Transcript of Episode

Leah Gervais: Hey visionaries, welcome back to the Your Biggest Vision show. Very excited to be here with you guys today. Uh, if you are listening to this in real time as it’s released, then you are likely in the thick of one of the craziest things, if not the craziest things many of us have been experiencing in our lifetime. And that is the Coronavirus, the, the global pandemic and all the effects that come with it in addition to the major health crisis and tragedy. So we are in it, we are in it together. I know this has been a whirlwind for me. So to all of you listening, who in any way have been affected by this, please know that I am sending prayers to everyone out there. I’m thinking of you and that you’re not alone. I hope you found comfort during this time.

I know health wise, this has hit close to home for me an immediate member of my family actually was, she did have the Coronavirus. She still does. So that’s been very difficult for my family. She’s okay though. I don’t want to freak anyone out. We’re not having to go to the hospital, which is really the biggest concern. Um, and you know, also I’m in New York city, which is the center of it, of the whole world, which just blows my mind frankly, because this happened so quickly. So, um, for very clear health reasons, this has been a challenging time for me as I’m sure it has for you as well. Then beyond that, it’s been crazy, right? Small businesses, people’s jobs, getting affected, income, changing the economy changing, people, not knowing what’s going to happen, working from home changes, changes in relationships.

It’s been real. So, uh, this podcast episode is not here to solve all of these problems because I do not think anyone expects me to do that as, you know, I cannot do that. Um, and it is also not here to address, um, all of how things have been going. That said, if anyone out there listening is interested in some of my working from home tips, I’m, you guys know that I’ve, I’ve worked from home for over a year now. So that part is not new to me and very grateful that my business has not really changed because it’s all virtual to begin with. So if any of you would like to hear more about that, about turning a business online or scaling a business online or working remotely, please let me know. We can always do another episode on that. Um, and if anyone else just wants to hear any self care tips right now, then, then I’m happy to do that as well.

You know, even though I have worked from home for a while, um, and I am kind of a homebody slash introvert to begin with, this has still been challenging for me, just not being able to leave at all. And at the end of the Workday, kind of having to have that moment where you realize like this is happening all around me. So it’s been an adjustment for me as well. Um, but I found some things that have really helped keep me mentally strong and safe and healthy. So just let me know what best serves you guys at this time because we’re definitely on the forefront of what our audience needs. We’re pivoting quickly based on the ever changing new cycle and the ever changing needs. So please let us know. And so today I wanted to be really clear around what I feel, uh, a lot of my clients are needing support in.

And so maybe you are as well, and that is just about managing your business during this time and selling during this time. So obviously, uh, this is not meant to be insensitive to the very real health crises and intense catastrophe. Frankly that’s going on right now. My heart very much goes out to all of that and I know that we as business owners and entrepreneurs need to keep going and need to keep selling. So I’m addressing the three biggest mistakes I have been seeing online business owners make during this time, and that I’m working really closely with my clients to pay attention to so that their businesses are continuing to run. They’re continuing to, you know, keep their businesses alive. We don’t want anyone’s business going under. If it doesn’t have two businesses it will go under from this. They will unfortunately. Um, but there are some things I think we can do to boost our chances of staying afloat.

And those are really what I wanted to share with you today because I don’t think that they’re all that obvious. And as I have alluded to, they aren’t mistakes I’ve seen people make. So let’s go ahead and dive in. Three mistakes you might be making in your online business right now that you can shift today to start making more sales and more money and lead with service during this time. 

Okay. So the first and probably biggest mistake people have been making during the chaos here, uh, is the, is giving into the temptation to offer something new at a low price point. So you might have had this experience too where you’re feeling kind of this chaos and you’re thinking, well, I typically offer something higher ticket, maybe in the thousand dollar range or above. And with how afraid people are right now. Maybe I should offer something for a few hundred dollars or maybe even a bit less so that it’s more accessible for people and maybe it feels good to do some sort of masterclass or anything like that.

It’s something I’ve seen a lot or people come up with like a power hour that they want to do. Um, and that’s actually not what I recommend doing. And here’s why. While I understand the pull to make things more accessible to your ideal client and to have something potentially at a bit, at a lower price point during economic uncertainty, there are other and better ways to fulfill that piece of service. And I’ll share that with you in just a minute. But in the meantime, doing that by having a lower ticket offer is actually going to end up putting you in the category of other people that are offering things completely for free. And a lot of people are offering things for free right now. So if people are scrolling through social media, Facebook, their emails, what have you, and they’re getting emails from people offering a free workout class or a free nutrition call or a free online business audit or a free design service, you know, whatever your niche is and then your offering it in the form of a $20 masterclass or a a $90 power hour or whatever the case may be, people are going to immediately feel like, well why don’t I just do it for free?

And that doesn’t mean that you’re not worth it. It doesn’t mean that your paid service isn’t actually better than the free one. It doesn’t have anything to do with you as a business owner or your worth. It’s just the way people’s minds will work right now. And this is actually okay. And before I move on from this, I actually do want to say there’s one exception to this rule that I would make, which is that if you’re getting asks from a lot of people in your audience about the same topic, like for example if you are a, one of my clients is a journalist and she has been getting a lot of people asking her about the media and how to be in the media during this time. So that would be a good chance for her to take this opportunity. Maybe put together a masterclass for them and you know, sell that information all at once instead of having to have individual conversations with them all.

So if your audience is asking you for the same thing and you can like hand reach out to people to invite them to this lower ticket offering, then that’s when it could be an exception. But generally speaking, if you’re mass advertising something at a low price point, I would advise against it because people will just go with the free option in that case. And that’s actually an okay thing because here’s what people’s minds are going to be doing right now. They’re going to be looking for the familiar, the safe, the reliable and the trustworthy because they are in such a place of a lack of control and a lack of the known and kind of a place of confusion. So you don’t want to be, you know, appealing to people who don’t know you that well, which is usually what low ticket offers are for.

Therefore people that maybe aren’t already your clients or that aren’t ready for high level things. That’s not really what you want to do right now because you’re not going to be fulfilling their needs. So if you’re going to be offering things right now, I’m actually going to recommend that you do either offer your value for free and it doesn’t mean you need to give away your services for free. Actually, don’t recommend that at all and I don’t recommend that you discount things. What I recommend doing is just helping people find the content that you may have already given away for free. Can you send a few extra emails with free content you’ve already created that could help during this time because you do an extra Facebook live or a webinar that would be helpful during this time. Could you do more strategy calls?

Do go ahead and connect with people on that level and then focus still on your high ticket offers. And so that is actually going to shift us into tip number two. So tip number one was don’t sell anything low ticket. Either offer things for free, offer value for free, offer calls for free or focus on selling the higher ticket. 

And that funnels us into the second mistake I’m seeing right now, which is that people simply aren’t focusing on their ideal client in the right way. And I want to be careful what I say here because this is, I recognize how many people are being empathetic right now and definitely want to give away lower ticket things because they want to be more accessible. But let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the person that we’re trying to serve. They are confused. They are potentially feeling like they have a lack of freedom or a lack of choice.

You know, here in New York we’re not even really supposed to leave our apartments. You know, let alone have the opportunity to design our days or our schedules or go to work or exercise in the ways we’re used to. Like so many things have been restricted from us. And so when you’re really putting yourself in the shoes of that ideal client, what do we know that they’re craving right now? Well, one, they’re craving trust and they’re craving familiarity because they don’t really have that right now. So that’s why this is actually a good time to focus on those higher ticket offerings because those are usually going to belong to people that have some knowledge of you that have some background with you, that maybe have even been, you know, a client of yours before or a customer of yours before. So you are fulfilling that trustworthiness, that familiarity, that consistency that they’re missing in their life right now.

So meet them where they’re at, recognize that people feel really lost right now and you could be the one that could help bring stability, consistency, comfort, awareness, transformation into their lives. Like so many things that they’re not experiencing on their own right now. So remember that a high ticket could actually be the opportunity for you to fill a void that they might have. And beyond that, on the other side of the spectrum, offering things for free, one of the mistakes people are making is just giving away free general things like a free call or a free audit or a free discovery call or a free consultation. And I love the idea of giving away things for free right now because I do think that they emphasize more of the relationship piece, which is what people need and what is in most service to them.

But if things are overly broad, then you aren’t recognizing your ideal client’s decision making fatigue. Right. And people are tired right now. They’re confused. We have information overload from the news, from everything coming our way. So instead of giving away something for free on a broad scope, which might work regularly, some of the time, think about how you can give away something for free in a really micro win type way. So here’s an example. One of my, uh, one of my clients is an amazing nutrition coach. She’s very, very good at what she does. She’s very successful and oftentimes she gives away free nutrition audits as a way to connect with her audience to serve people and to connect with someone who might be able to, she might be able to serve in the capacity of a longer term client relationship. Right now what decided for her to do is instead of giving away a free nutrition consultation, is to give away a free call, will, she’ll talk to someone about the ingredients they currently have in their kitchen and make a recipe that is really healthy based on what they already have.

So the difference here is that typically speaking, you could offer a nutrition consultation to someone who wanted to improve their nutrition. But if someone were to hear that right now, what would go through their head? They would probably think, I don’t know when I can grocery shop again. Is it even safe to grocery shop? I can’t go to the gym. I don’t have access to a scale because I don’t have one in my apartment. I don’t even know where to begin with a nutrition goal because I have 50 million other unknowns going on. So putting yourself in their shoes, zoom in on that piece where you can help them with what could be a win today? Let me feel, help you build a healthy meal out today with what you already have. So this mistake I’m seeing people making to summarize is that they’re not putting themselves in the shoes of their ideal client.

And what that really boils down to is recognizing that right now, more than ever, people need relationships. They need someone that they trust, they need someone that can really help them and they need to feel like they can be like you need to be of service to them. And so that doesn’t mean offering a low ticket item where you’re kind of just speaking one way into the computer and seeing who bites this means going deep into your own service, asking yourself, who can I help? And offering things for free that can help them in a really instant way or really just a way that will help them today that will take away the pain they’re experiencing right now. The overwhelming exhaustion, the confusion, the scariness. And if that also means you could see them, serve them in a bigger capacity and make them, you know, work with them on a longer term, uh, client relationship that you’re doing that as well. So mistake number two is not focusing on your ideal client right now. 

And then the third and biggest mistake is people are feeling sheepish about selling right now in general. So I have had people say, should we just lay low for a while? Should we just hold off for a while? And to me that says that they aren’t in the right mindset of selling ever. So when people say that they’re feeling like they shouldn’t be selling right now because they don’t want to put pressure on people right now and they don’t want to feel like they’re being aggressive. Well you should never be putting pressure on people and you should never be aggressive. That isn’t what sales are about. Ever. Sales are about offering a solution to a problem to someone who has that problem and giving them the power to decide if they want that problem solved.

And that should not be something that you take away from someone just because the world is in some sort of chaos. It actually in my eyes is all the more reason to offer solutions to a problem for someone. Because in a world right now where people have their freedoms taken away, um, where they feel like they might be more constricted, where they feel like you know, a lot of their life is out of their control, you then also taking away their right to make a decision for themselves to make a change in their life, to make an improvement to their business, their health, their personal development, their happiness, their relationships, whatever you’re able to help them with is further constricting them of their most basic right to choose. So if you feel like selling right now is coming off as aggressive and is something that you are feeling pushy about doing, then that is not the right mindset about sales.

Even when the economy isn’t crashing at any given point, you are offering a solution. So please continue offering solutions for problems that you have and empower your ideal clients to make their own decisions. If you are not selling right now and you feel like that might be a noble thing to do because you’re taking away from the noise, I really invite you to rethink that and realize that you are disempowering your ideal clients and you’re somewhat treating them like children. I’m going to be really blunt here, because you are assuming that they’re not able to make their own decisions because if they were, they were able, they would be able to decide if your solution was the right thing for them or not. So it’s more important now than ever that you’re clear about what you do, that you’re clear about how you can help people, that you come from a place of service and don’t be aggressive.

Now I agree that that’s not helpful to anyone. That’s not helpful ever. Now I think that sometimes this gets confusing because people inherently assume that when you sell to someone you need to somewhat be aggressive. I don’t think you need to be aggressive about selling to them. I think you can get somewhat aggressive about their goals and if they’ve told you that they want a certain change in their life, if they want a problem to be solved, if they want a transformation to happen, and yet they’re in denial thinking that it’s going to be magic. You can be pretty blunt in my eyes, about the fact that they are speaking somewhat contradictory. Am I saying that right? They’re speaking- guys. I have been inside for like eight days so I’m kind of seeing double, but they are speaking in a contradiction to what they’re telling you they want.

You can point that out always, but that’s not pressuring someone into buying something that’s not pushing a sale on to someone that’s not making someone do something they don’t want to do. So please support people in doing what they tell you they want to do. That is how we can help the world right now is to continue staying true to ourselves, continue showing up the way we want, continue empowering others to make their own dreams happen. I mean really like, so we’ll take me as an example. I’m an online business coach. I help women get over six figures in revenue in a year. Um, I really can help people get their businesses off the ground quickly and transform their lives and businesses. And if I were to feel like now is not the right time for me to share that, I’m able to do that with people.

Well, I could be robbing people of maybe what could be the biggest pivot of their life. You know, if someone right now, one of my listeners here or someone on my email list or someone who follows me on Instagram, maybe is going through a moment right now where they’re realizing, wow, now more than ever, I don’t want to be in my nine to five job. I am ready to invest in myself, to take the risk on myself, to go all in to say yes to my dreams and desires and to come out of this transformed with my own business, with money, with a high income, et cetera. And I was sitting here feeling like, Oh, well I’m not just gonna. I’m just gonna pretend I don’t offer that right now. Then they may never move past this. They may stay unemployed, right? Or they may stay having to look for other jobs in this crazy economical time.

They may stay depressed because they’re still not actually moving forward with what they want to do. They may stay wishing that they had the money that they want, but still don’t. And so who am I to you know, hold back what I know I can help people do. So please, please don’t think that sales are pushy right now. Because if you’re doing sales right, they are never pushy. They’re always of service. And now is your opportunity and your invitation to be of service more than ever. The world is waiting for you. The world needs you. Don’t abandon us. And with that, I do want to also say that, please remember, and I have to remember that you actually still can’t serve what you don’t have yourself. So this message is not meant to put pressure on you to be overly aggressive with your work ethic or even ramp it up.

If you are feeling anxious or stressed or a bit scared right now, please take the time you need to come to an inspired place so that you can serve with your cup full. I do not want anyone to feel stressed during this time and I think self care is more important than ever. You can’t give what you don’t have. Please take the time to take care of yourself and once you feel taken care of, once you feel centered and as positive as you can given this moment, please go out there and continue sharing the service that you have with the world. 

All right. To summarize, here are three mistakes I’m seeing business owners make in this turbulent time. One, they are selling low ticket offers instead of focusing on clear relationships which are achieved through either free connection or free calls and then proceeds to higher level coaching, consulting, even teaching. That’s more of a relationship type,a close relationship type way of serving. 

Mistake number two is not focusing on your ideal client right now and people are very easily kind of speaking into their computer and then just having it be a one way conversation. We need to put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client. How can you provide microwins? How can you help them feel in control even in a scary time? How can you help them dive deep into what they most need right now? 

And mistake number three is not selling it all right now because you’re afraid it’s aggressive when in reality, true sales are of service. There’s never anything about them aggressive, whether the economy is great or whether it’s not. So act from service, sell from service, give your gifts to the world only after you have filled your cup up as well.

All right, you guys. Thinking of you all, I hope everyone is doing well. Please do check out my Instagram right now. I’ve been sharing as many resources as I can about um, working during this time, taking care of yourself during this time. I’ve loved connecting with you guys about this all. Also sharing some behind the scenes of what it’s like being in New York during this time. We’ve had a really amazing experience the last few days, where we live near a hospital, my husband and I in our neighborhood, and during the shift change at night, uh, everyone on our street has come out of their balconies and opened their windows and cheered really loud for the healthcare workers. So it’s moments like that that are really keeping our spirits high and hearing from all of you and everything people are doing to, you know, unite the world and support each other. There is so much hope right now. So that is what I want to leave you with. Thank you guys for tuning in. I believe in you as always, and here is to your biggest vision.

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