1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,440 There are nine foundational elements an online business 2 00:00:02,445 --> 00:00:03,660 needs to hit seven figures. 3 00:00:03,930 --> 00:00:07,074 Let's find out if you have them and if not, how to put them in place rapidly. 4 00:00:09,624 --> 00:00:12,744 Hi, I'm David Ziembicki and you're about to learn how to grow from struggling 5 00:00:12,744 --> 00:00:16,854 solopreneur to successful virtual CEO of your own expert business. 6 00:00:17,694 --> 00:00:20,454 Your knowledge and skills can change lives and make the world a better place. 7 00:00:20,724 --> 00:00:23,904 Are you ready to hit the accelerator to scale your results and impact and it's 8 00:00:23,904 --> 00:00:25,374 time to build your expert business? 9 00:00:28,234 --> 00:00:30,664 In a previous episode, I talked about three functions you need 10 00:00:30,669 --> 00:00:32,464 running at the same time for success. 11 00:00:32,504 --> 00:00:35,314 They are attracting an audience, converting them to customers, 12 00:00:35,374 --> 00:00:38,104 and serving them well to ascend them into higher level programs. 13 00:00:38,164 --> 00:00:40,354 I didn't have time to cover how to put those in place. 14 00:00:40,384 --> 00:00:42,754 So that's what I'm gonna do in Parts one and two of this video 15 00:00:42,934 --> 00:00:44,674 with our Expert Business Foundation. 16 00:00:44,704 --> 00:00:47,794 Be sure to stay until the end where I'll cover a bonus tip on how to get all nine 17 00:00:47,824 --> 00:00:49,444 up and running in your business quickly. 18 00:00:49,474 --> 00:00:52,669 Also, check out the link into description for a free resource that'll help You've 19 00:00:52,669 --> 00:00:56,734 probably noticed that all of the online gurus courses and usually only teach 20 00:00:56,734 --> 00:01:00,304 you a small part of the puzzle of building a seven figure online business. 21 00:01:00,334 --> 00:01:00,934 Why is that? 22 00:01:01,054 --> 00:01:02,014 Because it's complicated. 23 00:01:02,044 --> 00:01:05,284 There are a lot of moving parts required and it's hard to sell complexity. 24 00:01:05,314 --> 00:01:08,764 So what they do is they pick one tiny slice like blogging or podcasting or 25 00:01:08,764 --> 00:01:12,004 Facebook ads or webinars, and make it sound like their slice is the most 26 00:01:12,004 --> 00:01:15,214 important by far, and that you should buy their program and implement that first. 27 00:01:15,274 --> 00:01:19,004 That results in many of us chasing shiny objects, the next course, program, or 28 00:01:19,024 --> 00:01:20,884 method that makes everything look easy. 29 00:01:20,914 --> 00:01:24,405 Then we wake up months or years later with dozens of programs, thousands of 30 00:01:24,410 --> 00:01:26,044 dollars spent, and no real progress. 31 00:01:26,104 --> 00:01:28,714 When I started the Expert Business Agency, we decided to do the 32 00:01:28,714 --> 00:01:30,044 opposite, even though it's harder. 33 00:01:30,154 --> 00:01:33,304 The opposite is to be honest and deal with reality and complexity head on. 34 00:01:33,334 --> 00:01:36,394 I researched and interviewed for a virtual summit, 20 different 35 00:01:36,399 --> 00:01:39,564 successful online entrepreneurs to dig into their businesses, 36 00:01:39,569 --> 00:01:40,744 their teams, and their process. 37 00:01:40,804 --> 00:01:43,504 I spent tens of thousands of dollars on courses and masterminds 38 00:01:43,534 --> 00:01:44,954 to learn how they were successful. 39 00:01:44,969 --> 00:01:46,139 The results were a bit shocking. 40 00:01:46,169 --> 00:01:49,409 None were sitting on a beach with a laptop and only working four hours a week. 41 00:01:49,499 --> 00:01:52,949 Sorry, Tim Ferris, they all had teams, tools, and systems in place. 42 00:01:52,979 --> 00:01:55,289 It took a lot more research to see what they were really doing. 43 00:01:55,499 --> 00:01:58,679 But after a long period of immersion in interviews, many different programs and 44 00:01:58,679 --> 00:02:00,679 masterminds, a clear pattern emerged. 45 00:02:00,679 --> 00:02:04,139 The first I covered in my video about the three essential functions of a seven 46 00:02:04,139 --> 00:02:07,584 figure business, which were attracting an audience, converting them to customers 47 00:02:07,584 --> 00:02:10,284 and serving them well, and as sending them into higher level programs. 48 00:02:10,314 --> 00:02:13,794 Digging deeper, I started to see nine foundational elements that resulted 49 00:02:13,794 --> 00:02:15,384 in audience, customers, and growth. 50 00:02:15,414 --> 00:02:17,304 And I'm gonna reveal the first three next. 51 00:02:17,334 --> 00:02:19,824 But first, if you're getting value from this video, please hit the 52 00:02:19,824 --> 00:02:22,284 like button and subscribe to the channel so you don't miss part two. 53 00:02:22,344 --> 00:02:25,254 Trying to build a business without a solid foundation is the same as trying 54 00:02:25,254 --> 00:02:26,724 to build a skyscraper without one. 55 00:02:26,784 --> 00:02:29,034 It's gonna tip over and fail at its weakest point. 56 00:02:29,039 --> 00:02:32,324 The first foundational element is what we call the Expert Business Blueprint. 57 00:02:32,344 --> 00:02:35,704 You can't build anything of significance quickly without a plan or a blueprint. 58 00:02:35,734 --> 00:02:38,014 Maybe that's my engineering school years in college coming 59 00:02:38,014 --> 00:02:39,004 out, but it's still true. 60 00:02:39,034 --> 00:02:41,884 So before we do anything else, we need a high level plan or blueprint 61 00:02:42,004 --> 00:02:45,004 for building an online business and getting to seven figures or more. 62 00:02:45,034 --> 00:02:46,684 We call it the Expert Business Blueprint. 63 00:02:46,714 --> 00:02:49,204 The first step of your blueprint is where you capture your mission. 64 00:02:49,294 --> 00:02:52,714 Both your personal mission, like financial freedom, more time with family and so 65 00:02:52,714 --> 00:02:56,464 on, as well as your business's mission, such as helping people build a business, 66 00:02:56,494 --> 00:02:58,174 save a marriage, or improve their health. 67 00:02:58,174 --> 00:02:59,704 Your missions are your North Star. 68 00:02:59,794 --> 00:03:02,974 Everything thereafter is measured against, whether it's on mission or not. 69 00:03:03,004 --> 00:03:04,774 Next is your market, your target audience. 70 00:03:04,804 --> 00:03:07,954 Many people talk and coach about creating an ideal customer avatar. 71 00:03:07,984 --> 00:03:10,204 This is similar, but we start out a little bit more broad. 72 00:03:10,234 --> 00:03:12,389 The main idea is identifying who you want to serve. 73 00:03:12,529 --> 00:03:15,229 Is it new parents, real estate agents, business owners? 74 00:03:15,259 --> 00:03:18,919 Your mission is why you want to serve, and your market is who you want to serve. 75 00:03:19,009 --> 00:03:20,149 Next is your outcomes. 76 00:03:20,179 --> 00:03:23,029 What is the outcome or transformation that you'll deliver, coach 77 00:03:23,029 --> 00:03:24,199 or guide your customers to. 78 00:03:24,229 --> 00:03:27,079 Starting with your business's mission, this is where you get more specific. 79 00:03:27,109 --> 00:03:31,159 As an example, my outcome statement is, we help struggling solopreneurs become 80 00:03:31,164 --> 00:03:35,029 successful virtual CEOs by providing them the team tools and systems they 81 00:03:35,029 --> 00:03:36,919 need to reach seven figures in revenue. 82 00:03:36,979 --> 00:03:40,519 You can see in that statement a major transformation from struggling to success. 83 00:03:41,054 --> 00:03:43,784 And the mechanism for getting there, our team tools and systems. 84 00:03:43,814 --> 00:03:46,634 The final element of your business blueprint is your model. 85 00:03:46,664 --> 00:03:47,924 We have a mission, we have a market. 86 00:03:47,924 --> 00:03:49,304 We have an outcome we wanna drive. 87 00:03:49,484 --> 00:03:52,454 Now we need a business model that delivers that while achieving our 88 00:03:52,454 --> 00:03:53,839 personal and business missions. 89 00:03:53,899 --> 00:03:56,869 This is where you plan at a very high level what type of business you'll build. 90 00:03:57,049 --> 00:03:59,239 Is it an online course business, an affiliate marketing 91 00:03:59,269 --> 00:04:00,629 business, coaching, or SaaS? 92 00:04:00,649 --> 00:04:03,679 At the end of this process, you have your mission, market, outcomes, and 93 00:04:03,679 --> 00:04:06,979 business model defined the blueprint for your seven figure expert business. 94 00:04:07,009 --> 00:04:09,764 When we coach clients through this process, it can take one to two weeks 95 00:04:09,764 --> 00:04:12,974 as there is a number of exercises, like having them do an inventory of 96 00:04:12,974 --> 00:04:16,154 their skills and expertise, determining where they would be ranked in their 97 00:04:16,574 --> 00:04:17,680 industry or niche on those skills. 98 00:04:18,100 --> 00:04:20,499 Ranking, which of them they'd enjoy, which of them have high 99 00:04:20,499 --> 00:04:21,759 earning potential, et cetera. 100 00:04:21,789 --> 00:04:22,929 Same for business models. 101 00:04:22,959 --> 00:04:25,389 We go through all the pros and cons of each and which would 102 00:04:25,389 --> 00:04:26,289 be the best fit for them. 103 00:04:26,349 --> 00:04:29,499 We've seen too many people start building online businesses that really aren't 104 00:04:29,504 --> 00:04:32,979 compatible with their mission, their lifestyle goals, or their financial goals. 105 00:04:33,009 --> 00:04:35,649 This blueprinting process is the same as when designing a house. 106 00:04:35,959 --> 00:04:38,899 You want to carefully review the blueprint to make sure what you're about 107 00:04:38,899 --> 00:04:40,429 to build is gonna be what you want. 108 00:04:40,459 --> 00:04:44,359 The second foundational element is what we call productizing your expertise with 109 00:04:44,359 --> 00:04:46,009 your expert business blueprint in place. 110 00:04:46,039 --> 00:04:49,309 The next step is more detail planning of what your business is gonna sell. 111 00:04:49,339 --> 00:04:51,409 We call this productizing your expertise. 112 00:04:51,439 --> 00:04:54,019 While I've had a very successful career in the consulting business, 113 00:04:54,024 --> 00:04:58,104 having sold or delivered over $200 million of services, for solopreneurs, 114 00:04:58,124 --> 00:05:01,334 one-on-one consulting or freelancing is not the path to seven figures. 115 00:05:01,364 --> 00:05:04,514 Even as part of a world class consulting division at Microsoft as one of 116 00:05:04,514 --> 00:05:08,414 their top architects, my hourly rate topped out at about $500 an hour. 117 00:05:08,444 --> 00:05:11,234 Now, yes, if you do very optimistic math and assume you're a hundred 118 00:05:11,234 --> 00:05:14,294 percent billable all the time and bill 2,000 hours a year, and you can 119 00:05:14,294 --> 00:05:16,034 just get to that 1 million in revenue. 120 00:05:16,279 --> 00:05:19,099 But to be that billable, you'd also have to be doing hundreds of 121 00:05:19,099 --> 00:05:21,979 hours of pitching and selling, so you'd be working your tail off. 122 00:05:22,009 --> 00:05:25,189 There are almost no solo consultants making anywhere near this revenue. 123 00:05:25,249 --> 00:05:28,129 What we did, even at Microsoft, was to productize our services. 124 00:05:28,159 --> 00:05:31,579 What that meant was taking something we did on a one-off basis that delivered a 125 00:05:31,579 --> 00:05:35,059 result and turning it into a repeatable solution that could be delivered 126 00:05:35,059 --> 00:05:37,039 faster, cheaper, and more consistently. 127 00:05:37,139 --> 00:05:38,699 Or ideally fully automated. 128 00:05:38,729 --> 00:05:42,029 We went from selling hours for dollars to selling solutions and outcomes. 129 00:05:42,059 --> 00:05:44,879 This is one of the most critical concepts for solopreneurs to understand. 130 00:05:44,879 --> 00:05:46,619 Breaking the dollars for hours boundary. 131 00:05:46,679 --> 00:05:49,439 This means products like online courses, memberships, group 132 00:05:49,439 --> 00:05:52,379 coaching, and masterminds, which are all one to many models. 133 00:05:52,439 --> 00:05:55,289 Now, there's a lot of debate in the industry around low ticket offers versus 134 00:05:55,289 --> 00:05:56,899 flagship offers versus high ticket. 135 00:05:57,444 --> 00:06:01,314 Then another between launch models versus Evergreen, and yet more on which of these 136 00:06:01,314 --> 00:06:04,704 to start with and whether to focus on one or to create a suite of products. 137 00:06:04,734 --> 00:06:07,704 But what we've seen work best is starting with a high ticket offer, 138 00:06:08,034 --> 00:06:11,154 then expanding to a full product suite over six to 12 months. 139 00:06:11,184 --> 00:06:14,004 Why starting with high ticket gives you the best chance of generating 140 00:06:14,004 --> 00:06:15,444 meaningful cash flow quickly. 141 00:06:15,474 --> 00:06:18,414 That cash flow is then used to scale your business as you're now able to 142 00:06:18,414 --> 00:06:20,364 afford help and paid advertising. 143 00:06:20,424 --> 00:06:24,369 When I started the Expert Business Agency, we got our first $15,000 client 144 00:06:24,369 --> 00:06:26,409 when our email list was only 46 people. 145 00:06:26,679 --> 00:06:29,289 We rolled all of that back into advertising and that 146 00:06:29,289 --> 00:06:30,339 accelerated our growth. 147 00:06:30,759 --> 00:06:33,519 The other benefit of starting with high ticket is that you wind up with a much 148 00:06:33,519 --> 00:06:35,199 higher quality audience and email list. 149 00:06:35,499 --> 00:06:37,659 Low ticket offers attract low quality leads. 150 00:06:37,809 --> 00:06:39,969 High ticket offers attract high quality leads. 151 00:06:39,999 --> 00:06:43,529 Now, after starting with high ticket, you then move down the value ladder 152 00:06:43,529 --> 00:06:47,099 by developing a flagship program next for scale, and then eventually a lower 153 00:06:47,099 --> 00:06:48,839 ticket offer for very broad reach. 154 00:06:48,899 --> 00:06:51,419 Our next foundational element is called Fire Up Your Funnels. 155 00:06:51,449 --> 00:06:54,149 The only way to truly test and validate your product suite is to 156 00:06:54,589 --> 00:06:57,149 actually try to sell your products to your target audience, but I can 157 00:06:57,149 --> 00:06:59,279 hear you saying, How can I sell them if I haven't built them yet? 158 00:06:59,369 --> 00:07:00,059 Great question. 159 00:07:00,119 --> 00:07:01,409 The answer is by pre-selling. 160 00:07:01,564 --> 00:07:03,704 That is selling your program before it's built. 161 00:07:03,764 --> 00:07:07,004 The ethical way to do that is with full disclosure to your audience and 162 00:07:07,004 --> 00:07:09,734 giving them reasons to buy something that doesn't exist yet, like a 163 00:07:09,734 --> 00:07:13,034 discount or extra bonuses or additional group coaching calls with you. 164 00:07:13,094 --> 00:07:15,854 Some people call this a beta launch or a founding member launch. 165 00:07:15,944 --> 00:07:18,674 The only way you'll really know if your programs will sell is to actually 166 00:07:18,674 --> 00:07:21,824 try selling them and see if people pull out their credit cards and buy. 167 00:07:21,854 --> 00:07:25,244 You absolutely want to know that before you spend weeks or months creating, 168 00:07:25,244 --> 00:07:26,834 recording and building your programs. 169 00:07:26,864 --> 00:07:30,414 So how do we pre-sell by building the actual sales funnels for your program? 170 00:07:30,679 --> 00:07:32,509 And driving some initial traffic to them. 171 00:07:32,599 --> 00:07:36,109 Now, there is an entire art and science of sales funnels, but I'll net it down 172 00:07:36,109 --> 00:07:37,579 to the three core funnels you need. 173 00:07:37,639 --> 00:07:40,279 First is a lead generation funnel, like a lead magnet or 174 00:07:40,284 --> 00:07:41,629 webinar registration funnel. 175 00:07:41,659 --> 00:07:45,409 Second is a conversion funnel, like a webinar or video sales letter where you 176 00:07:45,409 --> 00:07:47,059 sell your flagship course or program. 177 00:07:47,089 --> 00:07:50,059 And third is a high ticket funnel where you sell your high ticket program 178 00:07:50,059 --> 00:07:51,499 or recurring revenue membership. 179 00:07:51,559 --> 00:07:53,869 Now, as we recommended with your product suite, with your funnels, 180 00:07:53,869 --> 00:07:57,239 we also wanna start with your high ticket funnel and then work down. 181 00:07:57,359 --> 00:08:00,569 High ticket funnels inherently have lead capture in them, so you'll build 182 00:08:00,569 --> 00:08:03,509 your email list as a byproduct of selling your high ticket program. 183 00:08:03,599 --> 00:08:05,789 Your sales funnels are one of the most critical elements of your 184 00:08:05,789 --> 00:08:08,369 business, so it's worth investing time and money to get them right. 185 00:08:08,964 --> 00:08:11,994 This takes multiple iterations in testing and the faster you can 186 00:08:11,994 --> 00:08:13,734 build, test and improve the better. 187 00:08:13,794 --> 00:08:16,374 When we work with our agency clients, this is where we spend a lot of 188 00:08:16,374 --> 00:08:20,334 time as funnels require branding and design and copy editing tech and more. 189 00:08:20,394 --> 00:08:22,914 The bottom line is that as soon as you've defined your blueprint and 190 00:08:22,914 --> 00:08:26,274 define, but have not yet built your products around your expertise, 191 00:08:26,304 --> 00:08:29,154 you want to begin pre-selling to generate revenue and feedback on 192 00:08:29,154 --> 00:08:30,744 your offer funnel and products. 193 00:08:30,744 --> 00:08:32,514 Now, if this sounds like a lot of work, it is. 194 00:08:32,544 --> 00:08:33,924 This is why our clients come to us. 195 00:08:33,929 --> 00:08:37,044 Doing even just these first steps well is nearly impossible. 196 00:08:37,519 --> 00:08:40,129 We've touched on a bunch of different skills and experience required. 197 00:08:40,399 --> 00:08:43,399 We help by providing expert coaching and providing access to 198 00:08:43,399 --> 00:08:45,139 our team to do most of the work. 199 00:08:45,229 --> 00:08:47,869 Now to this point, we've covered three of the nine essential elements 200 00:08:47,874 --> 00:08:49,459 of your expert business foundation. 201 00:08:49,489 --> 00:08:53,459 Next is powering up your web presence, how to rapidly set up a money making 202 00:08:53,459 --> 00:08:55,709 website as your base of operations.