Flourish & Grow to CEO: Episode 37

Pam Ivey (00:20): Are you a lady boss making 50, do a hundred thousand in your business, and you’re ready to break through that six figure barrier.

Jane Garee (00:28): Have you done a great job of creating a nice life as the ultimate gig master, but know your inner CEO is calling you to greater Heights. You’re in the right place. If you want to create and implement solid fundamentals in your business without sacrificing fun.

Pam Ivey (00:42): I’m Pam Ivey, I’m certified in small business management and I concentrate in the areas of training and certifying real estate assistance, coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs in online business, marketing growth and profit acceleration.

And I take men and women business owners aged 40 plus two bucket list destinations around the world for a month at a time to work, explore, and live in community.

Jane Garee (01:08): I’m Jane Garee, known as the sales strategist for the non sales person. And I work with business owners who want to increase their conversion rate, shorten their sales cycle and have more impact and influence with the work they do all while having more fun with selling.

Pam Ivey (01:23): Hey everyone. And welcome back to the flourish and grow to CEO podcast. We have a super treat for you today. Today we have Ashley Chanel and she is your friendly virtual neighborhood marketing genie here to make all your marketing dreams come true. Now that’s a promise.

We’re excited to dive in with Ashley, but before we do, let me tell you a little bit more about her. She’s a world traveling gadgets addict, and that’s hard to say and expert digital marketer. She’s also the CEO of make your mark digital marketing agency and founder of mind your biz, the premium marketing resource for women entrepreneurs.

She’s passionate about helping women business owners to market profitably through innovation, creativity, action, and implementing strategic digital media strategies that transform their business through her over a decade journey. She has consistently added monthly five and six figure revenue to our client’s top line, their product service and local businesses alike.

This is all done through organic and paid advertising with their simple foundational approach, The Jeannie method. This positions her clients as authorities in their industry gains the trust of their ideal audiences and builds highly profitable businesses. Welcome Ashley, quite a introduction. Thank

Ashleigh Chanel (02:49):

You for having me.

Pam Ivey (02:50): So do we call you Jeanie or is Ashley okay. 

Ashleigh Chanel (02:56): Ashley is perfectly fine.

Pam Ivey (02:59):

So tell us a little bit about how you got into marketing.

Ashleigh Chanel (03:04): You know, it’s funny, my mom’s been in HR as long as I’ve been alive and she had me do all of those assessment tests and it came out like when I was eight years old, I knew I was going to be a marketer, really weird, but that’s kind of how it went and, um, throughout high school and in college, like I made sure that I was, you know, doing things to get, you know, experience because I knew in the job world that I would need that. So, uh, it was my mom.

Pam Ivey (03:34): Isn’t that funny? You say eight though, like not a nurse or a doctor or a policeman. You want it to be a marketer. Yeah.

Ashleigh Chanel (03:42): And you know this before then I wanted to be like a Marine biologist and our archeologists. And like now I just like learning about, you know, geography and like rocks and things. And like, I love the ocean, but I’m okay with not having to be in the water all day everyday feeding animals.

Pam Ivey (04:03): Yeah. I totally hear you with that. So, you know, with our flourish and grow growth pillars, we talk a lot about strategy. So can you talk about how to create a marketing strategy that works from small business to enterprises?

Ashleigh Chanel (04:21): Absolutely. Honestly, the most important thing. And I’m going to go through a lot of things that I’m going to say are very important, but the most important thing is focus. I think as entrepreneurs, especially solopreneurs, we’re, it’s not even the shiny object syndrome.

It’s the shiny business model business line syndrome, because it’s like, we’re trying to do all of the things, you know, done for you, coaching VIP days courses and other digital products. And it’s very difficult to do one of those things very well when you’re trying to do them all because yes, because you see everybody doing them and you’re like, oh, well that could work or I can do this and I can do that.

And trust me, I was one of them, um, you know, like getting, try, and even now getting out of like dropping some of the things and just focusing on one thing.

Ashleigh Chanel (05:16): So when it comes to building a strategy for your business – solopreneur all the way up to enterprise, I think it’s focus and also understanding what your capabilities are. The capabilities of yourself, but also the capabilities of your business and what that looks like. What’s your cashflow look like? Not even what does your revenue look like?

But cashflow was what businesses, not necessarily revenue when your money’s going, coming in. And then all of it’s going back out, you have zero cashflow, you know, like, so like nothing’s going to help you build your business the way that you want it to. So I would say number one is focus.

And number two is remembering why you got started because there are going to be days that you don’t, you know, you don’t have the motivation and there are going to be days where you don’t believe in yourself and remembering why you got started.

Ashleigh Chanel (06:09): Like, for me, I got started to give women options because when we don’t have options, we kind of start to operate out of positions of desperation and, and we’re stuck and it’s instead of operating out of a position of strength and I saw what happens when you operate out of desperation and you do things and make decisions that you normally wouldn’t do.

And I just want to make sure that I give women options through marketing and building their businesses. So number three is understanding what your goals are. You have to know what your goals are, and then you have to create number four is create an action plan that because if it does not align with your goals, don’t do it.

Like I said before, like we try to go into the done for you. We go in the services coaching VIP days. And it’s like, what is your actual goal? Because I know for me, I have a vast vision and I have grand goals and they can not be done on $10,000 a month.

So I have to focus on what is it that is going to lead me to the goal that I have and the vision that I have. And I have to focus only on that. And anything else I just have to write down and say, I will come back later when the cashflow is there when the time is there or when the team is there, that’s a good point for sure.

Pam Ivey (07:31): Sure. Write it down so you don’t lose it, but you don’t have to ruminate on it.

Ashleigh Chanel (07:36): Absolutely. And then, you know, do your numbers. Oh my gosh. I think something, I, as entrepreneurs, we try to, we, we like to do the fun stuff. Cause many of us are visionaries and we like to do the stuff that just kind of, you know, follows with us.

But you have to know your numbers. You have to know your revenue, revenue, goal, your cashflow goal. Um, how many do you need to sell to get to that goal? And is it even achievable? Because when I first started, oh my gosh, okay. I started as, um, website designer.

Right. And I would have had, like, I was, oh my goodness. I was charging $450 per website, custom website. Okay. Oh my God. And my goal was a hundred thousand dollars a year. I would have had to do 225 websites or something like that a year. There’s only 52 weeks in a year.

Ashleigh Chanel (08:27): And the way that we all know clients are set up, they do not give us the information we need when we need it. So I realized at that point, because like at that time I was around a lot of people in Facebook groups talking about raising their prices. And I was like, okay, clearly I need to raise my price.

If I’m trying to get to a hundred thousand dollars and 450, just isn’t going to work. So it’s understanding your, your numbers on what’s achievable. And does it actually make sense? And if it doesn’t, you need to go back to the drawing board. Wow.

Pam Ivey (08:58): Jane, does she sound like us or what?

Jane Garee (09:01): Yeah, 100%. I mean, everything from the international or the globe Trotter to gadgets, I liked what you said, Ashley. It wasn’t, it isn’t so much the squirrel or the bright, shiny object syndrome, but it’s more the right shiny, lucrative sounding business model.

It is. It is a real challenge for the solopreneur and the small business owner, because especially in the online world, I think too, there’s, there’s so many people saying, do this, do that, do this, do that. And they all work if you apply everything for the most part. And there are probably certain, certain business models are actually going to be more effective with the type of business that you have based on a lot of different factors.

So in listening to you, one of the questions that I was thinking of is one of the most challenging elements, I think in the business owner, the small business owners really understanding where the gaps are. It’s not like getting into a board. It’s not like you can go call your boss and say, you know, where do you see opportunities for me to improve?

So what suggestions could you give the small business owner when it comes to being able to identify those gaps?

Ashleigh Chanel (10:13): Yes, that is, you know, honestly that is my superpower. I tell people that being able to identify gaps is one of my superpowers and closing them and then making money from them. Um, I would say when it comes to identifying gaps, how do I do this?

I’m I’m looking at, I think what’s hard and what’s not working as well as you want it to. And I think it’s like really attributed back to what is your goal? And like assessing every action that you’re doing and is this action actually helping you get to your goal. So like, for instance, let’s say you have inconsistent months. What does that mean?

Inconsistent months could mean a lot of things, right. It could be like, do you get the clients? And then they do a charge back. Like, do most of them, you know, do charge backs. There might be some problem with delivery, right? Do you have inconsistent months?

Because like, but when you get them in there, um, you know, you close them, but you just need more of them. That means you have a lead problem. Do you have, you know, are you having issues with actually closing people or getting them on your calendar that might mean you have a messaging issue.

So with it’s looking for what is the previous step that’s, um, that may need to happen that maybe is not happening. That’s that’s what I would say. I hope that was easy to understand for people.

Jane Garee (11:45): Yeah. I think what I think what I heard is that it’s, you have to look at what the root of the problem is. It sounds to me like really doing the deep dive into, well, what’s the root of the problem. What’s the primary cause, you know, and I was thinking about in terms of I’m working out, I got up this morning and I went for a swim and I got out of the pool and I’m thinking, man, I’m just starving, like unusually hungry.

Cause I’m not normally not that hungry after, uh, after a swim in the morning like that. And so I kind of went into autopilot. Now I’m thinking I’m gonna make this gigantic. But you know, it was really funny. But then I thought, why am I so hungry?

And it made me think about what I ate last yesterday and the night before and realized at the end of the day, I kind of filled up on things that weren’t as nutrient rich as they really should have been because I was driving.

And so there you go, that’s the root problem. So it wasn’t the swim, it wasn’t that I got up earlier. It wasn’t any, you know, it was something that had happened before and really just taking the time and the presence of mind to sit down and think it all the way through to determine what the root causes is. Probably something more of us could do on a regular basis.

Ashleigh Chanel (12:50): Absolutely. And I think that it’s difficult for, for people to do this because I’m, I’m so happy. Like we’re talking about this because you don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know that you need to look at the root cause, right?

You you’re just thinking, oh, well this worked for so-and-so or this worked for this person or this worked for this person that I follow. It should work for me and what I’ve learned and what I tell my clients.

And one of the things that I just say in my, and in my content is just that, because, you know, I built, you know, automated marketing and sales systems for people just because you have the same business model when you do, when you work with me, doesn’t mean I’m going to give everyone the same, you know, strategy because your messaging is different.

Your audience is different and your goals are different.

Ashleigh Chanel (13:43): And your audience might not. I was actually talking to a friend earlier today and we were kind of masterminding and we were looking at the different audiences. And like, if you’re looking for somebody who is like maybe past six figures or multi six figures, they probably in this moment and they are aren’t online business are not watching webinars because they’re probably all sick of them because we all know how they go.

30 minutes of you talking about yourself and taking us through this journey, 30 minutes of very, very vague information. And then 30 minutes of you pitching. So nobody who is a six figure, multi six-figure business owner is going through that unless we trust you.

And we know you, and we know we’re going to get value out of it, which is typically not the case anymore, but somebody who is brand new or somebody who is not at six figures yet, it’s probably going through webinars so, or challenges. And so that might be a strategy for you. Right? Right.

Pam Ivey (14:41): You mentioned leads in there and that’s something that so many of us struggle with. So that’s why I was getting all excited and wanted to jump in. What do you suggest? I mean, you use a funnel, so how does that work? How do you get leads for your

Ashleigh Chanel (14:59): So first, let me say that a funnel is just a sales process used to get someone from point a to point B. Or what I like to say is 0.8 to point by the UI. And it’s just a sales process. Right. And that’s all it is. And the word funnel freaks people out.

But I just wanted to let people know that it’s really just how you get someone to buy from you. That’s really all a funnel is, and you can use landing pages, you know, lead magnets, et cetera, emails, whatever, but it’s just a sales process. But how do you get leads? Is that, that was your question, right? Pam?

Yes. Okay. So it all depends. It all depends on your audience. It all depends on your goals. Okay. So let’s say if you are looking to build your email list, you’re going to use a lead generation funnel.

Ashleigh Chanel (15:54): That’s what I’m going to call it a lead generation funnel. And in order to build a great lead magnet, you have to understand what is your offer? What is your main offer that you are going to lead them to after they download or interact with your lead magnet?

Because one of my pet peeves is eBooks. You got, I have a hate, hate relationship with eBooks. I think they typically are a waste of time, but it depends. It really does depend.

But if you’re looking to get someone to buy a $3,000 product from you, an ebook or PDF is not going to get, get you there because when someone’s paying you $3,000, they need to know that, you know, what the heck you’re talking about and that they can trust you and that they like your teaching or coaching style or way of doing things.

And just knowing that you can give them the transformation or the result, right?

Ashleigh Chanel (16:49): So a PDF is typically 10 tips to XYZ, you know, or 15 tips for this and that. And to get someone from 10 tips or a how to, to pay you $3,000, that’s a very, very long journey unless you are seriously nurturing them in your emails, SMS, you know, and in social media.

And they’re just really dialed in, which is typically not the case. So what is your main offer? And so if your main offer were choirs is, is a little bit more high touch or requires a large amount of money. You’re going to have to do something that is more involved, like a video series, like a webinar, like a challenge, um, or maybe even a case study, right?

Something that they can see you and build a connection with you. But if your lead magnet is something that maybe under $200, um, you can get away with a PDF, a quiz, you know, even potentially like direct to a discovery call or maybe like an audit or something like that. But it really depends on what your offer is and what it is that you want them. What action do you want them to take next?

Pam Ivey (18:03): That was really helpful though, that if you’re trying to, you know, your offer is high ticket, let’s say don’t send them a PDF or an ebook. I think that’s great because the gap is just too large to get them from a to buy, as you say. So that was really good, helpful information.

And just has me thinking about something that Jane and I are working on. We’re going to have to up that a little bit. Okay. So that’s really interesting because you’re, you’re going to tell me it depends, but I still want to ask you what’s the perfect lead magnet. Yeah.

Ashleigh Chanel (18:43): I mean, cause I, I believe that there are perfect lead magnets, um, number one, they build a connection. Um, they, they really show off that you care about your audience because right now, like I am a marketer first.

Well actually, no, I guess I’m a human first. Right. And then I’m a marketer. So I wanna, I wanna feel like somebody cares about me. Like, especially now post COVID post pandemic, we’re kind of still in it, but people are looking for connection.

That’s why clubhouse did so well initially, because we were like in our house, stuck looking at the same people every day and we just needed some type of connection. So a lead magnet that shows that you care about your audience and care to give them information that is actually going to help them.

Because when I tell, when I say with those webinars, I’m sick of them.

Ashleigh Chanel (19:39): I’m sick of webinars that give such vague information and waste an hour and a half of somebody’s day. I think it’s disrespectful. And I get a little, I don’t know what the word is, but like, yes, there we go. Clearly I get really passionate about, I can’t deal with disrespect.

And because I view wasting someone’s time as disrespect, I can’t with these, with these bad webinars. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with webinars. I think they work and they work well when done well and done. Right? So the first one is build a connection.

Number two is build trust show that you actually care about them. Um, the next thing a perfect lead magnet is going to be based on your offer, because don’t say that you’re trying to sell, like, let’s say, you know, your lead magnet is based on creating social media content, but you’re about to sell them a course on, um, Pinterest graphics or something like that. Like though it’s still social media, they don’t really connect.

Right. So it’s, if you’re going to have a lead magnet on creating great social media content, maybe your next, the next level is like how to actually a course on building social media content. Right. So that is what makes sense.

For me, I’ve got my quiz and it’s based on like, how do you create the best lead magnet for your business? My next offer is a course on creating lead magnets. So

Pam Ivey (21:16): Yeah, it really makes sense, logical.

Ashleigh Chanel (21:18): And then also it has to be something that your audience wants because I also, I always say, give your audience what they want so that you can give them what they need, because everyone doesn’t know what they need, especially when it comes to building businesses. Um, or just anything like you’re a relationship coach. People don’t really know how to assess the relationships unless they maybe grew up with a psychologist in the house. Right. Which is not many people. And my last point is that a lead magnet should sell for you. I think people should always have their offer in their lead magnet. Always.

Pam Ivey (21:52): Can you give us an example? Well, you kind of did write your own lead magnet.

Ashleigh Chanel (21:57): Yeah. My, at the end of my quiz, I have an offer. I have an offer where people can buy something from me. It doesn’t always have to be necessarily something people buy, but in your lead magnet, you’re already giving them something free. I don’t think you need to give them something else for free. I think you need to solve their problem.

Right. Um, because I personally, my audience are not people who are going to freebie me to death and because I don’t have that many freebies and I do that on purpose because I’m here to get people who want actual transformation transformation. That’s, that’s what I’m here for. Um, I don’t want people who were always like, okay, well, I don’t think that, oh, I think all these freebies are gonna are going to help me.

But it’s, there’s so many different pieces to the puzzle that you’re getting from so many different people. You can’t connect the dots because it’s not based off the same framework. And that’s, what’s really, I think, difficult for solo preneurs. Like we think we can do everything ourselves instead of using getting help from one person or, or, you know, building getting a framework from one person.

So in your, even in your PDF, you can have it a second page that says, if you need more help with XYZ, or if you’re looking for this, or if this is you click here because I have this free,

Pam Ivey (23:19): Those are awesome points. Because if we keep giving away free items and people keep eating them up, they’re free seekers. They don’t want to pay for whatever we have to offer because they figure we’re going to there. They’re going to eventually get it for free. So I think that’s fantastic information.

Jane Garee (23:40): A couple of things I was thinking of there when you were talking Ashley’s number one, I know exactly what you’re talking about with the webinars. They’re great. They, they work when they work. If they’re done correctly, if they’re done mindfully, they are great. And that model is we’re going into what, 12 years of that, of that model. You know, so I’ve been

Jane Garee (24:03): In years. And I remember when that whole kind of speaking presentations with an offer at the end really, really started to come into play for coaches and like anything in life. It’s fine until it’s no longer fine because it is so overused. Innovation is required. And I know exactly.

I was kind of smiling when you were talking about the wasting the wasting time, because I will still sit on webinars for a variety of reasons and the ones that are my favorite, they’re 30, maybe 45 minutes. And they jumped right in.

And then I watched the other day and I thought, oh honey, you, you, you need to, you need to redial this little dance, this thing she even started out. And I don’t want to, you don’t need to hear my whole story, but I do want to give you some context. In 20 minutes later, she was still in her personal story.

Jane Garee (24:50): So I kind of watched the countdown on the clock. You know, if we’re 15 minutes in and you’re still telling me about who you are and what you’ve done and why I should listen to you and giving me testimonials like this is, you know, you know, this is not okay, did you have to share?

So, um, I think that they’ll take away lesson there w for me was just a big reminder that models change. They need to be tweaked. They need to be refined. You know, it’s, it’s, we don’t drive horse-drawn carriages anymore.

We drive cars and we’re moving into electric cars and not gas cars. So the fundamental principle, which is transportation is still there, but that we need to be very mindful that innovation is going to be required, or you’re going to check people off or you’re going to get lost, lost in the dust.

Jane Garee (25:33): So that was the first thing. And then the other thing that I really thought of when you were speaking is the whole concept of alignment, because what I, when I talk about marketing to people, what I always say is what works is what’s going to get done. And what’s going to get done is that you’ll actually say, Hey, I can do this.

Not meaning I’m capable. That’s a part of it, but more I’m willing to do this. I can sit down. And, and when a business owner is so out of alignment and chasing down somebody else’s marketing, dream or strategy, and it’s just all out of whack and out of alignment with who the business owner who’s trying to implement it is you get into a lot of big problems there.

Ashleigh Chanel (26:13): Exactly. I, um, I love what you’ve said about the innovation. I think with that, when you are rooted in actual marketing principles, you can always win, but when you’re chasing trends, like, you know, reels and takes off, I mean, I’m not going to say tick-tock as a trend, but real I’m, I’m just going to a group to talk to in there with them.

But if you’re going to do it, it needs a strategy. You can’t just do it just to do it because reels are great for engagement, but are they getting you paid? Right. What kind of reels are going to get you paid? What kind of reels are going to attract your audience?

And I not. And I just, I love when you said the innovation, yes, we are moving things or you do need to tweak, but it all needs to be rooted, rooted in marketing

Jane Garee (27:01): The fundamentals are there. They’re never going to be any different. And then the innovation and the refinement comes from that baseline.

Pam Ivey (27:13): You know, how I described marketing is it’s all about building relationships, having people know, like, and trust us that KLT factor, of course, but we’re building relationships.

And it’s really, what are the point of our marketing is to create leads for our sales department or us as salespeople, whatever that is. But in order to build that relationship with people, how would you suggest that we build a community? Because I know that you talk about this as well.

Ashleigh Chanel (27:46): Yes. Oh my gosh. Okay. So I’ve just kind of recently started talking about building a community. Um, but, oh my goodness. I’m so excited about this question because my answer is no you’re freaking audience interview them. Oh my gosh,

Ashleigh Chanel (28:07): Interview your audience. You have got to interview them. Otherwise, you don’t know, like I know people have said, and we’ve said this over the years and it’s like, it’s like dating and you have to ease in, but you have to get to know people because I’ve had my best friend, I think for like 20 years.

And I still learn things about her. So if I’m still learning things about her and even my man, you know what I mean? If I’m still learning things about them, as long as we’ve been together, why would you not interview the people who are going to pay you?

It does not make sense. And so if you are wanting to build a community, talk about the things that they enjoy talking about, let them know. And I honestly think letting people know that you care is extremely important because I got a testimonial from someone.

Ashleigh Chanel (29:03): And she was like, when, when I invested in Ashley, she interned, invested in my business. And initially I was like, oh, that’s cute. But I feel like that’s not a good, that’s not a good enough testimonial because it doesn’t have a monetary value attached to it.

But I didn’t realize how important that was to people that, that somebody that they worked with cared about their business and was not doing the one size fits all marketing and was not doing the, Hey, this is going to work for you overnight. You know, like I didn’t realize how important that was. And then, you know, knowing that my, my audiences kind of bougie, they like nice things.

They also like when I create beautiful digital products or, or things that are, uh, um, like, like in my courses, I have extra worksheets that are designed well. They appreciate that because they think I spent more time and cared enough about them to make it easy to read and, and, you know, pretty to look at and a little bit more fun to, to use while they’re doing it.

Ashleigh Chanel (30:07): Not saying that there’s anything wrong with just using a Google doc or Google sheet, there’s nothing wrong with that. But I just, I know my audience. So I do spend a little bit more time on some of the things I know that they watch Housewives, you know, and most of the Housewives.

So I know I can do that. I know they watched his Creek so I can put in some Creek gifts, you know? So I think it’s just really important to know who your audience is, so that you can connect with them. And then also being vulnerable, like telling your story, you know, I, I don’t have a rags-to-riches story, meaning like I didn’t start, I wasn’t, I was never homeless.

You know, I never had that story. And that was the, that was the trend. Everybody was telling that kind of story. And I never thought my story mattered because it wasn’t one of deep struggle. And I realized that I do have different stories to tell my corporate story. It’s just really important for you to be vulnerable with your audience. Okay.

Pam Ivey (31:09): Hey lady, boss, do you think like a CEO, when your business starts taking off, you’re ready to scale up at this point, you’ve got to stop thinking of yourself as a solo preneur and start thinking of yourself as the CEO of your company. If you remain in the mindset of a one person operation, then you won’t be able to grow. You’ll never have the time, energy or expertise to do everything by yourself and your business. Won’t be the success that it has the potential to be.

So are you thinking like a CEO take our free assessment to find out you can find it flourish.biz/think All right, lady boss. Let’s get back to the show.

Okay. Ashley, can you describe some effective ways to gain visibility for our businesses and our offerings?

Ashleigh Chanel (32:15): Yes, absolutely. So gaining visibility doesn’t have to be as hard as people think it is, but what’s extremely important. And something that people do not like to do, they don’t think it’s fun. And I think it’s like really the talking to people portion, but it’s really honing in on who your audience is. That’s the first step to getting visible, because like I said, when you were talking to the wrong people, you will think that crazy. You will think, why did I start this business?

But when you’re talking to the right people, your messaging is clear, right? Your messaging is clear and your audience understands exactly what it is that you do and how you can help them. So that’s the number one step to getting visible, because that is where the shareable content and everything comes into play, but you can either become visible via paid advertising, or you can do organic.

Ashleigh Chanel (33:06): I’m a huge, huge fan of paid. However, I know that not everyone has the budget for paid. So making sure that you are very, very clear about your messaging is going to be the number one step and then showing up, you have to show up. And I know a lot of people say, I don’t believe in posting every day.

And I personally don’t believe in posting every day, but I do think that you need to have posts and things available for people to binge watch you and binge all of your content. So they know that you are the person for them.

And that, you know what you’re talking about, because like I said, somebody is, is, is, is, you know, crying themselves to sleep at night because you you’re holding onto your gift and you are not showing up.

So you showing up daily or having at least things available for people, for them to watch and know that you are the right person is going to be extremely important.

Pam Ivey  (34:10): You’re so right. That’s exactly what I do is I binge read binge watch, binge listened to whoever I’m thinking about purchasing from. I want to make sure that they’re right for me, I’m the right fit for them.

They’ve got the right personality and they really are sitting in authenticity. So I don’t really reach out to anybody. I consume all that they have to offer first.

Ashleigh Chanel (34:35): Exactly. It’s I mean, I call you a lurker. I mean, we are, we are all lurkers at some point, right? And you’re not necessarily creating content for the followers because sometimes I will binge people’s content and not be following them and I will not have engaged.

So what you’re going to want to do is make sure that you are creating content for those who are not yet ready to reach out to you, but they do know that you exist and they’re just waiting either on the right time or for you to like post one more video or one more story, or one more piece of, you know, content that’s going to send them over the edge to booking with you or buying from you. Okay.

Pam Ivey (35:16): Okay. So let’s talk community. How do you suggest that we build a community and what do you find work?

Ashleigh Chanel (35:24): Yeah. So when it comes to building a community, I think this is so important because you know, your, your opportunities are attached to people.

They aren’t attached to like pieces of, right. And they’re not attached to landing pages. People want to know who you are. So being with, like, when you want to build a community, you have to be authentic. You have to care. You have to like, know what your values are so that you can attract the right people. And again, you have to know who your audience is.

You have to know what they values to make sure that you guys can align. I just think that building a building a community is where you see the, the big names. You see why they’re so successful, because they did build a nurture community. And when they put anything out, people buy and like, they don’t question it. You know what I mean?

So when it comes to building a community, what, what really, I think matters. And because we are in COVID post COVID and like, even in the post pandemic, we’re people are looking for connection. They’re looking for authenticity.

They’re looking for people who care about them. Right. And, and you ha I just really think it’s like, you have to care about people. You have to care about their results. And, um, so that they will buy from you.

Pam Ivey (36:49): Goodness, all of this content, where do we come up with all this content?

Ashleigh Chanel (36:55): I say, whenever you do your interviews, right, you’ll never run out of content. Like when you consistently talk to people, you’ll never run out of content. Like when my clients said that, you know, the testimonial where she was like, oh, you know, when I invested in Ashley, she invested in me and I was just like, well, that’s great. And all, but where’s the monetary value attached to this testimonial.

But, but I learned that my audience needs people who care about them to help them move to the next level and to provide transformation and people who aren’t one size fits all marketing and people who aren’t saying, oh, you can do this overnight because you can’t build a successful six-figure business overnight. It’s not possible.

And I’m going to be the first person to tell you that. But there are things that we can do to help that overnight success get closer.

Pam Ivey (37:45): Okay. So tell us then what a six, seven and eight figure marketing system.

Ashleigh Chanel (37:52): Oh my goodness. Okay. Yes. So what does the six, seven or eight figure marketing system look like? Okay. Foundationally. They all look the same. Okay. They have a traffic system, a conversion system, and they follow up system.

They may look different like your S your followup system for maybe a solo preneur may look like email marketing, and it could look like maybe SMS, right? Or it could look like retargeting ads for, uh, an eight figure business or seven figure business, or even a multi six-figure business that can look like somebody getting on sales calls. But what does the traffic system look like?

If you were making that much money, you typically are doing a little bit more volume, so you can not get off me. You might not be able to get on the call with someone every single time. Right? So you have a salesperson, but you also have a lead generator.

Ashleigh Chanel (38:50): So what is your lead generator look like? Your lead generator could be Facebook ads, you know, and then you have an amazing lead magnet. Like your lead magnet could be, you know, something that has to do with in-person. It could be like building a form. It could be, um, a webinar.

It could be a case study. It could be a video series or a, or a quiz, right. But you need a lead generator because we can’t have a business without leads. We can have a business without people. And then your conversion system is how do you get people to convert?

Your conversion system could be a sales person, or your conversion system could be a landing page. It’s really, it really depends on what your offer is, who your audience is and what makes the most sense for you to actually get the sale.

Pam Ivey  (39:41): This has been just fabulous. Ashley, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with our audience and share all of your wisdom about marketing and funnels and lead magnets and all the rest. So tell everyone where they can find you.

Ashleigh Chanel (40:00): You can find me on Instagram. That is where I hang out. And that’s actually also where my audience takes action. That’s also something I wanted to mention, but, um, Ashleigh Chanel on Instagram, @ashleighchanel

And actually Ashleigh, the way I spell it is the girl version of Ashleigh in case anybody didn’t know that. Um, yeah, that’s where you can find me and hang out and you can visit, you know, make your mark consulting.com or your funnel fixed.com/welcome.

Pam Ivey (40:33): Awesome. Well, this has been so enlightening again. Thank you so much for taking the time. I know, personally, I look forward to seeing what you’re doing in the world. I really enjoyed this.

Ashleigh Chanel (40:44): Thank you for having me. And I’m so glad I had the best time.

Pam Ivey  (40:49): All right, everybody, until we talk next week again, get out there and flourish.

Pam Ivey (40:56):

Well, that’s a wrap everyone. Thanks for joining us this week on the flourish and grow to CEO podcast. Be sure to visit our website at [inaudible] dot biz. That’s F L O U R I S h.biz, where you can subscribe to the shows in iTunes, Stitcher, or via RSS. So you’ll never miss an episode.

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