LIVE COACHING: Membership Sites & Ideas for Advanced Growth

Ladies,

Want to take your business next level? Scale to higher profits using a membership site, traffic, or higher conversions? In this advanced podcast and mompreneur coaching session with successful photographer, Brooke Jefferson, we dig into how she can tap into the next level with some podcasting growth strategies.

We also discuss how to grow her podcast in a simple, organic way. Finally, we talk marketing for her brand and audience. This session is JAM packed with value and I know you are going to love it. Grab a notebook and pen and get ready to take tons of notes!

If you enjoy please subscribe, review, and share. I appreciate you!

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

Stefanie Gass (00:00):
In today’s episode, I am letting you be a fly on the wall with Brooke Jefferson. She is just the cutest thing ever. And Brooke hosts a podcast called Frame Your Way Photography; she also runs a photography business.

Stefanie Gass (00:15):
Brooke is really helping aspiring photographers become profitable and sustainable in this advanced coaching session on podcasting growth strategies and marketing ideas because Brooke is already extremely successful in her business.

Stefanie Gass (00:28):
We are really tackling advanced strategy, like scaling her podcast and talking about pitching really high caliber guests for her show. We are talking about course ideas for her really scaling that passive income for her business and brand.

Stefanie Gass (00:47):
So this is for those of you that have a business, but you need, and are ready for, the next level. Come be a fly on the wall with me and Brooke. And of course, check her out on social media as well. Her handle is @brookejanaephotography.

Brooke Jefferson (02:00):
Okay, so the number one question I have is, I have all these people listening from week to week. I can see their favorite episodes, and the cool thing is there’s a solid 250 that carry from week to week to week. So they are solid.

Brooke Jefferson (02:15):
My question is, I need to get my ratings and reviews increased. There’s literally a handful, I think there’s 20 maybe, as of yesterday.

Stefanie Gass (02:27):
Okay.

Brooke Jefferson (02:27):
And so I really want to do a ramp up the podcast to get us ranked or charted or whatever. I know that there’s like New and Noteworthy in there for people first launching. I just need to know what’s a good gig plan at this point.

Brooke Jefferson (02:45):
I’ve shown that I’m consistent, so we’ve got that going for us but I need people to take action. On the outro, I’ve invited people to do it. I’ve asked people, anybody that’s ever reached out and it’s like, I just listened to your episode. I’m obsessed. I have a question and here it is.

Brooke Jefferson (03:05):
At the end, I’ve always asked them to go back and leave a rating and review and some of them have, and some of them haven’t, so curious about what your thoughts are for that.

Stefanie Gass (03:13):
I love that you have it in your intro and outro. I love that you’re specifically asking people. That’s totally one of my favorite ways. So there’s three things that I’ve done that have really boosted reviews. The first one was called the review swap.

Brooke Jefferson (03:27):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (03:27):
So with this, this is when I was newish and I need reviews. And what I did was I basically went and found every similar niche podcast, and I had a friend that was doing this as well. Then we swapped and we said, Okay, if I listen to one of your episodes or, you know, check out what you’re all about and I leave you a review, will you do that for me?

Stefanie Gass (03:48):
And so I think between us, we each came up with 20 shows. Then we swapped and said, Hey, you left one for Martha, can I do that too? And we started this circle of podcast swaps, of review swaps. I think that got us 20 or 30 in a couple of days. So that was worth my time. I did that once.

Stefanie Gass (04:07):
The other thing I’ve done for podcasting growth is run two or three big giveaways, and I did it at milestones of the show. I did it at 20,000 downloads, 50,000 downloads, and I’m gonna do 100,000 this week, actually. And those have gotten me 15 to 30 every time. If not more, hopefully, this time. The giveaway, have you tried a giveaway yet?

Brooke Jefferson (04:32):
Okay, so I loosely ran one giveaway and this was my thought. I think that the weight in a giveaway relies solely on what you’re giving away. For photographers, I polled my Instagram people and I said, Would you rather me give away a coaching session with me for your business, or an Amazon gift card?

Brooke Jefferson (04:59):
I should have never asked because I’m sure we can figure out it was Amazon, but it was also back in November when people were preparing for Christmas. So what I wanna do is, there’s these awesome bags and I’m actually gonna reach out first to this company and see if they’ll sponsor it before I go buy one.

Stefanie Gass (05:17):
Yes.

Brooke Jefferson (05:17):
So there’s this company and what every photographer wants is a camera bag that is awesome and made for your camera. It’s got leopard on the inside and all the compartments. People would go nuts. I mean, I know they would go nuts over the photographer bag.

Brooke Jefferson (05:32):
And so I thought about reaching out to this company because they’re brand new. They’re still they’re to the point where they only have a certain amount and then they sell out, and then everybody goes on a waiting list to the next launch.

Brooke Jefferson (05:44):
So I’m thinking about reaching out to them and asking them because when I do the giveaway, I wanna do it for my 50th episode coming up in March.

Stefanie Gass (05:53):
Yes.

Brooke Jefferson (05:53):
We’re almost there and this gives me time to prepare and see if they’ll either give me a discount to purchase one or just give one and I’ll just mention them for eight weeks straight as a thank you gift and where people can get one. That’s my idea for doing an official giveaway is giving away this bag.

Stefanie Gass (06:12):
Okay, so love the bag, obsessed with your idea. You don’t need to do that long of a promo for them though. Just ask them if they’ll donate. Ask them, Will you donate one or two to my community?

Stefanie Gass (06:24):
I think your show is so niche that it’s gonna drive them a ton of business. Just let them know, obviously in the giveaway, you’ll have full credit of who this product is from. I cannot imagine they would say no to you.

Brooke Jefferson (06:37):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (06:38):
And then if you wanna make it insane, add a 30 minute coaching session with it.

Brooke Jefferson (06:43):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (06:44):
I mean, I would imagine that you would get a ton of entries. So what I have done or found is the best way for me to do a giveaway where it drives reviews and it drives publicity to my show is, I would do five days.

Stefanie Gass (07:02):
Because the longer you do them, the more annoying they are and you have to talk about it incessantly to the point where people are like, Okay! So I wouldn’t do longer than five days.

Brooke Jefferson (07:12):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (07:13):
But what I’ve done is, they have to leave a review so they come over to your iTunes, they leave you a review. Tell them, Screenshot my review before you submit it because you know how it disappears.

Brooke Jefferson (07:25):
That’s the weirdest thing but yeah.

Stefanie Gass (07:26):
That’s so weird. I’m like, I swear I left you one.

Brooke Jefferson (07:30):
Yes.

Stefanie Gass (07:31):
So then I tell them, You have to go post it in your Instagram stories.

Brooke Jefferson (07:35):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (07:36):
Tag me, hashtag my show. And that’s how I will enter you to win. So that’s the first way they can enter. And then once they’ve entered, well I’ll share that with you in a second. So then over the five days, how else can they enter? I allow them to enter once a day by posting anything in their stories about the show. So you’ve already done the review.

Brooke Jefferson (07:58):
Cool.

Stefanie Gass (07:59):
Tomorrow, share your favorite episode. On Wednesday, go live and share a nugget that you took away from the latest episode. But every time, tag me, hashtag the show, okay? This will help with podcasting growth.

Stefanie Gass (08:09):
So it’s driving publicity. It is driving reviews. And then the way that I track it is, once somebody goes in — and let’s say that Blake shared my thing — I would go to her account because I saw it, right? She put it in her stories. I would take her latest picture and then, you know how you can put it in a folder, like the saved folder?

Stefanie Gass (08:33):
So I would save it to a collection and I created a little folder called giveaway.

Brooke Jefferson (08:37):
Nice.

Stefanie Gass (08:38):
Yeah, and so inside giveaway, once you’re done, hopefully you have a hundred, 200 pictures and that’s how you’ll track. Okay, Blake has six pictures in here. She gets six entries.

Brooke Jefferson (08:50):
Okay, cool.

Stefanie Gass (08:51):
And then I use like a namepicker.com, the free little name drawer to do it.

Brooke Jefferson (08:56):
Yep. Okay, cool. So giveaway on folder on Instagram. Perfect. Okay. Yeah. No, I like that a lot. And I like it because all the photographers are on Instagram. I’ve made this distinction, I’ve done that. The main thing is I know people love it because I hear it all the time, but I want them to leave a review and I know it’s not the easiest process in the world.

Brooke Jefferson (09:21):
I mean it is but you can’t be driving in your car. You’ve actually gotta to go and do it. But I think again, the weight goes back to what I’m giving away and I’m telling you, people would go nuts over these bags. I did

Stefanie Gass (09:35):
Oh for sure. And the other thing you can do before then, Brooke is, do you have an email list started?

Brooke Jefferson (09:43):
Yes, I do

Stefanie Gass (09:44):
Send them an email, this is all that’s in it: Listen, 30 seconds of your time needed. And it’s like, Hey sister or Hey photographer friend or whatever you call them. Listen, I really need your help. I am working hard on securing an amazing giveaway for you guys, but we need more credibility.

Stefanie Gass (10:03):
So would you take 60 seconds? Leave me a review. Here’s screenshots of how to do it. If you’ve listened to three or more episodes, this is how you can thank me. Like lay it on them, you know? And so if you sent that to your whole list, also say that in your next episode. Tell them, I have something so juicy coming you guys, but we’ve gotta have traction as a show to prove that we’re worth this giveaway.

Brooke Jefferson (10:27):
Awesome. Yeah, I can definitely do that. I will probably start adding that. Actually, I could probably just say that the next time I have an interview at the end so, perfect. I just recorded two new outros because I am also about to be running a five day challenge.

Brooke Jefferson (10:45):
But I’ve learned, I can’t use that language for them. It does not work for photographers. They don’t care. They don’t relate to that. So I’ve had to change my language and so, literally, I’m like, Hey, I need you to come hang out with me for five days.

Brooke Jefferson (11:02):
You want more clients? I’ve heard it. I see it. I’m gonna tell you how to get more clients. We’re starting it on February 3rd, come join the group. We’re gonna be talking about, you know, our businesses and then I’m gonna give you all this free training for five days.

Brooke Jefferson (11:15):
And so I’m like, maybe that we’ll get people into this Facebook group because here’s the thing: I had a Facebook group and podcast, but it was a recycled group that used to be something else. And at the time it worked, but then it lost all engagement, all traction. And so I scrapped it on December 31st and thought, Nope, I’m not gonna do this anymore.

Brooke Jefferson (11:40):
And then, so I haven’t had one for like two weeks and I’m like longing for those connections. You can only do so much chatting without having that community, which I wanna build so bad because I feel like with a podcast it’s a one way street, right? I need a two way street. I need them to talk back. And so I’m opening up a new group and I titled it something different than the podcast because it’s catchy, it’s called Booked Out Photographers.

Brooke Jefferson (12:08):
And that’s what I’m using this challenge to be. I did an outro where I told them to come hang out with me and we’re gonna chat their stuff. So I’m reopening a group because I know a group, for a lot of people, that’s where they end up monetizing it and those are their podcast tribe.

Brooke Jefferson (12:25):
But I’m just gonna start over and start from scratch because what I had was not moving the needle for me. And for me, it felt like a chore and I don’t want it to feel like a chore. So anyway.

Stefanie Gass (12:35):
Yes, yes. I love that. What is your strategy after you’ve done your five day challenge? What are you monetizing with?

Brooke Jefferson (12:43):
My goal is to get more people into my membership site at that point, which kind of brings me to part two. When I launched my membership, I did a webinar and I was basically planning out their 2020 calendars and showing them how we don’t need to just like, Oh great. It’s January. I need clients on my books. Let me just randomly start popping stuff out and see if it sticks.

Brooke Jefferson (13:09):
You’re throwing spaghetti at the wall, literally, is what most photographers do. And I did it for way too long. So I have this plan that I use and I walked them through it and I gave away my pricing formula that’s super stupid simple, because people always wanna know what do I price myself?

Brooke Jefferson (13:26):
I have a formula that they literally can plug their information in based on what they need to make and then divide it by the number of working days they have available and it’ll give them a session price to go off of. So anyway, that was like the most popular thing out of the entire training. That in itself will become one of the days of the challenge because that’s what everybody was super pumped about.

Brooke Jefferson (13:49):
And so I plan on touching on the membership some. I’m showing them a little bit of the how, but by the end of the five days, they’ll still be like, Okay, wait, how do I put it all together? How do I market myself? And that is what I will essentially sell as a buy-in to the membership because I teach that I’ve got a whole course on it.

Stefanie Gass (14:10):
Cool. Okay. Very good. So when you are monetizing today, are you still pushing your course as well?

Brooke Jefferson (14:17):
So that course doesn’t align necessarily with my photographers, per se.

Stefanie Gass (14:26):
That’s true.

Brooke Jefferson (14:27):
So Pinterest is running it for me and that’s where all these moms who, when you go to digital camera, that’s what we go to. We go to YouTube and we go to Pinterest so I have got those like set up. I just hired a VA to help me get it all together. And so that’s like just going to be this bonus thing that I have.

Brooke Jefferson (14:44):
However, it could be an entry point for those moms who decide, like me, that they’re really good at it and then want to start a business. It’s all connected. I just don’t talk about the course on the podcast because I’m actually talking to photographers with the business. So that is who I’m talking to.

Stefanie Gass (15:03):
And with the podcast being that it’s for photographers, the only way you’re monetizing it today is the membership site.

Brooke Jefferson (15:09):
Pretty much. Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (15:10):
Okay. Okay.

Brooke Jefferson (15:11):
At this point. Yes.

Stefanie Gass (15:13):
So how is that going?

Brooke Jefferson (15:13):
And I have affiliate stuff that I do that’s for photographers in their business, but the money driver is my membership site. So that’s ultimately what drive that.

Stefanie Gass (15:25):
And how’s that going, do you feel?

Brooke Jefferson (15:27):
Honestly, I throw everything. I say, throw it together like I didn’t put effort into it. I did. But at the time when I decided what I was gonna launch, I had like four and a half weeks to get it together and hire somebody to design it, put it in there and create the content and launch it. It was exhausting. I will never make that mistake again, but it was good.

Brooke Jefferson (15:48):
So I had three people enroll and they have now paid twice because they paid December. They paid January. So nobody’s dropped out yet. They have also recommended it to their friends and I’ve had a lot of people say I’m saving, I’m getting there. It’s on my to-do list and I’m gonna get there.

Brooke Jefferson (16:06):
With Christmas coming, it kinda wiped everybody out which totally makes sense. So that’s kind of why I’m hoping this challenge, by the time we get to February for the people who get tax returns, I hope it’ll be part of what they spend it on. I do not anymore.

Stefanie Gass (16:23):
Good problems to have.

Brooke Jefferson (16:25):
Yeah. Yes. I’m hoping that’s what they’ll essentially use part of it for. Because I feel like once they’re in there, and where I struggle is showing people the value. It’s amazing but I figured with me doing the podcast and not pitching anything to these people from April — I mean, I think we were 30 solid episodes in before I ever like tried to do anything, even ask for an email.

Brooke Jefferson (16:49):
And so now I’m just to the point where I’m trying to ride that line of balance, of not being super annoying and spammy, like some people do which literally is just buy this, buy that. I don’t want to be that, but I feel like I’ve done a very good job of naturally talking about the membership and the benefit it has for somebody if that’s for them.

Stefanie Gass (17:11):
How much does it cost?

Brooke Jefferson (17:12):
One forty seven a month.

Stefanie Gass (17:15):
And what do they get in the membership site?

Brooke Jefferson (17:17):
They are getting access to literally all the trainings and the people who are in it right now. I love them because they’re literally watching it get built month to month to month. There really wasn’t a whole lot. So right now we have three or four different trainings or courses, then they get new resources every Monday.

Brooke Jefferson (17:39):
It may be a PDF. It may be like questionnaire questions for them to copy and put into their workflow. It just depends on what they’re asking for. That’s what I’m giving them. I’m literally building it based on what those three people want.

Brooke Jefferson (17:52):
So they also got a one on one call with me when they first came into it and I’ll probably keep doing that because that is a very like, I get that connection with them and I get to hear where they’re going.

Brooke Jefferson (18:02):
So again, I can craft what they need, and then they get two Q and A’s a month. So just like a live, they drop their questions throughout the week and then I answer it on Thursdays. Then they get one training from me and one training from a guest photographer, depending on whatever the case may be.

Brooke Jefferson (18:21):
So this month, the photographer that is coming in is highly known. All these girls know her. In fact I have to thank the guest trainer because she shared a lot of me launching my membership to her audience. And so I got to get people from her audience. So she’s teaching how to collaborate with local businesses to grow your photography business, which is where everybody is supposed to start. So I’m super excited about her training.

Stefanie Gass (18:47):
Oh, okay. So that just gave me an idea too. Okay. Training from guests.

Brooke Jefferson (18:52):
And I went back and how I decided who was gonna come in and like who I was gonna give permission to come into this membership site to teach are based on the podcast, who people wanted to hear from the most. So I just went back. And so now it’s like a deeper dive with those guests is basically how I decided to do that.

Stefanie Gass (19:08):
So here’s a thought for you and who you offer. I have this weird price aversion to membership communities. But if you told me, Well, Stef, you could join for an entire year for $997.

Brooke Jefferson (19:23):
I do offer that.

Stefanie Gass (19:24):
Okay, good.

Brooke Jefferson (19:24):
There is an annual option. Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (19:26):
Cool.

Stefanie Gass (19:27):
So that helps.

Brooke Jefferson (19:27):
There’s an additional bonus. You get one free month if you join for a year. So you’re paying for 11 and then you get the 12th month free.

Stefanie Gass (19:36):
I love that. So that’s one way to drive. The other way to drive is, do you have some type of referral system set up where if you get two other people to join yours is free or whatever that math works out to be?

Brooke Jefferson (19:49):
It’s definitely been a thought in the back of my mind. I just haven’t decided if you get two people to join, do you get a free month? Or if you get two people to mention it, do you get half off your next month? Like, I haven’t quite decided, at what point should it be free? And then at what point should it be just like a major discount or a bonus or something?

Stefanie Gass (20:12):
What if it was a commission base? So for every in essence, like, okay, I’m gonna join. I sign up through whatever affiliate program or checkout that you use. And then I get my own link. So when someone signs up for me from my link, I receive 30% commission for every a month that they’re a member.

Brooke Jefferson (20:34):
That is really cool. Wow. Well, I have some choices to make then. I want to reward people because I wanna be rewarded too. That’s one thing that I actually am doing with the manual mode mama course. I mean, it literally takes you one person and then they’re gonna go tell all their mom friends and then their mom friends are gonna hop into the course.

Brooke Jefferson (20:55):
That’s one thing that I have set for them. The only thing is, and I think it’s, cause I’m hung up on a tech issue, I use Kajabi. They do have an affiliate program, but it is not as easy as you think. It’s not just, here’s the link and now go give that to them. Like it is really confusing.

Stefanie Gass (21:14):
I use Thrive Cart. It’s a one time investment of 697 forever. It’s so flipping easy. Like, they sign up as an affiliate through Thrive Cart and I have a link if you wanna sign up with it. Like you would sign up through me and you would get your own link directly to the sales page and so all you do is say, Okay, here Bob, here’s the sales page. He reads all about it.

Stefanie Gass (21:44):
It’s your sales page, right, that you set up, he writes it’s all about it. He loves it. He goes to check out. He checks out straight through Thrive Cart. It’s an easy popup. And then, and I can show it to you if you wanna see it. And then he automatically gets paid out. It’s all auto linked through PayPal or Stripe.

Brooke Jefferson (22:03):
That must be what everyone’s using because I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in action because that’s what a lot of my people will give me for affiliate links and stuff. Okay. That’s cool. Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (22:13):
It’s amazing. I have some big affiliates with me now and it’s like clockwork.

Brooke Jefferson (22:21):
I love it. Okay, cool. I will definitely look into that.

Stefanie Gass (22:24):
The reason I bring that up is because I think the value for you today would be, the more people you can get in there, here’s a way to entice people to come in, Hey, you get 30% kickback, even if it’s manual for a little bit. Or Hey, this month we’re doing this promo or For this month only, you guys get three months free if you buy the annual one.

Stefanie Gass (22:47):
The more people you get in there, even if you have to kind of tweak your pricing and play with your promos a bit, the more they see the value.

Stefanie Gass (22:57):
Because we can talk to people about value all day. But once we start to hear the social proof, and they are giving you testimonies and they are blabbing about it to every friend that they have, people are begging to join. So I think the more people you get in, the more you’re gonna see the demand go up.

Brooke Jefferson (23:15):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (23:16):
And then the second thing, let’s give people some of the stuff from the group on the podcast. For example, you’ve got this person coming in, this big name, everybody knows who she is and yes, it’s paid value and it should be secret. So she’s gonna do this hour long training.

Brooke Jefferson (23:33):
Cool.

Stefanie Gass (23:34):
Take 15 minutes of her training, like the juiciest portion, and put it on your podcast and be like, You guys, every month, do you want content like this? This is only 15 minutes of her hour long training. You can get into blah, blah, blah membership community this month and receive three free months.

Brooke Jefferson (23:54):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (23:54):
So they’re hearing the value in there. If you did a great training, pull 15 minutes of your training, pop it on your podcast, do a live Q and A with your members, like a coaching session with them.

Brooke Jefferson (24:05):
So I just started those. Yep. My goal is, I did record all of them. I could still pop them on my podcast. I didn’t ask them if I could, I probably will. I’ll ask them and I’ll just say, Hey, I wanna play just a quick, like 10 minute snippet of our training because they were an hour each. They were so good. They asked so many good questions.

Brooke Jefferson (24:29):
Every single one of them ended up talking about pricing at one point so there’s certain things that obviously I won’t air just for their privacy. But there are really good, juicy sections that I feel like I could definitely, at least once a month on a podcast, give people an extra inside look. That’s a really good idea.

Brooke Jefferson (24:48):
And then my speaker next month, I don’t think that Naomi, my speaker this month, would be okay with that. But only because we just aired her podcast episode and it kind of goes right along with it. And literally she’s just deep diving into it.

Brooke Jefferson (25:02):
But my speaker next month is more like motivating and inspiring them. She’s telling her story of how she just developed through her business and the trash because she was overwhelmed and like, was so caught up in comparison.

Brooke Jefferson (25:15):
I’m gonna take hers and put it in there because that’s, literally, what people pay for, right? Accountability and for someone to tell them, Nope, keep going, like, keep going. You got it. You know? Yeah. So that’s a really good, okay.

Stefanie Gass (25:27):
Clips, and ask Naomi because it’s publicity for her to be on your show. It’s even more like, people love publicity so I can’t imagine she would say no to you.

Brooke Jefferson (25:38):
I mean, I don’t think she would. I just know that she offers mentorships where she talks about this exact subject. So she was already kind of weary to begin with about, she just didn’t want her people thinking, I paid $600 to talk with you and now you’re talking about it on a podcast. So that’s the only thing there is. We just wanted to be careful of what was said,

Stefanie Gass (25:57):
What was said, what’s pulled from it. Gotcha. Yeah.

Brooke Jefferson (26:01):
But now they might change their mind because I have two CEOs on my podcast. This month, one has already aired. I booked another guest like that. He’s like, Hey, I just heard your episode. I’ve been binging you all day on my drive back from New York. And I would love to be on your show.

Brooke Jefferson (26:16):
He pitched himself. Boom. I’m like, heck yeah, I want you on my podcast. You’re awesome. He’ll be the first guy ever on the podcast.

Stefanie Gass (26:22):
Wow. Cool.

Brooke Jefferson (26:24):
And then the other one is, and both of these are my affiliate so I’m already affiliates for these people. So the CEOs, honestly, they kind of blew my mind because when I pitched them, I didn’t have even as much credibility as I do now compared to when I asked them and they still said yes because they knew that the podcast was niche to their people.

Stefanie Gass (26:44):
Exactly.

Brooke Jefferson (26:44):
And so I think, I think my niche gets me in the door. Stacey T’s actually coming on the podcast too to talk about productivity. Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (26:52):
That’s amazing.

Brooke Jefferson (26:52):
Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (26:53):
See, and so you have these amazing guests that especially if you can get ’em to talk in the membership community to show, Look, it’s not just great guests, but they’re teaching you guys implementation stuff. You’re proving the value.

Brooke Jefferson (27:09):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (27:10):
And then one mindset shift for you that I heard was, I don’t want to be salesy on a podcast, but here’s the thing: If these people are binging all your free content and you don’t say, PS, I have this baller membership community, you guys, with these amazing guests. We can literally 10X your photography business.

Stefanie Gass (27:35):
I can basically gift you every single thing I’ve done to have a completely full, multiple six figure business. And you can step into this thing for $147 a month. (If you don’t say that), You’re doing them a disservice. I think you should be talking about it every show, multiple times a show.

Brooke Jefferson (27:53):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (27:53):
And don’t feel weird about it because they don’t have to join, right? You’re just saying, I have a solution for you. Like, are you struggling with the accountability? Do you need a community of photographers to bounce ideas off of?

Stefanie Gass (28:04):
Do you need group training, which I’m going live in there every single month. You can pick my brain at any month with any question that you guys have. I can’t imagine they would say, Well, no, that sounds horrible, right?

Brooke Jefferson (28:16):
Yeah. Yeah. And most of the feedback I get is, Oh my gosh, that sounds incredible. I just can’t afford that right now. It’s typically what I get, which is funny, because that’s always the objection. And I’m like, Well, if you would just go, you know, work your butt off and book three sessions.

Brooke Jefferson (28:33):
Like, if you’re a $50 photographer and you book three sessions and you come turn around and invest your $147 into that membership, you would walk away in 30 days and I promise, you would have like, six more people on your calendar. You know what I’m saying?

Brooke Jefferson (28:47):
Like I know that’s what my membership does and the people inside of it know that’s the case too, and so it’s just like getting them over that hump. So I think that’ll help. A lot of what we talked about I think will help give them that glimpse. It’s just hard.

Brooke Jefferson (29:01):
Like I said, you can describe it all day long but until you’re in it and you can see everything that’s inside of it then, and I may even need to do like behind the scenes of what does the portal look like? What’s included and that kinda thing too. So,

Stefanie Gass (29:17):
Oh yes.

Brooke Jefferson (29:17):
I may do that.

Stefanie Gass (29:18):
I would definitely make videos of that for your sales page and then have the two girls that are in there, or the three, bring them on your show for 10 minute, mini bonus episodes of like, What’s it like to be part of the membership community?

Stefanie Gass (29:31):
What’s your favorite thing so far? How has your calendar grown? How many clients have you gotten? What’s the mindset shifts that we’ve had, like, ask them live on the air.

Brooke Jefferson (29:40):
Never crossed my mind. Okay. So that’s a really, really good point.

Stefanie Gass (29:44):
I do that for my podcast course. I’ll bring a student in and the whole time they’re like, raving about the group. And I can’t tell you the leads that come through just from that. Then I’m like, Write me a testimony and if it’s not a podcasting related episode, I still read a testimony about the course.

Brooke Jefferson (30:04):
And so for you, insert the group. You want every single thing you talk about pointing to that group.

Brooke Jefferson (30:11):
Okay. I’m just wondering if there’s anything with my, I do have another question that literally just popped into my brain about the podcast.

Stefanie Gass (30:17):
Okay.

Brooke Jefferson (30:18):
How do you go about pitching yourself? Because I sent you an email on behalf of Brooke Elder to get you on her podcast, The Authentic Influencer to do that swap. And before she hired Tina to be in charge of all the podcast stuff because I was already doing too much. So that’s a side note.

Brooke Jefferson (30:37):
So I got a glimpse at her process of whoever she hired to ask how to pitch themselves. But how do you go about pitching yourself, especially because I’m starting to wanna move into more celebrity guests like Jasmine Star, who is a perfect component for what I teach, you know?

Stefanie Gass (30:55):
Yeah. So I’ve probably been on like 60 podcasts and here’s the secret: If the podcast is roughly your size or maybe 10% bigger and below.

Brooke Jefferson (31:11):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (31:12):
You can have your VA pitch ’em and my pitchmail is basically like, it’s a little businessy. I wanna make it just more me, but it’s like, I love your show. Here’s why I think that I would be a great addition because I can add value in blah, blah, blah.

Stefanie Gass (31:28):
I saw that you haven’t had an episode on that yet. I would love to come add value to your market. Are you open to it? Here are my stats. Here’s how big the market is. Then I’ll share this interview to my market. So I’m promising them what I can bring to the table, what I can teach that’s been skipped, and then what I’ll do for them in exchange for the publicity basically.

Brooke Jefferson (31:49):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (31:49):
And I would say we have a 60% yes rate on shows that are my size or lower, right?

Brooke Jefferson (31:56):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (31:58):
Different strategy for this show that is double my size or bigger. This is a Jasmine show like okay, different strategy. Let’s take Angie Lee, for example. Obviously I have a relationship with her now, she’s an affiliate with me. I got on her show. This is what I did.

Stefanie Gass (32:16):
What up girl? Hey, listen, I think that we’d be a great fit for blah, blah, blah. I wanna come on the show and talk about that. Here’s why, and you don’t have a podcasting course but if we affiliate for this and I give you blank commission, this would be a huge income driver for you.

Stefanie Gass (32:34):
And I just wanna see if you’re open to it. Let me know what you think. It was so casual. But I had been already chatting with her, just liking her stuff and for like six months, like I had, I was showing…

Brooke Jefferson (32:46):
That’s how I got all my big time photographers with those 20,000, 40,000 audiences on Instagram. I just voice messaged them and got them on the show. And they all say yes, every single one of them. I’m like, okay.

Stefanie Gass (33:00):
Exactly. And that was me asking to be on her show. So imagine the power of just being authentic and for you, you’re saying come be on my show, which to them is free publicity.

Brooke Jefferson (33:11):
Right.

Stefanie Gass (33:12):
And so I think, do that. And if there’s something in it for them, great, other than the publicity. I was just thinking that as your membership site gets bigger and if you wanna do paid spots for really big people to come in and teach something.

Brooke Jefferson (33:28):
Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah. I think the one thing that I’m kind of struggling with is, who still aligns with me outside of the photography industry that’s still gonna be a win-win if we were to swap a show.

Brooke Jefferson (33:42):
I’m really struggling with that because I mean, I’m more than just a photographer, but my show specifically, and we are starting to loosen up to where we do talk about how do you balance business and motherhood. Because there’s a lot of us that are moms and they kept asking me that and I’m like, Oh, you would rather know about that than…

Stefanie Gass (33:59):
Booking out your calendar?

Brooke Jefferson (34:02):
Yeah, right.

Stefanie Gass (34:03):
I think what you wanna really ask yourself, Brooke, is: if there’s one photographer that you can picture, like, take one of the girls from the group.

Brooke Jefferson (34:10):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (34:10):
You’re putting this person to your ideal customer that’s gonna be able to be able to buy this. She’s a go-getter, she’s a hard worker. She’s got this business started, but she’s ready to go next level. And you think of her in your brain and you go, What are like, the four categories of her life…

Brooke Jefferson (34:24):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (34:25):
That I can impact, right? So obviously it’s her photography business, it’s number one. The second one I would think of is probably productivity and time management.

Brooke Jefferson (34:35):
Yep.

Stefanie Gass (34:36):
Maybe the third one is like, automation strategies or outsourcing strategies. It’s not time for money, but it’s more of the system piece.

Brooke Jefferson (34:44):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (34:44):
And then the fourth one is, what else is there about her? I don’t know.

Brooke Jefferson (34:49):
Honestly for me and kind of everybody I talked to, the one thing that I’m really trying to set, I’ve just really been asking, God, how can I intertwine my faith with my business?

Stefanie Gass (35:03):
Yes.

Brooke Jefferson (35:03):
And make an impact in that way, because there’s so many photographers out there. There’s also a lot of lies out there too, a lot of photographers who are using crystals. And I’m like, that’s not where your healing comes from.

Brooke Jefferson (35:16):
So I just openly talk about my faith. I always have, and people come to me. They ask me to pray for them. It’s one way that I think that I can set myself apart. I have openly talked about it before. It’s not like I go on a tangent yet, but I do mention it like, yeah.

Stefanie Gass (35:36):
Well, that’s what happened with me, Brooke. I’m like, I’m just going to specifically talk to, you know, the Christian entrepreneur and it was scary because I thought, Well, this is gonna be polarizing and I’m gonna lose certain people.

Stefanie Gass (35:48):
But what happened was I ended up attracting all these people because no one was that. No one was that yet. And I was able to be the big fish, so you should do that. You should dare to be polarizing and add that as your fourth category and you just infuse it.

Stefanie Gass (36:02):
Like you said, if you wanna say a prayer over them and their businesses, okay. If you wanna talk about, I think you just infuse it, kind of how I do in my show. I just infuse my faith and…

Brooke Jefferson (36:14):
Right.

Stefanie Gass (36:14):
Talking about even and like money mindset and a Christian aspect and things like that, that is going to set you apart. But it also allows you to be authentically you because…

Brooke Jefferson (36:26):
Right.

Stefanie Gass (36:26):
If you leave that piece out, you’re just like any other photography coach.

Brooke Jefferson (36:31):
I’m glad that you said that. I’ve already branched out certain episodes to where we are talking about, they are not just photographers. So I’ve had a Pinterest expert. I’ve had a sales mindset person come on because it still relates to photography. We had a website designer, a copywriter, an SEO specialist.

Brooke Jefferson (36:52):
And so we are branched out and their audiences, it’s funny because their audiences still came over and still listen to it. And some of ’em stayed, which I think is so cool. I just, again, I wanna be very careful that it still aligns. And while I’m all for having guests, at the end of the day, I’m still going for that ideal client and that person who wants to come into the membership and grow her photography business and stuff.

Stefanie Gass (37:19):
And I’ll tell you something that’s interesting. I was in a really heavy guest model as well. So you’re having all these guests on, but now you have the foundational stuff, Brooke, you have. So now, start transitioning out of guest and into student, client, open Q and A with someone that’s in the group.

Stefanie Gass (37:37):
The snippets from the group. It’s more of a value add to me to hear me come on with you and be like, here’s my roadblocks in my photography business, Brooke. And you’re pow-wowing with me and you’re like, Well, you aren’t doing this right. Or let’s fix the way you’re marketing yourself isn’t right. Or we can tweak this or that in the automation of your business. And that’s where the switch flips for people and they go, if that’s what she’s doing in that group, I’m in.

Brooke Jefferson (38:03):
Perfect. Well that excites me for all the coaching calls I’ve already done and recorded.

Stefanie Gass (38:07):
Yay.

Brooke Jefferson (38:08):
They’re already recorded, scheduled and being edited as we speak so I’m super excited to air those. The very first one gets aired in two weeks from now.

Stefanie Gass (38:18):
So heavily market your group in there.

Brooke Jefferson (38:21):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (38:21):
If it’s two minutes, speak from your heart about it. There’s no right or wrong way to market something. If I get on a tangent about my course, I don’t care because I really fiercely believe that it can change their life.

Brooke Jefferson (38:35):
Right.

Stefanie Gass (38:35):
And sometimes if it’s two minutes of me talking about it, well, that’s why you’re gonna learn from me today because you’re gonna listen to this first.

Brooke Jefferson (38:42):
Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (38:42):
Because you need it.

Brooke Jefferson (38:43):
Yeah. I love it. That’s funny. Perfect.

Stefanie Gass (38:46):
So what other questions didn’t we cover that you had written down?

Brooke Jefferson (38:51):
Honestly, that was the main thing weighing on me. A lot of what we talked about.

Stefanie Gass (38:57):
It’s so cool that you’ve created something that doesn’t exist, that’s true to your brand, true to you. It’s so successful because it’s not just an educational how to like, how to be a photographer, but like you’re spicy and you’re fun and you’re infusing you and your personality into your show and it’s interesting, right?

Brooke Jefferson (39:19):
Yeah.

Stefanie Gass (39:19):
I think if you have these candid conversations with other students and women, it’s gonna be unstoppable.

Brooke Jefferson (39:26):
Yeah. It actually is really funny. If you go look at how it’s evolved, I started obviously nervous as heck. I’m so casual, now I laugh at myself of how tense you are when you first start. You know? And I mean, I started doing solo shows all of April, May and June. And then I started bringing on interviews. It’s weird.

Brooke Jefferson (39:49):
So we went from solo to bringing on photographers. So I started with just photographers that had an existing business that I knew personally. So that’s who I started with. After that, we evolved to bigger names. And then we went into the outside guests.

Brooke Jefferson (40:08):
I made October, the whole theme of October was, We’re so busy that you’re probably not even listening to this podcast. Like if you are turning it on, you’re mindlessly not really paying attention. And so my goal is that these episodes will stay in order so that when you go to your off season, which is what we’re in currently, they would go back and they would re-listen and replay it and then implement it.

Brooke Jefferson (40:30):
Because during our slow season, people are always like, What do we do? I recorded all those episodes for that purpose. Now we’re back to solo shows and then every other one is solo interview, solo interview and so now it’s like, two solo shows from me, one guest interview and one student every single month is pretty much where we’re at now.

Stefanie Gass (40:53):
Oh, it’s gonna be so good. And you know what? I also sometimes do a bonus episode, like a bonus podcast strategy session so you could have like a bonus photography session or whatever you call them. It just drives downloads and podcasting growth.

Brooke Jefferson (41:11):
Right.

Stefanie Gass (41:12):
It just helps you. So if you get inspired, feel free to like, no rules, right? No rules.

Brooke Jefferson (41:17):
Right. I love that. I love the freedom to do that because there’s things I’ve even thought about and I’m like, I should have put that in the show. So like for this five day training series, I wanna do something with that. When I first started, I launched with a five day challenge. That’s how I launched my podcast.

Brooke Jefferson (41:34):
And it was five days to book your first client so it was for that very beginner photographer. I already had the information, it was an email course at the time. Then I just made it into podcast. Now here’s the deal: I don’t have the ability to air them in real time as the challenge is happening.

Brooke Jefferson (41:50):
And I really don’t want to because I want them to be in the group. If you’re not in the group, then you really shouldn’t hear the content at this time. But I do wanna repurpose it and use it later on.

Brooke Jefferson (41:59):
So maybe those could be bonus episodes at some point rather than in the whole thing, but I don’t have that option because my podcast editor will be on her honeymoon and has no time to get them edited.

Stefanie Gass (42:11):
That’s okay.

Brooke Jefferson (42:12):
Yes.

Stefanie Gass (42:13):
You can use them later.

Brooke Jefferson (42:14):
Because I probably would’ve asked her anyway to do it even. I didn’t wanna.

Stefanie Gass (42:18):
Yeah, totally do that. I mean any good content you have it’s shareable, right? So I would totally do that. I also thought of something else for a future giveaway for you, Brooke. What about giving a free month access to your group?

Brooke Jefferson (42:32):
I thought about that too. Yep. And one thing that I’m gonna do with my membership and see how it goes is doing an open and closed cart right now. It’s just open and I’m gonna leave it open until I close it, which will be mid February. And so I’m gonna run a launch during that challenge.

Brooke Jefferson (42:49):
And like I said, push people to the membership. Now I’m gonna close the doors. But when the doors reopen, I was actually thinking about increasing the price as a scarcity urgency like, you might wanna get in, you know, before I do that because the original goal was to make it almost $200 a month.

Brooke Jefferson (43:06):
That was originally what we started with and I just couldn’t do it. So I didn’t. But anyway, so that was one, that was one thing that I thought about but I think I said I was gonna open it again right before the summer because it’s a weird time where photographers like invest in themselves because they’re like, they know all the money’s about to come in.

Stefanie Gass (43:28):
Yes.

Brooke Jefferson (43:28):
So they’re more willing to enter into something. So my next one would be in June.

Stefanie Gass (43:33):
Yeah.

Brooke Jefferson (43:34):
When I open the doors again.

Stefanie Gass (43:35):
You know, my pricing model is always that until I max out, then I will raise my prices.

Brooke Jefferson (43:42):
I like that. And I didn’t even tell you, my goal for 2020 is by December 2020, I want to look back and have 50 photographers in the membership. Literally, that’s my goal, 50.

Stefanie Gass (43:54):
So exactly. So don’t raise your price…

Brooke Jefferson (43:58):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (43:58):
Until you’re sure that number’s in the bag.

Brooke Jefferson (44:00):
Okay.

Stefanie Gass (44:01):
But then I know there’s this whole thing about like, Oh don’t discount. Look, I’m gonna buy if you give me a deal.

Brooke Jefferson (44:08):
Yep. Right. Yep.

Stefanie Gass (44:09):
So think about, for the relaunch, maybe you have, Hey guys for 48 hours, get your first month at 97 bucks or something. Like, give them a scarcity that’s a bonus, that has a time limit on it. And then it goes back to $147 or something like that.

Brooke Jefferson (44:26):
Now how do you deal with the people like these three girls, perhaps? What do I do? Do I also give them a month for $97? Or is it just, Well, you didn’t join then. I mean like I wanna make it fair like, I just don’t want them to feel like, Well, I didn’t get that. You know what I mean?

Brooke Jefferson (44:46):
But I mean, I don’t think they’d say it anyway because they also got me one on one. These people will not get a one on one call with me if they get it for 97. That was the whole point, you know?

Stefanie Gass (44:56):
All the time, like I just invested in QuickBooks and then two seconds later they’re like, Oh, 70% off discount.

Brooke Jefferson (45:04):
It makes, yeah.

Stefanie Gass (45:04):
And I was like, hello, I just bought this yesterday. And they’re like, Sorry, ma’am, new people only. And so you snooze, you lose. I guess that’s just what it is.

Brooke Jefferson (45:13):
Okay. Gotcha.

Stefanie Gass (45:14):
You can validate it with what you just said, Guys, you got a coaching call, which is worth 500 bucks. These people aren’t getting that.

Brooke Jefferson (45:21):
Okay, cool.

Stefanie Gass (45:22):
Yeah. Well, I’m excited for you. This is amazing. Your business model is killer. Now it’s just more of the same. Right? And I think all those strategies are gonna help you scale it crazy this year. So keep me posted.

Brooke Jefferson (45:36):
I will. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Stefanie Gass (45:37):
Bye, Brooke.

Brooke Jefferson (45:38):
See ya.

Stefanie Gass (45:40):
I hope you loved that coaching session with Brooke. She’s the cutest thing ever again and learned a lot about advanced tactics for scaling. And I think that this was just so fun for you guys to have a look into someone that wasn’t just starting their business, but someone that is ready to go next level with their business.

Stefanie Gass (45:59):
And I wanna let you know if that’s you and you need to have some similar input, please let us know. I’m happy to do a coaching session with you. You can email us at support@stefaniegass.com and ask for the coaching menu.

Stefanie Gass (46:13):
I also wanted to remind you guys that Podcast Pro University is available for those of you who are aspiring to have a podcast like Brooke and myself, and use that as an organic sales funnel to your brand, to grow consistently, to pour into your market, to create that rapport with your listener.

Stefanie Gass (46:35):
And ultimately that is the most beautiful long game you can ever play for SEO, for them to come back to you when they’re ready and for them to know that you’re trustworthy. You’re gonna show up every single week. It’s my favorite form of long content, long form content is podcasting.

Stefanie Gass (46:51):
So if you need help with that, please come join my sisterhood, the hundreds of women in Podcast Pro University. You can find out information about that at podcastprouniversity.com. It’s extremely affordable. There are even payment plans for you.

Stefanie Gass (47:14):
So Podcast Pro University for your long form content, coaching to scale your brand in business, to figure out your passive strategy, etc. Basically, I’m here for you, whatever you need. I got you, Boo Boo.

Stefanie Gass (47:27):
All right, leaving you with a quick prayer of just, love, I guess. I just wanna send you off with so much love right now and know that you’re not alone in this journey. I’m here with you. God has called you to this journey. He’s here with you.

Stefanie Gass (47:42):
You got Holy Spirit directing your steps, protecting you. And no matter what you do, when God is underneath you, you cannot fail, right? And you cannot fall because you are being propelled by His mission over your life.

Stefanie Gass (47:56):
So know that you are glorious and worthy of this dream inside your heart. Don’t you dare give up, Sis. I’m here for you. Love ya. I’ll see you soon. As always, love and light, Stef.