627: From $30/hr to $300/hr: The Software Consulting Playbook

0:00:02 This is the piggyback principle
0:00:04 why it’s easier to fill demand
0:00:06 than to create it from scratch.
0:00:07 What’s up, what’s up, Nick Loper here.
0:00:09 Welcome to “The Scientist” show.
0:00:11 We’re part of the entrepreneur podcast network
0:00:13 because you’re already an entrepreneur,
0:00:14 even if right now your day job
0:00:16 just happens to be your only job.
0:00:18 We got an awesome case study for you today,
0:00:21 one that combines a couple common strategies on the show
0:00:23 to build a really strong business.
0:00:25 Those strategies are number one,
0:00:28 what we call SWAS, software with service.
0:00:31 This is offering help or consulting or guidance
0:00:34 or templates that support a popular software product.
0:00:36 See lots of examples of that over the years.
0:00:38 And number two is what we call the piggyback principle.
0:00:40 My kids will tell you it’s a lot easier
0:00:43 to get a piggyback ride if you do all the walking yourself.
0:00:46 The same is true in business and this strategy allows you
0:00:50 to draft on the popularity of that software product
0:00:53 to catch that rising tide to get better, faster results
0:00:55 with less effort.
0:00:58 And in this episode, we learn exactly how to do that
0:00:59 in our niche.
0:01:01 To help illustrate this is Kristy De Silva
0:01:04 from De SilvaLife.com.
0:01:07 De SilvaLife helps small businesses set up
0:01:10 and integrate two popular software tools,
0:01:14 HoneyBook and ClickUp into their workflow and operations,
0:01:17 earning thousands of dollars per project along the way.
0:01:19 Kristy, welcome to “The Side Hustle Show.”
0:01:20 – Thank you so much for having me, Nick.
0:01:21 I’m super excited to be here.
0:01:22 – Me as well.
0:01:24 Stick around, we’ll learn how Kristy-
0:01:27 is those customers from never having heard of her
0:01:29 all the way down to paying customers
0:01:30 and what that journey looks like.
0:01:33 But this business has started in a unique way.
0:01:35 So it’s 2020.
0:01:39 Kristy is a nanny and personal assistant in New York City.
0:01:41 And as you know, all of a sudden all that in-person work
0:01:45 suddenly gets grinding to a halt.
0:01:47 And she’s saying, well, I gotta make some changes here.
0:01:49 Take me back to that time period.
0:01:51 – My husband and I were both living and working
0:01:54 in New York City in a teeny tiny apartment.
0:01:56 So he was working from home remote.
0:02:00 And I, my job was kind of on pause because it was in-person.
0:02:02 I was just keeping myself busy.
0:02:07 And my sister-in-law introduced me to a program
0:02:09 called the Virtual Savvy.
0:02:12 And I know Abby Ashley has been on this show before.
0:02:14 Thank you, Abby, for all your expertise.
0:02:16 I would not be here without you today.
0:02:20 So basically my sister-in-law, Tais, was friends,
0:02:21 personal friends with Abby.
0:02:23 And she told me, she’s like, listen,
0:02:25 I don’t even know what Abby totally does,
0:02:28 but it’s something with virtual assisting.
0:02:30 And I know you’re a personal assistant.
0:02:33 So I bet there’s some correlation there.
0:02:34 You should check it out.
0:02:37 And what really got me was the testimonials
0:02:38 for the Virtual Savvy.
0:02:40 I was like, if all these people can do it
0:02:42 and they can replace their nine to five,
0:02:45 they can work from home, I could do this too.
0:02:46 Why couldn’t I do it?
0:02:48 So it was a huge leap of faith.
0:02:50 I will say it was the biggest investment
0:02:52 I had ever made on myself,
0:02:54 kind of feeling like it was a gamble.
0:02:55 Whenever you’re investing,
0:02:58 especially in the beginning of your business,
0:03:01 you’re like, totally, is this thing gonna work?
0:03:04 And so I ended up diving in head first.
0:03:05 I’m like, you know what?
0:03:06 No better time than the present.
0:03:08 I’m literally not working.
0:03:11 I can dedicate all my time to doing this course,
0:03:12 giving it a shot.
0:03:16 I totally felt nervous and embarrassed to tell people,
0:03:18 like, hey, I’m trying out this thing
0:03:20 and I have no idea if it’s gonna work,
0:03:21 but I’m gonna go for it.
0:03:22 Then the first 90 days,
0:03:26 I ended up replacing my New York City salary
0:03:28 with virtual assisting work.
0:03:30 – Well, that’s a really funny connection
0:03:32 that I didn’t know existed
0:03:35 because we met through the 2X coaching program.
0:03:37 And I didn’t know that it went back to Abby.
0:03:40 She’s been doing the Virtual Savvy for years and years.
0:03:44 We can link up her previous episodes on the show.
0:03:46 I think that’s really exciting.
0:03:47 So now, starting out,
0:03:51 are you niche down to these project management tools early on?
0:03:54 Or early on, I’ll just take whatever clients I can get.
0:03:56 I can help you with virtual admin type of tasks.
0:03:58 – Yeah, so I started in June of 2020
0:04:00 and I started everyone,
0:04:02 as you get into the online business world,
0:04:05 as you guys know, there are so many voices and opinions
0:04:07 out there of like, you need to do this
0:04:08 and you shouldn’t do this.
0:04:11 And so as I started diving deeper,
0:04:14 everyone was saying niche down, niche down, niche down.
0:04:17 And I was like, but I don’t even know what I like to do yet.
0:04:19 So I took some time
0:04:21 and I did a little bit of everything.
0:04:22 So I was just a virtual assistant.
0:04:27 I did like admin, content creation, systems, all the things.
0:04:30 And after about six months, I would say,
0:04:33 before the end of the year was over, I decided,
0:04:37 you know what, I don’t wanna do everything for everyone.
0:04:39 And that’s when I decided
0:04:42 to invest in my first business coach
0:04:44 where our first session together,
0:04:47 basically she had me just like word vomit,
0:04:51 all the things that I loved about my job
0:04:53 and did not love about my job.
0:04:57 And we very quickly realized at the end of that session
0:04:59 that what I was really passionate about
0:05:01 was getting people organized.
0:05:05 And the pathway to do that was through systems.
0:05:07 So at this point for my clients,
0:05:09 I had already set up my two favorite tools,
0:05:10 ClickUp and HoneyBook.
0:05:12 I’ve also set up different CRMs
0:05:14 and project management tools for people,
0:05:17 but I felt very strongly that these were the tools
0:05:19 that I wanted to master.
0:05:22 And at the time, I’ll be honest with you, Nick,
0:05:27 I actually didn’t see many people in the online space
0:05:32 like just niching down into specific tools
0:05:34 and being like pros.
0:05:36 They had ClickUp Consulting at the time
0:05:38 was a very small group of people.
0:05:40 HoneyBook Pros wasn’t even a thing.
0:05:44 I was one of the first like 12 HoneyBook Pros.
0:05:48 And so it felt like again, this like leap of faith,
0:05:51 like starting as leap of faith, continuing,
0:05:53 you’re constantly having to believe in yourself,
0:05:56 but then niching and taking such a drastic turn
0:06:00 was definitely like a mindset thing of like,
0:06:02 I feel like this is the right thing,
0:06:04 but I hope that it pays off.
0:06:05 – And it feels risky.
0:06:07 ‘Cause you’re like, well, am I gonna cut off
0:06:10 all this other business that I’m perfectly qualified to do?
0:06:11 I know I can get it done,
0:06:13 I can deliver good results for clients,
0:06:16 but I think there’s some greater pastors over here
0:06:18 and it is challenging.
0:06:21 And I like a couple of things that you almost have to go
0:06:25 broad in a service like this early on to identify,
0:06:26 well, what really lights you up
0:06:29 or where do you kind of have your special secret sauce
0:06:32 that you can apply and then follow that path
0:06:34 or keep pursuing that.
0:06:37 And then the other thing is being on the earlier side.
0:06:38 You don’t need to be bleeding edge,
0:06:42 but if you can be one of the first 12 people to offer this,
0:06:45 obviously these are up and come tools now,
0:06:47 but maybe this was earlier days.
0:06:49 And we saw the same example with Paul Miners
0:06:52 doing this with Asana and Pipe Drive,
0:06:55 in the world of software a generation ago,
0:06:57 different iterations of these types of tools.
0:07:00 But if you can be on the earlier side of that,
0:07:01 start to create content around it,
0:07:05 you can really carve out an interesting space for yourself.
0:07:06 Before we do that though,
0:07:07 I think people will be curious ’cause we kind of glossed over,
0:07:09 hey, I replaced my income in 90 days.
0:07:11 I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask,
0:07:13 how’d you get those first customers?
0:07:16 – There were two main ways that I got my first customers.
0:07:19 The first, which feels even more intimidating and scary
0:07:22 is reaching out to your personal connections.
0:07:24 And what also feels scary about this
0:07:27 is because there are so many like MLMs
0:07:30 and pyramid teams out there that you’re like,
0:07:32 okay, are people gonna think I’m a scam?
0:07:35 But number one, if you’re not a scammy person
0:07:37 and you have, I’m reaching out to people
0:07:41 that I actually have legitimate connections with.
0:07:42 And so just reaching out to them being like,
0:07:44 hey, I’m starting this new thing.
0:07:46 It’s basically just like a personal assistant,
0:07:47 but I’m virtual.
0:07:50 If you’re interested or you know anyone else that is,
0:07:52 feel free to reach out.
0:07:54 And so I actually, my first client ever
0:07:59 was a personal connection that had a garage door business.
0:08:02 And he was my first client.
0:08:05 Then a lot of the majority of my other clients
0:08:08 getting started came from Facebook groups,
0:08:12 which is really ironic because I’m now going back
0:08:14 to that strategy for top of funnel,
0:08:16 like starting to engage more in Facebook groups
0:08:19 in terms of like answering questions.
0:08:23 So I would go into Facebook groups, Abbey has one.
0:08:24 That’s the virtual Savvies.
0:08:25 And it’s a free public Facebook group
0:08:27 where like people are literally like,
0:08:29 I’m searching for a virtual assistant.
0:08:31 So, yes, that’s awesome
0:08:33 because people are literally searching for it,
0:08:34 but then you also have to figure out
0:08:36 how to make yourself stand out.
0:08:38 So there’s a lot of competition in there.
0:08:41 And then the third way is really just starting
0:08:44 having a marketing, a solid marketing strategy
0:08:46 and plan from the beginning.
0:08:49 And so I would say those were the three main ways.
0:08:53 Obviously the marketing strategy because I was brand new.
0:08:55 I’ll never forget the day I started to sell the life
0:08:57 on my Instagram with zero followers.
0:09:00 And, you know, it was just something
0:09:02 that I had to flex that muscle in practice.
0:09:05 And eventually I started, you know,
0:09:07 becoming a name in the industry and virtual assisting.
0:09:11 And then eventually in systems and Honey Book and ClickUp.
0:09:14 – Okay, yeah, trying to put yourself out there.
0:09:15 And it’s kind of intimidating.
0:09:18 ‘Cause at that stage, I feel like I personally committed
0:09:20 to doing this thing, but it’s still intimidating
0:09:23 to start to spread the word, tell other people about it.
0:09:24 And even if it’s not a direct connection,
0:09:28 you’re trying to plant the seed in your network’s mind
0:09:30 that this is what you do now.
0:09:33 Like your previous identity about what I did for work,
0:09:35 you set that aside and say, well, now I need,
0:09:37 if I need virtual assistant support,
0:09:38 you know, Christy is my person.
0:09:39 And it may be, I don’t need it,
0:09:41 but maybe my network’s network needs it.
0:09:43 Like, oh, somebody else I’m talking to.
0:09:44 Oh, I know somebody.
0:09:45 I ought to connect you with Christy.
0:09:49 And as we’ve seen that play out where it’s like, you know,
0:09:51 ’cause it’s kind of like to your MLM point.
0:09:52 Like, yeah, it kind of feels a little skeezy
0:09:55 trying to sell directly to your immediate network,
0:09:58 but it’s more just occupying a little bit of mindshare.
0:10:01 It’s like, oh, if I need somebody for web design,
0:10:04 or if I need somebody to, you know, wash windows,
0:10:05 it’s like, well, who do you know?
0:10:06 Right? It’s kind of like this,
0:10:08 how the word of mouth can start to spread.
0:10:09 So now we’re niching down.
0:10:12 We’re doing the software with the service.
0:10:15 Hey, we’re going to be your ClickUp specialist.
0:10:17 We’re going to be your Honey Book specialist.
0:10:18 What happens there?
0:10:21 We’re like, how do you kind of make that transition
0:10:24 or start to get customers in that space?
0:10:27 ‘Cause the other benefit to this too is,
0:10:29 well, now instead of just being general admin,
0:10:32 I don’t know, maybe you’re at 25, 30 bucks an hour,
0:10:35 all of a sudden, by being really specialized,
0:10:38 you can command a lot better rates too.
0:10:39 – Yeah, 100%.
0:10:41 And I won’t sugarcoat it, Nick.
0:10:45 That transition, although I knew it was the right one,
0:10:48 it felt like so difficult in the time.
0:10:50 Because like you mentioned before,
0:10:51 like I had really good relationships
0:10:53 with my current clients.
0:10:56 So it honestly felt like it was a breakup
0:10:57 when I was telling them
0:10:59 that I was moving in a different direction.
0:11:01 Now, every single client,
0:11:04 because they’re amazing people, were so supportive of me
0:11:07 and have sent so much business my way as well,
0:11:10 since that, you know, transition.
0:11:13 But there definitely was a dip in income
0:11:15 as I was making that transition.
0:11:19 Obviously, I look back now and the ROI is so much greater.
0:11:22 And you’re right, you can really expand your services
0:11:23 and your offerings.
0:11:25 And I know we’ll get into that in a little bit
0:11:26 about like where we are now
0:11:29 and our different income streams.
0:11:32 But aside from it being a mindset block of like,
0:11:34 you know, are people gonna resonate with me now
0:11:37 because they loved following my VA journey,
0:11:40 but also then having that,
0:11:44 a lot of people don’t talk about the internal battle
0:11:47 of when you transition and people still know you
0:11:51 as an awesome VA and they’re in your DMs being like,
0:11:54 “Hey, I know you used to do this.
0:11:55 I have a client who really needs it.
0:11:56 Will you still do it?”
0:11:59 And when you’re in that moment of being like,
0:12:01 I don’t want to say no,
0:12:03 but also I’m trying to go in this new direction.
0:12:07 Like it’s hard as a people pleaser especially.
0:12:08 It’s really hard.
0:12:10 And so I had to stand my ground and be like,
0:12:13 no, this is the direction I’m going in.
0:12:15 And so basically how I started
0:12:18 was really just becoming a pro at these tools.
0:12:21 And I started my rates a lot lower
0:12:23 than other people may have been charging
0:12:28 because I’m like, I’m not like a top tier expert yet,
0:12:32 but I know that I know a lot more about these products
0:12:34 than the people that I’m serving
0:12:36 and these softwares than the people that I’m serving.
0:12:41 And so I was still able to charge more technically hourly,
0:12:44 except a lot of our stuff is flat right now.
0:12:48 For example, yeah, I’m making about 30 to 40 bucks an hour
0:12:51 as a VA where now I charge $300 an hour
0:12:52 for a strategy session.
0:12:55 Like so crazy that jump,
0:12:59 but now being an expert in this for four years,
0:13:02 it’s really cool to see where we’ve been able to go.
0:13:03 – That’s worth pausing on.
0:13:05 That’s the power of niching down
0:13:07 and becoming an expert on the thing.
0:13:09 – More with Christie in just a moment,
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0:15:46 – So yeah, so I basically just started,
0:15:48 you know, with the power of social media,
0:15:53 it’s really cool how I also, my background is in math
0:15:54 and I was gonna be a math teacher.
0:15:56 And so I love educating.
0:15:58 I’m very passionate about education.
0:15:59 So basically on my marketing channels,
0:16:02 I just started educating about these tools.
0:16:04 I didn’t have to go on and be like,
0:16:07 buy my consulting services, let me do a clickup build for you.
0:16:09 All I had to do was start proving
0:16:12 that I knew a lot about these softwares
0:16:14 and then people would trust me and be like,
0:16:17 okay, I just learned five things from you
0:16:19 by scrolling on your Instagram.
0:16:21 Now can you just do this thing for me?
0:16:24 And so I started out with a lot of like solopreneurs
0:16:27 and smaller businesses, setting up their clickups,
0:16:29 getting a lot of experience.
0:16:31 And then eventually it just started getting
0:16:35 to bigger and bigger and bigger agencies and companies.
0:16:36 – There’s almost a built-in demand.
0:16:38 ‘Cause you open up Notion, you open up Asana,
0:16:40 you open up ClickUp, and it’s like,
0:16:41 I know this is gonna be super powerful,
0:16:43 but it’s kind of like blank.
0:16:45 And I don’t know what to do with this.
0:16:48 And so then you naturally go to YouTube
0:16:51 or like, you know, how to set this up for a content business,
0:16:53 how to set this up for an agency business.
0:16:56 And you might find educational content like Christie’s.
0:17:01 So it sounds like that was the initial play there
0:17:05 where we’re just kind of do tutorial demo type of content.
0:17:08 Do you have an example of something that hit early on?
0:17:12 – Yeah, so actually we decided to launch a YouTube channel
0:17:15 and that was a huge turning point for DL
0:17:19 because YouTube is obviously long form video content
0:17:21 and people are extremely problem aware.
0:17:23 Like they’re like, how do I do this with ClickUp?
0:17:24 How do I do this with HoneyBook?
0:17:28 And so our first YouTube video that ever took off,
0:17:30 that’s still one of our highest ranking,
0:17:34 is five ClickUp dashboards that will change your business.
0:17:37 It was cool to see like, ’cause the first few videos were like,
0:17:39 here’s how we can help you.
0:17:41 What’s the difference between a CRM
0:17:43 and a project management tool?
0:17:45 You know, beginner’s guide to HoneyBook and ClickUp,
0:17:48 which those still do well as well.
0:17:50 But then the more specific we started to get with it,
0:17:52 like, okay, these five ClickUp dashboards
0:17:54 that will change your business.
0:17:57 Even ones like specific ClickUp automations
0:18:00 or how to create a content calendar in ClickUp
0:18:02 or things like that.
0:18:05 How to run your agency in HoneyBook.
0:18:07 Those are things that perform really well
0:18:10 because people are searching for that exact thing.
0:18:12 – Yeah, and once they find you,
0:18:16 this person is, you know, the answer to my exact search query.
0:18:17 They’re the answer to my prayers.
0:18:20 And so they watch your thing, you build trust
0:18:24 and eventually they come and hire you.
0:18:27 So you’re kind of giving them the do-it-yourself version,
0:18:29 but then maybe it’s still complicated enough
0:18:32 where like, maybe it’s worthwhile
0:18:34 to just hire a Christian or team.
0:18:37 – Yup, 100% and it’s so funny.
0:18:39 We get the majority of our leads from YouTube
0:18:42 and I will say like probably 80% of the time
0:18:43 people come on, they’re like,
0:18:44 oh my gosh, it’s so nice to meet you.
0:18:46 I’ve been subscribed to your channels
0:18:48 for like two or three years
0:18:50 and they feel like they already know me,
0:18:52 even though I have no idea who they are.
0:18:57 Yet, it’s funny because it’s a huge thing in sales
0:18:59 is that like, no like in trust factor
0:19:01 and we already solved that piece
0:19:03 before we even ever get on a sales call.
0:19:07 – Yeah, as you know, you’re showing your face, your voice.
0:19:09 Yeah, you build a lot of trust that way.
0:19:13 Deciding what type of content to make
0:19:16 any sort of like keyword research tools
0:19:18 or search volume that goes into it.
0:19:20 I’m just looking at like broad Google searches,
0:19:23 400,000 monthly searches for ClickUp
0:19:25 and then 60,000 for HoneyBook.
0:19:28 And so there’s some decent like top level search volume
0:19:31 but then I imagine it kind of goes into that long tail
0:19:33 for like how to run your agency in HoneyBook,
0:19:35 like more specific type of searches.
0:19:38 – We actually really love vidIQ.
0:19:40 We were using TubeBuddy for a while
0:19:43 and then we started getting into vidIQ.
0:19:45 They have some really cool things with like AI
0:19:48 and their platform is a bit more robust, I feel.
0:19:53 And so we look at our channel
0:19:55 and we do quarterly content planning.
0:19:57 We do yearly at a high level and then we do quarterly
0:20:01 and we try to do like themed content like themed months
0:20:04 and now we’re starting to get into like different series
0:20:08 and we’ll look at what performed best on our channels
0:20:09 or like what’s ranking highest.
0:20:12 Like for example, our ClickUp dashboards video
0:20:14 was ranking highest for like a long time
0:20:18 are how to use HoneyBook and ClickUp like yearly videos
0:20:21 like in 2024, those always do really well as well.
0:20:22 So we’re like, okay,
0:20:24 we’ll always do those in the beginning of the year
0:20:26 but we’ll look back at our previous content,
0:20:29 what’s highly ranking knowing people want more of that.
0:20:33 And then we’ll really just start doing long tail keyword
0:20:38 research in vidIQ, kind of going down a rabbit hole
0:20:40 of like, okay, how are these ranking
0:20:45 in terms of search volume and things like that.
0:20:47 – Is there a minimum search volume
0:20:49 that is interesting to you
0:20:51 or worthwhile to make the video about?
0:20:53 – It’s more like how it scores in vidIQ.
0:20:57 I think we’re looking over like a 60 or 70 ranking.
0:21:01 – Which is a combination of volume and competitiveness.
0:21:03 – Yeah, yeah, exactly.
0:21:06 And so we also, speaking of competitiveness,
0:21:09 we’ll definitely do competitor research as well
0:21:12 because we have like a few competitors.
0:21:15 We’re very niche, but we absolutely have competitors.
0:21:18 And so we’ll look at their channels,
0:21:20 what’s ranking high on their channels.
0:21:24 And by no means do we ever just copy their video
0:21:25 but we’ll be like, okay, cool,
0:21:28 they did something on this specific topic.
0:21:33 How can we do something similar but have our own spin?
0:21:35 And so we’ll do that research as well.
0:21:36 – Oh, that makes sense.
0:21:37 – Yeah.
0:21:38 – And then this is, you know,
0:21:39 I probably have talked about this before,
0:21:41 but I would come up with this content idea
0:21:43 and it would be something super broad,
0:21:45 like ways to make money on the internet or something.
0:21:47 And then of course, Google that.
0:21:50 And shoot, there’s already a dozen people
0:21:51 have already written this article.
0:21:53 I guess I better go back to the drawing board
0:21:54 and come up with another topic.
0:21:56 No, no, no, no, that’s still viable.
0:21:58 You can still get traffic and eyeballs
0:21:59 and visitors and customers from this.
0:22:01 You just have to put your own unique spin on.
0:22:03 You got to make something that’s different and better
0:22:04 than what’s already out there.
0:22:06 And that was a little bit of a shift here.
0:22:07 And it sounds like the same thing.
0:22:11 Okay, we can look at the competitor channels.
0:22:14 We can see what’s working for them and say, okay.
0:22:16 And just trying to reverse engineer that.
0:22:17 And you know, I’ve followed, you know,
0:22:21 the same people doing like a software review
0:22:25 or your tutorial type of videos, like for fill in the blanks.
0:22:26 I was like, well, I don’t use that tool
0:22:27 so I can’t make that one.
0:22:30 But I could do the same thing for this app or this software.
0:22:32 It’s like, here’s a template that clearly worked
0:22:34 and kind of fill in the blanks.
0:22:35 – Exactly.
0:22:37 We also will absolutely use AI.
0:22:40 So like chat GPT, when we’re content planning,
0:22:41 we’ll be like, we’re working on a series
0:22:44 for click up for agencies.
0:22:49 Help us grab some like highly SEO ranking topics
0:22:50 for these videos.
0:22:51 And then it’ll spit out a bunch of things.
0:22:54 Then we know our ideal client more than anyone.
0:22:56 So we can guide it in the right direction,
0:22:59 but we’ll also just like use it to ideate
0:23:03 and get inspiration from as well is super helpful.
0:23:05 – Do you feel the need to publish consistently?
0:23:07 Or is like, look, we got this stuff out there.
0:23:08 It’s evergreen.
0:23:09 We got a consistent lead flow.
0:23:12 Or do you have to keep kind of feeding the machine?
0:23:14 – Right now we feel like it’s pertinent
0:23:15 to keep feeding the machine.
0:23:17 Just so we’re like constantly ranking.
0:23:20 I mean, we have some videos that are like upwards
0:23:22 of like 40, 50,000 views.
0:23:25 So those are still bringing us like warm leads
0:23:27 and like hot traffic.
0:23:32 But what we’re seeing now is that we niched into systems
0:23:34 and HoneyBook and click up,
0:23:37 but we’re actually niching a little bit further
0:23:41 in the recent months into seven to eight figure agencies.
0:23:44 So we have a lot of really good content out there
0:23:47 that’s serving the broad audience of people
0:23:49 looking for a click up in HoneyBook,
0:23:50 how to get started, things like that.
0:23:53 But now we really wanna start focusing our content
0:23:56 on seven to eight figure agencies
0:23:59 and where they’re having their specific troubles
0:24:02 and hurdles in their business.
0:24:06 And then relating it to, okay, you’re having this issue.
0:24:09 Then how do we solve that with HoneyBook, with click up?
0:24:13 And so I think that’s where we could still be getting leads
0:24:17 from YouTube, even if we stopped our content right now,
0:24:20 our content machine, but I think we wanna start tailoring it
0:24:23 more to the ideal client that we wanna bring in.
0:24:26 And so we wanna start feeding that machine.
0:24:27 – Yeah, it would be a different,
0:24:29 the existing content was to get your business,
0:24:32 but it’s not necessarily the client base
0:24:34 or the target customer that you wanna be going after
0:24:35 or going forward, if I’m hearing that right.
0:24:38 – Exactly, and that’s something we’ve even been working with
0:24:40 our marketing agency that we’ve been partnered with
0:24:42 for like over three years, is she’s like, okay,
0:24:46 now that we’re serving this new market
0:24:49 and this new ideal client, we have to go deeper.
0:24:52 Like we have a lot of really good,
0:24:54 like broad topics on our YouTube,
0:24:57 but now it’s time to dive deeper into it,
0:25:00 start using more strategies and more verbiage
0:25:04 that those agencies will know exactly and what they want.
0:25:05 Like even in terms of marketing,
0:25:08 instead of being like elevate your client experience
0:25:12 with HoneyBook, it’ll be like increase your sales conversion
0:25:17 from 30 to 55% by optimizing your client flow in HoneyBook.
0:25:22 A lot more specific, which I feel like agencies
0:25:24 will relate to that content more.
0:25:26 – Yeah, well, I know you’ve got the case studies
0:25:28 and testimonials to prove it too.
0:25:29 – Exactly, yeah.
0:25:31 – Here’s what we’re able to do.
0:25:33 Couple things that I wanted to highlight there.
0:25:37 Hey, the best performing videos, 40 to 50,000 views,
0:25:41 we did an episode on like YouTube automation and AI.
0:25:44 It’s like you really had to hit the viral lottery
0:25:46 where like hundreds of thousands or millions of views
0:25:48 to make this pay for itself.
0:25:49 And the whole model was like,
0:25:52 I recognize that a lot of these aren’t gonna hit,
0:25:53 but the one or two that does,
0:25:55 it’s gonna pay for all the production costs
0:25:58 on everything else and it’s still gonna turn a profit.
0:26:00 You don’t need to go viral in this case
0:26:01 because the traffic is so well qualified,
0:26:04 nobody’s gonna watch how to run your agency in HoneyBook
0:26:06 if they’re not trying to figure out
0:26:07 how to run their agency in HoneyBook.
0:26:10 It’s like it’s a completely different YouTube ballgame
0:26:15 where very, very well qualified viewership.
0:26:17 The second thing that stood out was, okay,
0:26:19 well, now we wanna niche down to these seven,
0:26:21 eight figure agencies.
0:26:23 Obviously they’re bringing in tons of revenue,
0:26:26 so they have more hopefully disposable income
0:26:28 to spend on a service like the Silver Life.
0:26:32 And also as you get better at serving those,
0:26:35 like the same issues and problems probably crop up
0:26:36 over and over again.
0:26:38 So it almost, I imagine it becomes faster
0:26:42 to deliver the service than it would if you’re serving,
0:26:44 every type of different business customer
0:26:46 or small business, solo,preneur type of person.
0:26:49 So it’s like not only command better rates,
0:26:52 but you can deliver it faster so the margins improve.
0:26:55 But I wanna talk about this transition
0:26:59 or any specific scripting or language
0:27:01 that you found effective to transition
0:27:03 from viewer to customer.
0:27:05 Like, hey, we just helped you learn how to do this.
0:27:08 If you wanna set up a free consulting call,
0:27:13 like what’s the progression from a viewer to a lead
0:27:15 to a prospect to a customer?
0:27:18 – We have a lot of different offers in our offer suite.
0:27:21 We have our one-on-one consulting services,
0:27:24 which is obviously like the highest top tier.
0:27:27 All the way down to courses,
0:27:29 then we have products and templates,
0:27:32 and then we have freebies on-demand webinars,
0:27:33 things like that.
0:27:36 So what we have been doing in the past,
0:27:39 and I’ll be honest about what we’re kinda testing
0:27:44 and trialing now, is we were told that we should always
0:27:49 have this YouTube North Star of a call to action.
0:27:51 Like every video, you’re sending them
0:27:53 towards a specific call to action.
0:27:57 So for a while, we were always just promoting
0:28:00 our on-demand webinar, ’cause then through that,
0:28:01 the evergreen funnel,
0:28:04 then we could be funneling them down to our courses.
0:28:08 But now with this new ITA,
0:28:12 we’re really just focusing more on that call to action
0:28:16 being like, okay, so I hope that video was helpful,
0:28:18 and you learned a little bit about how to manage
0:28:21 your employees and freelancers and click up.
0:28:24 We’ve helped hundreds of agencies do this
0:28:26 and optimize their agency operations,
0:28:29 so if you’re ready to do that,
0:28:32 let’s grab a call and talk about how we can help you.
0:28:34 And so it’s more so like opening the door,
0:28:36 and then in our description,
0:28:40 we have like, contact us here to work one-on-one,
0:28:42 and then we also have like free resources and things
0:28:45 to get them on our email list as well.
0:28:47 So we’re pointing them to the description,
0:28:49 so that if they’re ready to like,
0:28:51 book a call with us, they can.
0:28:54 But we definitely want to get them opted
0:28:58 into our free resources as well to get them on our list
0:29:00 and continue to nurture them.
0:29:02 – Okay, so one quick definition,
0:29:04 ITA is Ideal Target Audience.
0:29:05 – Yep.
0:29:06 – Okay, initially it was like,
0:29:08 hey, let’s go check out this evergreen webinar
0:29:12 and follow whatever,
0:29:14 choose your own webinar structure
0:29:16 that leads to clients and sales.
0:29:20 But now there’s a shift to maybe our Ideal Target Audience
0:29:22 don’t want to watch an hour-long webinar,
0:29:24 they just want to get cut to the chase.
0:29:26 Like, can you help me or not?
0:29:28 And so now you can book a call directly,
0:29:32 or you download the lead magnet opt-in,
0:29:35 what are the effective lead magnets for you today?
0:29:38 – We’re going through currently like a revamp
0:29:40 of our website and everything like that.
0:29:43 And so we’ll probably be shifting those down a little bit,
0:29:46 but we have our free webinars,
0:29:47 both for ClickUp and HoneyBook.
0:29:52 And then we have a CRM toolkit for HoneyBook.
0:29:55 And then we have the ClickUp 101 guide
0:29:57 and our simple ClickUp system,
0:30:00 which is a free ClickUp template.
0:30:03 So over time, since we’ve had these rubies out for a while,
0:30:07 I think our ClickUp 101 guide is still the highest ranking,
0:30:09 but our simple ClickUp system,
0:30:11 because it’s a free template,
0:30:14 is definitely probably getting the most traction
0:30:15 on a monthly basis.
0:30:17 – Okay, but it sounds like,
0:30:22 if they’re a million or $10 million agency,
0:30:25 the simple system may not be applicable, it may–
0:30:27 – Had to present, yeah.
0:30:30 So that’s where this new niche
0:30:33 and target audience we’re going towards,
0:30:36 we really have to evaluate everything and be like,
0:30:37 okay, maybe they don’t need that.
0:30:41 Maybe they need like a team handbook or something different
0:30:44 that’s like pointing them in the direction of ClickUp.
0:30:48 And the whole thing is with this,
0:30:49 it gets very strategic
0:30:52 because we don’t wanna overwhelm them,
0:30:53 but there are systems,
0:30:57 what we’ve figured is simple systems are great
0:31:01 for smaller businesses, solarpreneurs, et cetera,
0:31:05 but agencies, these like seven to eight figure agencies,
0:31:09 they need something that’s robust, but easy to use.
0:31:14 And so that’s a very fine line that we’re walking
0:31:17 of like, how do we not overwhelm them
0:31:19 with you could do this and you could do this
0:31:20 and you can do this and be like,
0:31:22 but we’ll guide you in the direction,
0:31:26 it shouldn’t feel hard, it should not be to adopt.
0:31:28 – Do you find that customers are coming in
0:31:30 with a project management system or a CRM
0:31:31 like already in place?
0:31:33 Like are they already using these tools?
0:31:36 And they’re like, there’s gotta be a better way.
0:31:39 Or they like, help us, help us get organized.
0:31:40 You know, the business has grown so fast,
0:31:43 we gotta figure out a better systemized way
0:31:44 to manage everything.
0:31:47 – I would say about 75% of our clients
0:31:48 are already on the system.
0:31:51 So they’re on HoneyBook, on ClickUp, they come to us
0:31:53 and they say, my systems are now the bottleneck.
0:31:56 I know that I wanna grow and scale this company,
0:31:58 but the systems are gonna break.
0:32:00 A lot of people too are like, they haven’t broken yet,
0:32:03 but they’re going too soon as we continue to expand.
0:32:05 So can you help us make them scalable?
0:32:08 And then about 25% of people come in and they say,
0:32:10 you know, we’re doing everything on Google Sheets
0:32:13 or email or Slack or whatever it is.
0:32:18 And we’re ready to commit to ClickUp or HoneyBook.
0:32:20 And we wanna pro to help us set it up in the right way.
0:32:23 So we’re not fumbling our way through it.
0:32:24 – Got it.
0:32:26 In the case of the lead magnet freebies,
0:32:30 the ClickUp 101 guide, the simple templates,
0:32:32 what does the email sequence look like
0:32:34 after somebody opts in for that?
0:32:36 – Yeah, so then we’ll put them through
0:32:37 our welcome email sequence,
0:32:41 which basically introduces them to our offers
0:32:43 and our stack of services.
0:32:45 So I think it’s about six or seven emails.
0:32:48 It goes through, you know, who we are as to sell the life.
0:32:50 Then it goes through, you know,
0:32:52 if you’re interested in ClickUp, here are resources.
0:32:54 If you’re interested in HoneyBook, here are resources.
0:32:57 And then at the very end, it goes through, okay,
0:33:02 how does it look like for us to support you?
0:33:03 Is it through our free content
0:33:05 and subscribing to our YouTube channel?
0:33:07 Is it through joining our system school
0:33:09 and going through the DIY course?
0:33:11 Or are you ready to invest
0:33:13 and have us just do everything for you?
0:33:17 And so that’s kind of the journey that they go through now.
0:33:21 I think in the future, as we’re kind of fine tuning
0:33:24 all of these freebies and sales funnels,
0:33:29 we’ll probably have certain freebies go towards like,
0:33:32 promoting the course and templates
0:33:34 and certain freebies potentially,
0:33:37 then promoting like let’s get on a sales call type of thing.
0:33:40 – And do you ever lose sleep over,
0:33:43 well, what happens when ClickUp goes away
0:33:44 and you’ve built this whole reputation
0:33:48 and this content library around this
0:33:52 and then for whatever reason, the company gets bought,
0:33:54 the tool gets shut down.
0:33:55 Like, I don’t know.
0:33:58 Like I could see that being the counterpoint to being like,
0:34:00 well, I don’t want to marry myself to this one tool
0:34:03 ’cause what happens if it doesn’t exist anymore?
0:34:04 – I actually love this question, Nick,
0:34:07 because we get it all the time.
0:34:09 And even my husband has asked me this question in the past,
0:34:11 like, are we making the right decision
0:34:14 by just like niching into one specific thing?
0:34:19 And it’s actually not about the tool itself and the software.
0:34:23 It’s about the system and the framework
0:34:27 that we’ve created to set up the workflows
0:34:29 in this specific tool.
0:34:31 So we actually have a framework
0:34:34 that we’ve developed over the last four years
0:34:36 that if ClickUp shut down today,
0:34:40 we could take all of that and implement a brand new tool.
0:34:42 Now, would it take a lot of time and energy
0:34:44 and probably tears?
0:34:48 Yes, but my job wouldn’t be obsolete.
0:34:51 Like I have all of that information
0:34:54 that we can just easily implement in a new tool.
0:34:56 – Okay, that makes sense.
0:34:57 Well, I guess the solution is the same,
0:34:59 but the tool that you use to implement it
0:35:02 may be different and you can apply
0:35:05 that the same work flows to something else.
0:35:07 Yes, a painful transition period,
0:35:08 but it doesn’t have to be like,
0:35:10 well, I guess that’s it, it’s game over.
0:35:11 – Exactly.
0:35:13 – Anything else on the YouTube front here
0:35:15 from driving traffic and views
0:35:17 to generating leads and customers?
0:35:19 Anything else that we missed?
0:35:22 – Something that is super important about these
0:35:26 is you wanna know where you’re leading these people
0:35:31 and you want to have that idea of where they’re going
0:35:32 and how to capture them.
0:35:35 So this is where systems come into play
0:35:37 of having yourself organized in the backend
0:35:40 because if you start taking off on YouTube,
0:35:42 even if you have like a small following,
0:35:46 which we still have, I think only about like 6,000 subscribers,
0:35:49 but it’s a very strong community of people
0:35:52 that are very interested in just what we have,
0:35:55 you wanna make sure that you have a place to capture
0:35:57 those leads and nurture them
0:35:59 and direct them in a specific direction.
0:36:03 So I would say just making sure, for example,
0:36:06 we use Active Campaign to store all of our leads
0:36:09 in terms of freebies and welcome email sequence
0:36:12 and nurturing and then we use Honey Book as our CRM
0:36:13 for people that are like,
0:36:15 I’m ready to hop on a sales call with you.
0:36:16 I know that you’re the person
0:36:19 that can help me implement this tool
0:36:22 and so then we have a place for them to go,
0:36:24 book a call, submit their information.
0:36:26 So I think that’s a huge key piece
0:36:27 is like a lot of people
0:36:28 when you’re just getting started
0:36:30 with a new marketing channel,
0:36:33 you’re so focused on what does that process look like
0:36:35 and how am I gonna make that content
0:36:37 go viral and do all these things,
0:36:40 but you wanna make sure that your backend
0:36:43 is actually set up to gather those contacts,
0:36:47 nurture them and then handle that growth when it comes.
0:36:48 – Right, ’cause you don’t need to go viral.
0:36:51 If you get 100 well qualified people watching this thing,
0:36:53 certain percentage of people are gonna reach out
0:36:56 by having that consistent call to action
0:36:57 and having something in place
0:37:01 to guide those prospects into being customers
0:37:03 is gotta be thought through like from,
0:37:05 this is a weak point, am I like,
0:37:07 I like making YouTube videos,
0:37:08 I like making that content,
0:37:10 but at the end of the video it’s like,
0:37:13 subscribe for more money-making ideas.
0:37:16 Like there’s not a really concerted effort,
0:37:18 like go check out the Evergreen webinar
0:37:21 on how to 10X your side hustle or something,
0:37:23 but being upfront and introducing yourself,
0:37:27 hey, we are consultant specialists on this topic
0:37:29 and today we’re gonna cover X, Y, Z
0:37:31 and then at the end you can also say,
0:37:33 hey, if you wanna learn more,
0:37:34 go download the template, if you wanna learn more,
0:37:36 hey, let’s book a call.
0:37:38 Like just being consistent, whatever the stat is,
0:37:40 people need to be hitting the head with the same message
0:37:42 five, six, seven times before they’re like,
0:37:43 I should really take a bump on that
0:37:45 and go one step deeper.
0:37:47 – You always wanna have a call to action
0:37:50 on top of being like, like and subscribe,
0:37:52 put on your alerts like a hundred percent.
0:37:55 We say that like two to three times a video,
0:37:56 but on top of that at the very end,
0:37:58 it’s like, what are their next steps?
0:38:01 People need to be guided in the right direction.
0:38:05 And so even if that is a, you know,
0:38:07 if you want help implementing this in a custom way
0:38:11 and you’re ready to X, Y, Z,
0:38:13 the link to book a call with us is in the description.
0:38:14 – Gotcha.
0:38:17 And that goes through Honey Book to schedule that stuff.
0:38:18 – Yep.
0:38:20 – More with Christie in just a moment,
0:38:22 including the other marketing channels
0:38:24 that are driving sales and the different pieces
0:38:27 of the De Silva Life revenue pie right after this.
0:38:32 You mentioned going back to the Facebook well
0:38:34 for potential clients.
0:38:36 This is like groups of business owners.
0:38:39 This is groups specific to these software tools.
0:38:40 What’s going on there?
0:38:43 – Yeah, so right now it’s specific to the software tools.
0:38:46 So what we just started implementing again
0:38:49 is going back into the Click Uppers Facebook group
0:38:52 and going and just answering people’s questions.
0:38:55 No call to action, like, hey, book a call with me.
0:38:57 It’s literally just me going in there.
0:38:59 I’m looking at their question.
0:39:01 I’m creating a 60 second loom video
0:39:04 that solves their problem and they’re getting to know me
0:39:06 as that person solving their problem.
0:39:09 And so, you know, we literally just started
0:39:12 this last week again and we’ve already had two people reach
0:39:15 out and be like, hey, can I grab a one-on-one call with you?
0:39:18 Do you do this in a custom way?
0:39:22 And it’s crazy to see how it works where if you go in
0:39:25 with the mindset of like, I’m just gonna go help people
0:39:27 and build that connection with them,
0:39:30 you see that return right away.
0:39:31 – And it’s interesting ’cause it’s like, yes,
0:39:34 I’m answering this one person’s question
0:39:36 and it feels like it’s really worthwhile
0:39:38 to take the time to do that.
0:39:40 But everybody else in the group has the same access
0:39:42 of the ability to see that answer.
0:39:45 And it’s like, it seems like it’s one-to-one,
0:39:46 but it’s really one-to-many.
0:39:48 And even if it’s not the original poster
0:39:50 that ends up reaching out, it’s like, hey, I saw your answer,
0:39:53 you know, so I think that one potentially more scalable
0:39:54 than it initially seems.
0:39:57 – And that is actually what happened with one
0:39:59 of the two people that reached out.
0:40:01 Someone messaged me, I had a message request
0:40:03 and they were like, hey, I saw your loom video
0:40:05 in the Click Uppers group.
0:40:06 Do you do this in a custom way?
0:40:08 We’re looking for someone to optimize our Click Up.
0:40:12 This person was not the person that asked that question
0:40:14 and they just watched my loom video.
0:40:18 And the thing is too, is what I found
0:40:21 in the Click Uppers group, giving away my little secret here,
0:40:25 I went in there and realized that everyone,
0:40:28 you can absolutely see people promoting their services,
0:40:29 which people should be.
0:40:33 But in the responses to someone’s question,
0:40:36 everyone is giving written or screenshot feedback.
0:40:39 I’m like, how can I be different and go the extra mile?
0:40:41 I’m gonna record a 60-second loom video.
0:40:43 And I’ve already seen that pay off
0:40:45 because I’m a visual learner,
0:40:47 especially with things like softwares,
0:40:50 like I need to see someone do it for some reason.
0:40:54 Like the text doesn’t translate to my brain as quickly.
0:40:56 And so I’m like, let’s see if this works.
0:40:58 And so far, it’s been working.
0:40:59 – So far, so good.
0:41:01 All right, so we’ve got YouTube, we’ve got the Facebook.
0:41:05 And then you mentioned Instagram as well.
0:41:10 It looks like we’re a little over 5,000 followers on Instagram.
0:41:14 So this is interesting where I think of Instagram
0:41:18 as like pretty pictures or like a day in the life type of stuff.
0:41:22 But it’s like similar educational content over here.
0:41:23 What’s going, what’s working over there?
0:41:27 – We have been doing Instagram since day one
0:41:30 all the way back from the VA days.
0:41:32 And it still really works for us.
0:41:35 So Instagram, I feel like is one of the tools
0:41:40 that, to be honest, is the hardest to scale
0:41:42 ’cause I feel like they’re always changing the algorithm
0:41:45 and like, oh, you need to post reels
0:41:46 then everyone starts posting reels.
0:41:48 And they’re like, actually, we’re doing carousels again,
0:41:49 like post carousels.
0:41:52 And so you have to kind of be in with the trends,
0:41:54 but also at the same time,
0:41:57 like if you do something that you’re known for,
0:42:00 you can keep doing that and just like it’s gonna work.
0:42:03 And so with Instagram,
0:42:06 what we’ve been doing is just obviously educating
0:42:08 and doing reels and carousels on different features
0:42:11 of ClickUp and HoneyBook and as I mentioned,
0:42:14 going more into the agency route as well.
0:42:16 But then we also have, you know, fun things
0:42:19 that that shows my personality or team’s personality
0:42:22 and goes through our personal journey
0:42:24 of scaling our agency as well.
0:42:26 So I think that will also really resonate
0:42:28 with our ideal client of like,
0:42:30 we’ve been able to scale our agency
0:42:33 and here’s how we run our agency with these systems
0:42:35 and here’s how you can do it too.
0:42:38 – Okay, got it.
0:42:39 We got an example.
0:42:40 It’s like four things to automate in ClickUp
0:42:44 is the carousel post and there’s no call to action
0:42:45 in the graphics themselves.
0:42:48 The call to action is in the captions,
0:42:48 it’s in the description.
0:42:51 You can drop a comment below or shoot me a DM
0:42:53 if you’re ready to take your efficiency to the next level.
0:42:57 Let’s chat about how we can make ClickUp work harder for you.
0:43:00 And so for anybody who comments,
0:43:02 is there like a manual outreach,
0:43:04 somebody on your team is trying to engage
0:43:06 with these people, what does that look like?
0:43:09 – Yeah, so most of our call to actions for Instagram
0:43:12 are using many chat, which is like amazing.
0:43:15 I love this tool where you can comment a keyword
0:43:16 and then it can reply back.
0:43:21 So that definitely boosts the engagement on our Instagram.
0:43:25 So at least once a week we’ll have the carousel or caption
0:43:29 or whatever say, comment teamwork
0:43:31 and we’ll send you this week’s YouTube video.
0:43:33 So then many chat we’ll go ahead and be like,
0:43:34 thanks for commenting teamwork.
0:43:37 If you wanna dive deeper into this topic,
0:43:38 here’s this week’s YouTube video
0:43:41 and it’ll send them to them via DM.
0:43:41 – Got it.
0:43:42 – So that’s your many chat,
0:43:44 but definitely when there are ones that are like,
0:43:47 if you’re ready to take it to the next level,
0:43:51 those will then they’ll comment and then I’ll reach out
0:43:54 and then be like, hey, what are you struggling with?
0:43:55 Let’s chat about it.
0:43:57 How can we help you tell me a little bit more
0:43:58 about your company?
0:44:01 So I would say probably 90% of the call to actions
0:44:04 are responded through many chat automatically.
0:44:05 – Okay.
0:44:09 – And then after that, the other 10% would be me manually.
0:44:12 And then another thing I’m considering with many chat too
0:44:16 is having kind of like a follow-up sequence,
0:44:17 maybe like a couple of days later,
0:44:19 like, hey, did you check out the resource?
0:44:20 Do you have any questions?
0:44:24 And then kind of opening up that conversation again.
0:44:28 – Yeah, that’s a cool way to do it without having to go in
0:44:30 and reply to everybody manually.
0:44:33 One thing that I think is interesting about Instagram
0:44:37 today is you, and it could be good or bad,
0:44:38 depending on your perspective,
0:44:43 but they seem to, if your target audience
0:44:48 is people who are interested in productivity and systems,
0:44:50 they don’t need to be following you
0:44:52 to get served up your content anymore.
0:44:55 If it has been proven to be engaging to you,
0:44:57 maybe a small subset of your followers,
0:45:00 Instagram can push it out into the feed of other people
0:45:02 it thinks are gonna engage with it.
0:45:05 And I think that’s interesting for a small account
0:45:08 to be able to grow your reach in that way.
0:45:10 And it’s in half, probably two thirds of my feed,
0:45:12 it’s like stuff with people I don’t follow,
0:45:14 but it’s like, oh, shoot, they gotta be pegged.
0:45:15 This is interesting.
0:45:16 – Yep.
0:45:19 – And it’s like, oh, stop, stop, stop, get out of here.
0:45:21 – I did not subscribe to this.
0:45:22 – Right, right.
0:45:25 I guess it gives hope to people with small followings in that.
0:45:27 You don’t necessarily need that early on.
0:45:31 If you can create engaging content on a specific topic,
0:45:33 people, you know, the algorithm will tend to push that out.
0:45:34 – 100%.
0:45:36 And even like talking about small following,
0:45:39 like that is all vanity metrics.
0:45:43 You could have $100,000 and be making like no money per month
0:45:46 if it’s all just vanity metrics
0:45:48 and you’re not pointing people in the right direction.
0:45:53 Like you want to know how your content is converting
0:45:56 where these people are coming from
0:45:58 and like where it’s worth your time and effort,
0:45:59 even in my case, my money,
0:46:01 because we’re actually paying people
0:46:05 to keep these systems and these marketing channels running.
0:46:07 Don’t get caught up in the small following thing
0:46:09 because you could consider me having a small following
0:46:11 of 5,000 on Instagram,
0:46:13 about like 6,000 subscribers on YouTube.
0:46:15 Do I wish I had 100,000?
0:46:16 Yeah, totally.
0:46:18 But if I was still making the same amount of money
0:46:20 and I’m not nurturing them,
0:46:22 it doesn’t matter at the end of the day.
0:46:24 – At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.
0:46:29 On the revenue side, obviously you’ve got the done for you
0:46:31 consulting the high ticket,
0:46:34 just hand over the keys, we’ll build this all for you.
0:46:36 And the prices are public on thesilvalife.com
0:46:38 which I think is interesting just because you know,
0:46:40 always there’s a common to be like,
0:46:41 well, book a book a consultation.
0:46:43 And you know, I was like, well, shoot, if I have to ask,
0:46:44 I probably can’t afford it.
0:46:46 So I like that it’s upfront
0:46:48 and it’s going to pre-qualify as people in a way.
0:46:50 Or it’s like, okay, I’m not even going to get on the call
0:46:52 if I can’t afford that.
0:46:53 But if you look at that and say,
0:46:55 yeah, that’s worth it to not have to do it myself.
0:46:57 Sure, I think that’s interesting.
0:47:01 You’ve got some like digital product template stuff
0:47:02 that’s for sale.
0:47:05 And then there’s like an online course.
0:47:07 Can you give me a sense of the revenue pie,
0:47:10 like the breakdown between these different offerings?
0:47:11 – It gets a little like crazy
0:47:14 because we have different services and offers
0:47:17 and then we have two totally separate softwares.
0:47:19 And so we have our ClickUp services
0:47:21 and we have our Honeywok services.
0:47:24 Then it breaks down for each of these.
0:47:27 We have consulting one-on-one services
0:47:28 which are the highest ticket.
0:47:32 Then we have our courses and our templates.
0:47:36 So our ClickUp consulting is about,
0:47:40 I would say like 30%.
0:47:42 Our Honeywok consulting revenue,
0:47:45 like one-on-one is about 30%.
0:47:50 Our courses and templates are about 30%.
0:47:53 And then that other 10% is things
0:47:57 like affiliate revenue, guest-speakings, partnerships,
0:47:58 things like that.
0:48:00 So it’s a pretty even split
0:48:03 between Honeywok and ClickUp consultings.
0:48:06 That’s being the biggest driver and revenue generation.
0:48:09 Then our courses and templates.
0:48:12 And then we have those kind of like other categories.
0:48:15 – Okay, are you able to get your reseller rights
0:48:18 or affiliate partnerships with the software themselves
0:48:19 or there’s other tools that you’re recommending
0:48:20 to customers?
0:48:24 – Yeah, so we have our highest affiliate driver
0:48:25 right now is Honeywok.
0:48:27 They have an amazing referral program.
0:48:30 We can get up to like a $300 payout
0:48:32 for different people that sign up.
0:48:35 And then we have a affiliate partnership
0:48:37 with ClickUp as well.
0:48:39 And then other tools we recommend too,
0:48:43 but that’s like a much lower revenue generator obviously
0:48:46 because a lot of our affiliate revenue
0:48:47 also comes from YouTube,
0:48:50 which is completely passive, which is awesome.
0:48:52 – Yeah, and I guess that if the majority of your clients
0:48:53 are already using these tools,
0:48:55 this is a little bit higher in the funnel, so to speak,
0:48:59 where maybe it’s broad level Honeywok tutorial,
0:49:02 it’s Honeywok versus competitor A,
0:49:03 Honeywok versus competitor B,
0:49:05 like people who are trying to figure out,
0:49:06 is this even right for me?
0:49:08 And if it is, I sign up through our referral link.
0:49:09 – Exactly.
0:49:11 – What’s a day in the life?
0:49:14 Like, it sounds like a lot of one-on-one consulting,
0:49:16 a lot of client relationships.
0:49:17 I mentioned having a team,
0:49:19 like how much is it you doing this stuff?
0:49:21 – I’m obviously a very organized person.
0:49:23 I’m an avid time blocker.
0:49:25 So every day kind of has a life of its own,
0:49:28 but my week is themed into time blocks.
0:49:32 So Tuesday, Thursday are primarily call days,
0:49:33 like client call days.
0:49:35 And so on those client call days,
0:49:39 I could have upwards of like seven, eight calls in one day,
0:49:41 just like the whole day stacked.
0:49:45 And those could be a mix of sales calls, you know,
0:49:49 kickoff calls, training calls, checking calls,
0:49:52 one-on-one consultations and strategy sessions.
0:49:53 So those are about the mix.
0:49:55 And it could be for ClickUp or Honeybook.
0:49:57 I don’t really theme those days in terms of like,
0:49:59 okay, Tuesdays is just ClickUp calls.
0:50:00 – You got it, you got it.
0:50:01 – It’s just Honeybook.
0:50:04 But I do section chunks of like, okay,
0:50:07 from 10 to 12 will be just sales calls.
0:50:11 And then from one to five will be just client calls,
0:50:13 whether it’s a check-in or a kickoff
0:50:15 or something like that.
0:50:16 – Okay.
0:50:19 – Other days, like Wednesdays are my days
0:50:22 where I do like deep work for clients.
0:50:25 And then Monday, Fridays are really dedicated to team.
0:50:28 So we have team calls, we’re working on team initiatives,
0:50:31 our quarterly initiatives for marketing
0:50:34 and building our business, launching a new product,
0:50:34 things like that.
0:50:37 So does that answer your question?
0:50:40 – That’s helpful to hear that some of it is passive,
0:50:43 you know, client flow is relatively automated,
0:50:45 relatively hands-off, but there’s a lot of hours
0:50:47 that go into making this machine run.
0:50:49 – Yeah, 100%, especially right now.
0:50:51 And so we are an agency,
0:50:55 but I’m still heavily involved in certain aspects
0:50:56 of certain projects.
0:50:59 Like some services are really agency-fied
0:51:03 and I need to spend maybe like one or two hours total.
0:51:06 And then other ones I’m still more directly involved
0:51:10 as we continue to grow those offerings
0:51:12 and get me out of the driver’s seat.
0:51:16 – Do you find the expert trap
0:51:19 where customers see your face on the YouTube videos,
0:51:24 they see you on Instagram, they expect it to be you.
0:51:26 And you say, well, I’m the CEO here, I’m the boss.
0:51:30 I got, I trained my people to handle this for you.
0:51:32 Do you get any pushback on that?
0:51:33 – Oh, all the time.
0:51:36 So not really from current clients because,
0:51:39 and now let me say this too, for the Honey Book side,
0:51:44 it was really easy to agency-fy and streamline that service
0:51:48 because I’m not an expert copywriter,
0:51:49 I’m not an expert designer.
0:51:51 And those are two huge things
0:51:54 that come into these Honey Book and client flow builds.
0:51:57 So immediately when I brought in the team on that
0:52:01 and we kind of made that agency streamlined,
0:52:02 it was really easy to sell that.
0:52:03 Because I’m like, listen,
0:52:05 I’m gonna do the strategy and map out your client flow.
0:52:07 Then we have an amazing team behind us
0:52:10 that’s going to do the rest and make it all come to life.
0:52:11 And they’re like, awesome, cool.
0:52:14 So I was immediately able to actually deliver
0:52:19 a better product after making that service agency-fied.
0:52:23 Now the ClickUp one is a little bit harder
0:52:24 because it’s so technical.
0:52:27 It’s like my brainchild in a way.
0:52:31 But again, that really comes down to our clients.
0:52:34 They think they want me, but they want my brain.
0:52:36 They want my framework.
0:52:39 And so that’s what we translate to our clients.
0:52:43 And as long as you translate that from the beginning
0:52:47 of like, I’m still involved in this project right now anyway,
0:52:49 I’m still involved in this project.
0:52:50 And we’re gonna take care of you,
0:52:54 but here are the other two key players in this.
0:52:57 And then you start having them answering questions
0:52:58 and serving the clients.
0:52:59 They all of a sudden are like,
0:53:01 okay, everyone can help me here.
0:53:02 It doesn’t matter who’s helping me.
0:53:04 I know I’m gonna get helped.
0:53:05 – Yeah, that makes sense.
0:53:07 I mean, from the business owner standpoint,
0:53:08 of course it makes sense,
0:53:09 but from the client perspective, it’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa.
0:53:11 You know, I thought I was working with Christie,
0:53:13 and so it’s trying to make- – Oh, 100%.
0:53:17 – Try and get yourself out of certain roles
0:53:18 to create more content,
0:53:22 to think higher level strategy to do all this other stuff.
0:53:24 – We get asked that on sales calls all the time.
0:53:27 We’re like, okay, so who am I gonna be working with?
0:53:28 Is it you?
0:53:31 And I’m like, I will be lead in the project,
0:53:33 but you’ll also be working with our amazing team.
0:53:35 And I’ll name them and talk about their roles.
0:53:38 So right now, yes, I’ll give them that comfort
0:53:39 of I’m still involved.
0:53:41 Eventually I won’t be,
0:53:43 but again, it shouldn’t be an issue
0:53:44 because it’s gonna be like,
0:53:46 we’ve created this framework
0:53:48 that works for hundreds of agencies.
0:53:50 Now we’re just giving you the key.
0:53:52 – And especially if you’re serving agency clients,
0:53:53 they gotta understand,
0:53:55 hey, this isn’t a solo operation either.
0:53:56 – Yup.
0:53:58 – Well, it’s tosilvallife.com.
0:54:01 We’ll link up the YouTube channel as well.
0:54:03 We’ll link up Instagram as well.
0:54:04 What’s next for you?
0:54:05 Where do you wanna take this thing?
0:54:07 – Next for us is,
0:54:09 I talked a lot about, you know,
0:54:13 like our own agency is really day by day
0:54:16 getting me more and more out of the driver’s seat.
0:54:21 And we’re really working on building our offer suite.
0:54:23 We have some solid offers now,
0:54:24 but we’re actually launching a new offer
0:54:26 that we’re super excited about
0:54:28 called the ClickUp Agency Accelerator.
0:54:31 So that’s going into beta in the next month or so.
0:54:35 And the more and more we get our agency growing,
0:54:38 then I’m gonna be able to have more time
0:54:40 to dedicate to marketing
0:54:43 and creating more educational content and stuff like that.
0:54:44 So I’m excited for that.
0:54:46 – All right, so building out the office suite
0:54:49 and getting out of kind of the client fulfillment stuff
0:54:51 to focus on the higher level stuff.
0:54:53 – Exactly, yup.
0:54:54 – That’s the goal, cool.
0:54:55 Christy, this has been awesome.
0:54:56 I’m taking a ton of notes.
0:54:58 Lots of resources mentioned
0:55:00 that we can link up in the show notes as well.
0:55:03 Let’s wrap this thing up with your number one tip
0:55:04 for side hustle nation.
0:55:06 – I wanna kind of share my mantra
0:55:10 that I have stuck with for these past four years.
0:55:13 It was in the beginning of taking that initial leap.
0:55:17 And then I carry this through with me on the hard days,
0:55:21 on the good days, in these pivotal moments of feeling like,
0:55:23 oh my gosh, how am I gonna get through
0:55:25 this exact barrier in front of me?
0:55:27 You always think like, well, what if it doesn’t work?
0:55:29 Well, you know, I got into this point,
0:55:31 but what if I can’t go any farther?
0:55:33 But I’ve been able to reframe that.
0:55:36 And every time I think, what if it doesn’t work?
0:55:38 I then think, but what if it does?
0:55:40 What is on the other side of that?
0:55:42 What does that dream life look like?
0:55:43 What does it look?
0:55:45 Growing this business, being able to serve more people
0:55:48 and support these amazing team members.
0:55:51 And so if you’re having one of those moments like we all do,
0:55:53 just think what if it does work?
0:55:55 And that’s what really keeps me going.
0:55:56 – The important addition to that,
0:55:59 ’cause I love that we tend to focus a lot on the failure side.
0:55:59 Well, what if it doesn’t work?
0:56:02 Like, am I gonna have to, you know,
0:56:04 you know, go sleep on a friend’s couch?
0:56:06 Am I gonna have to go get another job?
0:56:07 What if it doesn’t work?
0:56:10 Like, it’s natural to focus on like the downside, right?
0:56:12 If you minimize that downside risk, you’re like,
0:56:15 okay, worst case scenario is not gonna be life threatening.
0:56:16 What if it does work?
0:56:18 And is that gonna be a win?
0:56:22 Like if I project out three, five years down the road,
0:56:24 am I gonna be materially better off?
0:56:27 Am I gonna be in a better place personally, financially?
0:56:28 What if it does work?
0:56:29 I think it’s really important to ask.
0:56:32 And we tend to focus on the negative side a little too much.
0:56:34 So look at the upside as well.
0:56:36 And make sure that you’re setting yourself up
0:56:38 for those wins.
0:56:39 We had Noah Kagan on the show.
0:56:41 One of his criteria was like,
0:56:43 could this be a million dollar business?
0:56:44 If not, why am I even looking at it?
0:56:47 Why is it even on the option list here?
0:56:48 So that’s the number one tip.
0:56:50 What if it does work?
0:56:51 Takeaways from me.
0:56:53 Obviously we’re talking about following the demand,
0:56:56 lots of search volume around these particular software tools.
0:56:59 Could you find something that you’re a relative expert in?
0:57:01 Could you become an expert in the thing
0:57:04 and build that library of educational content,
0:57:06 help people out on that
0:57:08 and have that consistent call to action?
0:57:10 It doesn’t take a huge following.
0:57:13 I think that’s probably the inspirational part.
0:57:14 Because anybody who’s watching this
0:57:17 is gonna get pretty well qualified lead.
0:57:19 You knit yourself down and become that expert.
0:57:22 You take inspiration from what’s working
0:57:23 in terms of the competitor’s content,
0:57:27 put your own unique spin on it, lots of inspiring stuff.
0:57:28 If you’re new to the show,
0:57:30 you’re wondering what to listen to next,
0:57:32 I wanna invite you to build a personalized playlist
0:57:34 of the Side Hustle Show episodes,
0:57:39 most relevant to you and your specific situation and goals.
0:57:41 All you gotta do is go to hustle.show,
0:57:43 answer a few short multiple choice questions,
0:57:44 you do it on your phone.
0:57:47 The little quiz will spit back out this cool curated playlist
0:57:50 based on your answers that you can add to your device,
0:57:50 you can learn what works,
0:57:52 you can go out and make some more money.
0:57:55 That’s hustle.show, we mentioned Abby Ashley
0:57:58 on the podcast previously, we’ll link up her episodes.
0:58:01 And Paul Miners, another example doing this
0:58:04 with Asana and Pipe Drive, very similar type of businesses.
0:58:05 Hey, I’m an Asana consultant,
0:58:07 and today we’re gonna learn how to do blah, blah, blah.
0:58:10 Fantastic model, feel free to blatantly rip this off
0:58:12 and apply this to whatever tool, right?
0:58:14 Like it is, the template is here.
0:58:16 It is for you to run with.
0:58:18 So big thanks to Christie for sharing her insight.
0:58:20 Big thanks to our sponsors
0:58:22 for helping make this content free for everyone.
0:58:25 You can hit up sidehustlenation.com/deals
0:58:28 for all the latest offers from our sponsors in one place.
0:58:30 Thank you for supporting the advertisers
0:58:31 that support the show.
0:58:32 That is it for me.
0:58:34 Thank you so much for tuning in.
0:58:35 If you’re finding value in the show,
0:58:38 the greatest compliment is to share it with a friend,
0:58:39 so fire off that text message.
0:58:41 Hey, you should totally do this
0:58:43 for filling the blank software tool.
0:58:45 Until next time, let’s go out there and make something happen
0:58:46 and I’ll catch you in the next edition
0:58:48 of the Side Hustle Show.
0:58:48 Hustle on.