Announcements, Business Brainstorm, Wordpress
Over two years ago, my customers started asking me for a resource on creating their own websites. They wanted to know how to install WordPress, how to design something they were proud of, and maybe even how to code a little.
I stalled and stalled and stalled.
Until I realized that leveraging this skill of mine was one way to break out of the time-for-money crunch that drags down so many beginning business owners.
So I created my DIY website program.
The first time through it – creating the content, answering support questions, sharing ideas, discovering what I hadn’t anticipated – was extremely difficult. I almost didn’t run the program again. But overwhelming demand buoyed my confidence.
I launched it again and it went much better the second time. By that point 80 people had participated in the program and I started receiving very interesting feedback.
I heard that, while the program taught them all sort of new skills & brought back the thrill of a challenge, it was the fresh way of looking at their businesses that was the true value for them.
You see, in Website Kick Start, I focused on guiding participants through thinking about their business from the customer’s perspective. We spent time considering our websites from the visitor’s point of view. And that made all the difference.
Participants found clarity around their business decisions. They discovered new language to use in spreading their message. They created new ways to serve their customers right on site.
And that’s why people said things like…
This was definitely one of the best investments I made in my business and I love being able to go in and control my site design myself!
– Amy Kozak, jewelry designer
and
The skills to build it has taken up <--this--> much of my learning and the knowledge and new way of thinking about my business has taken up <------------------------this------------------------> much of my learning.
— Kathryn, CloudLoveBaby
In working with hundreds of business owners over the last few years, this has been one of my greatest lessons:
The greatest value you deliver is the solution that’s sitting below the surface of the problem you think you’re solving.
People wanted websites. What they needed was a new perspective on their businesses. They got both.
So the makeover?
This week Kick Start Labs launched Website Kick Start 2.0 (as well as a juicy membership program that’s FREE with purchase). The program was constantly updated during it’s 2 year life — but this time it needed reworked from the ground up.
Despite the success it had, I wanted to hone in on the value the program truly provided. I wanted to make getting the website part even easier and I wanted the business shift to be even more massive.
I know now that the experience of the program will be better for all involved, that the results will be even more massive, and that the program will spread from customer to customer.
That’s a pretty good feeling to have in your business.
What products do you have sitting on the shelf that could use a makeover to hone in on their true value? What products are you dreaming about that may have a deeper value than the surface problem you’re trying to solve?
Stick to your ribs value is your customer’s birthright. Give it to them.
— PS —
Want in on the all new Website Kick Start 2.0? I betcha do. Find out more about how to get a website that works for you and how to get every resource Kick Start Labs creates for a year… FREE: click here.
Art of Earning
I love pricing for value. In other words, the value I provide you is so much greater than the value of the money you have to shell out to get it.
Pricing for value works because it leaves both parties feeling richer. I sell my service and receive the money I want. You receive my service and receive the information/ideas/action items you want. The “pain” it causes me to deliver the service is much less than the money I receive. The “pain” it causes you to pay the invoice is much less than the information you receive.
We both receive what’s valuable to us. And we’re both extremely happy people at the end of it all. And we’re likely to do business again.
But value is only half the equation. When pricing, you also have to consider how to get results.
A fresh life coach sets her rates at $50 per hour. That’s more than she’s ever made in her life per hour so she feels pretty good about it. She also knows that she can deliver loads of value for that $50. And, she’ll be $50 richer every time she sees a client.
That all sounds good, right?
But, “You’d be a fool not to buy this at this price” pricing can work against you. If your product or service requires some work from your clients or customers – and really, who’s doesn’t? – your pricing might be enabling complacency & inaction.
So that life coach might get some clients at that rate. But do those clients feel invested – both literally & figuratively – in the work? Or are they patting themselves on the back for just taking a step in the right direction?
On the flip side, the people who are most ready to do the work, the people who are the best clients for this coach, will look at the number and believe that this coach isn’t well-equipped to help them take the actions they need to take.
Fair? Nope, not at all. But just like I remind my toddler on a daily basis, “Reality isn’t fair.”
Whenever I price a new offer, for instance, my new Insight Intensives, I’m not only considering the value I’m offering, the time it takes me to prepare, my position in the market, or the benefit of my experience, but I’m also considering what price will create allow my clients to create the best results.
- What price will allow you to take this seriously?
- What price will ensure that you’re a success story?
- What price will push you past “comfortable” and into the discomfort of action?
If you’re a painter, what price will put your piece of art over the sofa? Or even get it hung at all?
If you’re a copywriter, what price will force your client out of cliche language & into what’s true to them?
If you’re a jewelry designer, what price will ensure your pieces get paired with fabulous outfits?
Sure, there’s quite a bit more that goes into those decisions. But don’t fool yourself that price isn’t a big factor in personal investment on all levels.
Start by pricing for value and then check yourself by pricing for results.
New Economy
I went to college for all the wrong reasons. You know, the reasons that lead some people to become basket weaving majors.
Or metalsmithing majors.
Or religion majors.
I went to college for a challenge, for the love of learning, for the exploration of mature relationships, for personal connection on a new level.
Doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
I didn’t go to find a job. Or even prepare for one.
As I student, I never went to the networking or career prep events that my college dutifully hosted. I never learned about proper interviewing etiquette or how to hold a glass and a plate in one hand whilst leaving your right hand open for handshaking.
If it wasn’t late night discussions and dog-earred philosophy texts, I wasn’t interested.
Oops.
Last week, I went back to school to attend my first how-to networking & professionalism event as a volunteer alumna.
I was expecting the culture shock: bunch of less-than-twentysomething college students, alumni from all different fields and industries… and then me.
But what I wasn’t expecting was the context of the event: GET A JOB.
Feel free to laugh at my out-of-touchness and naivete.
I’ve been to quite a few events this year. I’ve made a point of meeting and greeting. Flesh to flesh, palm to palm. Supporting my digital work with in-person smiles.
Each event had a different context and a different group of people.
But never was the focus of the event: GET A JOB.
It’s easy for me to forget, in fact, that there are people still looking for jobs.
Saying “still” really outs my “real world” seclusion.
Of the students I talked to, none had really considered creating their own job or starting their own business. They were at that event because they wanted to learn what the system expected of them, what it demanded of them, to be successful.
Even as I polished off my rusty interviewing skills, talking to three girls in three different fields of study, I was amazed at how they felt lost translating their experience & talents into ways to benefit society (or corporations, or organizations).
Square peg, meet round hole.
I wasn’t there to convince college students that entrepreneurship was the ticket to a bright & beautiful future. I was there to find out what I had to offer this new generation. The generation that will ultimately be shaping the world I mature & “retire” in.
What I discovered is that those students need the same thing that so many others do, the driving desire behind all of my work: we all need to know how our personal value translates into collective value.
Click to tweet that little nugget.
How our strengths create a strong whole.
How our great work makes this a greater place.
So I asked them questions:
- Not, “What’s your major?” but “What are you passionate about?”
- Not, “What do you want to do when you graduate?” but “What really turns you on?”
- Not, “What’s is your experience?” but “How are you going to serve me, your friends here, and the world?”
Oh, sure. Those questions got a lot of blank stares. But they also got light bulbs, productive ramblings, and flashes of brilliance.
These students weren’t going to go out and start a company (although, who knows?!) but, at least for a brief bit of time, they were going to look at themselves just a little bit differently.
And that’s the heart of this work. That’s what pushes me. That’s what drives me.
I want you to look at yourself, your value, and what you have to offer differently – if just for a moment – because that’s the only way you can look at the system differently.
You can’t change the system until you’ve changed yourself. Click to tweet that little nugget.
The New Economy isn’t taking shape because of outside forces but because of internal awakenings.
Click to tweet that little nugget.
People – YOU – are waking up to the fact that they’re not automatons on the get-a-job superhighway. They’re not computers waiting to be programmed with operating systems for certain careers or job positions.
They – YOU – are unique, valuable, and irreplaceable. But not until they wake up and realize it.
Quick! Grab a pen & paper…
Got it? Good.
Give yourself a job interview.
- Describe the last time you made a difficult decision. What was the outcome?
- Describe a time you didn’t know the answer to a question your boss or a client posed to you. How did you handle the response?
- What gets you excited about the task at hand?
- What type of work environment helps you to thrive?
- What is unique about & what you have to offer to this position?
What do you notice as you’re giving the answers?
Do the answers come fast & furious? Do you really need to pause and consider the stories influencing each answer? What do your answers tell you about your unique position in the New Economy?
Just like those college students I spoke with, you as a passion-driven business owner or aspiring business owner, have an obligation to truly understand what value you’re bringing to this New Economy. It’s your job to understand how your own internal awakenings are, even ever so slightly, shifting the system.
PS I’m going to be sharing some exclusive ideas, inspiration, and training with a special group of people. Want in? Want to know how your business can take better care of you? Register here.
