Joyful Selling for Creatives

In today's episode another Joyful Selling member joins me for a mini coaching session.

Listening to a fellow creative business owner being coached helps you see two things:

1, You're not alone with the challenges you face, the majority are universal to our industry and being a human.

2, You can apply the coaching offered to your particular situation right now. 

Coaching is simply problem solving.

Coaching helps you stay in motion rather than get stuck, put off or feel bogged down.

Our guest has opted to remain anonymous so we are using a made up name.

We are coaching today on a firmly held belief she has that she doesn't know how to sell.

If you'd like to come along to a group coaching session to see what it's like join my mailing list and receive an invitation to our next free session just for the email list.

Click here: https://bit.ly/JoyfulSellingTips

Over the next 3 episodes I'm going to try something a little different to help you progress in your marketing, selling and revenue creation.

I'm going to coach 3 members of the Joyful Selling program on the podcast.

I have invited each of them to bring to the session what they are currently stuck on so I can help them move forward with more clarity and ease.

How does the idea of eaves dropping on a coaching session feel?

Pretty exciting, huh?

Each of the creative business owners has given their consent to be coached on the podcast and in today's episode we welcome Hannah.

Enjoy!

In today’s episode we’re joined by Joyful Selling member Hanna from Heavy Gretel.

Hanna talks us through how she has actively worked on increasing her online sales through email marketing and a loyalty programme this year.

We dig into how Hanna:

1, Attracts her people to sign up.

2, Engages them in their inbox.

3, Gently encourages the purchase.

And it’s working.

Hanna has grown her email subscriber list by 70% and online sales have increased by 60% in 2022 so far.

Ensure you have your Joyful Selling Podcast Playbook printed out to write down all the tips jam packed into today’s episode.

To nab your Playbook, sign-up to our email list and it will be pinged immediately to your inbox - check your junk/promotional folders - https://bit.ly/JoyfulSellingTips

At the bottom of the marketing funnel are your people who are ready to make their purchase.

I'd like to offer two ways you can support them in this stage of their journey. In this week's episode I walk through these two philosophies with practical actions you can take.

1, Be in service to help them purchase. Think about a brilliant sales assistant who works in an independent bricks and mortar store - I offer various ways they might show up to serve the person in their shop and how this can be applied online.

2, Create fun opportunities for them to buy. Create simple, easy and quick ways your person can make their purchase. I discuss lots of fun creative ways to do this from IG Stories Sales to gift sets and bundles.

A useful underlying belief to nurture so you can show up in service and create fun opportunities is: Selling is sharing the joy.

Try on this mindset first and then create your sales campaigns from there.

Your people at the bottom of funnel are READY to make their purchase - have fun serving them!

Once someone has discovered your products and decided to follow or subscribe, they are then in the 'middle' of your funnel.

They could be active in that you can see them commenting, liking or sharing or more likely you won't see them. The latter isn't the problem that we make it. We pay so much attention to how many likes and comments a piece of content receives but the truth is none of it matters because the engagement on a piece of content does not mean it will result in a sale.

I'd like to offer that the smartest strategy to move forward with is to focus on what you can control: ie. the value of the content you share to create excitement and build trust. Leave your people to get on with their own journey and trust they will buy when they're ready to buy.

I discuss a few ways to do this in this week's episode:

1, Social media:

SHARE AS YOU GO: the interest is in the detail - micro-decisions you’re making: material choices, colours, fabrics, sizes, eco-credentials etc

A COUNTDOWN CAMPAIGN: a series of pre-launch and launch posts and emails that can then be recycled for the lifetime of the product.

WHAT’S FUN AND EXCITING RIGHT NOW: spotlighting what's exciting in your business right now and feeling compelled to share with your people.

2, Email

A regular email, for example: a round-up of the week sharing the nuggets of magic and joy from your creative world and what is shining bright in your orbit. Inspire, educate and add value to your person's day.

3, Blog

An online creative journal - tie in with Pinterest that is top of funnel and the blog is the landing page which helps your customers get to know your products and the creator behind the products.

I'm not one for jargon but I make an exception when the visual created by it is useful for understanding how a process works.

In this instance I'm a big fan of the marketing 'funnel' - picture a funnel that helps you pour liquid into a bottle - it's larger at the top and narrower at the bottom. This is exactly what happens with your people from the moment they come across your work to the moment of purchase.

Not everyone who discovers your work (top of funnel) will purchase it (bottom of funnel). It's useful to know this applies to everyone and it's not personal.

In today's episode I share three core strategies to encourage new people to eyeball your work because we wanna keep pouring into the funnel - introducing new people to what you do - so your funnel is active.

The three strategies:

1, Actively utilise social media hashtags:

Under 1,000 followers - follow relevant hashtags, engage by authentically liking and commenting, use your own brand hashtag, take part in challenges and chat and get to know folks in your sector. Time block 20 minutes a day to do this. It's the opposite of 'mindless' scrolling.

Over 1,000 followers - all of the above and create your own hashtag to run challenges to build your community and get to know them.

2, In-person events: group shows, markets, exhibitions, craft fairs, art shows etc.

Have a specific plan for meeting people and making it memorable:

LOOK - create an inviting display, make it obvious what you sell.

CONNECT - create a moment to strike up conversation with a demo or something to flick through. Bring the stand to life.

STAY IN TOUCH - create a QR code to join your mailing list and receive a gift.

3, Wholesale / retailers:

Have a specific plan for meeting people and making it memorable:

Does your packaging simply share where you hang out online?

Ask if you can create an in-store or window display.

Host an event or workshop and hand out cards or pass round your QR code.

In Joyful Selling we offer a simple approach to guaranteeing your own results. The steps are as follows...

How to make your results inevitable:

1, Set revenue goal.

2, Practise creating it every month.

3, Keep going until you create it.

That's it. 

We cut out all the noise and nonsense to laser focus on what will actually keep a business going.

And through these simple steps where we learn to manage our minds, process our emotions and take committed creative action we become an imposter-free business owner who thrives inside and outside of the business.

This is what simple successful creative business looks like.

It's super fun!

The Joyful Selling for Creative professionals program is open for new members until midday Friday 30th September. 

Dive in and let's make it happen: https://indieroller.com/joyfulselling/

Today we are joined by four incredible Joyful Selling program members who talk us through the results they are proud of creating in their businesses.

Jo from Tiny Scenic shares how she has created more time in her business and will launch her website next month after putting it off for two years.

Sam from Childstar Samantha shares the one thought that has created £4k in her wholesale business.

Paulomi from Handmade by Tinni talks us through how she decided she was good enough to apply for (and win) multiple awards this year.

Rosie from Rosie Johnson Illustration shares how she tripled her revenue goal at a festival this Summer and utilised the Get It Done Goal Setting process and the Business Belief Plan.

It was such a joy to chat to these four amazing creative business owners and hear how they are self-coaching and joyfully selling to create the business they want.

And the best news ever...

The Joyful Selling for Creative Professionals program is enrolling new members RIGHT NOW.

Find out more and dive in today: https://indieroller.com/joyfulselling/

I look forward to coaching with you!

When you make a chunk of money in your business does it feel like a fluke that you cannot replicate? Perhaps when you talk about the scenario in which you sold many products you might automatically use the word 'luck'.

You're not alone.

This is one of the most common patterns I see in artists and makers when they start working with me in the Joyful Selling for Creative Professionals program.

Sales don't fall from the sky or come out of thin air and logically you know that.

Yet you haven't learnt the skill to develop your identity to see yourself as the person who creates the sales.

In today's episode I'm going to teach you the exact tool we utilise inside the program so you can easily show your brain (and keep showing it) how it is indeed your creativity that creates revenue.

Ownership of the sales process is how you transform from the talented artist/maker you are into a professional business owner. It's a skill. It's a practise. You have to learn it and keep doing it.

The magic of a sustainable business is on the other side of this simple process to rinse and repeat.

Here are some useful prompts for you to start exploring your business through the Joyful Selling lens.

The prompts I offer are part of a larger prompt sheet going out to Joyful Selling for Creative Professionals program members.  This prompts make it much easier for our members to utilise the Ask A Coach facility to receive personalised coaching direct to their inbox within 24 hours on week days.

Imagine having a coach in your pocket... what would your burning question be?