743: This ONE Strategy Earned Me An Extra 1 Million Dollars Last Year

25:44And again, that is just a big mistake that I see people make because now you end up confusing people or overwhelming them or kind of creating this blindness to your promotions. Let's go deeper on that a little bit. Like what isn't working with this strategy? Because I think that, you know, as this explodes, which I believe it is, we're going to see really good business practices. And then we're also going to see some that aren't so great or that the user isn't positioned as the hero in the journey. And so what are some things that people should be thinking about if they're thinking about creating their first funnel?

26:18And then after we answer this, we'll talk about what can you create? Yeah, absolutely. So four things kind of come to mind when you think about what's not working. And I also, you know, this kind of goes along with like common mistakes and things that I see. So maybe just start from like a high level. One of the biggest things to keep in mind when you kind of get into the DM part of this is that if you're a B2C company, meaning your business to consumer, and let's say, for example, that your audience is parents. Let's say that you sell a parenting course. You want to be mindful that your audience tends to be a lot more skeptical and oftentimes very repulsed by messages that could at all feel salesy.

26:55And so the way that we position the message copy, the way that we follow up with people in the DMs is a lot softer and gentler for those people where it really feels conversational. It's not like, hey, you forgot to do X, Y, Z, like go buy my thing or make sure that you sign up for my thing. And like you said, the user always needs to be positioned as the hero, but more so for people who are selling things that are maybe more of an emotional buy compared to like a B2B audience of, oh, I need that to grow my business. And it's a very logical purchase. And I've seen people kind of get caught up on that because they're like, why isn't this working for my B2C audience?

27:33And it's simply because people start to get almost offended by like, whoa, you're in my DMs. This is my place. And I love the analogy that Amy Porterfield talks about too, where like, you know, email is like their home, right? I might be butchering that a little bit, but essentially comparing like that to social media, like seeing somebody's post versus being in their DMs, it's a very sensitive channel. And so you want to be really mindful of that, not coming across like too aggressively. I mean, we all hate the DMs that solicit all sorts of crap, right? And so you don't want to fall into that bucket.

28:08And so it's just important, like talk to them like they are a friend. And that I think is the best way to approach it. And that will then kind of lead and guide you in how you write that copy and how you kind of promote that. So that'd be the first thing. There's a couple others, but anything that you'd want to dig into deeper there? No, I just, I love that. And one thing that I can hear almost like an objection from our listeners is like, I don't want it to feel like a bot, right? Like we've had good bot experiences. We've had bad bot experiences. We've had those bot experiences where we're like typing representative.

28:39Like I just want to talk to a human, right? And so one beautiful thing to think about with this is that this will allow you to have intentional conversations at scale. And one thing that's beautiful, and I've thought about this since really day one of my business is like if I can thoughtfully create something once when I'm in the right headspace, when I'm really thinking through the user experience and the journey and leverage it over and over and over again. I did this in the very beginning with like email templates, right? Where I really thoughtfully sat down and said, you know, I'm going to send this to a hundred different people, but it's going to feel like it's one-to-one because I'm in the mind space and the headspace of like, this is what this is going to be.

29:20If you think about sitting down and intentionally doing that in terms of the chat funnel versus trying to respond to a DM when your kid's pulling at your leg and dinner's burning on the stove, you can create a better experience, a more thoughtful experience and an experience that is immediate, whereas you don't have to be on your phone immediately. And I think that that's a big difference. And so I just want to kind of like reframe because I'm sure there's some people that are like, that terrible bot experiences, like how does this work? And I just think that there's something really beautiful about really sitting down and being able to intentionally lay this out and consistently refine and tweak it.

29:55But thinking of that process versus like, what does it really look like when you're trying to respond to your DMS? Most of the time, it's not convenient for you. It's not the best response. It's not the most like user focused. And so this is just like a different way of doing that. Yeah, absolutely. And to add to that as well, I think it is a similar reaction that I tend to from creators as well, where just like with content, I'm feeling burnt out. You know, I don't know how much longer I can do this for, even though I love doing it. It's just been tough because I can't tie this necessarily to business results.

30:29I think a lot of people see the DMS in the same way where they're like, Oh, I've just got to go in and maybe give free advice all the time, or like tell people where to find something that was on my website. Like just go to my site and reach out to our customer support. And so I see a lot of frustration with that. And without going too deep into all the things you can do, you know, this kind of lead generation and sales generation is just one pillar of all the things you could potentially automate over time. Like for example, you get a lot of DMS about, Hey, what's your biohacking routine and things about health.

31:01Cause you've been really passionate about that, you know, in the recent years and people are very curious about that. And so instead of you having to go in every single time, we can get someone an instant response, which they appreciate. And you don't have to worry about those people not being taken care of. So even if it's something like, hey, it sounds like maybe you're asking about my routine or these products that I use, like maybe this will answer your question and we're able to point them to some resources for that. And so that's just one example of how we can also go a step further with just some of those different entry points for things that people are already seeing come inbound for them.

31:34Yes, absolutely. One thing that I think would be really interesting is let's frame up what would be like the first funnel a listener could go out and build. Like what are the things they must have? What do they need to do? And then we can kind of keep going through some of the examples just to kind of help jog what they might be imagining for themselves. So somebody is listening to this and they're like, I've heard Jenna talking about this 10 different times over the last year and I still haven't done it. Where do I begin? Yes. So before we get into strategy, the first things, kind of the ingredients that you want to have are firstly, the software that's going to help you run this.

32:16And secondly, an asset that you can promote that ties to a bigger business result for you, which ideally is revenue generation. So the best thing that we have seen performed just consistently again and again is a PDF download that leads to a larger purchase, right? And for context, if people are like, my product costs X or my service costs X, will this work for me? Right now, our chat funnels on autopilot, aka without human involvement, sell products between a dollar to a hundred thousand dollars. So it is quite a range to where I would hope your product fits somewhere in between there and know that there is a case study or an example that I can pull out and show you.

32:54And so when it comes to thinking about that, what is something simple that you could do like a listicle or a lead magnet that you already have that could then lead people to the next step with you. And the next step doesn't necessarily have to be a purchase. It could be maybe they have to book a call to buy with you, or maybe they go into a webinar registration or a discount code. Let's say you're an e-commerce store, but lead magnets, because they seem to be lower commitment and it just takes a couple of minutes for people to consume. It's an easy kind of next step for people after consuming an Instagram posts from you.

33:26So I highly recommend that you start with that because that's what's going to get you the most leads initially. And something that you're really good at is being able to collect like a lot of people on the front end. And we've actually talked about with your content is like, you know, we don't want to be too, too specific with content where we're like really, really niching down and only talking to a very small segment because we want to get as many views as we can on the content. And then because we have this system on the back end, we're then able to filter through people to get them what they need.

33:55Because obviously a percentage of people who maybe engage with your posts aren't going to buy the thing we're promoting there, but at least they are sharing that piece of content or they're allowing us to get more reach with it. So at the end of the day, when it comes to like the type of content you're putting out and then the lead magnet, you want to make it as applicable to people as possible without obviously going outside of your market or people who are super different from what you're looking for. So that would be the first thing is having a easily consumable PDF that you can promote in your chat funnels.

34:24Yeah. And I love this. One thing I wanted to add Natasha is that if somebody's listening and they're like, okay, I don't know what the offer is going to be yet. That doesn't mean to skip this first step. This first step is something you can set up today to start growing your leads while you build out the offer. So if you listen to my advice on email list building or anything like that, just having a valuable piece of content that somebody is going to want that you can position what you're creating around, start there. And then you can always then filter those people in the future to the offer.

34:58Cause I know there's probably people listening that are like, I want to start a side hustle or I want to start a business. So I'm thinking about this. This can be a beautiful first step one to see how many people are interested in it. Right. It's like a free way to test out your idea and two, to start growing that list so that when you have something to launch, you have a list you can launch to. Yes. Thank you so much for bringing that up because this has actually been top of mind for me, because like you said, either somebody who's starting to maybe monetize their audience or even growing their audience for the first time, and they're not quite sure where to start.

35:31Oftentimes I see them just go into building a product like immediately, and they're not even sure if people are interested in it or want to buy it. Or there are, for example, we've got a client who does several hundred thousand dollars a month on Instagram and they aren't focused on growing their email lists at all because people just buy right off of their posts and whatnot. But as we both know, and as your audience knows from hearing from you, you don't own your Instagram followers and even the people in your DMs, which is why it's so important to collect those emails. And so this allows you to do that in just such a beautiful way that then you can have other things you promote to them later on in the DMs and on Instagram.

36:10But the first goal is get those emails as soon as you can so that you can serve them in a place where if Instagram were to go down, if something happened to your Instagram account at some point or whatever, you know, if there was a glitch on the platform and you started to lose followers, which has happened in the past, you know, then those people are still your people and you have access to them. Yeah, I love that. Look, I've become kind of a systems nerd and anything that gives me more space in my day, I'm all in. and a reliable connection is a huge part of that because when the internet lags or cuts out everything pauses and suddenly the simplest tasks take forever.

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38:38So let's talk about how to piece this together because the software piece is something that I think people get confused by. Totally. And so one thing to kind of think about when you're going into this is that you don't have to start with like a crazy complex funnel, right? If you go through one of Jenna's funnels, you'll notice that if you drop off, for example, there will be a nice gentle follow-up that's like, Hey, you know, did you still want to get access to this? And you'll see a lot of kind of bells and whistles that of course we have spent a lot of time and energy putting in because that is what we specialize in.

39:10And that's what we spend all of our time doing. And so for you as the business owner or somebody doing this for, let's say the company you work for, or for your side hustle or your account, you know, don't get too caught up on creating something super fancy, but the first piece of it is having that ingredient. The second step of this, which is the software that you want to set up is called ManyChat. And Jenna actually has a code for you 30 days free of their pro subscription, which only starts at 15 bucks a month. So after those 30 days, it's still super affordable to use, but using the code Jenna will give you 30 days free.

39:41So you can test this out completely risk free and be able to see how this starts to perform for you. And so when you dive into the software, where it's going to be pretty straightforward to essentially start to put together like a flow chart like process of what this is going to look like in the DMS for you. And so you'll be able to collect their emails right in there. And then from there, be able to send that over to whatever email platform you use. It works with Flowdesk, which I know is one that Jenna talks about all the time with ConvertKit, Keep, HubSpot, literally any of the email marketing platforms that are out there.

40:14This will tie right into. And so at the end of the day, the main reasons why you want to do this is firstly, you're going to be collecting people's emails at a much higher rate than any landing page. But also this is going to allow you to do it all inside of the platform without them having to leave their Instagram DMs. Yes. I love this. There are so many different entry points I've seen recently too. I always just like love to pay attention of like, what am I opting in for? Right? Because I know how all of this works. Even fashion influencers will do like comment links, and then they'll send you the links to their shirt they're wearing or their necklace.

40:49There's the same thing for recipes or jewelry. You can do this for podcast episodes. You can do this for a chapter of your book. You can do this for a lead magnet of, you know, five ways to feed your family. You can do this for basically anything. And one thing that I love that you said, Natasha, is like, it can be the most simple funnel, right? Like you could say, comment the word food and I will send you the ingredients for this recipe. And you could literally just send them a list in their DMS of the ingredients should you want to. So it doesn't have to be this huge back and forth thing. It can be super simple.

41:21But one thing I want you to do is to sign up for many chat, do it for a month free and just prove to yourself that you can do this. Like even if you have a following of a thousand people, just to start to pay attention to how is the content I'm creating actually driving a real result beyond the like or comment? How do I measure that? Not only is it going to like give you this confidence of like people actually want what you have, but it's going to make creating content so much more fun. Yes. I love that you brought this up and actually had it top of mind to, to ask you to maybe reiterate if you remember, otherwise I might do kind of a summary of, you had mentioned ManyChat's Instagram summit recently.

42:00One of the great points that you made was like, if you don't get a gazillion comments on the first post where you tell people to comment a word, that is okay. And you talked a little bit about how like you're training your audience to engage with you in this way, you know, with enough consistency, we haven't seen this not work. And so any chance you can speak a little bit to that? Cause I think I've gotten a couple of DMS where people are like, I tried it. It didn't work. And I look at their posts. I'm like, you only tried it on this one post. You could have swapped these things. So yeah, I'd love for you to talk to that.

42:28So 100%. It is so funny how quickly we want to just stop experimenting. And I am a lover of experiments. Recently, my accountants were like, what is this money going towards? And I was like, an experiment. I just love to try different things out. And so to switch your methods and all of a sudden, maybe get on stories when you haven't been on stories for months and say, comment me this word and I'm going to do this thing. People are like, wait, what? And so like what I want for you to do, you have 30 days of a pro trial of mini chat, commit to at least five different ways that you are asking people to do a certain action and see what happens.

43:08And again, just as you've trained them to do what they're currently doing, which is likely liking and commenting, maybe saving or sharing, you are going to train them with this new method. And it's not a negative thing, but it's, it's an interesting way to change it. And one thing I thought that was so interesting, Natasha's at a recent mastermind, we had a lot of people that have like a lot of connections at a lot of the bigger platforms like meta and someone was sharing in the room that meta is investing so heavily in their dm platform and the expansion of that because they see that dms is like the number one way that people actually feel connected on the platform right they see that as a way more valuable interaction than simply scrolling and double tapping and liking and maybe commenting apart.

43:55And so it was just like even more proof of what we're already seeing of like, this is a really meaningful way to connect with people. People want to connect in this more intimate way. It's more private way of connection. People maybe feel more able to be vulnerable to share where they're at or what they need help with in a private space. And so if you can commit for me and Natasha to doing this for 30 days, and at least trying five different times. And you know, it's funny, Natasha, is when we were at this mastermind, I was telling people that one of my strategies is trying to just shoot 60 seconds of my life a day to create B-roll, just like footage of random things.

44:34It could be working out, it could be putting on makeup, it could be cutting an avocado for lunch. And one of the guys that was there had never posted B-roll content. And I was like, Brandon, you're standing in this light. It's beautiful light. Let me just like take this little shot. He posted it with the many chat trigger his post did seven times better than all of his last posts got tons of engagement, like on his first thing. And all it was, was a post of him writing something down on a sheet of paper. And then it said like this number one quote, changed my life, read the caption in the caption.

45:07He had a call to action. Like it was like literally within 24 hours he implemented and he was like, Oh my God. And I was like, it's working, Brandon. It's working. And he's like, it's working. So just commit to like actually trying, which I think is really powerful. Oh, I love that story so much because it just highlights all the things like it can really be that simple. And it's about just understanding what's working right now. And so that's why I admire your mindset of like treating everything like an experiment in a sense and being open to it, but also making sure that just like with a scientific experiment, you're giving it enough opportunity to work.

45:44And you're not just totally discrediting it if it doesn't work after one or two or even three posts. You guys may need to try a couple of different things to see how that works because there's so many different factors that could be involved there. You want to make sure it's clear enough, et cetera. And so the simpler that you can make those tests, the better. So you can start to tweak things and kind of figure out, oh, maybe this hook didn't work. Or maybe where I placed it in the caption was confusing because I put it at the end of like a five sentence paragraph, which I've seen plenty of times.

46:12Or maybe I was telling people to do six different things in my caption, like make sure that you save this and don't forget to share it with a friend and like this and comment yes below. And by the way, also comment this to get this. So all these pieces, just keep in mind that all of them can affect your post. And so it's not just about the fact that you wrote comment in the caption, but that you want to be mindful of all the ingredients that are a part of your post. Yeah, I love that. And one thing that I think is really powerful is if somebody is listening and they're like, I just hate content creation, I want to fall back in love with it.

46:45Once you set up these funnels, then you get to really have fun with the content creation piece, right? Like once the backend is set up and you know that it works and it's converting the way that you hoped it would, then you really get to have fun experimenting with the front end of that entry point. And I just think that that's where so many creators fall back in love with why they got started and maybe how they grew a following, whether it's small or large, is like that connection piece, that showing of your life piece, it becomes so much more fun again. And I think so many of us are wanting the fun back in that piece of our lives.

47:23Yes. I love that you mentioned that. And I was telling you too, before we started recording that we recently did a couple of interviews with some of our clients, very in-depth interviews. And the number one thing that came out was exactly that is people were feeling so burnt out by I've been creating content for such a long time. You know, things worked so differently on Instagram years ago, or even newer of just, I don't know how to create business value out of the content that I'm creating. And this allows you to, once it's set up, it's running. And now you can put all of your energy and attention and creative juices back into the content side of things, which is going to help you fuel all of this.

47:59And it can become fun again. Yeah, I love that. As we start to close out, what are the things that you're expecting to see as trends for this next year? Like, what are the things that we should be kind of paying attention to? What am I going to be talking about on my podcast a few months from now? Because we will be talking about this again. Yes. Okay. A couple of things come to mind. The first is a little bit more short term, which is that, of course, we all know that AI is taking over the world. And so when it comes to kind of how that is infused, you know, the thing that we have been really focused on as a company ourselves is not allowing it to be too AI driven of a journey in the DMs because you want to give people a very streamlined solution of what they're looking for.

48:43You know, your chat funnels are not chat GPT. People can't come to you and say, hey, create a travel itinerary for me or tell me a joke or, you know, all these things that can kind of take you way off track and maybe spit out a response, that is totally not you because there's still just not enough. Like it's not advanced enough. I hate to say that because it's very advanced, but in a sense, like the parameters aren't quite there yet to allow you to do that in the DM specifically, just because meta primarily, you know, policy wise doesn't allow you to do everything in there that you would want to, to make sure that those answers are aligned for you.

49:15But I do think that that's going to improve over the next year. So within the next year, you know, we're doing a lot of experimentation with using AI for things like email verification and like making sure people are getting sent to the right places. I don't anticipate we're going to ever have a like full, like just open-ended kind of response frame where it's because then again, you're not giving people that straight shooter solution. It's more of like, let me know anything you need. And maybe at some point that becomes valuable, but right now people kind of want to be told what to do in order to solve that specific issue that they're having.

49:48And so for the time being, it does make sense to treat it more like a funnel than like an open-ended conversation. But hopefully we'll be able to, of the like 5 % to 15 % of people who might go through a funnel and have additional questions or maybe need a little bit more help redirecting stuff, I anticipate that like we'll be able to automate a lot more over the coming year, which will be exciting. And then the other thing too, which maybe some people have seen is that Meta has been working on these AI assistants. And they are personalities that kind of live in your DMs that are not like you turning into an AI assistant, but it's more so they can come into conversations or you can talk directly with them.

50:26Like, for example, they've got one that looks like Kendall Jenner, but it's called Billy. And so, and it's like a whole like, I'm your older sister, you know, blah, blah, like that kind of, you know, and they have all these different archetypes and characters. And so we are just keeping a close eye on seeing, you know, how does that potentially integrate or connect with what we are doing right now when it comes to individual businesses, personalities, And will there be a time where it is possible to like feed that AI, you know, let's say all of your podcasts for all time, all of your email copy, even all of your DMs and be able to have it now create a personality around you that makes it even easier for business owners and creators to create something that like immediately feels like you.

51:11I think we're still somewhat, you know, far away from it, maybe a couple of years, but longer term, that's definitely kind of top of mind for us as we're looking into just like, how do you optimize and help companies get this up and going even faster over time? Wow. So one thing I want everyone to do that's listening is go to my Instagram at Jenna Kutcher and comment the word chat. And you can just see what it is we're talking about. You can learn more about Natasha. You can learn more about all the different things that we're doing with business owners and for business owners. So there's options for wherever you are on this journey.

51:46What else do people need to do or where can they go to find out more? And by the way, What revenue did we drive through chatbots for my business this year? Yes,$1.4 million. That is insane. Insane. All through organic, automated messages. That's incredible. Okay, where can everybody find out more about you and learn from you? Yeah, two main places. So schoolofbots.co is our website. If you want to go check out more examples, more case studies, get some more free content from us to help you get started. Or if you want to work directly with us and you're like, sign me up, where do I get started on this?

52:28Our site will take you through all of that and just help you kind of visualize it as well. Since I know with a podcast, sometimes it's tough, which is why going to an example will be helpful and being able to see all that on our site will be useful. And then you can also reach out to me on Instagram with any questions at all you have, feedback about the episode, like any thoughts that you have as you're kind of getting started with things at Natasha T. Willis is my Instagram. Awesome. And comment the word chat and you can see all of these different pieces at play. And you can also kind of select which option would work best for you if this is something that you want to get started in.

53:02And of course, Natasha built that so you can see her handiwork on the back end, which would be amazing. Thank you so much for coming back on the podcast. This will not be the last time that you will be on gold digger. I can't wait to continue to explore this world with you. And I'm just so grateful you slid in to my DMs with the best cold pitch of my life. Oh my gosh. Yes, that's so true. Literally, our relationship started on Instagram DM, y 'all. Cold DM. And we signed that same day and had our first chat funnel up and going within 24 hours. So the inception of the story is just like so perfect for, you know, where we are now.

53:41Thank you so much for having me. Thank you everybody for listening. It was such a joy and an honor to be here. Natasha and I both agreed that we probably could have gone on for another five hours. And so this is a topic that you want us to continue diving into. Please let us know on Instagram. I would love to hear what you want to learn about this topic. Again, this is my most covered topic in the last year because I am obsessed with it and the results that it's not only getting me, but it's getting listeners just like you. Again, if you want to see this in action and be connected to Natasha and her resources, hop on over to Instagram, send me a DM with the word chat, C-H-A-T, just send me a DM with the word chat and you can experience what one of these funnels looks like and feels like, but you can also be connected to the resources that you are likely going to be seeking out after listening to today's show.

54:30Again, thank you so much for listening to the Goal Digger podcast. Until next time, keep on digging your biggest goals. I'm over here giving you a virtual high five because you just finished another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. Did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, head over to golddiggerpodcast.com for show notes and all the discount codes from today's sponsors. And if you're looking for a new crew of movers and shakers like you to bounce ideas and ask questions, be sure to join my exclusive community for Gold Diggers on Facebook. The link's waiting for you at golddiggerpodcast.com.