My friend and colleague Pat Knauer was killed in a car accident two weeks after this podcast went live.
If you enjoyed this episode and would like to contribute to the Go Fund Me
for funeral expenses, click on the link above.
In this episode, business expert, Pat Knauer, shares why business fails and how they can succeed especially during this pandemic and she shares three easy-to-use strategies to help your business thrive now!
Resources mentioned
“10 tips to Increase your Search Engine Ranking”
bit.ly/10organictips
How to get an extra $10,000 in forty-five minutes
bit.ly/pat10kbook
More free resources from Pat:
cornerofficecoaches.com
Contact information:
Email: pat@cornerofficeuniversity.com.
cornerofficeuniversity.com
Podcasting:
Podcastguest.com (free)
Speakertunity (Professional-not free)
Clubhouse
Connect with Ellen @ellenviolette
5 Day Bestseller Breakthrough Challenge
www.bestsellerbreakthrough.com
3 Key Points
Cash Flow Strategy: Depending on what type of business you have get the cash in the door one way or another. Listen to the podcast for details on this strategy.
Quick Cash Infusion Strategy. Put out videos twenty days in a row, two different sets of videos. Listen to the podcast for more details on this strategy.
SEO Strategy: If you have a website, really pay attention to your search engine ranking, and use Google My Business. Listen to the podcast for more details on this strategy.
Transcript
Hi, and welcome to Episode 84 today. My guest is Pat Knauer as a former corporate CEO. Pat works with small to medium-sized businesses and their teams to improve operations, increase their revenue and market their business. She coaches consultant mentors with clients in the U.S. and internationally and speaks online and at live events as a certified coach and master facilitator, her expertise has come from attending dozens of training and transformational events climbing the corporate ladder starting and running three businesses and working in seven different industries before helping hundreds of businesses achieve greater success. So, welcome to the podcast, Pat.
[01:32] Pat: Thank you so much for having me today. Ellen, it’s really a joy to be here.
Ellen: Well, it’s a joy to have you, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your journey,
[01:42] Pat: My journey, the accidental coach and entrepreneur.
Ellen: I think a lot of us are, but yeah,
Pat: Seriously. Right? I know. Well, I started my coaching journey back in 2002. I decided to go back to school to become an RN. I already had a degree as a paralegal, I’d had a full sales and marketing career. I’d run and own businesses prior to that. And when in 2002, I made the decision to go back to school to become a nurse.
And in order to support my family to replace my income, my husband and I started a conference and training company. And we were working with technology companies who want to do business with federal state and local governments. And what we quickly found throughout the process was that these business owners, especially the small ones who want to do sub-contracting with the prime contractors, we found that they didn’t really have their act together business-wise, so we started coaching and consulting with them, and that really became my big role was coaching and consulting with them.
[02:43] Ellen: Were you getting grants or what was that?
Pat: RFQ’s? Lots of different things and also being able to go out there in the marketplace and really do more business than what they’d been doing. A lot of them were startup companies or really thirty companies with just a couple of employees. Some of them were a little bit larger than twenty, thirty employees, but when it came to working with prime contractors, it was a whole different animal. And I had worked on the other side of it, teaching government entities, how to work with contractors. So, making the switch just made sense anyway.
So, that’s how the whole coaching thing started. And I ended up coaching and mentoring. It companies for eleven years finally burned out on it companies. It was like, “I never want to see another IT company again,” but I started then working with other kinds of businesses using the same strategies and tactics that I had used with them, with the IT companies and in my own businesses to be able to grow businesses. So, that’s where it all started.
[03:41] Ellen: Ah, okay. So, I wanted to know more about attending and training transformational events. So, was that what got you into with the businesses you’re working with now?
Pat: Not really. So, when I started working with the IT companies, I did it based on the knowledge that I had. But as with any business, you have to upgrade your skills,
Ellen: Right. But you have to start from where you are and what you know.
[04:11] Pat: Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, definitely, definitely.
Ellen: And that’s a big tip for everybody.
Pat: It’s a major tip for everybody because we all come into business having some skills and knowledge and talents and abilities, but very quickly, usually within two to three years, you find that everything you knew about running a business, or that you thought you knew about running a business, all of a sudden; you realize that there’s some gaps, you realize that there are some things that you need to upgrade in order to take your business to the next step.
[04:40] Ellen: Right. And they don’t tell you that, that like what it takes to get started is not what it takes to keep going.
Pat: That’s exactly right.
Ellen: Yeah. That was a biggie.
Pat: So, it requires a whole new set of learning because otherwise you take it from zero to all the way up to the top without having any kind of training. Well, I found that as I was coaching mentoring, that there were problems in my own business. Even though I had been a CEO of a company before and I’d owned businesses along the way, and I’d been in leadership C-suite positions along the way, owning a big company and running a big company is very different from owning a small business and running a small business. So, I found that I needed to start jumping in and learning those skills. And in 2009, when the economy was falling, the last time we had a recession, my business fell apart.
Ellen: So did mine.
Pat: Yours did too?
Ellen: Oh yeah.
Pat? So I lost 87% of my business within a three-month period.
[05:38] Ellen: I lost 50%. Yeah.
Pat: Painful, absolutely painful. And right now with everything that’s happened with COVID, a lot of businesses are struggling because they, there are these knowledge gaps. When you start a business and you start running your business, you go out there and you find business, you find customers, you hire employees and it’s like grabbing what you can and using what you can. But somewhere along the line, you find there’s a gap in knowledge. And that was what I found that was a big problem for my own business. And the money that I lost was insane, but I ended up hiring somebody to walk me through. I hired a coach to walk me through and fill in those blanks and
[06:23] Ellen: You were lucky because I was like paddling, trying to stay afloat. Yeah. You’re lucky.
Pat: Very painful.
Ellen: But did you also find that, for me, it didn’t just happen once, I’ve found at different levels it’s happened more than once.
Pat: It has.
Ellen: As a matter of fact, I spent all of last year, I was totally in learning mode. I took two really big courses last year lasted all year long.
Pat: Well, the benefit…
Ellen: And I’m implementing now.
[06:51] Pat: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The benefit of the work that I’ve been doing now for over the past six, seven years, actually, along with Matt, is that I had those things already failed. I understood where the pitfalls were because I learned it in my own business and working with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of businesses I learned it through them as well. So, last year was actually a really good year for me because it was a good year for my clients because that I had already learned those lessons.
Ellen: Right. Well, that’s good. Yeah.
Pat: In fact, last year, the companies I work with grew,
Ellen: Yeah, I mean last year was a very strange year because companies either cratered or they generally did very well.
Pat: Yeah.
Ellen: Yeah. Like I said, mine didn’t just because I wasn’t even in that space, that wasn’t even what I was thinking. I was just getting ready for this year. So, yeah.
Pat: Yeah, on average, the companies that I worked with last year did about a 250 %to 300% increase.
[07:48] Ellen: That’s amazing. So, what do you think the biggest reason was, more specifically than just, “Well, they got more skill.” Like what kind of skills?
Pat: They learned… the great thing about 2009, there are gifts in everything that happens. Right?
Ellen: Right.
Pat: The good thing about 2009 was it really showed, it was like a mini COVID. It was a space where business really fell apart. And I really think that 2020 was very similar to 2009 in that the types of businesses that fell apart were the same types of businesses that fell apart in 2020. And the good thing that I learned throughout that time that I brought in for my clients was that you have to get your foundation set.
Those things that you’ve been putting off forever, like putting together employee manuals, like having a foundation in your marketing, like knowing where your finances are, like understanding the fundamentals of how to read financial statements. They’re tried and true, and that when you understand those things and when you have those things in place, it gives you that foundation that you can then build from.
[09:05]: So last year, for a lot of clients, especially the new ones that I took on, we were filling in those foundational pieces, but as we were filling them in, and it always starts with finance first, operations second, marketing third, has to work that way, because if you don’t know where the money is, and you don’t know what you can cut back on so that you’re able to take that money to put into your operation, then you take that money that’s in your operations to make sure that the people are in place and the fundamentals of your business, your operations are in place. From there, you can launch into marketing.
One of the big things that I saw as a big problem for a lot of the companies that were failing last year was that they were going out and they were throwing money at marketing or not knowing where to put the money in order to grow their business. And because of that, they just didn’t make it. The companies that I worked with, we went back to the very basics. We started with foundation, where can we cut?
You know, the contracts you already have in place? Can we renegotiate those so that we’re able to bring more cash into your business? so that we can hire a few people so we can take care of this, then we can market it. Some things can handle the new businesses coming in.
Ellen: Yeah. I have found when we get into these downturns that having more flexible payment plans really helps with cash.
Pat: Absolutely. Yeah. And shortening the amount of account receivable time that’s out there. That was another big thing too, is that the AR is on a lot of things that were just too long.
Ellen: Okay. For people who don’t know, what’s AR
[10:35] Pat: Account receivable, that’s the money coming in, people money. Right? And not collecting on that. So, normally in a normal regular economy when things are booming, thirty to sixty days is normally, okay, well, we had to shorten that timeframe, so that fifteen days was really the outset. It was really cash on, you owe you, you pay the minute that you take the service, you buy the product. We had to shorten those to bring cash in so that the money was able to turn over a lot faster.
[11:06] Ellen: Oh, interesting. Because this Suzanne Evans who I studied with, and she said the exact opposite, it was like, ‘Well just make the deal “and make it, we know whatever you have to do to get them to be able to do it. I actually did ones that were longer last year or actually the beginning of this year longer rather than shorter, but they did start right away. Yeah.
[11:29] Pat: Yeah. The interesting, I guess, if you get it set up so that you can have payment plans,
Ellen: Right.
Pat: If people pay you along the way, but they’ve got to keep on paying you.
Ellen: Right.
Pat: A lot of the companies that I work with are more brick and mortars type companies.
[11:44] Ellen: It was more like a one-time deal anyway, is that what you’re saying?
Pat: Yeah.
Ellen: Okay. So, it’s when they’re going to make that one payment.
Pat: Correct?
Ellen: Cause that makes sense.
[11:54] Pat: Absolutely. If you have some kind of a service company where it’s an ongoing thing and you’re stretching it out over a coaching deal, a cooking business, where you’re stretching it out over the course of a year and, having them pay every month. Absolutely. That totally makes sense. But for instance, if it’s a cleaning company or a plumbing company or electrical company. When they go out and they’re doing even a larger job, but they’re not getting paid for sixty days out, well, that’s money that’s not coming out, they’ve already paid their employees. They’ve already paid for the chemicals or for the materials, and now they’re having to wait thirty, sixty, ninety days to get the money that it’s cash that’s coming out. They can’t then be circulating into their business.
Ellen: Right.
[12:36] Pat: Well, the other benefit that I have is that if it’s my boot camp, for instance, or if I’m doing ghostwriting for somebody it’s a physical product. Right? Even though it’s digital, but it’s a product. So, in my case, they don’t get it until they’re paid.
Pat: Right.
Ellen: As opposed to somebody who’s maybe teaching marketing where there’s no tangible to it.
Pat: Right,
Ellen: Right, that’s a lot harder to feel comfortable giving somebody maybe a long payment plan. But with something like mine, where it’s very tangible, they’re just not going to get it until it’s done. So, there’s an incentive for them to do that.
[13:17] Pat: When I work with a lot of clients, I do a lot of work upfront with them. So if I’m not getting paid up front with them, then there’s a good chance that I’m not going to get paid.
Ellen: Right.
Pat: Because the longer that goes out, like if somebody owes you money, the longer it takes to recoup that money to less than the more likely it is that they’re going to default on it.
Ellen: Yeah.
Pat: Yeah.
[13:40] Ellen: Yeah. So, people have to be aware of that. So, it’s kind of it’s a dance it’s like especially like you said with COVID, because you got to get the money in, but you also have to be more flexible where you can so that you can make the deals and something that, that Suzanne said that I just love and I know I talk about her a lot because I never studied the business side of business. I just jumped into business and it was working and I never really learned the basics until I realized that I really needed to learn the basics. And that’s when I, I signed up for her course because it was learning the basics of business, and she’s really good at it.
And so yeah, another thing that she said, when your business is just like, you’re not making any sales, just make the sale. Like even if you have to discount the price, because then the energy changes, right? And then you start getting more sales. And I saw that happen, cause I was sort of in that place because I’d been learning so much and not working all that much. And so, at the beginning, it was kind of like that. And I did what she said and it absolutely worked. There is an energy component to the whole thing.
Pat: There definitely is an energy component to everything.
Ellen: Yeah,
[14:57] Pat: Yeah, absolutely. So usually, I send people an application to become a podcast guest and we met online and somehow we just popped into a conversation, and we didn’t do that. So, I didn’t get your information ’til this morning. And I saw in your email that it said, “I can find any business owner, a hundred thousand dollars or more in untapped revenue without spending a cent on marketing or advertising.” So, I want to hear about that.
[15:29]: So, I use a proprietary system where I go into the business. I look at the business from all sides and we see where the money’s being spent, first of all. But we also, and where to recoup some of that money, especially for an existing business. But we also look at marketing; we look at advertising; we look at organizational strategies and through that process, it’s very easy to find somebody a hundred thousand dollars to their business in forty-five minutes, very easy. And it’s untapped revenue, it’s money that’s out there, that’s sitting out there, and if you implement a few strategies, then the money will come in.
Ellen: Like any, you can share with us on top of your head?
[16:14] Pat: So, one of the things that I love doing, I think probably more than anything is building lists; lists are brilliant. So once you get a list built, then you can start marketing out there to somebody and you can very easily bring in cash. So that’s one, but that takes a little bit longer of a time. One of the strategies that I really love doing, and it’s quick, and it’s easy, and it’s brings in cash like crazy is it’s videos. It’s putting out videos twenty days in a row and, so you come up with two different sets of videos.
The first set is ten things of businesses that people don’t know about your business. And then ten things you wish that people did know about your business. And when you do these twenty videos, one for each day and each one should be like, no more than like two minutes or so, possibly three, but really no more than two minutes. When you start putting them out there on a regular basis, people start paying attention. It starts spurring conversation. And then you start that conversation with them and it’s easy to bring in business.
[17:25] Ellen: Do you have a call to action at the end of each video? Or, what do you do?
Pat: Definitely. Oh, of course. The end of each one.
Ellen: Oh, okay. Well, some people don’t, some people don’t- that’s one of the things that I noticed, I hate to keep bringing her up, but I can’t help it. Suzanne was just saying that she did that Facebook live challenge.
Pat: Yeah.
Ellen: And people were saying they were frustrated and she said, “You guys aren’t making any offers. How do you expect to make sales? You’re not offering anything.”
[17:59] Pat: Well, here’s the thing is that when you’re doing social media and it doesn’t even matter what social media platform, only about 10%, if you’re lucky are going to see of the people within your network are going to see whatever you put out there. 10% maximum. So, when a lot of people think that when they’re putting something out on social media, that if they put something out there too often that the people are going to get too tired of seeing them.
Ellen: Right.
Pat: But the reality is people aren’t seeing them anyway.
[18:31] Ellen: Right. Or, they may catch one and not catch another one too. Sometimes, things go through my feed so fast and I’ll see it. And then I want to see it later and it’s gone. Yeah.
Pat: And sometimes, you’ll put something out there that somebody will see and they’ll go, “Oh, that person, I haven’t seen them for a long time.” And they click on your name and they see, and they binge-watch.
Ellen: Uh-huh.
Pat: Right? So if you haven’t put in and they may only see one video or they may see a bunch of them, but even if they see a bunch of videos or a bunch of posts, if they see a call to action, a call to action, a call to action. Every time they see it, it ingrains them in their mind. And eventually, most of the time, they will click on it. You don’t know when or where or how, but eventually they will.
[19:14] Ellen: Well, when you do that, do you do it on a profile page? On a business page? In a group? On YouTube? Where, where are you doing this?
Pat: Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.
Ellen: All of them. So, you’re putting it on all of them.
Pat: Yeah. You really should.
Ellen: Okay.
Pat: Absolutely.
Ellen: Well, that’s a great strategy for everybody who’s listening. Now you’ve just got to go take action, guys.
Pat: That’s exactly it. That’s exactly it.
Ellen: Okay. Well, are there any other final tips you’d like to give us before we wrap this section up?
[19:44] Pat: If you have a website, really pay attention to your search engine ranking, I know that for a lot of small businesses, they just don’t. They think that wherever they lie is wherever they lie. But here’s the problem, if you have a physical location for your business, you’ve got to be in “Google My Business”; you’ve got to be. If you aren’t in Google My Business, people aren’t going to find you. That’s more important than even the organic search.
If you don’t want to have to pay for ads, these are the two areas you’ve got to do. You’ve got to do an organic search and you’ve got to do the Google My Business. They’re both free and really pay attention to it. Now, here’s a tip: if you go into Google My Business, if you go in every single day and you post something in there; in the backside, you’re able to put in an offer, just some information about your business, but the more often that you do it, the faster you’re going to see your organic ranking.
Ellen: Oh…
Pat: Yeah.
Ellen: Well, that’s interesting. I must be in there because I get a thing from Google all the time saying, and it’s been going up and up and up. And I think it is because of my podcast mostly.
Pat: It is, absolutely Everything to do with everything. Absolutely.
[21:01] Ellen: You got to publish guys. That’s another thing you got to publish, publish, publish. Yeah.
Pat: It’s so important. It’s so important. Having a book out there, having articles out there, having print media, getting press releases, it’s all super important to building your brand and building your company.
Ellen: Well, one of the problems with this though, is this like for so many people, it’s so compartmentalized, because you say, “Well niche down.” So then, okay, well you go to this expert for this and that expert for that and all that. And then some of those pieces don’t really get covered, but nobody knows everything. But it’s like one of the things I love about what I’ve done with my businesses, at least putting a team together where, you know like authors will go and say, “I‘ve got to get an editor and I’ve got to get a cover over there and all these different places, and I created it so that people can just come to us and get everything done.
And then part of what I love about the podcast is meeting people like you and other people who are experts in the things that I’m not an expert in and having a good vendor list, so that when I get on a call with people and they need something or want something, or I tell them they need something, but at least I know where to send them. So, people aren’t just running around like a chicken without a head trying to figure it all out themselves. Because a lot of times when they do that, they really don’t get good people.
Pat: Right.
Ellen: You know? And it’s not just about price. there’s always people who are coming up who are still very talented. And then there’s people who have arrived that are very talented, and there’s usually somebody that can help you no matter where you’re at in some way. And especially, and there are so many free resources on the Internet too.
Pat: But the other thing is that there’s so much out there there’s so many tools and so many resources and so many people, and everybody’s pitching you, “B uy my stuff, buy my stuff.”
Ellen: Oh, I know.
Pat: And because of it, we talked about energy a little bit earlier, and people’s energy gets scattered everywhere. They’re not focusing on anything and it’s kind of like a rocket, right? So if you rocket is going straight up and all the fuel and all the engines are facing downwards in the same direction.
Ellen: Right.
Pat: But if one rocket takes off but if one of the tanks is going in another direction, then the rocket goes off course. What’s the same thing with your business when you are spending time going to this guru and that guru, and that guru, and you’re using this tool and that tool in this search engine platform and that one and marketing on this social media and that social media, all of a sudden your energy is so scattered that your business can’t take off.
[23:52]: And that’s why a lot of businesses really struggle. So, it’s really coming up with one or two different strategies and three in a year is the most.
Ellen: Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Pat: And focusing on those one or two things for a significant amount of time. Even in social media, I hear so many people on social media saying, “Well, I’m on Facebook and I’m on LinkedIn and I’m on Instagram and I’m on Pinterest and I’m also doing Oh, Clubhouse.” And it’s like, “Stop, just stop. You’re going in too many different directions,” focus in one thing and get a good foot. It’s about foundation.
Ellen: Well, yeah.
[24:36] Pat: Then, launch from there.
Ellen: Well, here’s the other thing, I don’t know what I did when I first started, but I think what I did was Facebook and Twitter. That was it. You know? And then later on I added LinkedIn and then at some point, like I’m on Pinterest and it’s so funny cause I do very little there, but I had got a client. And so I thought, “Oh, okay, well I better pay attention to this.” So, all I do in there is I post the podcast. That’s all I ever do in there because it’s like you said, I can’t do everything. So…
[25:07] Pat: And you shouldn’t do everything: Find out where your people are focused on that and ignore the rest.
Ellen: Yeah. Yeah.
Pat: Find a strategy or two that will work for your business and ignore the rest. Stick with just focus on a couple of things that your business really has the ability to really take off in the way that it should.
[35:30] Ellen: No, this is great advice. So, how can people contact you?
Pat: Well, they can very easily go to, I’ve got a couple of different pages, web pages. One is cornerofficeuniversity.com. And that one is ,it’s good. It’s got some good stuff on there, but I really like sending people to cornerofficecoaches.com instead. There’s lots of free resources on that. So, go to that one cornerofficecoaches.com. And you can get in touch with me that way or send me an email pat@cornerofficeuniversity.com. I’ll be glad to chat with you any day of the week. And then I’ve also got a couple of free gifts if that’s okay.
Ellen: That’s okay.
Pat: Okay, fantastic. So, one of them is “10 tips to Increase your Search Engine Ranking,” which I think pretty much everybody needs. So, and both these I put on Bigly cause just easier. So, it’s bit.ly/10 organictips, again, it’s bit.ly/10organictips The other one is the predecessor of getting the a hundred-thousand dollars in forty-five minutes. This is, we’ll get you $10,000 in forty-five minutes. Super simple strategies to put together. It’s a matter of time, but it’s eight different strategies within the book. And that one is at bit.ly/pat10Kbook, 10K books. So, pat10Kbook.
[26:57] Ellen: Okay. Well thank you so much. I’m sure my listeners will appreciate that.
Pat: I hope you all take advantage of it.
[27:04] Ellen: Yeah. Okay. So, it’s time for Books Open Doors Insights.
So, today I want to talk about some ways to create more visibility, sell more books and grow your business and influence. So, there’s a lot of ways that people can get visibility. And we’ve talked about some of them here today. And what I want to do is talk about the ones that I think number one are the most powerful, but number two, there’s a few that I think people don’t think about most of the time. So, it may be a little different of a list than what you’re used to hearing. So, one is to be a podcast guest. And for that, you want to create a one-sheet and reach out to podcasts that would be interested in your topic. And if you don’t have a one sheet, don’t let that stop you from starting.
[27:53] There are a lot of people that I do this with and they haven’t given me a one-sheet. So, they just have to have something interesting to say that I think is going to be good for my audience and where I feel comfortable having them on, that’s it. But the more you speak, the faster that you’re going to grow your visibility, your book sales and your business. And you can find a free list of podcasts at
podcastguests.com. And then if you’re serious and you want something that’s affordable, but is a little more professional in my opinion, Speakertunity at ellenlikes.com/podcasts-radio-speak.
The next one is speak to other people’s Facebook groups. One of the things is that people stay in their own echo chamber, and then you’re getting in front of the same people over and over and over.
And as Pat just said, even then, you’re not even getting in front of very many of them. So, you want to do Facebook swaps if you can, and you speak to somebody else’s group, they speak to your group. You can ask your friends in a post or individually by direct messaging them if they’d like to swap. You can also ask in other groups that you belong to if anybody’s interested, if they’ll let you do that.
Next is go to networking groups. But don’t go to networking groups to try to sell somebody anything. You want to use networking groups, right?
Pat: Right, yes.
Ellen: …to make partnerships and sales down the road, maybe. Okay? So, each group has a different format. Try different ones. See what you like the best. See what works for you and to get the most out of them see how you can help others; give value. Okay? When you consistently show up and you consistently give value, you attract business to you.
Next is go to virtual events that have breakout rooms. I don’t think a lot of people think of this, but I’ve got to tell you guys, I went to an event last year, I paid $147 to attend. In one of the breakout rooms, I met a woman who became a client of mine. She referred two other people to me, I made $1,825.18 cents from that breakout room. And that’s not all, now I have three satisfied clients and the total will be from what I got just from showing up at that one event. So sometimes, people think about the cost of an event rather than the investment of the event.
[30:14] Pat: And don’t be afraid to spend money to go to events.
Ellen: Right. Yeah. That was a big shift for me. That was a big mindset shift that for a while, I was like, “I’m not spending any money” because I spent so much money in the beginning, but eventually then I realized, “No, this is not a good thing.
Pat: Better quality people show up at events.
Ellen: Absolutely, absolutely.
Pat: And they paid; they’re just better quality.
Ellen: Yep. Also, you can buy a sponsorship on a podcast or at one of these events. So, when you buy a sponsorship, it helps you reach again a larger audience and people who are not the people you’ve already been talking to over and over and over. And the host, whether it’s a podcast or it’s an event, already has that know, like, trust factor and so, you’re piggybacking on what they already have with their audience.
[31:01]: And remember that, again, when you go to events, that people paid. And so, they’re buyers, which is what Pat was just saying. Not only that but whoever is the host knows you’re a sponsor and appreciates that your spending money with them. And so, they’re going to want to promote you. And that can be a goldmine for you also.
And then write a book, do a book launch. So, writing your book gives you the credibility and doing that launch that’s one of the things that I just tell people over and over, especially people who come to me who are new, they don’t have a big reach or they’re just busy people, but they’re in a hurry or just like me. I just like it. I just do it anyway because I believe in giving value first, and Amazon has the tools, so you can give your book away for a few days and you’re still making sales because you only give away the ebook; you’re selling the other book. And it’s a great tool, and it’s an event, and people like events. They get excited. There’s urgency. It’s just a great thing to do.
Pat: And people love buying books.
Ellen: Yeah. Well, people who love books. Yeah.
Pat: Yeah, yeah.
Ellen: Yeah. And people who buy books, buy lots of books.
Pat: They do.
Ellen: Lots of books. I mean, Christen, , my husband, it just drives him crazy how many books I have. And every time we go to get stuff out of storage or we’re going to kind of get things into a smaller storage or whatever, it’s always the books. I can’t let them go. I just can’t- not going to happen. Anyway, if you’re ready to write a book, I want to encourage you to get on the waitlist for the next 5 Day Bestseller Breakthrough Challenge, taking your book from idea to outline if you haven’t already gone through it so that you can write your book as easily and as effortly as possible, once you go through the steps that I’m going to teach you, so it is ready to go. And that is at bestsellerbreakthrough.com or if you want, one-on-one help writing, launching the book, just email me at Ellen@booksopendoors.com and the subject line “Help” And we can set up a chat.
Now you mentioned this, but this is an extra little strategy I want to give people. And that is if you have an iPhone or an iPad, I suggest that you do get on Clubhouse for exactly the reason you were talking about Pat. The caliber of people. It’s all people with iPhones. It’s people who have money, movers and shakers. I’m making amazing connections there. Android is coming very soon, so it will be open to more people. But right now, we’re all early adapters there. And if there’s one thing I have found being an early adapter can be so important for your business because you get out before everybody else; you’ get the most benefit.
And, I actually took a podcast course years ago and I didn’t do anything until… I didn’t start until 2018. I took that course in like 2008. So, I was kicking myself like crazy that I didn’t do that. And for that reason, I’m on Clubhouse (now). So, anybody who wants to connect with me on Clubhouse, it’s @ellen violette. And I’d love to see you there.
[34:07] Pat: And here’s the really interesting about Clubhouse, really interesting is that the average person spends about twenty-five minutes a day on Facebook. They spend about sixteen minutes a day on LinkedIn, but they spend five hours a day on Clubhouse.
Ellen: I get it. Yeah. I get at. First I saw people saying that and I was like, “Why is that?” And then you get on there and you see why. First of all, people do these rooms where they go for hours, and they have several moderators, and they just keep switching out. Lots of people are collaborating and talking, so it’s not like all one person. And yeah, some of them do go on for hours.
And the other thing is it’s like podcasts in the sense that like, let’s say you’re just busy doing something, there are rooms where I just want to learn from those people. And so, I’ll just have the earplugs and earphones in while I’m doing something else and I’m just listening. And then other times, I’m on there where I’m there to participate and get my name out there, make connections. And then that’s a whole other thing. And then I need to be totally focused on it. But yeah, I absolutely agree. And I can see why that’s the case. It’s very addictive too.
[35:15] Pat: Yeah. And most people would just sit in the background and just listen, cause you can just be a fly on the wall and just listen and not have to participate. It’s not like being in some kind of like a networking group where everybody can participate. There are just a few people who were primarily talking, and then if you want to raise your hand, you can join in and talk.
Ellen: Right.
Pat: If you’re acknowledged by the moderator of the group. But otherwise, it’s really just a place to sit and learn and is every topic available on Clubhouse.
Ellen: Yeah.
Pat: On my God. I was on one, one night. I probably shouldn’t go down this road, but I was on one night with Daymond John and Patty Stanger about dating right now and the pitfalls of dating. And it was like, I just happened to watch it. And it was like, “Oh my gosh,” I’m way off target.
[36:03] Ellen: That’s hysterical. Why was he talking about dating?
Pat: I have no idea why either one of them were talking about dating, but they were and it was hysterical conversation. It went on for a couple of hours and it went down all sorts of roads that you wouldn’t expect it because it was just supposed to be about dating, but they ended up going down a dozen roads, and it was very interesting so…
[36:22] Ellen: I made some really good connections there and very quickly. (Since we recorded this I got a client from the second time I co-moderated!) And I already got asked to speak on a stage for another event. So yeah, but for people who want to know more about Clubhouse, I did talk about this on last week’s podcast. So, that’s at booksbusinessabundance.com/podcast/mindset-systems. And if you want to sell more books, make more money, reach a lot more people just get more visible, money loves visibility.
[36:57] Pat: Uh-huhYes it does. And I have six invitations out there. I have six, you have to be invited to join Clubhouse. I have six invitations available. So. if somebody wants to contact me, let me know.
Speaker 2 ([37:06]):
Okay. That’s awesome. Take her up on it guys. Okay. So, that’s it for today to get the transcript, go to booksbusinessabundance.com/podcast. You’re welcome to join our Facebook group of visionary speakers, coaches, and heart-centered entrepreneurs and authors who want to self-publish use their books to make a bigger impact, more money and leave a lasting legacy.
And as I said, if you’re ready to write your book, get into the free 5 Day Challenge, bestsellerbreakthrough.com. And when you go, if you’re on the podcast page, or if you’re going to the podcast page, if you don’t have it already pick up a copy of Book Planner Secrets and that’ll help you just get your mindset and start to think about how you’re going to put your book together. And for anything else, you can contact me at Ellen@ booksopendoors.com So, til next time, Bye-bye,
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