60. My Secret Success Strategy: Taking the 30,000 ft View of Your Business

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:00:00] Welcome back to On Your Terms Podcast. I’m your host, Sam Vander Wielen, attorney turned entrepreneur.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:00:05] And I am so excited to tell you that today is a very exciting day because I get to invite you to my last live legal workshop of the entire year, which I’m hosting next week on September 19th and 20th.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:00:18] There are two live slots for you to join. And come from my free legal workshop. It’s a brand new never before attended legal workshop called Get Your bids Legally Legit. Your three-step master class to ditch the fear of messing up and confidently grow a business that’s legally protected.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:00:36] So, you only have a couple more days to save your free seat to this. In this live one hour class, I’ll teach you how to form your business properly so that you’re personally protected, what contracts, policies you need and how to use them to best protect yourself.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:00:51] How to figure out what your scope of practice is so you don’t accidentally do something illegal online. And the only way to financially protect yourself. I’m talking paying $0.00 if you ever got sued.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:01:04] Last but not least, I’m going to teach you also the crucial mindset shift that you’ve got to make if you not only want to legally protect your business, but if you actually want to build a successful online business like I have in general. You’ll even get to ask me all your burning legal questions live during our live Q&A at the end of the free workshop.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:01:23] If you’ve been trying to figure out all the legal stuff on your own, spinning your wheels, maybe putting it off, feeling a little overwhelmed or confused, this live workshop is going to be perfect for you.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:01:33] I’m just so excited for this is my absolute last one for 2022, so I hope you’ll join us live. If you can’t join us, live. Here’s what you need to do. Sign up for the legal workshop. Anyway, I’ll send you the replay link as soon as it’s over.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:01:46] I don’t want you to miss out, but you only get that replay if you sign up.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:01:49] If you can make it live, I’d love for you to come and hang out with me there, so head to legallylegitclass.com right now to sign up. That’s legallylegitclass.com and sign up for a workshop time that works for you.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:02] And again, if you can’t make it live, sign up anyway. We’ll make sure that we get the live workshop replay in your hands and you’ll get the replay even if you do come live so you can watch it over and over.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:13] I can’t wait to see you there on September 19th and 20th at my brand new never before seen legal workshop, Get Your Biz Legally Legit. I am so excited for this.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:28] Hey there and welcome to this week’s episode of On Your Terms. I’m your host, Sam Vander Wielen. I am so excited that you’re here.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:35] And I know you just heard I’m hosting my last live legal workshop of the entire year next week, September 19th and 20th. I’m hosting it live two different times. I can’t wait. I hope I’ll see you there. If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway so that you can get the replay.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:51] If you can’t make it live, sign up anyway so that you can get the replay. But hopefully you can come live so you can ask me your questions.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:02:53] I also wanted to make sure that you know that every single week I e-mail out to my list, very personal behind the scenes e-mail, sharing with you my best marketing tips, legal tips, behind the scenes peek, sneak peeks into what it’s really like to build a multi seven figure business.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:03:14] And you know me, I’m sharing what is really like. It’s not all roses. I’m sharing like what I did, what’s worked, what hasn’t worked. I’m sharing my marketing strategies over there.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:03:22] And every single Thursday I’m sharing a legal Q&A through my new series, Sam’s Sidebar, where I’m answering a reader’s question every single Thursday in my e-mail. So, you can actually just enter your name and e-mail below in the easy e-mail signup link that we’ve shared with you.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:03:40] And by doing that, you don’t have to go through any marketing funnel. That means you’re not going to get hit with a million different emails after you sign up or anything like that.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:03:48] You’re just going to get added to my list and you’re going to start receiving the emails that I’m normally sending out, chock full of tons of free info. So, if you haven’t already, make sure you go down and you sign up.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:03:59] So in this episode, I am sharing with you my 30,000 ft view process of how I approach my business, my entire marketing strategy, and even my funnel, really. And this idea came to me when I was flying home from the Convert Cake conference.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:04:16] And I’m obsessed with looking out the window when you fly. And I love seeing like the overall layout of towns and cities as you fly over them, thinking, man, there’s so many little individual things, right? There’s streets and neighborhoods and restaurants and all kinds of things going on, on a granular level on the ground.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:04:36] But when you fly, you finally get to see what the plan was for this town overall or the city. Like, why was it laid out that way? Was it to accommodate the river that runs through it? Was it because there was a mountain pass on one side? Like, is it so that all the streets are as square blocks?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:04:51] You know, like, Philly, it’s so interesting to me. And it’s funny when you’re in something, you know, when you’re there in the city streets, it’s hard to think of what this really looks like in the big picture. But when you zoom out or when you fly 30,000 feet above ground, you can finally see it.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:05:10] And I just think it’s such a beautiful analogy for something that’s really, really important that we do in our own businesses, but that we don’t do enough.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:05:17] So, I talk you through how this benefits me, how I do this, how I integrate this practice into my own business multiple times throughout the year and I even get into how I create my own flow chart to make the marketing strategy and the marketing flow for my own business. And I’m going to walk you through it so you can create your own for your own business.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:05:38] So, I hope you’ll love this episode. Send me a DM, let me know what you thought. Let me know if you’re coming to the live legal workshop we’re hosting next week.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:05:45] And please do me a favor and shoot this episode as a link. Text your friend if you think that it would be helpful for them. Please share it with the people closest to you. It means so much to me. And with that, I’ll see you on the other side.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:06:01] It’s so easy as a business owner to get in the weeds with stuff, you know. You get so in the habit even of doing things every day, every week, at a certain interval in your business, like checking social media or like posting on your website or whatever.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:06:17] And along the way you hear all these stories like you have to post this many times on TikTok to be successful, you have to post Reels on Instagram if anyone going to see your stuff.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:06:27] So you get really, really into like, OK, I heard from this person on Instagram that I really respect and I admire and I want my business to look like theirs or at least, like my success will look like their, that you’ve got to do this. So therefore, I’m going to go off and I’m going to do that.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:06:44] And then you just like get really into it and you start doing it and you get busy. And then, like, let’s not even talk about the fact that you’re working with your clients, you’re trying to set up certain stuff in your business. You know, you’re like taking care of things, you’re creating content, you’re doing all the things.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:07:02] But what I see and what we’re going to talk about today is that I see people focus on little tasks that keep us busy to the point that they are not only not focused on — there’s probably a better way for me to say that. OK, so they focus on little tasks that keep them busy to the point where they can’t even see what they’re doing it all for, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:07:29] And staying in a place where you are doing little tasks that keep you busy, that have no clear purpose or direction to the overall picture will not ultimately reduce it to success. It will not build a successful business staying focused on these little minutiae without understanding what it’s all for.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:07:52] And in doing so, in keeping with these little tasks and staying in the weeds of our businesses, it keeps us from asking the questions that we really need to ask which is like is this actually working?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:08:06] And that is a super subjective question, by the way. Like what does that mean to you? What does working mean to you? Does that mean making sales? Does it mean it’s fun? Does it mean it’s bringing in the right clients?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:08:15] Like, I don’t think there’s a right or wrong, but I don’t even think people ask, right? So maybe you’re focusing on building this like giant TikTok presence and it feels really good that you’re getting a lot of views or a lot of followers on TikTok, for example.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:08:31] You might answer that question and say, yeah, it’s working because I’m getting a lot of views, I’m getting a lot of followers.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:08:38] But what I encourage you to do, and what I’m hoping you’ll do after today’s episode, is dig a little deeper and be like, oh, actually, when I think of the question, is this actually working, it’s not followers and it’s not, it’s not views because that’s not getting me closer to my ultimate goal, if the goal is, you know, additional sales or more, you know, of an audience or something like this on a platform that maybe you own a little bit more.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:09:05] So that question might shift as you’re listening today, right? It also keeps us this staying in the weeds idea keeps us from asking things like, is this necessary? Is this getting me any closer to my goals?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:09:16] Because again, you’re just like, getting in this repetition of, like, I’m supposed to post five times a day. I was supposed to do this, you know, five times a week. I’m supposed to do that or I think this is what a business owner who owns my kind of business does.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:09:29] You also don’t ask yourself, as you’re going along, do I need to be the one doing this, right? So, if you’re like me, we pride ourselves on being able to do everything ourselves.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:09:41] We don’t need anybody’s help, right? I’m like that too. I’m like, oh, I can do that. No, don’t worry about it. I can do that. No, no, I can do that too. Oh, I could do that while I’m also doing that, right? How much can you relate?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:09:53] So, that will often cause us not along the way to not stop and ask ourselves, do I need to be the one doing this because maybe that’s keeping me from getting closer to my goals, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:10:07] We also don’t ask what this action is getting me closer towards. So when I was talking about posting million times on TikTok or Instagram, sometimes we do this like haphazardly and we focus on the wrong metrics and we don’t stop and ask ourselves is this like, is this getting me any closer to where I’m trying to go?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:10:26] Like oftentimes, when I’ll think of a piece of content that sounds fun, or I see a trend and I’m like, oh, that would be fun, trendy video to do, or trendy reel or something to do, I’m like, yeah, but what’s the, where does that go? Where does that lead, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:10:40] And we’re going to flush all this out in a sec. So, don’t worry. I’m kind of talking 30,000 ft view before we dig into how to take the 30,000 ft view.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:10:50] I think about this stuff a lot. I think about the 30,000 ft view of your business a lot. And kind of the back story here is that, at least for me, like my experience with thinking about things from the 30,000 ft view came from actually when I was a practicing attorney.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:11:07] And oftentimes, when you’re in a case, especially if it’s a case that’s like in litigation, it’s really intense. It’s emotional. There’s like tons and tons of facts flying around, not to mention documents and depositions and interviews and witnesses, and all this kind of stuff, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:11:23] And oftentimes you can get, like, really honed in on something and, like, get really obsessed with this one fact or this one deposition or like one thing that one person said or one document.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:11:35] But I remember an attorney that I worked for early on said it’s really important to keep zooming out and coming back to this idea of the 30,000 ft view. What is the big picture here? What’s, and you know in the legal case when we were, when we were, when I was practicing attorney, the question was like what’s the, what’s the argument? Like what’s the angle?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:11:58] But from a business perspective, I’ve translated this into consistently zooming out of like, sometimes I just picture myself having to, like, shake my head and be like, ooh, and I have to zoom out and be like, wait, what is this alpha? What am I doing here? Where’s this all headed, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:12:17] So let’s talk through a little bit about what it looks like to take a 30,000 ft view of your business. Why is this beneficial to you and how that helps you to future proof your business? In other words, lay the foundation now for what you’re going to do later, but actually make sure that you have a successful later, right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:12:38] The first thing that I recommend that you do is practice this idea of zooming out. You have to get out of where you are right now. I think this is like the biggest hurdle that I see entrepreneurs who aren’t where they want to be struggling with at this moment, in my opinion.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:12:57] So oftentimes people will be like very, very focused on where they are right now to the point that they’re not thinking about the fact that if you don’t want to be where you are right now, we’ve got to start making changes or acting in a way that’s more consistent with where you want to go.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:13:15] We need to start seeing the overall picture of your business. What do you want this business to look like? How do you want to help people? How do you want to work with them? And are your daily tasks and actions in your weekly and monthly tasks and actions lining up with those things, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:13:32] I’m going to talk to you in a second about it literally exactly how I structure this and how I sit down with myself multiple times throughout the year to zoom out, get a big picture idea, literally put it onto paper in a flow chart and figure out where am I focusing on in the business, where am I sending people? Why? Where are they going after that? I’m going to walk you through the whole thing today.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:13:54] So we have to start seeing this overall picture. We have to see where you’re headed. You have to know where you want to go first, right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:14:01] And someone gave me a really good tip early on that said, you know, like let’s say you’re starting out your business right now and one day you love to be a multi 7 figure business owner, right? That’s like your ultimate dream.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:14:15] We don’t have to like start acting like that person this minute, at least in my opinion. What I would like for you to start doing though is start acting like the person or the business owner or the like place in your business that you’ll be six months, a year, two years from now, right? Or in a realistic sense.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:14:36] And I’m not talking about becoming a billionaire in six months, or making $10,000 a month in 90 days, or any of this nonsense. I’m talking about legitimate, sustainable long-term businesses that take time, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:14:47] So if you just think about where you’d like to be even a year from now, I’m hoping for your sake that that’s, you know, at least different, it’s evolved in some way. It doesn’t always have to be more money. Money is not the answer to everything, but it’s probably evolved in some capacity.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:15:03] We have to start thinking about like, OK, if that’s where we’re headed, am I doing things that are taking those steps to get there right now? Or am I only doing things and taking steps right now that are keeping me exactly where I am right now?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:15:15] It’s like you’re responding to where you are right now as opposed to shifting and moving the momentum in the direction that you want to go.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:15:23] I have shared this many times, but I think like my biggest moment and mindset shift that was the most beneficial to me was when I realized I was staying in a place of where I was right now.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:15:36] So I was making decisions based on exactly how many clients I had right now, exactly the audience size I had right now, exactly the offers I had now. But I had big, big dreams, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:15:46] And I had big ultimate dreams, but I also had dreams of like, oh, I hope that like six months, a year from now, this is like picking up a little more momentum. Or this program has a little bit more people in it. Or I could start a podcast in a year, you know, or something like this.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:16:00] So I started saying, OK, a person who had a business of that size, with how many customers, with that many sales every day, with a podcast that people listened to and they love, what would she need to do?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:16:14] Would she be wasting her time on these like little trendy videos that don’t lead anywhere. No, because she’s going to be busy. She’s going to be busy. She’s going to have all this stuff to do and she’s going to be focused on big picture.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:16:28] And she’s not a stressed-out CEO who’s like running around like a chicken with their head cut off who’s always on her phone. She’s a relaxed CEO who has support, right? And who focuses on the big picture and who makes sales in her sleep because she creates content that is constantly leading people somewhere.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:16:47] And so that helped me to be like, ah, I can like, let all that other stuff fall away because it’s not getting me to where I ultimately want to go.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:16:56] She’s not going to deal with that in the future, so why am I doing it now? Because if I’m not going to be doing that in the future, why do I need to be doing it now, right? It doesn’t make any sense.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:17:05] So I literally just started baby steps shifting into that. Like, you know, I would come up even sometimes with like a picture in my head, an idea in my head of like a, you know, a big time like online entrepreneur who at least I would want to be as well respected and as successful as they are, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:17:28] And I would think of that person, I would think, well, she’s probably not doing that. Or like, well, she’s not, she’s not getting involved in that kind of stuff, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:17:36] So maybe I couldn’t do it right in that moment ‘because like for example, at that time I didn’t have anybody on my team. So I couldn’t just be like, hey, fake team member, go deal with this, right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:17:45] But I started shifting my mindset towards what I was spending my own time on and what was important and what I wanted to focus on. So that I knew that the place I was headed, I was going to have a team, I was going to have employees eventually. That was like a dream of mine, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:17:58] That was like a dream of mine, right? Which I now have made come true, I guess. So that was important to me.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:05] So I started laying the foundation, laying the groundwork for like I’m going to — this is where I’m headed. So I’ve got to start doing things that she would do, and I’ve got to stop doing things that she wouldn’t bother herself with.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:15] You know what I mean? Hopefully this makes sense.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:18] So that was huge for me. I see this in a big way when it comes to legally protecting your business. I see people all the time say that they’re not ready to legally protect their business that they have today, right? Like, oh, I’m waiting till it gets bigger. I’m waiting till this, I’m waiting till that.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:36] That is not the business that you should be focused on legally protecting. We need to legally protect the business that you’re building, not the one that you have at this moment, right? Because by the time you build it, you needed legal protection already.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:49] Not to mention the fact that you need legal protection along the way, because it doesn’t matter whether or not you have a million clients or one client. You need legal protection.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:18:59] But if you stop and think about it, the person that like using the logic that we just talked through, the person or the business that you just thought about, maybe that you dreamt up and said, oh, six months, a year from now, this is what I want my business to look like. That business needs legal protection.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:19:15] So can you see then why you getting legal protection now right fits into this like, well, that’s where I’m headed, right? You really have to start buying into — I hate using the term buying into because it sounds like you’re making it up, but like you really do have to start acting like in creating the thought of a person who’s where you’re going and where you want to be.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:19:36] Because if we keep with the thoughts of where we are right now, we’re just going to stay. We’re going to keep doing things and creating a reality around us that is like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:19:47] I’m gonna talk about towards the end, something that I saw on Married At First Sight, a good
bingeable reality show that I watch when I like really need to know about.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:00] I’m going to talk to you about the end, about something that I saw in that show last night that was like mind-blowing about this that we have to talk about with when it comes to like future proofing our business.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:09] OK. So we’re practicing this zooming out. We’re getting out of where we are right now.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:13] Now, when we zoom out, what are we looking for? To me, you’re kind of looking at four main parts or sections of your business and then we’re going to put them actually on paper.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:25] So, number two is that we are zooming out to look at all four of these main parts of your business. We’re looking at lead generation. We’re looking at nurturing your audience. We’re looking at sales, of course. And then we’re looking at continued nurturing.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:41] This is like a crucial misstep I think that a lot of people don’t focus on.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:20:46] So lead generation is how you’re bringing people in. So, the people it’s like if you think about this in terms of a cup, this is like the water that’s getting poured into the cup, right? This is the flow of people into your business. Whether, you know, this is in the broadest sense, this is like whether they’re following you on social media, they’re hopefully joining your e-mail list. That kind of stuff, right? Bopping into like your podcasts, you know, following you, whatever, wherever you are.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:21:12] The nurture part is then what content you’re creating along the way that is educating those people, that is familiarizing them with you, your brand, what you do, what you offer, all that kind of stuff.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:21:25] The sales part I think is pretty self-explanatory. But like, what do you offer them? When you’re nurturing them, what do you offer those people who you’ve now led into your business, you’ve nurtured, what are you selling them, and why does it make sense for them? Why is it helpful? Why is the solution to whatever problem they’re experiencing?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:21:42] And last but not least, the continued nurturing part is that is the part I was saying I don’t think people think about often enough is, you know, for me, I think part of what has led to a long term successful business in my definition of the term is that I am not freaked out about people buying today, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:01] If you need a legal template, if you want the ultimate bundle, that’s amazing. I am here. I am ready for you. If you need it six months, a year, two years, three years from now, that’s amazing. I am here for you. I’m ready. Right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:13] So I don’t lose sleep at night worrying that people aren’t going to buy stuff today versus six months from now versus a year from now. And I think that that attitude has really kept me not only in business but growing over a long period of time.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:27] And it’s so funny how many people by who say, like, I’ve been watching your stuff, listening to your stuff for one year, two years, three or four years, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:36] People have said I’ve wanted to buy the bundle for years. I am so excited to finally be inside of it. That’s awesome. Like I’m really glad if that was the right timing for them.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:45] Most of the time they could have gotten it earlier and it would have helped them earlier. And most people will say that, and they’ll be like, I wish I would have gotten this earlier because it would have helped me along the way, but it is what it is. Like I’m OK, right, as a business owner.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:22:56] And so in this continued nurturing section, I want you to think about what avenues you have in your business that are continuing to keep people in your orbit. Like, how are you making it fun still to hang out here? Are you emailing your list? Are you being helpful in those emails? Do you continue to consistently post on your podcast or your YouTube channel or your blog like that kind of stuff, right? You’re showing up on social media, if you’re doing that.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:23:21] So I want you to also think when we’re zooming out like, what’s your continuing nurture system? So, let’s talk about putting this on to paper. And I wish, like, we could do this on a video. Maybe I’ll do a reel for you guys when this episode comes out.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:23:37] But I want to talk about how at least I approach this from actually putting this all to good use. For me, I put everything that we’re just talking about now into a good flow chart.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:23:49] I think there is a power in a good flow chart because I think a flow chart is like really I’m targeting, when I say flow chart like the bubbles with arrows, you know.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:00] I think it’s such a good way to like capture this 30,000 ft view thing, but then start to really like zoom out and see exactly what you’re doing.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:09] So here’s what I want you to do. At the top of your flow chart, I want you to think, where am I trying to send people, right? So, this is actually the second section in your flow chart. So just leave a little space at the top because there’s going to be something that goes right above it.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:27] How, what, where am I trying to send people? So, what is the goal? Like where do you ultimately want, like where is your like home base, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:36] So in my case, for example, it would be the podcast is where I put in a ton of energy and I take really seriously and I love it. And my e-mail list, that’s a huge one, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:48] So it’s like podcast episodes and getting people on my e-mail list slash emailing them every single week. So that’s where I’m trying to send people.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:24:57] The thing you’re going to put right above that is how am I getting people there, right? So how am I getting people to my podcast? How am I getting people on my e-mail list?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:25:06] So for me that’s like paid ads, organic content on my website, on Instagram, right? And SEO driven stuff, along the same lines like SEO optimizing my blog posts and my YouTube videos and all that kind of stuff.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:25:22] So that’s my lead generation. That’s how I’m getting people in. And then the where I’m trying to send people like my podcast or my e-mail list, that’s my nurture. That’s how I’m nurturing people. I’m showing up on the podcast every week, sharing a valuable episode. I am emailing people at least twice a week with valuable educational information and resources about how to legally build their business, all that kind of stuff.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:25:44] The third thing that you’re going to do on your flow chart is right beneath where you have like wherever you’re sending people is that once they get “there”, like your podcast or your e-mail list, then where do you want them to go? So, the next branch on your flow chart is where you’re trying to send people from your cornerstone content, from your main pieces of content, your nurture.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:26:09] So this might be like a free training, a webinar on a challenge, series, and opt in of some sort right of a private podcast. Anything that you want.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:26:19] So for me, this would be like my free legal workshop, five steps to legally protecting growing online business. So, I get you to come in through ads or my organic content. I’m then — in doing that, in that content, I’m asking you to go to opt in to get onto my e-mail list, or I’m asking you to go listen to a podcast episode.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:26:37] And then once you listen to the podcast episode or you’re on my e-mail list, I’m usually asking you to go watch a free training or to do some other opt in. And then obviously sometimes it’s like a direct to sale thing as well.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:26:50] That’s why the next little branch on your flow chart is what do you want them to do once they get you’re free thing, right? Once they’ve kind of like opted in, they get there, what are your offers?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:02] So for me, this would be like after they get to my podcast and they get on my e-mail list, I want them to watch my free webinar. From the free webinar, I want them to purchase the ultimate bundle or purchase ala carte legal templates, like any contract or website policy they need on my site.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:17] And that’s really the goal, right. It’s like that’s like kind of the end goal. And then from there, we have like order bumps and upsells and all kinds of things that are built on like little branches.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:25] But to keep this very simple, you can just for right now you can just like have your offers, right? I had that for years and years and it was totally fine.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:32] So, what if they don’t buy? How are you then taking care of them? That’s kind of that last little branch of like, it’s almost as if the arrows get to the bottom and then they come back up to the top right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:43] So we’re continuing to nurture them and you’re doing that by continuing to show up on your podcast or your e-mail list or your YouTube or whatever you’re doing, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:27:52] You’re continuing to create, you know, educational opportunities for them. You’re keeping top of mind with them of like who you are, what you do.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:28:01] And you’re creating future opportunities to buy by having, you know, future promos or going through a, you know, a couple of weeks where you really focus and talk about a product or a service that you offer.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:28:13] So we’re not just like, oh, send them through this thing and if they don’t buy, then they just have to remember at some point on their own. No, we’re going to prompt them along the way. We’re going to continue to nurture. We’re going to continue to give tons of free stuff and super educational. But, we’re also going to pop up and be like, hey, we’re a business, right? Don’t forget.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:28:33} So in my opinion, the fourth thing we’re going to talk about today is that in my opinion most people spend too much of their time hyper focused on like one branch of this. And unfortunately, the one branch or section of this flow chart that people typically focus on, it’s like a sub branch of a branch is creating social media content.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:28:54] So they’re in like the nurturing phase in the sense that they’re creating lots of content and they’re probably creating most of that content on social media but they’re missing a couple of things.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:29:05] So let’s talk about this in case this is something where after listening to this, you’re like, oh, when I zoom out, I realize that is where I’m spending most of my time.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:29:13] So people will create tons and tons of content, but then it leads nowhere, right? So remember how I said that once they get “there”, where do you want them to go? Like if so, if that is organic content, where do you want them to go from that organic content?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:29:28] Instagram shouldn’t be the end of the road. Shouldn’t really be any road. It should just be like a roadside stop, honestly.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:29:37] So we don’t own it. We can’t control it. It’s constantly changing and there are better ways to reach more people that are more targeted, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:29:45] So when you’re creating this content, where is it leading? And then sometimes people have somewhere to lead them, maybe like a freebie or some sort of other like a challenge or something like that. But then they don’t have anything to offer them that makes sense from that content.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:30:01] So if I posted a piece of content that was about how, let’s see, I got this shark vacuum off Amazon that doesn’t have like the hair roller thingy on. I don’t know how to explain this properly but basically, if you have a lot of hair like I do and you lose a lot of that hair like I do every day and you need to vacuum every day because of it, it doesn’t get stuck in the vacuum, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:30:26] It’s amazing. Incredible. Everyone could benefit from knowing this, but where does that lead people if I share, other than if I’m just sharing it for fun, right? I’m just using this as a joke example.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:30:36] But I don’t have — like I could educate people on the importance of this vacuum, and I could show them how it works. I don’t have anywhere to lead them, and I have nothing to offer them.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:30:44] Like, even better example would be if you’re like health or wellness professional and you share about some like fun, I don’t know, health tip or whatever. That health tip should be shared in a way that’s like, hey, here’s this health tip, like here’s how it came up, this is how I see people struggle with it. This is what you need to know. Can you relate to that?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:31:05] Well, that’s actually what I teach people inside of my five-week program called blah blah blah. And here’s how you can learn more information. We’re actually opening the doors on September 1st and it closes on the 15th. I’m only taking ten people. So, like here’s the next step, DM me like butter to learn more about this program. Butter was the first thing that came to mind, honestly.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:31:27] So, you know, you want to make sure that everything flows and it leads people to something, you know. Maybe in that same example, you would be sharing a health tip. And then you would say to someone, I’ve actually got a free training for you called blah blah blah, and you can sign up for that by DMing me the word butter and I’ll send you a link to this free training, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:31:52] So at least when you’re sharing the tip, whatever the tip is, if it has to be money, health, whatever, you’re sharing the tip in a way that it leads people to the next thing.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:32:00] Sometimes I reverse engineer this by thinking what my free offer is. So, like let’s say it’s a webinar and your web and your webinar teaches five things, create a piece of content. I mean, you could probably create 50 pieces of content, but create at least five pieces of content on each of those five tips you teach. Teach them in a piece of content that’s big, like a podcast, a YouTube video, whatever, and then say, to learn more about this, go watch my free webinar, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:32:26] So you can really like reverse engineer this as well where you kind of start with the free offer. And then start creating content that makes sense because it’s little branches and pieces of your free offer by turning it around and pitching people your free offer.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:32:40] In that free offer though, this is the mistake that I see, people then don’t have best next step that’s paid. So, you’ve created a credible free guide or free webinar or whatever, but it doesn’t make any sense that that would necessarily want like have somebody who watches that webinar want to buy your product or your service. So we want to think about the.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:33:03] So overall, I don’t want you to be too focused on one branch of this. You kind of need to zoom out of this flow chart that we’ve talked about and we need to think about like, where’s my lead generation? Where am I pulling people in from? How am I doing that?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:33:18] If you’re not doing paid ads, then it’s organic, right? Meaning that you’re relying on your own generation, which is completely fine by the way. I did that for like four years.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:33:28] So you have to be thinking about where am I getting people? And am I relying too heavily on just social media? Is there something I could be doing like SEO driven that would attract people for me a little bit more, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:33:41] So where are we getting people from? What kind of content am I creating that’s than helping those people? And what am I asking them to do? Where am I trying to send them?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:33:50] And once they get to that place that I’m trying to send them, where do I want them to go from there? And just keep drawing it out until you get to the end of your flow chart, which should be your offer, which then can kind of flow back to the top. If someone doesn’t buy, how are we nurturing them? How are we continuing to nurture them?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:34:09] You’ll have to let me know if this has been helpful so far. So, in general, like Tip #5 about taking this 30,000 ft view of your business is that I really believe in the low and slow approach.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:34:22] And if you’re somebody who gets, like, really overwhelmed and really frazzled by how many things you can just think of that, there are left to do that, that you’re like, I know I’m supposed to be doing this, I’m supposed to be doing that. And I hear that this thing is really important and I should be showing up more on social media. I should have a bigger e-mail list by now, right.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:34:43] When you get into all that, that is the weeds and I want you to go zoom and zoom out and look at the big picture. Focus on doing less with more with doing less, more or less with doing more. Basically, I want you to focus on fewer channels, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:35:03] Because once we take the zoom out approach and we really think about the overall big picture of our business, you see that you’re spreading yourself too thin by trying to get too many leads from too many different places. And it would probably be better for you if you went deeper with fewer places.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:35:20] And in doing so, you’re going to be able to take the more brick by brick approach the low and slow, low and steady approach that I personally, I’m really a fan of because it allows you, first of all to not live like, you know, like you’re losing your mind, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:35:37] It also allows you to do things intentionally in your business in a way that allows you to gather data and see if it’s actually working. Because if you don’t, you will stay in a reactive phase where you’re like I posted this thing on Instagram and it got really good response so I’m going to do it again. Oh, shoot. Now, no one commented on this thing. Well, that means I must post ten more times this week.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:36:03] Oh my gosh, let’s slow down. Zoom out, all the way out. And if we take this low and steady approach, we focus on the bigger pieces of our business and really understand what this is all for, what am I asking people to do, where does that lead?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:36:20] Well, then where does that lead? Well, why? Why am I asking them to go there? What are they going to do once they get there, right? Do I have this set up for them?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:36:27] Once we’re able to do all of that, we can slow down, see what’s working, and make intentional decisions. Not reactive, not trendy. Intentional. And personally, I think that’s what builds a really successful business over time.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:36:43] OK. Last but not least, I want to leave you with what Pastor Cal said on Married at First Sight. Let me know if you also watch Married at First Sight.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:36:52] But something that I see people do a lot is like when we have this conversation, they will say, well, I’m going to see how this goes. I’m going to try this first and then we’ll see how this goes. Or if I reach this metric in my business, then I’ll get legal protection, then I’ll start a podcast, then I’ll put my face on camera, then I’ll do whatever, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:37:14] And last night when I was watching an episode, it’s like two seasons ago, I’m pretty behind. But last night I was watching this episode where Pastor Cal was talking to this guy who’s really into the woman that he was matched with. So, if you don’t know about Married at First Sight, these people get married without ever having met before, and then they have like eight weeks to decide if they’re going to stay married or get a divorce.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:37:33] So, this guy is really into the person that he got matched with. And even with as like head over heels he is for her already, he was hedging his bets. He was doing things and saying things to Pastor Cal in there like relationship counseling interview about like, well, we’ll see how it goes with her. And if it goes well, then I’ll do this. Or let’s see how it goes with her and if it goes well, then I’ll be more vulnerable, then I’ll open up to her, then I’ll say this, then I’ll tell her how I really feel.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:38:04] And he was like, that is not how it works. You’re gonna get there by telling her how you really feel. You’re going to get there, by being vulnerable. You can’t wait to get there and then be vulnerable because you’ll never get there.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:38:16] And I was like, oh, that is something I see over and over and over again in online business. Everybody is waiting to get there until they do certain things, not realizing that they can only get there by doing those very things.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:38:29] And legally protecting your business honestly is one of those big things, if you haven’t done that already, right? And I’m not just saying that because I’m a lawyer. I am saying that because I have seen this now from thousands and thousands of people, having worked with so many customers, having also, you know, communicated with so many people who have decided not to do it, who then have come back later and be like what was I thinking, I should have done this earlier, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:38:53] So, to wrap this kind of full circle of what we were talking about earlier, if the business that you’re building would require legal protection because it would be making money and having clients and blah, blah, blah, then you need that stuff in place now or you’ll need to start laying the groundwork to getting that stuff in place, right?

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:39:10] So hopefully I will see you next week at my last live legal workshop of the entire year, entire 2022 calendar year. I’m hosting it live twice. Once on September 19th, another on the 20th.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:39:28] If you can make it live, that’s amazing. I can’t wait to see you there. Please send me a DM and let me know that you’re going to be there.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:39:33] Please tell your friends. Send them a text, shoot them the link that we have in this episode. Send them this episode. Whatever you think would be helpful to them, but I would mean so much to me if you’d help spread the word.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:39:45] It’s the last live one of the year like this so I am so excited to bring it to you. And again, if you can’t come live, just sign up anyway, because that’s the only way you’re going to get the replay. We’re not sending out the replay to anybody who doesn’t sign up.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:39:58] And I also hope I’ll see you over on my e-mail list. I mentioned at the beginning I’ve been really, really loving my new e-mail list like approach.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:07] And I’ve been having such great conversations with everybody there, really sharing behind the scenes of my marketing strategies of building a multi 7 figure business.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:15] And every Thursday bringing you a new legal Q&A session through Sam Sidebar, my new little legal Q&A session series on Thursdays. People have been submitting Belfast questions and so I’m answering them for you all every Thursday.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:30] So, you can get my emails without going through any marketing funnel by signing up with the easy e-mail signup link below.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:38] I can’t wait to hear from you in my DMs that you’re coming to the live workshop. I already know I’ll see you there. Come on, I know I’ll see you there.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:44] So come and text me. Come and DM me and let me know. I can’t wait to see you next week.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:40:54] Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms Podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you like to listen to podcasts.

Sam Vander Wielen: [0:41:02] You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, five steps to legally protect and grow your online business at samvanderwielen.com. And to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram at Sam Vander Wielen and send me a DM to say hi.