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Laurie: Welcome everyone! In this episode, I am sitting down with Annette Smotherman, who is a board-certified health and wellness coach who recently used the FOCUS method to jumpstart her business to kind of give it a reset and get things moving again. I hope this episode is really helpful for you and inspiring and if you’re interested in the FOCUS method you can check the show notes for the link and find out more. So let’s get back to our recap…
Welcome Annette. I would love to hear all about your experience with FOCUS method.
Annette: Where I was, you know, I felt like I sort of needed to just start over because not that I hadn’t made any progress but I feel like I hadn’t made enough progress and just sort of spinning my wheels and tired of what I was doing and so this gave me an opportunity just to say “okay, let’s let’s just try something different or at least parts of it, right?” Just taking a different look and as challenging as the like the collecting ‘NO’s’, I think everybody should go through that when they’re first starting.
Laurie: The way that you just phrased it was that you needed kind to to take a step back and almost do like a reset of how you were approaching getting clients. Can I ask you to kind of elaborate a little bit on what you had been trying, what you had done before? What have you already tried and what was your approach before?
Annette: My approach before, some of it was similar. I was going through, you know, doing well some of it was not but going through the you know, have a five-day challenge which is a lot of time, a lot of effort, and so you maybe money, doing ads, I felt like I was doing ads, getting some people who were not really interested… or they join the group and then you don’t hear from them or they never open an email and just going through that over and over. I just sort of got exhausted with it.
I guess if I would have been succeeding more then it would have been exciting and wonderful but I just got tired of that …and your program was more about starting with people you know and I have had experience with going to family and friends and that can get awkward but this is more about not “hey, you know, sister or friend or whatever, can you please do this with me and support me and stuff?”
It was “do you know anyone?” and just started using that particular logic and so it wasn’t completely different and maybe for me it was also just me mentally being in in a different place but I was ready to try something different and what you did for me was was just that.
It was saying “Annette, here you are, follow this method, don’t think about all the other stuff that you could do, you should do, you tried” it was ‘take this method, step-by-step” and it helps to for me to stop all the overthinking …” what if I did this?” and stuff . It was just a nice laid out, step-by-step plan that I just I followed and what you have is pointing us in that direction.
I like the structure because I am a structured person and that that really helped me.
Laurie: So the process was easy to follow?
Annette: Yes, for sure.
Laurie: Okay, as you were coming into focus, so you already had your foundation, you had, your social media stuff set up, you had your insurance, your legal, everything was there but you just kind of needed a reset, right?
So putting together your offer, what did that look like?
Annette: I had somewhat of a framework for the the four weeks and getting the group together was it was just the way I wanted to do it and for the price point I thought instead of doing it X number of times individually, it would just putting all the women together in one group.
I just I felt more secure doing that, so it was just me personally, I felt more comfortable going that route.
Laurie: When you have a group, you know, you kind of have this expectation of the of the participants that there’s going to be other participants and there’s going to be community and there’s going to be some kind of thing and if you don’t have a huge audience to draw from it’s hard to really pull that together for a focus offer.
It’s really just like a jumpstart for your business, collecting testimonials and then using what you’ve what you’ve learned about your target market, your ideal client and get and using that social proof to then, right, so price point one-on-one is always going to be higher than group.
So you can always offer a group with an upsell to one-on-one or the optional, one-on-one sessions if that’s what you want to do. The thing about running group is that, you know, you need to have audience, you need to have a list, you need to have people who are ready to to buy what you’re selling.
Let’s talk about collecting your no’s. On a scale of one to ten, how much did you not want to approach people and and make the direct ask to participate or ask them if they knew anybody?
Annette: Eleven. Realistically, I would say an eight. I think it’s just I’m an introvert, I feel like I’m asking people to, I feel like I’m asking people to do something that, I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s just I don’t want to ask people.
I don’t want to hear the the silence or the no. I don’t know, it’s silly..
Laurie: It’s not silly, it’s very normal. Most people, unless you’ve, you’re a seasoned salesperson and you understand that yes only comes by hearing no, you know, I think a lot of people are afraid to really put themselves out there because you’re vulnerable, right? You’re offering a thing.
Annette: It’s very, yeah, it’s very uncomfortable.
Laurie: Did you, by the end, were you getting more comfortable because you knew you had to hit a certain number and you’re like, yes, let me just hear the no, let me just move on to the next, and it just becomes a thing. It just becomes a thing you check off.
Annette: Right, and I was starting to follow up and it’s like all I want at this point is is an answer and then after, you know, as time went on, if there’s silence, silence is a no. If I follow up and they don’t respond.
So do you think going forward you’re going to be as uncomfortable or do you think you need more practice there?
Annette: Well, I need more practice, but I won’t be as uncomfortable. It definitely helped me to release some of that discomfort. No, it was definitely, definitely a valuable experience for me, but I do need more practice.
Laurie: So all told, how many yeses did you end up with?
Annette: Four.
Laurie: So you had four clients participate in your focus method, and so the next part of focus is under-promise and over-deliver. So do you feel that that’s what you did? Can you tell me a little bit about what you promised and then what you actually delivered?
Annette: Yes, so I promised weekly habit challenges, delicious, easy meal ideas and recipes, regular check-ins for accountability, group support, and workout ideas.
Laurie: So when you met, when you had your check-ins with everybody at the end and you asked them about the content, right, you did your testimonial form where you kind of got their feedback on the content that you provided. What was some of the feedback that you got about the content?
Annette: They were all very pleased with it. They, I even got comments about how I over-delivered that they didn’t expect as much as I provided. They weren’t expecting as much as they got.
Laurie: Fantastic. So and then the last part is social proof, right? So collecting your testimonials from your participants. Were you able to get a testimonial from everybody who participated?
Annette: I received two out of the four. I need to send reminders on the other two.
Laurie: Okay, and the two that you have already received, how are they?
Annette: Very positive. They said they would recommend me to other people. To me, they were very good testimonials.
Laurie: Awesome. So these are definitely pieces of content that you can use in your marketing. We can put them on your website. We can put them in your social media. You can use them in your sales sequences, in your emails, when you go to promote your program.
These are really going to be valuable for you as sales tools in the future.
Annette: Yes, I’m excited that I did get those. Yes, and that was a really good part about the focus method, too, was that was one of the key deliverables, basically, was because when I’ve done programs in the past, I didn’t, I guess I didn’t go about it the right way to get some good testimonials.
So this really, and I know how important social proof was, so going through the focus method really helped with that piece, big time.
Laurie: On on a scale of one to ten, how much would you recommend doing the focus method if you are just starting out as a coach and you are, have no idea where to start?
Annette: Highly recommend it. I would say a ten for sure. Everybody should go through it.
Laurie: Oh, and that is so sweet. Thank you.
Annette: No, it’s true! It’s true! We’re already overwhelmed, right? So as simple, and like you said, with the templates and stuff, that would just make, because that’s where it is, like, what do I say? What, how do I start?
Laurie: The thing is, you might not get it perfect. You might not nail it on the first try, but you’re getting out there and you’re taking action and that momentum is going to move you forward. You’ve already shown that if you want to bring in money, you can do it.
Annette: Yeah, went to 50 people to get four, which, I’m glad I had four.
Laurie: That’s eight percent conversion rate. That’s excellent, and the more people you talk to, the more people you’re going to find!
The focus method, that jumpstart, is meant to be a very short-term thing, and if it turns into longer-term clients, great. If not, you now have testimonials that you can use.
Annette: A very valuable, useful experience there for sure, but I liked all of the information and just the guidance and the support you gave. Really loved all the information because basically everything was very detailed, very good.
What really helped me personally where I was at was some of that more detailed ‘here I am and what should I do and what should I say?’
Laurie: A lot of your questions were “how do I respond to this? What do I say? What do I put in this email?” Really the wording. That tells me that templates, like swipe copy for emails, templates for emails and social media posts, would be really valuable.
I really do appreciate sharing your experience with me because this is going to help lots of people not feel that frustration that I know I felt when I was starting and that you felt as well. So I really do appreciate that.
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