#130: Turning List Building Into Paying Clients

Michelle Leotta:
Hello, health coaches. Now all month long, I've been bringing you ideas. I've been bringing you inspiration to grow, grow, grow, grow, grow that mailing list because it is perhaps the single biggest hurdle between coaches who say, okay, I'm going to start a business. And those who actually become profitable. Now, some of you have been listening all along, but if not, I want to catch you up real quick. So, if you do not have a mailing list yet, it's okay. We all start out like that. But I want you to go grab my free tutorial. In 10 minutes, you're going to be all set up. It's going to be amazing. And we're going to fix the whole situation with you needing a mailing list, just like that. You will thank me later. So grab that tutorial. If you do not have a mailing list yet at healthcoachpower.com/mailinglist, okay?

Michelle Leotta:
That takes care of some of you. However, for the rest of you, if you already have a mailing list and the challenge has really been growing it, expanding your reach. Well, that's going to take a little longer than 10 minutes. It's going to take a little bit more time than that over the course of just a few days though, next week, I'm going to be walking you through the exact steps that I've used to double, triple, quadruple my mailing list again and again and again, without spending a dime in paid advertising. So if you want to learn all my secrets and put your own list growth engine into action for 2021, you can join me to multiply your mailing list for free at healthcoachpower.com/listbuild.

Michelle Leotta:
Now, one important thing to remember when we're list building, is that yeah, a big fat juicy mailing list, that that sounds pretty good, but that's one thing earning the salary that we want, that's another whole thing. So, the question becomes, how do you turn your list into paying clients now during the event that I just described, multiply your mailing list. I've dedicated a whole day to this topic. I know because I just recorded the videos last week and we've been producing them and getting them up and running for you. I'm going to be showing you exactly how your mailing list fits into the bigger picture of a successful practice. But here's the short story. Sometimes I've had clients sign up to work with me after they've been on my list for I kid you not like seven, eight, nine years. That is insane. I mean, it is kind of cool to see the people will stick with you so long, but that is what we would call a very long sales cycle. Other times I've had clients sign up to work with me after they've been on my list for several days, several weeks, several months, that's a little bit more what we're going for.

Michelle Leotta:
But sometimes every now and then clients will sign up to work with me immediately, meaning they join my list and it's like, they can't wait to take the next step. They are here for it, you know, and right away they want to move forward. So that's always very exciting. Your list building efforts, no matter what you're doing, if you're holding an event, if you're putting together some sort of downloadable resource, and again, we're going to talk about all of those different options during the multiply your mailing list event. But when those things are done well, they tend to serve double duty. First and foremost, they're going to act to add new names to your mailing list, obviously, but then they should also be attracting your ideal client and proving right away that you are the resource that this person has been looking for to help them solve that big health problem that they've been struggling with.

Michelle Leotta:
So this is why we always say, you've probably heard me say this before. If you've been listening to the show, give away your best content for free, give it away because if you can impress somebody with how much you give away for free, naturally, they're going to expect amazing things from your paid programs and services. So joining me today is Shawne Johnson. Who's one of our healthy profit university members to share her story of turning a list builder into several new paying clients right away. And as we go along, if you're here with us live, be sure to put your questions into the comments so that we can ask Shawne and get all the details of how she did it. Shawne, are you here? Can we hear you?

Shawne Johnson:
Yes. Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
All right. Good. Thank you. Technology is on our side today. That's a good start. Thank you so much for joining us.

Shawne Johnson:
Thank you. Thank you.

Michelle Leotta:
I would love if you could just start by telling everybody a little bit about yourself, your business. Like how long have you been a health coach?

Shawne Johnson:
Okay. Um, my name is Shawne Johnson. I've been a health coach for six years now. Um, I started off with hairstylists and I was doing health coaching a little bit on the side. And this year, January, I decided to do health coaching full-time and found your five day challenge. And it was history from there. So, all year round I've been working on, you know, it's called new path wellness group. It's the name of my company. And I've been working on that for all year full-time and was still spinning my wheels, you know, cause I had no clue about the marketing piece of it. And so, when I found you - the five day challenge, I said, okay, do that. And then you had the HPU and I said, okay, let's do that. And then it just, it took off from there. So, I'm so grateful for the program. It's really helped me organize my efforts, you know, in, in ways that... I like the way you say simple is best and, you know, keep it simple. So when I kept it simple, I was able to get a better return. So yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah. Nice Shawne. So, you've really only been at this full force for a year. I think that's important for our listeners to hear because sometimes, well, my God, even myself, I went through years and years and years of spinning my wheels before anything started to make sense, but it does not have to take that long, especially if you have a plan laid out for you right now, when we spoke before you joined HPU, I remember that you were saying that you had an audience, they were willing to show up when you did something for free, but they were like not willing to actually pay you for your services. Can you just describe what that was like back then and the frustration that you were feeling?

Shawne Johnson:
Back to spinning the wheels, when you're spinning your wheels and you're, you're always showing up and things like that and people show up for free. Absolutely. Right. And then when you go to, you know, trying to make that connection with doing a discovery session, we do this discovery session and then they say, well, I can't do it right now. It costs this. Or, you know, it was usually about money. But at the same time they would show up to all of my events. So, I figured, you know, just like you said that you've had people sign up after seven or eight years being on your list. It feels like that, you know what I mean? They show up all the time because I was doing monthly live classes, you know, in person before the pandemic. And then I switched over to doing a weekly class on Zoom.

Shawne Johnson:
That turned out pretty good. But at the same time, it didn't really convert the way I expected it to. But I was spinning my wheels. It was before HPU. And so, now with HPU it's been, you know, more consistent and people are showing up and they're signing up and I'm not spending a whole lot of time. I would do an hour and a half consultation and ended up with nothing, but just the consultation fee. So now I do 30 minutes learning from you. I do 30 minutes free and they've been signing up from there and they've been signing up for six months, not just a 30 day or you know, or, um, three months they've been signing up for six months.

Michelle Leotta:
Oh, so they've been opting for your largest package?

Shawne Johnson:
Yeah. Yeah.

Michelle Leotta:
Well, you know that doesn't, they're not just opting to choose your six month package. You are obviously doing a good job of communicating the value of your coaching and your six month package. So kudos to you. I think they go a really long way. You're welcome because we have all been there in those consultations where you're chatting and it's going on forever and you don't even know how you're ever going to pivot and make an offer out of this. And they just want to pick your brain. And at the end of it, they're just like, Oh, this has been really great, but it just don't have the money right now. Right. So frustrating. So with your recent list building event, I know you had big success with several clients who wanted to sign up with you right away. So tell us a little bit about how you did that. How did you segue from going here? I'm going to give you something for free, but also if you want, we can work together. How'd you do that and get them to take the next step?

Shawne Johnson:
Well the five day challenge, I did it at the beginning of November. I had only 21 sign-ups. I had 21 sign-ups four that participated and three new people on the list. Cause I had a list already. So I wanted to re-engage with my list when I signed up with your program. Um, but the funny part is I got phone calls after sending the archive. So, you know, when you do that mailing after, did you miss the challenge? If you missed anything, here's the archive. So that's what I did. And that's when I got phone calls. Oh, I didn't do it, but I want to talk to you about your program. And I'm like, okay. So it kind of happened organically. You know what I mean? But I did the steps that you said I kept in contact and things like that. And with, I'm going to say like a week or two after the challenge finished is when I had these two people call and say, I just want to sign up. And I'm like, okay. So, so I got excited about it and I earned $3,600 from that.

Michelle Leotta:
Alright! Nicely done. That's amazing. So when you have someone who came to you and said, all right, I just want to sign up, Shawne, how did you respond to that? What was the next step you took with them specifically

Shawne Johnson:
Doing a discovery session, you know, asking what their pain points are. Why did they want to sign up? Um, what makes them think right now is the time for them to sign up and they were saying, you know what, I've been following you. And I didn't do the five day challenge. And I figured I need you to do that challenge. So, you know, and then when I told him about what I had with my programs, where they just stay after for the six months, they didn't know about the six months before we had the conversation. But when I told them about, you know, all of that, they opted for the six months.

Michelle Leotta:
That's great. So it sounds to me like the biggest difference may have been, um, not only putting yourself out there, you know, with an event that people can sign up for because PS, a lot of times, even when they sign up, they don't actually participate. Right? So it's, it's not that it's smoke and mirrors. You know, we go out with an actual list builder, uh, whether again, it's a download or a free resource or an event in good faith. We do want to help people. We are going to provide this however truth be told. A lot of people don't actually participate. Some of them may not even sign up, but they still see you. It's a way of gaining that visibility. And then once you got on the call with them, it sounds like that was a night and day experience compared to what you were doing before.

Shawne Johnson:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I don't know what the switch was or I, I don't know, but, but it's, it's been working. It's been working since. Yeah. So that was great.

Michelle Leotta:
Yeah, it is great. And it sounds to me like, what you just said is you're following the recipe that I provide inside the program. So that's really working and where you, I don't know if you could recall for each of the clients that you signed, but were you able to say, okay, this is how much my program costs and they gave you payments over the phone or did that feel... Usually that's the part where we start getting sweaty and freaked out and scared. How was that for you?

Shawne Johnson:
At the beginning of the year, I decided my, my rates were my rates plain and simple. So you know, that wasn't the hard part anymore. It used to be. Um, but when I said, you know, this is what my program is. I have this program and this program, one is at this price. One is at the other. And they said, okay. And I told them I had a payment plan. So they were able to do it - no problem. You know what I mean? They, they didn't even think about it. They just said, I know I need to do this. You know? So they, and it was only two people and two of the people were, they didn't even participate in the program.

Michelle Leotta:
That is really interesting. So let's talk about that. So you have these people who, and I find this as often, the case, you have people who are just not going to participate in a free group thing. They want the individual attention. So sometimes you're advertising a group or a free program, and you have people come to you on the side, just like they did for you and say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just want to work with you. Then you have the people that actually sign up for the thing that you intended to advertise. So you said you had 21 people sign up for your, for your event, which is plenty of people. We never want, like one person to sign up 21 is great. And what was that like for you to hold that event? What was the feedback like? What was the participation like with the group?

Shawne Johnson:
It was taxing first off because you really had to put a lot of energy into the groups. So, I was able to do that. I showed up, so that was a good thing. Right? But, um, I kept it simple. We, we focused on water and breathing. That's what we focused on. And because we focused on that because when you had us do the interviews ahead of time, that was great because then you're able to focus on what they need, you know? And so the pain points. So, that's another thing that I learned from HPU. And, what they said was they were really surprised at how much water they got in during the five days and that they kept keeping it up and they didn't understand how breathing was so important. You know, that's what I focused on the whole week. I did add a video of, um, a testimonial of a client that I had over the summer, which was awesome.

Shawne Johnson:
She was in the six-month program and she talked about those same pain points. I have so much energy, this, that, and other, you know, and, um, because she talked about that, which was which coincide with the five day challenge, they were more, you know, they participated and they loved the fact that they were able to talk to each other in the group and everything like that. And, um, and then they also were able to, um, participate in my third, Thursday class that I have on a regular basis. So they feel like now they're in the community, that's going to help them with their healthy goals. You know what I mean? Um, so that, that that's the way it happened and they loved it. They, they gave me some really good feedback.

Michelle Leotta:
I'm so glad. I always see, not only do we add, we add names to our lists, we're providing value, but there's a sense of confidence that comes with putting yourself out there and getting that great feedback. And what I want to say for everybody listening is that sometimes your list builder, um, you know, it's going to add a ton of names to your list. Sometimes it's going to result in paying clients. The other benefit, it's a little more roundabout, but it's how you start building this fan base. You know, your quote, raving fans, who even if these particular people never become paying clients, they're the ones who are going to refer their friends to, they're going to say, Oh, tell us, tell us

Shawne Johnson:
That's what happened. I had two people that referred people, you know, they referred three people, it was two people that referred. One referred two and another one referred one person. And they started coming on my Thursday call, which is a free call. And so that to me was enough to, because they added to my list of people that now I'm, you know, nurturing. I liked that word. When you say, nurture your clients or nurture your, your list. And so that's that that happened. And you know, it's just been, it's just been great. It's been great really?

Michelle Leotta:
Oh, that's awesome. Cause when, when you see a Facebook ad that says, you know, join this free event or download this thing, you know, people go, Oh, maybe I'll do that. Maybe I won't, the conversions tend to be pretty low, but when a friend of yours says, you have got to show up for Shawne's class on Thursday, it's a very strong likelihood that that person is going to show up. So word of mouth referrals take you very far and costs $0. And we love that. So I think you said something inside of our HPU member group the other day that you have an opportunity to actually run this challenge again. Can you tell us about that?

Shawne Johnson:
Okay. So I'm a member of the chamber of commerce in my, in my city and they're always offering, um, things for us to participate, to grow our business. And so they reached out and said, show him, what do you have going on? You know, this and that, blah, blah, blah. And I told them about the five day challenge and they asked around the same time it was, it was going on. And so they said, okay, well, let's do that for the first of the year. And can we do it just for our chamber members? So I said, yes. So I'm meeting with them. Um, on the 13th, it's going to, it's going to launch on the 11th, but they're doing all the marketing. They're going to send it out to over 2000 people, which is the chamber list. They're going to send it out to over 2000 people. Um, and I'm doing the private, you know, group of just chamber members. So that's, that's happening in January.

Michelle Leotta:
That's amazing. So are you telling me that, of those 2000 members, whoever signs up to do this through the chamber that they're going to end up on your mailing list? Yes. Yeah. I love the sound of that. So good. Um, I'm sure some people don't even know what the chamber of commerce is. A lot of people say to me, a lot of health coaches will say, well, I just don't know anyone. How can I partner with somebody or a company or a brand or... I don't, I don't have these connections. How did you get involved with them in the first place?

Shawne Johnson:
I've been a salon owner for 25 years, 26 years. And I was always a chamber member. And with the chamber, the chamber, I learned my business, you know, um, how to structure my business, how to run my business, things like that through the chamber. Now with my health and wellness company, I joined under that and they having an initiative that, um, what they do is they try to help you grow your business through the chamber, by connecting you with other members in your area and things like that. And they also allow you to come in and, like, what do you call it? Networking events and networking events. You know, now they're doing virtual, but at networking events, they have you come in and do your pitch, you know? And at that time you're, you're swapping cards or information and things like that. So the chamber has been very, um, instrumental in my health business right now.

Shawne Johnson:
And it's only been a year that I've been a chamber member with them. As far as my health business, um, with my hair business, I never used it for advertising or, or building clientele or anything like that. I used it from the free business aspect of it, you know? Um, but if you can join your chamber of commerce and law, nine times out of 10, they don't have health and wellness as a piece as any of the businesses or, you know, category. So, there's only me and one other person and that other person only does essential oils, but she's under the wellness. You know what I mean? She doesn't do coaching. She doesn't do any of that. I'm the only one in my chamber right now that has the health and wellness piece of things, you know? So say I'm like the go-to right, right now utilizing it.

Shawne Johnson:
That's the difference. Cause HPU showed me how to get out there. So now utilizing those services that they offer, they offer Facebook. We're going to do a Facebook live after we launch it to go into, you know, this is what's going on. They also do emailing. They, they, you know, you can go on your calendar, you can put yourself on their calendar, whatever events you have going on. Um, a lot of them will ask you to send whatever you have going on for the next few months and they add you into the calendar. So that's free advertising too.

Michelle Leotta:
I love all of these ideas. Thank you for telling us a little bit more about that. I, when I think chamber of commerce, I generally think of the shoe store in town or the eye doctor, but you're saying that any of us are eligible to join it.

Shawne Johnson:
Yes. And the cost was like $440 for the year. Then you get all of these perks.

Michelle Leotta:
So, it was worth it.

Shawne Johnson:
Yes.

Michelle Leotta:
Amazing Shawne. Well, thank you so much for sharing. Not only your experience with your list builders and signing your clients, but some information about how we can network with our local chamber of commerce. I really appreciate you taking the time today.

Shawne Johnson:
Thank you. Thank you very much.

Michelle Leotta:
All right. You guys, so the holidays are upon us. Things are a little bit crazy right before we got on today. Shawne and I were commiserating a little bit that it is an insane time of year. So I do not expect you to drop everything. Stop wrapping presents, forget the baking, do nothing else, except grow your mailing list and sign new clients between now and the end of the year. That's probably not going to happen, right? But here's what you can do where you absolutely should do. If you want to hit the ground running in January. And that is to have a plan. You don't want to show up to your desks the first week of January going, okay, now, gosh, what was I going to do? Right? You want to show up and know exactly what to do. And that's what our multiply your mailing list event is all about.

Michelle Leotta:
I'm going to be sending you a new video lesson each day created specifically for health coaches, of course, with small steps that you can take in just minutes, it'll set the stage for your 2021, which has got to be an easier year than 2020. Oh my goodness. It's going to be your year of growth. So be sure to sign up and join us T healthcoachpower.com/listbuild. We get started on December 27th. Now this is our last podcast episode of the year. My friends, thank you so much for listening and subscribing. Our numbers have gone way up this year. It is exciting to see, because I know there are so many health coaches out there struggling, like Shawne was saying spinning their wheels, getting nowhere. And every time you guys write a review for the show, every time you share the show with somebody where you're reaching more of those health coaches. And by doing that, we are reaching more people. We are serving more of the population to help them achieve greater health and happiness. So thank you for that. We'll be back with a new podcast episode in early January. Happy holidays, everybody.