"I used surveys and chatterboxing to sell all eight seats in the beta program at $997. I gave two authors half off because I really wanted them in it and I felt they’d give me the best feedback. Boom! $6000.""?
EPM came to my attention in 2020 after several natural and personal disasters left me destitute and needing to rebuild my career. It was hard to part with the $2000 I needed to enter the program, especially since I’ve taken several other high-priced business courses which didn’t help me much. But the EPM money-back guarantee sealed the deal. I get it back if I do all the steps and don’t succeed? Okay!
Despite being a sought-after self-publishing industry expert, blogger, podcaster, and consultant, I have not been able to engage as many authors as I’d like to the programs I know they need to succeed. Why? In retrospect, it was probably because I couldn’t articulate the cost-benefit solution in a way they understood.
The EPM literally gave me templates for sales copy and sales calls, saying the words out loud in a particular order, asking strategic questions along the way. Holy moly, was it uncomfortable to parrot words that were not mine. But it was the practice I needed, and with a few adjustments to put it into my voice, it worked perfectly. Only half-way through EPM, I was able to clearly and confidently articulate solutions to problems authors share, bundle my online courses, and create a group program around them. I sold two programs quickly as beta programs and now, half-way through, participants are beyond thrilled at their learning, progress, and results.
My focus for the EPM project was the Five-Star Book Launch Masterclass, which promises authors 20 or more five-star reviews when their book launches. Because I already have a good-sized audience and reputation, I used surveys and chatterboxing to sell all eight seats in the beta program at $997. I gave two authors half off because I really wanted them in it and I felt they’d give me the best feedback. Boom! $6000. And my intuition was correct. They have given me the best, most valuable feedback.
I was a little nervous about being able to afford the time I needed to succeed because I have a private client and also every year in November I spend a lot of time organizing, speaking, and promoting the San Francisco Writers Conference. Strangely, they canceled their February conference and didn’t make it virtual. I was incredibly disappointed but quickly filled the gap with a project of the heart that I’d been timid about before now.
Enter the Your Motorcycle Diaries travel writing workshop. It’s an eight-week workshop on the craft that includes my travel writing online course, a weekly story workshop, and peer feedback. To give a little background, I’ve been a motorcyclist almost all my life, and have worked as a moto-journalist, editor, author, and speaker in this niche, and have lived and traveled overseas extesively. The niche also spills over into the bigger adventure, overlanding, and power sports niches, and also into the women’s solo travel niche. So there is a lot of opportunity and I'm working toward making them real.
The Your Motorcycle Diaries mission is to finish at least one publishable story and along the way, learning how to structure and create more publishable stories. Four weeks into the program, 3 of the 15 writers have already met that goal and the others clearly will. It’s been awesome, as there are new writers in the group and (I am pleased to say) a handful of published writers who joined to hone their craft and test some of their more-challenging stories. I hope to continue my relationship with these writers via the Virtual Travel Writers Conference (VTWG) I started in March 2020 when the world shut down.
I announced the Your Motorcycle Diaries travel writing workshop in November 2020 at the virtual Women’s Motorcycle Conference, for which I was a speaker, in lieu of a speaker stipend. I sold the workshop to conference attendees for half-price at $99, and then for $197 after the conference ended. All combined, I sold 5 seats at $97 and 10 seats at $197, collecting $2146.80 from the 15 beta workshop participants. And, like I said, that wasn’t even my focus for EPM. But EPM had already given me a repeatable template and the confidence to state my offering in a way that both came from the heart and sold the program.
The motorcycle travel writers workshop has actually become the seed of a Big Idea I’m exploring that aligns perfectly with all that I do, summarized as Carla King @MissAdventuring: Adventures in Travel, Writing, and Publishing. My idea is to create an Adventure Writers Conference for writers and editors in the powersports niche: motorcycling, 4x4s, trawlers, and more. The magazine editors I've spoken with are all for it because they get the benefit of great, pre-edited stories for their magazines. They’re even jumping in to help me teach, articulating their guidelines and deconstructing their favorite stories for the online course segment of my program. In addition, two adventure and powersports events organizers are interested in tacking-on or even adding the writing program to their events. Industry influencers are jumping in with offers to co-host. The first event, which will be virtual, is on the calendar for September.
To say that the Live Your Message lifestyle is all coming together for me is an understatement. The opportunity to partner with organizations in the adventure travel world has been especially rewarding, and I am also working with the National Association of Memoir Writers and the Nonfiction Authors Association to co-host webinars, to sell publishing packages, and take part in their conferences.
All this activity working with writers and editors and adventure industry professionals fits my nomadic lifestyle. The first Adventure Writers Conference will be virtual, and there will always be a virtual component to what I hope will become a live event that moves around the world. Truly, I can offer AWC anywhere and partner with organizations everywhere. Right now I’ve got Chang Mai on my calendar for November.
Live Your Message, right? What a perfect description of what this has turned out to be—initiation into an infinite feedback loop where you do what you love to help people who help you help people live their dream and live your dream.
A heartfelt thank you, Marisa. and to the team you’ve gathered around you. The Live Your Message, Experience Product Masterclass journey you’ve created has guided me to success, to overcoming my challenges, and to waking up every day with the confidence that it is me who is in control of achieving the lifestyle of my dreams.
Carla King @MissAdventuring
Adventures in Travel, Writing and Publishing?
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What is your biggest takeaway from EPM?
Stick to the formula! There is a process. Follow the EPM process. Create my own process.
How did EPM help you become successful?
The templates for conversations were especially helpful, and gave me the confidence to co-create programs with the beta participants.
How has EPM and your success impacted your life?
Livin' the dream! Or close to it :-)
What has been the biggest change in your business?
Getting people to say yes to my programs.
What is now possible for you because of your Experience Product?
I appreciate the ability to make money, create partnerships, and making my life focused on travel and adventure once again... but this time with the tools to actually make a living as I live my dream.