT

5 THINGS YOU CAN DO TODAY TO INCREASE CONVERSION ON YOUR FUNNEL UP TO 35%

THE INTERVIEW

50 METRICS

STRATEGY & TACTICS

LEADERSHIP

70 SOCIAL MEDIA

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LETTER

FROM THE EDITOR

VIRAL LOOP COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT

FAILURE IS A MYTH VICTORY IS INEVITABLE

SIMPLIFYING THE SALES FUNNEL

TIM LYONS

GROWTH PLAN STRATEGY BLOWING THE DOORS OFF OF GYMS

RELEVANT CONTENT WILL ALWAYS BE RELAVANT AND EFFECTIVE

COMMUNITY MATTERS FOR ENTREPRENEURS

METRICS IN PRODUCTION ENVIRONMENTS

BUILD YOUR LIFESTYLE FIRST

SUCCESS VS ACHIEVEMENT

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LETTER FROM THE EDITOR OF

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Dear Funnel Hackers, I am so pumped up to be bringing you Tim Lyons for Our October Edition he is an absolute genius when it comes to Brick and Mortar Funnels especially for the fitness industry. He mentions in the interview that being an entrepreneur means you have to conquer a lot of different job positions in your company you have to be the janitor, the marketer, the trainer and the salesperson. Anything and Everything falls on top of you to fix, to launch, and to succeed, all on one person until you start hiring out and automating. In my experience I see this first hand being married to an entrepreneur in the digital marketing field, I definitely see all the different hats he has to wear from Information Technology to be able to coach your client to be able to pull the best message from all the thoughts in their head to make content for them that actually converts. Ultimately your clientâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success is your own success! Wearing all those hats takes away from your focus of what really sets you apart and being the person you have to be, The Entrepreneur! Sometimes we all need some direction on road trips, so we go to the GPS for direction, Tim Lyons tells us all about ProFit GPS, Growth Plan Strategy in this edition! Your Editor, Tricia Wilkes

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“The Flexy List Building Method” I’m Bringing Sexy Back to List Building. ARTICLE BY Karl Schuckert

Want to learn the most effective, easiest list building combination of messenger marketing along with what method that does not require, Ads, Sales Pages or I call smart or FLEXY links. These links are the secret Funnels? sauce to any old school online marketing tactic. It will all come together here very soon. So treat my part of Great follow along, and I will teach you something you this book as a guide to get you up and running on how most likely have never seen of or heard about. to build your very own “Flexy Links.” I’m coining this “The Flexy List Building Method” I’m Attention, attention, we are in what’s called the attention bringing sexy back to list building. And this is probably economy. OK, so you know the best value or the best the most underlooked less known way to build a list. thing that any marketer wants to go after. Attention, At the same time, it’s the lowest barrier to entry. After sure It’s not hard to get eyeballs, impressions that’s not I explain why you should be investigating this method hard to get. But attention is another level. It’s like when my goal is to equip you with a new and quick way to someone sits down to watch their favorite TV show; build and engage your list using this new undiscovered they’re giving that TV show all of their attention. That’s method for building a list. why they pepper advertisements through because those Why am I dubbing this as “The Flexy List Building advertisers know there’s a good chance most of the Method.” Because it’s the most versatile way you can people in that demographic are going to at least see build your list, you can use it with anything you can stick their ads. Now, if they’re going to take action is another a link to. We will dive more deeply into this soon. thing. With messenger it allows your customers to take And I’m sure by now you have heard about action while it grabs attention because Facebook™ has bot and messenger marketing. “The done such a great job creating an environment inside of Flexy Method” is used in Messenger. Where they’ve made it fun, they brought in emotions, they brought in emojis, stickers, voice, video calls and gifs making it part of life’s journey. VOLUME 2

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It’s integrated as part of life now. It’s starting to. It’s I’ll be completely transparent here. It is two different becoming part of life as we know it so pretty smart on verticals. It is different. There’s just a different marketing Facebook all within Messenger. So let’s look at some sense in there. Because email is long-form sales copy. messenger statistics. Typically there’s usually a storyboard or something that’s grabbing curiosity, grabbing your attention, Over 1.3 Billion users are on messenger right now. I’m pulling you through a message, getting you to click a pretty sure that your demographic is in Messenger. button, and that’s typically how email works. Where There’s a good chance that any of your demographics messenger is very short, it’s more conversational, so it are in Messenger. actually should be easier for you to create a messenger 67% of people expect to message more in the next two Bot than it is to write an email because it’s very short. Once you get the hang of it, you will see. years. It’s like you’d want to take that same email that you would build in one long email and shorten it drastically. 2 billion messages are sent between people and Get some clicks and get them in the direction they businesses every month on Messenger. want to go. Hey, they have options to go to a button 55% of people said being able to message a business or options to move off that list or move into a different makes them feel more like likely to trust the business. subscription. So there a little bit different. That’s huge. BTW, if you have a business you want to If you look here, 24%, 25% open rates, that’s pretty work with and they’re immediately responding to you, good. Internally we get, and I’ll show you guys in a even if it’s a Bot, (we’ll talk about that a little bit later minute, on) even if it’s a Bot, the fact that they’re responding to you gives you that feeling there are a brick and mortar but internally we get like 10 to maybe 15% click-through behind it. There’s an accomplished set up the structured rates, 4.19%. That’s pretty freaking good. I think we get company that I can trust and do commerce with. So it’s like one of those things like all these little trust values, and you can add to your business, which increases conversions. 67% expect to do it more. They just know it’s coming.

55% say that they would trust a business that has responses in messenger. 56% of the people would rather message than call customer support. Again, that’s instant gratification. Getting answers to my question right away and if you need to pop on life, which Facebook has set it up to where you can if a customer asks a question that your bot can’t handle, you’re going to be notified inside of like one, one and a half percent typically, and then a Facebook and messenger. So pretty cool. We have messenger. These are just averages. This was on Neil something built in there as well inside of SegMateApp. Patel site where he shows the averages. 70% of returning students in the US would rather use 88% read rates, which is the same thing as the open messenger to contact a school with an application question that’s just showing you the younger demographics are already adapting and have already adapted to messenger already. 53% of who message businesses are more likely to shop with a business. They can message directly. 63% of people say being able to message a business rate. That means people are seeing your makes them feel closer to the business. message So again, kind of going on that trust factor. Now let’s look at some email statistics, versus messenger, because everybody likes to show a versus e-mail versus messenger statistics. EDITION 10 FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

and 56% click-through rates. These numbers are pretty accurate because in SegMateApp. That’s pretty much what we’re seeing as well. Email versus facebook statistics. Now I changed this. I used to say this was a 10 x difference. It’s really like a 50 x difference, and it’s like saying a 300 messenger subscriber list is equivalent to having a 3000 person email list because of those open rates and because of those click-through rates. Now here I show kind of a versus I got the email on the left, and you could see like seven point something percent less than a half a percent 19. That was a good one. 19 percent and then 3.4, so that was a good one. Right? But look at it. That wasn’t a very big list. Some of the bigger lists you could see open rates, 40 people click that a 5,000, 430. It’s not that good. It’s still effective, so do not get me wrong you still want to have email, and I’m not saying to get rid of the email. I’m not saying email is bad or anything like that. Just saying that you want to add other ways to communicate with your customer base that could be much more effective. It depends on the type of message that you want to build out for them. If you’re doing spam and stuff like that, the messenger will not work at all. It’s prohibited. But email, you can do it; however the issue with email is, if it goes into someone’s spam folder unless you know how to check for that, you don’t know. Right? You don’t know if you’re hitting those spam folder with messenger it’s a little bit more effective because you know that it’s going to deliver. So hope you are starting to get it. Let’s do the math. This is quick math here. But here, do the math. Email 3000 people, 10 percent open. That’s 300 bucks. 300 people who have been 80 percent open. That’s a 240. So it’s fewer people opening, but we’re talking about it quite a bit different size of the list. Then email 300 people open, one to three percent click. That’s only 3 to 9 clicks. Where on messenger bots 240 people over 50 percent click. That’s 120 clicks. So which one would you rather use most often?

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you get a Facebook™ messenger message, and it’s coming from facebookmail.com, so it’s going to have high deliverability rates. Facebook™ is definitely on top of that, and they swap out different email addresses and domains. It also shows their address on there, so it’s not like it’s even coming from you. It’s coming from Facebook™. A big thing that I want to point out here is that they show where it’s coming from here and they have this huge call-to-action button, which is going to get a click. It’s short, sweet, simple. They know where they’re getting it from. The other thing that happened a couple of years ago, Facebook was pushing hard to download their Messenger app and why would they do something like that? Well, because they can now get push notifications. They can give you a push notification directly on your phone and your desktop. So they’re going to get those messages in front of you which are going to get higher deliverability rate because they’re utilizing other technology to push you back into messenger. They also have SMS text this is something that some people prefer, and they’ll turn it on and which works great for them and some people who turn them on, forget how to turn them back off, so they’re still getting these text messages sent to them directly from Facebook, directing them back into the messenger app where they’re going to open up your company’s message. I call it the Trifecta Effect because it’s taking three incredibly effective technologies to use them on their platforms. How smart is that? Now here’s what the points of entry are, these are how you kind of build a list, These all build your list with just a click of the screen or link or button. I want to make sure that you are getting this.

Basically what this is like is a boosted post ad where people reply to the comments we use utilizing a certain keyword like, “I’m interested” or “I’m in” I’m sure you have seen this engagement bait. There’s no more engagement bait. Unfortunately, Facebook™ got rid of it. However, there are more creative ways to get engagement and then just use a multitude of keywords that you’re seeing people use on that boosted post

(PPE Page Post Engagement Ads), especially when you boost a post that’s very relevant and viral. Also too, they have the click to message ads. That’s another way to add people to your list. They have the welcome message, and the get started tabs on pages. When somebody agrees, and they accept they’re on your list, they have the One-click Opt-in checkbox. You also have the message us button, OK, those are just the buttons. You can stick them anywhere. You have to send a messenger button. The same type of thing that you have sharing options which is inside a messenger where people can share things from inside of messenger and if someone starts engaging with your Bot, then they have these m.me links which are super hot underused people don’t even understand them yet. I’m going to help you guys understand them today and are part of ‘The Flexy List Building Method.” Then they have the support chat widget. Plus any engagement with Messenger and your business will get your subscribers on your messenger list. And, there are more ways and stuff coming out, this is smart marketing going into the year, and it’s going to continue to get hotter and hotter as the year goes by. Going into the following year as well.

worked before. Until now because of “The Flexy List Building Method.” So what is it? Well, here’s some of the most case uses. It could be a blueprint, a, it could be a case study. I mean, people love this kind of stuff. They love blueprints; they love Rolodexes, they love case studies, especially if you know your target market, you know you’ve identified your Avatar or your persona of who you know who you’re going after. Then you’re going to want to design

that lead magnet around that persona or around that Avatar. So blueprint in that industry you’re in as well. So if you’re in the healthcare industry, or you’re in the six pack abs

Now let’s get into the workshop part of this training. I’m coining this as “The Flexy List Building Method.” Make sure you take lots of notes or highlight this part because this is like the most, flexible list building method I guarantee you’ve ever seen or heard of. Unless you’ve seen this before, you probably don’t fully understand industry, you kind of know what they resonate best with how to use it. You probably don’t even understand how and people like free reports, they like pdf’s. powerful it was until now. Here’s another thing, free download, get a pdf, a, here’s your free Ebook, OK? You know, here’s your free e-book or training course. It could be a mini training course; it could be a webinar. Where we are going to train you and show you how to build lead magnets for your business utilizing this one strategy. It can be a free workshop. It could be a local workshop; it could be a meetup. I think you are getting it right? There so many things you can use for a lead magnet if you can imagine it you can build it. What is your business missing out on? What does your business need more of? Typically, So first off, you need to have a lead magnet. A lead businesses need more leads. And a great way to get magnet is by definition, an irresistible bribe offering a leads is an ethical bribe with something free of value. specific chunk of value to a prospect in exchange for The higher the value, the better the conversion rate is. their contact information. And the goal of this is to get a lead, and typically what you’re going to see is a landing page or an opt-in page or a squeeze page. And they’re asking for an email address. This is how lead magnets always

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Coupons also work great for e-commerce, you want to get a coupon, there’s a good ethical bribe to get people on your list, right? How about free trials. Now we show our site, and we show our little. I call them are kind of like our mascot. We’ve got a free trial, a 14-day free trial that everybody sees when they go to https:// segmateapp.com. These are the elements you can use to keep your new leads engaged in the conversation.

Also free daily quote subscription. I think people are misunderstanding these even because if you’re an influencer or you have a niche, people love quotes, and if you could get a daily quote service or even a religion even, you had a daily quote service that sent a nice little message. You’ve built out this quote about the sequence of quotes inside a messenger. It improves the day and not only that, what it does for your business is that it gets visibility. The people that are seeing your message over and over again, their senior logo. They see the name of your company. They see your colors so they are getting indoctrinated to your business or getting to know your business, know like in your business more and they know about your services, so that way when they’re ready to buy, who else are they going to think of?

Here’s another good idea, if some people don’t have any ideas and they’re trying to figure this out. Well you can buy PLR, it’s called private label rights and a lot of them typically you can take the information and rewrite it in your style even, or just to come up with some ideas in your niche. You could google PLR products, and you’ll find them. How do you do that? So you, after you’ve built your lead magnet, you’re going to want to build a delivery method, OK? The best way to do the delivery method is in messenger because we want to collect those leads, right?

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Want to get those subscribers on our list. Here second thing we’re gonna do is we’re going to create a delivery method inside the bot. (Delivery Bot) So you’re going to create the first one, and we will tag it as a promotional message (FB Rules on the tagging part.), and you’re going to have something that’s going to deliver information to them and educate them about your services, and you probably do a follow-up after that in a sequence. Kind of like you would in an email autoresponder. Then after that, it’ll fall under what’s called subscription. Let’s not worry about some of the technicals. We can get you up to speed if you start your free 14-day trial at SegMateApp.com. After that, you’re going to create these things called m.me links. And again, these are very, very powerful because when you click them, they take people to messenger and as soon as someone accepts they then become a subscriber to your messenger list. They get delivered the product that you promise and in return you get a subscriber on your list. 1-2-3 easy as that. There is one other step I added here.

I think this is very important because, if you look at these m.me links, they’re kind of ugly, no they’re very ugly. People probably aren’t going to click on them either. So you’ve got a pretty them up a little bit, This is called cloaking or pretty links, and you can do some cool things. The way that these works are you’ll name it; you’ll put the URL link here, you’ll put a pretty slug at the end. We have our own Pretty Link Cloaker called Click Site and we give this to every one of our users. So it has a call-to-action built into the URL. We also have https, so it is a trusted URL when people see them, and then you can name it from there. On top of that, I want to mention that you could do stuff like split testing so you could send it to two different URLs and split test two different chatbots or delivery bots at the end of these links and test if one gets more engagement over the other. It also has tracking, and this is huge too by the way because now you can add pixels to the pretty cloaked link. So now you can remarket to them, so maybe they didn’t subscribe. You could find out if they subscribed or not. If they didn’t subscribe, you could send to another type of ad to get them into another lead magnet. But it’s continuing to influence someone that was interested in at least a click. (A little more complex but it’s there if you need it.) Now here’s where it gets interesting. OK, you’ve got your lead magnet, you’ve got your free offer, you’ve got your pretty links built. Now how do you get traffic, and there is tons and tons of free traffic if you know how to do it. So what you can do is what I call value-based content and post. You can go to facebook fan pages and groups. You can ask the group moderators and say, Hey, I have this amazing report I put together. I’m going to write about it and give all the report information for free, and then if they want to get the download, they could click this link, and I’ll deliver it to them. Is that easy? Is that cool? If I do that in your group, I like to ask for permission for that kind of stuff because I feel like it’s going into someone’s home and peeing on the carpet. If I didn’t get permission, and I run a few groups, and I’ve seen people do that, and I don’t always agree with it, but some groups that are out there, I’m not going to name them, but there are some big large groups out there that they just don’t even care. They’re just like post whatever you want in here and as long as it’s following the niche that you’re in, underwater basket weaving or whatever it is, as long as it’s developing the niche and provides value to its members, you’re going to get free clicks. Especially if you’re talking about something interesting to that group and if you run your own fan pages and you run your

Facebook™ groups, you can do whatever you want. If you own your youtube channel, you could do whatever you want. I just did this on my personal page. I just put this up yesterday actually, and I just asked in the copy “want to see something cool?” Kind of like this, with a curiosity angle “This is just one of the methods you’ll learn about during our live strategy.”

This got 47 clicks and less than in a 24 hour period. Just that one post. Pretty amazing. The other thing you can do is you can go to forums, Say you’re into a Frisbee golf club in your local area and there’s this huge frisbee golf following online and you know where those forums are, can write and start your own forum. You can also reply to comments in other forums or blogs, and you can give people a call-to-action with those links. You could do this with all social media. Especially Twitter and Facebook which works really well. I don’t think this will work with Instagram because they don’t allow linking unless they do now with images I have heard. Which is something I heard but have not tested yet? Also, with image linking much on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest as all of these will allow putting links on a post, or comments and as long as you put a link there, you can drive traffic for free while gaining subscribers building that list. It’s all going to be about knowing your avatar and also having an excellent offer that is irresistible. Got it? And it’s just a bride, right? But you’re not taking them to a landing page. You’re not taking them to a form or opt-in page or a funnel or anything like that. You’re taking them directly to a messenger. Now here are some other ways to do it. Some colossal blog networks get tons of traffic, and you can find an article, rewrite it, spin an article, put your own, flip on it, add images to it. If it’s something relevant to whoever you’re targeting, you can use LinkedIn pulse, which is working good for a lot of people.

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Steemit, which is kind of an up and coming one, Quora, which is highly used one for technical and SaaS founders. Reddit which have different audiences. Make sure you understand it, you test with it and you stay in excellent communication. If you start putting these posts out there, you will want to make sure that you’re also moderating your comments as well and just through the comments, you can add your link and then there’s Medium, this is another perfect blog network for this. They have a huge following and traffic. A lot of people are on there, and Google ranks these extremely high when people hit certain targeted keywords, so if you have a really good article, you write it’s content driven and then you deliver the free download through Messenger. Again, tons of free traffic and you don’t need all of those other things to do this, so yeah, you started. So that’s why I wanted to show this to you. would want to make sure you give instructions. Other media sources, PR releases, etc. There’s a lot of Just to review, “The Flexy List Building Method.” 1. You need to have a lead magnet or an ethical trade, it’s like a trade for the lead, so info product, software, free download, PDF, Core Series, Training, Blueprint, Case Study, Quotes, Subscription or a Coupon or Discount. 2. You need to build a delivery bot. 3. Build an m.me link so that you can connect that delivery bot. 4. Then you need to cloak it, add your pixel to it so you can retarget those people even on Google as well and Youtube and Facebook. 5. Spread the links freely. And you can do all of this from inside of SegMateApp. com Messenger Marketing and Bot Building Platform. Its dead simple and anyone can do this. You need to have a plan on how you’re going to get those links out there. They’re going to be content driven. Are they going to be responses to people in groups? Depends, though everything I mention about this, this is all the kind of the freeways to do it. Paid ways You can boost a viral post, but for someone whos on a budget, this is a really easy way to get

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other things. Now, there is a free gift here, so you guys want to write that down. And by doing this, you can see for yourself how this works on your end. Alright, you should be getting this by now. Do you see how big this is? Do you see how powerful this is and how easy it is to put together? I mean, I think we spent half a day working on the free gift and putting the blog together it didn’t take much time to do this, and it’s a great little ethical bribe for a lead. So we know it works right? But it’s really simple, It understands your audience, creating the most ethical bribe you can come up with and testing it until you perfect it. It will get easier for you if you’re new by applying what I just taught you. This is just one of the many things you will get inside of SegMate.

Viral Loop Communication And Engagement ARTICLE BY Julia Antufjew

VIRAL LOOP COMMUNICATION AND ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR LIST BUILDING

Since then I prefer to talk to my audience directly. With no one in-between. In this way I can be honest, I can be myself, and my audience decides – do they want to listen or do they hit ‘unsubscribe’.

I’ve learned - it is a difficult task to be honest, enthusiastic, creative, and truly passionate and be able E-mail is my favorite means of communication and list to advertise it on Facebook at the same time. building is our main point of focus. There is this old Russian movie – where a talented architect proposes a grand creative plan of a splendid mansion. After all signatures from all responsible bureaus are gathered to allow the project – the only thing left from his original proposal is an ugly square box of nothing.

Our ‘Core Fashion Product’, our ‘Driver’ is a pair of topnotch casual / fitness stirrup tights. And in this article, I would like to share my favorite way of list building for our product. I have discovered this way very recently, nevertheless, I see great potential for this strategy to become our central list building strategy for multiple products.

Same here – you’ve achieved something great, jumping to tell the world about it. Not allowed. Until you tear The strategy I am talking about is the Viral Loop all wings and legs off your message, turning it into a Strategy: A communication and engagement motionless corpse. strategy with strong viral components running in a loop. Here are 8 simple steps which we rinse and repeat. Although we are still successfully advertising on Facebook, my personal preferences Step 1: Product Review. did change. I believe that everything we sell should be of impeccable quality and great value for our customers. A lot of people say that, few do. I love receiving great value. I love VOLUME 2

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fashion products that last and perform. I manufacture Step 6: During the giveaway, all entrants receive fashion products that last and perform. That’s my thing. scheduled email notifications about their status. These updates contain an incentive to visit our online store. So for me, every giveaway starts with a Product Review. 20% of entrants visit the store. Someone who did test this product through and through should write a product review and make a video. Step 7: At the end of the giveaway – the winners are announced. All entrants who did not win receive a Step 2: The product review (video and text) is being short-time offer (3 days action window) to purchase the published on our blog page. product either at a lower price point or at a greater Step 3: We set up a viral giveaway campaign and link added value (the main product is being offered in a bundle with one or two related high value products.) it to our product review. Step 4: We drive cold traffic to our blog page with product review and giveaway sign up button (you can integrate a sign up form as well). The blog page functions as a bridge page, turning our cold traffic into warm / hot traffic. We are testing two different traffic sources right now: advertising with sweepstakes websites and mail blasts with email brokers.

Step 8: A new giveaway starts immediately after the previous giveaway ends. First, new traffic is sent to the new giveaway. 3 days later (after expiration of the offer window (see step 7) invitation is being sent out to all our existing lists.

This is, in a nutshell, our favorite list building strategy. If you are excited about it and would like to give it a try – Step 5: After people have entered our giveaway, grab the UpViral subscription they may increase their chances to win by sharing the Tools: giveaway with their friends through social media. Viral Campaign Software: UpViral Sharing with friends gives the entrants additional entry points. If a friend signs up for the giveaway through Autoresponder: Clickfunnels / Actionetics the shared link – the entrant receives additional entry Blog: Wordpress points. Everyone has a chance to win, however entrants with the most entry points have greater chances to win. Currently, every direct lead who signs up for our giveaway brings on average 1.5 friends into the giveaway. What I have noticed is that some audiences bring us 4 friends on average, while others do not bring any. So, we are learning right now what audiences perform best.

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Article by Julia Antufjew

Failure Is A Myth. Victory Is Inevitable!

“No one should ever give up on their dreams! Not as long as there is Clickfunnels!” – Julia Antufjew

In the moment when I have given up on myself, drifting off and submerging under the thick polar ice of failure, the single-paged BLUE-enveloped letter by my friend The one page letter that saved my life was enveloped in Coco has torn me out of the icy lethargy and warmed BLUE. Who would have known that the Blue Envelope me up to life, washing away fear, boredom and will inspire two of my favorite funnels, both reflecting imagined loneliness! the True Goal? This write up is about one of them… “Failure is a myth, my dear Jane Rene… Victory is The End inevitable!” Inevitable end… Few things are more exhausting than (Jane Rene Maria, that’s how Coco calls me.) waiting for your own execution… The dark, cold place of infinite boredom… When you know that your work The True Goal of 10 years is in ruins… I failed… I am so tired… No, I am an entrepreneur, and financial goals have always there is nothing future can bring me… Nothing but the been my Northern Star. That’s until I’ve failed. That’s ultimate boredom… Tomorrow my workers will line up until I’ve opened my Blue Envelope… for payments… Tomorrow my suppliers will smell the ugly stench of bankruptcy and gang up as hungry Cleaning up the mess, I’ve understood that there is no wolves, teeth bared to bite. other True Goal but to help. Touching peoples’ lives in a helpful way – that’s what matters. Everything else is My partner abandoned me. I am not crying. All tears clapping dust out of our pants. Since then all our new have dried out. I am tired. I am empty. And what is projects are aligned with the True Goal. left – the ultimate boredom, covering me as a sticky blanket, making breathing seem obsolete… Interestingly the Blue Envelope did not disappear out of my life but formed an important part of My Secret Knock, knock. Online Fitness Game: a 16 weeks interactive playfulness - Yes? that helps women to get fit, deal with fear, discover their True Self and start living fully and daring greatly. - There is an envelope for you. It is BLUE! [Not only have I lost a company during my times of failure. I’ve lost my fitness, self confidence and personal power. While cleaning up the mess – I’ve gained it all VOLUME 2

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needs it, everyone who is about to give up on her or his dream. Who is writing the Blue Envelopes? – You! Imagine, writing a letter to your future self, using your best words to convince your future self not to quit on your dream. Shall you read this letter in times of need – you will cry, all covered in goose bumps, realizing that you can not give up on this person from the past, who has such a blind believe in you! Anyone else, reading your letter of encouragement, will feel the same. Anyone else, reading your letter will press on, will never quit! Everyone of us has a Blue Envelope inside of us; a Blue back, losing 30 pounds of excess weight and creating Envelope which will the Game, based on my own fitness battles, for all breath life and new strength into someone reading it in women to enjoy.] times of need. The game participants are instructed to open the Blue Envelope on the day they want to quit. The journey The Blue Envelopes are being opened randomly. So in to claim back your fitness is a tough one. Same as in order for the page to work we had to integrate random business, the failure rates are high. The Blue Envelope presentation button into the Clickfunnels. keeps inspiring my fitness warriors to never quit. The Blue envelopes have to be submitted automatically. Writing the Blue Envelope to the game members, I’ve noticed how strong it is. Each and every time, while being written, it does remind me of my purpose, my strength, and encourages me to take it further.

Therefore we had to integrate some kind of form processor into the Clickfunnels.

Here are the steps of implementation. A great example of a fully working page with a twist (I consider the If the Blue Envelope could talk, one day it would ask random presentation algorithm to be a “twist”, as for few users could program it just like that), done in a me this one question: matter of few hours (internet is slow middle in the forest “What is the most important learning you would love to here in Finland, where my family vacation takes place). share with the world from your 10 years of operations?” Step 1: Get Domain Name: blueenvelope.net And I would answer without any doubt: “I would love to share with the world HOW TO NEVER QUIT.” All Step 2: Get Blue Envelope Logo from https:// other knowledge is secondary as for uncontrolled failure graphicriver.net/ Great resource, giving access to a wide array of logos at a low cost. I strongly recommend wipes out everything. purchasing informational product logos with And if the Blue Envelope could answer, it would smile Graphicriver, considering logo adjustments only after and whisper: “Yeah! That’s exactly my mission”. project shows significant positive cash flow. The Clickfunnels and Technical Implementation Step 3: Home Page Funnel, Theme Conquer – I’ve learned from Russell Brunson to implement quickly. downloaded. (The new Funnel Hacker’s Cookbook in The Blue Envelope can not talk, however I’ve heard the the Clickfunnels is great and has a variety of extremely question. It took me one day to put the Blue Envelope good looking themes). page online. This is the finesse of the Clickfunnels. It Step 4: The algorithm for random page presentation breathes live into our dreams. downloaded from https://stackoverflow.com and The Blue Envelope page is done by entrepreneurs for integrated on Thank You page. This is a great entrepreneurs. Every entrepreneur in need of help, function which also can be used for split testing strength and encouragement during difficult times, can of unlimited amount page variations (in go to the page and open the Blue Envelope, written by case you want to go beyond two). somebody else. Who is reading the Blue Envelopes? – Everyone who

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Step 5: The Wufoo form integrated into the page, you. It knocks on your door one day and breathes enabling entrepreneurs to write a Blue Envelope for the purposes into everything you do! mutual benefit: https://wufoo.com/ Step 6: Actionetics set up. Step 7: Blue Envelope awareness campaign started: inviting entrepreneurs to write a Blue Envelope for everyone who needs strength and encouragement, while facing the greatest monster of our time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Failure. We all need our True Goal. What is interesting about such a Goal is that you donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t look for it. It rather finds

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Article by Tod Holland

Conversions And The Wild Wild West

The essence of value provided by funnel builders Which, as hilarious as it sounds, actually characterized and Vice President Mike Pence’s favorite dinnertime the entire failure of the old way of marketing in a pretty conversation topic. amazing way. We’ve actually come a long way in the way we’ve automated the conversion process. Fifteen years ago when Congress passed the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, the MO for internet marketers was broad-spectrum, 360 angle email marketing.

For me to get that particular list of emails in today’s hyper-targeted marketing era, I would have to either be an out of shape paraplegic transsexual with body issues and stage fright, or I have some friends opting me into things who think they are entirely funnier than they are.

Prior to this law passing, the legal landscape was essentially The Wild West; in which businesses could Either way, their “avatar” of me didn’t exist. Their indiscriminately send out ridiculous and unsolicited targeting didn’t exist. offers to anyone, with or without their permission. They were basically throwing everything at everyone, This obviously led to a number of highly disgruntled hoping something would stick enough with someone so Hotmail users (or whatever we were all using in 2003). they’d make a few dollars that day. This list of frustrated users included thirteen years And because their avatar of me was literally one of old me, who would regularly receive ridiculous offers those amorphous “every face in the world” montages, including, but not limited to: who can really blame them for sending all kinds of • Breast enhancement procedures ridiculous offers. • Male virility drugs Now that was then, and this is now. Technology certainly • Fitness medicine moves in favor of those who create it, and this case is • Leg salves that would restore my ability to walk no different. which I absolutely hadn’t lost. We live in the golden age of data.

When we’re building funnels for our clients, we’re really automating client data intake.

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When we segment our follow up based on opens, link clicks, etc. we are automating our data categorization.

You can go all the way down the line, and you’ll find at situation-specific ads to help guide the candidate into the next step to working with you. least one common theme: automations and data. I’ve been a long-time proponent of the idea that lead generation is really just the automation of parts of the sales and marketing pipeline. Businesses certainly don’t need a funnel to generate leads, but in neglecting this step, they are reducing their operational efficiency.

Beyond just being really cool and tricky for us marketing types, this is actually a HUGE benefit for the consumer.

If I just bought a pair of Tom’s shoes on Amazon, it’s highly unlikely that I’m going to buy another pair in green. So for Amazon to try to sell me another set Kind of like deciding to mop the carpet, or putting the of shoes, it would be a step backward in terms of spoon directly under the sink’s water flow. Sure, you can personalized marketing. do it, but does it really make sense now that you know However, if Amazon had data that people who bought there’s a better way? Tom’s Shoes also purchased a specific kind of quinoa, The same goes for how we convert our leads to then showing me that ad would be of a statistical benefit to me. prospects, clients, fans, haters, etc. The golden rule in advertising is that if you can think Because as a consumer, if I have to sit through of a more targeted approach to the market, chances advertisements, it better at least be for something I are your competition is already building out their own might want to buy. version as you’re planning. That is until you all realize that the previous emails I got Conversions that are not targeted, like my example at 13 were correctly targeting me all along. above, lead to the sentiment that “conversion marketing Until then, my secret is still safe. doesn’t work.” And in a sense, the people who say that are correct. If you have a prospects data (more than just name and contact information, but their interests, demographics, expectations, past experiences, or whatever), then you have all the power in the world to put the right solution in front of the right people. If you’ve segmented where the prospect is in the process (like an abandoned shopping cart), you can deliver

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Article by Adam Bensman

2 Conversion Techniques to Book More High End Clients

There are two secrets to booking more sales calls from a lead or webinar funnel. First, you must position your brand, product, or service as the sole answer to your ideal clients’ problem. Next, you must leverage automation to provide a fast and easy path to schedule a call with you. This is how you create the slippery slide that prospects go down after they first meet you - the irresistible path from “Hey, nice to meet you” to foaming at the mouth with excitement asking, “When can we talk?”

before registrants attend your webinar or make it all the way through your funnel). Conversion Technique #1 - Positioning Your Irresistible Offer

Your offer is ultimately the answer to the question, “Why should I spend time to meet with you?” If you said, “Well, it’s a FREE consultation,” or “It’s just a meeting to see if we should work together,” then you need to go back to the drawing board. A little reality check - prospects don’t care about you. They’ll only spend their precious The secret is blending these 2 powerful conversion time with you if they think you can solve their problems techniques. right now. Plant this seed in their mind, and they’ll be The first technique we’ll discuss is all about positioning booking with you faster than ever before. All you need an irresistible core offer. The second technique adds to do is position yourself properly, which I’m about to additional conversion opportunities to your existing show you how. funnel. The result? You’ll book more sales calls from The 7 Fundamentals of High-Converting Offers (and your lead or webinar funnel. some samples) First, let’s lay a little groundwork. The entire purpose Let’s take a look at the fundamentals of high-converting of your lead or webinar funnel is to book more sales offers and some samples, so you can see irresistible calls (or “consultations”) with your ideal clients. Some positioning at work. of those ideal clients will be eager to meet with you while others will need more time to get to know you, The 7 Fundamentals of Irresistible Offers: like you, and trust you before committing the time to hear what you have to say. No matter how Fulfills immediate desires far along your prospect is in the buyer Easy (and clear) to take your offer journey, these two techniques will fast-track your conversion Shows speed to results opportunities (even Intrigues curiosity (so you want more) VOLUME 2 Challenges ego and/or traditional beliefs FUNNEL MAGAZINE

Uses powerful words to spark visual imagery

It’s easy to book time with me at no cost.

Sets clear expectations for what’s to come

Shows speed to results

Here are a few examples:

I can help them pay less in taxes right away.

Let’s use an accountant who serves small businesses. Normally, an accountant’s offer is a “FREE Consultation,” right? You’ll also see this painfully boring offer used by financial advisors, insurance agents, consultants, and other professional service businesses.

Intrigues curiosity (so you want more)

When you hear “FREE Consultation” what do you think? I think, “Great, a chance for him to pitch me for an hour… What am I going to get out of this?” Have you ever met someone in professional services who said, “Gosh, my prospects are really kicking down the doors to take me up on my FREE Consultation!”

Makes my prospect feel like, “If I saved this much in just a 45-minute meeting, imagine what she’ll do for me once we are working together!” Challenges ego and/or traditional beliefs Makes the prospect think, “Why didn’t my last accountant do this with me?” Uses powerful words to spark visual imagery Tax Reduction

And to pour salt on the wound, most companies with the “FREE Consultation” offer never make it easy or exciting for their prospects to nab the offer. They just say, “If you’d like to get to know me and see how I can help you grow your business, schedule a FREE Consultation.” Sexy right? Aaah… no. Horrid.

Sets clear expectations for what’s to come

Instead, the accountant needs to focus on fulfilling the immediate desires of her prospect. What makes someone search for a new accountant? Usually, it’s because they aren’t satisfied with their current accountant. Likely because they felt like they paid too much in taxes and weren’t advised properly.

Let’s run the new offer through the 7 fundamentals test.

In just 45 minutes, you’ll have a 3-step plan to reduce your tax exposure.

Now that you have all 7 fundamentals planned out, it’s time to link the offer together. You may not be able The “FREE Consultation” offer does not embody the 7 to build all 7 fundamentals into the name of your core fundamentals of a high converting offer. Let’s break it offer, but you will certainly be able to use all 7 elements throughout your sales funnel in the content and copy down… you write. Does the offer “FREE Consultation” pass the 7 Here’s the accountant’s new offer: Get Your Personalized fundamentals test? Tax Reduction Plan - FREE. Fulfills immediate desires - NO Imagine you land on the website of two separate Easy (and clear) to take your offer - NO accountants. One says, “FREE Consultation” and the other says, “Get a Personalized Tax Reduction Plan Shows speed to results - NO FREE.” What would you do next? The answer is pretty Intrigues curiosity (so you want more) - NO obvious, isn’t it? It doesn’t even require much reading through the website to see if this accountant is a good Challenges ego and/or traditional beliefs - NO fit. Uses powerful words to spark visual imagery - NO Right away you know that this accountant is focused on reducing your taxes, which is exactly what you want. Sets clear expectations for what’s to come – NO

Fulfills immediate desires - YES Easy (and clear) to take your offer - YES Shows speed to results - YES

Use the 7 fundamentals checklist to start building your offer like this… (using the accountant as an Intrigues curiosity (so you want more) - YES example). Challenges ego and/or traditional beliefs - YES Fulfills immediate desires. Reducing tax exposure. Easy (and clear) to take your offer

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Uses powerful words to spark visual imagery - YES Sets clear expectations for what’s to come - YES

with visual and emotionally-charged words. Every word, when read or heard, creates a visual and/or emotional response. Some words are just stronger than others. Examples: Create the change you’ve always wanted. -OR- TRIGGER the TRANSFORMATION you’ve always craved. Reach your full potential. -OR - UNLOCK your full potential. Choose words that resonate with your target market.

You’ll notice a few things at play with this new offer: Get Your Personalized Tax Reduction Plan - FREE. It not only passes the 7 fundamentals test, it also speaks to the personalized level of service, attention, and value-based meeting (not a sales pitch). It also lets the prospect know exactly what to expect during the Ex: I will give you a personalized tax reduction plan in meeting and what they’ll walk away with after the a free 45-minute meeting. meeting. You’ll notice the word choice “tax reduction” instead of 5 Steps to Naming Your Offer “saving” or “reducing exposure.” Tax reduction sounds When you name your core offer, you need to make immediate and triggers the emotion of saving money sure it embodies all 7 fundamentals of high-converting far more than saying, “I’ll save you money on your offers. Then you need to snaz up your copy to make it taxes.” sexy and irresistible. Don’t worry if you think you’re a Using the phrase “tax reduction” anchors the reader lousy writer. The process below will work for everyone. In to think about keeping as much as they can of their the end, you’ll have a concise, powerful, and irresistible own money (before even paying taxes). Tax reduction offer! Let’s begin. means giving the government less of my money, which Step #1 - Write your offer out simply and straightforward. I deserve. Don’t overthink it, just start writing! Whereas “tax savings” makes me think about the Ex: I will help entrepreneurs find ways to reduce their taxes I’m already paying to the government (money I’m parting with no matter what). The reader thinks, tax exposure in a free 45-minute meeting. “I get to pay the government less.” Although the Step #2 - Personalize it. Make the reader of your offer outcome is the same, using the phrase “tax reduction” feel like you are talking to them 1-on-1. is more empowering and plays into the mind of most Ex: I will help you find ways to reduce your personal tax entrepreneurs who feel they should be keeping as much as they can of the money they earn. exposure in a free 45-minute meeting. See how we changed the language to read like a personal dialogue by using the word “you?” We also referenced the word “personal” to show that the plan is designed around their specific needs (not some generic garbage). Step #3 - Paint a clear picture of what they’ll get. People will always have expectations. They will either be based on exactly what you say, or they’ll make them up. Make sure your offer is crystal clear and sets the expectation you want them to have. Ex: I will give you a plan to reduce your personal tax exposure in a free 45-minute meeting. See how we made it very specific as to what they’ll get? We changed it from “help you…” to state exactly what they’ll get. The expectation for the meeting is crystal clear, and the prospect knows what he’ll walk away with after the meeting. People love plans. They are simple and easy to follow. Step #4 - Potentitize it

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Step #5 - Simplify it. Make your offer as short and quick to read as possible. It goes like this… • I will give you a personalized tax reduction plan in a free 45-minute meeting. • I will give you a personalized tax reduction plan in a free meeting. • I will give you a personalized tax reduction plan - FREE. • Get Your Personalized Tax Reduction Plan FREE. • Get a FREE Tax Reduction Plan. • FREE Tax Reduction Plan. See how we gradually chipped away at eliminating or combining words? The meeting was implied, so we cut that out. The time didn’t matter (they’ll figure out how long the meeting is when they schedule), and we emphasized FREE. Having a boiled down, concise offer helps prospects understand exactly what they are going to get and how it will make their life better immediately. Now that you have your core offer defined and written, you use snippets of it for calls-to-action or buttons

on your website. Something like this… [Get Your Tax Reduction Plan] or [FREE Tax Reduction Plan]. The essence is there and we cut out part of it for brevity sake when a visual real estate is sparse, but the core message stays the same - tax reduction plan.

By giving your prospect “more of what they want,” you will absolutely increase conversion. It’s simple math and psychology. First, you are providing the prospect exactly what they want by fulfilling their desires in a linear, logical fashion. Next, you are giving the prospect an easy, no-brainer invitation to get the personalized Now that your offer is properly positioned (goodbye help that addresses their core problem. “FREE Consultation!”), we can move onto Technique #2 - How to place your offer in front of prospects to Let’s look at the numbers. optimize conversion. Let’s say 30% of your webinar registrants actually show Conversion Technique #2 - Convert More Highup to your webinar. That’s an immediate prospect Ticket Sales Calls at Every Stage of Your Funnel attrition of 70%. So if you don’t capitalize on the prospect’s attention while you have it, they may never Now that you have positioned your irresistible offer, it’s see the offer. time to build it into your lead or webinar funnel as a conversion tool. We do this two ways. The same goes for email. Even if your webinar confirmation email is the only place you invite them #1 - Using “tripwires” to the FREE Tax Reduction Plan meeting, you will still only reach 55-70% of registrants - and that is with a #2 - In every email. great open rate! Your lead or webinar funnel serves one purpose and one purpose only. To position your product or service The trick is to… as the answer to the ideal prospect’s biggest, most Capitalize on attention anytime you have it. Give the pressing problem (or question). Every step of the funnel prospect “more of what they want” - instantly. should provide “more of what they want.” Leverage every single prospect touch point for a Let’s use the accountant for example. conversion opportunity. A prospect downloads the FREE Guide: 3 Tax Building Your High-Converting Lead or Webinar Funnel Reduction Strategies Every Entrepreneur Should Be Using. This is how you build an irresistibly slippery funnel. The most important component of your sales funnel success Then they are redirected by a “tripwire” to an invitation is your core offer and how it is linked to every single part to the webinar: The Tax Reduction Plan Entrepreneurs of your funnel like a story… a consistent theme that gets Are Using to Reduce Their Quarterly Taxes by Up To your prospect begging for more and continually giving 12.7%. them “more of what they want.” See how the offer is “more of what they want?” The The takeaway: it’s not just about the offer itself, it’s how biggest problem/question of the ideal prospect (an that constructed offer is delivered and what you do entrepreneur) is paying too much in taxes. So naturally, with your prospects attention when you have it. Each the prospect registers for the webinar. stage of your sales funnel should be linked to make it as easy as possible to slip down it. Use “tripwire” Success, right? pages to continually offer “more of what they want” to Not so fast. We still don’t know if the prospect will show provide the fastest, easiest path to booking a sales call up to the webinar, but we do know one thing for sure. or consultation with you. Don’t forget, leverage every The prospect is 100% focused on what you have to say single touch point to introduce prospects to your core right now and clearly wants more, so let’s offer it to him. offer - however you decide to position your sales call Instead of displaying a “Confirmation Page” for (reference above for my simple step-by-step guide). the webinar and simply emailing the prospect, let’s use another “tripwire” page to both confirm the registration and invite the prospect to join you, the accountant, to prepare a FREE Personalized Tax Reduction Plan.

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Article by James Hughes

Simplifying The Sales Funnel

How exactly do sales funnels work? This is something that causes a lot of confusion. Let me just give you an overview. The principle behind a sales funnel is to build trust. Trust in you, trust in your products or services, trust in your ability to deliver on time and perhaps most importantly, trust in your ability to provide value for money. Let’s take a look at a typical sales funnel. You are going to start off at the top of the sales funnel with a freebie. A free giveaway to get people to sign up to your mailing list. Then you are going to sell them a lower priced item. Then a mid-range item, then a high priced item. A higher priced item and then finally a very expensive item or an expensive service. As the people go down the sales funnel they build more and more trust in you. They are more and more likely to move up to the next level and you can sell them more and more expensive things, expensive items, expensive products, expensive services, that sort of thing.

they get this free eBook or this free report and that got them on your list and into your funnel. It must be high quality and this is something very important when you are first starting out and you want to make sure that everything that you provide is of the highest quality. It must be of high quality. It should be something that you could command a good price for if it was sold. It’s something that has a high perceived value, something that’s worth money but you are giving it away for free. It should contain useful information that your customer can start to use right away. Something else that you can also do with your free report is to include a clickable link to your website and give away rights to it. That way if people share it, then the report can also be a useful traffic generator because people will see the free report you’ve given away, they’ll see the link to your website in the back of it and through curiosity then they come and visit your site.

Once you’ve got them signed up for the free reports Let’s look at how this works in some detail. I’m going and you’ve got them on your mailing list, the first thing to assume that you are in the internet marketing niche. that you are going to offer them is a lower priced product. It’s usually an eBook principally because Let’s look at the top of the funnel, your freebie. Your you can deliver it digitally. This lower priced product freebie is usually a free report or an eBook. You should contain a lot of information, and it should be of use this as an incentive to get people to sign reasonable length. Twenty pages of A4 rule letter size is up for your mailing list. People come to a good rule of thumb. your website, they sign up and You want to really over deliver on this because the idea is that you use this to showcase how good the rest of VOLUME 2

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for money. These training courses should have higher production values than your eBook and your previous videos. You also want to include plenty of bonuses to add even more value. Then the next stage in the sales funnel is the higher priced product. Again, this is a much higher price point than the previous items.

your products are, so when people buy your low priced products, they are completely blown away by how good the quality is and so they go ahead and buy something more expensive from you. You want to keep the price fairly low but not so cheap as to make people think that it’s not likely to be any good. Sometimes people will look at something and they’ll think, “That’s so cheap, it’s got to be rubbish.” Where in fact, it is actually good quality. You don’t want to make it too cheap but you don’t want to make it too expensive either. Usually, something like $9.97 or something similar is a good price for your low priced product because after all, under $10, people cannot think twice about spending that sort of money. Also, you want to offer a money back guarantee so that people do buy your low priced products and they don’t like it, then they can get a refund from you. There is no risk attached to it.

The thing is, you’ll find that not so many people will purchase at this stage but you’ll be able to charge considerably more. Make a virtue of this by limiting availability to create scarcity and add more value. Telephone coaching is popular at this level and this can be a group conference call or it can be individual coaching. What you can do is you can record the calls and offer the recordings as a down-sell. You can record them in mp3 format and then sell that as another product, as a slightly lower price, to people who perhaps didn’t want to spend the money on your high priced product or the people who couldn’t afford it but they can still get the benefits from that, but it’s just simply not live and they are not actually talking to you. They are just listening to the recording.

Finally, you have your expensive product or service. This is the end of your sales funnel. You’ll probably only sell one or two of these but you can charge a premium price. Because this will likely be time intensive, you won’t be able to offer this to too many customers anyway. Popular choices at this stage include mentoring, oneThen you sell them your mid-range priced product. This on-one coaching and ongoing consultancy. You have is something that’s slightly more expensive than your to bear in mind that people will drop out at every stage. eBook. It can actually be an up-sell to your low priced product. Once someone has bought your low priced A lot of people are going to buy just your lower priced product, you immediately offer them this mid-ranged items or your mid-range items. You may find that you product, right away and offer them perhaps at a hit a plateau. You may find that nobody is going to discount of what you would sell it if it were a standalone buy your more expensive stuff. You might find that product, because you see, once someone has bought you’ve got a good market just selling the lower and something and they are in buying mode, they are much mid-ranged price items, which is fine. You know then more likely to make an additional purchase. A video that you can keep churning out these products, keep version of your eBook is a popular choice at this level. churning out these services for that particular market over and over again all day long. Your sales funnel will It should be low production values, just text, and graphics grow and as it goes along you can put your prices up with a voice over. You can use software like PowerPoint and start to make even more money. to make the slides and Camtasia to do the recording. It can actually be the exact same stuff that’s in your eBook but just turned into a video. After that, you are going to offer them a high priced product. This should be not immediately afterward but after a reasonable period of time, because with your high priced product, now you are really starting to make money. Courses and training products are popular at this stage. These should be a combination of text and video. They should be well researched and well presented, and again you want to over deliver on all of this. You want to make sure that there is a really outstanding value

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Article by Jennie Lyon

How Technology Has Changed How We View Funnels

Technology has changed almost everything in our lives. of leading a customer from awareness, to interest, to How has it changed the way we build and use funnels? desire, to action was codified as a “funnel.” Once it was, there was no going back. Funnels became one of the Almost all customer interactions in the modern market most foundational concepts in all of marketing. can be seen through the lens of a funnel. If you want someone to sign up for your digital newsletter, there Computers: Not Just Toys Anymore is a marketing funnel. If you want someone to buy Although it’s difficult for some to imagine, there was a your product, they are usually going through a sales time when computers just weren’t taken seriously by the funnel. It doesn’t matter whether it’s in the real-world or public. While some of this was due to lack of exposure, it digital spheres, funnels are the key to positive customer mostly had to do with the limited capacity of computers interactions and outcomes. back then. A computer was something that a university Today, funnels are synonymous with digital used for academic work but had no practical purpose communication technology, but it wasn’t always for the average person. They were large, cumbersome, that way. Funnels have evolved with our technology, and extraordinarily expensive. Everything started adapting, changing, and becoming more and more to change with the personal computer revolution. effective at drawing in customers. But how did we get Suddenly, computers went from a vague concept to here? How has technology really changed the way that something that was sitting in offices around the world. we use funnels as a marketing technique? Once computers broke into the mainstream, marketing Brick and Mortar people started to look at them as useful tools to track customer engagement. Database management Companies and salespeople have been using funnels suddenly became a whole lot more convenient! And even before there was a word for them. The process that writing up marketing copy was a snap when using a a customer goes through to buy a product was wellword processor as compared to a typewriter. understood, they just didn’t call it a funnel. It wasn’t until the early 20th century that the process In the mid-80s, contact relationship management software started to emerge as a useful tool for companies. This had a massive impact on the way that companies used funnels. Data analysis of customer behavior was much easier when you had all of the information VOLUME 2

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on a computer. Instead of manually going through thousands of customer files, your computer could put together analytics that blew the door off the way that most marketers viewed the customer experience. The best thing about this was, as more efficient funnels were put into place, they would generate even more data that could be analyzed, creating a feedback loop of constant improvement. Here Comes the Internet! Here is a scary piece of information to many of the folks reading this article: there are actual adults working today who have never known a world without the internet. Going into all of the ways that the internet changed, and continues to change, our society would be almost impossible. But boy, did it ever change the way that marketers viewed the customer! Suddenly, they had access to them in a way they never did before. Customers were now online and could order products and services without even leaving the house! Companies set up homepages that, in reality, were merely online billboards. But as things continued to advance and e-commerce started to be taken far more seriously, websites stopped being mere advertisements and became incredibly useful platforms used to guide customers down the funnel towards landing pages and conversions.

know how true that is. If they aren’t on the cutting-edge, the precipice of the next big thing, then they aren’t in the game at all. That said, it’s almost impossible to predict the next digital platform that will gain traction. Nobody saw Facebook coming. Amazon sold books, and that was it. Twitter only had 140 characters, who was going to bother with that? Well, it turns out, just about everyone. Rather than trying to track specific platforms that might suddenly emerge, it can be more useful to keep abreast of overall trends, especially when it comes to funnels. There was an absolute shock to the marketing industry early in 2018 when Facebook announced that they would be shifting their Newsfeed towards posts by family and friends, deemphasizing ads and other forms of marketing. But if you knew where to look, you could have actually seen that shift in company behavior coming after their disastrous public relations efforts in 2016 and 2017. At the moment, some say that YouTube is rising up as the sleeping giant of the marketing world (although truth be told, it’s already pretty noisy). More and more younger consumers are flock to the online video service for news and entertainment, leaving television and even services like Netflix behind. So it might pay to start asking yourself the question of how YouTube could be

better incorporated into the current model of funnels. One of the most significant developments for funnels Could it be better used in the awareness phase, or was the advent of social media. Once users started perhaps it could be used to close the deal in the action to connect with each other, creating incredible social phase? networks, vast amounts of customer data become One thing is for absolute sure, tech is going to continue available to companies of all sizes. Now, funnels to drive the way we use funnels to draw in customers. could be designed that would specifically target micro As more and more platforms become available, the audiences with a much higher success rate than a wider the top of the funnel is becoming. Who knows super-wide funnel. what advances that advanced artificial intelligence, The way that we use the internet has naturally evolved predictive algorithms, and other tech will bring. Well, a great deal from the dial-up days. Now, everyone we all will. Very, very soon. has a computer in their pocket that is connected 24/7. Funnels have adjusted accordingly. Getting your customers’ contact information is almost as important as making the sale. In fact, arguably more so, as opting-in will allow you to have contact with them for the foreseeable future, allowing you to incorporate them into your email marketing strategies and other methods of getting them into your funnel. The Future? A wise science-fiction author once said “Trying to predict the future is a mug’s game. But increasingly, it’s a game we all have to play.” Any marketers out there EDITION 10

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Article by Tim Lyons

5 Things You Can Do Today to Increase Conversion on Your Funnel Up to 35%

As the owner of a digital marketing agency, I’m constantly on the look-out for new ways to increase conversions for our clients. The techniques below have proven to be reliable across the board for our clients. 1. Create a Pop-Up to capture customer information prior to sending them to the order form. Whether a consumer loses their WiFi, can’t find their credit card and times out, or gets distracted by a call, text or family, there are many reasons why a potential consumer gets all the way through to your order page and leaves without completing a purchase. In fact, the latest data suggests that up to 68% of potential customers who get through your funnel all the way to your order form will bail without making a purchase (Abandoned Cart). That’s why we ensure every funnel we create has a popup enabled to capture their name and email address before they can get to the order form. Then, if a prospect does not purchase, we send them through a 3-5 email & SMS abandoned cart sequence over a span of 5 days. Each email or SMS has an increasing sense of urgency and includes a link back to the order page. And, even better, if the potential customer accesses the order form again from the original source they used, Click Funnels will auto-populate the order form for them with any information that was already entered before they left!

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2. Utilize Live Chat versus Bots. While there is definitely a time and place for bot marketing, we have found that including a live chat feature on our funnels increases conversions. Sometimes, it’s difficult to determine whether or not there is a live person on the other end of your conversation, and that’s fine for general questions such as hours of operation, address and whether an item is in stock. But, what if you are selling a product and someone has a question about a potential safety or allergy concern? Or, whether a color really looks like the picture? Or, in our industry, whether it is possible to participate in a challenge if you have an injury. And, or what kind of results can I expect? Sometimes, it takes the added touch of a live human on the other end of the chat to really convert a client. 3. Install Heatmap code to record prospect behavior. This is something we have grown to rely on heavily over the years to optimize our funnels. When you install a piece of code on your landing pages from HotJar (or other services), it produces a video heat map that shows you what consumers are reading, how far down the page they are getting before bailing, where they are trying to click…this way, you can move information around on the page to make sure that they are seeing what you want them to see and you can tailor your funnels to align with consumer behavior. 4. Install pixels onto your landing pages for retargeting campaigns. Similar to number 1 on this list, pixels are

perfect to keep your message and/or product in front of those who visit your landing page but do not follow through with a purchase. With pixels, you can retarget these consumers with ads on Facebook, YouTube, and other networks and tailor your messages according to based on their behavior.

will increase or bonuses will be removed from the offer. Each visitor will have their own unique deadline and allows you to create urgency even in long-term evergreen style campaigns.

As marketers, we are always searching for the best way to increase conversions for our clients. Incorporate 5. Create a Deadline (using Deadline Funnel). Deadlines some of the ideas mentioned above and youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll be well in any offer are a perfect way to create urgency and on your way. generate conversions, but what about an evergreen offer. We use Deadline Funnel for an evergreen or tripwire funnel in that they create a sense of urgency for each and every prospect. Deadline funnels are uniquely designed to be based on time â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the time a person receives an email, the time they open an email or the time they visit a page. This will start a timer on the page after which point the cost of the product or program

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Why Relevant Content Will Always Be Relevant...and Effective ARTICLE BY Hilary Jastram

In this time where you have to race to keep up with the latest algorithm changes that oh, only affects every one of your clients and dents your business’s traffic, content is, and will always be king. Or queen. I have spent the past month cringing more than usual in the wake of glimpsing companies shilling that they will turn anyone into a copywriter. While the mechanics of good copy can always be taught, and it is highly encouraged if this is an interest of yours, you cultivate it; not everyone can write copy. Not everyone can paint. Or sing. Or dance.

to understand the latest Zuckerberg trick? Are you pushing out the same old content on the same calendar despite the changes? Are you kinda-getting the hang of it? If this is you, then one element will set you apart: good copy. Why do most memes or posts go viral? It’s not because the copy was sloppily written, churned through a Mad-Libs-esque app and then spit on the screen. It’s evocative content. It intrigues and piques people’s minds and imaginations. It allows the reader to not simply absorb it, but to expand upon it, to create their own story. Good copy is always about the consumer. It is mindreading fodder designed to draw in the person reading it. They apply it to their lives.

Good copy is a weapon that every company needs in Or carve linoleum stamps (throwback to a disastrous their arsenal. art assignment). Social media is going to continue to change. It will But everyone shouldn’t be able to sling copy. Because innovate. New iterations of what we commonly use if that were the case, it would devalue GOOD copy. today will become available. And like so many did In this world of smarter, better, faster, solid, clever, when Facebook was an infant, you may reject it, but seductive copy wins hands-down. advancements never stop. Good copy is evergreen. You see, you can always conquer the new Still dubious? Consider funnel copy. Most companies learning curve: Now, we have to post 12 don’t hire a copywriter. They likely have their team who times a day? Okay… Or can you? are building your funnels composing your copy, an When was the last time you integral part of your branding! If you think about it that undertook training way, it’s actually scary. VOLUME 2

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Your copy should be congruent throughout every single one of your media channels. It should not sound like 12 different copywriters wrote it. It should be resonant and remain an echo in your prospectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mind long after they have left it.

If you are managing a personal brand, good copy is paramount to building your following. We will always need magnetic copy. Three hundred years ago, that was the case and it will be the case 300 years from now.

Before our technological takeover, big brands Copy is a critical component of communication dominated because they branded themselves well. especially in our current environment of technology Because they were iconic and memorable, and a lot of bombardment. It will evolve to suit the purpose of that was achieved through good copy. society and to appeal to a vast audience, but even then, Did you know? exceptional content will rise to the top. It will continue to be remembered as an interaction with a brand leaving Your organic SEO can compete with your paid SEO lasting, positive effects. when you use good copy? You create an emotional bond through good copy? Posts that are compelling rise through the social media clutter? Your copy is your brand voice that people HEAR in their heads? Succinct copy creates top-of-mind brand recognition?

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MEDIA EDITION 10

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Why Community Matters For Entrepreneurs Article by Ed Troxell

Entrepreneurship starts with an idea – the idea that will eventually turn into a business that you, the creator, can run and call your own. While the thought of developing an idea into a business is very exciting, it’s also a lot of hard work. You will find that there are many things you can do on your own like research. You will also find out that you can’t possibly do this whole entrepreneurship thing by yourself – you need people around you who understand it, who get it, who are or have been through it before.

community? Pause for a second. Think about that and let me know in the comments below. If you are, great! Share with us all a little bit about the community and how it makes you feel – noticed I said “feel” which we’ll get into later. If you’re not already a part of a community that’s ok, I got you covered.

Like anything else (sports, work, home life, etc.) we all need to be a part of something – it makes us feel good! Being a part of something – in this case a community – provides us with resources and holds us accountable for As an entrepreneur, it’s so important that you be part taking action on things. of a community. Think of being a part of a community like working out Like anything else in life, being part of a community with a personal trainer. Yes, you hired the personal helps you grow – personally and professionally. When trainer to help you get in shape for the summer but you are part of a community, you are surrounding that’s not all you’re getting. The personal trainer may yourself with others who are either in the same boat or be helping you with your workouts but they’re often have already gone down that road and are willing to times helping you with so much more! When working with the right trainer, they become your new best friend help guide you. – the one you can’t wait to: Being part of a supportive community makes a huge difference in what happens next for you and your • See business – if you’re not part of one, you need to find • Talk to about x, y, z one and join now. Whether it’s a free or paid (well you • Share what you learned may be on a budget, paying for access to a community • Whip your butt into shape and hold you accountable for not following through on x, y, z in most cases will be better as it means everyone is taking it more seriously and it often times will provide You see, when you work with the right personal trainer more value) you need to be part of a community that they become just as invested in you as you are in them is going to be there for you, to support you throughout and while it may be just the 2 of you, that’s the type of your journey. community you need when doing this entrepreneurship thing. What is a community? Community is everything, especially when you have A community is a group of like minded people who the right mix of people meaning, you don’t just want come together to support one another around a certain all the “know it alls” in one place sharing what they topic – think networking groups. As an entrepreneur, know, no. You want a community that is going to have being a part of a community is key to your success – a variety of like minded people who are all experts in you can’t do this all alone and in fact, you shouldn’t their own fields and will be sharing what they know with even try so let me save you some time, money, the group. You see, the right community is one where blood, sweat, and tears here. everyone has a voice, where everyone feels welcomed As you read this right now, are and can speak up. you already a part of a It’s so important to join a community that will support you and stand by you – Community is family. VOLUME 2

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We know how hard this entrepreneurship thing can be

– and for those just starting out, trust me when I say, you need to be part of a community now as it will only strengthen you moving forward. We all need family members who actually get it and understand the real struggle we go through. We also need people we can turn to for resources and to help point us in the right direction.

friends, colleagues, and even share a post on social media, “Is anyone a part of a membership community for entrepreneurs?” The first step is asking. Keep in mind, when you ask people this question, chances are you will get a lot of direct sale answers which is why the next step is research. Once you get a few answers, you will then have to do your research to see if that group is going to be a good fit for you or not.

Joining a community, the right community, is the best thing you can do for yourself, your business, and for Don’t just look at the price tag and move on – while your future customers because the more you know, the staying in the budget is important, your decision should better informed your customers will be. not be based on this alone. What you want to look for are: Benefits of joining a community • What does the community offer/include? • Find like minded people • Who started the community and is running it? • Grow your network Are they active? Do they actually engage within • Brainstorm with others the community? • Discover new tools • Who do you know that is personally a member • Easily find resources and could shine some light on what to expect? • Share what you know • What do the reviews/testimonials say? • And so much more! • Are other people online talking about this community and if so, what’s the conversation What should I expect? about? When you join a community, you should expect to These are just a few things you will want to look out for honestly be paying for membership. Yes, there are free before joining a community. communities you can join and if they fit for what you’re I will tell you, the reason I started Hey Ed is because I looking for by all means, go ahead and join them. The am so active in the online space and that people come benefit though of joining a paid community is that you to me for resources – both for tech and business advice. can expect more attention to detail and that people People know me, they can see my history of providing will actually show up and engage because they have value and engaging with others online – they trust me. invested in it too. This is what you want to see in your research. When I first opened the Hey Ed community – an online Remember, you need to be part of a community that business and tech support community for entrepreneurs is going to be there for you, to support you, to provide – I had people signing up right away! Was it the name? resources you can actually use, and is a place you feel Was it the “sexy” sales page? Or was it the fact that comfortable being. A community could have all the people have been following me for some time and bells and whistles but if you don’t feel comfortable know that entrepreneurship runs in my blood and that around it then that all means nothing. Once you find I’m here to serve – that I’m always up on the latest tech, the right community, which might take awhile so don’t that I know about business, digital marketing, and that give up, hold onto it because being surrounded by the I can break everything down so that you can actually right people is priceless! understand it. Hey Ed members joined the community because they knew that no matter what the price was they’re going to get answers to their questions and they would be surrounded by the best. When I tell you this community is supportive I mean people literally freak out if they miss a day without checking into the community and that my friends is what you want to be a part of. Being a part of a supportive community is only going to help you grow personally and professionally. Where do I look? First start by asking those who are around you. Ask your

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A 3-Step Strategic Approach to Social Content Marketing Article by Frances Leary

Given the nature of online communication today, social media can be one of the most powerful business development tools available. It can also be the biggest waste of time. Approaching social media without a plan is like throwing darts blindfolded. You might hit the target sometimes, but it’s a fair bet you’ll miss the mark most often. In order to hit your target and generate results with your social media content, you need to have a strategy.

provide similar services or build similar products, but no two organizations share the same story. Sharing your story on social media is not a single effort. It is a continuous process of content sharing that reveals glimpses of your story on an ongoing basis. Collectively and over time, they reveal a complete picture of who you are, what you stand for, and the transformation you provide to those you serve.

Here are some types of content you can share on social Your content is often what serves as the introduction media in order to tell your story: to your potential clients. It’s like a handshake with the world, introducing who you are, what you do and what • Why Us - Create a “Why Us” series of images and posts that highlight different aspects of problems you can solve for those you serve. Then, when your organization that make you unique executed properly, content becomes the catalyst for • Staff Features - Share stories of your employees: engagement which leads to conversions. who they are, where they came from, why Unfortunately, many businesses do not craft their they love what they do, etc. Post photos, and content strategically. Some use their social channels celebrate team successes. almost entirely to sell. Some just share curated content. • Photos of your space - The space in which you Some only talk about themselves. Some post only work helps to tell your story. From office décor inspirational or helpful information. Sharing any to wall hangings to team interactions, enabling of these types of content in a singular fashion is not your audience to visualize you in your space enough. creates a deeper bond. • Community Involvement - Share stories and The truth is you need a strategic mix of three primary photos about your involvement and interaction types of content in order to generate results via social in your community. If you’re participating in a media. You need to use content that will tell your story, fundraiser or doing a team building activity, benefit your audience, and drive traffic. share those experiences with your online tribe. Tell Your Story • Product/Service Features - Create a series of images and posts about the products or services Telling your story sets you apart as a business. No other you offer. Make sure these are not promotions business has your story. Through story you can establish but rather highlights of the value in what you connection and create shared experiences with the do and the products you create. Through this tribe you serve. Stories are engaging, memorable, type of content, you’re telling the story of your relatable and personal. Stories move businesses from products or services, not selling them. being brands to being trusted allies. • Client Testimonials and Stories - Let your clients No other tool captures the essence of an help tell your story. Their experiences may organization so completely as the sharing of capture who you are and what you do in a way its story because stories highlight what that resonates with your tribe differently. makes an organization unique. • In-the-Moment Experiences - Part of your story Multiple businesses may is how you show up at impromptu times. Don’t be afraid to share those with your audience. VOLUME 2 These unplanned posts give your audience a

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glimpse of the real you and reveal a deeper aspect of your story. They strengthen your emotional connection with those you serve. Benefit Your Audience The largest portion of your content communication (at least 70%) will be focused on achieving this goal: serving your tribe. By approaching your content marketing as an act of service, you magnify your impact. You are able to transform lives in small ways on an ongoing basis, and in doing so you create a demand for more. More and more people will be attracted to your social feeds for the valuable content you are offering. They will experience transformation and come to trust you as a resource for what they need. This will cultivate relationships and ultimately lead to their desire for a deeper level of service from you, service they will pay for. Benefiting your tribe is all about providing them with content that can serve some immediate need they have right now. This may be a need for entertainment, inspiration or information, depending on your industry or area of expertise. Here are some examples of the types of content you can share to accomplish this: Inform your audience by sharing: • Tips • Facts • Statistics • Articles (can be yours or curated from outside sources) • Other helpful information Inspire your audience by sharing: • Quotes • Motivational sayings • Stories of transformation or positive impact • Inspirational videos or images Entertain your audience by sharing: • Humorous and entertaining videos • Silly memes • Other tasteful humor Drive Traffic Driving traffic is what enables you to generate leads and convert social media followers into customers and advocates. Without this essential component, you will likely generate no business from your social media communication because while you’ll be serving your tribe, you won’t

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be converting them into leads or customers. On the flip side, if all you do is drive traffic, then you will also generate no business because you’ll alienate your audience with too much selling. Driving traffic encompasses all the ways in which you use your social channels to take your audience to another location so they can engage with your content more deeply. This may be to read a blog or to watch a video. It also may be to fill out a form in order to access a content offer or to purchase a program. Not all aspects of driving traffic are promotional. They can be informative, inspirational or entertaining as well. When driving traffic is positioned as a form of service through delivering what your audience needs, then it is not perceived as sales but rather as support. Here are some ways in which you can use your social channels to drive traffic: • Share links to posts on your blog • Share links to your multimedia content hosted on other sites such as: • YouTube • SlideShare • Vimeo • Share links promoting free content offers that are available via lead-capture landing pages • Share links to landing pages for paid programs or services You can incorporate driving traffic into the 70% of content that benefits your audience when you post links to your blogs and other multimedia content. Driving traffic to lead-capture or sales pages should account for 20% or less of your overall content. When you craft your social media content strategy following these guidelines, you’ll be positioning your business for a maximum ROI on your social media efforts. It really is as simple as 1-2-3.

Growth Plan

Blowing The Doo r

s Off Of

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Gyms

Strategy

// Kate Mikado

for Tim Lyons as a side business is now taking up almost 100% of his time and energy. He’s running these funnel campaigns for Brick and Mortar Fitness facilities, and it’s blowing the doors off people’s gyms in any market. He then scaled the business and started to run his own marketing. ProFit GPS

Growth Plan Strategy Intro by Tricia Wilkes

Blowing The Doors Off Of Gyms Before Tim Lyons was a Two Comma Club winner, he started by owning and operating a brick and mortar training facility, and this was back in 2009 before Russel Brunson. “Being a small business owner, the first thing that I realized was I couldn’t do it all. I was doing it all. I was the salesman, the trainer, the janitor and, the marketer.” Tim Lyons described how he was making his business operate before he started running funnels and started to hire additional people. This mindset and structure are so common for the small business owner like in the beginning Tim Lyons, he describes needing to hire help “Because what you realize is, you know, nobody’s going to do it better than you.” He then became fully aware that something needed to change because and continued on to say “And when I started hiring the right people and being able to kind of take myself out of the equation. And even if they could do what I did at 70% or, 80% as well as what I was doing, it was worth it to me, so I can turn and spend my time on, you know, income generating activities where they were doing some of the busy work.” The profit marketing which started

In the interview Hawk goes extensively into Tim Lyon’s new program. Tim said “So we’re calling it the ProFit GPS. Growth Plan Strategy. And it’s packed full of everything that I’ve learned over the nine years and being in the fitness business all into one place.” A place where gym owners can get everything they need to be successful. He describes the program by saying “This is everything that I wish I had, most of it didn’t exist. But this is everything that I wish I had when I first opened because it would have saved me so much time” Make sure you continue on to read the interview because Tim Lyons goes into every single element of what the program offers. One example would be he says “ we’ve got quarterly plans, we have a 365-day marketing calendar there, and they can just grab the campaigns. We’ve already

been proven that they already work. We already know the copy works, just go ahead and use them for themselves.” However, there is so much more that’s in this program. The reason to have everything a Gym owner needs in one place to be successful is because as Tim Lyons says in the interview “Let’s be honest, like a lot of gym owners can’t afford $2,000- $3,000 a month. So they can go in and do it themselves. I feel like now we’re capturing another segment of the market that wants to do it themselves. Maybe they don’t have all the money to have to hire us to do it for them. But everything’s in there that’s what we’re going to be doing for them anyway, they just have to push the buttons instead of us.”. Which is absolutely essential for gyms and business owners who are just starting out without a marketing budget who are Tech savvy and want to push their own buttons. Does Your Gym Look Like This? Have you seen Tim Lyons Ad: Does your Gym look like this? He tells us all about the ad and the campaigns that he’s running Tim Lyons says in the interview “ We do a case study funnel where we actually flew out to Australia, we videotape the entire thing. We ran a

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marketing campaign for a gym out there made $40,000 over a two week period profit, and we use that one, and then we have a standard straight call to action one. Do you want your gym to look like that? Or does your gym look like this, you want it to look like this? Call us. So we have a straight apply funnel that does very well.” His funnel has 72% opt-in rate over 1000 opt-ins which is outstanding! He also is running funnels for the gym owners to get new members. He’s taking his niche and focusing on both sides of the coin.

locations, all we have to do is rebrand them, so we were fortunate enough to create some really strong funnels early on, like two or three that we just knew we’re working well. We knew the ad copy work, we knew the headlines work, we knew that the images that we were using were working. So that allowed us to go ahead and just scale very, very fast. In the first nine months in business, we had already acquired 150 new clients” Continue on to read his full response in the interview of fulfilling for one niche and the success he’s seeing.

Get Focused On One Niche

Marketers And Coaches

I know we all have heard this “NICHE DOWN.” I think its always stated but hardly ever followed because everyone is running off all of the things and all the people they want to reach. Tim Lyons talks about working with one niche and the advantage of doing so he says “The nicest thing about our business is we’re working with one niche, one industry, one style of a gym, we can scale quickly. We use the same funnels across multiple different

Hawk asks Tim Lyons what would fast-track our readers to success and for key insights and he responded with “I’ve always found coaching has always paid dividends.” He further answers hawks question with “first, you shortcut every single process, everybody that’s already made the mistakes is in front of you, why make those mistakes again, hire somebody that’s a coach, hire somebody who’s already been there. I wish I would have learned that a little bit earlier.” I think one of the reasons hiring a coach is so important is because as entrepreneurs especially in the digital marketing field you have to coach your clients on so many aspects. They pay you to build a funnel or to generate leads, and somehow you are coaching them on their brand, their message, their direction. Their Success is Ultimately Your success. When Tim Lyons says “You know, as marketers, you’re kind of hired to generate leads and sales for clients. But we end up being coaches to business coaches, not only do we have to come up with the creative, not only do we have to come up with you know, monitor, the campaigns and optimize campaigns and have the right offers, we also have to be a coach and teach them how to sell” Which caused this huge Ah-Ha

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moment for me! I hope it creates that same moment for our readers! To Grow, To Plan, To Strategize, To Automate To think about the point of growing, planning and strategizing to finally get to a place that your business is mostly automated should be the ultimate goal number one. One of the first steps on that road is to understand your client’s lifetime value and Tim Lyons explains why by saying “Understand your client lifetime value, I think that’s the biggest piece that I feel is missing. To understand how much your clients are spending with you, how long they’re staying with you, and what the value is of a client. Once you understand that, you know how much you’re willing to spend to acquire a client.” Hawk also provided some key insight when he also added, “I usually share with my clients like there are two things you need to look at. One is how much does it cost to acquire the customer? And then how long does it take for you to get to break even, because if you know those two things, then from there, everything becomes simple.” Finding a way to automate your business takes a process and putting your daily tasks down on paper for others to follow. Tim goes over his company’s automation backend “Create a library Company Manual” He continues on to say “I think it’s kind of cliche to say, but systems obviously run the business” The possibilities of a fully automated business Tim Lyons says “I know how awesome it is to be able to, to go out of town, go to Disneyland and not have to worry about your business. It’s kind of running for you.” One of the last thoughts from Tim Lyons says “Don’t abandon the things that got you to where you are today” Which is one of my favorite

quotes from the interview because you don’t have to compete with anyone to reach success and you’re already making steps in the right direction you may just need some G.P.S, Please continue on to the full interview with Tim Lyons! The Interview Interview with Hawk Mikado

Hawk: Hey, how’s it going, everybody? This is Hawk Mikado the Funnel Genius and Publisher of Funnel Magazine. Today we have Tim Lyons here who is a genius when it comes to Brick and Mortar Funnels. So he’s going to be sharing with you some brilliant things today. Welcome. Tim: Thanks, Hawk Thanks for having me.

mainstream. We were doing a lot of marketing, old school style, a lot of things that people are still kind of doing today in that industry. One thing led to another, we started running some funnels, I found Russell early on when Clickfunnels was just coming out and started running campaigns for some of my friends. Some of the guys that are in the industry, you know, mastermind groups that I’m in. In fitness, I was able to find some really fast success. And in early 2015, that spawned into a side business that I thought I was just going to be doing on the side and it turned into obviously my main source of income, obviously, still own my gym. But I’m spending almost 100% of my time, you know, working for profit marketing and running campaigns for brick and mortar businesses.

Hawk: Absolutely, so can you share a little bit about how you got started Hawk: that’s awesome. By the way, in this? I love the fact that it’s pro-fit like Tim: Well, sure. Yeah, you know, I that is obviously a play on words open up a brick and mortar fitness and, and being fit is a big part of facility back in 2009, kind of before being an entrepreneur to really be the whole concept of funnels was able to have sustained energy and

everything you have to be fit. And if you want to be profitable, you have to, have that sustained energy. So, can you share a little bit of how did you come up with the name, ProFit? Tim: You know, it’s funny, I speak to guys that do branding. And the honest truth is that we came up with this logo and name in a matter of less than 10 minutes. It just came up, it sounded like profit. It looks like pro-fit. Obviously, fit, fitness is one of the big pieces of you know, who we work for. So it tied together. It’s really Professional Fitness Marketing is really what it comes down to. We shorten it to ProFit play on words. It works really, really well. Hawk: Awesome. So you’ve got two completely different businesses. Obviously, you have the actual gym, which I love to hear from you and your insights and wisdom on scaling that and then also the agency side where you’re helping others, you’re helping these gyms and how you can scale that. So when you first got started with your gym, what were some of the things that you started

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to notice were really key to your let them handle some of the days to growth and success? day stuff and allowed me to grow the business. Tim: Well, for me, being a small business owner, the first thing that I Hawk: That’s awesome. So how realized is I couldn’t do it all. I was much automation versus delegation doing it all. I was the salesman, did you put in place? the trainer, janitor, you know the Tim: Good question, Hawk. To marketer, as soon as I started be honest with you, I jumped on trusting people, and it wasn’t easy, Infusionsoft back in 2009. You you know, as an entrepreneur, you know, when I first opened my want to kind of hold on to everything. doors, I found so much success in Because what you realize is, automating a lot of this. And it was nobody’s going to do it better than mostly in the nurturing process by you. And when I started hiring the getting somebody into the gym. right people and being able to kind So a lot of my campaigns were of take myself out of the equation. done early on in Infusionsoft, I And even if they could do what I really jumped on that. A lot of our did at 70 or 80% as well as what I daily tasks, I found some good was doing, it was worth it to me, so consultants at the time that know I can turn and spend my time on, way more than I did, allowed me to income generating activities where kind of automate some of the grind, they were doing some of the busy some of the tasks, the outreach, work. So early on, I found hiring and nurture, and then there are the right people in what again, it some of those things you just can’t wasn’t easy. I’ve had a lot of people automate, you have to have that go over the years. But that was the personal contact, obviously, when number one thing that’s allowed me you run a service business, in front to kind of get out of my own way, of the clientele, so you know, and the day to day, I would say, 25% of my business is automated in the gym. Obviously, we’ve got to train clients, we got to make calls, we got to speak to people, we got to get in front of them, and weigh in and measure them and make sure that they’re being trained correctly. So you can’t automate a lot of that stuff.

morning till six, seven at night, taking a little break in the middle of the day. And that’s, to be honest with you. That’s the path of a standard fitness business. You’ve got really busy mornings, you got a really dead period in the afternoon, you got really busy after work crowd. So I outsourced half of my days to another coach, allowing me to focus more on the business. And then we started growing by hiring more and more coaches, I got out of training completely a couple years into the business. And so I don’t train anybody anymore, which is great, and that allows me to just focus on scaling the business up. Hawk: Awesome. What are some of the funnels, like, what’s the funnel that you guys use to acquire a new customer in your fitness business?

Tim: So right now, obviously, somebody with a lot of businesses, people need to try your product before they buy. So we call these things low barrier or front end offers. In the fitness industry, it can be something as simple as a low low trial a cost for, you know, even a free trial to the gym, just get them in the doors, all the way up to maybe a big transformation program that can be $1500, $2,000 for like an 8, 12 week transformation. And so the standard one that we see, and we use almost all the time, either is a 14 or 21-day style, low barrier Hawk: Awesome. Who was the first offer that could be anywhere from person you hired when you were free to, $150 to get somebody in the building your gym? Who was that doors. first pivotal person that you said, I’m Hawk: Okay, awesome. So you’ve going to get rid of this task or get rid been able to succeed, you were of this, this position on myself? able to succeed there, and then you Tim: The very first person I hired started helping your friends and was a trainer, another coach to other people in the industry. Can outsource my clients too. I needed you share a little bit about, how you somebody that could take those did that transition? people out because that was where Tim: Yeah, good question. So, as I I was spending most of my time, I said, earlier, a good friend of mine, was training clients from five in the Frank Nash’s who’s kind of a bigger

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name in fitness. He allowed me just to test the product if you add his, I did it for free, right. So he’s out of the Boston area, we started doing a campaign for him, he ended up getting literally overnight, 65 new clients in for a gym of a training style gym, where your price points could be as cheap as $150 all the way up to, you know, $600, $700 a month. 65 new clients are amazing for a small business. Obviously, word spread. We did one in Pennsylvania with my friend Whitney, we did one down in Florida. And I quickly found that this style of marketing was blowing the doors off of people’s gyms in every single market that we did. So we scaled it; obviously, we started running some of our own marketing to get more clients. The first 16 months in our business was 100% word of mouth. We didn’t

really have to market, I feel like we were first to the table running that style of marketing. I mean, again, this was 2015 things have changed quite a bit since then. But it allowed me to use word of mouth in the fitness industry referrals where everything for us. Hawk: Okay, awesome. And so you started this in coaching, you started bringing all these clients, how do you work with them to make sure that they succeed? Tim: Well, we’ve got turnkey products that we know have already been proven. The nicest thing about our business is if we’re working with one niche, one industry, one style of a gym, we can scale quickly. We use the same funnels across multiple different locations, all we have to do is rebrand them, so we

were fortunate enough to create some really strong funnels early on, like two or three that we just knew we’re working well. We knew the ad copy worked, we knew the headlines work, we knew that the images that we were using were working. So that allowed us to go ahead and just scale very, very fast. In the first nine months in business, we had already acquired 150 new clients, new gyms, and that’s kind of unheard of, to be honest with you to scale that fast in nine months, we’d already hit seven figures of revenue in our first nine months of business just out the door. And I know how hard that is because running the gym has taken me seven years to get to seven figures in the gym, so to do that in nine months was amazing. This allowed me in the fitness business when you have a brick and mortar,

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your demographics are about a five-mile radius around your facility. People aren’t going to travel an hour to come train with you unless you’re maybe sporting specific, maybe you’re training professional athletes but with the digital marketing agency, Gosh, we scale our way to Australia, we have clients in Australia and all over the world now. It’s just such a great business. Hawk: That’s awesome. So I see Two two Comma Club awards in the back there. Tim: Yup.

every single process, that’s already made the mistakes in front of you, why make those mistakes again, hire somebody that’s a coach, hire somebody who’s already been there. I wish I would have learned that a little bit earlier. I did have consultants early on. Maybe they weren’t the right fit. But I still didn’t lose out, I saved time. And so just letting go right. Find the people that are successful in front of you, hiring those people, and just pay them a lot of money. Because when you have a lot of skin in the game, when you pay a coach or mentor a lot of money, you are going to do the work. And I feel like if people would just get that through their head, I feel like they can grow a lot faster.

Hawk: So you said you scaled one, did you get Two Comma Club awards because of your agency or is one of those for your fitness business Hawk: So you mentioned before to ensure that? that like when you first started your Tim: These are both for the agency. fitness business that you didn’t hire Although we run funnels for the anybody. So what changed in that fitness facility, we were already you process? I mean, you went from like know, a seven-figure facility before being the one and the only person having funnels introduced. So these working to having a first trainer and aren’t for the gym. These are both then now hiring coaches that, you for the agency, but I guess I suppose know, are 50,000 plus per year just I could apply for the gym as well. to work with them. So how did that I never really even thought about transition out? that Hawk, it’s a good idea. It’s always nice to have another piece Tim: Failing, failing makes you, make some quick decisions. And so of hardware on the wall. when we first opened the gym, with Hawk: So I’m seeing, you’ve made about six, seven months, we knew such a big name for yourself, so we were on the wrong track, we you’ve helped so many people with had a wrong model, we were in a their business, what are some of the really high-end area of paying a lot key insights that you learn that like of money, I had to make changes, you knew if you were able to fast- or else I had to close the doors. And track your success now, if you’d that’s a tough spot to be in. When known those things, what are some you’re just starting out. You know, of those things? granted, I was young enough that Tim: You know, I’ve always found I was just dumb enough to do this. coaching has always paid dividends, And I’m so glad that I did. But to right? So when I’ve hired mentors, be honest with you, if I didn’t hire a hired coaches, I was in Russell’s mentor. And at the time, his name inner circle for two years, I’ve always is Rick, Rick Mayo, he’s still a really gotten a return on my investment. good friend of mine, I would be in Even if it was hard to come up with a totally different industry by now a revenue, you know, the money or found something else. But that’s to pay for it, at first, you shortcut how you make decisions quickly is VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE

when something’s going wrong, and you need to make some fast changes. That’s what inspired me to find the right person to coach me. Hawk: That’s awesome. So you guys have your training programs, do you guys also coach and work with people one on one online like an inner circle high-end program? Tim: Well, when it comes to the fitness facility, we do everything in person. I know a lot of the trend is going online. But we’re not going down that path, we’re happy with our facility. We like our community that we’re in. And we’re really doing well here. We don’t do a whole lot of coaching. And when it comes to marketing, a lot of the stuff that we’ve done is done for you. So people will hire us will do the work for them. Because I know as gym owners, like when I was just first starting out, I didn’t have any time even to learn anything. So I just wanted to hire, people just want to hire that out. Now we’ve got a different direction with the business recently, where we’re actually allowing people just to take down our campaigns and burn themselves. Because I feel people have to kind of grasp the fact of running Facebook, and Instagram ads, and running YouTube ads and videos and running funnels and email automation. I feel that trend is starting to come around to where people really want to do it themselves sometimes. So we’ve created a whole new online platform where people can just go grab the campaigns that we’ve been running for people and do it themselves now. Hawk: That’s awesome. So you got this new program, and what’s the program called? Tim: So we’re calling it the ProFit GPS. Growth Plan Strategy. And it’s packed full of everything that I’ve learned over the nine years and being in the fitness business

all into one place. And this isn’t just lead generation and front-end marketing. It’s also retention and internal marketing. And we’ve put a section for bot marketing in there. And there’s email marketing in there. And so, this is everything that I wish I had, most of it didn’t exist. But this is everything that I wish I had when I first opened because it would have saved me so much time, right. And so we’ve put it all in one place, gym owners can go right in there and grab whatever they want. Any time of the year. And we’ve got quarterly plans, we have a 365-day marketing calendar in there, and they can just grab the campaigns. They already have been proven that they already work. We already know the copy works, just go ahead and use them for themselves. Hawk: Awesome. So you’ve got these two segments of your gym owners market, right from your agency side? How do you see that helping you? Well, I guess maybe even getting another three commas or two comma club award, or three comma club award. Tim: Three commas, hey, now we got some new review, we’d be on to something really, really big, then, you know, the done for you is a great piece of our business. In fact, that’s how we’ve gotten to where we are today, I feel like we’re missing out, we’re cutting out because it’s a higher price point. Let’s be honest, like a lot of gym owners can’t afford $2,000- $3,000 a month. So they can go in and do it themselves. I feel like now we’re capturing another segment of the market that wants to do it themselves. Maybe they don’t have all the money to have to hire us to do it for them. But everything’s in there that’s what we’re going to be doing for them anyway, they just have to push the buttons instead of us.

Hawk: That’s awesome! I feel like we’ve covered like the core of what you do and how you do it? I mean, are there any other like ninja secrets or things that you’ve learned over the course of the years that you feel are really important for people to grasp and to put into the business?

and the one thing that I would say that’s really helped us grow is sticking to one niche, right. So a lot of agencies will do totally different niches, a totally different industry is totally different. You may be ones online was offline, maybe it’s a dentist and a restaurant, maybe it’s a lawyer and a gym, it’s just like, Tim: Well, couple things I know get really focused on one niche. there’s a lot of digital agencies out For us. It’s fitness, it’s obviously an there, a lot of marketing agencies easy fit for me. But when you find

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that one niche that you’re really, really good at, you’ll find out really fast that you can scale, you can duplicate the same campaigns over and over again, Allows you to save time internally, you can all speak the same language. Every industry has their own slang terms, and niches and things like that, or terminology I should say, once your team kind of learn that you don’t have to relearn a new one. And so for those of the listeners or the readers that you know, are in that digital marketing agency, find a niche that you’re really really good at, or maybe two and stick with that and find the funnels that are working and duplicate those over and over. I would say for those agency owners, I think that’s the key. Hawk: Awesome. When somebody wants to get out of their fitness company, like what would do to recommend that they would be able to step out completely and go from being the one, you know, once they hire their first coach, and then just continue to progress down that road. Tim: Yeah, I think it’s kind of cliche to say, but systems obviously run the business. I was, you know, I’ve read some really good books, obviously, E-Myth is like the first book I read when I first opened, I got to be honest with you, I’m pretty fortunate to be in a position where I have a seven-figure gym then I really only spend maybe four hours a week working on the business. Now, my office is in the gym, and if anybody ever needs me, I’m always here. But I have a team, a great team that runs the operations. Once you get to that point, Life is pretty good. And so I know a lot of people don’t want to trade time for money, but you do have to work your ass off to get to that point. And it’s unfortunate to say that you could hire the wrong people, and the whole thing could VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE

fall apart as long as you teach your team exactly how you want to do it. And that’s everything from answering the phone, to answering email, to how to train your clients, to how to deliver the product having that all trained out, written out if you do videos, we do a lot of video training here, and we’ve got a portal, it’s a Clickfunnels portal that we have, we house all of our training videos in which is really nice. Just build your business, every time that you do something that’s the same thing every day, shoot a video and tell your team how to do it. Create a library. Even if you don’t even have a team yet. Start building a library of all your processes of things that you do on a daily basis and how to use Clickfunnels, use a membership site it’s so easy, you can just put your lesson plans in there. And now your team knows exactly how to run the business and you can kind of step back out of it.

or something like that too for like projects, checklist management where they can you can kind of see their progress?

Tim: Within the gym, no, and it’s funny. We use Infusionsoft to track all of our projects in the agency, at ProFit we’ve created kind of a custom pipeline for our internal work because we can scale it because we’ve been able to duplicate the same processes over and over. We built out a custom campaign where each department gets a notification and moves down the pipeline. So we use Infusionsoft in a way that it’s really wasn’t designed to do. But it made a lot of sense for me. So we’ve got a whole dashboard. Everybody’s got custom dashboards built out. We know where every single client is in the process of the build-out, of the launch, campaigns completed, you know, looking at the data we’ve got, departments that are all looking at different things. We use Infusionsoft Hawk: So you’re talking about a for that. membership portal for your team Hawk: Okay, that’s awesome. We members, employees, contractors, did that a long time ago when we all that sort of stuff? were on Infusionsoft. Such a very Tim: Yep. It’s basically our company powerful platform. Can you share manual on Clickfunnels. So how to what’s one of the core funnels that’s run the scheduling software, how working really, really well in ProFit to to do everything, how to answer help your clients get new clients? the phones, how to greet a client, Tim: I’ll give you the two funnels that it’s all there. We do a lot of rolework for both companies. So for the playing with the team meetings gym, for ProFit, to get new clientele, every week. It’s all in there. So new gym owners into our business, yeah, I mean, utilize that as your we run three separate funnels, we’ve company manual and company got a lead magnet, basically the training portal. I mean, that saved 10 keys on your successful fitness so much time for us. When we have business, we know that’s going to a new hire. We just give them the identify gym owners very easily. We login follow through. They’re being have to look at the stats, but it was like trained, and you only do it once, a 72% opt-in rate over 1000 opt-ins right. And as you learn new things on that funnel it was pretty nice. We and you’re doing something better built that it’s all you know, obviously or something changes, throw the our original content on that. We do a video in there, and it can replace it. case study funnel where we actually Hawk: Absolutely. Do you guys flew out to Australia, we videotaped use as a platform like teamwork the entire thing. We ran a marketing

campaign for a gym out there made $40,000 over a two week period profit, and we used that one, and then we have a standard straight call to action one. Do you want your gym to look like that? Or does your gym look like this, you want it to look like this? Call us. So we have a straight apply funnel that does very well. Obviously, the lead magnet one does really well. And then the case study one which is like an eight nine-minute video, that seems to get us a lot of clientele as well. Now for the gym owners or for the gyms to get new clientele. It’s all about right now. It’s all about low barrier programs, short-term programs at anything up to about six, eight weeks or less for either free or a low price point that just brings the people in, there are so many different styles of marketing campaigns right now. But in essence, Americans that’s most of our clientele, they want a quick and easy fix. They want to get a specific result, they need to know the price up front, they need to know it’s x amount of days along and they can commit to that. You get in that psyche of the person that’s sitting on the couch. Hell, I can do this for 21 days. Hell, it’s only $149. And I get all of these things all included. Yeah, I’m going to go ahead and buy that two in the morning watching infomercials about you know, pillows and things like that on TV. That’s how we get most of our clients, our clients’ clients. It’s funny to say that, but our gym participants, those are the style of marketing campaigns that are working the best. Hawk: Yeah, awesome. So you guys are running Facebook ads, I’m guessing? Tim: Absolutely. Hawk: Awesome. What are some of the key follow up components that you have to see really helped convert your clients? I see there’s

traffic, there’s the funnel itself. And to kind of discover what they need. then there’s the follow-up, which Hawk: Okay, perfect. Yeah, I generates probably 70 plus percent figured that you had actually to of the revenue on the back end. have a conversation with them. I Tim: Absolutely. So we have a love that you guys implemented really elaborate abandoned card phone into your follow up process sequence that we put into place early on the gyms and for your clients. on. And basically when somebody Because that’s so powerful. What opt-in, they don’t finish the purchase, do you see? When you’re working we hit them immediately within 15 with somebody, do you see that minutes with email, and then a text they are resistant to that initial, like, message. And then we alternate Hey, we need to get a salesperson email, text message, email, text on the phone, or is it something that messages for about four days, each you found is pretty easy to basically one obviously increased urgency, like, here’s how you can triple your and then we push those off to an business, basically? actual sales person to call and were Tim: We do find it pretty difficult able to collect, a lot of income and to get gym owners to pick up the revenue that way to get people to phone. I mean, obviously, we would convert finally. So initially, yeah, it’s love everything to be automated. a great idea. Maybe they don’t have And, people will just show up at the a credit card in front of them. You’re door. A lot of times, they don’t know right, we do make the majority of our how to speak to people, they don’t revenue on the follow-up sequences. have sales skills, trainers, and gym So it’s a combination of email, text, owners. And you know, even going and actual phone calls. into restaurants and dentists to Hawk: Awesome. So that’s for the chiropractors, they want to provide actual fitness business or is after the the service their technicians, right, they don’t really understand sales, agency or both? they don’t understand the urgency Tim: That’s the fitness business. The of getting on the phone as soon as agency side, a lot of that is done you get a lead. So it’s very difficult. with a call. But the agency side It’s actually one of the hardest things we got to get on the phone with that we do. And that’s the biggest people. We do some text message obstacle that we face, once we do marketing and email, but they’re not start generating a lot of leads for buying anything through the funnel. clients is getting them to pick the It’s mostly applying for a call. So phone up. So we coach them by we’ve got to nurture sequences and giving them training, we give them long-term sequences, and in doc scripts to use. And we just have to sequences, all built in each different kind of turnkey the entire thing for funnel. But most of it all ends up them. You know, as marketers, with a physical call, get them on you’re kind of hired to generate the phone, obviously speak to their leads and sales for clients. But we needs, their interests, in every gym end up being coaches to business it’s a little different, right. So we’ve coaches, not only do we have to got big box gyms and training come up with the creative, not only gyms, and, you know, boot camps do we have to come up with you and hit studios and things like that. know, monitor, the campaigns and So we have different solutions for optimize campaigns and have the different gyms, different studios. So right offers, we also have to be a we do have to have a call with them coach and teach them how to sell,

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giving scripts to use and tell them how to take care of the client all the way into their gym, or all the way into their business. And it’s just part of the business. That’s part of the things that we have to do every day. Hawk: Well, so you guys ever helped them outsource that to another client working basically saying, Hey, here’s, not another client, to a salesperson say, Hey, you need to hire the salesperson, they can get on the phone, close deals for you so you guys can scale and can kind of overcome that obstacle? Or is that just, you’re training them or somebody on their team to do that? Tim: Yeah, we haven’t run into a team that we’ve been comfortable with, we’ve worked with some high ticket closers that make phone sales, that this wouldn’t be a really good fit for them. This is, you know, a little bit lower volume, lower price tag. And I know a lot of like phone sales folks are looking for big commissions and things like that. We tend just to coach people if we had a solution to where we can have a call center that VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE

knew scripts. Yeah, that would be a on that. But, all right. For the fitness great piece to add to this. I Haven’t owner side, understand your client found it yet. lifetime value, I think that’s the biggest piece that I feel is missing. Hawk: Oh, there are so many things To understand how much your that you’ve shared, so much in this clients are spending with you, how interview so far, if you’re going to long they’re staying with you, and teach, if you could share one thing, what the value is of a client. Once and I guess we will do one thing for you understand that, you know the Fitness Trainers and one thing how much you’re willing to spend for agencies and they can be the to acquire a client. And I always same thing I guess, but if you’re use the analogy of somebody was going to share one thing that they coming up to you and offering you could implement in their business a $2,000 bar of gold for $500, or their life today that would help would you do it? And almost every simplify everything and make their single person says Yes. But then life or their business easier? What when you ask them, would you would that one thing be? spend $500 to acquire a $2,000 Tim: Gosh, one thing? That’s it? One value client? Would you do it? It’s a little too much, it’s the same thing, thing? clients are assets to your business, Hawk: It should be implementable they all have a value. And if you to, like if they stopped everything, just take all of your clients in the they didn’t learn anything from average amount to find out what the interview today, they don’t do that client lifetime value is, I feel like anything else. They only did one all your marketing, all the money thing today. What would that one that you’re spending, makes it an thing be? investment and not an expense. And Tim: That’s a tough one. I think you it almost goes for both businesses, I might have stumped me a little bit feel like once you understand that, you’re okay. Finally, investing in

the marketing that you need to be investing in. Because now you’ve got a return on your investment, you understand, you spend $500, you make $2,000 or more obviously, I think that’s the key concept. If I could just get that through to everybody listening, I think that would open up the blinders on what they’re doing in their businesses. Hawk: That is so powerful. I usually share with my clients like there are two things you need to look at. One is how much does it cost to acquire the customer? And then how long does it take for you to get to break even, because if you know those two things, then from there, everything becomes simple, if you know, it takes three months to get to break even then, you know, it’s like you spend 500 bucks and you know, in three months that you’re going to have that 500 bucks back. And then everything after that’s profit. So, you know, at that point is just how do you scale that at that point? The question is scaling rapidly and getting the finances to do that, because, you know, you have to wait three months to get that 500 bucks back. Tim: Yeah, yeah. Hawk: Really powerful, really powerful insight. So, I guess, are there any last thoughts, ideas, anything you want to share with either gym owners and or with the agency owners who are either reading or listening to this? Tim: You know, what I’d say to everybody that’s kind of reading this is just authentic in your business, don’t try to do what everybody else is doing. Take care of your clients. If you focus on what your customers need, or your clients, whatever it is in your business, what you call them, if you focus on their needs, and stop worrying about the next guy down the streets doing or your

competition that’s an agency world is doing and worry about what your customers need, it will allow you to focus and move forward instead of always looking back over your shoulder over what everybody else is doing. So your answers and your entire business lies in the needs of your customers. A lot of times, we lose focus, when we’re looking at the next, you know, magic bullet or the next shiny object and how cool that is. But what is it that your clients are really needing from you, once you figure that out? Or if you do already know it, just focus on that everything becomes very, very clear. Hawk: Sort of a question for me, there’s the idea that, every solution creates a new problem when you solve someone’s problem, the problem they came into you for, it creates a new problem for them, right? So in the fitness industry, what is that new problem, because that’s something, and I’m sure you guys are with as much as you’ve grown your business and you’ve run other fitness companies, have you seen that, you know, it’s okay, they’re fit, what’s the new problem that comes in is created from that, that prevents them from going back to their old lifestyle, and they’re getting fat? Tim: Well, for the gym owners that we’re transforming their businesses, the new problem is how to take care of all the new clientele that they’ve just gotten. And a lot of times, they lose focus on their current clients. And they’re starting to only focus on the new ones all the time. And so that creates a new problem. So staffing becomes an issue and everything there as you mentioned before that having the person to pick up the phone and make calls for people, that’s the new problem. And so when it comes to fitness, you know, getting somebody a great result, maybe they lose 30 pounds, or a few months now, they’ve got

to learn how to stay there. And we always teach people it is so much easier to stay in shape than it is to get in shape. And we always have to remind them obviously, of the way that used to feel. And that’s what we do a really deep analysis. When somebody comes into the gym to start working out with us, we want to know all their pain points, and we bring that back -up and our consultation, so it keeps reminding them the way things used to be so they don’t go backward. The same thing can be true with a gym owner, that we’ve kind of helped grow their business, we go back and reflect on those, that first conversation we had with them and all the struggles they are having, and that stuff’s gone. Now, obviously, we want to make sure that they always keep that in the back of their mind. They don’t want to go back because it can happen really quick, right? Oh, I hit my goal. Now I can, you know, take the foot off the gas. And next, you know, you start sliding backward. Hawk: Absolutely. I know that that happens for most people when they go to the gym, they get fit and then say “Oh, I’m fit now. I don’t need to go to the gym anymore”. Tim: Yeah, always do the things that got you there. I mean, like the thing, don’t totally abandon everything that got you to success. Obviously, some things change over time. But if you just like Okay, I’m good now. Like, you had a coach, it could be a fitness coach or a business coach. Well, they got me to where I need to be. I’m good now. You let them go. And next, you know, obviously you got to have them in some capacity, you may hire another coach, but you know, kind of push you to the next level. They can only get you so far. Maybe you find somebody else can push you to the next level. But, yeah. Don’t abandon the things that got you to where you are today.

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Hawk: Absolutely. So you just shared something. So you said you know, get the next coach, somebody who can take you to the next level. What have you found is the, like for you too, as you either you know, the fire and then hire new coaches? What have you found for you has been the moment where you’re like, Okay, this person isn’t a fit for me. You said you’re no longer in Russell’s inner circle, for instance, and I’m guessing you didn’t stop there and be like Okay, you probably joined another coaching program inner circle. So what was that transition that moment that said you are like, Okay, I’m ready to find the person who is going to be able to bring me to that next level? Tim: Yeah. For me, personally, I’m finding a little bit more value in kind of cherry-picking courses and going to seminars, that’s how I personally learn. I learn best sitting in a seminar, listening to somebody, taking notes and taking action from there. Now I know a lot of people don’t work that way. I’m a little different, where I actually do the things that I hear when I am being coached. So instead of going just on one path, I’m actually diversifying. I’m listening to different industries and things like that. So I’m actually looking at another mastermind here in Phoenix that’s going to be coming up really, really soon. So I’m taking the money, I would be spending on a single coach, I’m kind of diversifying. I’m hearing different things from different industries. And it’s allowed me to kind of cherry pick the things that I know will work for us. So, you kind of always need to know if you start you know, you find yourself, you have a specific way you learn and you may not know it yet, you may not know maybe you’re just starting out in business, or you’re just starting to hire your first coach. Maybe they aren’t VOLUME 2 * FUNNEL MAGAZINE

going to be a good fit for you. And that’s okay, you’re going to find out how you learn best. I learn best by going to seminars, I learn best from going in and taking specific courses on specific things that I need to fix things in my business. But there’s plenty of great coaches that can do a lot of things for you. So, you know, for me, it’s just how I learn, it’s how I decided and, you know, how I’m spending my money on coaching. Hawk: Awesome. One question that I had. So you’ve progressed your business from having a fitness company to helping other fitness companies, do you ever have plans to help agencies focus on fitness companies helping fitness, right? Tim: That’s a tough one. Because do I want to create my own competition in the industry if this is the path I’m going on. And I know a lot of the thing to do right now is become a coach, if you will, of people. I still like getting my hands dirty being in the business. I like the fact that I own a business and I could speak to the fitness business. I didn’t use to have a business, I have it right now. And I know the things that the gym owners need. And so that really, I feel like that sets us apart. You know, if I created a coaching group to create other, I feel like there are so many people doing that right now. I’m not planning on doing it. It’s a good question. I see that trend right now. And I think that’s why you brought it up. But I don’t see us doing that anytime soon. I don’t see us doing anytime soon. We’re really happy with where we’re at and what we’re growing and the new products that we’re launching and things like that. And I like staying focused on this. So I mean, but there’s plenty of people out there will teach you how to become an agency owner really quickly. Haw: Absolutely. I was just curious

because it is definitely a trend and you know, seeing a lot of, especially a lot of the other Clickfunnels, Two Comma Club winners are being Okay, let me teach the people, other people how to teach what I was teaching. Tim: That makes sense. Hawk: I don’t have to do it anymore. Tim: Yeah, we enjoy it, Hawk. To be honest, I enjoy helping gym owners, at my core, I like helping people that were in the position I was in. I just love it. Like, I know what they’re going through. I know how awesome it is to be able to, to go out of town, go to Disneyland and not have to worry about your business. It’s kind of running for you. And it’s just, just a great feeling. And I know that’s the dream when somebody opens up a fitness facility or any business, right? They want to sit on the beach, watch the checks roll and it’s not that easy. It’s not that simple. So if I can just get somebody that much closer that’s really what drives me in the agency. That’s 100% it. Hawk: I love it, man. I love it. Awesome. So we have had the blessing of having Tim here. Sharing his genius and was, not just in the gym but helping other gym owners. And so whether you are in, whether you own a gym, you can get massive value from this. Make sure that you implement and do the things that he shared. And if you’re an agency, helping chiropractors or local businesses like this is a powerful tool for you to get the right systems in place and crush it with your business. See you guys on the next interview. Tim: Thanks, Hawk. Hawk: Absolutely.

Metrics

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Metrics in Production Environments

As we have mentioned in our prior article. Metrics are extremely necessary, we basically use them to measure everything, is a human need, we need to know the time, we created a metric system, divided the day in hours and created a device to tell us the time, we went beyond that and found the need to create a system to actually measure the days that go by, years, decades centuries we need to keep track of where we are in time, so man created a metric system and named it a Calendar, so basically the point is, metrics are well darn important.

ARTICLE BY Raul Puentes

how much do we owe Uncle Sam in Taxes. Very basic, right? Well, production environments are the most challenging metrics to obtain accuracy on, the constant production and minute by minute sales make it virtually impossible to keep up. This is again where technology plays an incredible role. Imagine the technology that companies like Amazon invest to keep up with approximately 35 orders per second!? 1.1 Billion Sales a year. Incredible right? The algorithms and systems running constantly need extremely careful supervision, as you know, it doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t matter how high tech your systems are, computers crash from time to time.

Let us dive into an area of metrics application where I Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take another aspect to show the importance of believe the accuracy of the data measured should be having accurate data. Suppose you are in charge of the tip-top. Production Environments. metrics and MIS (management information systems) in Production environments could be in any type of one of the biggest banks in the world. More specifically company, or factory, financial institution we need you manage the metrics of the AML department (Anti to keep up with the production of products, services, Money Laundering). So how important is the AML including sales, number of employees, big companies program for a bank nowadays. Well, let me enlighten believe or not have a huge daily turn around that we you. may not see, employees leaving, entering just the same After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, President bush came way as people are born and die in this world. Sales up with the USA PATRIOT ACT this is not a just a are a must, we must know how much money our cool name for an anti-terrorist plan, it actually stands new shoe fabrication business is doing, for Uniting And Strengthening America Providing how much money is making, and Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001. If you are ever curious, Act #3 of such document contains the Anti Money Laundering VOLUME 2

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Program. This forced government financial regulatory institutions like FinCen (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network) and the OCC (Office of the Comptroller of Currency) to push banks to establish an AML program and no, is not an option, if they don’t implement this successfully, Banks and other financial institutions face incredibly high penalties and also risk their luxury of actually staying open for business, is the law. Now that we laid out the importance of such a program we will dive back into the production environment of such programs. So the technology systems and algorithms monitoring our accounts for any change in behavior (CIB) spit out an average of 100 to 200 cases a month per analyst in an AML department containing about 500 analysts (talking about major banks like Citi, Wells Fargo or Bank Of America, have in mind this are estimates). If you do the math you are talking about thousands of cases generated automatically not including the alarms that are manually set at a branch employee when to guys wearing yellow chemical suits deposit 9,900 dollars in cash every other day (yes is a Breaking Bad reference). As you can see is quite a high volume of cases, all of these having to be revised personally by a human being, and having this human decide if the behavior seen in the account is relevant and makes sense for certain type of costumer, or not and should be escalated to legal departments and eventually law enforcement to go after the Narcos laundering money and cleaning it up to go into our economic system. Each analyst goes over approximately 8 to 7 cases a day, all in the different status (pending closure, during the investigation, on hold for X or Y reason, etc. also this records must be completed during the allocated dates imposed by the government agencies we mentioned above. No pressure, right!?.

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Well now that I scared you enough, and you are that human in charge of mapping all these metrics for this oh so important AML department at the biggest bank in America. How do you keep up with hundreds of analysts producing in conjunction thousands of investigations daily, every minute, every hour there is the one generating, and another one being completed, oh wait! Another one being escalated! And the metrics you produce are the guidelines for the production department, to see if they are on track or they are falling behind and need to tell the drum banging guy to bang the drums a little faster so the slaves row faster for the ship to move faster Battle Rhythm!! Basically the future of the bank after a quarterly audit by government offices rests in your head. Again no pressure. Here we can see how important, production metrics must be. There is something called “real-time data” which refers to the accuracy of the data produced. If you create a report for the regional director of the department and the last time data was pulled was at 8 am, in a normal banking hour company you are basically showing him what was completed the day before, but if you had to take the kids to school that day cause your wife had the flu and you ran into traffic in the interstate due to a semi flipping their load all over the road and you didn’t make it work by 11 am and sent the report at around 12. Well in 4 hours a lot could be have changed, and your boss is now receiving inaccurate data. It is sad to say that in my experience, this problem today is still a huge issue the company has to deal with. Let me tell you unless you possess servers and technology like the one Amazon has, you will run into this issues, there is really no such thing as real-time data anymore. Thankfully there is quite a number of tech companies, I have my favorite one which I am actually trying to propose at my employer location, that is working tirelessly to get close to producing reports as close to real time as possible. Think about it, in the example, I gave you, where you have to deal with cases that investigate money launderers which in fact may potentially fund terrorist initiatives and other bad guy action, how important do you think your job is? Like one of my favorite memes says… I am just going to leave this here. And remove myself slowly, and let it sink in.

IP H ER S AD

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Build Your Lifestyle First Article by Andrew Wallis

Plan your time off as vigorously as you plan your work; your life to just work! as an entrepreneur, your brain is constantly switched on, What’s the point of being rich at 65 if you can’t live if you don’t give it planned times of rest and recovery while you’re still young? the only success you can guarantee is BURN OUT! What I found is when I planned my time off and had it visually in front of me daily, my mind came up with genius ways to make it happen. I was always thinking about how I was going to make it happen. There is so much you can do with a lot less money than you think, the reason why you haven’t or don’t spend more time away from your business, living your chosen lifestyle is more likely due to your belief system rather than money, time or your business itself.

I first heard about this concept about 10 years ago, until then I thought I should only take a holiday once If you can change the way you think, the world in which I had completed everything and my business was you live will also change . working as it should. Try this for one year and I promise you your life will The problem with this way of thinking was that my improve. Let’s start by mapping out the best year of business (and every other business on the planet) is your life!

always messy, there are things that always need to be Belief System Update reorganized, updated and restructured. You Can Live Your Dream Lifestyle Whilst Building There are very few points where everything runs as Your Business, You Don’t Need To Wait Until Your smoothly as we hope it should, that’s just the nature of Business Is Finished. this game we call business. Map out your time away from your business first, I call Another thing is I don’t see the point in this “Lifestyle Time”. wasting the most valuable years of This goes in line with the reason why my business partner and I called our business Lifestyle 180. To often as business owners we start our business to provide for VOLUME 2

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us to allow us to spend time doing what we want to do visiting friends and living experiences. – the fun things in life. How do I plan to pay for these trips? When I initially But before you know it you are working long hours 7 mapped out my plan I had no idea but whenever I days a week and you never seem to get done. Week create the plan and block time to focus on my goals I in week out you are focused on your business and that come up with the solutions I need and you should do spells bad news because you are suddenly not “present” the same. when you are spending time with friends, family and Having something to look forward to gives me all the your significant other. inspiration I need to make sure I put the effort into When we start working with a client we focus on “you” growing and developing our business which generates the client and drill down to what it is you truly want. the revenues to allow me to achieve what I want to We help map out your perfect day and perfect life and achieve. from there we build your business around your life, not You should do the same, there is no shame in failing, the other way around. the shame is not trying! It is our belief that this needs to come first. Your “me time” might be going away on holiday; spending quality What’s your big adventure for 2018? time at home with family; devoting time to volunteer to Map it out on your yearly calendar. help others; time for adventures; personal development When mapping it out don’t worry about the “HOW”; workshops etc. how you are going to find the money and the time, how Imagine if your business was making you money and will your business survive when you’re away, etc. providing you with the time and freedom you required; That’s the stuff you will work on throughout the year as what is it you would want to do? you build your business to serve your lifestyle. This is not always an easy concept to grasp as you may Also, it’s not written in stone, all of it is fully changeable feel guilty that you’re not working on your business. depending on your circumstances over the year. It’s If you feel this way you have to understand that you will more to keep you excited and give you direction for have much more energy and will be able to put in more the year. effort growing your business if you take scheduled time How To Periodize Your Plan away from your business. Your life is more important than your business. It always If you are in fitness industry, then you’ll understand the has been and always will be but somewhere along your concept of periodisation, this is no different, all your entrepreneurial journey, you may have forgotten this doing is periodizing your work-life balance. important point.

Here is my planner for 2018

For those of you who don’t know this term, periodization is the systematic planning of athletic or physical training. The aim is to reach the best possible performance in the most important competition of the year. It involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period. When I first used this system, I started with 12 weeks of focused work on my business followed with 1 week off. This soon changed to 6 weeks of focused work followed by a short time off, then a week or 2 off after the next 6 weeks. With a little trial and error, you’ll be able to discover the optimal plan for you. There is no right or wrong way.

The aim is to make your business work and have enough time and money throughout the year to enjoy My biggest adventure this year is going to be living the life and stay inspired to laptop lifestyle and I plan to spend time in Australia EDITION 10 FUNNELMAGAZINE.COM

keep growing and managing your business. One Final Thing Your calendar must be in your line of sight every single day so I would recommend using a wall calendar for this over an online calendar. Just looking at it daily will create thoughts, thoughts turn into actions, actions turn into your life!

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Build your lifestyle first and build your business to support it, not the other way around.

Mind The Gap: Success vs. Achievement! Article by Jeff Klubeck

In the London Underground, “Mind the Gap” is the constant warning to “see and beware” of the space between the platform and the train door…literally a matter of life and death! Boarding my blog, however, this same phrase is a plea to consider the valuable difference between words or concepts that otherwise are offered as the same thing. Mind The Gap asks us to pay attention to the difference that I hope empowers self and others! What IS the difference, for example, between Success and Achievement? Success is defined as an accomplishment of an aim or purpose…however, all too often, we use the term to describe “status” or the amount of money/things a person has. Who comes to mind when you think of who you know that is “Successful”?

Achievement, on the other hand, is defined as things done successfully. Having many/repetitive successes will pave the way towards the achievement! Achievement comes from being successful many times over…yet, ironically, achievement does not guarantee one’s success! Who comes to mind when you think of who you know that has achieved something in life… achieved something WITH their life? Mind the Gap! The difference between Success and Achievement is subtle because they are codependent. They need each other to exist. And, isn’t it interesting how things can be achieved unsuccessfully (passing class with a “C” is an achievement, even if not a successful one), yet nothing can be achieved without one or more things being done successfully (even the “C” student succeeds 70-80% of the time)! Please also consider that while Achievement is verifiable, Success is a bit more subjective. What a HUGE difference?! You can believe you have success while others believe you are nowhere close to it! Or, you may NOT believe yourself to be successful at the same time that millions would literally risk their lives to be YOU! All the while, an achievement is an achievement… regardless of the pedigree, honor or heroism ascribed to it, it can be verified and agreed upon when someone achieves something.The good and bad news

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bring you success. AND until you set standards, the difference between Success and Achievement is truly a “chicken-or-egg” conversation that will most likely get you nowhere! Private Coaching is a GREAT place to get clarity on your standards…to become crystal clear on the achievements you most wish to pursue in life/ business/career. The difference between Success and Achievement is the standards you set…but the difference between setting them and just thinking about them COULD BE the effective coaching! You have heard it said often that “no one succeeds alone”… and the highest achievers in life, sport, art, and business ALL have effective Coaches supporting them along the way. Call to Action: Try Two Complimentary Sessions with a Get A Klu Certified Coach (you might even get ME!). Or if you are already working with a Coach of your own, make sure you do your ½ year check in as the month of July approaches to see if you are on track to is that Success is mostly a “state of mind.” You can ACHIEVE your definition(s) of SUCCESS for 2018. feel successful without physically/tangibly achieving anything, whereas achievement is more a “state of To Your Success…and Achievement! status” (or material/tangible). You must see something accomplished, or accomplish a goal yourself in order to have achieved something. It really all comes down to standards. The standards you set for yourself will determine what you set out to achieve and the degree to which the pursuit and attainment of those achievements will require and/or

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Pitch Investors Live Creates Brand New Opportunities for Entrepreneurs and Investors Article by Jonathan Foltz

We are entering into a brand new paradigm get ready for something that is groundbreaking and where technology, availability, and connectivity are changing the game of how startups and entrepreneurs accelerating the process of all things. are getting exposure, feedback, and funding for their innovative ventures, products/services, and ideas of all It is a shift that is about change how our world works, sorts. and it is happening faster than anyone can imagine. Welcome to PITCH Investors Live - a revolutionary Ray Kurzweil, Google’s lead Futurist, calls it “The Law new app that is looking to improve and digitize the old of Accelerating Returns.” Silicon Valley model of funding. It is the only app in the Malcolm Carter, from The Connected Universe, calls it world that allows entrepreneurs and startups to pitch investors live, via live streaming. “The Doubling.” I call it “The Speedening.” This technological shift is changing the landscape of digital material, business, entrepreneurship, and funding in a manner that will keep those aware of it all, much more ahead of the curve. So, let me ask you a few questions: -Are you an entrepreneur? Do you have a startup? Are you an investor?

PITCH Investors Live is the tool for creatives, pragmatics, and dreamers who may not have the means yet with which to launch successful companies and drive their products and services to the marketplace. They may be missing a mentor or advice from proper experts who can guide them through the journey. Whether they are low in the valley, high at the summit, or any stage in between of their entrepreneurial quest, having an experienced leader can be an invaluable resource to not only expedite but take a business to previously unimaginable heights - and this app helps facilitate just that.

-Are you into Shark Tank, Dragons Den, West Texas Investors Club, or any of these similar entertaining entrepreneur-meets-investor style shows? But not only does PITCH Investors Live provide a -Have you ever participated in Kickstarter, means for prospective companies to accelerate their Indiegogo, or even in blockchain token sales growth through knowledge and skilled advice, but it also quickens and streamlines the way these businesses (or ICO’s)? obtain funding and capital. Let us think for a moment If any of these are even relevant, on how exactly does an investor come across investment opportunities. Most often, it’s through friendly talk about a cool project, colleagues leading discussions VOLUME 2

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SUP-X when he was first launching his entertainment app called 2UP. This app was a platform where people debated with each other on an array of topics via live stream while an audience not only watched but voted on a winner with the most convincing argument. Facebook Live was still not around at this time. We almost went into business together back then. And as fate would have it, I entered back into the app about a year later (about a year ago from today), as it was repositioned as PITCH Investors Live - now also adding a blockchain component to take advantage of some ridiculously incredible innovations that cannot in the boardroom, or partners sending pitch decks of be achieved through regular FIAT currencies and nonhopefuls via email. PITCH Investors Live has stepped distributed ledger/blockchain technologies. onto the scene not only to simplify but revolutionize the Fast forward two years, and we are now live with over method by which investors meet entrepreneurs and how 100 pitches performed on the PITCH Investors Live pitches are done via the live format in our app. Think app and are in our 2nd beta testing phase! Shark Tank meets Kickstarter meets Live Broadcasting, and now even meets the Blockchain! This equates to an Our main objective is to build something amazing for entertaining, educating, informative, effective, and at entrepreneurs, startups, and investors from around the the very same time, accelerating mode of conducting world. Giving entrepreneurs a chance to pitch their business with the added bonus of information now being products or services, seek funding, insight, advice, and securely stored on the blockchain via smart contracts. exposure in ways that were never possible before. To the unfamiliar, blockchain can be described as a continuously growing distributed database managed by a peer-to-peer network. In this network, there are records of “blocks” which are added to the database in which transactions can be validated. We --software developers -- validate them, and no can now modify or edit existing records. If they try to do so, it gets flagged by the network. Everything in this network is recorded and therefore transparent. There are also different types of blockchains, but for now, we will stick to this fundamental definition.

When our “PITCH” token became listed as one of the top ten most popular exchanges, HitBTC, we hit an important milestone in our journey. We chose this exchange over others due to its size and technology attached, and some of the upcoming updates and upgrades. We can increase traffic for new users, entrepreneurs/startups, and investors to join our app.

Building PITCH Investors Live

We are currently doing about a pitch a day in our second beta testing phase. Advisors and investors such as billionaire and Original Shark, Kevin Harrington, are now receiving a pitch every week with others daily. We are looking forward to some good momentum and welcome it with the team and infrastructure in place.

The newfound access of our token makes it easier for people from around the world to participate in our ecosystem and platform. Entrepreneurs can seamlessly buy tokens to utilize our services and take advantage All in all, welcome to what many are calling… “The Trust of really cool features that are currently available and Protocol.” those soon to come. This venture and technology, from inception, has taken over two years to develop. When I partnered up with my co-founder Matthew Lally, little, did I know that we would create a platform that would resolve a plethora of major problems that both entrepreneurs and investors alike experience when trying to come together? The abundance of entrepreneurs is continuously increasing along with the technological tools out there that allow them to connect, faster than ever, with interested investors. We can now give new speed to ideas, projects, and companies who seek to get their ventures off the ground. The time is now to make the connection (and have fun while doing it!). I met Lally two years ago at a startup conference called

New Approaches to Funding Working on PITCH Investors Live brings me back to blockchain technology, which in itself deserves that I shed some additional thought. We are at the moment

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in history where companies are using this technology to and more for “the people.” test startup funding. The future will move so fast that we continue to see Traditionally, entrepreneurs could only choose financial the time of company and venture launches doubling instruments such as securing loans or create/tap into in speed. proper associations or networks to partner with investors in order to access capital. But with the introduction of There will come a point when it will be easy enough disruptive new models such as crowdfunding, this ushers to launch major companies overnight. (For the sake of in a variety of untapped avenues for entrepreneurs to time we will not get into the technicalities but trust me, it is coming) get the funding they need. Crowdfunding is the game changer, a revolutionary We are already seeing this in the e-commerce space with concept put into practice bringing millions of new the ease of set up, low building cost, and minimal time projects to life with platforms like IndieGoGo and needed to complete an e-commerce store, compared to Kickstarter. In 2015, $34 billion was invested into just three years ago. Setting up a website, design, social crowdfunding projects alone, which exceeded the media pages, finance accounts, transporting dropship products, and running ads directly to customers yearly average of venture capital that same year. through Facebook before a 24 hour period is over is However, the crowdfunding model has limitations for actually possible right now, and by a single person with investors. There are no guarantees that an investor no significant business knowledge either. As a matter would actually get any return from the investment. of fact, many of these same entrepreneurs are just one Numbers vary, but some platforms report that failure education course away from building their next store. rate among crowdfunded projects can be as high as 40 Ten years ago that would have been a fantasy. percent. Yet this format is what the market demands, and slowly what more venture capitalists and investors The Digital Revolution has already started to disrupt the big business that was not possible just a decade are accepting. ago. The Future of Entrepreneurship & Funding PITCH Investors Live and similar platforms are ready With the exponential speed that our world is moving to take funding and connections from around the world at, entrepreneurship and startups will lead the way for to the next level. innovation, change, and disruption of almost every -Download the PITCH Investors Live app for iPhone: sector. www.pitchios.com Sectors from e-commerce, education, SaaS (Software As A Service) products, apps, funnel builders, and -Looking for funding, feedback, and exposure for your all the way to the blockchain, artificial intelligence, business or startup? www.pitchinvestorsnow.com pharmaceuticals, BioTech, FinTech, and even -Just want to tune in, learn, and see what it’s all about? government will be transformed. www.facebook.com/PitchInvestorsLive This is just the beginning of what will be possible with What are you waiting for? these new platforms and technologies that are being used to accelerate connections and funding between Soon enough, it will be your turn to pitch, be pitched, or just tune in. the startups and investors. We used to have to either be very well connected, have The Future of Opportunity Is Here. money, or be in the major hubs of the world like Silicon Valley, New York, the Crown of London, or even Tel Aviv to have a slight chance in getting any type of serious funding.

The funding landscape is now changing with new age platforms like PITCH Investors Live that are expansive, transparent, social, scalable,

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