Selling Yourself Versus Selling a Program
This is a MUST in your online business.
If you don’t build and maintain trust with your clients, you don’t have a business.
The question is, how to cultivate trust with your clients and run your online business with integrity?
It may seem cut and dry, but there’s a lot to dig into about coming through on your promise and projecting confidence along the way.
If you’re keen to keep your clients coming back, grab your favorite beverage and join me for the latest podcast episode so I can spill the details.
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Show Notes:
Hey risers. Welcome to episode 171 of Empathy Rising. Today we're going to be diving into a topic that I think is something that needs to be considered. I think from, you know, from the very beginning, but also it's something in your business that tends to evolve over time.
There is a difference between selling yourself or having access to you or your knowledge or your expertise or your touchpoint as a selling feature or selling your program, meaning the curriculum, the system, the structure as the selling feature. And so that's what we're really gonna dive into today because they play different roles. And this is a nuance that you might not have noticed before when you've bought, when you've purchased your own programs, or this actually might be something that you look for when you purchase programs.
So we're gonna really dive into this today. I think what this has to do with a bit is we've talked about the difference between business brands and personal brands. Should you name your website, Marissa, lot.com or your name.com like I do, or should you go with, you know, tree of life counseling.com or you know, Counseling in chattanooga.com or something like that.
Right? That would be a business brand. So we've had that conversation on the podcast before you can scroll back and listen to other episodes that talk about personal branding versus business branding. And today we're running in that same vein. But we're gonna be talking about what are we selling?
Are we selling ourselves or are we selling a program? So I think this is something that is Really interesting and fun to dive into this is also going to be a part one. So I'm gonna talk about what does it mean to sell yourself versus what does it mean to sell a program today. And then next week we'll be back with part two of more of the tasky piece, like more of the, okay, how do I sell myself or how do I solve the program?
So today you're gonna decide which one you're more inclined to do. And then next week you're gonna learn how to do it. Okay. I think. It's no secret. And I see this time and dime and time and time again, when I work with students is that visibility tends to be a struggle with therapists.
I think part of this is our industry, right? As much as I, the industry is starting to move away from the blank slate and a lot of us are Incorporating self-disclosure in therapeutic ways. A lot of us are sharing our own stories on our websites and stuff more. It's still part of what we've been trained to do is to make sure that our story is not front and center, that our, that our story is not The main message that we're putting out there.
And that's very different in the online space, in the online space. A lot of the times your story is what makes the sale. It's what has somebody decide to work with you or buy your program? So visibility tends to be a struggle. I also think as a whole clinicians are, you know, we're gonna generalize here, but I think as a whole clinicians, Are not the people who like to be center of stage anyway, they would've chosen a totally different profession, if that was the case.
For the most part, we're helpers, we're healers, we're givers which has its own backlash. If we don't have any boundaries in place. But it's not always in our nature to be the person who is center of attention. So we have those two things kind of working. I wouldn't say against us, but some of two, those two things to consider as we move into the online space.
Is this just uncomfortable for me to put myself out there from a personality standpoint, from like the core-of-who-I-am standpoint. Or, and is it uncomfortable for me to be visible professionally? Because for my professional life up until now, it's been frowned upon for me to be visible. So I think we're kind of fighting two fronts here when we're starting to put ourselves out there
Now don't get me wrong. Sometimes I have those students that are like, I am ready. I am ready to tell my story. I'm ready to get out there. I maybe like having attention on me. Or if they don't like it, they're motivated to do it because they understand how helpful it can be.
So sometimes I'm like reigning people in a little bit, like, all right, let's pull it back. Let's make sure the message that we're sharing makes sense and is going to actually move the needle for you and is not just oversharing for the sake of sharing. And then I have the students, like I've been talking about where visibility is a real struggle.
So sometimes it's, we're ready for it. Sometimes we're not, sometimes we're more naturally inclined to be visible. And sometimes we're not, I think that ultimately, I don't wanna say ultimately it doesn't matter. I would say ultimately it's something we work through. Okay. It's something that is a necessary part of having a business online.
But we can be creative with the ways that we're visible. When we are not comfortable with visibility or when we haven't come up with the creative way to be visible, that still serves us. Sometimes we can hide behind this business brand. Right. Well, I don't wanna put my name out there. So I'll name it, you know, tree of life counseling or I'll name it, you know, business brand.
And it gives us a little bit of sense of anonymity. It gives us a place to hide. We'll just call it that it gives us a place to be a little less front and center. But it isn't always the best thing for making sales okay. To this day, people buy from people. Okay. If you listen back to the very beginning of this podcast, this is a trend that I started forecasting in about 2018.
I was correct in forecasting that trend. And I was, it also still rings too to this day in the sense that people really want to know who they're buying from. And we also see high touch programs performing better than low touch programs. Okay. Not trying to talk you into a personal brand. There are definitely times when a business brand makes sense and we'll cover that.
And there's definitely times when selling your program makes. We'll cover that, but I wanna just point out what we know consumers are looking for consumers, even if they don't have touch with the person, which is the first thing they want. They want to know at least who they're buying from.
I use this example a lot, but this is why we know which multinational corporation owner went to space and we know which one's getting a divorce and we know which one just bought Twitter and all of this stuff. Like we know these things about these big CEOs, because even though we'll never really have contact with them in real life, we still wanna understand who is the face and who is the personality behind the business we're purchasing.
And then we measure that person up with our values and we decide to either continue or discontinue purchasing from that company. Right? So we still wanna know who we're buying from, even if we're building a business brand.
Some of these self-study programs or some of the programs where they don't have high touch, they certainly still have their place in the market. So like I said, if you know, you don't wanna be the face of your brand and you know, you don't want a high touch program. That's awesome. There's still a place in the market for those, but those types of programs, the low touch and the, and the.
Business brand products, they are made for a certain person. With a certain problem and they're sold at certain price points. So those are just the factors that we have to weigh when we're making this decision. What it ultimately boils down to here is the selling features of the program is access to you or touch with you.
One of the main selling features is the curriculum, the system, the step-by-step nature is that the main selling feature. Certain buyers are looking for certain things. This is why I offer two versions of Side Hustle: I have Side Hustle Support Group, which is live all the accountability you meet with me twice a week.
You have private chat access to me, right there is access to me up the wazoo in that program. It is for a certain type of buyer at a certain price. And a certain type of student who needs a certain type of program. Then I also have the Side Hustle Streamline Bundle, where it's self-study and you get access to all of the curriculum and all of the templates, what you don't get is access to me, at least at the same level.
So again, different price point, different person, different problem, different personality. Okay. So that's how it is. It works my business, but I also wanna show you an example of something that I just went through where I was asking the same questions. So not last weekend, but the weekend before I checked myself into a hotel, I bought a program that maybe I'll do like a review, that's the word I was looking for.
Maybe I'll do a review of this program cause, actually, I ended up stopping it halfway through cuz it wasn't meeting my needs. But what was interesting about it was the program itself was a shamanic training. They don't use the word shaman because that's a closed practice. You have to have trained in a certain lineage and things to actually call yourself a shaman, but it was shamanic practices.
I don't wanna go too deep into it. My woo listeners, you wanna know more, reach out, send me an email, tag me in a Facebook group, whatever. But for the sense of purpose, I just wanna point out that it wasn't Cultural appropriation. And that's really important to me, especially in the spiritual space.
But it was a shamanic training. And they required you to be on zoom for the whole two days and your camera had to be on for the whole two days. So there was no way I was gonna do that with my children at home. So I went and got in a hotel. So Saturday and Sunday, I was in this hotel and we're getting to the pitch part where of course she's going to invite us into her actual shaman program.
She has a three year program. You can choose to do year one. You can choose to do year one and two, or you can choose to do all three years with her. But the first question, I'm just watching the chat because I, at this point, I know I'm not buying it. It wasn't for me. But I continued to watch at this point as a case study because I was like, I know this is gonna turn into a pitch, and I'm in a similar market with Rooted cause I'm going into this spiritual space.
So at this point I know I'm not purchasing, so I'm gonna watch as an observer and that's exactly what I did. And the first question, as she started talking about the program, there were about a hundred of us in the zoom room.
The first question that came through from multiple people was: How much access do we get to this person? How much do we actually see this person? Is this all facilitated by other coaches? Or do we actually get to meet with this person? And it came through, like I said, there was a hundred of us in the zoom room and it came through probably from 20 different people and it was the first question they asked.
So I'm sure if you took a moment to pause and reflect, you would also be thinking: In what ways have I purchased programs before? Have I purchased because I wanted to work with the person, or have I purchased because I just wanted access to the information, or I wanted the templates or I wanted the this or the that. So you're starting to be able to see, not only the difference between the selling features, selling yourself and access to you or selling the program and the curriculum, you can also think of how do you buy and how do you make the purchasing decision?
When you have not defined this for yourself, when you have not defined, how much of myself am I selling? And you aren't sure of the selling features of your program, a couple of things happen. You come across as lacking confidence in what you're selling. Remember, neither of these is better than the other, but you wanna understand what are you selling?
So that you're making sure you're matching it to the right person with the right personality who wants either an access type program or a self-study type program. So if you can't articulate that, or if you're wishy washy about that, you are gonna come across as lacking confidence in what you're selling.
When you lack confidence in what you're selling your customers, therefore lack confidence in what they're buying. Okay. So if you don't project confidence, your customers are not gonna feel confident when buying from you. And so a couple of things happen, then you end up with buyers remorse because your customers purchase something, thinking they're getting one thing.
And then they end up with another, at the worst, they can feel like it was a bait and switch type situation where it was marketed to them one way and then delivered a different way. None of us are going into that intentionally. I really don't believe that. I believe my audience has integrity. But if you're just unprepared with how to present it, it could end up being that, that way accidentally.
Are there people out there who do bait and switch intentionally? Yeah. And it's shitty and it sucks. I've had that happen to me before with a $2,500 program. I think I bought, I actually did an, a podcast episode on that too. So you could scroll back and find that one. But that's not a fun situation.
None of us would do that intentionally. But if we can't articulate the selling features clearly, then that could happen unintentionally more than likely though what's gonna happen. It really is that people aren't even gonna buy at all because they're going to be like, what am I getting? Do I want this?
Do I not want this? I can't tell. I can't tell what I'm actually purchasing. So we need to be extremely clear about the selling features of your program. Mainly are you selling you or are you selling the program because you are going to then ethically and confidently project your offer regardless of what it is.
You won't feel imposter syndrome when you're selling you won't feel imposter syndrome when you're making the pitch or making the invite. And so you won't regret the program that you've put out and your customers won't regret the program that you've put out. So what you're ultimately doing. Even if it's uncomfortable to get this level of clarity, by being that clear, you're empowering your customers.
You're empowering your customers to make the choice that's right for them. And even if that's a no, I don't want to buy this from you right now. I'm looking for more touch or no, I don't want to buy this from you right now. I don't wanna wait nine months. I wanna do it on my own pace. I wanna go faster than that or whatever.
You're empowering the customer to make the choice and the choice that's right for them. And I think that's the best thing that you can do when you're selling your programs. So ultimately you're gonna end up with happy and satisfied customers. Those who bought, they're gonna know exactly what they were getting, and they're gonna be happy with it.
And you're gonna end up with happy and satisfied audience members, because even if they didn't purchase that offer from you at that time, they weren't swindled. They weren't Manipulated. And so they could buy next time when the offer's a better fit or let's say you create something new and different, they still have trust in you and maybe that's the right program for them.
So this part about being really clear when you set venture into the selling process, it's important. It's super duper important. Okay. So let's dive into what is the difference between selling yourself and what is the difference between selling your program? You've probably picked up on that by now, but selling yourself is saying, here is my level of expertise.
Here's what I bring to the table. So many of us might be saying, I've got a master's in this, or I've gotta doctorate in this, like I know my shit. So selling your experience, selling your expertise, selling your education, selling your knowledge. And I don't necessarily mean what I'm saying selling.
Emphasizing right. Emphasizing that as a big selling feature of the program. Okay. So the pros of this are that people are signing up to work with you, right? That most of the people who are gonna enter your program are going to be like-minded as you, they're going to share similar values as you, they're going to want similar goals as you, or similar outcomes as you they're really looking to be able to learn from you.
So there's a couple of drawbacks to this. One that comes to mind is one that I've dealt with is, for lack of better term, like a codependency, right? You've cultivated this group of students or group of members or whatever program you're creating. They're very much like you, and it's hard not to then just become friends with them.
And what's great about online income is there are no rules against that like there are in therapy, so you have all the autonomy to make that choice. But what was happening for me was like, I had no other social interaction than my business. And I was like, oh, my business fills all my needs. I don't need friends.
I see 20 people a week. Like I don't need in real life friends. And so I was really actually starting to suffer from that because my whole life was my business. And I bet you can guess what happened was burnout. So codependency that's one possible thing. Also, another drawback that can happen is this like guru syndrome, where if your audience is signing up to work with you, they expect you to have all the answers and to know everything.
This is also something that I was really uncomfortable with at first, because I was, I didn't wanna say, oh, I'm not sure. Or I don't know. And then I also didn't wanna say I don't do that. That's beyond the scope of this program because people had signed up to work with me. I felt like I had to be the end, all be all for them.
And the customers also expected me to be that because I had sold it that way. So if you're selling your expertise, you also have to have boundaries around that and say, If I don't know something, I will maybe connect you with somebody who does, or you can say, that's just not what we cover here. Or we cover X, Y, and Z.
And I will give everything I have in X, Y, and Z. But what you've asked about is actually a, B and C, and I don't cover a, B and C. That's totally well within your right to do that. OK. So we have some codependency that comes up. We have some. Potentially like guru syndrome is what I'm calling it know-it-all syndrome that can potentially come up.
The other thing that can come up is it's hard. It can be hard to scale programs when you are. Selling yourself. So I've not been shy about how side hustle has grown. The first round we had nine. The second round we had 13. Then we had 21. Then we had 28 and 28 again, and then this round that's going on right now, 38.
So nine and 13,totally manageable. The jump up to 21. Okay. That's interesting. Then we moved up to 28 and that's when I hired the first copywriter that didn't end up working out. And then Shayna, the graphic designer, I hired them mid program. Cause I was like, I cannot help 28 people.
And then we jumped up to 38 and at 38, I've had some growing pains in the program and some strains on myself. And because there's such high access to me and now I'm doing that with 38 students. It's a challenge and it's difficult. So when you are emphasizing access to you and you're wanting to scale, and you're wanting to grow your income, you've gotta think about creative ways to do that, or you're going to burn yourself out.
No doubt. Okay. So let's talk about the flip side when you're selling your program, when you're emphasizing your program. So selling your program is things. Selling the six part system or the scripts or the templates or the trackers or the curriculum. The pros of this is you get to remove yourself from the business, right?
You don't have a high level of facilitation. We've been talking about that. The last couple of episodes too. You're not in the business as much. You're definitely out of the business. So it is much more scalable to sell a program and to emphasize the program as the selling features than it is you.
Right?Because you are adding demand on yourself or adding burden. I don't like that word, but to yourself, the more people who enroll, right? Your output stays the same. So that is definitely a pro a couple of cons of this, which you probably are already gonna be able to figure out.
Because I talk about this a lot, it’s price point. You have to charge a lower price point because there's no access to you. Also, this is a potential con first. This one's easy to work around, but a lot of people who sell a program instead of selling themselves, it's isn't all this information out there already.
Couldn't anybody Google this, couldn't anybody just like YouTube, this or whatever, it's all available. So why would they pay me for it? We can't just say, oh, you'll learn everything you need to learn about this. We have to synthesize it somehow into a system or into a structure or a framework or a methodology or something like that, so that it is worth paying for the curation of the information, the presentation of the information, the buildable nature of it or whatever.
That's what we end up emphasizing when we're selling the program. Okay. And then another potential con when you sell the program, because you're in that higher you're in that lower price category, it means you're in a higher volume category.
So you're going to be E marketing this more marketing it either organically, meaning your time and effort or marketing, marketing it through paid, which means you paying money for advertising. And that could be a potential drawback for some people.
So we've talked about what is the difference between selling yourself and selling your program? And we've also talked about the pros and cons of those and why it's important to know this so that you are really selling in an ethical way, selling in a way that doesn't feel sleazy and really ensuring happy customers.
And also you being happy because you don't wanna accidentally sell something and then realize you committed to something you don't wanna. So all of this comes in when you are designing your offers now in part two, which is gonna be next week, I'm gonna share how we do this. How do we sell ourselves? Or how do we sell our programs?
So if this is important to you, if making sure your offer sells. In the first place is important to you, but making sure it's done in a way that optimizes your strengths and your personality that is delivering what you want it to be delivering that is not over promising something that you don't wanna be doing.
You're definitely going to want to sign up for my masterclass. It's totally free and it's on demand so you can watch it at any time. And it helps you make all these important decisions before you even start building your side hustle. This is how I'm gonna save you time. This is how I'm gonna save you effort. This is how I'm gonna save you energy. This is how I'm gonna save you frustration.
You need to know these things before you start building. Okay. Head on over to Marissa lotton.com/masterclass, and that's where you can register for free. And don't forget to tune in to part two next week. All right, until then guys keep on rising.
