Coaching Episode: Amy Chats Organizing Her Side Hustle Ideas

Sometimes it can be hard to know…

how to find the best flow between all your Side Hustle ideas.

Which idea do I make my main offer?

Do I make this one a limited time thing?

How do I run all of these without burning myself out?

In this episode, I’m coaching Amy Van Slambrook, a licensed clinical mental health counselor, and together we walk through the best way for her to organize her offerings. By talking this through, she was able to leave with a clear idea of how to present her offers, how to keep clients coming in, and how to transition to where she wants for her business.

If you’re feeling like you have all these ideas but aren’t sure how to structure them, you know, to keep from drowning, then this episode is for you! Take a listen now

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN!

Learn all about the NEW version of Side Hustle Support Group:

Full Show Notes (Transcript)…

ML: Hey, risers! We are back with another coaching episode today and today I'm here with Amy Van Slambrook. She is practicing clinically and so she's going to tell us a little bit about that, but what's awesome is Amy already has her side hustle up and running, so to speak. And so she's going to tell us a little bit about what she's been doing.

What's been working, what isn't working and then we'll jump into her most pressing concerns for some coaching today. So Amy, if you could just introduce yourself to everybody, tell us a little bit about where you're from, what you're doing clinically, and then what your plan is for your Side Hustle.

AVS: Great! It is so good to be here, Marissa. I’m Amy Van Slambrook, as you said. I'm a licensed clinical mental health counselor in Naples, Florida. I have a hundred percent online practice and that went to fully a hundred percent during this pandemic and crisis, which is really exciting. I practice clinically working with women and couples 35 to 55, dealing with trauma and relationship issues.

That's the topic I'm passionate about. That is just the call of my heart. And I'm really loving, expanding that work and getting to help a lot more people. So the one good thing about this pandemic is it's opened up just a ton of new opportunities in that area. So I can't wait to talk!

ML: Totally. Yeah, I think, we see it with online therapy, but I think we see it with Side Hustles as well as there was always like a, okay, it's out there, it's an option, maybe I'll dabble in it. Maybe I'll try it. And then from the client end, it's okay, that's an option.

But then the pandemic happens and it's the only option. So I think for those of us who were already at least even entertaining the idea, if not seeing a couple of clients or doing a little something online, the transition was so much easier. 

AVS: Absolutely. Absolutely. I was at about 60 to 70% online and then this just tipped me right over the edge and helped people realize how great online work is. So that was really neat to see. 

ML: Awesome. Now, do you have any plans to go back to in-person or do you not know yet? 

AVS: Actually, I ended my lease. So that was another big decision in May. I just thought this is what I've wanted to do for literally 20 years, back before I even had my masters, this was really my dream.

And so I thought this is a perfect time. It was just divine timing and in my world. And so I made that move and. I felt so incredibly free. It was just, it was a great feeling. So I knew it was really the right move for me to make. And people are making the decision if that's right for them, or if they're going to need somebody who will meet with them in person eventually, and trying to help them with that transition.

But it isn't making me go back on my decision because I know how out of alignment it felt to go in the office. 

ML: Let's unpack that a little bit. You say that this has been your dream for 20 years. So do you mean just online work or do you mean more of the, just the flexibility of calling your own shots? Or what do you mean? 

AVS: Both of those things! Actually, before I even started my masters, I was doing some coaching training and this was back before we had a lot of what we have. There was no Zoom, there were no social media, none of that, but I knew I wanted to have a coaching practice and that the coaches I knew did it all on the phone at that point for the most part.

That was really what I felt called to do. Then through that process realized I'd feel so much more confident if I also had my master's in clinical mental health counseling, and I could do deeper work and it also followed my own path of healing as I realized the benefits of therapy. And so I love the mix of the two. 

ML: I love that I have a similar experience. A lot of people have heard my story, but I was in finance and advertising. 

AVS: Me too!

ML: Yeah, I remember we had that connection. I was in corporate finance and I was in corporate advertising. And then my husband got orders to Alaska, and I know your brother was in the service too, so we have that kind of in common as well. But, I found myself in the middle of nowhere with no job prospects. 

And so I was spending a lot of time on Facebook and I was seeing all these ads for the International Coaching Federation. And I was like, what is this coaching thing? And then at that time, it didn't feel like anything viable.

It didn't feel like a viable business. I didn't know how, and granted I was really young. I was like, how is an early twenties life coach... Fast forward 12 years now, and not only do I feel like I have the experience, but seeing what's happened with the coaching industry, and that bridge between those two things for me as well as the masters and the clinical work and the clinical experience.

So we have a really similar walk there. 

AVS: I love that. I love that Marissa. Yes! And I just, I admire how you've intertwined, your finance and business expertise and marketing expertise and with your clinical work, it's just, it's so beautiful. The way you've done that because certainly, I draw on, I was a director of IT and Finance and lived in that world for 15 years and people are scratching their heads.

Like how did those two even relate to each other? But somehow they do, it really is amazing how they apply. I love that we have so many connections. My brother was in the military for 26 years. And so I've such the heart for what you do and how you guys serve, truly.

ML: So let's dive into kind of what your most pressing concerns are. Did you, well actually, before we do that, tell us a little bit about what you are doing for your Side Hustle. So are you fully, are you doing one-on-one coaching? I know you might be doing some group stuff. So tell us what you are doing now.

What is working with that you really enjoy? What might not be working or what might feel hard? And then we'll jump into your coaching concerns. 

AVS: Exactly. Right now I have this blend. I do both therapy work with people here in Florida where I'm licensed. And then I also do coaching work, with women all over the country, and sometimes couples. I haven't been doing that as much. 

And through this whole pandemic and this crisis, it was such a great opportunity for me to expand and, ended up in some bonus sessions with that. I also am putting together some digital products for couples and families, and also for women to try to cope with the crisis because we're of course dealing with a lot of trauma, even after the height of the quarantine happened.

I'm doing some, they're masterminds, they're pseudo masterminds with a business partner of mine. We do a couple of those each year. And they're more personal development-oriented, but I just love the blend because it draws on different parts of me. 

There's an unpaid part of my Side Hustle that has to do with just speaking. And I have been doing a lot of podcast interviews, which I love to do. I'm doing a lot of Zoom meetings with groups like a yoga studio and a church, and just all kinds of things that, have allowed me to even develop some new material that I can turn into them, lead magnets, and even digital products for people.

I'm hoping to segue into doing some kind of an online course because I'm getting a lot more requests. I've been doing some summits and I'm going to be doing my own summit in the fall probably I'm going through Shanda Sumpter's list power program right now. I went through KBB, which is through Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi, and that really helped with just some of the logistics of the mastermind process. 

ML: Yeah. So it sounds while you have a mix between one on one and one to many, it sounds like you're still heavily invested in time. So even though it's still time for money, it might be more lucrative than your therapeutic time for money.

And the fact that you're seeing, multiple people at one time definitely helps. But I also hear with course, or with digital products, you're leaning towards something that can separate that, time for money as well. 

AVS: Absolutely. And I, my health needs that. And I know we've talked some about that because I'm still doing a full client load every week and it's just not sustainable and I'm really feeling that exhaustion at this point, and realizing for a lot of reasons, the absolute necessity, the urgency of really needing to scale back. And just the whole process of doing that because obviously trauma for a lot of people is not something they want to do on a group level. That kind of work, even trauma coaching. So yeah, it's a quandary. 

ML: So fill us in a little bit about when you say trauma coaching and you also said, you're doing some couples coaching and stuff like that. How is that different than therapy? How are you drawing that line between what you do as an, as a coach and what you do as a therapist?

AVS I've done a lot of research on that, and I'm also just really searched within myself where that line was because it is there for a very good reason. With couples, we'll start there. I work with, some couples who are in crisis, and they really are trying to decide if the relationship is salvageable if there's been infidelity, anything like that. And those are definitely people who are in need of therapy in my mind because there's a definite, there's something in the DSM for lack of another resource, but it really is that intensive work. 

And I am getting couples who are saying, we're about 10 years into marriage and we really want to have a fantastic relationship. Maybe they came from families where there was a difficult history and they want to avoid it. So they want to uplevel their marriage. And so we do a lot of skill-building we dive into the past, but just briefly, to say, what can we take from it? What can we learn from it so that we can really optimize your marriage and relationship?

So that falls into the coaching bucket. They aren't struggling day to day to function. And that really is my differentiating marker. If someone has difficulty functioning day to day, if their trauma has not gone through the initial stages of therapy, then those are people I would often and almost always refer to therapy. If they're out of state with someone in their state. 

If it's somebody that I can take on, then I do. But, for individual clients, it’s have you done your work with therapy. Often it is 10 years after some things are cropping up, but it's not disabling for them. 

ML: Yeah. And that's a really key, good, like first kind of, first criteria of evaluation, whatever. I know what I'm trying to say. First evaluation criteria that I look at when people are saying, my coaching niche and my therapy niche are really similar. I say, okay, what's that baseline. Below baseline, therapy. Above baseline, coaching. 

So really those who are looking, I love that you use the word up-level, those are looking for lack of better term self-actualization, or marriage, self actions, like taking their marriage to the best level.

So really the kind of the first, thing that I analyze when we're trying to say, okay, serve the same type of person, but I want to serve them differently. 

AVS: Exactly. Exactly. 

ML: I was just going to, I was going to change the subject. So you continue with what you were going to say, and then I'll ask.

AVS: I was just going to say, so that's part of my dilemma, is really now understanding that just for my own wellbeing and where I'm seeing myself really thrive and be energized. Cause I'm trying to pay attention to what is draining my energy. You're always so good about just getting us to tune into our own indicators. And right now doing more writing, doing worse speaking, doing group work with a few individual clients would be my ideal mix. 

It's just so awkward to try to segue into that, to try to let my current clients know, to let the people who are contacting me know who want to do only one-on-one work. I've even thought about doing packages. I've been, really listening to some great webinars about how I could bundle some group work with one or two coaching sessions with me or even therapy sessions, but it's, does then another, I'm doing some coaching with Shanda Sumpter on sales, and she really has some great bundles. So just talking with you about how do we make that transition happen? To give me space so that I can be my best in every area because right now I'm just gasping for air.

ML: Yeah. That's perfect. Because those, that was the question that I was just going to ask. So we were right on the same path there. I'm going to ask a two-part question. How many offers do you have right now? Like how many ways do you work with everybody that you work with? And, in your ideal mix, cause you alluded to that, your ideal mix of what your work would look like. Maybe two one-on-ones, a big group, and like a small mastermind or something like that. 

First how many offers do you have? And second, what would the ideal mix look like?  

AVS: So right now I have, for individuals or couples who contact me, I have three different options, two of which are in process with my branding team.

I have an individual or a couple of sessions. That's the number one offering, and then I'm going to be doing a membership, community that sort of like a group coaching model, but much larger. And so people will be able to do be brought onto the group coaching calls for hot seats, but it'll be a larger group than what I just did and less intensive.

So that'll be ongoing. Again called Strongher, S T R O N G H E R, for women who want to get stronger through there.  

ML: I love that. Like strong-her. Yeah, that's cute. 

AVS: Thank you. I liked, liked it and it seemed to resonate because every one of my clients, when I ask them, what is it that they're wanting to achieve? They say I want to get back to my stronger self, almost verbatim. So that's number two. 

And then number three are some webinar series that I am thinking about doing for couples especially, to navigate like going from conflict to connection. Just having three sessions. So that it's three or four sessions, it's just a short period that will help them. It will be, not an ongoing burden, for lack of a better word on my time, but it also gives an outreach in something that they can do. 

Then I'm also, hoping, this isn't in the process yet, to add in some of the digital products for people. I have a whole marriage and family bundle and I'm trying to get through a crisis bundle and things like that.

ML: Okay. I'm hearing five different offers. I'm hearing individual one-on-one, couples, not one but two on one, I guess you can call it, but session per session, I guess is what I mean. A membership site for individual women and this mastermind or webinar series, whatever, like another offer for the couples, and then digital products.

AVS: Or I guess I call them special, like a special series. So for, even for different like moms and daughters or for people. And I like the idea of just rotating the topics, but I want to not take on too much so that I spread myself too thin. The ideas are never in short supply. It's just me.

ML: I like a membership site for you for that reason, because it's easier or, another deliverable could be a shop, but you're not really you're not necessarily creating enough digital products for a shop. I don't know. Let's talk through that. But when you sell a membership site, you're selling one thing with a bunch of different stuff in it.

If that makes sense. So you don't have to sell all this bunch of different stuff, you just have to sell the one thing and the same with the shop. So if you wanted to do like a new digital product every month or something like that, rather than having to sell, like when you walk into a boutique, you're like, you got this shirt and those pants and these shoes and this jewelry. And rather than market each individual shirt and shoes and pants, you just market the boutique. So when you're in no short supply of ideas, something like that is a really good fit, because like I said, your marketing, the one thing that has a bunch of stuff inside of it.

So it lets you be able to explore that creative outlet. It lets you be able to dabble in this thing and this thing, as long as it fits within the parameters of the actual offer. Does that make sense? 

AVS: Yeah. I love that. and I'm just, I'm kind of thinking about how I could categorize some of the things that just came to me even over this weekend, as I was reaching out to families and couples, and also thinking about individuals, but just putting together like a first aid kit, but a kit for how to get through the pandemic or how to deal with the post or mid pandemic, whatever we're in, which we don't know about.

But that would be something, I could do sort of those bundles, but make them available. How would I, what would I, how would I turn my, that thing, that boutique? 

ML: Yeah. It depends on what you're selling. So if it's, so with a membership site, we're looking at what we need to look at is the deliverables. And you already alluded to those too, like having coaching, like a group hot seat call, or a Q&A call or whatever. So there's the offer, right? The offer starts with the person, the problem, the promise, and the price. So it sounds, it's like you might have two different people that you help.

You help individual women and you help couples and help both of those people in multiple ways. And that's who you have the offers for. You have offers for individual women, you have offers for couples. The single offer, this membership site that we're talking about is over here in this category of women. And the problem you're solving is, that she doesn't feel like she's strong anymore. The promise you're making is you're getting her back to her stronger self and whatever we price it out. Let's call it 50 bucks a month. I don't know what you were thinking. We can dive into that if you want to, but let's call it 50 bucks a month. This is the container. 

Then we want to look at what are the deliverables inside that container. So it could be, if it's a membership site, we could say, every month you're doing, on week one you're doing like a 20-minute lesson, on week two you're doing a Q&A call, and then week three you're doing that hot seat coaching call, and week four you could do some kind of like community events, like a mini-challenge or a social or something like that.

So that's what the deliverables are. Does that make sense? 

AVS: Yes! I love that. I love that. And so these kinds of kits are these little, these more digital, sort of like digital courses. I really liked the idea of the digital course to put into the membership site in Kajabi. Even if, because what I am thinking, just thinking out loud here, but often what happens is I'll start working with a woman and she'll want to bring her partner into our work because we're realizing, oh, a lot of these things are affecting your relationship too.

So I don't know if it's valuable to have two member - I don't - two membership communities or two different, it sounds like they're desperate, but there's a lot of overlap. And then I have single women too. So I don't want to just have oh, it's couples night and exclude, the people who are feeling badly.

ML: I think I have an idea. Are you familiar with, or have you thought about an umbrella brand? Do you know what that means? 

AVS: I think so, but tell me what is it one, just one encompassing theme and where we're trying to do that, but obviously Stronhger doesn't work for them right. 

ML: Strongher as the offer, Strongher membership community or Strongher community.

So the way an umbrella brand works is you're creating like an umbrella brand, like this is what you are marketing. And then underneath this offer or underneath this brand, you have multiple offers. 

So for instance, one of my Side Hustle students that just finished in June, she's creating an umbrella brand. Oh, now of course the name slips my mind, but it's for, it's military-focused. So this is the umbrella brand. And then under the umbrella, she serves, veterans, she serves spouses, and she serves clinicians who focus on a military population. 

AVS: Oh, I love that. 

ML: But she only has to market. Oh, God, I can't remember the name, military network. Let's just call it that. I know that's not right, but she only has to market the military network, and then she routes the right people where they need to be in the right place. 

AVS: Because the other thing I wanted to ask you, Marissa, was because I'm loving so much the business side of entrepreneurship and that I see so many entrepreneurs struggling with their relationship, their marriages, their trauma, and things like that. And having an umbrella brand would let me branch out even to that. Because I don't want to take it on quite yet unless I focus on groups. But an umbrella brand would let me do that. It's just, how do I encapsulate what I do for lack of a better word, and how do I then translate that into something marketable?

ML: Another thing to think about is like the Chicken Soup bowls or Chicken Soup books. So it was Chicken Soup for the Soul. Now there's Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul, Chicken Soup for the Mom Soul, Chicken Soup for the Punk Rocker Soul. They went everywhere.

I know what you're thinking. Like your umbrella brand is just the Chicken Soup for the Soul. And then you are serving people underneath that. I think the place to start might be finding out what this umbrella brand is, what's your mission? What is the common denominator, whether you are helping individuals or whether you're helping couples? Is it just, this is corny but is it just live your best life or whatever? That's what you're trying to do no matter who you're helping. 

AVS: Exactly. And I've been really digging into this, during the quarantine, especially trying to really hit at that, doing so much processing work and I'm in the process of having it trademarked. I won't use the term cause it's in the legal process, but basically, it's finding the gifts in your trauma, that's the message, and finding the power in it and the strength in it so that it ends.

So that to me feels like, you tell me because you're the guru, but that to me is my heart because I break the silence and I help people see that. Even if they don't think it's affecting their relationship, that they have an inkling it could be, it usually is that unspoken and welcome guests in people's lives that's like hindering them and handicapping them. And yeah, but wanting them to see you don't have to be weakened by it, we'll turn it into your strength and your superpower. That's my overriding message no matter who I'm talking to. 

ML: I love that. And so that's the umbrella brand and then you, I think, what I think might be wise is starting with the two offers, the two different membership sites, one for women, Strongher, and one for whatever the couples, Strongher Together or something like that.

AVS: I like that. I liked that. 

ML: I think you'd have to check on the trademark of that, just run with it. And what's cool is whether you're marketing straight to the woman, she can come in here and then you're like you said, they often bring their partner. I have an offer for both of you, and then you might do some marketing specifically on couples, podcasts, or specifically on relationship podcasts.

And you might attract the couple first and then if the woman wants to do her own work, she can come over here. 

If you price them right like if each is 50 bucks a month, you're going to have people who do both because it's totally affordable to be in both places. 

AVS: Yes. And that aligns with just wanting it to be accessible. I believe just as you've taught and you're so wonderful about encouraging people about, people will invest. If they feel the need, there is some way that they can become resourceful. And I don't want to obviously price inordinately high, but I also would feel like, I know that within myself, if I underpriced and I'm going to be doing one-on-one work, that just drains my energy. But this allows me to price it where it's accessible and it's not going to give me that feeling of, I'm giving too much and draining my energy. Does that make sense? It’s in alignment with just feeling like that's a good investment for them to be making.

And then if they want to do more intensive work, maybe I could offer those more intensive experiences, even if it's a small group of three or four. 

ML: Yeah. Yeah, you've got that exactly right. This is called a bunch of different things in the online space. Some people call it a value ladder. I call it an Ascension model, which came from one another different coach. Like you'll hear this like different names for the same thing, but essentially the business principle, which you'll understand is it's much cheaper and easier to retain a customer than it is to go out and get new customers all of the time.

So if we can create a journey with our products, meaning, the analogy that I use is a ladder, like a ladder leaning against the wall. So if your free content is what's on the ground, people can spend time on the ground. They can totally learn from you. They might even be able to like, have huge transformations just from your free content, but then you offer something that's one or two rungs up off the ground. That's your entry-level product. And then you offer something that's toward, towards the middle rungs and then you offer something that's toward the top rungs. 

So eventually I would encourage you to build it so that the top rung is one-on-one with you. That should be the most expensive thing with you and it should be the most premium thing with you because it is your direct time for money. But if you have the membership site as your initial offer, then maybe you have the more in-depth intimate group program, where you walk with six women or six couples, and then you have your one-on-one at the top.

So you almost have two ladders leaning up against the wall and they're next to each other. And people can jump from this ladder to this ladder, or people can climb both ladders cause they're close enough together. So I'm running with this analogy if you can't laugh. 

AVS: So I'm just trying to visualize the person gets lost. So I love that.  

ML: The pro of the membership idea is, like I said, is you're marketing one thing and it's like the house for all these different ideas that you have. It's the house for, oh, this new course that I thought of. It's the house for, oh, this new planner that I thought of, or this new digital product that I thought of or whatever.

So you're not having to market all these individual ideas. You're marketing the whole. That's the pro. There is a drawback to that, however, is that membership sites are a volume game. They're a numbers game, meaning lower price, high volume. If you're wanting to make a $5,000 month and you have, a $50 membership site, you need a hundred people on that membership site.

Whereas if you're in group coaching, and it's a thousand dollars group program, you need five people, right? So that's something that you need to think about is how do you feel about that volume?  

AVS: And I think that's, with the marketing of that, I feel really good about the people who are helping with that part of things because they're going to connect me into this larger group program. It's a personal friend, but he's also, he's also got his own very successful group coaching program that he can then connect me to, and will connect me into which feels really good. And I really loved, excuse me, that challenge model and trying to do that to bring people into the membership site.

I don't know how you feel about that. Just that's an entry point to get a taste of it for three days, five days, and then do the upsell for the membership site so that I increase the volume that way. What I've tried to do, obviously, because our finance brains go there is try to like, look at what the reasonable income is from each of the buckets, knowing that it's going to take me a while to segue out of one-on-one, but I was blessed to be able to finally hit six figures last year, which was a huge internal and external and was just this huge blessing. I feel that momentum.

Then they of evergreen versus launching it once or twice a year with a membership site is the other issue. But my shoulders relaxed when you talked about how it’s one place that all my ideas can have fun and that I love that. 

ML: Yeah. I'm going to talk about a new trend that's coming out and I'm actually going to be jumping on this trend, which normally I wait for trends to go for a while before I tiptoe in them because I want to see if they're like, sustainable, but I really, I feel strongly that this one is.

There's a membership site on this end and there's a group program on this end. The biggest difference is that a group program is going to follow more of a curriculum because you are getting people from point A to point B. It's closed, right? There's a start date. There's an end date. A membership site is in perpetuity and that's why it's a great house for all of these ideas as they come up, because it's just like, all right, I'll do that in November. Ooh. I love that. That's for February or whatever. So you don't have this closed feel. So it's not necessarily from point A to point B. What you're really actually selling is a community like let's hang out for the next six months, three years talking about the same stuff.

So that's the biggest difference. This new, sorry, go ahead. 

AVS: Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt

ML: This new trend that's coming out is, there's not really a word for it, a name for it yet. I'm going to call it a “scalable group program” where you still have this curriculum. It's still a closed group. It's still moving from point A to point B, but what people are doing is bringing on like assistant coaches, so to speak, to help facilitate that group program, which allows them basically to have more people in it. So instead of having 10 people that you work really intimately within a group program, you have, you can have maybe 50 people and you still have to have some sort of intimate nature where you work with them intimately, but you really pick out what is something that only I do in this program, and what are the things that assistant coaches can do for me? 

So membership site, lowest price. Group program, traditional group program, middle price, a program where you have assistant coaches, it feels counterintuitive, but it actually has to go up in price because now you have to pay assistant coaches.

So either it goes up in price, so you keep your same profitability, or you keep it the same price as this group program, but then your volume is a lot bigger so that you can afford to pay those assistant coaches. Does that make sense? 

AVS: Yeah. Yeah, it is. And I’ve seen, Debbie Sober has one on betrayal trauma and just opened it and is really excited about it. She had a curriculum already put together that her coaches have to get certified through. 

I think part of what my dilemma was, and I maybe didn't phrase correctly was do I open the membership community for new members on an ongoing basis? Cause I know that it's perpetual and just, it's just a community as long as they want to stay a member of it. But do I open it once a year and then close it? I think it's Stu McLaren's Tribe group does that, where he just opens like once a year and that's your only chance to get in it. 

ML: I think both work really well for a membership site. What I suggest for my Side Hustle students is to live launch it a few times, and you might even do a beta launch and then a live launch.

There are also strategies that you can do internally when you have a membership site. Bring a friend bonus, where every one of your members gets a free month if they bring another member or a referral program where maybe if cash is more important to you than it's not when you bring a friend, you get a free month, maybe it's when you bring a friend, you get a free one-on-one call. So you can play around with that. 

But there are ways to grow from launches, but there are also ways to grow from inside. And I don't think enough membership site owners take advantage of that. Because it's such a great idea. You could essentially never launch again and you could be doubling if you have a good enough referral program. 

I always recommend live launching a few times because it really helps you tighten your marketing. It really helps you see what works for your ideal customers to buy. Are they buying on email one or are they waiting all the way until email seven to buy? How can we capitalize on this messaging? And then when we really feel like we've got it working really well, then turn it evergreen. And then you'll have your evergreen funnel always going in the background, where you might have, depending on your volume or your traffic, but you might have onesies and twosies joining every month and then have you're once a year or once every six months live launch where you bring in 20 at a time, 30 at a time, a hundred at a time, whatever. But you can always have it set up where you have trickling in. 

AVS: I love that. That's just brilliant.

ML: Don't negate the referral or the internal growth that can happen. 

AVS: Because it's also a way to really create, I would think loyalty because they feel like, oh, now I have my friends, I have people I know, and people to be seen. I think too that they're able to bring people into the group to stick around and get support for one another and community building. That's just brilliant. I love that. 

ML: Because once you have a membership site, let's say you have your income goal of $5,000 a month and you have, your price is $50 so you know you need a hundred members. So you're launching open the doors, hustling a little bit to get to that hundred members. But once you get to a hundred, your, job changes. It's not as much about recruitment anymore as it is about retention. So you'd have to have these retention strategies in there, which this referral program could be a great retention tool.

AVS: Absolutely. Absolutely. I just love that. I really do. And it does, it's still requiring me to stay fresh with how I appeal to those new people and bring them in. But again, it's managing the energy load of doing recurring launches over and over and over again.

ML: Yeah, have it, get it. Here's what I would do, I would beta launch. I would install, implement a referral program with those beta members you could potentially double right off the bat. Then I would have a live launch and from that live launch, I would tweak and make evergreen from there and then have your next live launch in six months or a year, whatever feels manageable.

But with the beta launch, the referral program, and a live launch, you could easily be at 50 to a hundred members just within that. So it would be a period of maybe three to six months of more intensity, but that's a way you could grow pretty quickly. 

AVS: I really liked that. I really, I like that. And the group that I just ended, they’re wanting to stay together. So I said from the beginning, it was very tiny and I won't go into the issues with that launch. And, but anyway, there were issues with who I was having helped me with that, but anyway, it was what it needed to be. And I have called them founding members from the beginning, wanting them to realize that there would be more beyond it. And they would really like to continue on. 

So I've got that small group of women who want to stay and build, and they're back doing a membership community, but they could also bring in additional friends or they would be candidates for the other ladder for the couples too. Yeah. Could they be sort of my little, my little, little beta launch if you will? But allowing them to test it. 

ML: Okay. So figuring out from them, what, or just your hunch, cause you've been working with them for a while, would they value a monetary incentive or would they value a time incentive? Because you could say, for every friend that you bring, you'll get 30 minutes with me one-on-one. So they could potentially bring four friends and get a two hour intensive with you. Or for every friend you bring, you get a month free if your time is more valuable to you, then they could potentially bring four friends, but then they get four months free, but those four friends are paying so it makes up for it. You know what I mean? So you have to just play around with that and it, it could be something, a bonus totally different than that. It could be a bonus course, or it could be a bonus, like a bonus, what am I trying to say? Like a review, like I used to do website reviews, so I would go on and critique people's websites. So it could be something like that too. It doesn't only have to be coaching or monetary, but some sort of bonus for bringing people with them. 

AVS: Yeah, because that is, I think that would help each of them and I think it's that whole issue of them needing to shrink the one-on-ones for a lot of reasons for my health, but also so that I can do more of this work. So I'm trying to figure out how I would offer more time because my max, every week for work, yeah.

Maybe the monetary incentive bonus would be a good thing. My brain is just kind of... 

ML: I was going to say, it could even be like 50% off one month if you don't want to give them a whole month free. So there are lots of different things that you can play around with, but just start thinking about that and reflecting on that, and the answer will come to you at what feels like the right thing.

AVS: Okay. Awesome. 

ML: We're getting to the top of the hour. Did you have any other questions or?  

AVS: I'm not sure if we can even address this quickly, Marissa, but I think if you have any guidance about how do you then inform your current clients, I'm needing to change what I'm doing, and how do you shrink that side of the business?

ML: So are they on a package with you or is it, they just, are they just on call by call? 

AVS: they're call by call right now, but I really, by the end of the year, I want them to be on packages. 

ML: Yeah. So the first thing I would do is go through who do you want to keep seeing one-on-one like, who do you just light up with? Who do you love working with and come up with an offer. So person problem, promise price, come up with an offer for them which is packaged and say, Hey, just what you just said to me. I need to make some changes and I need to go to start dwindling down my one-on-one caseload. So I enjoy working with you so much and you're one of the one-on-ones I want to keep. A little flattery never hurts, and say, but it's gonna look a little bit different and it's going to look like this offer. So that's what I would do with the few that you want to keep. If there are others that you want to keep, but you don't have to necessarily work with them one-on-one present the membership offer once you have it outlined of what it's going to look like.

And you can play it up like it's probably going to be a lot cheaper than what they're paying you for call by call. So you can play up that it'll be financially a financial benefit for them as well to move over to the membership site.

Also, I don't think once you fulfill, so they were on packages that they were all ending within like the next two or three months, it would be different. Cause you would just not renew with them, but since they're on call by call, you have to let them know that the offer is changing.

Where I had the trick is when I moved away from one-on-one and people were still approaching me, new people were approaching me for one-on-one. And so I had to say, I had to say, I don't do one-on-one anymore. Sorry. And it was scary because I was saying no to a lot of potential income. But I really just had to believe in my programs.

And once they started getting testimonials and once I had run my programs, this is the fourth round of Side Hustles starting next week, so once I had run them and really had faith in the program and my students had validated the programs, then it was nothing for me to say, sorry, I don't do one-on-one anymore.

But that first, what was it almost two years ago now, when I switched to two group model exclusively, that was when it was the hardest. 

AVS: Okay. That is so reassuring to hear. Cause I'm in that same space. I just have to hit that level where I don't know if it's a break from one-on-one entirely or just a huge scaling back, but, I'm just, I'm there.

And so I really like hearing that because it is scary and all new. But I want to keep focusing on the fact that if I want to give them my full. Thank you. Thank you. 

ML: Awesome. What do you, what would you say has been your biggest takeaway from our call?  

AVS: Just, I love the umbrella brand and the two ladders, that is just, I love that. Love it. It's just, this is, so this is invaluable, Marissa, thank you. Yes, I've got all kinds of notes. 

ML: Tell everybody where they can head to find you if they want to know more about becoming Strongher. 

AVS: Yeah. Yes, my website, AmyVanSlambrook.com and I'm really active on Instagram. I do daily videos there and so I'm loving that. So feel free to DM me, reach out to me there and all the links to some of my latest podcast episodes, but also to my programs and offerings are there. I’m still on Facebook too, of course. So those are my two most active platforms, but I'd love to hear from you and I have a free, Overcome Overwhelm Guide that's very quick. Because when we're overwhelmed, we don't have time to read the 16-page guide about it. So it's very quick and that's available on my website or just feel free to click the link in my bio on Instagram and it's there too. 

ML: Awesome. And I'll have all of those links for everybody in the show notes.

So I know you have to run, Amy. Thank you so much for your time today. 

AVS: Thank you so much, Marissa. And this was just so valuable. I can't thank you enough. 

ML: Welcome. Thank you. Bye. 

AVS: Thanks. Bye, bye. 

And check out these related posts!