Kat Millar

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What I Wish I’d Known When I First Started Out In Business

In business, we all make mistakes. I’ve made hundreds… and some were absolute pearlers.

When I first started out in business 18-years ago, I didn’t have any qualifications, business knowledge, or money. I just had a lot of enthusiasm, drive, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to succeed.

I was much younger, more stubborn, and ignorant back then. I look back and see how much faster I could have propelled my growth if only I knew what I know now.

Making mistakes is normal and it’s one of the ways we learn and grow. But there are some mistakes that are unnecessary and waste precious time, money, and energy.

So I’m going to share with you how to avoid some of the mistakes that can trip you up and fail and what to do instead.

Here are the top 5 things I wish I’d know when I first started out in business…

1 – The Value Of Investing In Coaching and Mentoring

A mistake I made when I started out, was that I didn’t value other people’s input who had been in business longer than me.

If someone asks why I’m successful – it’s hard work, a strong work ethic and dedication etc. but the number 1 reason absolutely comes down to investing in coaching and mentoring.

When I was younger,  I was so stubborn and naive.

I started my first job in insurance when I was 17 as an office junior (earning a whopping $17,000 a year)

I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do, I just wanted freedom when I left high school.

When I was 25, I left my office job when I decided to become a personal trainer. I didn’t know anything about sales or marketing.

I could have seeked help from the experienced personal trainers at the gym I worked at. I could have taken them for coffee to ask for their advice. But I didn’t. Maybe I thought I knew everything. ?

I wish I knew the power of mentorship and coaching back then.

One of my favourite mentors says the fastest way to succeed in business is to attach yourself to a fast-moving vehicle, and do what they’re doing. Stand on the shoulders of giants and don’t try and reinvent the wheel.

Once I realised the power that they bring you, I’ve always had multiple coaches and mentors.

Some people say to just have one mentor or one mentor per year. Everyone’s different, it’s totally dependent on your style, personality, and character. I invest in multiple. I’m coach-greedy.

Without mentoring and coaching, I would not be where I am today.

The CEO of Google has a coach. Every great athlete, ca,tor or actress will have people around them that are supporting them and coaching them. If they need coaching and mentoring, then so do we.

2 – The Value Of Networking

When I started out in business I was so such an introvert.  I hid behind my laptop and my phone. In fact, some people that knew me back 10 to 12 years ago, would say they knew a completely different person.

A lot of people who knew me back then have been telling me lately that they have seen my transformation. Anyone can change. Even if you are an introvert, you can get out there and network. I never used to network, in fact, I hated it.

When I moved from New Zealand to London, I realised that I desperately needed to improve my communication skills and my confidence, so I read books on the plane. I bought books on how to become confident. And I learned one very important thing. I learned that you don’t get confident from reading books.

You become confident by getting out there and confronting your fears. Confidence is a by-product of being competent.

When you’re facing the fears of things that challenge you, you’re moving to your next level and outside of your comfort zone. When you do that, confidence comes like a gift and a reward for doing hard things.

Networking for a lot of you is not easy, and you feel like you’re not good at it. I network a lot and some people are really bad at it! They are not present, not listening, and not hearing what you have to say. They are half distracted.

You only get good at networking by doing it. When I started networking, I would hang around the food table because it was my comfort. It was like a blanket. Now, I try and meet as many people as I can.

I don’t give out business cards. That’s one mistake people make. I was at an event recently and I went home with a stack of business cards. I don’t have business cards and haven’t had them for eight years. I don’t have them because I like making contact with the other person.

When I was a personal trainer, I handed out hundreds and hundreds of business cards. Let’s be honest, most business cards end up in the bin. I only keep people’s business cards if I make a connection with the person.

If you’re not putting yourself out there, and networking, now is the time to do it. Because of the pandemic, people are now getting out and the energy is amazing. I can feel my energy has shifted so much since I started going to more live events.

Have a look at Meetup.com or Eventbrite as there are a bunch of events happening. Challenge yourself to get out there and network. The only way you get better is by doing it.

3 – The Value Of Investing

My third mistake was not realising the value of investing in my business. I used to try and hold on to money, whereas I’ve come to the point where I invest, because that’s the way to grow.

I invest in 3 main things – marketing, coaching and education.

You don’t get wealthy by saving money.  You get wealthy by getting your money working for you. And so, I love investing money into marketing, like Facebook ads.

I also love putting money into education. I’ve spent over $130,000 on education, not on formal education, but through learning specific skills.

Back when I started in business, I wish I had known the value of investing in marketing, sales copywriting, and coaching skills. I never used to think of copywriting as an essential business skill. I just thought I could put up a post and people were going to sign up.

Copywriting is one of the most undervalued, underrated skills, but being able to write well is one of the most important skills.

Knowing how to craft your language in a way that is compelling and attracts your right clients is a skill and it’s one that is worth investing in.

In the past, I’ve printed off flyers but now I mostly do all my marketing online because it enables you to track and see the ROI on your marketing dollar and investment.

If you’re starting out in business or you are struggling in business, you always need to be investing.

4 – The Value Of Daily Income Generating Activities

All of us do low-value tasks. We are human. Our brain is wired to take the path of least resistance.

Our brain is wired to keep us safe, so it doesn’t easily accept change. We naturally want to follow the path of least resistance. It’s really natural for us to do the easy things.

You know you need to go to the gym, but you stay watching Netflix. It’s normal so please don’t beat yourself up. This is not about making you feel guilty.

I do want to challenge you and encourage you to spend a good proportion of your time on income-generating activities. Ideally, do them every morning.

Instead of waking up and consuming on social media, create something. Delete apps off your phone if you need to. I have recently deleted the email app off my phone so I don’t waste time on it.

One of the easiest ways to change a habit is to just remove it. I always taught my clients this when I was a weight loss coach. At the time I was helping people change their habits. I would tell them that they needed to remove everything unhealthy from their house, so they didn’t get tempted.

If you’ve got a problem with sugar, don’t put things with sugar into your shopping trolley. Make up healthy packs of veggies or nuts and keep them in your bag. Don’t end up buying crappy food because you’ve gotten stuck out somewhere without being prepared.

It’s the same thing with business. Remove all things that take you away from income-generating activities. Are you tracking your sales conversion rates?  Are you showing up and giving value rather than just consuming?

Entrepreneurs show up and give value and help others solve problems. Entrepreneurs do income-generating activities.

I wish I knew that earlier because I spent way too long faffing about making my PowerPoint slides look amazing.

5 -The Value Of Fast Decision Making

Do you fall into the trap of perfectionism? 

None of us wants to make mistakes in our work. We don’t want to fail.

But overcoming perfectionism is not about doing rushed or sloppy work. There’s a difference between perfectionism and excellence.

Striving for excellence shows you have a good work ethic and strength of character.

Perfectionism is the enemy of progress. And the reality is, nothing is ever perfect. ⠀⠀

Getting something out there, (even if it’s not ‘just right’) is better than it sitting on your laptop or in your head, not helping anyone.⠀ ⠀⠀

I’ve never done a Facebook Live or webinar or an event and been 100% happy with how it’s gone. There are always things to improve.

If we want to grow as entrepreneurs, we need to value speed. Perfectionism can be a handbrake on our success. It keeps us from accelerating. We don’t have time to be afraid of mistakes.

As one of my mentors says, get it out there ‘quick and dirty’ and learn from it.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of delaying our decisions and let things pile up. Then we get overwhelmed by how much we need to do.

I was challenged in an event recently to write down 5 decisions we’ve been putting off, and decide when we’re going to do it.

I calculated that if I live until the average age, I have approximately 2000 weeks left of my life. Only 2000 weeks! I plan on living longer than this, but none of us are promised a set amount of time. So I don’t want to waste a second of the time I have left on the planet.

What have you been putting off? I invite you to write down one thing NOW and make a decision on when you’re going to do it. 

Want help to grow your business? 

Do you need help to get more right-fit clients, free up more time and create a profitable, lifestyle-friendly business that you LOVE?

I offer a free 45-minute business strategy session, where you’ll get personalised guidance, direction, clarity, and a clear action plan.

I’ll walk you through a proven business growth roadmap and personalise it to show you exactly what you need to do to hit your financial and freedom goals. 

I’ve helped people get fully booked with clients, double their income, increase their conversion rates, fill their events, and more. I would love to help you navigate to your next level.

Apply for your free strategy session here

 

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5 Fun Ways To Create A Powerful USP & Stand Out Online

Are you clear on what makes you different?

Having a USP (unique selling proposition) helps you stand out online and differentiates you from your competitors.

People searching for a solution online are often overwhelmed with options. They want to quickly be able to identify why you’re different to your competitors, so they know why they should choose you, as opposed to another business.

Your USP is what makes your business stand out. At its core, it should quickly answer that question that your potential clients have in their mind, which is “What makes them different from other options I’m looking at?”

Understanding your USP is crucial to guide your marketing decisions.

I like to think of your USP being the sweet spot between what your client wants and what you are really good at.

A really compelling USP should be memorable. And it should be specific and tangible. It shouldn’t be, “We deliver fast service” or “We have a high-quality service.” That’s very vague and general.

You want it to be specific, so it’s your offer, your way of teaching, your methodology, framework, or formula that makes you different.

It should also be focused on what your ideal clients value because there’s no point in being unique just for uniqueness’s sake.

It needs to be something important to them so they truly care about it. And it’s more than just a slogan and a compelling tagline. It’s something that you incorporate into every area of your business. You show your uniqueness and craft your message around that.

So here are 5 fun ways to create a powerful USP and stand out online…

1 –  Unpack Your Uniqueness

To unpack your uniqueness, think about the things that you do that other people struggle to do, but you do it really naturally and really easily.

At the moment I’m working with a client and we are working on crafting their webinar and building a framework around it. She couldn’t believe how easily I could come up with a framework, because it comes effortlessly for me.

What are the things that you can do easily, that come effortlessly to you because you’ve done it for so long? This is part of your unique brilliance and your genius zone.

People pay really good money for people who work in their genius zone. People are born with talent and gifting’s, but  your USP also includes your mastery of an area, your skill acquisition,  time and effort  you’ve put in to learning.

There’s a difference between being gifted and talented, and actually being masterful at a skill because you’ve honed it and unpacked it. You’re not just brilliant at it, you’ve unpacked that gift and you’ve developed it.

What kind of things have you really developed that other people haven’t developed? Also think about what your friends, family, clients and people that you know would say you’re really great at?

Unpacking your uniqueness is finding what makes you who you are. Then think about your personality. Not everyone wants to work with certain personality types. Just your personality can be enough to differentiate you from other people.

Your USP doesn’t have to be some really crazy thing that no one else is doing. For me, I’m a combination of practical business skills and strategy, and also mindset and spiritual. So these are things I’ve combined in my business that made me a little bit different.

I only ever teach what I do. Some people are just learning, teaching, then learning and teaching, but they are not actually applying it and getting success before they teach other people.

I think about my background as a teacher and a trainer for 6 years. I was a teacher,  trainer and assessor. I was a lecturer in business and fitness, so my training background is part of my USP.

I have an ability to run full-day workshop online and this makes me a little bit different to some people that don’t have that background. So think about what work you’ve done in the past and think about different combinations of things that you’ve done that are different.

The very first person who taught me presenting had a copywriting background.  He used to be a copywriter and he pulled that skill set into his presenting skills and it was a really unique combination. It was actually why I signed up for his program.

So think about the work you’ve done in the past 10 or so years. My background is as a weight loss coach and personal trainer, so now a lot of my clients are in wellness and it’s part of my USP.

I understand the process of transformation. I can really help a lot of people who work in the health, fitness and wellness industry, because I’ve worked in it myself.

I have a client who runs a gym in Melbourne, and I’m helping them work through their whole sales process, because I’ve worked in a gym for so long. My skills used as a trainer in a gym apply to business.

I have an understanding of mindset and breaking through limiting beliefs, which come up in business all the time. I used to train world champion bodybuilders, so I understand resilience and the entrepreneurial mindset of having to push through when things are hard.

Think about your gifts, skills, your area of brilliance, your personality, and other unique traits you hold.  These are what make you a little bit different. These are part of what makes you unique and they form your USP.

2 – Dig For The Difference

Digging for your difference is really about defining how your program is different. Your USP defines your uniqueness, and then you have to dig for the difference, which is why people will be attracted to your program or offer.

What is it in your program, or in your offer, or your service that could be a little bit different? Maybe you include some finished components, so you’ve done work for them already.

I do that usually as a bonus, where I might do a “done for you landing page” for my clients or some “done for you copywriting”.  I also offer lifetime access to my modules for my online courses, and that’s something that not everybody offers.

When you think through the components of your offer or your program, what are some things that other people don’t offer? Maybe you’re really good at making things very clear and step-by-step. Or perhaps you’re very good at organising your knowledge and taking someone through step-by-step.

Maybe your program has one-on-one components, because you’re still a small business and small enough for it to be really personalised. This is something that makes me a little bit different. I’ve learned from multi-million dollar companies and I’ve invested lots of money in them. I’ve learned a lot of strategy from them.

But my business is still at a point where I can be personalised, so people don’t just become a number and get lost in the crowd.  I can have a really small, specific mastermind of a few people so that there’s lots of personalised support from me.

Another reason why my program is different, is that a lot of programs give monthly group coaching calls. And I decided to make my group coaching weekly, because I just really wanted to provide that level of ongoing support.

So you might think about what your program looks like in terms of the level of support you give. You may want to do daily texts for people.

When I was working as a weight loss coach, one of the motivational things I came up with, was that I would text my clients a motivational text every morning.

The very first course I did was in MailChimp, my online CRM. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, my clients would get an email. I had Monday Motivation, Winning Wednesday and Friday Feast. I would email my clients a YouTube link, or a recipe, a motivational quote, or image.

This was a 12-week program so I  created 36 emails for it. People just loved receiving these motivational, inspirational things in their inbox. So think about what you can do to make yourself a little bit different.

Something I do in my program, is I have a manifesto. When I used to do live events, I would laminate a manifesto and put a little chocolate and a few different things in a gift pack on the chairs, so when people came into the boardroom, there was something a little extra there.

When I was running a business speaking group, I created a card and superimposed the person’s face over a TED talk speaker. I did it on Canva. I put their face on that person’s body, and it was like them delivering a TED talk and I put a caption, “This is going to be you one day.”

These cute, fun, and quirky things are part of the culture you are building for your community. I run an inner circle community which is a small, private Facebook community and I’m in there answering questions every single day.

I know that’s different because a lot of programs don’t have the course creator actually answering the questions every day. They get admin people to do it. And I may not always do this, as my business grows, but right now I can do this, so this is another point of difference I offer.

3 –  Pinpoint Your Promise

Pinpointing a promise is like you’re making a pledge to your clients.  This can be implied, not just spelled out in your USP statement. You want to think about the result of what you are going to promise your client.

Give an outcome in your promise. An example is, “If you follow these steps, you will get this outcome.” Or it could be, “If you follow this formula, you will get this result.”

I did a challenge a few years ago and it was a $10K challenge that the guy promised. It was such a clear promise. He promised if I did his steps, I would make $10k.

It takes courage and boldness to have a strong promise like that, but it’s absolutely worth thinking about. If your promise has any type of number or dates within it, like, “Lose 5 kilos in five weeks.” People absolutely love these.

A friend of mine has a promise of, “Book 3 discovery calls in 48 hours.” This has got the number and the dates, so it’s super powerful.

4 –  Comb Your Competitors

Combing your competitors means looking at what your competitors do who are above you, and then implementing that. Look at 3 different businesses who are above you at the next level and model them.

Don’t copy. Look at the language they use because they’ve obviously done a lot of research. If they’re quite ahead of you, they’ve really done a lot of research, so look at what they’ve done differently.

Then look at what you can do to bring something different or better.  Ideally, do something better. If you’re just starting out now, look at how you can beat them. Use the fact that you’re smaller because you can use being small to your advantage.

Being a smaller business means you can provide personalised support and service that a lot of big companies can’t do because they’ve grown so much. They can’t do one-on-one anymore because they’re just too busy. Use what you’ve got and play to your strengths.

I’ve got a new client in Utah and she’s fabulous. She’s got 3 different target markets. She’s a real estate agent, and we were talking about how she will find the language that each 3 target audiences use.

My suggestion was to choose 3-5 Facebook groups to hang out in every single day for 7 days. Spend a good 10-20 minutes there each day, reading people’s comments and questions, and she will get a good feel for what people want and how to use their language.

5 – Start A Story Bank

Your stories are really what makes you unique. Your unique stories are valuable and they are yours, so start a story bank.

Open a Google document or spreadsheet, and think about your ideal clients. Think about their 3 biggest pain points and problems. Then think about a time in your life where you had these problems.

I decided to group it in decades. So from 0-10 years old. 10 to 20 years old etc. I know this sounds crazy and you probably are thinking why things from childhood can be relevant, but you can take learnings and wisdom from these experiences.

Say for example, when you were 9, your mum left or you moved overseas. Share the wisdom you have drawn from that experience. It doesn’t have to be directly related to your business. Then think of 3 instances from each decade from your life that relate to the pain points your target market experience.

Your combination of stories and experiences really makes up your USP. If you’re 45-years old, you’ve got 5 decades to draw from. That’s 15 stories you could have.

They could be turning points or an emotional experience where you had some kind of pain or problem that potentially is going to relate to your ideal client.

One of the things that led me to push to build a business is, I remember seeing my Dad be so diligent and going to work every single day at the same company for 40 years. But he left that job with no intellectual property.

I don’t want that to happen to me. I want to have a legacy that I build. I want to create something that’s mine. I don’t want to pour my heart into someone else’s business or company.

When I was a teacher for 6 years, I was teaching someone else’s curriculum and that really bothered me, because I wanted to be teaching my own content. These types of stories are going to help your unique selling proposition.

I have a client in Ukraine. I met him when I was living in London and he connected with me 10 years later. He is adopting a new daughter. He said he needed a coach and he wanted to work with me. He has a beautiful team of people who are growing his company with him.

We’ve just gone through this process of defining his USP. It started off as a community dedicated to impacting orphans, so it was all about orphan care. His heart is to help orphans because that’s where the sex trafficking trade thrives, when orphans are released and don’t have family support.

Then we were looking at another community that was wider and broader called, Journey For More. They are ordinary people doing extraordinary things. We were toying with the idea of going more specific or whether he should go broad to make his community broader.

We decided on something in the middle, “Live Your Fullest Calling By Contributing To The World’s Most Pressing Needs.” We found this in-between space, where it’s all about everyday people wanting to contribute to a cause that is one of the world’s most pressing needs.

It’s a beautiful example of how we need to craft and think about where we’re at in our journey, what types of clients we want to attract, and how we want to be specific and clear, but also open it up so that you can really grow and expand as well.

So that’s 5 fun ways you can create your USP and stand out online.

I recommend you share your USP on social media, in emails, and in other places you show up online, such as if you are interviewed on a podcast or Facebook Live video.

You don’t just want to create your USP and put it in a drawer or in a folder. You want to consistently be showing your uniqueness.

Take the time to think about your uniqueness and why someone would listen to you over someone else. And then keep repeating that same message.

You might feel like a broken record. I do sometimes, but repetition is the mother of skill and it’s one of the key ways that people get to know your brand, messaging, and what makes you unique.

Want help defining your USP and uniqueness to stand out?

I offer a free discovery session for first-time people who want to take their business to the next level, so if you need help, please don’t struggle alone. Reach out.

Apply for a free strategy session here

Chat soon,

Kat

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Content That Gets You Likes Vs Content That Gets You Clients

There is a big difference between content that gets you likes, and content that gets you clients.

And it’s not just the dollars that come with gaining clients. I have discovered 3 simple tricks that will make your content 100% more compelling.

Content that gets you likes may be interesting and entertaining. It might be a little educational.

But there are depths and layers that we can add to our content, which inspires people to actually take action as a result of reading your content, and this is our ability to influence through our content.

Influence is the ability to inspire someone to take action to get more of what they want. To influence someone, you have to go deeper into their subconscious mind.

Lots of people are producing content, creating videos and getting themselves out there online now, but not many people have a solid, consistent, client database and income.

Success is not about just people liking and commenting on your posts. The most successful people actually aren’t spending all this time on social media checking likes and checking comments.

The most successful people are too busy servicing their clients to worry about that.

Once you know how to create influential content that is compelling, your whole world expands and opportunities open for you.

It doesn’t mean you’re better, it just means that people position you and see you differently. More people contact you to speak on their podcast or in their Facebook group. That’s what happened when I shifted my live events online.

When I was started shifting all my events online, I had many invites to speak to various groups and on podcasts. This was because I was consistently showing up.  I was willing to consistently show up with content that influenced.

I challenged myself to not just create ‘How To’ content or ‘Step by Step’ content, but to go deeper into people’s subconscious mind, because that’s how you influence. When you understand the drivers below the surface logic, then you can get more people booked into your calendar for strategy sessions and discovery calls.

Influential content is crafting your words in a way that makes people want to take action, and take that next step towards actually working with you.

Whenever I put out a new blog or a new video, or send a new email,  I’ve really crafted it and thought about the how to make it compelling and influential. Typically people reach out to me and book into my calendar or webinars, or they contact me privately.

Crafting influential content works. You don’t have to have 1000’s of people on your mailing list, you just need to know how to influence people.

When you have developed the skill of influence, people will reach out to you for PR opportunities and for joint venture opportunities.

You will find the whole world opens up to you and it’s not by chance. It’s because you know how to arrange your words in a way that speaks at the subconscious mind.

It’s about knowing how to awaken desires within people, to make them want to learn more, and motivate people to move away from their pain.

Credibility doesn’t come from just having knowledge. They say knowledge is power, but it’s actually only potential power. Credibility comes from getting people results.

When people want to succeed, they seek advice from people who get results and who are further along in the journey than themselves. It’s not just about teaching something to people, it’s about your ability to communicate your value so that someone wants to follow you because you get results.

1 – Influential Content Is Conversational And Natural

Influential content needs to be conversational and natural. People want simplicity and they want something they can understand easily.

People are influenced when they trust you. Who do we trust the most? We trust the people closest to us. We trust certain family members, our friends, our partner, our close peers.

If we’re not being our natural selves, our content can sound formal, when we wouldn’t speak that way with our friends or family if we were chatting over a coffee.

When you create content, you need to speak to your clients as though you are speaking to a trusted family member or friend.

We also do this when we get on video. I look back at my first Facebook Live and I cringe! I was so unnatural. It’s not easy to be yourself when you get a camera in front of you.

When things are not natural and they are hard to read, or when you sound like a robot, your readers lose interest quickly and they scroll on by. So you want to write like you’re just sharing to a friend and write in a conversational tone.

That is what makes it influential. We are more influenced by our friends than we are by a marketer online, or by a business person online.  We’re influenced by the people that we trust and the people that are closest to us.

Forget what you learned in English, in terms of things having to be in perfect grammar. When you write as you speak, your writing is going to be more influential and you’re going to be ahead of most people,  so keep it casual.

2 – Influential Content  Speaks To The Subconscious Mind

There was a study done by Harvard, that shows that over 90% of our buying decisions are made by our subconscious mind. When you think about buying, it’s all about influence.

When you buy something, it’s because you’re influenced in some way by the colour, shape, the words or the sound. Something influenced us to buy it. So if you want to influence people,  the most essential business skill you can have is to be able to speak to the unconscious mind.

We do this by understanding the real drivers of human behavior. It’s not logic. It’s connecting with the pain, desires, values, shadow values, beliefs, and things that go beyond our logic.

For example, status is one of the 7 desires that I spoke about in the last training. The need to increase our status by something we buy is a strong driver. People are asking themselves if what they are buying will increase their status.

Other drivers could be the appearance of intelligence, looking smart, appearing powerful, being wealthy, or it could be something altruistic, like doing kind deeds. If you want to influence people, you need to understand these subconscious drivers of human behavior.

When we purchase something, we often aren’t thinking logically. It’s like doing a bungee jump. You don’t think through it as though you are going to get different benefits of it. You don’t think through the pros and cons of doing a bungee jump.

When I decided to do a bungee jump, I wanted to feel the thrill and the freedom of throwing myself off a bridge. I wanted to feel brave and courageous.

It wasn’t a logical decision. It made zero sense to throw myself off a bridge. My Mum was absolutely mortified and said she wouldn’t throw herself off a bridge if someone paid her $500 million!

But yet, I chose to jump, even though it made no logical sense because it actually is not logical.  It was so scary. There were not many benefits. But I was driven to do it.

Influential content speaks to the side of someone that’s driving them, the side where they’ll find the money, they’ll find the way, they’ll find the resources that they need to make it happen.

If I think about the programs that I’ve invested in to teach me with my business, the most expensive one was $17,000.

I had no money at the time and I had 3 credit cards full of debt. I think now that it was such an illogical decision to put myself in another $17,000 worth of debt, but I didn’t think of it like that. I thought of it like an investment into my future.

I’m so glad I wasn’t logical because that was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever invested into. It gave me an NLP certification which absolutely changed my life and the way I think about myself and the world. It gave me a life coaching certification, speaker training certification, and a business certification.

I have seen a massive return on investment because I’ve made way more than $17,000 back from that investment. It was illogical, but it felt right, because the person who sold it to me influenced me, because he pushed on those values. He helped open my future vision of myself to be a successful business owner.

So too,  you can deliver content that goes straight to those core needs. And remember, it’s about emotion, not logic. When you learn to speak to the subconscious, it transforms your content completely.

3 –  Influential Content Speaks Directly To A Person’s Pain And Desires

Influential content speaks directly to a person’s pain and desires and this is how we wake up the emotions. You really need to know your ideal client and speak directly to them.

You can’t expect people to be influenced by your content if you don’t understand them. And you’ve got to speak their language and know specifically what pain areas they have.

What are their fears, frustrations, and struggles in their life right now? Then you need to articulate their pain to them exactly in a way they would say it.

We used to get taught paraphrasing. When you’re having a conversation you do open listening and you paraphrase back to the person what you heard and you repeat it back exactly how they said it. So if someone said they want to get rid of a muffin top, you wouldn’t say, “Oh, so you want to get toned obliques?”

You would repeat back using their exact language.

You’ve got to use your ideal client’s exact language. And to do that, you have to get to know your target market. And you do this by having lots of conversations with your ideal clients. I’ve done hundreds of free sessions with people who are ideal clients so I could learn their language, their pain points, and their desires.

So there you have it, the difference between content that gets you likes, and content that gets you clients.

Want help to grow your business?

Business is too hard to do alone.

If you need help to get more right-fit clients, free up more time and create a profitable, lifestyle-friendly business that you LOVE, I’m offering a free 45-minute next-level business strategy session, where you’ll get clarity and a clear action plan.

I’ll walk you through a roadmap to show you exactly what you need to do and personalise it to suit you. 

Apply now for your free next-level strategy session

 

 

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The Old Way Of Writing Copy Is Over

The old way of writing copy is over. There is a new way of writing copy (marketing words) that focuses on:

– People over product
– Connecting with your right-fit people
– Adding genuine value

The aim of good copywriting is to have an impact and effect on people that inspires them to take action.

If you’re a coach or consultant, or you have a service or program that you want to sell to more people, it’s super important that you know how to inspire people to take action.

Some people say to me “What exactly IS copy?!”

Copy is a funny word, isn’t it? Some people don’t like the word, as it can feel kind of intimidating.

All of us – if we have something to sell that’s going to help people solve their problem – need to know how to use our words to link people to our product or service.

There’s a gap between your service or product, and the person who needs what you’re offering.

That’s what copy does – it closes the gap.

Different pieces of your copywriting have different goals.

For example, your social media posts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram and your emails usually have the goal to bring people a step closer towards you, until you eventually make an offer to what I call your ‘right-fit person’.

If you think about social media posts for example, they are not generally designed to completely close the gap. Social media is meant to be social. It’s about building relationships and connections with people. So they’re meant to be more educational and conversational.

Other copy includes all the words on a landing page or your website, where people come to read about your product or service. This is usually a sales page with an order form that has a button that people click to buy your product or service.

The ‘buy here’ button closes the gap all the way up.

Compelling copy focuses on connecting you with your ‘right-fit people’.

There are people who are the right fit for you. And there are people that are definitely not the right fit for you.

The job of your copy is to attract the right people – the people are those who align with your energy and with what you have to offer.

The Old Way: Professional
The New Way: Conversational

The old way of writing copy was super professional and cheesy. Cheesy doesn’t work anymore. People don’t want that now. People want authentic, friendly and conversational copy.

Ineffective copy is often what’s letting people down in their business. Learning to write copy is a skill. And all skills are learnable.

You can learn it and get better at it and you can start to see a difference really quickly. You don’t need to do a two year degree in copywriting to actually make an impact. It’s the little tweaks that can make a big impact.

You don’t have to completely change your writing style. You just need to follow proven formulas and structures that work. And then you infuse your personality into writing your copy.

The challenge is: People assume that they’re good copywriters because they are good at their subject matter. Being a subject matter expert doesn’t mean you have specifically leaned the skill of copywriting.

There is a lot of freedom and creativity that you can infuse within the copywriting formula, but there is a structure and guidelines to writing content also.

You don’t start to play any game without having the right guidelines or without knowing the rules.

You wouldn’t play a game of soccer or even play a game of chess without knowing the rules, so it’s important to learn the guidelines.

When you’re learning an instrument, there’s certain notes that work well together, like C,E and G, that make a nice sounding chord.

Certain notes don’t work well together, like playing C and D, because their sound together does not work well.

It’s the same with copywriting. There’s a big difference between writing about how great your product is, and writing to influence or inspire someone to buy.

Breaking Old Copywriting Myths

There are copywriting myths relating to the old way of writing copy that we need to lay down in order to pick up the new way of copywriting.

Imagine being in an English class and handing in an essay that was written similar to how we write a social media post or email today. It would get an immediate fail!

The new way is different to the traditional way we write. One of the reasons how we write has changed, is because we are so bombarded with information now. We don’t like reading big, long sentences and long paragraphs.

People don’t want to hear old-school, colloquial and traditional language now. No one wants to read posts with long, hard words that you have to get your brain around.

We’ve trained ourselves to follow the path of least resistance, so we need to be able to make our copy simpler.

Big, fancy words is the old way of writing. The new way is conversational.

It’s more conversational, creative and friendly. It’s fun and playful, showing your personality.

There’s been a real shift away from typical, perfect grammar.  It’s now about actually understanding how the human brain learns and absorbs – the ”buttons to press’ through your copy and what inspires people to take action.

The New Way Of Copywriting

The new way of writing copy is understanding how to make people feel something and be moved.

Dale Carnegie says when you’re dealing with people, you need to remember that you’re not dealing with creatures of logic, you’re dealing with creatures of emotion.

It’s important that we think about the reasons that people take action and the reasons that people buy. People buy to fill emotional needs.

Some Reasons People Buy:

  • For popularity or status
  • To be recognised
  • To feel loved
  • To increase our time or increase our money
  • To save money, save energy and save effort
  • To be healthier – physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually

We buy for a whole lot of reasons and we need to understand what is driving human emotions. Napoleon Bonaparte says there are two motives to action: self-interest and fear. It ties in with pain and pleasure.

When you don’t understand this, you’re just writing traditional copy that is beautiful writing, but it’s not moving people to act. This does not work nowadays. It’s not going to close the gap and bring people closer to you.

It’s the professional versus the conversational. It’s about knowing formulas and structures, and knowing the rules of the game, but also being able to infuse the rules of the game with your personality.

Find Your Own Voice And Use It

Finding your own voice is a great way to call in your right-fit people.

You can do this by to find and use your voice to repeat your key messages over and over. Then repeat these messages throughout all your different social media channels, like your LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

These are different platforms, but the way you speak should be the same, because you are the same.

Your voice should be the common thread through your emails, your website and your social media posts. Your voice needs to be cohesive through all your copy, because that’s when people trust you.

The only way really to find your voice is to write a lot. It doesn’t come by thinking about it. It doesn’t come by reading about it.

You can read so many other people’s posts, but you will not find your own voice by consuming other’s posts. You find your own voice by sharing content consistently.

I was talking to a client today and we were discussing a famous leadership author John Maxwell and the reason he can write so many books is because he sets a timer and writes for 20 minutes every day.

With copywriting, it’s about writing freely and not stopping and getting stuck in perfectionism.

It’s actually allowing yourself to just get good at the craft by getting out there and doing it, getting feedback and self-correcting.

The Old Way: Method
The New Way: Outcomes

The old way of copywriting was to focus on the method of change, so that was always method focused. The new way is outcome focused, so it’s method versus outcome.

I often find people are talking about their method of transformation. They are talking about the interventions they do, or their limiting belief busters script, or a particular diet or exercise plan.

This is their methodology. The problem with that is that people don’t buy the method, they want to buy because of an outcome.

An example I encountered once was where a guy asked me to help him to change his marketing, because he wasn’t getting anyone signing up for his event.

He was running an event on how to use the kettle bell. A kettle bell is something that you use at the gym.

He had a poster and the title he used was, ‘Respect The Bell’. He had a big picture of a kettle bell. What was his problem? He was selling the method, not the outcome.

No one sits at home and thinks that they need to learn how to respect the kettle bell. But many people do sit at home and think that they need to lose weight and get fit. They think that they want to drop a dress size.

I see this all the time where people talk about their features and their methodology, rather than speaking about the outcome. We need to connect what we do with what the client is looking for and then close the gap with your copy.

Don’t make the mistake of selling your method before you’ve really imparted the vision and painted a picture of how awesome someone’s future can be.  We’ve got to sell them on the outcome.

Your copy needs to create a scene where your ideal client can see themselves.

An example is: ‘It’s Monday morning, you open your laptop and you are fully booked with clients. You are living your dream. You know this because you have learned exactly how to write compelling copy…

…You’ve followed a formula and your right people are engaging with you and booking into your calendar. People are giving you great testimonials about how much you have helped them.’

This is the power of using someone’s imagination rather than just focusing on your method or focusing on your product.

The Old Way: Volume
The New Way: Finely-Crafted

In the old way of copywriting, volume mattered. The new way is to create finely crafted copy that hits the target.

When I was working in London I had a business coach, and I remember sitting in a cafe with him once and him asking me what my goals were for social media.

At the time I was working in a gym and I wasn’t really doing a lot of social media. He encouraged me saying I had to get out there on Facebook more. Facebook was relatively new at that point.

And his goal for me was to post 3x a day. But I was already so booked up with clients.

People often ask me how often they should post.

It comes down to the quality of the post and how much time you have to create effective content.

When you’re busy and successful, you just don’t have time to be doing volumes on social media.

For example, this week I’ve got 23 clients. I don’t have the luxury of being able to sit there and pump out social media content.

It’s not about pumping out volumes of posts to stay top of people’s minds. It’s choosing quality over quantity. You want to be top of someone’s mind because you’re actually giving value, not because you’re constantly in their feed with bland copy.

There is much greater value in crafting three great posts a week, over doing six sloppy, half thought through posts. When you take the time to think about your ideal client and what they’re going through and how you can help them, people will want to share it.

When I craft my content, people often private message me and say that I’ve really impacted them and they book into my calendar.

You could buy a really cheap bottle of wine and you’d get five or six big glasses out of this cheap bottle of wine.

Or you could just have this one really expensive, beautiful glass and you can just enjoy it and savor it.

You need to have this type of thinking around your copy and content. People will start to view you as genuinely giving value to people.

You’ll get a reputation of providing quality to people, whether they are a paid client or not.

Are you struggling to attract new clients with your content?

Would you like to know how to write more compelling copy that gets people taking action towards being a paid client?

I’m holding a free online workshop on Saturday 6th of February, called  ‘How To Attract New Clients With Compelling Copy’.

I’ll be sharing the words to use to influence your right-fit people, power words, the words to avoid, and the words trigger resistance in people.

I’ll also be sharing a proven compelling copy formula that can save you sooo much time and confusion, and so much more.

You’ll learn the formula and skills to watch your income and impact transform in 2021!

Find out more about the event here

See you there!

Kat

 

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3 Things To Master To Hit Your First 100K

Is this your year to hit your first $100,000 in income?

Want to know the fastest way to do it?

Are you over watching everyone else succeed and you’re wondering when it’s your turn?

There are 2 numbers that you must know in your business and keep an eye on all the time. If you’re trying to build out your business, and get more clients, the first figure is what I call your freedom figure.

Your freedom figure is the figure that you need to make every single month to know that you’re free and you don’t have to work for anyone else ever again unless you want to.

Your freedom figure is the amount where you’re going to have enough to cover all your bills, expenses, your lifestyle and your savings goals and not have to stress about money. It could be $10,000 or $20,000 a month for example.

It’s the figure that will give you a lifestyle so you’re not burning yourself out, so you can take regular holidays and rest times, so you don’t have to be a slave to your laptop.

Your first 100K is usually the hardest, especially if you don’t have expert support and guidance, because it feels like there’s a million things to do.

In business, there is always so much we could be doing. Maybe you’ve got a lot of ideas, but you’re not really sure which one to focus on, and you need laser focus and clarity, so you’re not wasting time.

The second number that you need to know is how many clients you need in order to hit your freedom figure.

Let’s say your freedom figure is $100,000 per year.

You can decide your hourly rate based on your desired working hours, or you can decide your working hours based on your desired hourly rate.

If your goal is 100K, you need to make $2,000 every week for 50 weeks. You then have to divide that figure by how many hours you want to work and that’s your hourly rate.

Here’s an example calculation to work from based on desired working hours per week:

Yearly goal – $100,000

Monthly income goal – $8,333

Weekly income goal (50 weeks) – $2,000

Hours working per week goal – 10

Divide weekly amount by hours working per week – $2,000 divided by 10

= Your hourly rate – $200

Or, you might choose your hourly rate then decide that you will work as many hours as you need to hit your freedom figure.

Here’s an example calculation to work from based on desired hourly rate:

Yearly goal – $100,000

Monthly income goal – $8,333

Weekly income goal (50 weeks) – $2,000

Hourly rate goal – $150

Hours you need to work – 14

These figures give you clear goals to work from.

A lot of people don’t know their figures. They’re not clear and focused on achieving set targets. They just have an idea that they want to be happy and make something.

But successful people know where they’re heading and what they’re aiming towards, as it gives us motivation, drive and clear targets to aim for.

Once you’ve set your 2 numbers goals, it’s time to look at how we get there.

So here are 3 things you need to do well to earn your first $100,000 per year:

1 – Craft Your Signature Offer

The first thing you need to do is craft your irresistible signature offer.

This is something that a  lot of people get wrong.  You need to take the time to build an amazing and irresistible offer that’s a no-brainer for people.

People often price their offer incorrectly by charging too little or making it too expensive. They don’t have great bonuses, they don’t have great structure or a mapped out delivery method. In order to do this, you have to be really clear on your ideal client and on your message.

The way that you craft a beautiful offer that people want to buy, is by really understanding your ideal clients and what they want. You don’t want to craft a beautiful offer, full of value that no-one wants.

In order to create an amazing offer, you really need to research and get to know your ideal client so you know what they need. I didn’t know this in my first 100K in business. So I figured it out as I went along.

I had lots and lots of conversations with people and I hung out in groups at networking events. I coached a lot of people for free. I spent a lot of time with business owners and started to hear all the different problems that they had struggled with, things like copywriting, technology and sales.

These were the things that formed my offer. You don’t want your offer to only be coaching. No one wants just coaching. They want a signature system, a roadmap, a blueprint that they can follow that’s going to get them from their problem to their solution.

It’s your job to map that out and get your offer really clear, and then you need to get your messaging clear. Your messaging is the language that you’re going to use to basically show people the transformation journey. It’s the beliefs that you have that you need to communicate to your ideal clients.

You do this by educating them on the gaps so that they will also be able to get the kind of results that you’ve got. So I recommend that you spend some time creating your offer.

The way you get to know what your ideal clients want is by doing one-on-one coaching as much as you can. You will see the most transformation with people when they do one-on-one coaching.

When I first started out, I would create something for them and send it to them each time. If they said they didn’t know what to post on social media, then I would create a guide to teach them and then email it to them.

This is what started me creating my online course. I had created so many tools and resources for people, so I included them in my course.

Along with your coaching, you want to have videos and resources. There are tangible things like checklists and guides that can help people. You could create step-by-step videos for people to watch in-between coaching.

You want to have bonuses that relate to all the things that your ideal client is struggling with. One of the recent bonuses I’ve offered is my Client Attraction Accelerator program. Another was a copywriting makeover.

I’ve offered a technology session, where I get behind the scenes and share my screen with people and actually help them build out a funnel or an email nurture sequence or a Facebook advert.

The bonuses that I’ve put into my offer directly relate to the biggest problems that my ideal clients have.  The added bonuses I offer is what gets them over the line with a sale.

In your signature offer, you might throw in a VIP ticket to one of your workshops or a mastermind session. This is why it’s so important that you understand your ideal clients and what they are struggling with. This helps you understand the types of things that you can create for them.

In your offer, I recommend you have 3C’s:

  • Coaching
  • Content
  • Community

To fast-track their results, many people now recognise how crucial it is to have a coach. Whether you coach people 1:1 or in a group, people need coaching for perspective, expertise, feedback and support.

People also need content – a step-by-step roadmap to follow. This is where you need to map out your system and then teach it to people, ideally in a portal as an online course with videos and downloadable resources.

And finally, people want a community.

A lot of people freak out because they think they don’t have a big enough following or a community yet. Don’t let that stop you.

When I first started as a business coach,  one of the first workshops that I ran was in The Little Space at Bondi Junction. I ran a workshop there called ‘The Business Of Speaking’ where I talked about how to make money as a speaker.

The offer I was selling at that course was a 6-month course called Speak To Influence. It was $897 and only 2 people bought it. It was a very small workshop and I didn’t have many people attending.

It was such a valuable offer, but I just didn’t have enough people in the room. Every single week I showed up for 6 months – so 24 x 1-hour sessions of creating all new content for only 2 people.

Every week I would show up and often only one person would show, so they got one-on-one specialised sessions.  It was a great offer and I learned so much through the process, even though there were only 2 people.

Obviously, it’s good to have a bigger community, but you just start with what you’ve got. You’ve just got to start small and you run it and don’t pull back. You can gift it to friends or discount it to build the community when you’re just starting out.

Over time I grew the community and now consistently have great people in my inner circle who all support each other.

People want peers in their community, as they like going on a journey together and supporting each other.

Make sure you are clear in your offer of the benefits, the value and make sure you get the price point right for your offer.

2 – Create A Sales Mechanism

The second thing you have to master to hit your first 100K is to create a sales mechanism to go along with your irresistible offer.  Once you’ve created your offer, you have to figure out how you’re actually going to sell that offer and the sales process to get people to buy it.

Will you sell your offer on a discovery call or in some type of consult or strategy session? What are you going to sell it on? Will it be an order form, on a landing page in Click Funnels, or on your website?

If you are going to sell one-on-one coaching, (which is what I recommend), then you’ve got to have a way to get people to register for a free strategy call with you. This means you need a booking page that links into your calendar.

I use Calendly for example and I embed it into a landing page on Click Funnels so that people can book in easily online. Then they get sent reminders automatically. I have everything automated because you don’t want to be doing everything manually.

Doing business manually the old way is such a waste of time.  You just want people to book in online, and for it to all be automated. Your client gets an email with instructions on what to do, like a zoom link or maybe instructions of how you will give them a call.

Maybe you will write a written sales letter before they jump on a call, or maybe they need to watch a video or fill in one of your surveys. These are all the things you need to think about with your sales process.

If you’re going to do a webinar, then you need to plan to invite attendees into a call at the end of your webinar. Or you may need to create a downloadable freebie, to get people on a sales call with you.

Working out your whole sales process does take longer. But coming up to the Christmas holidays, you know you’ve got a bit of time spare and that’s when I personally do the things I need to do to catch up with my business.

Usually, over the summer holidays, there are fewer clients, so I sit at home and build out my processes.

If you want to hit your freedom figure, you’ve got to put in the work. You can’t just post on social media organically and expect clients to come to you. It doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to build a mechanism and a structure behind the scenes.

3 – Create Compelling Content

The third thing you need to master to hit your first 100K is to create compelling content. Your content needs to be compelling, so it draws people in, attracts their attention and engages them.

The best way to have compelling content is to really understand your ideal client, because then you’re going to use their language and you’re going to speak directly to their specific problems and needs.

Your content cannot be vague or big picture. You’ve got to be very specific with it.

Your content is the way that you get people to see your offer or see your invitation into a sales call. So really, your content is a marketing piece. You need to have a great offer and a way to sell it. You need a traffic source and lead generation strategies.

A couple of weeks ago I received an email with a freebie gift that contained 400 lead generation strategies. I think the guy was trying to be really valuable, but it was just overwhelming and potentially quite confusing for me.

You really need to pick one strategy and focus on it for a week or 30 days, instead of doing a few social media posts here and there. Using the less is more principle is powerful.

You want to get the most leads as quickly as possible. Don’t do all the lead generation strategies at once, just focus on what you will do for the next 7, 30 days or even 90 days, whether that’s paid traffic or free traffic you are aiming for.

Typically your business page on Facebook is only getting about 1% reach, so almost no one sees it. So you want to build up free traffic or a combination of free and paid traffic.

When you’re first starting out, you want to be able to validate your offer, and run it past as many people as possible. You want to help as many people as possible. This gives you fuel for your business.

Even if you have to, reduce your price and say you are going to do a partial scholarship for the first 5 people who take up your offer. You could say you are going to take $500 off or 50% off for the first 5 people who take up your offer. This is a great way to get testimonials and to get practice at getting people to your door.

You don’t want to discount by saying you are doing a beta test, or that you are discounting it, as this makes it sound a bit amateur. But if you say you are helping provide a partial scholarship or having founding members who get a reduced price it a really great strategy.

You can create something really awesome and get it set up in a week, and actually start making a lot of more money. It’s not obviously all about making money, but it is about helping people. We can’t help people if we’re broke and thinking about ourselves struggling.

If you would like some help crafting your offer, developing your sales strategies or creating compelling content, I recently ran a webinar called The Client Attraction Accelerator Masterclass.

If you missed this masterclass, you can access it here for a limited time.

Kat

P.S. Do you need some personalised support in hitting your business goals in 2021? I have opened up a few spaces in my calendar for strategy sessions, but they are filling fast and are by application only.

You can apply for your 1:1 session here.

 

 

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