Low-Key Launching With The Persuasion Method Creator Bushra Azhar

Interviews, Show Notes

Low-Key Launching With The Persuasion Method Creator Bushra Azhar

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The Nitty Gritty:

  • Bushra shares exactly how she takes her people from what she calls Dread to Dream, including the different products that meets customers wherever they’re at.
  • What Bushra’s promotional strategy looks like for 2018.
  • What Bushra does to create buzz around her launches and why she only opens Persuasion Hacks Lab for 48 hours at a time every month.
  • How much Bushra makes every month on Persuasion Hacks Lab — and how much she spends on Facebook ads to grow her list.
  • Bushra talks us through the psychology behind her Facebook ad strategy and why her goal is only to add people to her list (plus, how she builds a list for buyers instead of what she calls freebie hunters.)
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On this episode of Power. Profit. Pursuit., I talk everything products, persuasion, and promotion with the hilarious Bushra Azhar, copy strategist at Persuasion Revolution and mom of two living in Saudi Arabia. Bushra takes us behind the scenes of her successful launches, what her sales process looks like, and why she focuses on building a list of buyers (20% of her list are buyers!) and not just freebie hunters. It was an absolute pleasure to chat with Bushra and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

We release new episodes of Profit. Power. Pursuit every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.

On creating products for your customer’s journey from Dread to Dream

The way I have structured my products is that I imagine a problem that I see, a person who is facing a problem, and I map out a journey. I call it the “Dread to Dream Journey.” The person is in a dreadful situation and you need to take them to a dream situation. When I map out that Dread to Dream Journey, I don’t just create one solution that takes them from the dread to the dream in one full step.

— Bushra Azhar

Bushra creates products that help her customers solve 20% of their problems, 60% of their problems, and 100% of their problems, depending on where they are in the journey. Each product brings her customers closer and closer to their dream — and further away from the dread.

Look at your customer’s journey then look at your products. Are they helping your customer make 20% headway on their pain point? What about 60%? And what does your 100% transformational product look like?

If you only have a 100% transformational offering, how can you meet some of your customers needs by offering an entry-level product at 20% that helps them help themselves — then want more and continue onto another product?

How to capitalize on launch buzz to sell different tiers of products

You create a lot of hype, you pay money to create, you create money to create a buzz, but you can’t just milk all that buzz with one product. You can’t just milk all that buzz with just one launch. You have to keep in mind that the buzz will continue to the next launch. You just need to give people a path to move to the next launch.

— Bushra Azhar

Bushra walks us through how she runs her Sold Out launch — and she reminds us how important it is to capitalize on the energy and interest captured during any launch. While some people may be ready for a higher investment product like Sold Out Launch with a $2,000 price tag, she always offers Persuasion Hacks Lab as a down-sell.

If you have an upcoming launch, do as Bushra does and offer a lower price point product to anyone who doesn’t buy your main launch offering. So much energy and money goes into a launch — so capitalize on it.

Why selling budget programs sets you up for failure

When you’re only selling budget, you are setting yourself up for failure to scale beyond a certain point, because there are people out there who want more support, more transformational experiences, more time with you, more coaching, more things, and you’re not letting them do it.

— Bushra Azhar

Finding the pricing model that works for you and your business is incredibly important to a sustainable business model. Bushra is passionate about a sustainable and profitable sales process. Part of that is understanding who you want to work with and what they want from you.

While some people may only need what she calls a 20% solution, there are countless more who want a higher touch service that you aren’t providing by selling only budget solutions. How can you revamp your existing products to meet the needs of customers who need more from you? How can you restructure your products to meet the needs of customers who need less?

Listen to the full episode to hear even more from Bushra on the products she uses to take customers from Dread to Dream, exactly what her promotional strategy for 2018 looks like, and how she runs her Facebook ads to “seduce” prospects.

Growing A Coaching Business Using Books with Your Kickass Life Founder Andrea Owen

Interviews, Show Notes

Growing A Coaching Business Using Books with Your Kickass Life Founder Andrea Owen

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The Nitty Gritty:

  • Why Andrea titled her second book How To Stop Feeling Like Shit, plus what workarounds she used to promote the book on Facebook.
  • How she planned for and used podcast interviews to promote HTSFLS — and why she recommends them for promoting a book.
  • How she set up her sales funnel and email segmentation strategy for book #2.
  • What challenges Andrea faced during her first book’s launch — and what she specifically changed for the second book’s launch.
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

Today on Profit. Power. Pursuit., I chat with Andrea Owen, life coach, podcaster, and author of 52 Ways To Live A Kick Ass Life, and most recently, How To Stop Feeling Like Shit.

Andrea sat down with me for a quick interview where we dive into how marketing her second book differed from the first, the journey (and challenges) she faced while writing her manuscript, and what she’s working on next.

We release new episodes of Profit. Power. Pursuit every week. Subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.

On working with — and embracing — success

I knew this book was going to be bigger. I knew that the publisher was going to ask more of me — and I needed to ask more from myself on a mental and emotional level. I really had to call myself out on it: just naming it, doing my own work, and leaning on my support system.

— Andrea Owen

An idea that comes up frequently when talking with Andrea is our rising above our upper limit. It’s the voice that dictates how successful and happy we can be. One step past that limit? The mind wants to self-sabotage. Andrea knows her upper limit well — but she’s learned how to outwit it.

It’s safe to say that most entrepreneurs face their upper limit at least once in their journey (and probably much more.) So too did Andrea — but she used the success of her first book as an opportunity to rise to the occasion, tap into her community for strength, and keep pushing forward.

On marketing a book through podcast interviews

Statistics show that podcast hosts tend to have more loyalty than, say, Good Morning America or The Today Show. So we sat down with our team nine months out and we started the process. It was researching [podcasts] and reaching out to my colleagues. I even asked on my personal Facebook profile. I knew it was just going to be for a season. In total, when this is all done, I’ve easily done 75 interviews.

— Andrea Owen

Online marketing strategies are constantly changing — and as an entrepreneur, you need to keep a watchful eye on new trends and adapt to them for success. For her second book, Andrea and her team looked at what worked for the first book and what didn’t, then tweaked the plan.

Where they saw an opportunity? Podcast interviews. Out of everything she’s done to promote her new book, Andrea says podcasts work best. If you’re promoting a new book or program, add podcast interviews to your strategy.

And like Andrea, put the bulk of your energy there, and see what comes back.

Listen to the full episode with Andrea Owen to hear more about how she used podcasts to promote her new book, how she pushes back on self-sabotage, and what her sales funnel and email segmentation strategy looks like.

Fueling Your Business With Live Events with Tradeshow Bootcamp founder Katie Hunt

Interviews, Show Notes

Fueling Your Business With Live Events with Tradeshow Bootcamp founder Katie Hunt
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The Nitty Gritty:

  • Why live events are where it’s at
  • How the sales and promotion cycle of a live event is different than other sales cycles
  • Why it’s important to add to your team to allow you to focus on the tasks in your wheelhouse
Listen On iTunes & Subscribe!

We dig into the nitty-gritty details of live events in this week’s episode of the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast with my guest Katie Hunt, founder of Tradeshow Bootcamp, a business dedicated to educating and supporting creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. Katie also hosts the Proof to Product podcast. She takes a lot of pride in the events her team creates, and on that podcast she shares a lot of wisdom about what it takes to create events that offer attendees a great experience for learning and having fun, too!

Live Events are Where It’s At

Introverts of Profit. Power. Pursuit., go to live events. It’s completely worth it.

— Tara Gentile

What was to become the live event known as Paper Camp began in 2011 as a teleconference, and the first in-person Paper Camp Conference happened in 2012 once Katie knew there was a demand for this type of curriculum. Katie wanted to build a strong community where people were not just learning something, but they were connecting with others and building strong relationships. She knew that would be much more impactful at live events. Events are a really powerful tool, and although they aren’t right for everyone’s business model, they are hugely successful in helping Katie build the community that she sought to create.

Organization, Sales and Promotion of a Live Event

There’s a lot more that goes into their decision making {to attend an event} than ‘can I afford this and do I want to go.’

— Katie Hunt

Katie and her team work 6 to 8 months in advance to prepare for their next live event. She suggests if you’re doing a live event for the first time, send a survey to your audience to determine the best time of year for them to attend a live event. In the podcast, Katie walks through the steps her team takes to organize a live event, but keeping it simple and streamlined for her attendees and speakers is always paramount.

Since a live event is a higher-level program and higher expense for attendees, it’s important to start the sales and promotion process early since there is a schedule you have to maintain and people need the time to prepare to be away from their families and businesses. As soon as they close registration on one Paper Camp, they begin sales for the next one; however, there are promotional spikes in a three-month period where most of the sales happen. Through the course of the sales cycle, Katie and her team are nurturing their audience through case studies, alumni stories and more to help potential attendees see how their life would change if they attended the event and give them a taste of what they will learn, who they will be engaged with and to highlight the speakers they will interact with and learn from.

Event Teams

You can grow your team organically and in small batches.

— Katie Hunt

Katie has a small, but mighty team of virtual independent contractors, several who are Boot Camp alumni, that take care of the event details so Katie is free to work on the content and higher-level stuff that’s in her wheelhouse. Hiring people to do the work that needs to get done strengthened the content that is offered at the events.

I hope you listen to the entire episode to hear more about Katie’s team, how she manages cash flow when she has fairly large expenses to cover, why she believes in paying herself consistently and how she has turned some of her live events into online courses.

If you liked what you heard on this episode, I invite you to subscribe to the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast on iTunes today! Every week I talk to small business owners who share some of the secrets to their success as they build their businesses.

How Listening More Than Promoting Buys You More Time

Quiet Power Strategy

How much time do you spend promoting your business? You’re on Facebook telling your friends that course you’ve been waiting for is finally ready. You’re at the local networking event hustling for a new client. You’re writing blog posts every week and hoping people click from post to buy now button.

Promoting your business can feel like a full-time job.

And even with all the time you spend on it, you still want more! More tactics for building your list, more techniques for getting seen on Facebook, more ideas for putting your business in front of your ideal clients.

As a small (or micro, or large) business owner, marketing truly is one of the most important aspects of running your business. But promotion is not.

Promotion—content or communication, paid or free, that’s express purpose is announcing your product to the right people—is the absolute smallest part of marketing.

What’s the biggest part of marketing? Listening.

Listening is powerful: why great marketers are great listeners

Listening is powerful. When you’re truly attuned to the people you want to serve, you see how what’s most important to them is actually the key to connecting them to what you’re selling.

That’s why I’ve always made listening and observing such a priority on social media and at in-person events. I’m not just listening for opportunities to pitch myself—in fact, it’s the furthest thing from my mind.

I listen for what people’s goals are, what they’re struggling with, what they might be confused about, and all the things they’re trying to accomplish (whether it’s a good idea or not).

What I know about you, for instance, is that you’re really stuck on promoting your business. You hate being self-promotional, but most of the time your promotional posts are all about you or your offer—not about your clients. You don’t like it but you don’t know what to do different.

I also know that no matter how much I suggest testing a product before you bring it to market or finding the natural sense of urgency behind what you’re offering, you’ll come back for more tips on promoting your business.

It makes sense. Promoting what you’re selling seems like the shortest route to making money.

Except it’s not.

The shortest route to making money—the one that puts tons of time back into your schedule—is listening for what’s most important to people and giving them what they want.

How? Here’s the gist:

1) You observe their present reality.

You take the time to listen and observe. You take much more into account than just the messages or updates that seem have something to do with your business.

You listen for where they’re stuck, what their values are, and how their life unfolds on a daily basis. You figure out what they really want to accomplish—big or small.

2) You respond to their need.

You come up with a product idea that helps them accomplish whatever it is that’s important to them. It could be something incredibly simple (impulse buy) or something far more complex. But your product idea is a direct response to what they want.

3) You present them with a message that resonates.

You don’t tell them that new course is ready. You don’t tell them you’ve got 3 openings this month. You don’t get all excited about your new service and humble brag your way through a few Facebook posts.

You don’t waste time shouting from the roof tops about what you’ve made and why it’s awesome.

You talk to people about what matters to them (their relationship, the way they feel when they wake up, the deadline that’s looming over their head, etc…). You get specific because you know them so well (see Step 1).

People can’t help but get sucked in. They’re sucked in not because you’re selling them something or trying to convince them to buy, buy, buy but because you know them so well and have created something just for them.

That’s marketing.

That’s what works.

And it’s also what feels good.

If you’re feeling sucked in right now, it’s because I’ve spent the last 7 years trying to master those 3 simple steps. Of course, it’s not easy. I still mess up. But I have a feeling I’ve hit the nail on the head with this one.

If you’re ready to buy yourself some time, stop promoting your business, and start creating resonance, I’ve written a new mini-book just for you.

It’s called The Observation Engine and it turns those 3 simple steps into a whole system for taking the guesswork out of marketing (and sales, and product development.)

Click here to buy the multimedia pack (it’s just $4.99) or click here to buy the Kindle version directly from Amazon (it’s just $2.99).

Stop Getting the Word Out: Breaking Down a Space Cadet’s Marketing Success

Business Brainstorm

Teal SpaceCadetCreations yarn handdyed

Yesterday, I posted an interview with Stephanie Alford. She’s quadrupled her mailing list in 2 months, earned her first 5-figure month, and launched 2 incredibly successful continuity programs. All without formal marketing training, digital products, or premium coaching programs.

In fact, Stephanie isn’t a coach or business guru.

Stephanie dyes yarn.

In my opinion, Stephanie’s success comes largely from the fact that she stopped trying to get the word out about her business and started positioning herself for success. She embraced the true meaning of marketing: delivering the best products to the best people at the best time. She shifted her relationship with her customers from one of salesperson to trusted leader.

Stephanie empowered herself and her customers.

Marketing isn’t all about getting the word out. Promotion is only one very small part of marketing. In order for marketing to be effective & engaging, you need to consider 4 P’s: purpose, people, position, and promotion.

Let’s take a look at how Stephanie used the 4 P’s jump start her business.

Purpose

Stephanie truly believes that knitting & crochet are shortcuts to world peace. Why? Knitting & crochet beg us to slow down, get grounded in a tactile way, and connect with each other as human beings.

A great example of this was how Stephanie’s temporary tattoos shifted the entire atmosphere of her retail booth at a recent show. Instead of seeing just one more place to buy yarn or just another dyer hawking her wares, people came into her booth to get a tattoo. They ended up talking to each other in line, connecting with people they would have never connected with outside this unique opportunity.

Now Stephanie’s business doesn’t just represent one more way to get their yarn fix, it represents fun, friendship, and purposeful interaction. That’s an experience that won’t soon be forgotten!

What could you do to create a greater focus on the purpose of your business?

People

Stephanie gets out & interacts with her customers regularly by attending retail & trade shows. One behavior she identified was that her potential customers would come into her both, eye the yarn, and exclaim, “But I don’t know what to do with it!” because Stephanie makes multi-colored yarn.

So instead of despairing, she educated. Stephanie put together an ebook that would teach her customers how to use hand-dyed yarn (it was edited by amazing business manager – she can edit yours too). That book – meant for education – turned into a sales tool!

It also lead to peer-to-peer sharing, meaning her work was seen by many more people than her product alone would attract. Knowing what her people needed and creating a professional tool to fill that need lead to a viral success!

How are your customers behaving that hinder sales? How could you change this behavior?

Position

Stephanie found even more success by plopping her business right in the middle of a major trend. In this case, it was mini-skeins. People wanted more, more, more and Stephanie was happy to position her products to be able to accommodate!

She created a continuity program (think yarn of the month club) that brings her a steady stream of income while giving her the opportunity to serve her customers in the best way possible. It’s not the type of offer everyone would want to make, but that’s the beauty of it!

Stephanie positioned herself in a unique way that benefitted her customers (and herself!).

How could you position your business outside the “usual” offers in your niche? How could you capitalize on a current trend?

Promotion

Stephanie doesn’t spend a lot of time on social media promoting her products. She doesn’t spend a lot of time blogging. She doesn’t spend a lot of money on advertising. She’s not too bothered by public relations.

Stephanie grounds her business in her purpose, people, and position so that every action she takes or idea she executes has the potential to bring in business. Her “promotion” happens on its own. Her marketing has a life of its own.

Now Stephanie is free to do what she loves.

How would your business be different if promotion was a passive task?

That’s how marketing should be. It’s much more about knowing your priorities & values on the inside of your business than it is about pushing them on the people outside of your business. If you center your day-to-day operations and your creative sparks around your purpose, people, and position, you’ll discover more & more ways that promotion can take care of itself.

Ready to focus on purpose-, people-, and position-driven marketing? Ready to stop getting the word out and start creating your own success? Check out my Marketing ReWired digital workshop.