In this episode, Tara shares her organic growth strategy that allowed her to build her agency past 7 figures without spending money on Ads. Ads can be a great megaphone for your business or a complete waste of money – this episode will help you so you don’t get stuck with a money pit of a business.
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Transcript
Hey, everybody, it's Tara, Bryan, and you are listening to
Speaker:the course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach
Speaker:or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on
Speaker:your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide
Speaker:them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will be
Speaker:giving practical real life tips that you can use today to build
Speaker:your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.
Speaker:Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people
Speaker:without adding more time or team to your business? If you're
Speaker:looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and
Speaker:use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker:everyone, welcome to today's episode. In today's episode, I
Speaker:want to talk about something that you may not know about me.
Speaker:So when I was running my digital learning agency, I actually
Speaker:scaled it seven figures without ads. And I want to talk about my
Speaker:journey through that and, and why I think that it is a solid
Speaker:approach. I don't recommend not doing ads. But I don't recommend
Speaker:just doing ads as your only strategy for how to grow your
Speaker:business. And I want to talk a little bit about that today. And
Speaker:why that is and then how do you actually scale with ads or
Speaker:without ads. So when I was building my agency, one of the
Speaker:things I knew I needed to do was become visible, I needed to have
Speaker:people know that I existed, that we had something to offer, and
Speaker:that we could help them. And so the way that I started was to
Speaker:just go out and figure out where my ideal customers are hanging
Speaker:out, right? Where, where are they gathering? What are they
Speaker:doing? And in what conversations are they having. That was a very
Speaker:first sort of activity. And again, like if you're looking at
Speaker:this through the lens of you want to start ads as quickly as
Speaker:possible, you still have to go through some of these mechanics,
Speaker:before you get started with ads, you don't just have an idea and
Speaker:start with ads. However, some people have more money than
Speaker:time. And so if you have more money than time, you can test
Speaker:ads earlier, if you have more time than you do more of an
Speaker:organic strategy, where you're out, you know, kind of putting
Speaker:your shingle up and getting out there and, and building
Speaker:relationships. But it's a two prong approach. And so I want to
Speaker:talk through that today. And I don't talk about it a lot.
Speaker:Actually, I probably should talk about it more. But that's why
Speaker:I'm, I'm telling you all about it today, which is that I
Speaker:actually did scale without any ads to seven, insert surpassed
Speaker:seven figures. Because here's what I understood is that number
Speaker:one, I had to be visible. I had people had to know who I was and
Speaker:what we offered. And they needed to feel confident that we had
Speaker:something that that would help them. And I needed to be where
Speaker:people were to bring them towards me, right? So they knew
Speaker:that we existed. So let's just break down those two things for
Speaker:right now. So when you are in a brick and mortar business,
Speaker:right, you're building an agency, you're building a
Speaker:business that has an office, where you're in a particular
Speaker:location, right, you are serving people in a particular location,
Speaker:it makes sense that you would say, okay, you know, I'm, here's
Speaker:where my office is, you know, go introduce yourself to your
Speaker:neighbors go in or go to maybe the local Chamber of Commerce or
Speaker:whatever, and do some networking events and meet people. That
Speaker:makes sense if you're starting a local business and looking at it
Speaker:from that perspective, there was a little bit of some of what I
Speaker:was doing. When I started my digital business is said, Okay,
Speaker:well, who do I want to help? And where are they and what are they
Speaker:doing and what do they need? Right. And so I went out and
Speaker:physically met with people I did networking groups, I went to
Speaker:local and national association meetings, I spoke at both local
Speaker:national conferences, right, so I was a guest speaker, I, you
Speaker:know, was an in charge of a user group. So there's a group of, of
Speaker:business executives who were a part of this, we would meet
Speaker:weekly, and monthly to talk about tools and different things
Speaker:that were going on. So I led that group so kind of grew that
Speaker:group organically, and it worked with them. Right? So what starts
Speaker:to happen is the sort of snowball effect of you're, you
Speaker:know, going out and meeting a lot of different people and
Speaker:you're speaking and you're in, you know, you're leading a free
Speaker:group and you're drawing people to you, and then And then I got
Speaker:to be known as the elearning person, right? Like the, the
Speaker:person who you go to, to get all of your, your elearning done
Speaker:and, and out the door. And so that was how we started to grow
Speaker:was in groups like that. So when you're doing that in a local
Speaker:business or even in a you're trying to kind of go national,
Speaker:but there's more of a, you know, people are gathering physically,
Speaker:then you have to, you know, kind of be out where they are. And
Speaker:then, of course, you talk about it, right talk about what you're
Speaker:doing, how you're helping people, you know, what were you
Speaker:were speaking on, and in all of that, and that helps to sort of
Speaker:snowball, I get more people in the door from just having those
Speaker:conversations than anything else that I did any other strategy
Speaker:that I employed was I went out to speak at a national
Speaker:conference, and I could, I could pay to be a sponsor, I could pay
Speaker:to, you know, have a booth or have a big thing. And, and that
Speaker:was great, I met people, but it was when I was speaking on
Speaker:stage. And, and having, you know, kind of having people come
Speaker:to me afterwards, where I got nine out of 10, of, you know,
Speaker:the business opportunities that came in, because I was on stage,
Speaker:they saw what my signature presentation was, they saw what
Speaker:I had to offer, they learned about my clients and some of the
Speaker:projects we had worked on. And that was the thing that was more
Speaker:compelling to them than kind of walking up to somebody in a in a
Speaker:paid sponsorship opportunity. So that's the first thing is, is
Speaker:your goal, as a digital CEO, as a digital business owner, is to
Speaker:reproduce that activity online. So often, when we're working
Speaker:with people, they sort of want to build something and then stay
Speaker:disconnected to it, right, they want to go off and do their
Speaker:other thing. Or maybe they're leading with a side hustle, or
Speaker:they want to build a business, but they don't actually want to
Speaker:be visible or connect with people. And in to me, that is
Speaker:that is a missed opportunity. Because at the end of the day,
Speaker:whether you're doing ads, whether you're doing organic
Speaker:outreach, it's at the end of all of that is a human that you're
Speaker:helping. And so you have to build that relationship with
Speaker:that person who says, That's me, they can help me. And, and
Speaker:they're drawn to whatever your solution is. So at the end of
Speaker:the day, you always have to remember that right? Whether
Speaker:it's organic, or its ads, it doesn't really matter. At the
Speaker:end of the day, you're helping somebody and you have to solve
Speaker:their problem. And you have to get them to raise their hand and
Speaker:say, Yes, this is, this is for me, I want to work with this
Speaker:person, or buy their course or buy their program or to coaching
Speaker:or whatever it is. But at the end of the day, it's a person.
Speaker:Most often when people are not successful in ads, it's because
Speaker:they're starting too early in there, they've lost sight of the
Speaker:fact that there's a person at the end that they actually have
Speaker:to be speaking to rates not just about going out and what you
Speaker:know, even if you're doing organic, an organic traffic
Speaker:strategy, through social media, at the end of the day, you're
Speaker:not just out there running around, you are there for very
Speaker:strategic intention, which is to help connect with a human at the
Speaker:end of whatever that engagement is, whatever that activity is
Speaker:right to this podcast, I am speaking directly to you, I am
Speaker:not speaking to whoever in the world may be interested in what
Speaker:I have to offer, I was speaking directly to you. And hopefully
Speaker:serving you and giving you some ideas and some tips and some
Speaker:tricks for how you can incorporate various things in
Speaker:your digital learning, or digital course digital program
Speaker:or whatever kind of digital business you have. So you can
Speaker:grow it so you can really help the people that you are serving.
Speaker:Right so at the end of the day, that's always what you need to
Speaker:remember regardless of what strategy you're working at. So
Speaker:so so again, your your goal in an organic strategy is how do
Speaker:you get in front of these people? How do you find them?
Speaker:How do you build a relationship with them? And, and so in a
Speaker:digital space that is still going out and finding groups
Speaker:where they're hanging out? networking groups speaking,
Speaker:getting in front of other people's audiences, right do you
Speaker:have colleagues or other people in your space who are doing
Speaker:similar but different things that you can get in front of
Speaker:their audience and and serve them? Right, so
Speaker:find somebody who has a complementary skill set or
Speaker:specialty that you do, and then partner together. That's how you
Speaker:grow. That's how you start to gain momentum. I have a client
Speaker:right now who is working on becoming visible for the first
Speaker:time, outside of his, his job, and, and outside of, you know,
Speaker:just sort of trying to do ads, which didn't work for him. And
Speaker:it didn't work because he did it too early, it didn't establish a
Speaker:relationship didn't start to get out there and make some, some
Speaker:connections, if you will, outside of just, you know, kind
Speaker:of pushing up his program at people, right. So, again,
Speaker:building those, those relationships, okay. So that's
Speaker:super important, find where they're hanging out and hang out
Speaker:there. Right? When I started that, the user group that I was
Speaker:running, we saw a need, we saw something that needed to happen
Speaker:in the market, we, we said, you know, what, we're gonna create
Speaker:this group, we're gonna meet on a regular basis, anyone can come
Speaker:in, and, and connect and learn and get what they need to. And
Speaker:it grew from, you know, a couple people, at first to hundreds and
Speaker:hundreds of people. And then eventually, we kind of rolled
Speaker:into the national, the National version of it. And we had people
Speaker:all over the US who are coming to us asking us questions and
Speaker:having us help, not only how did you grow up, grow this group,
Speaker:but also asking us very specific questions that increased our
Speaker:reach even more. And so don't be afraid to do that online, don't
Speaker:be afraid to draw people to you. And, and think about how to get
Speaker:out there and build relationships and and serve
Speaker:people, be it a podcast, be it social media, be it however you
Speaker:want to, to get out there and draw people to you, you have to
Speaker:have a place where they can find you. And you have to have a
Speaker:place where you're able to connect with people. Because
Speaker:again, it's all about that relationship. Okay, the only
Speaker:other thing I'll say is that as you're doing this, you have to
Speaker:be really clear on what your goals are. And so I knew that,
Speaker:that when I was going out, I wasn't going to run ads, I
Speaker:wasn't going to just do kind of the that I wasn't going to just
Speaker:throw it out there, I was gonna grow very strategically, around,
Speaker:you know, kind of one relationship at a time. And at
Speaker:some point, I grew beyond that, right. So this is when I'm first
Speaker:starting, and got to my first seven figures. So at some point,
Speaker:I kind of grew beyond that, but it served me so well, because
Speaker:you it's a snowball effect, right, you start somewhat small,
Speaker:and then all of a sudden, there's referrals, because
Speaker:somebody has heard about the work that you've done, or
Speaker:somebody's recommended you. And then and then you get on stages,
Speaker:and you get in, in different situations where you are in
Speaker:front of a broader audience. And then again, you're bringing more
Speaker:people to you. And it becomes something that I mean, I was at
Speaker:one point getting referrals and, and word of mouth, sort of, you
Speaker:know, sales opportunities. And I didn't really have to do much,
Speaker:right, because I had planted the seeds because I had been out
Speaker:there, building the business. And so for if you're first
Speaker:starting in this game like that is where 100%, I recommend that
Speaker:you start, you don't necessarily know your voice yet, you don't
Speaker:necessarily know exactly the messaging that's going to draw
Speaker:somebody to you, you don't know exactly who is out there, and
Speaker:where they're gathering and how to find them. I remember I did
Speaker:when I first kind of transition more to 100% digital, I did try
Speaker:ads, and I tried them too early. Because of course everyone says
Speaker:do ads, like all you need to do is do ads, and you put $1 in and
Speaker:you get two out and it's it's super easy. But the problem is,
Speaker:is that you have to have a compelling message that draws
Speaker:people to you, you have to be very clear on who you're
Speaker:targeting, and how to find them and where they're hanging out.
Speaker:Online, right have to be really clear about all of those things
Speaker:before you go out and do ad ads by themselves or not going to
Speaker:create customers for you. It's all of the foundation, all of
Speaker:the things that you're putting in place both from an organic
Speaker:strategy perspective and a paid ad ad perspective that helps to
Speaker:to help will help you grow. And so it's so if anyone's
Speaker:recommending you just go straight from concept to ads. I
Speaker:I would be very careful in how you're working with them because
Speaker:really have to be clear on what your goals are. are, who you're
Speaker:serving, what results or transformation you're getting
Speaker:for them, and how you are clearly articulating that to
Speaker:them. So people raise their hand and say I'm in, right. So all
Speaker:ads are is a way to amplify your message. So it's like a
Speaker:megaphone for your message. So if you don't have your message
Speaker:dialed in to the place where you can convert people who are in
Speaker:your world already, it's not the time to go to ADS, right. So if
Speaker:you have, you know, say you did an organic strategy, or say you
Speaker:have some people who are ready to purchase from you already,
Speaker:maybe you have an email list, maybe you have some people who
Speaker:are kind of in your world who are asking for you to do
Speaker:something, you know, package a program, create something for
Speaker:them, that will help them. Those are people who are ready to buy,
Speaker:right, that's an easy conversion, because they're
Speaker:already in your world, they're already ready to go. If you
Speaker:can't get them to buy, all the people are kind of swimming
Speaker:towards you already, then ads aren't going to help you going
Speaker:out and finding people who don't know you who don't trust you who
Speaker:don't know what you have to offer, then there that is,
Speaker:you're just going out into a sea and yelling, and nobody can hear
Speaker:you, right, because you haven't dialed in how to get customers,
Speaker:even at a micro level, right. So you've got to do that. First,
Speaker:you've got to make sure that you can convert people into buyers,
Speaker:when they're swimming towards you. I have a client who has a
Speaker:sizable waitlist, and it's great. But she's having trouble
Speaker:getting them to pull the trigger to purchase her group coaching
Speaker:program. And those are people who have already been swimming
Speaker:towards her, they've raised their hand and say I'm ready.
Speaker:I'm interested in this, let me know when you open up the
Speaker:program, and I want to join. So if you can't get those people to
Speaker:join yet, ads is not the direction to go. Because you
Speaker:have to work on your messaging, you have to work on how to
Speaker:convert people not go out into a sea of people who don't know
Speaker:you, that's a much, much heavier lift, right. And so once you
Speaker:know that you have something converting you have people who
Speaker:are coming in, it's consistent, you can move people through your
Speaker:funnels. And thereby, that's the time to start going out and
Speaker:looking at more of an ad strategy. And that's, again, for
Speaker:conversions, not for awareness, right, you can go out and do it
Speaker:an awareness campaign right away to, again, it's the megaphone to
Speaker:amplify that you're there. But the expectation that they're
Speaker:going to turn into buyers is not going to happen until you can
Speaker:convert the people who are already swimming towards you. So
Speaker:anyway, so that is a little bit about my kind of my story of how
Speaker:I did this, how I got to seven figures. And honestly, it didn't
Speaker:even really dawn on me to spend a lot of money and time on ads,
Speaker:because this strategy was working so well. But because I I
Speaker:knew that I needed to be out there building relationships.
Speaker:Sales is a process of planting seeds and helping to, to be
Speaker:there when people are ready. A very few times are people out,
Speaker:you know, looking actively, right, maybe some maybe they
Speaker:have a problem that they know they need solved, but but
Speaker:they're not quite sure yet, when or how to do that.
Speaker:If they're if they're in a place where they're just seeing that
Speaker:they have a problem, they're just seeing that there's that
Speaker:they need to find a solution, that is the best place to come
Speaker:in and build that relationship with them. It's not actually
Speaker:when they're actively looking, because they're actively looking
Speaker:at you and a bunch of other people write in. So it becomes
Speaker:harder to convert at that point. You want to you want to be there
Speaker:and have that relationship built. When they're ready, then
Speaker:they they are like that, yes, this is who I want to work with.
Speaker:And this is how I can move it forward. So think about that as
Speaker:you're going forward. So just to summarize, the goal is to build
Speaker:relationships, whether it's a paid ad, or an organic strategy
Speaker:is to build relationships at the end of all of that as a human
Speaker:that you are helping really have your messaging dialed in at how
Speaker:you can help that human what the transformation is, and what
Speaker:they're gonna get as they're working with you. That's a very
Speaker:first thing to do before you turn on that megaphone and put
Speaker:it out there into a broader market. Then know what your
Speaker:goals are our goals just to start testing your offers,
Speaker:testing what you're doing and and, you know, knowing that you
Speaker:can start to convert people in into customers, or are you do
Speaker:have that machine going, and now it's ready Need to amplify and
Speaker:get out there in to a bigger and broader message because that's
Speaker:then when you can go out with ads, because you, you've proven
Speaker:that that system works. Okay. So that is my story that is my
Speaker:journey for you, your journey may be a little bit different,
Speaker:maybe you combine them, maybe you work more with, with
Speaker:different partners in different referral people, joint venture
Speaker:partners, where you're, you're coming together, and you're both
Speaker:promoting each other to each other's audiences. Maybe you're
Speaker:offering a referral bonus here, you're doing affiliate
Speaker:commissions, there's lots of different strategies outside of
Speaker:just an ADS strategy to focus on as you're building your
Speaker:business. But I'm going to tell you that you have to actively be
Speaker:building your business, there is no such thing as putting
Speaker:something out there and throwing ads at it. And and hoping that
Speaker:they convert, right, it's that second to happen. And so if
Speaker:that's your strategy, if you think that just you know, going
Speaker:from concept to ADS, to seven figures is going to work. It's
Speaker:not going to, and so this is the time to start building, putting
Speaker:those building blocks in place, the people who have those
Speaker:programs, that goal, that scene, I'll say, seem to go from zero
Speaker:to seven figures very quickly, already have a sizable audience
Speaker:that are already very well known in this space. And they already
Speaker:have people who they they know they can convert into buyers, it
Speaker:is not a new strategy, right, they already have kind of that
Speaker:flywheel or that engine, that that they know works to go from
Speaker:taking a stranger into being a buyer. They're not starting from
Speaker:scratch, and they're not starting this without a strong
Speaker:foundation. So so keep that in mind, right, we always have to
Speaker:make sure that we're not looking at somebody's, you know, where
Speaker:they are today. And when we're first starting, or we have to
Speaker:look back at where they were when they first started in the
Speaker:game, and then and then apply the strategies that they've
Speaker:maybe that they've taken to get there. Right. So look at that
Speaker:and apply that as you're, you're building your business, but
Speaker:hopefully this serves you today. It gives you a couple of tips as
Speaker:to how to start looking at your organic growth strategy. Again,
Speaker:combine it with ads when you're ready to turn on that that
Speaker:megaphone. But when you're first getting started, get out there,
Speaker:start finding where your people are hanging out, start joining
Speaker:the conversation, not selling to them, right just go out and
Speaker:serve become the person that they count on for whatever it is
Speaker:that you are selling. All right. There you go. Hopefully that