"I was having (this problem/challenge), I wasn’t sure what to do (establish the pain/frustration). I joined (name of program) and (new thing you learned, realized or discovered). I (what you did) and (specific result you got).
Despite being well known in the world of writing and publishing, business was lagging. Few authors could afford my one-on-one services. My online courses, which I’d hoped would reach more authors at an affordable price point (not to mention provide me with some passive income), were not getting the traction or the completion rates I’d hoped. I knew I had the information, processes, and techniques they needed, but I couldn’t get them to take action.
To top it off, my personal life got complicated. I caught the flu, probably Covid, in mid-February while visiting my parents. A fire broke out in the middle of the night. We escaped, though I was barely able to crawl out through the smoke. Suddenly the fact that every moment in life is precious became real and I knew everything had to change.
I approached my partner with my ideas for change, he rejected them, so now I was single to boot. I moved to Sonoma, where two more fires temporarily drove me out of my new home. A writers’ conference I was heavily involved with decided to cancel and not go virtual.
Unsettled, heartbroken, and discouraged about both my business and my life, an email from Marisa caught my eye.
I’d been attracted to Marisa’s Live Your Message brand, but hadn’t taken action on any of her offers yet. The Experience Product Masterclass program seemed just the right fit to help me fix my courses and expand my business.
Still, it was hard to part with the $2000 program fee, especially since I’d invested in several other high-priced business courses that did not deliver. The EPM money-back guarantee sealed the deal. I knew I could do the work, so I promised myself to throw myself in and commit to taking each step.
Immediately, I knew I’d made the right decision. Everything was all laid out so I could see what work was ahead, and that it was doable. In fact, soon after I started, I realized the EPM process would apply a frivolous little side project of my heart, a travel writing course for motorcyclists who want to publish their stories in magazines. I called it Your Motorcycle Diaries. I made it a one-to-few coaching product, combined it with my travel writing online course, announced it at a virtual women’s motorcycling conference, and sold all 15 seats in only two weeks.
One of the things EPM was teaching me was about the psychology of selling, teaching, and coaching, and it blew my mind. I thought, this is what I could have been doing all along? So simple! Yet, so uncomfortable… at first. The technique of delivering information in a particular way so that people can get their head around the offer did not feel intuitive. The script for talking with my future clients was difficult to follow. I was stilted and uncertain. This wasn’t the way I was used to talking! But I made myself do it and, lo and behold, after a few conversations I’d made it my own and incredibly, it worked. Prospects were purchasing a $997 beta program that I hadn’t even created yet based on our conversations about what they wanted, from feeling like they were heard, and even saying yes to co-creating this program with me. A program that wasn’t even outlined yet!
The key was in the delivery, and the magic was to follow the script, then shut up and listen, tolerating the silence. Formerly, I decided what my clients needed and delivered it to them, trying to guide them to success my way, not their way. This was another big shift. It allowed them to express themselves, and it allowed me to hear them.
The “allow” statements, in particular, helped me reframe the process in my mind. What I could allow them to do, to be, to feel, to have, to overcome, and to achieve.
This was the most mind-blowing shift of all.
I could allow and empower their transformation from writers uncertain about whether their book would be well-received, who procrastinate on finishing their book and don’t even show it to anybody, into published authors who know their books will reach their audience, who will achieve the status of authorship and, even more importantly, in delivering their messages to the world.
I kept these statements close and studied them statements before I talked with each author.
Allow them to do: finish their book with confidence
Allow them to be: become an influential or change-making author
Allow them to feel: proud and influential
Allow them to have: a book they can be proud of
Allow them to overcome: the uncertainty about the books success
Allow them to achieve: the status of authorship
I started my Five-Start Book Launch Masterclass well before EPM ended and there are eight committed authors co-creating the program with me. They tell me they feel empowered to finish, to attract an audience, and to publish with confidence. I feel like they’re doing most of the work. They feel like I’m doing most of the work. We laugh a lot in our group meetings and the private Facebook group is so busy I can barely keep up, and that’s with only eight authors! I see a future where these eight mentor the next group, and so on and so on.
Five-Star Book Launch Masterclass was my EPM project, but EPM also launched my Your Motorcycle Diaries travel writing workshop, the Your Signature Story workshop for memoir authors, and the Adventure Writers Conference, which is on the calendar for September. It has been bigger than that, though. I've attracted some great partnerships with prominent authors associations and adventure travel organizations. I’ve had some pretty amazing offers to speak, teach, and participate in seminars and conferences.
Yep, 2020 was a tough year. Covid, the fires, the end of a seven-year relationship, a travel ban, rebuilding my parents’ home, the writing conference cancellation, moving. But I have to wonder, would I have made this shift without all that adversity? I don’t think so. I believe that adversity gave me to the strength to shift into a life with higher purpose and higher value. Adversity gave me the courage to discard what wasn’t working and to trust my instincts and make good choices. EPM was an excellent choice. The EPM journey has been key to manifesting my desire to live a life of freedom and trust in my ability to uplift myself and others, to create opportunities for myself and for others, to make a good living, and to live my message.
Thank you."