How to Grow a 6-Figure Business in 6 Months, Working 10 Hours a Week with Christine McAlister: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. are brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Marketing Against the Grain. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to grow a six-figure business in six months, working 10 hours a week. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Christine McAllister into EO Fire Studios. Christine is passionate about helping high-achieving coaches and marketers who want to create impact and income to go from wondering where to find their next client to empowered six-figure online business owners.

0:34And today, Fire Nation, we'll talk about creating your program's powerful promise, practicing magnetic marketing strategies, and approaching a host with respect and understanding, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Christine and our sponsors. Imperfect Action, hosted by Steph Taylor, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Imperfect Action is a bite-sized online marketing podcast for business owners who want to get straight to the point. Join Steph Taylor as she answers all your business marketing questions.

1:04Recent episodes include five must-knows to sell your online course, program, or membership, and four steps to grow your email list for your next launch. Listen to Imperfect Action wherever you get your podcasts. Ever thought about giving a TEDx talk? It's one of the most powerful ways to share your message with the world. And four-time TEDx speaker Taylor Conroy from Thought Leader can help you get there. Visit thought-leader.com slash fire to join Taylor's free training where he teaches you how to land a TEDx talk and spread your message to millions. Christine, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:46Fire Nation, I am so excited to be back with JLD and each one of you. And I believe that the hardest part of growing a six-figure business you love is allowing it to be easy. It doesn't have to be hard. No, but we've taught that it does, right? We're taught to be really good employees. And so what our brains do to try to keep us safe when we start dreaming about getting that first traction in our businesses, that's what makes it hard, not the fact that you're not capable. I mean, sometimes I ask myself, like, what is the path of least resistance here? Like, why am I making this difficult for myself?

2:24Like, what feels light, not heavy? And I'll tell you, Fire Nation, I am keeping all the things that feel light and feel easier in my world right now. And I'm releasing the things that feel heavy and feel hard because it doesn't have to be difficult. And we're talking about a pretty cool topic, how to grow a six-figure business in six months working 10 hours a week. And I just want to talk about the realisticness of making six figures working 10 hours a week. Break that down for us, Christine. Yes. This is all about simplifying. Like you said, what feels light, right? You only need two things in order to have the foundation of a six-figure business.

3:05Like you need a clear niche and you need an aligned high-ticket offer providing some kind of service, whether as a coach, as a consultant, as a service provider, freelancer, you know, marketer, virtual assistant, OBM, social media manager, one of those things, that's all that you need in order to be able to start going out and offering it. You need two things, Fire Nation, a clear niche, and that clear niche aligned with a high ticket offer of some form of service that Christine was talking about right there. And what's really powerful about that for me is I see a lot of people today saying, John, like, man, like, I want to launch a podcast, like interview entrepreneurs or this or that.

3:48And I'm like, listen, entrepreneurs on fire fails if I launch it in 2020 with my same skills that I had in 2012. Like I won in 2012 because it was a niche. It was a void. I filled it. And that's why that won and got traction. And so what is a specific niche that can be clear and defined for you, fire nation that how can you weave in and aligned? And I like that word aligned high ticket offer of a service that makes sense. Because right now, man, I'm seeing, and Christine, I kind of want you to chime in on this because I'm seeing a lot of people doing things the wrong way, which is like they're working so hard for these like really low ticket offers.

4:27And they're just, you know, having to get like a hundred, a thousand, sometimes even like more than that of these sales of these low ticket offers for it even to add up to any kind of meaningful money. And like every sale is tough. Like a lot of times I found that a low ticket sale, can sometimes even be harder than a high ticket sale. And we can kind of get into that kind of specifics too. But what do you think about this? I completely agree. I have like a what not to do, right? And it is literally what you just said. Don't write a book or start a podcast first. Don't download every freebie and try to piece together a business plan from them.

5:02Don't create a bunch of low priced products and start offering them all. And also like, don't tell yourself you don't have enough time because it's almost never a time problem. It's a clarity problem. Like if you knew what to do, you would just go do it already, which is why if you know what to do, you can do it in 10 hours a week. It's not a time problem, Fire Nation. It's a clarity problem. And just to kind of like emphasize this point, I mean, I'm experiencing this, you know, where I'm at right now in my business, you know, eight years in, seven years of multi-million dollars of revenue. Like we just launched our bulk packages for the common path to uncommon success.

5:41and they go all the way from 12 books up to 600 books. That's all the way from$300 to$30 ,000. And guess what? We sold a$15 ,000 package before we sold a single 12 book buy package for$300. Now people will be like, how's that even possible? Because sometimes it's just easier to sell these high ticket items when they're so aligned, when they're so clear and they just make so much sense. So when you spend your time there, I mean, think about how many 12 book buy options I'd have to buy to add up to this one$15 ,000 package that I've already sold like in the first day that we're offering these book buys.

6:22I mean, that's something that can really be a mindset shift for a lot of people. So let's get specific, Christine, in exactly what we need to be doing in these 10 hours per week that we have under this conversation that you and I are having about six figures, 10 hours a week. Yes. Once you have a clear niche and you have an offer, which we can talk about that, a high ticket offer, a high end offer, it is beginning to get in front of people. Right. Get in front of your niche. That might sound like completely overly simplistic, but you need to choose and start to practice one magnetic marketing strategy that is, again, like aligned to your what I call your three P's, your personality, your preferences and your passion.

7:08and become a powerhouse at that one method, that is enough to get you to six figures instead of trying to be everywhere on all the platforms using all the strategies. There are dozens of them. And when you choose one that feels like it would be really fun and that you can show up for consistently, that's all you're doing in the beginning to help people begin to know, like, and trust you and want to get on the phone with you. become a powerhouse in that one method. I just want to underline that point a little bit here, Fire Nation, because like, if there's one thing that I've become convinced of over the years, and by the way, proven it myself to myself over the years, is that when you can become the best at something, you will win at a high level.

7:56And a lot of people will be like, well, how can I become the best at X or Y or Z? I'm sometimes like, well, you can't because you're too broad and you're too vague. But when you now niche down into that clearly defined niche, you can be the best in that thing. And sometimes you have to niche down once, twice, three times, niche down till it hurts, I like to say. And then you say, okay, now I'm looking around and A, there's no competition, so I'll be the best. Or B, there's pretty average and mediocre conversation, so I can overcome them pretty quickly and become the best. Because Fire Nation, the day that I launched Entrepreneurs on Fire, I was the best daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs.

8:33I was the worst daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. I was the only daily podcast interviewing entrepreneurs. I found my niche that wasn't even being touched by any competition. I became a powerhouse in that one specific method as Christine talks about. And we're going to be talking, Fire Nation, about creating a magnetic high-ticket offer when we get back from thanking our sponsors. I remember searching for the perfect CRM when I first launched Entrepreneurs on Fire, and it's tough to know which platform is going to be right for you and your business. Being in major startup mode, I wanted to choose a CRM that could keep up with my big growth goals.

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11:41Visit thought-leader.com slash fire. Join Taylor for this free training and get your message out of your head, out of your heart and out into the world where it belongs. That's thought-leader.com slash fire. Christine, we're back. And one thing that I love about you is you've really drilled down and become amazing. You become a powerhouse and teaching others how to create a magnetic high ticket offer. Break that down for us. My gosh, thank you so much. I'm like super honored by your words. Let's talk about the five steps to creating that aligned high ticket offer that's actually going to sell to your niche.

12:21All right. First, you need to create your program's powerful promise. So it all stems from the promise of your offer. So like for you, what is the promise of one of your paid offers? Create, grow, and monetize your podcast. Yes. Perfect. I love it. And I know how powerful that program is because I have a bunch of friends who are like, it's the best. Podcasters paradise, holla. Holla. And when you have that thing, you had the result for yourself. Obviously, you could turn around and congruently teach it to other people. And I know you're constantly working on making that course the best that it can be, right?

13:03Big time, big time. Yeah. So you need a promise that by the end of the container, people have the potential of reaching that offer. Right. So for me, it's create go from best kept secret to break out six figure online business owner working 10 hours a week. Right. It's super simple. And I've helped people do it. I've helped myself do it. I know I can teach it. Right. So that's really what is going to intrigue people to want to buy from you. It's not some of these other things that we're going to be talking about. And that's why you lead with developing the promise. Every other step is in service of delivering on that promise.

13:45Does that make sense? It makes a lot of sense. And that's the first of five steps, Fire Nation. Create your program's powerful promise. Keep on rocking. Okay. Step two is to identify your personal process. So I can remember that when I wrote my book, I went to my editor and I said, here's the book. Help me make sense of it. Help me put it together. And she said, well, what's your process? And I said, I don't have a process. Every person's different. And then, you know, I meet them where they are. And she was like, that's BS. You have one, you're just like in your jar. You can't read the label.

14:18Let's figure out what your process is. Right. So we all have it. I like to go through what I call the Sherpa exercise, which is if somebody from your niche hired some Sherpas to climb, help them get up to the top of the Himalayan mountain where you are sitting as a master of wisdom in your hut, right? Drinking yak butter tea, waiting for them. And they only have 30 minutes to sit at your feet and get the most important, let's say five to seven things that they need in order to reach the promise of your program. Like set a timer on your phone for five minutes, put that constriction on your brain.

15:02what do they need? Brain dump it, right? What do they need to do first and then next and then next and then next to get to the promise of the program? That's your process. And by the way, that time constraint, Fire Nation, that's actually freeing. That actually helps because now you're not overwhelmed with having to include everything. No, it's just what matters. So identify your personal process. I love that vision of the Sherpa because I actually did Trek back in 2009, Annapurna, which is the seventh highest mountain in the world in the Himalayas. I was drinking that tea with yak butter all day long.

15:33Like it was amazing. I mean, I have such fond memories. And so that visualization really hits home with me and keep on rocking, Christine. Oh, thank you. So step three is to detail your delivery. This is putting the nitty gritty of things like how many calls, what kind of support do they get between calls, what trainings, like what are the things that really put like clothes on your offer to help people visualize what it's actually going to be like to invest that amount of time with you. How long is the program, right? All those kinds of things. And this is usually what people lead with when someone says like, oh, what would it be like to work with you?

16:11Can you tell me about that? Usually people are like, well, you get 12 calls and it's three months and da, da, da. No, that's not actually what they're asking. Like don't lead with that. Lead with the promise and then the process, the delivery is just like, okay, this creates safety. This creates a container around how they're actually going to show up and support me in helping me fulfill the promise of the program. Now, is this like a good example is like, it's what you're not doing at the beginning is saying, oh, we're going to meet four days a week and you're going to like pump iron and you're going to do all these sit-ups and all this stuff and you're going to sweat.

16:47No, like you start off by creating your program's promise, which is like, hey, you're going to lose 10 pounds in three weeks. Like that is it. Like I'm not going to talk right now at the beginning, right? Right. The step one, like this will come later. I'll talk about the delivery, but step one is the powerful promise. And I love how you said it was step three. It's detailing your delivery, putting clothes on that offer fire nation. I love that analogy too. So keep it going, Christine. Step four is to pick your perfect price. So this is something that I kind of have a unique take on. I call it the perfect pricing method, which is basically choosing a price that you can say without throwing up.

17:24Because usually - $125 ,000. Oops, sorry. Right, exactly. Awkward sale lost, right? Usually when we're getting started with a high ticket offer in our businesses, we've never done anything like that before. Especially if you're like me and JLD and we're impact driven, right? We just want to help. JLD has so many free courses. They're amazing. You can learn any freaking thing from him that you want for free. Obviously, that's a strategic part of your business, but it's also because you genuinely want to help as many people as possible. Right. And so we think about charging for our work when maybe we've only ever been paid by somebody else before.

18:07Then we get all weird and up in our head and we like are so nervous about them asking what it's going to cost and who would pay that. Oh, my gosh. You know. And so it doesn't matter whether that initial price is like five hundred dollars or five thousand dollars. It needs to be a price that you can get sold on the value of your offer around, right? So that you can walk in confidently and not ask the person on the other end of a sales call to like make you okay by telling you whether that's an amount that they would pay, right? You need to be so sold on the fact that you can help them for that amount and that they would be nuts to say no at that price because you know what you're going to deliver.

18:53that you can confidently like and be empowered around the sales and the price conversation, the investment conversation. And that number will change as you deliver and get paid and realize like what a heck of a deal it was. And now it's time to raise the price. But the most important thing is that you pick an initial price so that you can go help people and help them get results and get paid in the process. This is such a sticking point for so many people. Like they get so stressed out over this. And I love how you're just kind of taking away that stress and saying, hey, listen, you're going to start somewhere.

19:28Then you're going to be able to get, you know, some feedback. You're going to be able to get people giving you reviews, maybe, you know, some great testimonials. And then you're going to be able to, as you go over time, kind of massage and then find that perfect price point as you go forward. Because maybe it does need to be raised by 25%, 75%, 100%. Who knows? But start somewhere, pick that perfect price point, and then move forward from that place. And what is step number five? Step number five is to learn sales as service. So this was really a game changer for me because I think early on in my business, I had been sold to in some ways that felt like very gross, icky, salesy, used cars man, used car salesman-y.

20:20And I just felt like pushed into things rather than treated like the adult, the educated adult that I am, right, who is able to make decisions for herself and figure out whether this is the right fit. And so learning that you can deliver, I call it the empowered sales method. Like from the time that you connect with someone that they learn about you, to the time you warm them up to become a lead, to getting on the phone, to following up if you need to, every step of that process can be you respecting these people that you're connecting with as empowered human beings who are capable of making their own decisions.

21:01It changes the way that you're going to show up because then you're not worried that you're ever going to push them into doing something. You literally can't force someone to buy from you. So stop pretending like you have that kind of power, right? You're not an evil dictator. and like be willing to kind of serve them through the process, help them get clarity on what they want, what's standing in the way, and genuinely get curious about whether your offer is something that can support them. Is it a fit for both of you? Do you want to like hang out with this person and share energy with them for the next however long your program is, three months, six months?

21:40and if so, be willing to share that excitement and the possibility and help them work through probably what are gonna be some fears and some resistance around investing in themselves in this way, especially if they've never done it before. When you serve people like that, even in the sales process, they get clarity and they become super fans because you sold to them in a way that they probably haven't experienced much of and they will remember how they felt. Fire Nation, you know I love processes. You know I love systems. And I love the fact that Christine's broken this out into five steps. Five steps.

22:18So we went one, two, three, four, five down that process. She explained each one. She gave some great analogies, some great examples. This is something you can apply to your business today. And before the break, we actually talked about the best way to use your 10 hours a week to become a six-figure earner. and you said, hey, you just got to get in front of your ideal clients. So let's get maybe a little more specific as we talk about our final point here today. What is the best way to get in front of those ideal clients to sell that offer? So I'm going to get a little bit meta on you. I hope that's okay.

22:55Yeah, totally. I have tried all the things. I've been in this business for the past five and a half years. Before that, I was an online marketer for a decade. And my absolute favorite way to get in front of ideal clients and have them like attracted to me rather than feeling that I have to go find them and I don't know where they are, which is stressful, right, is being a guest on podcasts. Yes. So, right. So I know Kate did an episode of Kate's take on this and I have been on like well over a hundred podcasts at this point. Of course, yours is my favorite JLD. Thank you for having me back. And I've also gotten to connect with, you know, some of our mutual friends like Pat Flynn, Denise Duffield Thomas, like people who are doing amazing things in the world by creating this method that I call the powerhouse method that really just serves them.

23:53Like for you, you have put blood, sweat, and tears over the last eight years into this show and into serving building and serving fire nation and not only those things but a heck of a lot of money into producing the best show you can big time big time and so when you approach a host with like a respect and an understanding of what they are doing for you by allowing you into their world and basically endorsing you to this audience that they care so much about, it changes the way that you show up and treat that interview because you are there to make it like the best episode ever. You are there to make it a win-win.

24:38And the thing is, it's so different than any other method because I get to have a conversation with someone I admire one-on-one that's being recorded, will be shared on Evergreen and searchable, and I'm being invited into like the listeners, like where are you right now listening to this? You're probably like doing chores, walking the dog, cooking, like working out, driving somewhere. And I get to hang out with you for a half hour and there is no other method, right? That warms people up faster and helps the right people self-select whether you are someone that they want to learn more from. Preach, sister.

25:22I mean, man, Fire Nation, I really hope you absorb those words because I can tell you, now having interviewed over 3 ,000 entrepreneurs, there's just so many people and so many guests in general that they act like it's their God-given right to be on a show and that they're doing you a favor and like, oh my God, I'm so busy, but I'll take a little bit of time, I guess, out of my day to chat with you and yada, yada. It's just so refreshing when there's people that actually understand what they're getting involved with when they come on a show, like Entrepreneurs on Fire, like Smart Passive Income, like other podcasts that are out there that have spent years and years and years building a massive listener base that knows, likes, and trusts them.

25:59And like Christine shared, I mean, like when I have her come on, I'm essentially letting you know, Fire Nation, that like, I think this is an entrepreneur on fire. I think this is a person who has massive value bombs to share with you. So I love everything that you shared today, Christine. I love the five steps that you gave us. I love just the overall concept of, you know, creating that high ticket magnetic offer as we talked about at the beginning. So talk to us right now as we say our goodbyes. The one massive takeaway that you want Fire Nation to really get from everything that we chatted about here today, any gift or giveaway that you have for Fire Nation, please share that and then we'll say goodbye.