Episode #168: Impactful shifts to make in a new economy
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We have a unique opportunity to thrive right now. But doing business and marketing like you always have probably is going to start to not be as effective. Because of life, because of the way people are consuming content now, and because every single person is trying to figure out their version of normal looks like amidst shut downs, quarantines, canceled school, social distancing, and whatever else we’re all experiencing.
Think about it like this, the way you are working has changed drastically. Now you have the job of not only raising your kids (which you have always had), but also educating them too, which is not something most of us have ever planned to ever have to do. Maybe your spouse is home and y’all are navigating what that looks like. You’re trying to figure out where to get food, supplies, and keep everyone alive and happy for who knows how long. For us and my family, it was announced that school is cancelled for the rest of the year. My kids, who LOVE going to school, aren’t going back until September. Six months, y’all. Extracurriculars are canceled and everything is up in the air right now.
I miss our normal. That’s really all there is to it.
It’s all weird and strange and confusing.
So when it starts to feel overwhelming and we’re not sure where to go from here, it’s important that we have a bigger picture that we can rely and lean on. You gotta understand that everyone is going through this, everyone is in the exact same boat, and everyone is feeling just as confused as you are. And that everyone is dealing with this situation in different ways.
One of my biz friends has stopped her business completely to rest. She’s an empath and feels all of her emotions (and everyone else’s emotions) very deeply. So if that’s how you are processing then, know that that’s ok. You’re allowed to feel deeply and you’re allowed to take a break and rest. Grant yourself that permission.
If you’re like me, you get to work. Whenever I’ve been faced with adversity I roll up my sleeves and get to work. It’s how my business was born in the midst of getting laid off at 6 months pregnant. I have to have a plan on how to move forward, uncertainty kills me. And so if you’re anything like me, and you’re ready to get to work, today’s content is going to be especially helpful for you.
On today’s podcast I want to talk about what we’re doing over here at allisonhardy.com to move forward and how I’m encouraging my clients to move forward.
It’s important for me and most of my clients to meet uncertain times with a plan moving forward, it’s how we work and how we process what we’re feeling, by doing something.
First is mindset, mindset, mindset.
I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I find it super annoying that we have to work on our mindset. Yes, it’s something I commit to everyday because it makes me the best version of myself that I can be, which is important in my business and in my family. But it deeply annoys me that we have to manage our minds.
That being said, I’ve come to this conclusion over the past 6 months and I feel it even more nowadays. In the midst of uncertainty it can be really, really easy to focus on the negative. And when we focus on the negative, we only see negative. You have to focus on what IS working, what does matter, and how you’re choosing to believe in what it is that you’re doing.
If you’re wallowing in fear and uncertainty and negativity, that energy will seep into everything you do. And remember, what you focus on grows. So if you’re focusing on what’s not happening, more of that will happen. If you focus on the amazing things that could happen, more of that will be brought into your business and life.
I’m not a mindset expert, but I can tell you that affirmations, visualizations, and prayer has transformed my mind, which in turn has transformed my life, which in turn has transformed my business.
You gotta manage that mind.
Now the next change we’re making is the one that scares me the most. We’re going to be shifting over to an evergreen model and relying solely on funnels to scale.
When we found out that school was going to be out for the remainder of the year, I’ll be honest, I had a bit of a meltdown. First, my kids love school. I was super sad for them.
Second, I was filled with fear for what that means for my business. I’ve got BIG plans for 2020 and I’ve invested in even bigger ways. I’ve built out a small but mighty team, who I’d love to keep paying because they bring about so much peace into my life and support my business in so many ways.
And third, I’m not the kind of person who has EVER wanted my kids to be around 24/7. I love my kids, I think they are amazing creatures and they are by far the best thing I’ve ever created, but I need breaks. The thing I’ve been struggling with as we’ve been shut down for the past two weeks is there has been no downtime. There is always someone around, granted people I truly and genuinely love, but they’re always there.
After I allowed myself to wallow and mourn for a bit I got to work (remember, that’s how I deal) and cleared my entire launch calendar. Live launching is great, I love the thrill of it and the surge of new, amazing women who I get to help, it lights me up, but right now, it’s not in the cards.
The idea of doing a live launch right now stressed me out, and so it’s not worth it.
So we’re switching everything over to the evergreen model. Now, if I’m being totally transparent here, I already have the stuff in place to do this, it’s just a matter of actually committing and sticking to it. I know how to create evergreen funnels and have a couple of them already in place, but it’s always been a “nice thing to have” instead of a “this is how I’m going to scale my business” kind of thing.
I’ve never relied on them 100% for an extended period of time.
The question I get with this is always, “Isn’t that going to (1) cost more money since you’ll have to buy more software, isn’t that going to (2) take more time to set up, and isn’t that going to (3) have a lot of trial and error.” And the answer is yep, yep, and yep.
It is going to cost more money in software, it is going to take some time to set up, and it is going to rely on a lot of trial and error.
But here’s the other side of this:
If I can scale my business, by working less, isn’t that time and money cost worth it?
Absolutely.
Having a hearty evergreen side of our business is SMART. Because life is going to happen and we will need to show up for it.
And to take this one step farther:
What if we couple a thriving evergreen side of our business with a thriving live launching side of our business?
That’s like the best of both worlds.
But we should be able to rely on evergreen, it life proof’s our business. And that’s what we all need right now and why I’m moving over into this model.
This is what we are working on with our members inside of Lead Generation Lab for the rest of the year. Our members have access to a highly converting email funnel so we are helping them to perfect it, leverage it more effectively, and then scale it by driving traffic from various sources, to it.
See what the hype’s all about, test drive the Lead Generation Lab for a $7, 7-day trial!
The third shift is focused on lead generation.
Collaboration has always been a backbone of my business, but I’ve never really focused on collaborations when it comes to lead generation. So far this year, I’ve done 3 pretty major collaborations and have grown my email list by 800 new subscribers through these collaborations.
I’m not abandoning my current lead generation process, I’ll still be leveraging Facebook’s algorithm to grow my Facebook Group organically, spending time over on Instagram, testing and tweaking Pinterest, and still leaning into paid traffic too through Facebook and Instagram Ads, but I’m starting to see the power in collaborations as a part of the lead generation process.
If I can collaborate 1x a month, how would that change my email list growth? I’m starting to see the power in this.
I’d encourage you to lean into this too. You have colleagues who probably have complimentary businesses to yours. You both have audiences who probably could use your services, how can y’all collaborate with one another to get in front of one another’s audiences?
This is something we’re going to be covering more in-depth inside of the Lead Generation Lab for one of our upcoming month’s trainings to help our members grow their email list, and FAST through genuine collaboration.
The last thing I’m doing is upping the value in my current offerings.
What I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out is how can I support our members in a bigger way? More trainings and resources require more time, which is super short right now, so what’s something that we can do that doesn’t require them to hand over hours?
So we landed on an idea to do Weekly Work Days every Monday where we check-in with one another three times throughout the day for a short amount of time. I know for a lot of our members, myself included, Mondays are a day where we get a lot of work done, with the hopes of setting ourselves up for success through out the week. Mondays set the tone for the week. So how can I help them to make Mondays the best day of the week? Work Days!
Again, these are a temporary feature for 6 weeks, but we’ll see how it goes and if it’s something our members want to keep, maybe it’ll become a permanent feature.
During this time customer service needs to be at an all time high. I mean, it always has to be at an all time high, but consider how you can really serve your existing clients. How can you help them get results, faster? How can you really go above and beyond to let them know they are supported? How can you thank them for their repeated business?
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