Live In The Feast

Today’s co-host is Krista Rae. Krista is a WordPress developer who helps designers stay designing by turning their designs into fully functional websites. She’s a co-host of the Get Back to Design podcast, and creator of the Simply Profitable Designer Summit.

Krista’s defining moment came when she was in her 20’s. She applied for big job opportunity and got it. When she told her mom the good news, her mom said something she’ll never forget, “Anything you want to make happen, you do.” Krista’s taken that with her through everything she’s done, and it’s had a big impact on her mindset and success.

When Krista first started her business, she was targeting anyone and everyone. She quickly took a step back from design to focus on development, but was still trying to target everyone. After working with a coach, she realized that she most liked working with designers, and her niche was born. The journey wasn’t without it’s challenges but she was able to work through those bumps in the road to create a profitable business around helping designers who aren’t comfortable developing their own designs.

Figuring this out, has helped Krista nail her messaging and positioning, which has helped her stay booked months into the future, and eliminate the feast or famine cycle we’re all familiar with.

In this episode, we dive into some simple questions to ask yourself and your clients as you start figuring out who your ideal client is. We talk about the messaging and positioning exercises that Krista went through, how to get in front of your ideal client, and the bumps in the road while figuring it out.

In this episode Krista talked about:

• Who Krista’s ideal client is and why.
• How she went all-in on her new web development business, and her strategies around positioning those skills.
• The pitfalls she faced with her newfound growth and how she overcame them.

Main Takeaways

• Curating your offerings allows you to increase your prices and narrow your client base. As soon as you start to hone your skills and get into your niche, you will see a transformation in your business and your revenue.
• Niching down brings more opportunity. The big changes can be scary, but if you build it one at a time and keep your “why” in front you, you’ll be able to manage any problems down the road.
• Using projects that didn’t go well, constant self-analysis, and capitalizing on the things that worked are the best ways to discover how to refine your offerings and use that positioning to grow your business.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Krista Rae Site
• Krista on Instagram
• Get Back To Design Podcast
• Krista on Twitter
• Simply Profitable Designer Summit

For full show notes and resources

• Live In The Feast - Episode 3 of Season 7

Today’s co-host is Nathan Barry. Nathan is the founder of ConvertKit. Many of you know ConvertKit as an e-mail marketing platform, but there’s more to the story.

Nathan started his career as a blogger and creator before transitioning into building products. He also wrote several books and built a thriving solo business before launching ConvertKit.

Much of Nathan’s drive came from watching his parents struggle with money when he was growing up. He sees this as a defining moment in his life because he knew from the time he was 12 that he never wanted to have those same struggles.

He learned early on that making money wouldn’t just happen on its own. He had to work for it, and practice, and build the skill of making money. While working his way through college, he began seeing the internet as a way to do something he loved, and make money doing it.

Currently, Nathan is working on his hobby farm (and preparing for a new baby!), as well as continuing to grow ConvertKit and launching new features.

In this episode, we dive into identifying your ideal client, as well as some exercises that Nathan has used to figure out what types of projects and customers to work with. Also, Nathan goes into some questions you can ask that will help you create the life you want, as well as improve conversations throughout your business.

In this episode Nathan talks about:

• How he got into the world of digital marketing, and ultimately ConvertKit.
• Identifying your ideal client by knowing who they are not.
• How to define the ideal employee and the questions you need to ask.

Main Takeaways

• Sometimes it’s easier to figure out who you should exclude from your marketing efforts rather than include, as it allows the quality content to rise to the top. When you narrow it down by those criteria, it becomes apparent who you should focus on.
• Asking the right questions is critical. Ask questions of yourself and others that will help you figure out what your real goals are.
• Ask yourself: if this employee went to work for the competition tomorrow, how upset would I be? This is a great way to determine your ideal employee.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• ConvertKit
• The App Design Handbook
• Designing Web Applications
• Nathan on Twitter
• Authority by Nathan Barry
• Jason Fried on Twitter
• Good to Great by Jim Collins
• Flywheel by Jim Collins

For full show notes and resources

• Live In The Feast - Episode 2 of Season 7

Today’s co-host is Jurgen Strauss. I’ve known Jurgen in several different online communities over the past several years, so it’s an absolute pleasure to finally bring him on the show and have a chat.

Jurgen is the founder and chief innovator of InnovaBiz, which helps coaches and consultants build professional credibility and connection with their ideal clients. He was the perfect candidate to have on the show given everything we’ve talked about and everyone we’ve talked to in the past.

Jurgen got his start in the chemical manufacturing industry. That’s where he cut his teeth in business. When he started coaching and consulting, he realized that just because there were a lot of things he could do, and clients he could take on, that didn’t mean it was the right thing for his business.

From that realization came his passion for understanding and identifying his ideal client. He found that every time he narrowed the focus of his business, the more his business grew. Through a series of bad clients and experiences, he was able to cultivate a variety of tools and strategies that enabled him to identify his true, ideal clients.

Today, Jurgen is still consulting, and is focused on his podcast and podcast training course.

In this episode Jurgen talked about:

• The path that lead him to his business of coaching and consulting.
• How to use empathy maps, not just to discover and understand your ideal client, but with your current leads as well.
• How non-ideal clients can throw the wheels off your business, and everything you’re trying to accomplish.
• Why it’s so important to pay attention to the external factors and people that your ideal client is paying attention to.

Main Takeaways

• Empathy maps are a great way to figure out who is influencing your ideal client. These questions can help you dig deeper with existing clients as well, opening up a whole new world of services and opportunities.
• A non-ideal client can eat up a lot of your time because you’re either trying to learn what they need as you go, or they can be demanding. Both things waste your time and money and can ultimately lead to more referrals of the same type of client.
• The external factors that are influencing your clients are what will get them to say yes or no. You can use empathy maps to figure out these channels, and how you can leverage them to better serve your client.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• InnovaBiz
• InnovaBuzz Podcast
• InnovaBiz on Twitter
• Tales of Marketing Transformation
• Marketing Master Mini-class
• Jurgen on LinkedIn
• Ryan Deiss

For full show notes and resources

• Live In The Feast - Episode 1 of Season 7

Today’s co-host is Alex McClafferty. Alex is the co-founder of WP Curve and a CEO coach. Since selling WP Curve to GoDaddy a few years ago, he’s spent a lot of time traveling and spending time with friends and family. But like most entrepreneurs, he wasn’t about to sit still for very long. He started coaching CEOs, and runs a Consultant to CEO program.

Alex co-founded WP Curve, a WordPress support company, in 2013 and learned a lot about pricing right out of the gate. He had initially priced their service at $49/mo, and even at such a low price point, the company was profitable.

GoDaddy acquired WP Curve in 2016, and it couldn’t have been better timing for Alex. Through the lessons he learned with WP Curve, Alex was able to start coaching other CEOs on how to build a productized service much faster than he was able to.

Despite his success, Alex went through a dark period where he thought about ending his life. His defining moment came at a low point when he was sitting on a cliff and making a list of pros and cons - basically a should I stay or should I go scenario. At that moment, he realized that if he left he would leave an emotional mess behind him - so he started getting help and working through all of the things that were making him feel that way in the first place. He says that experience has made him an even better coach because it allows him to see through people, ask the right questions, and get to the heart of the issues at hand.

Today, Alex is traveling, a lot. He’s also spending time getting back to the things he used to enjoy doing before going down the business rabbit hole. He spends a lot of time at the beach and focuses on his health and wellness.

If you’ve ever dreamed of selling your startup and want some advice on how to get there, this episode is for you. I’m excited to share this conversation with you because Alex is one of the most grounded and genuine guys I know.

In this episode Alex talks about:

• Some background into WP Curve and some of the difficulties he ran into scaling the operation.
• The pricing forks in the road that many people run into.
• How his personal struggles put him on the path to where he is today.
• Why growth isn’t always what you’re looking for.

Main Takeaways

• Entrepreneurs often undercharge for their product or service.
• Products are often sold to the wrong market.
• Growth for growth sake shouldn’t always be the goal. You should be looking to build the team and resources that allow you to far exceed what you’re doing today, even if you’re making money year-over-year.
• Many people don’t know what they want when they start out, or think they know, only to change their mind. Ask yourself what you want your day-to-day life to look like instead of annual numbers, and work from there.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Alex McClafferty on Instagram
• Alex on Facebook
• WP Curve
• Alex’s Facebook Fundraiser
• Productize.co
• Consultant to CEO

Today’s co-host is Mor Cohen. Mor is a branding and web designer and teaches people how to build better client relationships. Mor is the founder of FlixFrame, a web design agency for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Mor started out as a graphic designer during the “IPO Golden Era”, so to speak, and did a lot of pitch decks for clients who were trying to raise venture capital. Early on in her career, she realized that her value didn’t come from the number of pages or slides she designed, but in her ability to solve a problem for her clients.

These early insights allowed her to avoid the trap of pricing her services by quantity, and base it instead on the value she was delivering. But that wasn’t the only pricing trap she ran into. Mor found herself in a rut early on because of “how” she talked about pricing. By delaying the budget conversation, she would end up wasting a lot of time in meetings and developing proposals, only to have clients walk away when they couldn’t afford her prices. That realization pushed her to learn more about her clients upfront, and talk about pricing before moving forward.

Mor firmly believes that we’re not just designers or developers or digital marketers, we have to understand business, marketing, social media, SEO, etc. You can’t just put yourself in a corner as one thing and ignore the rest. It doesn’t work like that.

This episode goes deep on how and why you should talk to your clients about pricing. We also get into how confidence plays a critical role in getting clients to trust you and pay your rates.

In this episode Mor talked about:

• The “aha” moment that allowed her to pivot to where she is today.
• The reason and the why around pricing something that may not take a lot of time to complete.
• How clients perceive your pricing, and pitfalls to avoid.

Main Takeaways

• Clients don’t care about the tools, tech, or the education. They want a solution. Show them that you can provide that solution and you will be in business.
• Not addressing the issue of money (the budget for the project) just wastes everyone’s time.
• Pricing has nothing to do with how much time something requires, but the value it delivers and the years of experience wrapped up in that task.
• Clients are more willing to pay your price when you show that you have the confidence to complete the task and have expertise in the field. As soon as you start to lose confidence, your client will begin to micromanage and question your pricing.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Reach out to Mor
• Flix Frame
• The Web Design & Branding Community
• Design Class.io
• FlixFrame on Twitter

Today’s co-host is Jack McDade. Jack is the founder and creator of Statamic, a CMS that makes building a website better and easier to manage. Jack created Statamic in 2012, and though it started as a side project, it has grown into a platform, community, and profitable company. He’s currently working on version three of the software.

Jack started his career at an agency creating HTML templates and doing other work for large corporations. He slowly started to focus more on CMSs and WordPress development, before going out on his own almost a decade ago.

n this episode, we dive into his approach and strategy on pricing products versus services. We talk about Jack’s pricing mistakes, the pricing parity, and much more around productizing your services.

Jack is also a family man, and we talk about how becoming a father as affected him and his career.

In this episode Jack talked about:

• How he got started in digital products and his path to Statamic.
• His strategy for pricing products versus services.
• The mistakes he made pricing Statamic and how he dealt with the fallout.

Main Takeaways

• Don’t just copy what big tech companies are doing. Figure out how to speak directly to the customers that you have the answers for.
• How your customers use the product and how you price your product need to be aligned. If not, customers will be incentivized to circumvent your product, or try to spend less money on it.
• If you’re selling a digital product, be prepared to deal with customers in other parts of the world. You need to have a plan for how you will price your product for regions of the world with lower average incomes.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Jack McDade’s Website
• @jackmcdade
• Statamic

Today’s co-host is Brian Casel. Brian is a designer and full-stack developer, as well as the founder of ProcessKit and Audience Ops. While Brian started as a freelance designer, he has transitioned into a business owner by productizing his own services.

Brian is the founder of multiple productized service businesses, and in recent years has built a few products as well. Rather than ditch all his clients at once, Brian has been intentional about the process. He worked with his best clients to figure out what parts of his business could be transitioned into products, and then built those products on the side until they became self-sustainable.

Over the course of his career, Brian has worked with lots different kinds of clients. He was a generalist for many years. Once he was established, he realized he needed to focus on a specific type of customer, and specific solutions to their problems, rather than doing anything and everything.

During the last couple of years, Brian has also branched out into products (like ProcessKit) and has ideas for more in the future.

In this episode, we dive into how to transition from generalist services to productized services, and find your first client. We talk about pricing strategies during that transition and Brian shares some unexpected and counterintuitive ideas.

In this episode Brian talks about:

• His background and how he got into building productized service businesses.
• His strategies around moving into a productized business and how that can affect your other business.
• How he figured out his pricing between all the different markets he was serving.

Main Takeaways

• When moving into a productized business, don’t ditch your existing clients. Rather, make moves inside your current business to start working with your ideal clients.
• Pricing is a bit of a gut feeling mixed with some testing to see if the market will bear your prices. The busier you become, the more selective you can become toward higher margin projects. You also need to price so that your service is a good value for your target customer.
• Always start your productized services where you already have inroads. Breaking into a new market, looking for customers, and establishing yourself as an authority will be easier if you’re operating inside a market you know.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Brian’s Website
• @CasJam
• ProcessKit
• Audience Ops
• Sunrise KPI

Today’s co-host is April Dunford, a positioning consultant and entrepreneur who literally wrote the book on positioning. She’s also an in-demand keynote speaker. While her book, Obviously Awesome, refers to products, most of it can be applied to services, as well — something April talks about in today’s show. She also shares how her loose position affected her trajectory when she first became a consultant.

If you’ve ever searched online for information about positioning your business, you know there is a ton of material available. But what’s often missing are the actionable items and exercises you need to work through in order to actually do it effectively. April noticed this gap in the market and created tools and processes to help businesses better position themselves.

April’s life has turned out to be more free-form than she ever though it would. She received her degree in systems design engineering and lucked into a job at a startup right out of school. She was eventually hired as a technology evangelist, where she learned that she was great at engaging with people and giving presentations. She points to that moment as a turning point in her career.

Currently, April can be found on her book tour and speaking at conferences (more than usual). She’s using the book events and publicity from the book as an interesting experiment in growing leads, since up to this point her business has been mostly referral-based.

In this episode, April and I dive into what makes some businesses fail and others succeed. We also discuss the principles and science behind positioning (like how people’s brains react to seeing something new).

In this episode April talks about:

• What positioning is, why it’s important in all aspects of marketing, and what she noticed was missing.
• The science of positioning and how you can use it to your advantage.
• Why it’s slightly harder to position services versus products.

Main Takeaways

• Positioning is the foundation of your marketing. A certain set of criteria pointed at a certain group of people about why you’re the best in the world is the building block for all of your marketing.
• Positioning is often a science based on groups of people and their given assumptions about certain markets. You can use people’s assumptions about these markets (competitors, costs, etc.) to differentiate yourself and give yourself an in.
• Product positioning is generally easier than services because the differences are more obvious. Figuring out how and why you’re different and which differences people really care about is the best strategy when positioning your service.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• April Dunford Website
• April on Twitter
• April on LinkedIn
• Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It
• Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind

Today’s co-host is Joel Klettke. Joel is a conversion copywriter and the co-founder of Case Study Buddy. Joel is a sought-after consultant, having worked with companies like Hubspot and WP Engine, among others. Today, Joel is talking with us about his strategies around conversion copywriting.

Joel firmly believes that copywriting is 10 percent writing and 90 percent research. To that end, when he’s working with clients, he engages with their customers in many different ways to learn all he can about them. Doing comprehensive research is the foundation for good conversion copywriting.

Being a relatively new dad has shaped how Joel views the world and his work. Watching his son be curious about everything, and look at things with wonder has reignited his own curiosity and reopened him to ideas in his own work.

Joel is still focused on conversion copywriting, but he’s starting to pull back a bit and dive into Case Study Buddy more and more. He sees it as a blue ocean opportunity and is excited to help clients create this valuable asset for their own companies.

In this episode, we talk about what conversion copywriting is, and what it’s not. We also talk about the five things we try to understand about our customers and how to make that information work for you. We discuss how to interview your customers for a case study, and then use the case studies in all stages of your business to position the value of your services.

In this episode Joel talked about:

• What conversion copywriting really is.
• The five key elements of great conversion copywriting.
• Why case studies are your best friend for landing new clients.

Main Takeaways

• Conversion copy understands the client so well that it can preempt anxieties and pain points, so you can know what to say and how to say it.
• The five elements you need to solve for are: purchase triggers, pain points, anxieties, priorities, and awareness. All successful conversion copy answers these questions.
• Case studies are the only piece of content that you can use at every stage of dealing with a client. Whether it’s right away or further into the process, you can use these examples to up sell, close a deal, or simply provide valuable information.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Case Study Buddy
• Case Study Free Guide
• Joel on LinkedIn
• Joel on Twitter

Today’s co-host is Hillary Weiss. Hillary is a concept development consultant, speaker, copywriter, and founder of Statement Piece Studio.

Hillary is a fellow New Yorker and she’s always had such a big personality that she felt she was born to be an entrepreneur. She’s passionate about consulting because she loves sitting down with other creative entrepreneurs to help them dig out the exact thing that differentiates them in the market.

Hillary has worked in many different mediums, including having a popular YouTube show. She likes to keep things fun and interesting while still having serious discussions about business, pricing, and development. She’s now in the space of entrepreneur education and finds people get the most value, not when they’re force fed information, but rather when they’re forced to take action and get their hands dirty.

In this episode, we dive into how to create a consulting service and price it so that you’re in demand. We talk about how to lean on your strengths and identify not just the client, but the personality of the client, and how to listen to what people are repeatedly asking for.

We also get into how Hillary chose the prices she did when she started to transition from implementation into consulting. I’m confident you are going to take away a lot from this conversation with Hillary.

In this episode Hillary talked about:

• Her strategies and techniques for working with clients.
• How she prices so that the client understands the value that they are getting from her consultation.
• Her business strategies that differentiate her from other “online consultants”.

Main Takeaways

• To have a personal brand or to be an outstanding entrepreneur, you need to dig down deep, figure out what fills you with energy, and what makes you unique. These will put you on the path to success.
• You can start out undervaluing your product to get people through the door, find out more about your ideal clients, and build a strategy. Then when you have those data points, raise your rates and go after high-ticket clients.
• Being available, following up, and responding personally to clients, even if they’re takeaways aren’t your responsibility, is a big differentiator and will bring clients back.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Hillary Weiss Website
• Hillary Weiss Signup
• Hillary on Twitter
• Hillary on Instagram
• HamYaw on YouTube