Episode Summary
Jenna shares how to decide which monetization approach is best for your business, and how to do so without getting stuck.
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Show Notes
Whether you're new to business or looking to create new revenue streams, you may be wondering about the best way to monetize your idea. With numerous, sometimes conflicting, opinions out there, it can be challenging for you to determine which approach is the most effective for your situation.
This week, I share three pieces of advice to help you monetize your ideas without getting stuck in a time-consuming, frustrating, and expensive journey. The tips cover mindset, tactics, and energetics. I also discuss the essence of business and how you already possess the knowledge to generate wealth.
Tune in to learn how to reach the most important place in your mind before attempting to clarify the best way to monetize your idea. Discover how to make decisions that might not be the most comfortable but will lead you to a business where clients and money gravitate toward you.
What You’ll Learn From This Episode:
The one question that will guide you in creating your next step.
What business is truly about.
The crucial mindset for building a successful business.
The 3 reasons people pause on big decisions related to business development.
How to get comfortable with the idea of serving your clients NOW.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
There is so much advice out there about how best to monetize your business, but also so many conflicting opinions. How do you decide what's right for you? I have a lot of experience walking women through this decision, and I've seen all sorts of business models come from that. Today, I'm going to share three of my best but highly uncommon pieces of advice so you can get clear on this for yourself.
You're listening to The Uncommon Way Business and Life Coaching Podcast, the only podcast that helps you unlock your next level in business and life by prioritizing your clarity and your own Uncommon Way. You will learn to maximize your mindset, mission, messaging, and strategy in order to create a true legacy. Here's your host, top-ranked business coach and reformed over-analyzer turned queen of clarity, Jenna Harrison.
Hey, welcome back to The Uncommon Way. I've got an episode for you today that will be great if you would like to bring in some new revenue stream for your business and you're trying to decide which way to monetize, or if you're just starting out in business.
I'll be sharing three uncommon pieces of advice to help you with that decision. And as always, you'll get a tactical how-to, you'll get something related to mindset, and something energetic, all in one highly digestible, concise format.
By the end, I want you to know what is and is not worth paying for in the eyes of consumers. The most important places to get to in your mind before you try to get clear on the best way to monetize, or else you'll risk going down a time consuming, frustrating, and possibly expensive path. And, the one question that by itself will help you create your next step.
Whew. Okay, how are you all doing? At the time of this recording, we are deep in winter weather. Here in the U.S., it just seemed to sweep across most of the country. I hope you all survived that well, including school closures and all of that fun stuff.
One upside for us is the potential of skiing here in Pennsylvania. Last year, we really just got rain the whole time. But there is a tiny little mountain about a half hour from us, and I have been dying to get my son Dylan on the slope since he was a baby. It just hasn't happened because of COVID and moves, and then uncooperative weather. We were planning to go today, but the wind kicked up and it feels like temperature of 0⁰.
I just thought back to my first experience skiing. I was five at the time; my son is six now. We lived in the desert at the time and had driven to Colorado. I was so unprepared, all I had were little rain boots. There was just this awful kind of deep freeze and snow, blizzards; I remember it as blizzards going on.
I remember my dear dad, rest in peace, saying, “Are we having fun yet? Are we having fun yet?” Meanwhile, my mom and I were just freezing and miserable that first day. It just became a running joke in our family. It’s what we would say to always put a smile on our faces later.
I just thought, “You know what? I want Dylan to just have a more pleasant experience his first time out.” But in the spirit of my Dad, let's have some fun today, shall we, and get down to business.
All right, I want to dive into mindset first today, and let you know that business is about creating solutions and providing something of value. And as long as you keep that in mind, you will never be broke. Why? Because you could wake up and have $0 in your account and think, “What issue can I solve for someone today? What solution can I give someone today? Maybe it's babysitting? Maybe it's shoveling snow?”
Of course, the more sophisticated and in demand your service, the more you can charge. But it’s that mindset underneath, ‘I know how to create money.’ And you do. I get that your brain at this instant might be telling you that you don't, but you do. So, it’s starting any kind of decision making with that mindset, ‘Oh wait, I know how to create money, by providing solutions. I can figure this out.’
Alright, why is that so important that I wanted to open the episode with that? It's because voice, talent, ideas, by themselves are not a solution. That's why it's challenging to monetize a podcast or a book or a YouTube channel. Because there's tons of free info out there, and it's not a direct solution.
Now, I'm not saying that that shouldn't be the method you choose to monetize your business, if that's the right thing for you. But instead, that even when you are monetizing in that way, you are always focused on the solution. This might be some tough love for some of you, but I know that's why you're here. It’s so that you can have eyes wide open, and you don't set yourself up for frustration and lost time, and maybe even giving up.
This here, is why so many people close up shop, because they get demoralized when they aren't seeing money come in quickly enough. They weren't seeing the evidence they wanted, and so their belief faltered.
But once you adopt this mindset, that you know how to create money by providing solutions, you'll start thinking differently. When you monetize a podcast via advertising, for instance, who are you ultimately solving a problem for? Your sponsors. They are your clients. They have a problem of needing to get in front of their ideal clients, and you are providing a solution to that.
So, your emphasis then switches from ‘how can I solve my listeners problem,’ to focus on what your advertisers want to see, which is the number of downloads, or some other metric. So, maybe you start creating daily episodes. And with this frame of mind, then you can also think about your timeline. How quickly do you need to monetize? Because people pay the most for direct, individualized services.
Let's look at coaching versus self-publishing some sort of informational book. Coaching is popular as a business model, because people will pay thousands of dollars to solve the problem via your direct coaching. All it really takes to create that client is one conversation.
With an informational book, the people have no direct, individualized help from you. And so, they'll pay a little bit, maybe $12-$25, maybe $29. Therefore, you've got to create a higher volume of sales in order to create any kind of noticeable revenue for yourself. Creating that volume, and the skills to bring in that volume, can take some time.
Now, it's not that one model is better than the other. Again, you just want to have eyes wide open. So, having this mindset helps you shift how you will monetize, but it also hopefully helps you think through more clearly the way in which you want to monetize. As a service business, you are creating solutions.
Okay, so what is something tactical? Well, let's take a step back, and think about what might have been making this decision challenging for you in the first place. So many people are either stuck in analysis paralysis, or they're stuck in ‘but this is how they say I should do it.’
Nope, that is not for you, not where you want to be. You are on this entrepreneurial journey to find your way, what feels just right for you. If you're thinking, “Jenna, I just want money now to get out of this job. Just tell me what works.” I'd question that, really. Because that's what I thought too. And yet, I never really took action, real committed action, on any of those things until I found something that really felt meaningful and aligned and just right for me.
So, if you want more on my story, you can go back to the first episode we ever did, called “The Clarity Gap”. It will tell you both my own story with clarity, but also how that led me to think about building out your business now.
Look, honestly, usually, when I see people pausing on a big decision like this, there's one of a few things going on. One is, they don't know what they don't know. That's why in the previous section, I tried to give you some real talk. Or two, they don't quite know how to tap into their intuition, or to trust themselves if they do. Or three, and this one is really prevalent, they can't think clearly about their range of possibilities because they have fears and certain limiting beliefs getting in the way.
Like with my fear of failure that kept me from going forward when I was trying to decide on what business I would start. Or so many women who think they're not qualified enough to do XYZ because, of course, we've been conditioned to believe that we're never the expert in the room, especially when it comes to business.
But what if you did believe that you were very qualified to do whatever you wanted? That you could have trust yourself to tune in to what you wanted? And that you had done a fair amount of research, had your head squarely on your shoulders, and could make this decision?
Then, my friend, the tactical piece that I would give you, the one question I would have you ask yourself is: If you could be successful in anything, which do you want to do most? How would you want to create your business? What story do you want to tell about yourself when you look back?
I remember a coach asked me that kind of question when I was in the early days of my business. It made me furious. I thought, “That is just so ridiculous, and so coach-y, honestly. To just throw pragmatism out the window and think that you wouldn't fail.” But noticing that visceral reaction, that strong belief I had that failure was such a real possibility, really helped me question things, and helped me realize how much the fear of failure was keeping me stuck.
And so, honestly, if you don't go into this decision-making process without the mindset that you know how to create solutions for people, that you can always figure out a way to help someone solve a problem, and that you get to choose what you want to do because you will figure out how to make it successful... If you don't start with those things, you're really limiting your possibilities.
You might just be jumping down a rabbit hole that will add years to your timeline. Ask me how I know. It's because I decided that blogging was the way to monetize my talents. When really, I had a much more immediate desire to see the result of the impact I was creating for people.
Okay, time for some inspiration. This is the part in the show where I share the direct words of women who were committing to play big in their businesses and lives at the very moment they decided to do so. Which, in this case, is when they joined us in the Clarity Accelerator.
This is definitely my favorite part of the show, seeing how more and more women are leading the effort to really change the game and the way that we play. It really makes me feel like I could just go tip over a car, as one of my clients once said. I hope it leaves you feeling energized, too.
So, here's what one person said: “I've worked almost to burnout before, and I never want to go there again. That's why I want to organize my life and business in a way which is supportive of a great lifestyle. I tried taking a couple years off from my business, but I missed it so much. So, I want help moving back into work while maintaining a great balance. I just think that a bit more strategy and support is what I need to get this set up and make all the difference.” So good. Thank you for that.
Okay, let's talk energetics. You have got to put out the energetic “open for business” sign. Too many people are preparing, and then preparing after preparing, then preparing after preparing to prepare. And so, without quite realizing it, they gravitate towards “monetization” ideas that are longer-term revenue drivers, and those which have them as far away from the consumer or client as possible.
Now, if that is the perfectly aligned strategy for you more power to you. But let's take writing a book, for instance. Sometimes what that's really about is just that it is much cozier to sit at home in your pjs behind a screen, maybe curled up on your sofa with your laptop in front of a fireplace, which is what I love to do this time of year. And all of that is just so much nicer than putting yourself out there more directly.
So, you need to be onto yourself, to that part of you that might lead you into a decision just because it's more comfortable. But remember when I talked about coming up with a quick solution, like babysitting? I was half joking about that. But you’ve got to admit, that is some “open for business” energy. You are like, “I am ready universe! I'm going to go out there. I'm going to make this offer, and bring it.”
Which is why I believe so strongly that you can find your clients anywhere if you are ready, and if your messaging or pitch is on point. You could be in the line at Starbucks and find your next corporate or private client, or your next advertiser, or your next funder.
But friends, first you have to get comfortable with the idea of serving people now, inviting that in now, and hang out that energetic “open for business” sign. Because if not, you'll become like I used to be; doing all the right things, but with not much to show for it. And you definitely won't be able to lean back and just create a business where clients and revenue come to you in a nice flow.
Now, making smart, powerful decisions, in order to create that kind of business, is what we do in the Clarity Accelerator. With the mindset and energetic support to make that successful, and help you accelerate your timeline to getting there. I offer a free 90-minute roadmap call to help you see what I'm seeing about your business. To see if you'd be a right fit for the Clarity Accelerator, and to answer any questions you have about how it will help you create results.
Those calls are opened all of my podcast listeners. I meet with people on Mondays and Fridays, and I encourage you to grab a spot. You'll find the link in the show notes.
All right, that is it, my friends. Remember, deep down, you know who you are, and each day you're stepping further into what you're here to create.
Hey, if you want true clarity about your secret sauce, your people, your best way of doing business, and how you talk about your offer, then I invite you to join us in the Clarity Accelerator. I'll teach you to connect all the dots, the dots that have always been there for you, so that you can show up like you were born for exactly this.
Come join us and supercharge every other tool or tactic you'll ever learn, from Facebook ads to manifestation. Just go to TheUncommonWay.com/schedule and set up a time to talk. I can't wait to be your coach.
Thanks for joining us here at The Uncommon Way. If you want more tips and resources for developing clarity in your business and life, including the Clarity First strategy for growing and scaling your business, visit TheUncommonWay.com. See you next time.
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