Live Coaching: Avoiding Burnout and Cultivating Consistent Visibility
Episode Summary:
As we continue to ease into 2023, I wanted to share another replay of a live mini coaching session that I held a few months back with another Freedom Fund™ early access participant. I was honored to have this conversation with Sierra Busch, founder of Creative Edge Travel. We talked about how to create a high converting Facebook group, avoiding burnout, and balancing consistent visibility with marketing events. If you’re a new-ish entrepreneur ready to take your business to the next level, this episode is a great place to start. Thank you to Sierra for being open to sharing this experience!
Topics Discussed:
Defining what a marketing event actually is so that you can create leveraged relationships for your business
How to combat overwhelm when you’re early on in your business and a solopreneur
Tips for hiring your first VA from knowing your budget to deciding what expertise to look for
How to avoid burnout so that you can stay consistent with your visibility and marketing events
Knowing that it’s okay if some parts of your business or the work that you do isn’t always fun or glamorous
Episode Resources:
About Sierra
Sierra Busch is the founder of Creative Edge Travel, a culturally-immersive travel company offering small group trips to Italy’s most authentic, untouched areas. Sierra brings her guests inside local kitchens, artisan studios, and family farms for meaningful travel experiences with locals.
Connect with Sierra:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google | Stitcher
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Anna Rapp (00:02):
Okay. Yay. So how this session goes is 20 minutes, whatever is on your heart or mind, it can definitely be freedom fund related, but it can be anything that's coming up for you. So we do that for 20 minutes and then after, if you have any questions about what it's like to work with me long-term, I can answer those. How does that sound?
Sierra Busch (00:20):
Great.
Anna Rapp (00:21):
Yay. Okay. So what is most pressing on your mind that you want coaching on?
Sierra Busch (00:26):
I think converting my Facebook group members to paying clients. Oh,
Anna Rapp (00:30):
I love this question. Okay, great. Tell me more.
Sierra Busch (00:34):
So, I have been building my group and it consistently gets new members. I'm at like three and a half K. And I've start, I used your free download thing a while back to create, you know a message, a welcome message that I send to every new member as well as if they didn't answer the question, something I send out. And then I do the welcome post once a week. And I think where I get stuck is, you know, the people that write back and I converse with them. I guess I don't know where to take it from there to like continue the, continue connecting with them and moving them towards the funnel.
Anna Rapp (01:14):
Yes. I love this question. It's a great question. Okay. So remind me, I think I just have like a little bit of context from your business, but you do, like, what are some of the conversion type things you do? Like you do QA calls, like what are some of those things?
Sierra Busch (01:28):
So we have some lead magnets. When people join the group, I ask them if they want the how to connect with locals anywhere you go download. We do, I have in the past done like live workshops on the destinations where it's, you know, works in with like, and you can have all this without planning it yourself and you just come on our trip. But those haven't, I haven't got a lot of turnout from those, but you know, like you said, if there's just two people there, then that could be worth it. But and let's see. Oh, one thing that has worked well is a free live cooking class. So to celebrate our fifth year in business, we did a birthday biscotti baking class and I got a client from that and someone else that's probably, you know, they said the book in the future. So that tends to work well because you have a longer period of time to connect with people. They get a space. There's a lot of opportunity to pull out some details for them about our experiences. So that works well. But I don't do it very often. <Laugh>,
Anna Rapp (02:42):
I love this. I think like in the online space, like we've really confined like marketing to like a webinar a chall and like, not that those aren't great cause I love a challenge, right? But I think really a marketing event is anything that allows our audience to connect with us and build deeper relationship, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> and especially if we can like, kinda like you and I are doing here, right? But it's one-to-one. But the cool thing about a leveraged marketing event is you're building the relationship one to many. And that sounds like you've struck gold with that combo of, you know, you're able to show up, do your thing, give a little value. When you do the, that cooking class, like, do you share at the end, like, by the way, just a quick blip if you ever wanna go on a trip, this is what it's like. Like do you do a little bit of selling on that?
Sierra Busch (03:26):
Absolutely. Yeah.
Anna Rapp (03:27):
Yes. Okay, good. So what is holding you back from doing more of those?
Sierra Busch (03:34):
Probably being overwhelmed with so much, you know, one woman's show doing all the things. Yeah. Yes, I am in the process of hiring a va. I've had one before, but I always I've had a lot of interns in the past and that kind of thing, but the va I had her quality started to go down and she was, you know, fresh outta college. So I was really, you know, training her and stuff. So I haven't had one for about two and a half years or maybe two years. So I find myself, I, I know that that could be a game changer for me to have help. But I realize, cause I've been interviewing this week and I'm just someone that doesn't spend a lot of money. Like I realized that the number I came up with was totally arbitrary.
Sierra Busch (04:24):
You know, it was a number that I felt like was okay to spend, which was like 300 a month for like 10 hours per week, you know, using people in countries where the U s D goes further. And so I guess I need to work on no how to find someone that's gonna be already bringing their own skills and expertise to my business and ready to like hit the ground running. And I realized journaling yesterday that the important thing is not how much it costs because I have to believe that no matter how much it costs, hiring them is going to bring me money. And so it's really about finding the right person that's excited about my business and has the right skills to offer and is a good fit. Did I <laugh> you did
Anna Rapp (05:16):
Like my job here has done I think you said and like, let's put a pin in the conversation about the marketing event. Cause I think that's important too. And I think number one, that's gonna get easier as you repeat it. Our marketing starts to get easier as we, if you do that same type of class again and again, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, it's just gonna get easier and easier and less tech heavy because you're just repeating the same stuff, right? But I love that we transition to the second piece, which is maybe like the deeper truer thing which is going on here, which is like, you need support, you need help, right? Your business is making money and you're, you're ready. It's like that messy middle time where it's like it's making enough money and I'm busy enough where I'm overwhelmed, but maybe I'm not quite making enough yet where it feels super good to spend a lot of money on a va.
Anna Rapp (06:00):
But I think what you said is so key, if you invest in the right person, it a hundred percent is gonna make your money back, right? And I think it makes a lot of sense to hire someone at whatever rate feels good to you, right? Whatever VA entry rate, like $30 an hour, like instead of going for someone that's gonna charge, you know, $4 an hour going for someone that's gonna pay $30 an hour, but potentially is going to do more for that 30 more in one hour than some, you know what I'm saying? Like either you have to, you're paying less and you're spending your time training them, right? Or you're paying more and they're bringing more to the table. And I think for where you're at, you don't have the time to be training someone, right? You want someone, you don't wanna hire a project, like you wanna hire someone that's gonna come and relieve work, relieve stress, take things off your plate, right?
Anna Rapp (06:47):
So I love the idea of coming up with your budget. So if you say in your head like, I'm budgeting 400 bucks, and I would even see like, okay, can I do that for three months? Because initially when we hire someone it doesn't relieve a lot of stress because we're training, you know? But like if you can go in for three months and say, I'm gonna spend $400 for three months, right? What is that? Four times three is $1,200, right? If this person can help me sell one more ticket, one, like that's gonna make it worth it, right? But if I can think, okay, $1,200 investment and then looking at, let's say someone is charging entry level VA $35 or something like that, right? An hour. So what's 1200 divided by 35, that's like 35 hours, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And so just trusting that those 35 hours are gonna do more for you than someone at $4 an hour at way more hours, right? What are your thoughts on all that?
Sierra Busch (07:45):
Yeah, I agree. I like the idea of cause I always multiply it by 12 months and look at that number and if it's scary I'm like, oh, I can't spend that much and <laugh> and if it's comfortable, I'm like, okay, I could do that. So I like the idea of like doing it for a shorter period, at least wrapping my head around that. I also do, not to ch get off topic, but I also do, another thing I struggle with in my Facebook group is I go through periods where I'm really active at holding myself accountable for doing two to three lives per week. And then I go like six months I get burnt out and I'm like, I don't want to have to go live today. Like, ugh. You know? So I wonder if you have any tips on I guess being more consistent and making it easier or I don't know.
Anna Rapp (08:38):
I love this and think what you're coming across too is like, I love the idea of you leaning back on the Facebook lives a little bit so that you have more energy and time and capacity for your marketing event, right? So if you're only going live once a week, right, then you might have more capacity to do your cooking event once a month, right?
Sierra Busch (08:56):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,
Anna Rapp (08:57):
How does that feel?
Sierra Busch (09:01):
Yeah, it's probably just about studying my mind to it. There was a period this summer when I, I reached out to you and told you I did the scholarship program. I was just in a mode of like ignoring the part of me that's like lazy and like, ugh, that means I'd have to build a funnel and do X, y, z <laugh>. I was just like, okay, let's do it. Let's get it up and going. Which is probably now why I'm burnt. But I forgot where I was going with that. But yeah, so so going back to just one live per week and yeah, I think I was trying to say it's just about making the decision mm-hmm. To do mm-hmm. <Affirmative> the, and organizing it. So figuring out who I'm gonna ask to lead, cuz I lead it with a partner in Italy that's part of one of our trips. So I can say, you know, in real life
Anna Rapp (09:52):
Maybe it's even every other month, right? Like every other month or something,
Sierra Busch (09:55):
Even once a, I mean just to start to wrap my head around it once a quarter, you know, that's doable.
Anna Rapp (10:03):
And the thing thing is like, oh, go ahead, you go first.
Sierra Busch (10:07):
It's just I'm currently staying in Italy with my friend Anna who leads our cooking classes on one of our trips. So I literally could, like I have the easiest setup to do one now while I'm here. <Laugh>.
Anna Rapp (10:19):
Yes. I love, and I think too, it's remembering like I said, like how marketing starts getting easier and this doesn't get talked about enough in the online space, right? When we start to make our business boring, like you'll see that I run challenges all the time, right? Not because I think challenges are the only way to market, but it's because it's the system that my team and I are really good at, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And so for you, as you run your cooking class, you're gonna start to notice when you're on your like fourth, fifth, sixth, ninth cooking class, it's just gonna start to become autopilot because you already have the emails to send, you're just tweaking them a little. You already have the graphics you like. That's where like it starts to become easier is when we just repeat that same thing that works for us again and again. Right?
Sierra Busch (11:01):
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Anna Rapp (11:04):
And I think the thing I hear you saying like, oh, it's gonna be so much work. Okay, so what's your goal for like how many clients? You're, how many more clients do you wanna be getting that you're not getting right now, I guess is the question?
Sierra Busch (11:17):
Let's say I have three trips with seven spots each right now for per year. So are you asking how many spots are still open that I need to fill? Yep, yep. Okay, hold on. Lemme do them math. Seven times 3 21.
Anna Rapp (11:35):
So it's basically like 21 spots a year?
Sierra Busch (11:38):
Yeah. Oh. I have about 15 spots to fill.
Anna Rapp (11:45):
Okay. But I have
Sierra Busch (11:46):
A lot of people posted, it's something strange is happening this year where a lot of people are interested in our trip for next October. They're saying, me, I'm going to book, but I'm gonna wait until whatever, you know, so mm-hmm.
Anna Rapp (11:57):
<Affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative>. And that's a good topic to talk about later. And if we don't hit this in session, you should post this in the Facebook group because I can answer, but creating like urgency and incentives, like how to get people off the fence, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So let's put a pin in that. But okay, so if you knew, and you can even create incentives as a part of these marketing events, right? Like if you buy on this call or if you buy 48 hours, then you get a bonus or something, right?
Sierra Busch (12:22):
I did that, that is what worked well. LA last cooking class I did a hundred dollars dis and it worked. So yeah, I mean look at
Anna Rapp (12:32):
You go, right? So like, it's kind of all combined, right? So if you knew for certain that if you did a cooking class a quarter or every whatever, we decided right, that you would a hundred percent fill all 21 spots, would it make it worth it?
Sierra Busch (12:46):
Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Anna Rapp (12:47):
<Laugh>. So I think it's going in with that energy, right? Like it's, this is our best guess what's gonna sell out your business, right? So it's like, I know you're saying like, we do this thing in our business where we're like, oh, but this is gonna be gonna be, it's gonna be work or it's not gonna be fun. Right? But like, but is that amount of money gonna be fun? Yeah, well it's, so I think it's like, it's okay if not every part of our business is exciting or glamorous, right? Yeah. I think eventually it will be, but it's okay if it's not fun at first, right?
Sierra Busch (13:14):
Yeah. Actually, if I think about it, that's a lot less work than creating a presentation about a destination
Anna Rapp (13:22):
Exa of all the marketing things. This is it, right? So I think it's like we get this thing where like, we make it wrong if it's not the best, but it's like of, of it has the least cons and the most pros of all the marketing you could do, right?
Sierra Busch (13:35):
It's true. Yep.
Anna Rapp (13:36):
Yay. Okay. Tell me what your biggest takeaways are from session
Sierra Busch (13:43):
Standing up. Oh, oh, okay. Shorter periods. Thinking in shorter periods, so going in for three months instead of a year. And yeah, I've never thought of, I've always felt like I need to do all the different <laugh> marketing things, right? But it's, it was interesting to look at it from a perspective of like, hey, here's all the things you're doing. What works the best? It seems obvious now that I say it, but what has the the least content and the most pros like you said. So that really comparing it to the, the work I have to do for those presentations I've done, it makes me so much more willing to say, okay, if I do these cooking classes, then that means I can put the presentations aside and not have to do those. Or I can run them as a paid some kind of paid event because they are so much more work.
Anna Rapp (14:38):
Or even like once a year, right? Like maybe still keeping it in, but again, like you said, making me changing up where it is in your structure, right?
Sierra Busch (14:45):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>.
Anna Rapp (14:47):
Okay. I love that idea of moving to one marketing, like get, get, getting that well oiled, hiring a va, taking that 90 day investment, right? And then being able to assess after that it's 90 days. And then moving to one Facebook live a week, right? Taking the pressure off there so you have capacity for that higher touch. And then, like you said, to making sure you are doing that incentive on the class to get people off the fence while it's kind of like top of mind for them, right?
Sierra Busch (15:16):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. One quick question. Do you for your lives and things, do you pick a topic like this week I'm gonna talk about this thing. And that's how you know what to talk about on your live?
Anna Rapp (15:29):
I, I like to, I like to say and I like to like warn people like the day of do like a little text announcement in the group. Like, Hey, join me live at noon for this thing. And even if people can't make it live, sometimes they'll see that notice and then go catch the replay. And that's the thing, if you wean down from three to one, I think you'll enjoy it more cuz you're not burned out. But also your audience is more likely to catch it cuz it fills 'em a little bit more exclusive, right?
Sierra Busch (15:53):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. That makes sense. And do you have like a system where you are reminding yourself? You know, I chatted with this person online a week ago, so in two weeks I'm gonna touch base with them again.
Anna Rapp (16:06):
Yes. I do have a system actually <laugh>, it's called the Client Tracker. Have you heard of this?
Sierra Busch (16:12):
Mm,
Anna Rapp (16:12):
It's $10 <laugh>. It's on my website. Think it's either like 10 or $17, but it's basically a really simple spreadsheet that has three tabs and it's really basic, but it's really good. <Laugh>. I think some of the best systems are simple, but I just like write down people's names as a way to remember like, ooh, so-and-so said to reach out, back out with them. Or if I have a conversion event like your cooking classes, you might create a fresh tab for that. But that's what I use. I'll send you the link for that after.
Sierra Busch (16:43):
Okay, thanks.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.