Podcast: Systemizing and Scaling Your Online Business
[su_button url=”http://wordpress-399429-2150085.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Systemizing-and-Scaling-Your-Online-Business-with-Alicia-Dunams-and-Stephen-EsKetzis.pdf” target=”blank” style=”3d” size=”12″ center=”yes” icon=”icon: download”]DOWNLOAD PODCAST TRANSCRIPT[/su_button]
TRANSCRIPTION:
[00:14] Stephen: Hey guys, Stephen Esketzis here form Marketing on the Move and I’ve got Alicia with me. Alicia how are you going?
Alicia: I’m doing well Stephen thank you so much.
Stephen: Thanks for coming on. Now just at the beginning, I’m going to say it early. How do I pronounce your surname because I want to make sure I get it right? Is it Dunams, is that right?
Alicia: So the correct pronunciation of my name is Alicia Dunams.
Stephen: Alicia Dunams, oh I can see. I’m glad I asked. The amount of people that I speak to and I say it wrong, and I hate saying it wrong the entire way through, then finding out in the end when they say their name and I’m like ‘I’ve missed it!’ but I’m glad I cleared that out nice and early.
Alicia: Absolutely.
[00:51] Stephen: So tell me. You mentioning just our fair before you were having a fantastic day. What are some of the things you’ve been up to?
Alicia: Well we talked about having the internet marketing giving us stability to have amazing lifestyle businesses so just last week we came back from Costa Rica. I live in Manhattan beach, California, and I’m just loving life. It’s beautiful, I live on the beach. I went running today, I worked with clients, I worked with my team, and I just fully love life. Internet, having an online business, has given me the opportunity to live the life of my dreams and that’s really my vision, which is to support people in launching their online business. You know, really starting with writing a book, and I’m launching some sort of online training so that I can help millions of people really get their voice out there through books, through eBooks, through online trainings and info products and it’s been an amazing run.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. And now with the Internet, it’s such an abundance of information out there and it’s good that you could really be able to connect to the people that you can help and then really take them along that path to show them what needs to be done. Like what you’re saying from book, to info product and really get your name out there.
Alicia: Absolutely. And we have such an opportunity to create a major impact to the world. So a big part of my business is helping people see how they’re leaders: leaders in industry, a leader in business, a leader in your community, social entrepreneurship, and whatever. And I really want to encourage people to play big, think big, get out there and really live their life on all cylinders. We’re so fortunate. You got me on my day, I’m fully pumped. But you know, most days are like this. Some days I have not so great days but in those days I sit and think like, wow, you just have to go to a place that’s like ‘what are the 5 things I’m grateful for?’ then you say those things and you’re like ‘wow, I’m grateful I woke up today. I’m glad the sun is shining.’ And that puts it all in perspective.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. And it definitely changes the perspective of when you’re down in those days where it’s difficult to get out of the bed or don’t do that work, don’t speak to that client and it just revitalizes you.
Alicia: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[03:18] Stephen: Love it. So tell me, you’ve done a few books, you’ve done a few programs, a few info products, how did you get into this whole online marketing space? How did you really immerse yourself in all this?
Alicia: It first started when I wrote my own book back in 2007. I’ve always been a business owner and I’ve marketed my business online. I went to UCLA, I graduated from school and I backpacked around the world. That’s one of the first things that I did and I had a few jobs that really since the age of 23-24 I’ve had my own business and it was a technical writing business at first. I used to market my business online and I would find opportunities online for that, But when I wrote my book back in 2007, that really, kind of, let me enter a world of being an expert, appearing on TV, and when I wrote my book, I thought ‘okay, if there was a book about success and females using entrepreneurship as a way to generate wealth and get to the next level of their lives’ and when I wrote that book, what do I do now? I have a book, but I don’t have a business. And so I looked at the New York Times Bestseller List and the Amazon Bestseller List and like ‘okay, what are the other female authors doing?’ and I saw a lot of them were speaking and putting on seminars and I said ‘okay, well maybe that’s an awesome way for me to make money’ like I’ll just put on a seminar. And so after I wrote my book, I leveraged my book, really, to get on the phone with some of these really powerful women and I was able to speak to Laura Longmire and Christine Comaford and Marci Shimoff, all New York Times Bestselling authors and I said ‘Hey, I’d love to put on a seminar. Would you come and speak?’ And they said yes. It was awesome. I mean I had the best luck. I put on a seminar called Wealthy Girl Summit and it was really to teach entrepreneurship and wealth creation to women.
Stephen: I love the name, by the way, sorry to interrupt. That’s awesome.
Alicia: Yeah. Wealthy Girl Summit. And then out of that I had about 13 female speakers and I found that by putting on a seminar and making money that way, I found that really hard because I didn’t know what I was doing. But out of it, when the speakers came to me afterwards, they said ‘Can you help us write books? We saw that you wrote a book, you made it to the bestseller, can you help us write books?’ And so that’s really what started my business and I started consulting. I turned my consultant, you know, consulting people to writing books and making New York Times Bestsellers and Amazon Bestsellers into my program which is a program that is really my signature program called Bestseller Weekend and I held it. It’s a monthly online training where I used to do it in San Francisco at hotel conferences, now I do it online and helped over a thousand people buy books and eBooks and make them bestsellers on Amazon. So it was really like the direct path to success is not a straight line. It was really, kind of, curvy, figuring out opportunities abound. Someone needed to write a book and I turned that into a business. And so now I have bestseller in a Weekend. I also launched AudioBook in a Weekend, I got Fiction in a Weekend for fiction authors. And I’m launching the whole slew of in a Weekend programs really to support and help people create content quickly in a weekend. So it’s really exciting news for my business. So I have a whole slew of online trainings that are all weekend courses to help people have accelerated learning and to get things done quickly because I know a big kind of conversation that people have is ‘I want to write a book, I want to write screenplay, I want to launch a blog.’ But they don’t have the time or they don’t know how and people love doing things fast. I know I personally am one of those. I love getting things done fast. And if you can do it fast, you have the community, you have the resources to do it, it’s a powerful thing because when you create content fast, when you do this thing, it just creates momentum. And that momentum leads to things, it leads to opportunities, you meet people, and so I love that kind of kickstart way to do it versus staring at your computer for a year, still on chapter 1 or wanting to write that screenplay, letting years pass. So I have a lot of programs that I’m launching in 2015 in that whole concept of doing it in a weekend.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. Sounds like it’s going to be a busy weekend either way, I mean, no matter which course they take. So I love the whole way and you definitely leveraged that course as well. So, obviously, it’s not taking up your time and when people do take up your time, you try to premium, because that is your time. Yeah, go on.
Alicia: Yeah absolutely. So the weekend courses, they’re either live online trainings or they’re information products. And I still run as a weekly live call now, something just to go behind the scenes and be totally transparent. One thing I’ve done is I’ve recorded them but I run them back through stealth seminars. So they are live in the fact that you have to attend that weekend and be on the calls on the weekend. But I and my team are in the Facebook group laser coaching. So it is something that I put a lot of energy into. But I found I was doing them live every month and I’m like ‘I’m saying the same thing over and over and this not making sense.’ So let me turn it into an event. So I actually run the things back in seminars. Because the thing about it is information products that are static, they lose energy. You know, people can look at it their own but then people really like deadlines and they like community and they like action and energy. Instead of the fact that it’s like ‘Hey Bestseller on a Weekend is running this weekend’ and there’s a whole new crew of students. In that way, we have online and offline activities happening at the same time. So it’s really an experience and it’s really an event. I buy info products but sometimes I’m not very disciplined or motivated to go through it myself. So I think it’s important for anyone who’s treating info products online is to create an experience with it whether it’s a Facebook group, whether it’s contest, whether it’s games, whether it’s some sort of live dynamic that gets people pumped up. And then that helps the marketing of it. Because I can tell you a big portion of my Bestseller in a Weekend is people promoting their stuff and by then promoting the book that they’re writing, they’re promoting Bestseller in a weekend as well because they’re high online.
Stephen: Two-way street. I love it.
Alicia: Yeah, absolutely.
[10:22] Stephen: I mean, you’ve got that live and the first thing that came to mind was that the difference between these live and all these recorded and people know they’re on recorded and it’s old content, is there conviction about it? People get there and realize ‘oh, this is one of those recorded pieces of information, obviously it’s not up to date, not valuable, and it’s not going to help me.’ But when you got that sense of live behind it, they know that someone on the other side waiting to answer their questions, being involved, actually helping them on their path. And I think you’ve done that perfectly. You’ve found that really good balance.
Alicia: It’s amazing because every month, the Bestseller in a Weekend community alumni comes back. So it’s an active community all month long. But during the weekend where the live weekend is going on because people are actively interviewing each other and critiquing book covers and all kinds of stuff is going on. I have people who took Bestseller in a Weekend, 2-3 years ago who come back in and they’re like ‘Hey what’s your book about?’ and ‘Hey if anyone needs some help, a helping hand, I’ll interview you. If you’re looking for an expert, I’m here.’ So it’s a community, and it’s a community where I fully believe that when the river rises, all boats rise. So it’s all about collaboration.
[11:29] Stephen: Yeah, 100%. And if you don’t mind me asking, what do you charge for this course? Do you sell it over a webinar or do you sell this straight off your website? How does it work?
Alicia: Yeah if people go to bestsellerinaweekend.com, they sign up, they can watch a 60-minute webinar that tells you all about it and it sells for $4.97.
[11:48] Stephen: Fantastic. And do you find that webinar process, having that funnel there, has that been something you’ve been working on or looking to improve? What have you found to be the highest converting sales technique to get people into that Bestseller in a Weekend course?
Alicia: Yeah. So webinars definitely. I would say live webinars. I have a recorded webinar that plays and 24/7 so that’s great. But I find when I work with joint ventures and do a live webinar, that’s the most powerful conversion method. We do Facebook ads, we do a lot of email marketing, my list is hungry and what I find is that my clients are buying all of my products. So now I’m in product creation mode and so I get to do more joint ventures, it’s something that I’m doing at more Facebook ads. But we’re in the process right now, we use Infusionsoft. We’re in the process of upgrading and getting our foundation clean because I have been working on this for a long time so I have my CTO, CMO working on getting everything streamlined at the back end and right now we’re running a $7 promotion for some of my information products and that’s a way to get people in. So I’m letting my guy handle that, my CMO. I’m in the front end, I’m in the marketing, I’m in the facilitation, I’m connecting with my customers, like opening up Infusionsoft like my eyes would roll in the of my head, I’m not there. I understand the importance, I’ve been masterminding, I’ve been working with some of the best internet marketers for years, and I’ve been pagan. One of my mentors was Victor Chang, even Ryan Dye. So I’ve been working with a lot of them. I just like to spend my day running on the beach and stuff. Looking at the computer all day is definitely not something I want to do.
Stephen: Yeah, 100%. And you’re at that point now where you can really leverage these other people’s time to make sure your working in your genius, which is doing these events and actually promoting yourself. So you’re in the front end and not on the back end doing all the technicalities.
Alicia: Exactly. And that’s when you’re generating the revenue, your business. You’re able to outsource and delegate and have a team.
[14:13] Stephen: Yeah. So what would you say to someone who is trying to get to that level where they’ve got their core set up, they can work in their genius, they’ve got the guys at the back end and they’ve got, whether it’s an assistant or a video editor, tech guy, funnel builder, whatever it might be, how long does it take to get to that level and what’s the best path to get there?
Alicia: Well that’s a loaded question.
Stephen: Yeah, it’s got a lot in it.
Alicia: Yeah. I feel like I really started when I was consulting until about 2010. I launched Bestseller in a Weekend as a seminar course in 2011. I took it online in 2012. A friend of mine, Lewis Howes–
Stephen: Yeah, I love Lewis’ content.
Alicia: Yes, good stuff. So he supported me in taking it online and I would say that to get a business up and running, it’s a good 5 years. Obviously, you’ll do it quicker. The thing is with the transparency that’s happening online and the opening of the kimono, and the whole black hat marketing and sales. People see beyond that they want to know ‘who am I buying this from?’ and ‘Do I know, like and trust them?’ So it takes time. I’m in it for the long run and I’m looking at big time, like getting my business acquired and all of that. So when you’re in it for the long run, you’re looking for quality, you’re making sure that your clients are topnotch happy, excited, turned on by what you’re doing and that’s where I am. And so it’s not about get rich quick, it’s about providing value. And some of the best feedback you can get form clients is when you’re doing a live online training and when they’re like ‘I need this’ and you’re like ‘great!’ and you add it in the next one. You keep updating, a stale content doesn’t work. It just doesn’t because online stuff changes so much that it’s constantly changing. So I’m always re-recording Bestseller in a Weekend and going back to my products and we revisit cordially at most. And sometimes your clients will say ‘Wow this is updated’ or ‘it’s a different interface now’ and you’re like ‘okay, great, we’re going to record a new one’ and it’s a way to just have them be a part of the process. And when your clients are part of the process, when they feel seen and heard, they become a champion and a fan for life and then they’re going to buy anything you put out there because again, if you’re delivering results, if you stand by your word and you take them to the next level of their business in life, they’ll be a fan. And that’s what I’m all about now. So it’s about the content, it’s about curriculum, but it’s also about the delivery and it’s about customer satisfaction.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. And obviously you can tell just the way you’re talking that you’ve taken on board all these customer feedbacks as well and improved on it and built on it and being in that long haul you’ve got to keep doing that, you’ve got to keep staying on top and see what your customers want and keep delivering value.
Alicia: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[17:20] Stephen: So when you launched out the courser initially, was it pretty content-heavy or did you go out marketing at first and selling it then building up the course? How did you go about it?
Alicia: Oh wow. You’re talking about the queen of selling first, fulfilling second. So I always sell first.
Stephen: Always sell first? How much did you sell first before you put the cost together?
Alicia: Well, so there were kind of 2 stages. When I launched it as a workshop, I spoke at a woman’s group of 75 people. I sold it for $1,000.
Stephen: Yeah.
Alicia: So about 15 women. And then I literally created the content the night before.
[18:07] Stephen: Love that. I love it. It’s the super clean selling system, something like that. We’ll have to try the market.
Alicia: I love that. Super clean selling system. But the thing is, it’s not like I came out of thin air, though. I’ve been working as a consultant for clients and I’ve had a proven track record. But I’m just the type of person that loves energy. And so for me, when I have people waiting in a hotel conference and waiting for me to go out, that was the night of genius for me to create all these powerpoint presentations and all of these amazing stuff. And then when I took it that was the way I generated it. So you sell first, generate the money to create the course curriculum, the infographics, the process maps, etc. And then when I launched it with Lewis on the creative live show that we were going to use my business as a case study and example. We did $22,000 in sales over a weekend, and then did the program the next weekend. He was like ‘You got to do it the next weekend.’ and I obviously had the curriculum but I didn’t know how to deliver it online and it was such a learning process. I still had clients from years ago and were currently doing a survey right now what course they want next and they’re hungry for the next course, and it’s awesome because they know how much I care about them.
[19:36] Stephen: Yeah 100%. And you know, I think that not anyone can do that where they can just whip up a course and sell it. But the main reason that I think part of the interview to your success is that you’ve kept over-delivering after that. A lot of people deliver straight away. They’ll do the course and sell. But then they’ll sort of drop off. Whereas you’ve kept over-delivering and you’ve just kept getting better and better and growing and over-delivering and providing more value and taking on feedback and all of that.
Alicia: Oh feedback is such a gift and this vulnerability and transparency. Like I just post on my Facebook group ‘Okay who here has written their book, made it to the bestseller?; written their book, not a bestseller, still writing their book and people just say ‘I need help.’ and it’s like, great, thank you for your feedback. We’ll have someone reach out and talk to you. What can we do to support you? We have another Bestseller in a Weekend coming up, jump on in, get excited, and make it happen. And so it’s a constant 2-way dialogue. And not just delivering the goods and disappearing. So it’s being there, so they trust you. Another thing I’m doing that’s a great tip I is I see you doing a podcast. One thing I’m doing is I do a free weekly webinar, which is really just an engagement call I do once a week. It’s a call to connect with my community, anyone can jump on, and it’s free. I do hot seats, support them with their books, their online business and people are using it and it’s building that community. That they know at Thursday’s, 1pm, they can jump on and have connection and they become clients and the people who are coming there and just getting the information ‘wow, it’s my way to give back to the world’ because maybe someone will take a negative information and go out and start a business or do something, and making the world a better place. That’s what I’m here for.
Stephen: Yeah, 100%. I love that. Also, I think where it’s heading, is you’ve got that opportunity to really create that engagement and not look for the sales. So it’s just purely providing content. And then people just get interested and they’ll start listening to your own things, reading your blog posts and getting on your email list and then you’ve got that sort of long-term strategy where it’s not just content and an immediate pitch.
Alicia: Absolutely. I agree.
[21:52] Stephen: That’s great. And I think, even with your email like you’re saying, it’s replying to people’s emails, speaking to them directly, keeping that engagement up so they know that you’re there on the other side and its real engagement. It’s not sort just like putting 30 posts in your Facebook page and then scheduling them out for the next month. It’s actually you being you.
Alicia: Yeah and the thing about it, because I have a team of 4 people, 2 based in the Philippines, and my CMO and my COO, getting back to emails is a tough one. I’ve got 5,000 emails from last year. I haven’t even read and it’s almost the same for this year. So those Thursday calls, it’s like, if you have a question for me, I will hot seat it, I will answer those questions, that’s the opportunity to jump in because I am really awful at returning independent individual one on one emails. I prefer people tag me on my Facebook group or prefer if people jump on that Thursday call and we can pick brains and hot seat until the sun comes home.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. I think it gives you a bit more of an opportunity to do that one too many. So rather than just one on one, if you’re delivering content to someone, it usually applies to a few other people too. So, that way, you’re helping a few people for every question you answer.
Alicia: Absolutely. I mean I even say during Bestseller in a Weekend, if you have a question, put it in our Facebook page because other people are going to have it as well. And I use it as a learning opportunity for everyone. I tag people, it’s a great way and then at Thursday. So it gives me idea next Thursday, if you send me an email and I haven’t responded, jump on in this call.
[23:35] Stephen: I love it. Great course of action. That’s a good one; I might have to use it myself. I actually just started using, I’m probably sure you’ve heard of it, Periscope and Meerkat. The 2, actually you can start streaming live from your phone and take questions and things. I think they’re awesome. I only just found out about them recently and now I’m starting to do 1 a day. So have you heard of those apps?
Alicia: No. So Meerkat and what’s the other one?
Stephen: Periscope. Yeah, I think you’ll love it. So pretty much what it does is you switch it on, and it’s sort of like a live streaming video call and people can jump on and chat with it and people can follow you. I think it’s interesting together with Twitter and I think Twitter owns one of them. I haven’t looked into that detail but yeah, have a look at it. To all listeners out there, look into Periscope and Meerkat. I’m on Periscope mostly and then you could follow users. So follow me, Stephen Esketzis and Alicia as well. So we can start growing that audience and it’s really good. So you can just jump on whenever you’ve got a spare 5 minutes, have a chat, people can ask questions and it works really well for engagement.
Alicia: Yeah, absolutely. That sounds great. I’m going to check those out.
[24:44] Stephen: Yeah, for sure. So what’s in store for the next few months? Where are you taking the company? What’s ahead?
Alicia: Rapid growth and read list follow through. That’s what’s ahead. So I am on a mission right now and really prepping for the launch of several in a Weekend programs in the next couple of months and full on new joint ventures, full on streamlining funnel, optimizing the funnel, Facebook ads and traffic and conversion, selling more products, creating more products, and then really getting the online training portion of my business. The thing is you want to build your business like you’re going to sell it. So people are like ‘oh don’t sell your business, you’re such an amazing part of it.’ But the thing is, you want to position and get your business ready for sale whether you stay on it. you know I could still do it for the next 20 years but I want it streamlined, I want like, the back end, cleaned, funneled, and completely done all the logos, the customer, everything down. So I’m really preparing my business for acquisition, but I’m really preparing the wait. When I prepare for the acquisition, it’s just going to streamline where maybe I don’t even have to sell it where I’m generating automated income.
Stephen: Yeah, that’s fantastic. I think you’re the only other person I’ve interviewed that keeps using the word ‘clean’ as much as I do. I think we’ll have to start up a joint podcast or something. But having that clean, systemized approach to it where everyone can jump in, take it over, and then be doing the same amount of revenue, same profit, same everything, that was doing before when you went there is phenomenal. And that way, you’re not in the business, you’re working on the business.
Alicia: Absolutely. Absolutely.
[26:43] Stephen: That’s crazy. That’s awesome. Well, we’ll wrap it up pretty soon. So I’ve just had a look at your website as well and obviously, email marketing is huge in your business, you’ve got it up above the fold on the Home Page. What do you think is important for other people looking to grow into that sort internet marketing online course sort of position? What’s the first thing that they should do if they want to grow into a business where yours is right now? Where would you recommend they’d start?
Alicia: Oh, well, creating a blog with an Opt-in on the Home Page above the fold, giving away a special report, an eBook, really connecting, building a social media presence. That’s why I give the 5-year mark and it takes time to generate following and a community but you definitely want a community. I always say that no one can take away from you your intellectual property. No one can take away from you your community. And hosting your own website is vital, it’s crucial. Having your own email list is crucial. People who are building their businesses on Facebook and Instagram, at any moment, your following can go away. At any moment, Facebook could just decide one day whether they’re not opening you, also your friends. If you create content on Facebook, you will lose that. You’re not hosting it, it’s not yours. You get to host everything on your blog. So having a blog, having an email list, writing to your email list, once a week, generating and creating some sort of contents and value online, it’s a fun ride. You get to put your sleeves up and get to work out.
Stephen: Yeah, I love that. I think, like you mentioned, when you’re working on rented land like Facebook and putting out info, it’s vital that you do it but just keep in mind that you need to have your own land, you need to have your website where people can come to day in and day out which you control the whole lot.
Alicia: Yeah you duplicate it. So you write a blog on your blog which you host, and then you share it on Facebook. So Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, that’s a distribution. The creation of content happens on your blog.
[28:53] Stephen: Got you. That’s a really clean system to do as well. I mean when you syndicated on all those different platforms, it allows and not only builds your website because people would come back to it and read and see links and all this. But you need to be aware where your audience is at as well. So having that home base and that place where you can just launch everything and people can really get into a routine that you’re going to send that email at every week. They are going to routine that, the blog post comes out on your website. So they know where to reach you and where to get the content from you.
Alicia: Consistency is huge. That’s even something I’m still fully transparent. I’m a Sagittarius, I’m like a butterfly, I’m like excited about things and consistency in online business is so important that my team helps me stay consistent because that’s something I need support in. Otherwise, I’m like ‘Oh, I’m going to go running today’ or, you know?
Stephen: Yeah. Exactly.
Alicia: Every Thursday, 1pm, I have a webinar called to my entire community, which is a hot seat call and I’m going to be launching soon a video where it’s like to launch it every week on a certain day. And for some people, consistency and a schedule is really easy. Some people who are a balloon like me, like floating all over the place, it’s not so-so. I’ve asked my team to please hold me accountable. Get me on a schedule.
Stephen: I can definitely relate to that.
Alicia: Yeah.
Stephen: It can be tough sometimes but that’s hopefully to try to keep a strict calendar and I can definitely see how consistency is clear. So it’s definitely out there.
Alicia: Yes. The beauty about business is that it shows you your strengths and it shows you your weaknesses. You get to delegate all your weaknesses.
Stephen: Yeah, 100%. Definitely. And that’s the beauty of outsourcing as well. But that’s a whole other topic of conversation, I guess.
Alicia: Yes.
[30:43] Stephen: Well, final thing is, we were talking before, getting people started on the right track to build these sorts of businesses. Online marketing, selling content, selling courses, building content, linking out. The first 6 months or so can be pretty rocky. I mean we all are quite familiar that it takes time to build out this content, it takes time to build out a following, it’s probably longer than 6 months and like you said, it’s taking you 5 years to get to this position. How do these people support themselves financially? How do they have that cash flow coming in to do it? Would you recommend them they look for something like a full time job on a salary and build this on the side? Or would you say jump all in and start doing this 9-5, or whatever, full time?
Alicia: I jumped in and with big expenses. I was living in San Francisco at the mortgage and everything. So I jumped in and I was a consultant while I was building my online business. I suggest people, if they have a 9-5, then they can have a 5-9. So they work during the day, and they do their online business at night. So what I do was I was working with private clients. 2008 and 2009 was when the world economy kind of shattered, and it was tough to get consultants. I mean I think everyone was having a tough time back then. So I was building my business as a consultant. I still work with private clients and it’s a way to generate income especially if private clients are paying you a retainer based model while you support the building of your online business. So you know you can go and try to get a venture capital. You know venture capital isn’t anyone who is going to give you money; most venture capitals don’t give you money if it’s a service. It really has to be a software app type model. And I’ve always loved that my clients have always supported my business and supported myself at the same time. And so if we look at it that way, everyone thinks ‘oh, there’s someone who can give me money’ and you got to prove that she can make money.
Stephen: I think that’s one of the big things that you’ve done right and a lot of people struggle with is they go looking for content, looking for a blog but at the end of the day, you’ve got to have that cash flow coming in to actually support yourself. I mean you need to make sure that you’re making money out of all this whether you’re posting or you’re doing podcasts, webinars, whatever. At the end of the day, you need to have money in your account to actually maintain your lifestyle and live life on your terms.
Alicia: Absolutely. And there’s nothing wrong with working with private clients or working a day job while you do it at night. I mean it matters. I’ve been doing this now, I’ve been a business owner since my mid-20’s, I’m 39 right now, and I think the only time I worked a job I worked for about 1 year outside of college. Otherwise, I’ve been an entrepreneur the whole time and I visualize the life I wanted to create. You first start with the vision. What’s the life you want to create? What’s the business vision? And what’s the world vision? What’s the vision that you have for the world? And when you are a vision-based entrepreneur based on the life that you want, the business that you want in the world that you want, I swear online, and it comes from a place of abundance that I want to impact the world by creating millions of authors and online entrepreneurs so they can have a lifestyle and a freedom and really create impact. I have a mastermind I do on Los Angeles called Impact, Influence and Income and I want my clients to create the most impact, influence and income they possibly can because when you impact the world, when you become an influential leader, when you create more money in your business by creating more income, you’re able to hire more people, you’re able to generate economy, generate the world, stimulate the world economy and again, it’s a win-win. And when you are playing on all cylinders and life, when you are playing big, when you inspire others to play big as well, that’s when you’re creating impact. And that’s what I want to create in the world. So it’s all about creating impact, influence and income. There’s nothing wrong, especially with women entrepreneurs. I’m a woman entrepreneur. Sometimes, women entrepreneurs, they don’t want to make money. They feel guilty asking. It’s like, you know, think about what good you can create by having a business that is scalable, and sustainable. You get to create jobs, you get to contribute to the world in bigger ways, so think of it that way. Don’t think about ‘Uh, I don’t want to ask for money.’ Always ask for what you are worth. And as a business owner, you are the price setter of the entity. You can ask whatever you want based on market but it’s all in negotiation game. And that’s the truth. I mean look at business as a game. Have fun with it. Play with it. My team and I always laugh. Anytime things get stressful, we’ll always laugh about something, like, look at this as a game. It’s like we’re just having a great time, all of it. My CMO is down at Caba San Lucas right now. You know I was running on the beach today, good weather. It’s like life is good. I come from a place of gratitude and abundance that it’s so amazing just to be able to have the gift to do what we can do.
[36:04] Stephen: Yeah. Love it. I think I don’t know how much more I can add to that. I think you hit the nail on the head. And the thing is, I’ll just quickly mention especially with that money mindset. I mean a lot of people I’ve met, some even like it. Some of the people that want to make the most change, like you said, guilty about asking for the sale. But I think the mentality that needs to change is that your product or service is going to change and impact the person’s lifestyle so much that you need to see that the value there is worth so much. So they need to have that product, regardless. So whether it’s an easy sell or a hard sell, you’re going to be making such a big impact in their life that they’d be crazy not to take you up on your offer.
Alicia: Absolutely.
Stephen: People need to see it rather than say ‘Oh wow I’m just a sleazy salesman’ but you’ll need to say ‘Look, whether the products are $4,000 course, a $25,000 or $50,000 mastermind, at the end of the day, you’ll going to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars based on what you do here and you’re confident in it that you hard sell or easy sell or whatever sell you’d like.’
Alicia: Absolutely. You don’t do the world a service by playing small. And if you leave your clients hanging in lurch, or what I say, in the murky waters of indecision of deciding what they should do, you’re not doing them a service either. You get to help them come to a place of decision. Do they want to create a big life? Do they want to write their book, launch their online business, impact the world in significant ways, be an influence in their industry and generate revenue so they can give back to the world in a bigger way by contributing to the economy? So that’s how I look at it.
[37:42] Stephen: Yeah, love that. Well look, I think we better wrap it up there because we’ve gone I think a little bit overtime as well. But anyway, I really appreciate having you on here and I think we dropped a whole lot of bombs and I think the audience is going to absolutely love what we’ve had to chat about. Yeah, let us know. I’ll put it in the show notes. You’d be able to reach on your website. Are there any other places that you’d like to mention like your cause so people could go there if they’d like to learn more.
Alicia: Absolutely. bestsellerinaweekend.com, write your book. You can go there for bestsellerinaweekend.com, I have another program called 60 days to 6 figures that support people and we’re launching their online business. And you could go to aliciadunams.com to find out more about me.
[38:43] Stephen: Fantastic. And what’s the best way people can contact you? That’s the live engagement webinar we were talking about earlier?
Alicia: Yes, It is aliciadunams.com/live for the weekly engagement. We’d love to see you there.
Stephen: Fantastic. Sounds good. Well thank you Alicia for jumping on and we’ll speak to you soon.
Alicia: Awesome. Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure.
Stephen: Fantastic. Take care.
[su_button url=”http://wordpress-399429-2150085.cloudwaysapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Systemizing-and-Scaling-Your-Online-Business-with-Alicia-Dunams-and-Stephen-EsKetzis.pdf” target=”blank” size=”12″ center=”yes” icon=”icon: download”]DOWNLOAD PODCAST TRANSCRIPT[/su_button]