Poppa-Bear Care Yanked My Career Off Rails
Back in 2006, three years of increasing responsibilities to care for my ailing Poppa Bear had yanked my career off the rails and made it almost impossible for me to carry on with my creative work. Years of living with him in ICU waiting rooms and extensive care facilities were harrowing experiences that taught me how to navigate crisis care for a near-fatally stubborn parent while holding on to my sanity. Desperate for sisterly company and income, I fantasized about translating those experiences into online "Care and Carry On" programs that I could create and offer anywhere. I imagined creating programs that would be lifelines that similarly desperate, on-call-'round-the-clock, creative daughters could access anytime.
T-Totally Turned Off by PUSH Programs. So I bought a mess of programs that promised me bits of what I sensed I needed to know to make my fantasy come true. Problem was, each program that I purchased only gave me some of the puzzle pieces needed to move from idea to beta online offering. And none of them did it in a whole, supported way that matched my values or yearning, learning and earning styles. I often felt capital T-totally turned off by what I perceived to be manipulative marketing messages or techniques. Sometimes the trainings advocated using language and methods calculated to flat-out "control" or "puppet master" potential clients. YUCK!
The EPM Difference: Excellence, Compassionate Care & Beauty Through-and-Through What I needed--and am so grateful that Marisa provides with her team via the Experience Product Masterclass--was a strategically integrated business and learning model that resonated with my values of excellence, compassionate service and beauty through-and-through.
One that also offered ample FUN time for learning-in-community. One that included stories about the concerns and strategies of successful social/conscious entrepreneurs in the mix. And one that framed completion of the program as a MISSION aligned with my life-purpose. YES!
Before EPM: No Experience Escalation Plan
Before EPM, I created "DaughterWise Eldercare: How to Care for Your Ailing Parent While Carrying On with Your Creative Life," as a live workshop featured by the DC-located National Cathedral's Sacred Circles for Women Conference. It was a wild success. More women packed the room than there was ample seating for. But I didn't know how to structure an experience that offered members of my audience (who gave DaughterWise Eldercare rave reviews) value-packed ways to become clients who continued to work with me. I didn't have any experience escalation plan in place for following up with participants and continuing to serve them.
During EPM: Earning While Learning & Loving the Flub!
By contrast, soon after signing up for EPM, I agreed to be part of an hour-long teleseminar to support TreeSisters.org's Million Trees Campaign to crowdsource planting 1 million trees per year. Thanks to EPM's "Give Them What They Want" survey, (which was completed by several Tree Sisters) and coaching with Samara and Marisa, I was able to deliver an abundance of value to TreeSisters.org's founder, Clare Dakin, as she interviewed me during the call.
As a devoted Tree Sister, I coached Clare to "care and carry on"-- to strengthen her voice as a daughter of & for Earth while reclaiming a deeply nourishing practice of singing that she had abandoned years ago. We worked together with such passion, with Clare giving clear feedback about how the experience was benefiting her breath-by-breath, that listeners reached out to sign up for my $497 EPM project, "Voicing Your Power," before its sales page or content was even complete. It looked like I might reach MISSION ACCOMPLISHED before we were halfway through EPM's eight weeks!
I set up a Calendly account and began scheduling 30-minute discovery calls. Everyone said they were delicious! But when only one person committed to the five session program, I SO wished that the 10xDelivery training had been offered sooner. I flubbed the discovery calls, big-time. My biggest flub: not asking for payment and providing a link to a check-out page right there on the calls. But I took Marisa's message to "Love the flub and KEEP GOING!" to heart...Reaching Out with Heart Resonates
Before EPM, I've never conducted consistent mailings to the 1700 souls who have given me permission to contact them via MailChimp. But after learning about the perfect 4-email campaign, I outlined the first email in a 4-part sequence that would conclude with offering my Tribe the chance to join me in a world-changing adventure: "Voicing Your Power." I was in the midst of uploading everything for the email campaign into my MailChimp account when the election results of Nov 8th sent shock-waves throughout the USA and the world.
Scrapping the note that I intended to send, I reached out instead from my heart with a simple message, summed up in the subject line: "Here for You." I asked, "How are you? How are your children?" I asked about relations with family and friends stressed by political differences. I offered my heartful ears if someone needed them. I shared Perseverance, by Margaret Wheatley--a book that I found especially supportive during the 48hrs immediately following the elections. I encouraged my readers to care and carry on, together, with love.
Implementing lessons that I'd learned in the course on writing copy, and the language insights gleaned from my survey, I kept the note resonantly authentic, short and sweet. My open and click rates on that email were through the roof.
A woman unknown to me (my ideal client incarnate!) asked for help powering up her voice in a new role as the President and COO of a SaaS company that supports Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) professionals. She'd joined my list after seeing me create vocal community throughout a Wisdom 2.0 event in 2013
After our first discovery call, I was so inspired by her and her work that I offered her a second free session. After call #2 she invited me to integrate elements of my "Voicing Your Power" program into one of the premiere CSR conferences that her company is hosting. I'd never even considered CSR folks as a "niche" when thinking about my perfect client. Yet many are: mostly women, passionate about justice and longing to be deeply heard as they inspire communities of people (employees of the corporations they work for) to take world-changing action.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED inside an out! I'm listening to former and current clients more intently and intelligently. Establishing systems of experience escalation and streamlining product creation processes. $7997 earned: $7,500 contract to design and deliver fabulous "Voicing Your Power, Together" conference experiences. And I'm exploring how to offer my work to other corporate attendees. (Signed up for additional consulting time to help me think THAT through!) $497 working 1-on-1 with a client secured after TreeSisters.org teleseminar. Will conduct my first paid Voicing Your Power 1-on-1 retreat at Singing Farm.
Deeply, deeply grateful to you, Marisa, to Coach Samara and to the whole Live Your Message team!