[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:00 - (SAM): Hello. Hello and welcome back. So today we are talking about your exit strategy. Did you just get a little, like, unnerved when you heard that? Because you're like, exit strategy. I'm just trying to get started. And that's, that's the reality of business right now, is you have to plan with the end in mind, and most people are not. If you're planning with the end in mind, what's the max you want to do?

0:00:30 - (SAM): What's the goal that you're trying to get towards? Plan with the end in mind so you can start making steps backwards to get to where you are right now. So that way it can lead you into the next step of what you're trying to accomplish. And so when we talk about exit strategies, just from giving you guys a little reference of why I understand this and where I'm coming from, is that when me and my husband bought into the chiropractic office that we are co owners of, we had to talk about exit strategies.

0:00:57 - (SAM): One for the current owners, but two also for us, in case anything came up that we wanted out, anything like that, those plans have to be in place because if you don't do them, then you're not planning for them and it's chaotic and you don't have anything ready to go. And so a lot of times, especially people who are like, hey, I'm just trying to sell digital products. I'm just trying to get rid of my nine to five. I'm just trying to make some extra money.

0:01:24 - (SAM): Things like that is what we're not doing is thinking about the end game. Like, I get having a personal brand amazing. But there's a really big reason that, like, have my business as digital abundance and not like Samantha Cook, because one day I could sell off digital abundance and let somebody take that on, take on the traffic, take on the clients, take on past clients, things like that. And I could have an exit strategy because here's the deal. It's like, at some point I'm going to be done, at some point, we're all going to be done with what we're doing.

0:02:03 - (SAM): And so when I get to that point, I want to have complete ownership of my business, and especially my website, because that's going to be my main asset that I have bringing into the business. What so many times people don't realize, but their website is one of their biggest assets. And when you have traffic, and when you are sending traffic to somewhere like standstore, somewhere like squarespace, somewhere like Kajabi, you don't own your traffic now, you could sell somebody the login, the credentials, all that kind of stuff, but you can't actually sell them that website.

0:02:43 - (SAM): You can just sell them the log into it. And with WordPress and the platforms that I use to build on, you can actually sell your website so they can go in and have that asset because you actually own it. And so this is like, I think of it like real estate. You can't rent a house for two years and then sell the house that you rent in because you don't own it. But if you own your home, you can rent it out, you can sell it, but you always have the equity in that website.

0:03:18 - (SAM): And so, so many times people are like driving tons and tons and tons. They've got 150,000 followers and they're driving traffic to some other platform that's making the money off of them. Driving traffic to their platform. If you have 10,000 monthly subscribers, why would you ever want to send them anywhere that you didn't benefit from? Because I know that as a website developer that your traffic is equity.

0:03:52 - (SAM): That's where people want to put ads on your. Like, why do you think that people put ads on Facebook? Because tons of traffic is going there. There's tons of eyeballs to see. Exactly. Instagram, those websites are huge. So at some point you look at like Kajabi and they're going to use your face to drive more traffic to their website to get you to sign up under them because they're using your likeness and how much traffic you're driving.

0:04:26 - (SAM): You're bringing their website up in value versus bringing your own website up in value. And so this is why I always talk to people. Thinking about exit strategy is like, you're never going to own that traffic when you send them to somewhere that your platform, you don't own that platform. When you own that website and you own that traffic, then that is where the money is made in that exit strategy. Because now they own it.

0:04:55 - (SAM): They own all the equity. The domain worth all of those types of things is now like something that you could equitably hold for yourself to get rid of in your exit strategy should you decide to do that. So I just want everybody to remember, it's like, I don't tell you all of these things just because I'm like, hey, come use me. No, it's because I want you to win with your website. Whether it's winning through winning people over or winning by selling it off in an exit strategy for some good money, because it's worth it. Just like buying a mom and pop HVAC business just because you can afford it, that's great. They can actually sell you that business.

0:05:44 - (SAM): But if they're part of a franchise, then you actually have to go through the main company to actually deal with all of that. And so it's just better to actually own it and not have the ties to something bigger. Now, is there some ties to having different things a little bit easier, stuff like that. But ultimately is like you're renting from these places. So now you always have to pay like a hosting.

0:06:09 - (SAM): You're always going to have to pay some kind of lot rent. But hear me want to say that. I say lot rent because you still have to pay hosting on the Internet in some capacity for your website to be out there. But it's like do you want to pay the lot rent or do you want to pay for the whole rental? Because those are two drastically different things. Just think of like a manufactured home. It's like the lot rent may be like $50 a month.

0:06:37 - (SAM): Hear me when I say that I'm just making up a number, but you actually own the trailer as where if you go and rent a trailer, then you're paying for everything and you're left with nothing when you leave. So just keep those things in mind as you are planning and growing and scaling your business because you want to do it on a platform that's actually going to serve you in the long run. And think about building out your business that somebody else could actually come into and take over.

0:07:09 - (SAM): Because I'm not saying personal brands are bad and I think they're really great. And I think it's really great to have your name tied to a personal brand and grow that side of you. But if you're actually having a business outside of coaching where you provide a service or something, like I build websites or whatever, any web designer could come in and buy my business and continue to serve that business.

0:07:35 - (SAM): They just don't have to start from scratch because they're just buying my traffic, they're buying my previous clients, all those types of things. So if this is something you want to learn more about, I am opening up the digital abundance club in April 2024 that is going to be coming up. You're going to be able to ask lots of questions, get the information for your website that you need to to grow discounts on working with me by being part of that membership as well as things for you to help incorporate your funnel and make things happen faster for yourself, like landing page ideas as well as emails monthly. So just keep in mind is like, if this is the direction that you're headed and you're like, wow, I really need to do some work, then this is the place to go.

0:08:24 - (SAM): This is the place to get it all done. And let's go and win your website. Hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye.