A Personal Thank You to My Mentors

I’m writing this post today because I want to share my favorite mentors with you, and thank them for sharing their knowledge. They’ve each taken a role in changing my business and my life. I’m grateful for them, and for those of you who read my blogs, get my emails, are part of my community, and who have become clients and part of the Wise Owl Family.

I’ve probably heard it all when it comes to online marketing. I’ve purchased dozens and dozens of courses in the last 11+ years. The company I worked for purchased courses for me. They also sent me to 3-5 conferences and seminars each year.

So why did I struggle to get clients in the beginning? I KNEW how to market online. I was getting results for my clients, but I struggled to get results for myself.

There are two reasons. I was lacking a community of peers & guidance of mentors.

Just because you know how doesn’t mean you will.

A community gives you support, encouragement and accountability to do what you said you would do.

One of my favorite quotes (also the title of his book) sums up the reason why, “If How To’s Were Enough We’d All Be Skinny, Rich, and Happy,” by Brian Klemmer.

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV)

Always Keep Learning

I continue to invest in a few marketing training programs each year. I always look for programs with a great community that comes with them. Sometimes I don’t get a ton of new information from the content of the program, but I always learn something. They help me to see something from a new perspective, and often remind me of something I once knew but forgot about.

A few months ago I had joined an expensive program and ended up having the Coach GURU ask me to leave because he felt that the funnels I’d been building for my clients for the last 2+ years were too similar to the funnels he was teaching his clients to build. He was concerned that I would be sharing his training with my clients.

Of course, I wouldn’t be sharing his exact training! If I learned something that helped me in my business or would help one of my clients I’d share it with them, but in my own way, my own words. Plagiarism isn’t cool. Neither is holding back information that you know will help your clients.

The thing is, that the “funnel” that he teaches is the same marketing funnel hundreds (probably thousands) of online entrepreneurs use.

1. Traffic System to drive traffic to your funnel. Paid advertising, content marketing, or networking for example.
2. Landing Page with a lead magnet, webinar, or another incentive for people to entice website visitors to give you their email
3. Thank–You Page that gives them their lead magnet, webinar, etc. with a call to action link to schedule an appointment with you.
4. Follow-up Email Sequence that adds value, increases know, like, and trust, and invites them to schedule an appointment with you.

I guarantee this GURU didn’t invent it. He saw someone else using it or learned it from a training program and applied it to his business. His whole business was made up of things he’d learned along the way. Like the 9-word email, he shared in his training. It was made popular by Joe Polish and Dean Jackson. (No credit was given to them in this Guru’s training btw)

Thank You, Aaron Fletcher

The Fletcher Method Community

Aaron Fletcher showed up in my newsfeed somewhere during the summer of 2015. I had just started my business while working full-time doing website design and marketing strategy for a local IT company. My leads weren’t flowing but I desperately needed to find a way to be home with my kids. I hired a coach who helped me with the mindset part of things, and I joined Aaron’s Fletcher Method Community. That was one of the BEST decisions I’ve ever made in my business.

Aaron helped me with my marketing strategy and to create a recurring revenue program in my business. The training in the community helped me to set up my first mini-funnel to get leads. In 2.5 months I was able to quit my job by doubling my salary, building a paid waiting list that was 2 months out, and building a savings of almost 10K just in case I hit a few slow months.

I have recently joined his Fletcher Method ELITE program as well – which has taken me from a scattered 2 discovery calls per week to a steady 8-12 discovery calls per week, thanks to a paid Facebook ad campaign sending traffic to my simple funnel.

Thank You, Carrie Wilkerson

Executive Income Formula

Carrie Wilkerson, the author of The Barefoot Executive, was launching a course in January of 2016 called the Executive Income Formula. I’d been following Carrie for years, so when she announced the course I didn’t hesitate to jump in. The course came with live weekly training calls and a Facebook community to get support between calls. As one of her first customers of the course, I also got a bonus coaching session with her.

This course truly helped me to go from frazzled to focused. I swear – No Exaggerating – Carrie helped me 10X my productivity. She also helped me reword my marketing message for my website maintenance package. This is STILL helping me increase my recurring revenue.