The Business Millennials Podcast

Scaling Your Business: Strategies for Growth and Automation (Guest Strategy Session)

• Ashley Dreager

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In this episode of the Business Millennials Podcast, hosts Safa Harris and Ashley Drager sit down with Holly Hart, a psychic medium from Phoenix, Arizona, to discuss strategies for scaling a spiritual business while maintaining energy levels and work-life balance. Holly shares her struggles with managing bookings, creating digital products, and automating customer interactions as a solopreneur.

The conversation delves into practical solutions for streamlining Holly's business, including:

  1. Transitioning to Dubsado for customer relationship management (CRM)
  2. Utilizing ThriveCart for hosting and selling workshops and courses
  3. Implementing MailerLite for email marketing and automation

Safa and Ashley also provide guidance on refining pricing models, developing evergreen products, and crafting a strategic marketing approach to effectively promote Holly's services and attract ideal clients. The hosts emphasize the importance of investing in the right tools and strategies for sustainable business growth and personal well-being.

Key topics

  • Overcoming tech barriers and automating business processes
  • Diversifying income streams with digital products and evergreen offers
  • Pricing strategies for service-based businesses
  • Hiring virtual assistants and delegating tasks effectively
  • Balancing business growth with personal energy management
  • Implementing a strategic marketing approach for spiritual entrepreneurs

Whether you're a psychic medium, spiritual entrepreneur, or service-based business owner looking to scale, this episode offers valuable insights and actionable tips for optimizing your operations, increasing revenue, and achieving a healthy work-life balance.

Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to the Business Millennials Podcast
01:01 Diving Into Holly's Business Challenges
04:59 Exploring Solutions for Holly's Business
08:07 Tech Tools and Systems for Scaling Holly's Business
18:38 Addressing Holly's Concerns and Final Recommendations
29:00 Exploring Done-for-You Services vs. DIY
30:21 The Role of a Virtual Assistant in Tech Setup
31:29 Finding the Right Balance: Skillset, Willingness, and Business Needs
32:55 Understanding the Financials: Hiring Help and Budgeting
37:03 Setting Revenue Targets and Pricing Strategies
42:31 Leveraging Evergreen Offers for Scalable Revenue
48:03 Action Items Recap and Tools Recommendation
51:18 Concluding Thoughts on Business Growth and Personal Development

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Welcome to the business millennials podcast. This show brings you strategic insights through raw and unfiltered real world advice to accelerate your business growth for longterm success. I'm Safa Harris, and I'm Ashley Drager. We're the founders of scale and thrive co a full service marketing and business development firm, helping visionary companies scale sustainably. Expect us to have the uncomfortable conversations that no one else is having. We'll break down what it really takes to grow and scale your business beyond six Seven or even eight figures as well as inspiring interviews with diverse leaders across marketing, product development, sales, and more. You have fly on the wall. As we conduct strategy sessions with business owners experiencing issues, such as plateaued income, burnout, and generally dropping the ball, giving you the tools and resources to break through your own roadblocks, but also personal development methods to grow you as a balanced, conscious leader amidst business growth. Let's jump into this week's episode.

Ashley:

okay. Welcome to this week's episode. We are going to be doing a strategy session with Holly. We are going to go through the challenges that she's currently facing within her business and helping her to strategize the most effective and efficient way to get to the outcome that she is currently looking for. Looking for. So, uh, we're going to hear from Holly exactly what's going on in her business, what she's looking to achieve over the next few months or the next year potentially, and help her to get steps to take away from this. Session and start making that growth and progress. So Holly, if you want to go ahead and tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do and who you are, we'll just jump right into it.

Holly:

Yeah, I am Holly Hart. I'm a psychic medium here in Phoenix, Arizona. And I will tell you growing a business when you're just a spiritual being with a beautiful gift Has been really challenging for me But I serve people by communicating with their loved ones on the other side and I connect them and guide them through their loved ones in spirit

Safa:

Very cool. That's very cool. Um, I was just gonna like jump right in to the session and I guess kind of tell us where your business currently is and where you would like to see it go. Essentially what your vision is and then what you think the roadblocks are that are keeping you from going there. Yeah. So

Holly:

currently I have clients. I have been able to fill my roster. So it's Um, fine, but what has happened, the roadblock that I realized is energetically I cannot do, I cannot scale my business just on mediumship alone. So I am now needing to create courses and last year I pivoted to not only working with clients one on one to help them heal through a little bit of their grief, but now I'm training mediums like myself and intuitive children. That are very intuitive and you know gifts like I had but the issue I have is I I had it all organized I had my little square system where people could book me Um, but now i'm like I want to create workshops and I want to create courses I want I need extra revenue because my energy I can't do I really can only do six to eight clients a week Um, and i'm tapped out. I feel like I worked 50 to 60 hours and You Teaching was a hard job. I left a special ed teaching job for, um, to do this and I'm like, well, I'm not even working that much, but energetically I'm exhausted. So that became a huge roadblock that I could not, um, really oversee unless I add in some revenue that's coming in. So that is where that shifted in 2023. I started the heartfelt healers program, which is really more about training mediums, growing a community here of spiritual people, spiritual children. I'm really kind of opening up people to the spirit side. Um, but I really have a biggest struggle is with systems. I do not understand how they all communicate to each other. Um, even though I grew up with computers, uh, it wasn't until later on in my life. So I'm a little older. Um, and so I'm like, I don't get it. I got finally got really comfortable with square and square is not seeming to work for me. Um, people can book me, but I'm trying to create workshops. I want to create where I have a package deal Where people because most of my clients see me three to four times a year. And so I want them to be able to Get a discount, but then also, um, it for something to track it, you know, and then maybe create courses or email subscriptions. And, um, it's just been really challenging. And I'm like, I finally learned square and everyone's like, do something else. I'm like, I don't know, I fear of, um, actually trying something new, but I'm willing to try so I can

Safa:

scale my business. Yeah, so it definitely, well, one good job on diversifying your income. That is always the best thing to do when growing a business. Um, and then two, yeah, uh, square is probably not going to work for everything you're trying to do. Um, and yes, it is very complicated. Hack wise, and it is a. There's a big learning curve on the text pieces that one are available to you to do what you're needing to do, and then the setup and automation of them. Um, so before we dig in to that, I want to know,, do you have any, anybody on your team, a team member, a VA, anything? I'm by myself. I do it all.

Holly:

Okay. Besides bookkeeping.

Safa:

Bookkeeping, yeah. Okay. And then, do you have any set process or project planning or task tracking for the projects that you are working on and your development thing? So, from what I hear, you have your clients that you work with, um, and then you have your Coaching where you're coaching other, business owners, do what you're doing. Yeah. Mediums. And then, um, you, then you have passive income sources that you're trying to do. Oh yeah. I'm trying

Holly:

to grow. I'm still a little late

Safa:

now working on it. That's, that's fine. And that's what you're working on building. Right. Um, so question for you. So it seems like. The one to one client work is very much you. It's, it's probably a simple process. It's like they book the call, they pay, they sign the contract, you guys schedule a call. Exactly. You got it. Simple, easy enough. And then I do the work. Yeah. Yeah. So that is very easy to be automated. You need a CRM tool that does contract invoice, Call booking, that's the 1 framework for that. Um, I know you spoke about creating packages where it was like repeats and, doing things like that. 1 of 2 ways you could do that. You could do like a cart system where they're signing up for a package or do a retainer system within a CRM, to work through it and develop that. So a few different options to be able to be like, hey, if you grab this package, when I send you the invoice, you can set up a proposal. I'm thinking that would probably work for you. Um, set up a proposal that lets them pick from a standalone session and you can make this a public proposal, a standalone session, like. 3 and 1, or like a whole year long or whatever, however you want your. Um, product packages to be what was that? Bring it or what was it called? The system? Dubsado that shadow. Okay. Yeah, it'll let you have a scheduler do the invoice to the contract. All of that super simple. Um, and then for your. Your coaching in that do you have a framework that you're walking people through? Is there a course they're walking through kind of what's the structure of your coaching program?

Holly:

So right now it is a one on one so people hire me one on one to do mentoring and so I do have a Um, I have a whole canva slides that I go through and I created last year I started I did the heartfelt healers university and I did just a workshop again. It was four weeks You Um, and then we have practice times throughout that too. So that was just on zoom And they just booked a class on square that I finally figured out I was like, okay, but I would like everything to just be all in one and I can do the packages and um, And do the same thing square has been doing for me, you know, it does invoice it does Let me allow me to book and create a calendar and add it to my calendar But it's not sending me zoom links for my friend for my people that sign up for the classes. It's not sending You It's sending disclaimers in my, you know, contracts, but it's not doing the rest of

Safa:

it. Yeah. So Dubsado has that integration in the scheduling that it'll automate your Zoom link insertion into it. So it'll create the Zoom link and send it to them on its own when they do that. So it sounds like for your mentorship clients, Dubsado would also work because it is a one to one Set up situation, um, where you could set it up very similarly, like, hey, here's, um, public proposal. Hey, accept the proposal. It lays out what's going on, um, or, and then it'll take them to contract invoice, call booking, and they can do that. And then you can make that call link public, so they have access to that. So if they're booking a call every month, they can go in and schedule it. Every month in there, I would recommend it have some type of monthly follow up that goes out to them. Um, and you can automate this in Dubsado too, but like, hey, remember to sign up for your call this month. Remember to fill and if you're asking them for any forms or anything like that, that can all, um, live in Dubsado. as well. I'm recommending Dubsado for you, particularly one. There is a learning curve to it, but you can learn it. There's, their help is very helpful. Um, they have a ton of tutorials on there. Uh, it is a lower price point. And then for the scale that you are at, it is plenty, plenty good enough for features. Now, if you were Way above that, we will be talking some other CRM's, but I think this would work for both of those. Um, and then as far as. Any group coaching or group workshops or anything you do there, I would recommend using some kind of cart system, um, along with. An email marketing tool that you connect so our recommendation for at this level easiest two and they integrate really well together And the price points are great would be thrive cart you would probably be fine without doing the upgrade where it's like 400 500 one time fee you only have to pay for it once and then mailer light. There's a lower tier Uh, that's free and Ashley, what's the cap on how many subscribers you can have on the free tier? I think on

Ashley:

the free tier, it's up to a thousand subscribers and then after that, it's still pretty cost effective. I think 20 bucks a month, 30 a month for additional subscribers.

Safa:

Yeah, I have 370,

Holly:

so that should be fine.

Safa:

Yeah, so whenever you want to launch a course, launch a workshop, whatever, you can go create the sales page. if you don't have it on housed on your website, or just create the cart on thrive, cart options there. They'll go check out whatever it is, and then whatever materials you want to host, you can host it in Thrivecart Learn, which again, is included in that one time fee. Host all product materials, any replays, anything like that. And then, you link it to MailerLite, whatever it is. And then when they buy the workshop, the course, whatever you want them to buy, they will get segmented into your, into MailerLite, and you can send out those group emails at once, set up a sequence, be like, hey, start day is this day, like reminder, here's the link, whatever, like access your portal information here, all of that. And then this also gives you the option of when you are ready to move your. mentorship clients into a group container, you would be able to use Thrivecart and MailerLite there for them as well. And or if you want to create some kind of course material or anything like that to go through with your one on one mentorship clients, you can also host that in Thrivecart Learn and then manually add them. But if you want to manually add them, you do have to upgrade the tier to do that so they don't have to, you know, Go through a checkout or anything, so you can manually add them, but that is it. You would also give you a course platform and all of those interactions and, automations for those systems are going to be easier to set up, um, I have a few more things, but actually you had a point. Yeah, I was going to

Ashley:

say on on that thrive car workaround, you can create a coupon code to just discount it to 0 and then it'll do all of the automatic adding of students,

Safa:

subscribers, that kind of thing, as you low 0, 100 percent discount for them to do it for free to log in themselves and do it. Yeah. Um, but if you didn't want to do that. You can always do it. Do the manual add., So I asked you a question

Holly:

first. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What is mailer light? I have no idea what that is. I have flow desk. Is it like

Safa:

flow desk? Yeah. So it is like flow desk. it is a, uh, email marketing system. Here's the thing. And I feel like I'm going to get some hate for this. I hate flow desk. It's really pretty. I feel like it's intuitive to use. It's really, really easy and it looks nice, but It just does not work when you are trying to do launches. If you're trying to segment, if you're trying to do those higher level things, it doesn't work. And then if you're trying to, if you're not using an all in one software like Kajabi or Kartra, which are very, very expensive, it's going to be really, you're going to have to use a Zapier to connect it with any kind of tool you're trying to connect it to. Like, is it, if it's subsado, if it's thrive cart, any kind of cart, Sam cart, any of those cart systems to integrate it with flow desk, to be able to use it with your clients and things like that as well, zaps, zaps break, like the least amount of zaps we can use, like sometimes they're necessary, sometimes they're important. Yeah, I get it. Those are, those are important in system building. But if I could use a more robust system at a way lower monthly cost rate that has the features I need, I'm going to pick that regardless of the fact that I'm like, Oh, but flow desk is so pretty and it's so nice and easy to use. So that's kind of there. And I'm sure Ashley has points on these as a marketer. Yeah. I was just gonna say, uh,

Ashley:

mailer light really solve a lot of problems on the free tier. Unless you're at the level of having very, Robust automations or needing a lot of link pages. I think you can get up to 10 pages for on the free tier, which is a lot of landing pages to keep track of and a lot of automations on the backend. It just does a lot for no cost, which is really great. And I know that thrive cart does integrate with the behavior. So when somebody makes a purchase, it will automatically add. So you don't have to touch it at all. And then there could be the automation of adding a tag to, you know, whatever the course name is. So it's automatically segmented. So when you go to create that email in MailerLite, you can choose that group, without having to do a lot of sorting. so it's very simple. Uh, it's just a couple of check boxes in the setup process of your cart on Thrivecart, which I find is very convenient, especially if you're not a very techie person. Uh, I, for, I feel like I can manage tech fine, but it tech does not like me so that this tech just tends to break often for me, which is this

Holly:

nice part, um, is, so that would be more for that courses, classes, the mentoring, like the Heartfall Healers University that I host. And then the, the packages, where do the packages, is that in Deb

Safa:

D? Yes. So anybody one to one is gonna be in Ddo, that's a CRM. It can really be in any CRM, but I think for you and your business level, I think Ddo will work, um, really well. Um, packages. Yeah, so you can build out packages in there. Um, you can, um, do like the workflows. The workflows, you can set it up in there where I'm trying to think what would be the best way for people to get cut off from being able to book any extra calls. Um, I think it will have to have some manual tracking there. I can't think of anything about payment where they pay. There's an invoice system you can do, you can set them up on auto pay. You can do monthly recurring. there's a ton of options there. yeah, I think the thing will be a, hey, if they are on, like, a 5 class package, they pay for 5 classes. Like, there's. Not really any low cost, easy way that I can think of that. It would just, like, cut them off from being able to schedule, unless you did something like acuity, but then that's adding in, like, another system. but. I had another recommendation for you where you're not going to have to be doing the track. Um, so before we move off on to the tech and tools, do you have, um, any more questions about Dubsado, ThriveCart, MailerLite, kind of what would house each of those things?

Holly:

No, so I, just so I can understand that, Dubsado is the one on one packages that more of that mediumship, what I'm already working on, getting rid of Square. Then, the other one, which is the cart system, ThriveCart, you said? And that's gonna be the, basically the whole mentoring program, where I can house e courses and stuff, I can house things like that there too. Now, have you guys heard of Hodea? Is that a, an option? Is that a good idea? Not a good idea? What was

Safa:

that? Put

Ashley:

a credit? I think it's similar to, um,

Safa:

yeah, okay. It's like, it's, it's like teachable. And, yes, you can do it on their, I don't know what their monthly cost is, but essentially it's a, Learning course platform, um, it would work. It would do what you needed to do. You can put your courses, your workshops all on there. I'm sure you can integrate it with, um. Their email marketing system, it may need to do, uh, do some zaps or anything like that. Um, and you can have a check out on there all of that. Can be done I just personally prefer thrive heart because the cart system let it's something that will grow with you and your strategy. So it's going to let you do upsells. It's going to let you do down sales. It's going to let you create full funnels. It'll let you do bundles and all of those things it's and. It's a one time fee. Like I literally, I can't get over the fact that it's a one time fee for all of these capabilities and the fact that port platform is built into it because a lot of time what happens if someone's using something that is either an all in one, um, even people that are using Kajabi or Kartra or Teachable, Thinkific, any of those, they oftentimes end up Not feeling like the checkout systems in those are robust enough when they start getting more strategic with their digital products. And then they have to add in something like threat cart and do that connection. But if you can use already, what's there? Because start card used to not have their learn platform. So that's new. So people did have to use 2. then they added it in and now it's an all in 1 for in terms of checkout and course hosting.

Holly:

Okay. Perfect. Yeah, especially because I want, I don't want to have to relearn a whole new system because I'm not tech savvy. So like the fear of like getting rid of Square and I actually know like I already got it all synced to my phone, you know, like I'm like, ah, I'm trying to not have the resistance because I know in order to grow i'm going to have to get rid of Square. Um, Square has just been it's very clunky to me. Um, I don't find it user friendly and I've been using it for two years and I think at this point I should be a pro You Um, you know, and so I'm like, this doesn't feel like it's doing what I need it to

Ashley:

do. Thrivecart was pretty intuitive. Uh, the first time that I went in to create my account and set it up, it was, it walks you through step by step when you're creating a product. Um, the only thing that I find intuitive was changing the colors and the fonts in the course without doing every little module. But I'm sure that there is a parent that is

Safa:

No, there isn't. It sucks. You have to do everything manually. It, it's a pain of changing those, but there's pros and cons once you do it, you can't, you have to, right? Yeah. You just gotta rotely remember, uh, to do it that way. So square is definitely not robust enough or what you're looking to do. It's it probably feels so much of a lift for you because of how the system set up and what you're actually needing it to do. Um, and yeah, it's definitely, I would never recommend it. So, with that said, um, a couple more points, so getting this all set up is going to be a lot of sweat equity for you. Making the switch to do it and it's going to be a learning curve to learn the platforms to one set it up and then set it up in a way that it's actually maximizing that system for you and, um, my recommendation for you would be to 1 either. If you're able to do this is, um, Outsource the setup completely, um, for Dubsado, um, and then also for Thinkifit, uh, for Thinkifit, for Thrivecart, and, um, Mailer, like, get all your products in there, do all of that, just have it done. So then you can just start rolling it out and really focus on what you're trying to scale and build. Um, if 100 percent outsource is not an option, a done for you. Set up is a really good idea. They will, well. We do it I can do it if you want to do, done for done with you would be we would sit down, walk through each 1 of your offers outline exactly the process that it takes do an S. O. P. for you of how it would work and then guide you through building it. And then you go and build it. And so you kind of get the training exact action plan. What it is, and that it gets, and then you just go. And do it. And then you have that kind of cuts that out. And then from there as well, I would highly, highly recommend, looking at your finances, your pricing strategy to be able to bring on a VA. Because if you're at the point where you're, I maxed out on one to one clients, I am diversifying and adding on these projects for myself with passive products. You need to start handing off the admin stuff. On your client account, they can track the back end client management stuff. Hey, the emails are going out. Hey, you're running out of classes. Tweaking, and changing your systems as things happen and grow and change. And then also helping with, I need to change all the colors in my Thrivecart course, um, like uploading all of those things. Because what's yes, automations and systems are great. It is going to streamline and add more time back into your schedule, but you don't want to add that time back onto your schedule by doing all of these projects. And once you are streamlined and set up, it's very easy. The hand off, so I are an expert, get everything set up the way it needs to be get proper process and then hire, a doer VA to come and maintain and keep things going. So, it's not all on you because scaling is just. systems to get things off of your plate. Yes. But if you are going to still be taking on more, doing more, you still need someone to support you in the maintenance.

Holly:

Yeah. And I have been upping my prices, you know, over the years, but it feels still because I need that support because I've been tracking what I do every day. Cause I'm like, I only see, you know, eight hours of physical clients. Right. And then I teach a class on Monday nights and I have some other people, but I'm like, how is this, how am I busy, like, how am I really busy all day? And I've been tracking and I'm answering all my Instagram messages, my emails, my, and I, I have a diverse population, right? Like, I have the older generation in the 60s, 70s, where they want a phone call. They want a phone call back. Right, and then I also have people that will just find me on instagram and book it right and so i'm like Oh, and i've been tracking and i'm like, okay, but I don't have the revenue. So that's been hard for me I don't have the revenue to go ahead and say okay here i'm gonna hand it off Trust me. I would love it and say here go do it. But what i've noticed is i'm spending so much time figuring out how to How, you know, I'm sitting and working on watching YouTube videos on how to do this. And it's taking me lots and lots of time. So it would be easier. I just don't know how you, you invest or you build your revenue just to have someone help you.

Safa:

Yeah, I will

Ashley:

say really quick, that there is a lot of benefit to learning how to do the setup on your own and then hiring someone to either do a done with you project or done for you after you are somewhat familiar with the process. while it is very convenient and it is a trade off of, do I have the time or the capacity to figure this out right now? If you don't know how to utilize the system, how to make changes, and you have somebody come in and do all of that for you, it's going to end up being a domino effect of any little thing that you're trying to change or add later, it's going to be a toss up of do I take the mental load now of learning how to do this myself, of learning how to it. adjust my schedule or add, you know, add this module to the, to the course that I'm doing, or, you know, whatever the small changes versus hiring someone to do it because you don't know how to navigate the system on your own. You know what I mean? So there is a lot of benefit to doing that initial setup on your own and just kind of Figuring it out as you go, but like I said, it's a toss up and, uh, you know, a balance of that. Do you have the time? Because like you said, learning everything on YouTube and going down the Google rabbit holes that is time consuming. So, uh, but I just

Safa:

wanted to put that out there of. Yeah, to add to that, I think that's one of the core decisions to make of one. Are you going to do it on your own? All right. I personally would recommend done with you. So someone's helping you learn it. And you're in there doing the work, you're learning how to do it. You kind of have like a trainer that's available to you of like, Hey, yeah, no, this is the features that are available. Do this. If you get stuck, you have that reference point. so I think that's why done for you is really, really beneficial for what Ashley was saying versus just handing it off done for you. But sometimes that's. That's what you need to do. That's just like the business decision there. or like, Hey, I'm going to learn this all on my own, figure it out, whatever it's again, your capacity, your time commitment, and like your wantingness, your willingness to do all of that is one learn the platform, learn how it works, learn what's your best system is. Or have someone tell you all of that, tell you what they will help you through road while you're still learning and doing it completely handed off. And then you're in the situation where Ashley was saying, Oh, well, do I continuously hire someone to fix it or change it? Or would my VA happen to know how to do it? Because you don't need a tech VA that's going to know how to do all the pieces. They need to have the same level of skillset you would to be able to make small changes, to be able to help, with that situation. Does a VA,

Holly:

can a, can a VA do a lot of the setup or they just kind of do the extra stuff like once it's set up

Safa:

and everything like that? so it depends. so a setup for a tech system like this is definitely a higher level skill set. and then that's going to come into your pay rate. If you want someone. It's going to be very rare that you can find someone that the online space likes to call them unicorns, but unicorns don't exist, guys. They don't. They're not real. You're not going to have someone that's going to be able to do, or even be willing to do, your small level, uh, Admin stuff, like responding to emails, doing your scheduling, checking up on your clients, like, um, grabbing your data and putting it into a spreadsheet. So you can check your data are all of those things. And then also do a full system build out. I'm sure there are very many because a lot of VAs have their own businesses. So they do have a Dubsado skill set. They do have a ThreadCart course skill set. So I think they are able to do tweaks and edits and things like that. Maybe they are being like, Oh yeah, I know the full capabilities. Like we can figure this out together. Like let's put it into place. All of that kind of stuff, but again, you have to like, create way the pros and cons there of like, am I using it to the full capabilities of the program? Am I taking my VA away from tasks that other tasks that need? Is this in their skill set? Is this what they even want to be doing? I was like, is this going to make them miserable? Um, and then all of those tasks.

Ashley:

Something to consider too, even if Dubsado is something that they're familiar with and within their skill set, I think there, there can be a difference between good enough and having somebody who's an expert within Dubsado come in and build it out the most efficient way for your business versus patching it together, because it could work. You know what I mean? It's not to say that hiring a VA to build it out is necessarily wrong. It's just having that acknowledgement of it may not be the most efficient way for my business to operate within, with this tool, because of, Their skill set with it, if that

Safa:

makes sense, yeah, it might be a way to kick, kick the situation down the road where you're like, oh, in 6 months, I'll hire someone to do it done for you. Let's just get by here while, while I'm figuring out how I'm going to come to pay someone to do it for me. And then I know you had a question earlier and I want to make sure we touch on it, was affording hiring help. And how you do that. So again, a couple of ways. So one, you need to figure out what needs to be done and is happening in your business for it to run. You just said, yeah, I only have eight hours of client calls, but like, why am I so busy? Yeah, because a business is more than just a client delivery and fulfillment. It's the marketing, it's the admin. It is literally every department, any corporate business has, you have it within your small business. We just don't call it that, but it is, you have accounts payable, you have accounts receivable, you have operations, you have marketing, and then you have delivery and sales, and you have all of those things, right? and now you're doing all of them. So you need to figure out everything you're doing, figure out which tasks have to be you. So you're a one on one for, and I'm a big, like you can outsource coaching as well. It just depends on if you're making sure you're doing it ethically. And then the sales, but like for where you're at right now, like, I have to be the 1 doing the coaching calls. I have to be the 1 doing the intellectual property for my passive products. I have to be the 1 hosting these workshops. That's where you're at in your business right now. Doesn't mean that has to be you in the future, but for at this moment, that's where you're at. So those are the non negotiable to have to stay on your plate. We definitely recommend having some type of original content coming out from you and you putting it out there. Either if you're handling the full scope yourself or having it repurposed or whatever, there needs to be some kind of original voice coming from you. that has to be you. That can't come off your plate. But things like, hey, initiate the Dubsado. Workflow. Hey, make sure this invoice went through. Hey, this didn't go through. Hey, track how many things there are. Those you can outsource and send off. And then from there you can draft a job description. To be like, Hey, I'm looking for someone. These are the approximate hour amount of hours. the market rate is around here. This is what I can afford. You can, we can talk about finances real quick for in a minute. and these are going to be all the tasks. And then you get them, they onboard them. I highly recommend having some type of, you don't have to have fully written out SOPs before you hire on your VA. You just need to add a minimum, have screen recordings using loom. You can use loom of you doing the tasks you're doing it anyway. So you might as well just cut on loom when you do it, be like, Hey, this is how I do it. Here's their task go. And then if they have questions, they can come back, but they have a tutorial. They can watch it, do it with the tutorial while they're watching it. If they get stuck, then they can ask a question, give them the resources to be successful at that task. And then at some point it can be a project that's like, Hey, take this loom and turn it into an SOP, get an SOP template, make it. done. And then that way, as you grow, you have that done. And maybe this VA moves up in your company or they stay there and you're hiring someone else in, in more of a management level. And those are all projects that will continue to grow your business. And then how do you afford a VA? You cannot take home 70 to a hundred percent. Of your revenue that comes in it is a business there. What you need to be able to read it into your business. You need to have operating costs. You need to put reserves aside for profit for. Oh, nose for. I have to issue a refund or whatever for taxes. So you need to identify. Okay. So my I need to have my take home income personally be this much. The market rate for what I offer for my services is this much. This is what I can charge. But that's going to leave me a gap when I add in operations, when I add in taxes, when I add in profit, when I add in my take home, because I am maxed out at this many. So then you start adding income and you can only raise your prices to the market level cap. So, again, it's really just a formula. setting aside enough for operations that you can afford a VA profit taxes, what your take home needs to be, and then set your revenue targets. It's like, okay, for me to have the take home, I need have operations, all of that. This is the X amount I need to do. And I need to sell this many products, this many client retainers, this many of this, and then take that. And put it into your marketing strategy, be like, okay, so what do I marketing I need to do to generate the leads to have this conversion to be able to hit that target? And then I can. Afford those and I think where you're at right now because you're doing the delivery, and or it's a passive product. You don't really have to worry too much of like, oh, is this a profitable offer? It's going to be profitable as long as it can cover your operating costs because you're doing the fulfillment. so that is how to kind of work and plan that out to. Do that. And something I highly recommend, is reading the profit first book. it helps you figure it out, those percentages and those formulas of what it needs to be, all of that kind of stuff and working backwards there. My only caveat that I make with profit first is he has very hard firm set percentages. You don't have to stick to them. You figure out what works for you and your business. Go from there.

Holly:

Okay. Yeah. And I think I went into it with, you know, here's the mindset of a goal that I want. And then I divided it by how many I can do, how many weeks I want off, you know, like the basic, right. And I was like, okay, well really it's not working. Like, cause I can't hire anyone, you know? And it's like, I, cause I invest in also like business coaches. I invest in, I'm investing in like networking groups, you know, to get myself out there and it is like, Whoa, okay. You can't take anything home. And then I, I'm not helping with the finances at all. So I'm trying

Safa:

to grow that. Yeah. I think that's a common, common strategy used with solopreneurs in the online space because that's taught a lot. A lot by a lot of coaches. That's like, Oh, start here and then work your way back. But it's like, yeah, yes, that works. But your target needs to include all those other things, right? Your target needs to have all of that. You can't just be like, I want to have a hundred thousand dollars. Like a hundred thousand dollars is only eight K ish a month. And like, if you're taking home and if you to survive right now at home, need to take home six K Then you're barely saving for taxes. So there's no expense or anything to that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So even if it's 4k, it's like, okay, I can save her taxes and then some for operating. It's. Yeah, definitely not enough. This is

Ashley:

probably, probably where your question of how do I get scalable offers? How do I work in the scale revenue goals into my business, right? This is probably where that is stemming from.

Holly:

Yeah. And I think as far as my one on one readings, It is very flexible. So the market you're talking about, the market pricing, some psychic mediums are a dollar per minute. So it's 60 bucks. Well, I can't function on 60 for an hour. Um, so I'm at 165 an hour. my group readings, I'm up to 500, for a weekend. An hour and so i've grown so much in that but there's then you see the psychic mediums that are on tv And they're charging thousands of dollars. Well, I can't do that. So I don't feel like we have like a good market because it's very you know, it depends on each psychic medium, but for me, I I didn't want I couldn't 60 dollar range Um, cause I'm trying to run a business and I quit my teaching job to do this. So I'm like, this is not a side job anymore. So that has been a little bit hard. So when you mentioned that marketing price, I think I have some flexibility

Safa:

with that. Yeah. And Ashley can probably say something on this where if your price point is that flexible, figure out where you feel comfortable. Like ethically, I feel this comfortable that this is my maximum. That I can charge. And then from there, your target audience and your target market and what their pay threshold is and assessing them to be like, Oh, if I go over there, there, it just doesn't align for them anymore at this price point and kind of help that guide you, um, along with obviously your business expenses and all of that, because yeah, you're charging 160 an hour, but you're not taking home 100. You're not making 160 an hour. You're probably Making I don't know, like, exactly your effective hourly rate is much less because you have other expenses, right? Yeah.

Ashley:

So, um, because we have just a couple of minutes left. what are, what are some ideas that you've had

Safa:

for. Offers that you

Ashley:

can implement that aren't going to be trading time for money. I think you mentioned that you have, you did do a workshop or a full course

Holly:

last year. I've done, I've done a free workshop last year. It was like a beta. So then now I'm doing it. I'm charging this time, but again, only 40 for me. So I'm like, I should charge more, but, um, I'm doing that, but that is still me teaching the class.

Safa:

Is that something

Ashley:

that you could record and make evergreen potentially run ads to

Holly:

or? Yeah, I've never heard of evergreen, so I don't know what that

Ashley:

means. Okay. So it just means, um, so it's a recording and then you can just have it as an offer ongoing forever. It doesn't have to be, um, dedicated to your calendar. It could just be something that somebody purchases and gets immediate access to. So like a course, but. This one would be limited to that singular workshop that you're offering. If you had other, uh, resources or something that you wanted to turn it into a bundle, that's something that you could consider as well. but without taking the course, I don't know if it's something where they have to have live access to you for questions

Holly:

or, you know, Not that one. That one is a course for my clients that are wanting to learn how to connect on their own to their loved ones for more of that daily guidance. Um, so I'm, I'm trying to remember that I have my own clients already that have been coming to me for four years that I'm going to help foster that those relationships versus trying to continue to rebuild so many, you know, get more clients. Cause I already have a good chunk of people that love me and are part of my community. So that I could do

Safa:

for sure on evergreen.

Ashley:

Okay, I think that that would be a really great place to start If you're offering it for forty dollars live Um, I think that forty dollars is a reasonable price point anyways, so you could offer it evergreen for this. recorded offer At 40, you could reduce it down to 20 or 25 since there isn't that live element to it, but then there's no additional time necessary on your part to fulfill that offer for somebody, so that could be something to consider. And then it could be a good lead generator into your one on one offers at some point. So that would be something to consider in the marketing after somebody's purchased that recorded workshop of maybe a post purchase email sequence that they get that offers them to book a call with you at some point, down the road,

Safa:

and it wouldn't

Ashley:

require additional

Safa:

time. It's the whole like, I made money when I sleep, uh, messaging, online space, that's where that's from. Okay. Like

Holly:

when I wake up and everyone buys gift cards, I'm like, Oh my God, I just was sleeping and I sold 500. I'm like, that's amazing. So, okay. That, I think that's a great idea too, because, um, I think this could be something that's ongoing for people as like a reminder. Hey, I want to connect. I can't, I tell my clients not to see me every single month because It's not ethically correct spiritually in my heart and with spirit loved ones so But this way they can learn how to connect a little bit on their own have a little refresher and then book and when I when I host this workshop, I do have the You know call to action of booking a call with me and you know getting it, you know a little discount So so I think that would be good perfect

Ashley:

regenerate. Yeah Yeah. And then

Safa:

that could be something that you touch on again.

Holly:

I'm learning. I'm so like, this is so hard. Like growing your own business is not, this is, I'm not, you guys are, this is what you're passionate about. And you know, you go into, I was a teacher, you know, like this, I can teach, I went to school for teaching as my passion and then I'm like, well, I have this beautiful gift. But now, like you said, like. I'm everything. I do everything. And I'm not trained in it. I didn't go to school for it. I don't have the time to learn it all. But then you don't have the funds to, you know, do that at this point. So, it's been a big learning curve. I didn't realize how much work a business, my parents owned a chocolate store my whole life and I was like, how did they do it all? But, you know, it was also back in the 90s. And they just put themselves in the, you know, newspaper and the phone book and people just, they were very successful. So I'm just hoping that that's where

Safa:

I'm going. It's a different day and age, um, but yeah, if you're, when you start your business, you are all the departments, you can't grow that way. you do have to make sure you're leaning into proper pricing, budgeting, all of that. So you have the resources. to grow outside of all of your time. and leveraging a different price points of things of like internal team members done with you, expert advice, and then also done for you and work knowing what your budget is and what your business objective is as like a starting point. And then knowing, okay, this is what I'm trying to do. With your objectives, this is your budget that you can do it with. Now, you know the resources and then you can be like, okay, I can get this kind of help in this moment for this objective to move this business forward. And as you grow, it kind of snowballs from there. So that's if there's one key takeaway for you from this strategy session, that would be it along with all your tools.

Holly:

Yes, yes. No, I appreciate it. That was very helpful. I took lots of notes.

Safa:

Awesome.

Ashley:

Well, I thought it would be a good idea just to recap the action items that we gave you throughout this call. so in terms of systems, we are recommending Dubsado for your CRM. So there, that would be an initial setup, uh, Thrivecart for the workshop that you're then going to turn into an evergreen offer as the start of your scalable products. And then MailerLite for your email marketing. So those three tools, I think those are the only three tools that we recommended throughout the call,

Safa:

right?

Ashley:

Yes. That I took notes on. And then from there, looking at your pricing model. So figuring out what your internal hourly rate should be considering the operating expenses that need to effectively operate the business and make those adjustments on the front end for new customers that are going to be purchasing and then setting up your pricing model. Uh, your evergreen offer once this workshop is done. So recording it, uploading it to thrive cart, and then setting up the post purchase welcome sequence for new people. Purchasing the recorded version of that to nurture them into your community, letting them know how they can stay connected with you. Uh, maybe some additional support back end that maybe there's little tips or anything that you want to be giving them. And then. Offering a one on one session at that discounted rate that you offered within the workshop. Okay, and

Holly:

evergreen is so you said you would I would record it put it in thrive cart and then Does it house an evergreen? Is that what what evergreen or evergreen is like the follow up automation?

Ashley:

It's just the style of offer.

Safa:

Yeah, it's just something that's forever available that that checkout people can go and use whenever they want to. So you would leave the checkout up in Thrivecart. You would have it uploaded as a recording in Thrivecart Learn. Anybody can go click on that link at any point and check out, buy it, go through the workshop, whatever it may be. And then they're going to get an email sequence that after it's like, did you love that? We'll sign up for a one on one session. Buy that here. Type of thing. Okay. Okay. Perfect. And

Ashley:

so then on your front end marketing, you can promote this workshop of, Hey, I have this workshop available for 25, you know, click this link, you get immediate access or, you know, however you want to be promoting that. Then those of your

Safa:

product suite.

Holly:

Perfect. I love all the ideas. Luckily, I'm taking most of March off, so I can focus. I'm like, I need an energetic break, so I'm going to, I'm doing only three weeks, not the full four.

Safa:

It's good to take those breaks, though. Yes. It's a perfect time to jump into those projects that you've got, and then once you have the recording, you'll have the recording of the school. I know. Perfect.

Holly:

I'm excited. Well, thanks so much, guys. I really

Safa:

appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks so much for joining

Ashley:

us. And of course, if you need help, you know how to reach us. we're happy to answer any questions. Thank

Safa:

you. Thank you.

And that wraps up another episode of the business millennials podcast. We hope you found this conversation, thought provoking, inspirational, and helps you make a larger impact with your business. Growth is not just about profits or revenue. It's a journey of personal development, contribution, and bettering ourselves in society. Our challenge for you take at least one key lesson from our time together today that you can apply not just to your business. But your relationships, creative expression, wellbeing, and personal evolution to, we appreciate you tuning in. If you enjoyed this show, we invite you to pay it forward, share it with an entrepreneur, creative student, or community leader who needs an infusion of insight or inspiration right now. And make sure to subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. So you never miss a single episode. And if you like what you heard, leave us a five star review. See you next week.