[0:03] You're listening to the Life Friendly Business Podcast, where we lift the lid on the reality of running a business around family life and shine a light on the mindset gremlins which may well be stopping you from stepping into your zone of genius. I'm Erin, the Life Friendly Business Mentor, and I'm here to empower you to succeed through personalised support, strategic business training and ongoing mentorship. Let's work together to champion your goals and ignite your potential so that you can create your very own life-friendly business.
[0:42] This year, I attended Atomicon for the second time. This is a sales and marketing conference organised by Andrew and Pete, and they hold it up in Newcastle. I had such a good time last year that it was an absolute no-brainer to attend again because for me, I've really made this commitment to lifelong learning as a business owner because we always need to be aware of what we don't know. And so by attending events like this, it gives us an opportunity to up-level our skills and also feel inspired by what other people are doing in the industry. I think it's really easy for us to get stuck in this story of what's possible for us. And it's only really when you step outside of your own echo chamber that you realise that, you know, there is so much more that's possible, especially at the moment when, you know, obviously there is a cost of living crisis and, you know, a lot of businesses are struggling, a lot of people are struggling, and it's easy to think like there's not enough money to go around and that people aren't buying.
[1:53] But they are. They are buying the things that solve the problem that they have. And so attending a conference with talks like this makes you think about how you're positioning your own offer and whether you are being clear enough about how it can help someone. Because there are still people there who are ready to invest in something that is going to help them get to where they want faster, smarter, smoother, or whatever it is.
[2:25] So today I wanted to share some of my takeaways. Now, obviously, these are my interpretations of what was said in the talks. And also I'm going on my very scribbled notes. So if there's anything in here that you think sounds interesting,
[2:40] do go and Google the speaker and find out more about what they're talking about. The keynote speaker was Davina McCall. We all love Davina. I've heard her story on the Diary of a CEO with Stephen Bartlett before about her overcoming addictions and things like that. And she is really, really inspiring. And I have to say, I wasn't sure what she would be talking about because this is a business conference. But of course, she does have several businesses in terms of like her fitness and now with the menopause as well. But what really stood out to so many of us was the fact that she talked about the days when she was trying to get on MTV. She'd set her sights on being a presenter at MTV. And she basically kept pitching to them every month for three years before she got a yes. And she had a brilliant quote saying that, no is a yes that hasn't happened yet. And then she caveated that by saying, unless it's in the bedroom, which made everyone laugh. And she said, then it's definitely a no.
[3:45] But that's such a great quote. No is a yes that hasn't happened yet. Because I know for me, and you know, so many of my friends as well, you get one no, and it immediately stops you in your tracks. And you think, oh my goodness, and then you hide back in your shell. But what she's saying is you just need to keep going. And with her, her persistence paid off. And it took three years. So that was such a fantastic way to start the day, really, for us to be questioning,
[4:14] you know, how resilient we are in terms of putting ourselves out there. Next up was Jen Gottlieb. I think that's pronounced right. She was fantastic. And she was talking about whose voice we're actually listening to when we're taking action or when we're not taking action. Are we listening to our own inner critic? Are we listening to what we think other people are thinking about us. And she told this great story about going to see Jerry Seinfeld.
[4:44] In a really intimate exclusive gig and she went along and she realized that what he was actually doing he was reading off cue cards and he was actually practicing to this small group he was practicing his new show and she said it really opened up her mind to this realization that you know we always feel like we have to have everything completely polished but we need to allow ourselves to be a beginner.
[5:09] And if you allow yourself to be a beginner and give yourself that space to practice, that can help you ditch all the feelings of imposter syndrome. And, you know, I don't want to pitch myself as an expert because all you're simply thinking is like, I'm learning how to do this and I'm learning how to improve. So I really love that. Allow yourself to be a beginner, create spaces where you can be a beginner and also I took a screenshot because she had this brilliant big slide that said visibility is your responsibility and just drilling home yet again the message that it's up to us to get our message out there and to get our business out there and we need to be prioritizing visibility now I run a visibility program and this is totally my bag. And so it was brilliant to see that up on the big screen. And just that reminder that, yes, you might want people to help hold you accountable for this. But really, when it comes down to it, we have to take ownership of our own responsibility and our own goals as well.
[6:17] So at this point, we left the main room where there was well over 1000. I'm not sure of the number of people there, but there was well over 1000.
[6:26] And then we went into different breakout cat room. So there were four talks happening at the same time. And I chose to go to Jasmine Kemp's talk about meta ads. So over the years, I've actually had two consultants doing ads for me quite a while ago now. And then I've kind of fiddled around with ads myself. But I've never really, I'm not really an analytical person. I've never really got the most out of it. and her talk was really great because it was very clear and simple and she was obviously talking about the huge benefits of doing paid ads in that you can reach such a vast audience beyond your organic reach and it's about getting in front of the right people at the right time so obviously you're just so much more targeted with paid ads than you are with organic content and she shared her two-tiered strategy, which was about setting up traffic ads to your Instagram profile.
[7:28] And then retargeting those people once they've liked your profile with a low cost or a freebie ad. And she was saying that we should be spending 70% of our ad spend on the top of the funnel on getting, you know, the reach, getting people to our Instagram profile, and then 30% of the budget into these retargeting ads. So I really liked that. And I thought, yes, that feels totally doable. And I went up to her at the end and I said, how much, you know, what's the minimum that you can be spending on ads? And she said, $10 a day. So like seven pounds, I reckon that's probably about. And just to say another talk that I went to for something else, which I might mention later, they were saying that you need to keep ads running for at least a month to really assess how they're working, which was really interesting to me because I'm very much, oh, I'll put, you know, £10 a day and then the end of the week comes and I think it hasn't really done anything and I spent 70 quid and so I'll quickly turn the ad off. So definitely changing that mindset around when I do experiment with ads that I need to keep them going to really see the results. So that was a really good talk.
[8:43] Next up, I went to see Mike Morrison from The Membership Guys. I I absolutely recommend the Membership Academy to anyone who is running a membership. Over the years, I've been running my membership for six or seven years, and I've been a member a couple of times for various periods with the Membership Academy. And they really do. It's so targeted to running a membership. They've got everything that you need. So I went to kind of refresh myself, and he was talking about how he likes the concept of the flywheel rather than a funnel. And in that flywheel, you've got the service, the marketing, the sales, but the customer is always at the core of what you're doing and, you know, what they what they're interested in and what they need. He talked as well about using content from your membership as lead magnets, which, you know, this is just I remember learning about that when I joined their membership and thinking that makes so much sense and I need to be doing that. And am I doing that consistently? No. So this is a kind of like wrist slapping moment of I knew this and I haven't actually implemented this, but this is why we need to hear things more than once. So I'm giving myself grace with that.
[9:56] He also talked about the fact that obviously people don't join memberships to stand still. They join memberships because they want to make progress. So we need to be thinking about creating a roadmap or a success path to help them see that they are making that progress. And in the cocoon, I did create an Elevate and Align 90-day growth plan workshop this year.
[10:20] Workbook, sorry, to help people kind of think about setting their goals and also making a plan for what they're going to access from the Cocoon Library, because there is so much in there. Obviously, this membership has been going for many years now. And I don't want it to be overwhelming for people. I want people to think about what they need right now and choose those resources, learn, implement, and then reassess and think about, right, what do I need now? And that's going to be different to what it was three months ago. Go. And also he talked about risk reversal. Obviously, we need to be overcoming objections as to why people might not sign up for us. And it is actually pretty hard to sell a recurring membership. I think that, you know, with the days of gym memberships where you're just tied in and you're like, oh my God, I'm not even using it and I'm still having to pay for it every month and I can't get out the contract. That is still very much in people's heads. So as membership owners, as we need to be thinking about how we can make it as risk-free as possible. So offering a money back guarantee, doing free trials, maybe having a free level of the membership so that they can come in and try a few resources. So this was all really great reminders for me of stuff that I had learnt from the membership academy before, but I've obviously gone off track because I've
[11:41] been focusing on other things.
[11:43] I then went to hear Susie Ashworth speak. And I've heard a lot about Susie from many of my clients. I've kind of seen her. I've never really watched her stuff. I've never really engaged with her. And she was talking about high ticket offers. And actually, I really enjoyed what she was saying. She really made us question the stories that we might be telling ourselves about not having people that would buy a high ticket in our audience. And apparently, Apparently, the stat is that 2% of people do want a premium option. And she set us the challenge of thinking about what we could be offering for 5K upwards. I think she said up to like 60K or something crazy, but I'll focus on the 5K. And she talked about some of the blocks that we face when it comes to creating a high ticket offer for our business. Obviously, the story that people don't have enough money to do it, but also this lack of certainty that we might have about the transformation. We hear this word all the time, the transformation that we offer. But she was framing it in.
[12:49] In the fact that like what we're providing is an outcome and that is a result of a system or an experience and that really resonated with me because definitely you know I whether I'm working one-to-one or in small groups with people it is about the experience it's about the journey that we go on together it's about the connection it's about having that safe space and this is an experience that I'm offering someone to go through so that really resonated with me and I'm definitely going to be thinking about the way that I'm talking about the offers that I have in my marketing as well. And she also said, you know, the thing about high ticket is that you don't necessarily need to splash it all over your social media and all over your website. This can be by personal invitation only. So when you know that you've got some people who you've worked really closely with or they keep coming back and they're a recurring customer, you can decide, you can send Send out invitations and ask whether they're interested in learning about this opportunity to work more closely with you. So it was really insightful and I really enjoyed Susie's talk.
[13:56] Next up, Elizabeth Goddard. So I've been following Elizabeth for quite a while. I've taken part in her Christmas goodie bag. And what I love about Lizzie is she's just she absolutely keeps it real. And her talk was called Embrace the Chaos. and she had this big slide up that said, you're never going to get your SHIT together. And everyone just fell about laughing because how many of us feel like we are saying that story of, well, when things calm down, I'll do this. When I get more organized, I'll do this. And the reality is, is that that's never going to happen. So let's just find a way to run our businesses is in the situation that we're in, in the chaos that we're in. And once again, she also touched on the fact that so many of us, you know, lacking confidence with selling what we're doing. And she was saying, you know, you are the expert of your own experience.
[14:57] And she was talking about the fact that, you know, a lot of her offers have been built on the back of her sharing what she's been doing. She puts it into a low ticket course. and as she sells it and other people work through it she then gets feedback from them as to what they've been able to implement with it and she learns lessons on you know what's worked for them what hasn't worked for them maybe different things and then she basically you know tweaks the low ticket offer that she's created so that it's much richer because it's not just about her experience it's also about other people's experience with doing the kind of system or the framework that she has created. So that was really great as well. Just this reminder that we can be so nervous about putting ourselves out there and pitching ourselves as the expert. But if what you're sharing is how you do something and, you know, what, what encompasses that is everything that you've learned in order to do that thing, then, you know, that's, you're going to be the expert in that because you're the only one who knows your story. You're the only one that's had your experience. So that was a really great reminder.
[16:07] In the afternoon, I saw Suman Randhawa speak about heart-led sales. This was a fantastic talk and she gave such clear advice on how we can be approaching our sales in a way that does not feel icky. She was talking about the fact that 80% of the reason we buy is emotional and how we need to be taking that into account. She also talked about not masking a discovery call as a coffee and chat. She said, if you are doing this call to identify their problem and offer what you do as a solution, if it is the right fit, that we should not be calling that a coffee and chat because it does the disservice and it makes us feel uncomfortable then about selling. And, you know, the client, the potential client might feel uncomfortable because they weren't expecting to be sold to. So that was really interesting. I do offer both a discovery call and a coffee and chat, and I've been using them in different ways, but that's really made me think. And she was like, you know, really, we should be calling them what they are, a discovery call or a clarity call or anything like that. So that was a really good thought.
[17:20] She also said that we really should be qualifying our leads and not everyone should get a call with you. And, you know, this is so important, isn't it? Because our time is so precious. And even if it's a 20 minute call or a half an hour call, that's taking you away from other things that you need to do in your business. So thinking about how you can qualify them, whether they need to fill out a form first before you send them the link to the call, or whether you're just very clear on that page who the calls are for. She also talked about objections. And I love this quote, objections are simply opportunities to continue the conversation.
[18:00] And this goes back to Jen's talk as well and Davina, the whole idea about rejection that we face. Objections are simply opportunities to continue the conversation. That is such a game changer, isn't it? Because so often, you know, someone says no or they're not really interested on the call. And, you know, we just absolutely retreat and feel embarrassed about the fact that we even considered that they might want to buy from us. But if you see that as an opportunity to ask them more questions, that's really empowering, I think. And she also gave us this amazing roadmap of how to conduct a sales call. And I'll just kind of briefly touch on what she talked about. Out she said first of all you want to set the scene and let people know how the call is going to work and that you know you're going to ask them some questions and then at the end you're going to let them know if you have a solution that might help them you want to identify their big goal look at where they are now and what's standing in the way of them getting to where they want to why they think this is a problem like what's the urgency with them solving this how you can help and then asking them at the end as well, how urgent is this problem? What will happen if they don't solve this problem? So it was really useful. And I, you know, it's one of those great talks where I've come away with proper actionable notes of what I can do going forward.
[19:26] And last up, back in the main room as a keynote, we had Lisa Bilyeu talking about confidence. Well, she talked about loads of different things, but some of the kind of takeaways were about the quote that I loved was confidence is a byproduct of taking action. So stop waiting to feel confident to take action and instead start taking action and you will then feel more confident. And that is so true when it comes to the visibility clients that I work with as well. Like we have to just start doing it. And the more you do it, the more you will push yourself into your stretch zone and then that will feel more comfortable so I love that confidence is a byproduct of taking action she also talked about stop seeking validation from external sources and you know and that's one thing that I learned from Tony Robbins the whole thing about feeling that validation from within she also says that imposter syndrome is not fatal which is brilliant. Like, you know, we are not going to die from feeling imposter syndrome. Let's just push through it and still put ourselves out there. And she also touched on the whole idea of being a learner, being a beginner, which is what Jen had talked about in the first keynote.
[20:48] And lastly, I mean, this is really powerful. No one is coming to save you. You're the hero of your own life.
[20:56] And that's just, it's just brilliant. It's just a reminder once again, that we are responsible for our own success and we are responsible for designing a life that we want to lead, for doing something that we love, all those things, for taking control if we're feeling stressed and overwhelmed, we are responsible for it. So be your own hero. So there's a lot in there. Wow, this episode is already longer than I planned it to be. But, you know, the great thing about going to a conference like this is also the people, like being in a room with like-minded people. And I'm so lucky that I managed to meet up with my Cocoon members and some other clients as well. And we had a couple of dinners together, which was so nice.
[21:40] And it's having that time away from your normal day to day. and everything I've learned over Atomicon, I will be able to put into my strategy going forward. And, you know, not only is that going to benefit my business, but also everything I've learned is going to benefit the people that I work with as well. So it's amazing, lovely ripple effect of going to that kind of thing and investing in your own learning and your own personal development. Development so I've already booked my ticket for 2025 and if you'd like to join us and come along and you can come and have dinner as well we'll get together and I'll put the link in the show notes and if you do book let me know and I what I do is create a little messenger chat for everyone that's going that I know and then we can just kind of meet up if we want to just kind of keep track of each other because it's very busy.
[22:34] It's um you know there's like over a thousand people there and it's it can be daunting I know for people that were kind of going on their own and maybe introverted as well so that's the great thing about kind of having this little circle of people that you do know so we can meet up at lunchtime and have a little decompress and yeah meet up in the evenings if you don't want to go to all the there's so many events organized around Atomicon as well I mean basically it's totally up to you whether you just go all in and attend everything or whether you pace yourself and just dip in and out of the things that you know you really want to see but it's just a brilliant conference really well organized by Andrew and Pete they attract really lovely people and it's it's just a really inspiring thing to do and to have that in the diary to look forward to so that they are my takeaways from Atomicon like I say this is from memory and my interpretation and my scribbled notepad when I was trying to write everything down. But I really hope that's insightful to you. And yeah, reach out, look at any of the speakers that I mentioned, but also feel free to reach out and ask any questions to me too. And I will see you next week.
[23:48] Do you get great results, glowing feedback and fantastic testimonials, but still not enough sales? You've fallen into the best kept secret trap. app. Visit lifeanybusiness.com forward slash visibility to find out how to escape it so you can grow your audience, amplify your impact and increase your income.
